At the western edge of the Catorce range, the Quemado mountain stands out as one of the most revered ceremonial places for the Wixarrica people, the Huichol. They climb up the two mile high mountain whenever they have succesfully arrived to the sacred land of Wirikuta , the land of the origin, the land where they were created as a nation. That's a millenia old story. For them, everything is sacred during the pilgrimage to Wirikuta, a trip full of meaning. No matter if it is done by feet or by plane, from their homeland in the western Sierra Madre. In fact, the whole life is sacred for them. A life in which everything has meaning and reality beyond appareances.

A vision almost completely lost for modern men. But it is not easy to meet Wixarricas in Real de Catorce although not very far from here, in the lowlands of Catorce they come to look after the "Deer", the hikuri or peyotl that grows there. A mistery that has been an inexhaustible source of culture and life for many tribes in the vastness of the arid america. A gift from the gods that deserves appreciation and thankfullness. The life of the Wixarrica, the Raramuri and others wouldn't be what it is without this sacred Deer. It is not that the sacredness can be restricted to a particular land, but rather it is only the aknowledgement of the qualitative space, of the space with a soul, the aknowledgement of the space as something more than just data and coordinates.

It is the temporal dweeling, the cosmic scene of a sacred play that modern men have failed to recognize, a play in which men is just one more in a story full of intelligence, beauty and mistery. Catorce is also that. A place of pilgrimage. And it doesn't matter if it is to learn the lessons of Francis of Assisi or Deer's lessons. The message is exactly the same: The Sun is our brother, Wolf also, as it is Water and sister Moon or Rock or Pebble... This fraternity with everything -because everything is full of Soul... inert matter exists only in our ignorance- is the only way to harmony and balance... Is there something more important than that?...