They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear's uncle and a medicine man, had brought me back to life.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates the power of healing and the significance of spiritual figures in recovery.
In this quote, Black Elk reflects on a transformative experience where he was ill for twelve days and felt as if he were dead. The mention of Whirlwind Chaser, a medicine man and Standing Bear's uncle, emphasizes the deep-rooted connection between spirituality, community, and the act of healing, suggesting that not only physical but also spiritual support is essential for recovery and resilience.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech on the importance of spirituality in recovery processes.
I cured with the power that came through me. Of course, it was not I who cured,it was the power from the Outer World; the visions and ceremonies only made me like a whole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds. If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other. 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. It (the community) cares for that part (of the Earth) but cares for it as a circle - which is to say in a cooperative and egalitarian way, where everybody is cared for, and everybody is respected.
And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to earth as rain, and it was drought that I had killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me.
I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people.
The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.
Let me start with Yahoo. As we meet today, a Chinese citizen who had the courage to speak his mind on the Internet is in prison because Yahoo chose to share his name and address with the Chinese Government.
On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is -- can you win or lose like a man?
The fears you run away from run toward you. The fears you don't own will own you. But behind every fear wall lives a precious treasure.
If any man claims the Negro should be content... let him say he would willingly change the color of his skin and go to live in the Negro section of a large city. Then and only then has he a right to such a claim.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.