Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk) (December 1863 – August 19, 1950) was a famous wičháša wakȟáŋ (medicine man and holy man) of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). He was Heyoka and a second cousin of Crazy Horse.
Since the 1970s the book Black Elk Speaks has become an important source for studying Native spirituality, sparking a renewal of interest in Native religions. Black Elk worked with John Neihardt to give a first-hand account of his experiences and that of the Lakota people. His son Ben would translate Black Elk's stories, which were then recorded by Neihardt's daughter Enid, who would then put them in chronological order for Neihardt's use. Within the American Indian Movement Black Elk Speaks became an important source for those seeking religious and spiritual inspiration. They also sought Black Elk nephew and medicine man, Frank Fools Crow, for information on Native traditions.
(from Wikipedia)
“At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.”
Black Elk
“Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.”
Black Elk
“I knew that the real was yonder and that the darkened dream of it was here.”
Black Elk
“I did not see anything [New York 1886] to help my people. I could see that the Wasichus [white man] did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation's hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. This could not be better than the old ways of my people.”
Black Elk
“Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.”
Black Elk
“I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream...”
Black Elk
“When a vision comes from the thunder beings of the west, it comes with terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of vision has passed, the world is greenier and happier; for wherever the truth of vision comes upon the world, it is like a rain. The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm.”
Black Elk
“The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm.”
Black Elk
“It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.”
Black Elk
“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
“Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.”
Black Elk
“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....And I saw that it was holy”
Black Elk
“There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which... is within the souls of men.”
Black Elk
“All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.”
Black Elk
“Know the Power that is Peace.”
Black Elk
“You have noticed that the truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. When people are already in despair, maybe the laughing face is better for them; and when they feel too good and are too sure of being safe, maybe the weeping face is better for them to see.”
Black Elk
“It is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost”
Black Elk
“This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not know, but if you think about it, you can see that it is true.”
Black Elk
“And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.”
Black Elk
“Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe, It is every where.”
Black Elk
“there can be no power in a square”
Black Elk
“Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions”
Black Elk
“Behold this day. It is yours to make.”
Black Elk
“The Holy Land is everywhere”
Black Elk
“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
Black Elk