Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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.
More Black Elk Quotes
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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
BLACK ELK -
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 -
It’s in the darkness of men’s eyes that they get lost.
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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.
BLACK ELK -
Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.
BLACK ELK -
The hawk swoops down on its prey, so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal.
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It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.
BLACK ELK -
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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Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world….
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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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The visions and ceremonies only made me like a whole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds.
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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 -
I 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.
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All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
BLACK ELK -
You remember that my great vision came to me when I was only nine years old, and you have seen that I was not much good for anything until after I had performed the horse dance near the mouth of the Tongue River during my eighteenth summer.
BLACK ELK