The Sacred Circle Song of the Seer In this circle As sung by Tatanka-Ptecila, Short
Bull
From childhood I was told of the a time to come when the old and new prophecies would align and the People would once again be called to greatness. With each passing year I see more and more of this prophecy being fulfilled in the lives of the People and the happenings in the natural world. The birth of "Miracle", the white buffalo, was a signal for all to stop looking at the ground where sacred blood was spilled, but to look inward to see and feel it still flowing in the veins of all people who have descended from the Ancestors. The blood, spirit and wisdom of our Ancestors are not lost or buried in the past. They live today in the world around us and inside our hearts. We only need to open our ears to their whisperings, our eyes to their visions, our minds to their wisdom and open our hearts to their presence. All of life forms a circle as you will see from the teachings of Hehaka Sapa, or Black Elk. We join hands with our brothers and sisters and a circle is completed. When we are able to join the past, present and future we form another circle. It is this circle that is still not completed and it is the most powerful one of all, the Sacred Circle of Life. I believe that the broken ends of the circle are drawing together and the time of completion and restoration is close. There will no longer be many Nations but one Nation of the People, all linked, all joined, all one. The Circle of Life .»¤«..»¤«..»¤«..»¤«O»¤«..»¤«..»¤«..»¤«. You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us in the sacred hoop of our nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle. The Sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are the stars. The Wind, in its greatness of power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tipis were round like the nests of birds and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children. Words of Hehaka Sapa, or Black Elk
There is much wisdom in this quote from Mato-Kuwapi. It shows that we must prepare ourselves to receive and it must be shared. Let us prepare together. These two prophetic prayers always help me to do that. .»¤«..»¤«..»¤«.O.»¤«..»¤«..»¤«. HEY-A-A-HEY! HEY-A-A-HEY! HEY-A-A-HEY! Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you...the two-leggeds, and the four-leggeds, the wings of the air and all green things that live. You have set the powers of the four quarters to cross each other. The good road and the road of difficulties you have made them cross; and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in and day out, forever, you are the life of things.... You have said to me, when I was still young and could hope, that in difficulty I should send a voice four times, once for each quarter of the earth.... Today I send a voice for the people in despair. From the west, you have given me the cup of living water and the sacred bow, the power to make live and to destroy. You have given me a sacred wind and the herb from where the white giant lives---the cleansing power and the healing. The daybreak star and the pipe, you have given from the east; and from the south, the nations' sacred hoop and the tree that would bloom. To the center of the world you have taken me and showed me the goodness and beauty and the strangeness of the greening earth, the only mother---and there the spirit shapes of things, as they should be, you have shown to me and I have seen. At the center of this sacred hoop you have said that I should make the tree to bloom. With tears running, O Great Spirit, Great Spirit, my Grandfather---with running tears I must say that the tree has never bloomed. A pitiful old man, you see me here, and I have fallen away and have done nothing. Here at the center of the world, where you took me when I was young and taught: here, old, I stand, and the tree is withered, Grandfather, my Grandfather! Again, and maybe the last time on this earth, I recall the great vision you sent me. It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds. Hear me, not for myself, but for my people; I am old. Hear me that they may once more go back into the sacred hoop and find the good red road, the shielding tree! In sorrow I am sending a feeble voice, O Six Powers of the World. Hear me in my sorrow, for I may never call again. O make my people live! This prayer was offered up by Hehaka Sapa, or Black Elk, in 1931, at Harney Peak in the Black Hills. It is my belief that it was not unheard or unanswered by the Great One and that the tree is growing and ready to burst into leaf.
"Oh, God in Heaven! Give me back the courage of the olden Chiefs. Let me wrestle with my surroundings. Let me again, as in the days of old, dominate my environment. Let me humbly accept this new culture and through it rise up and go on. Oh, God! Like the Thunderbird of old I shall rise again out of the sea; I shall grab the instruments of the white man's success---his education, his skills, and with these new tools I shall build my race into the proudest segment of your society. Before I follow the great Chiefs who have gone before us, oh Canada, I shall see these things come to pass. I shall see our young braves and our chiefs sitting in the houses of law and government, ruling and being ruled by the knowledge and freedom of our great land. So shall we shatter the barriers of our isolation. So shall the next hundred years be the greatest and proudest in the proud history of our tribes and nations." These words were spoken by Chief Dan George, a hereditary Chief of the Coast Salish tribe and honorary Chief of the Squamish tribe of B.C., Canada. This is part of a speech given at Canada's centennial celebration in Vancouver in 1967.
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