the shape of all shapes

 

Black Elk

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Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one.

—Black Elk

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And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

―Black Elk

Black Elk Speaks, John G. Neihardt

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Listen to the air. You can hear it, feel it, smell it, taste it. 

Woniya wakan—the holy air—which renews all by its breath. Woniya, woniya wakan—spirit, life, breath, renewal—it means all that. 

Woniya—we sit together, don’t touch, but something is there; we feel it between us, as a presence. 

A good way to start thinking about nature, talk about it. 

Rather talk to it, talk to the rivers, to the lakes, to the winds as to our relatives.


―John (Fire) Lame Deer
Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions

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