If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
BLACK ELKIf I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
BLACK ELKI think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood, that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see.
BLACK ELKBirds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
BLACK ELKThe Holy Land is everywhere.
BLACK ELKAnd I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.
BLACK ELKThe Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other.
BLACK ELKLet every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
BLACK ELKOnce we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us.
BLACK ELKThe life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
BLACK ELKAnd as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
BLACK ELKWhen we do understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as the Spirit intends.
BLACK ELKNow suddenly there was nothing but a world of cloud, and we three were there alone in the middle of a great white plain with snowy hills and mountains staring at us; and it was very still; but there were whispers.
BLACK ELKThe boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us; we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.
BLACK ELKFor instance, the coyote is sly, so is the Indian. The eagle is the same. That is why the Indian is always feathered up, he is a relative to the wings of the air.
BLACK ELKI might have been less good to the people than some man who had never dreamed at all, even with the memory of so great a vision in me.
BLACK ELKHe who is well prepared is he who knows that he is nothing compared with Wakan-Tanka, who is everything; then he knows that world which is real.
BLACK ELK