Shamanic Traditions · 1863–1950
Black Elk
Lakota · the spiritual tradition of the Sioux · Black Elk Speaks
A seer who at nine years old beheld the great hoop of all the peoples of the earth, and carried that vision through an entire age.
The essence of the teaching: All that exists is bound into one sacred circle of life. The Great Spirit – Wakan Tanka – lives in all things, and a person is called to live in harmony with this kinship, not against it.
Transmission
As a child Black Elk fell gravely ill, and in a vision he was carried to the Six Grandfathers – the powers of the world. They showed him the sacred tree under which all the peoples of the earth stand within one hoop, and the hoop of his people woven together with the hoops of all the others. All his life he carried the grief that the hoop of his people had been broken. Yet the vision remained pure: everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, the earth is round like a ball, the nests of birds are round, and the circles of the seasons return to where they were. A person's life, too, is a circle, from childhood to childhood. Whoever lives remembering this kinship with all that is alive walks the sacred path.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
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