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Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

Black Elk

They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear’s uncle and a medicine man, had brought me back to life.
BLACK ELK

Dead Lying Men Standing Uncle
Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
BLACK ELK

Country Honesty Inspirational Native True
Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions
BLACK ELK

Ignorance Men Passion
The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
BLACK ELK

Country Native Stars Wind
So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation’s hoop I thrust it in the earth.
BLACK ELK

Earth Red Sticks
Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
BLACK ELK

Children Country Heart Native
For 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 ELK

Air Country Eagle Feathered Wings
A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.
BLACK ELK

Given Make Nations Over Said
But if the Vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet;for such things are of Spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.
BLACK ELK

Country Darkness Eye Men Native
I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead – and that one was myself.
BLACK ELK

Dead Except Lying People Saws
The hawk swoops down on its prey, so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal.
BLACK ELK

Animal Country Down Hawk Lament Swoops
And 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 ELK

Children Daylight Flowering Hoops Shelter
It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death.
BLACK ELK

Country Death Native Real Understanding
As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
BLACK ELK

Earth Prayer Sacred
The center of the universe is everywhere.
BLACK ELK

Center Everywhere Universe
Everything tries to be round.
BLACK ELK

Education Statistics Trying

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

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Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

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