InTheTemazcal

Public domain photo by L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Montana, via Wikimedia Commons I talked to a temazcal guide a while back, asking if he was going to start up his temazcal again. "Right now, I do not have a truck, and I need a truck. You can get me one. Why don't you bring one across for me? I need a truck." It did not surprise me that he asked me for a vehicle. That's how he works. Not many people understood this attitude, and some even criticized him for it. Before I did my service for his circle, I did not understand why he frequently asked us, as caminantes, or walkers, in his circle, for so many things. He held his ceremonies in a large lot on the outskirts of town. It belonged, he had told me, to "un hermano" (a brother). He did, at that time, have his own truck. ... or at least I thought it was his. I never asked, really. He lived in a modest, loaned home, with his "dualidad," (literally, "duality," or partner). His b...

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...

Bison, drawing from the cave la Grèze in Dordogne. Source: Wikimedia Commons Casually reading the first chapter of Black Elk Speaks , as I surely did for the first time many years ago, it seems a simple recollection by an old Lakota Indian. However, looking back, I have read the chapter more times than I can remember, and I find something new with each reading. Black Elk’s own narration, in the chapter basically begins with the story about how the pipe came to the Lakota people. He described, without mentioning the name we so commonly hear, Pte Ska Win, Pteskawin, Ptesanwi, or White Buffalo Calf Woman. He told how two Lakota scouts chanced upon her and how, eventually, she took the pipe and to the Lakota Nation. Symbolism in the Story of the Pipe Once again, we see Black Elk, in this short chapter, introducing us, as the listeners of his tale, more symbolic tradition than a mere reading or two allows us to comprehend. I have heard the story, much as Black Elk told it, i...

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...