Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.
BLACK ELKAs you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
More Black Elk Quotes
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But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.
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The visions and ceremonies only made me like a whole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds.
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We should understand well that all things are the work of the Great Spirit. We should know the Great Spirit is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and the four-legged and winged peoples; and even more important.
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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.
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I had a vision with which I might have saved my people, but I had not the strength to do it.
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There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.
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Everything tries to be round.
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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.
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Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
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Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.
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When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there in our tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms were badly swollen; but I felt good all over and wanted to get right up and run around.
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So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation’s hoop I thrust it in the earth.
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And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
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I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.
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Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
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Each family is a circle, and those family circles connect together and make a community, and the community makes its circle where it lives on the Earth.
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And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
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But I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even though I may die sooner because I did it; for I know the meaning of the vision is wise and beautiful and good; and you can see that I am only a pitiful old man after all.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Perhaps you have noticed that even in the very lightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in differing ways.
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The Holy Land is everywhere.
BLACK ELK