Among the earth's oldest creatures, the dragonfly has captivated imaginations across cultures since antiquity. Dragonflies were the winged shamans of Zuni myth and legend, carrying supernatural powers and the possibility of spiritual transformation in their whirlwind of flight. Revered for centuries in Japan, the dragonfly was thought to swiftly carry the spirits of ancestors to their beloved. These shimmering, iridescent bodies also drift into Western folkloric traditions in which dragonflies were known as the needle-shaped gatekeepers of truth, sewing with threads the voice of the deceitful.