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SPIRIT
LODGE
LIBRARY
Myth
& Lore
Page
74
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The Vision of Bear Butte
From Legends of the Mighty
Sioux
A great ceremony that caused much
history took place about 1849 when several bands of Sioux were
going to the Black Hills. They were going there to gather wild
fruits and cut poles for their teepees.
Camp was made at the foot of a great
hill. In the dark of night the father of Crazy Horse walked
away from the sleeping village. He climbed to the top of the
hill to talk with the Great Spirit. The father of Crazy Horse
was a good man. He performed the magic secrets of a holy man.
On this night the father of Crazy
Horse raised his hands to the sky and called for the guidance
of the Mighty Spirit. He stood all night at the top of the hill,
making sad sounds and singing.
The next night the old man called
together the leaders of the tribes in the council lodge. A ceremonial
pipe was filled and passed to each of the tribe's wise old men.
The father of Crazy Horse told his
vision thus: "Last night the Mighty Spirit appeared to
me in the form of a bear. He gave to me powers to conquer all
earthly beings, including the white men who are coming into
our land. I am in my declining years, so I choose to give my
great spiritual gift to my son, Crazy Horse, who is young and
strong. He will use the gift of the Mighty Spirit to be a great
leader of the Sioux."
From this time on the sharply rising
hill was known as Mato Paha, Bear Butte.
The spiritual power that was given
to Crazy Horse as a sacred obligation at Bear Butte is believed
by the Sioux to have helped to bring about the complete destruction
of the troops of General "Yellow Hair" Custer in a
battle called Custer's Last Stand.
Addition contributed by Watchituga:
I'm interested in Crazy
Horse anyway. One thing about this story is that it is about
one person who happened to be destined to become a great leader
and a great warrior, but I think everyone has the capability
to make their own contribution in their own way. At the time
of Crazy Horse, the Native Americans were under great threat
of destruction of themselves and their way of life and it was
necessary for them to take aggressive action in order to try
to survive. In the future we will with the right intent increasingly
have an opportunity to bring all peoples together as one human
tribe, and move towards ensuring that everything else is cared
for and to maintain future survival of all things in harmony.
I think that it will increasingly become realized that we are
all one and that we all share the same ancestors and the same
descendants and have a common global interest, and that the
pace of change for the better will accelerate.
I hope this isn't getting too far
off topic, but this also reminds me of other things which I
find of interest and of some relevance to some other recent
discussions. Crazy Horse once had a vision (told by Black Elk,
I think) in which his horse was standing still and moving at
the same time. Someone has likened this to Schrodinger's explanation
of Quantum Mechanics. Some have said that this is what the word
which has been translated as "crazy" was referring
to and doesn't really mean
crazy at all. It has been claimed that the markings painted
on Crazy Horse during battle were in accordance with that vision
and that that he believed that no bullets could harm him when
he was painted and decorated as in the vision. The first time
Crazy Horse went into battle after the vision he took two scalps
and he received a bullet wound. His father told him that this
was because he had displeased the spirits, and after that he
never took another scalp and was never hurt in battle again.
Crazy Horse was also reported to
have given a prophecy four days before he died. There are slight
variations dotted around the internet but it goes something
like: "Upon suffering beyond suffering; the Red Nation
shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world.
A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations.
A world longing for light again. I see a time of seven generations
when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred
Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.
In that day there will be those among the Lakota who will carry
knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things,
and the young white ones will come to those of my people and
ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where
the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within
you and I am that place within me, we shall be as one."
I imagine that the last two sentences
in particular have considerable meaning for you Cinnamon. When
I was growing up, a lot of the spirits all told similar stories
about people drifting apart (the three, the four, the six, the
six thousand) and stories about people coming back together
again in the future (I later found that some of them were pre-existing
stories). The interesting thing is that most of them put their
own lifetime belief systems / cultures at the center of the
action in achieving future unity. However, I think that many
different belief systems all have something to contribute. The
important thing is that beliefs should be an inspiration for
unity and acceptance of the multiple gifts and multiple realities
amongst people rather than, as is sometimes the case, being
used as a source of division and as a reason for perceiving
worth in one more than another. But people often focus on differences
and build their own perceptions of their sense of worth and
ideas of fairness, based on their own individual circumstances,
perceptions and talents. These are different for each of us
and the emphasis tends to be on material, economic and political
(and even belief system) competition. This can lead to intolerance,
misunderstandings, disrespect and a perpetuation and increase
of inequalities.
I thought about this when you wrote
about the eagle. The eagle has many feathers which are all different
and serve slightly different purposes, but they all contribute
in their own way to help the eagle to stay warm in the winter
and achieve balance and versatility in flight. But each feather
contains the DNA of the eagle within it. I think everything
within the universe and in particular all people are like that,
and that all people are similar but each have their own unique
potentials and their own place in the scheme of things, and
that deep inside they all contain the same universal code.
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Libraries
are on this row
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INDEX
Page 3
(Main Section, Medicine Wheel, Native Languages &
Nations, Symbology)
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INDEX
Page 5
(Sacred Feminine & Masculine, Stones & Minerals)
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©
Copyright: Cinnamon Moon & River WildFire Moon (Founders.)
2000-date
All rights reserved.
Site
constructed by Dragonfly
Dezignz 1998-date
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