InTheTemazcal

In short, I don't know how often one should participate in temazcal ceremonies. I go about once a week when I'm in a city where I know the temazcaleros . But, how often should I go? How often should you go? I don't know. My First Thought on Temazcal Ceremony Frequency If I think about it ... which I did today ... it depends. I was talking about it with my sister, Margarita, today. Margarita's a fellow temazcalero from moons ago. I met her in the Temazcal de los Osos of Durango, Dgo., Mexico , where I, myself, joined the  temazcalero family. Although I have thought about the question before, when we asked each other the question, neither of us knew the answer. She said that she would ask a friend. I decided to think about it. When we spoke, my reflexive response ... not always my best answer, but not bad this time, ... was, "Well, I think that I should go about once every moon phase." I explained, "That's seven days. It's a natural per...

Source: Wikimedia Commons "Hey hey! hey hey! hey hey! hey hey!" exclaimed Black Elk, sending a voice, as he offered the mouthpiece of the pipe to the One above (Neihardt 1932). This series of exclamations begins Black Elk's "Offering the Pipe Prayer," which has been reproduced in other books and web pages (e.g., Black Elk, date unknown; Davich 1998; Summers 2011). World Prayers (Black Elk, date unknown) presents the prayer as follows: Black Elk's "Offering the Pipe Prayer" Hey hey! hey hey! hey hey! hey hey! Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have been always, and before you no one has been. There is no other one to pray to but you. You yourself, everything that you see, everything that has been made by you. The star nations all over the universe you have finished. The four quarters of the earth you have finished. The day, and in that day, everything you have finished. Grandfather, Great Spirit, lean close to the earth that you may he...

Black Elk and John G. Neihardt (1932) introduced the audience of the book,  Black Elk Speaks , to important symbols in the Lakota culture within John G. Neihardt's six-paragraph introduction (Chapter One: "The Offering of the Pipe." There, the holy man, Black Elk, moved to "... make an offering and send a voice to the Spirit of the World, that it may help me to be true. ... But before we smoke it you must see how it is made and what it means." As an author, organizing transcribed texts, memories, and impressions, Neihardt, through this six-paragraph introduction of Black Elk, set a mood and intimate focus for the reader. The visionary Lakota, sharing and describing the sacred pipe, developed a tangible image of the entire universe, represented by the shared offering of the pipe. Without such a physical or otherwise perceivable model, we might never manage to begin to contemplate the Lakota universe. As a reader of  Black Elk Speaks,  taking the time to...

The book, Black Elk Speaks, as seen on Amazon.com This year, as the winter solstice graces us, we're initiating the celebration of the new solar year by reviewing Black Elk and John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1932).Winter solstice marks the longest evening of the solar year and occurs during the final quarter of  Wanícokan Wi * ,  or   the Moon When the Deer Shed their Antlers. On the Gregorian calendar, that's on or near the 22 nd of December. Remembering with Nebraska Black Elk, a holy man of the Oglala Lakota, saw his vision in the Black Hills region west of Nebraska. During the  Waníyetu Wi , or the Moon of the Rutting deer, the Nebraskan reading program, One Book One Nebraska (OBON), announced its 2017 selection: John G. Neihardt's  Black Elk Speaks . OBON aims to demonstrate ... "... how books and reading connect people across time and place. Each year, Nebraska communities come together through literature in community-wide reading...