Black Elk
Black Elk (1863-1950) was a holy man. He was also known as Oglala Sioux holy man (Hehaka Sapa). As a youth, he participated in the Battle of Little Big Horn and later joined Chief Sitting Bull in Canadian exile. By 1930, he was the last living human who understood Sioux metaphysics. His teachings were collected in Black Elk Speaks and by anthropologist J E Brown.Wisdom & Quotes
- You have said to me when I was still young and could hope, that in difficulty I could send a voice four times, once for each quarter of the earth, and you would hear me.
You have given me a sacred pipe, and through this I should make my offering. You see it now!
From the west you have given me the cup of living water and the sacred bow, the power to make life and to destroy ... and from the south, the nation's sacred hoop and the tree that was to bloom. ... At the center of the sacred hoop you have said that I should make the tree to bloom.
With tears running, O Great Spirit, my Grandfather - with running eyes I must say now that the tree has never bloomed. A pitiful old man, you see me here, and I have fallen away and done nothing. Here at the center of the world, where you took me when I was young and taught me; here, old I stand, and the tree is withered, my Grandfather.
- Song to Wakan Tanka, The Great Mystery, at Harney Peak, in the Dakota Black Hills (1912)
- 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 out own death. 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.
- The nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.
- The growing and dying of the moon reminds us of our ignorance, which comes and goes; but when the moon is full, it is as if the eternal light of the Great Spirit were upon the whole world.
- 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 Green Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in differing ways.
- The power of a thing or an act is in the meaning and the understanding.
- When we use the water in the sweat lodge, we should think of Wakan-Tanka who is always flowing, giving His power and life to everything; we should even be as water, which is lower than all things, yet stronger even than the rocks.
Brahmananda