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 ELKThe life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
More Black Elk Quotes
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Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.
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Hear me, four quarters of the world-a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
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Now 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.
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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.
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All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
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Also, as I lay there thinking of my vision, I could see it all again and feel the meaning with a part of me like a strange power glowing in my body; but when the part of me that talks would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me.
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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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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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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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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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He 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.
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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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Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.
BLACK ELK