The Lakota Creation Myth… Wind Cave
Posted by msterilinn on Nov 27, 2007
Today is a day for Myths and Legends. As I am homeschooling my daughter, we can choose any subject to explore, besides the usual academics. As Mythology just so happens to fall amongst our favorite subjects, and we follow the Path of the Lakota, we would like to share the Myth of Creation as told amongst the Lakota People…
~ The Myth of Wind Cave ~
In the beginning, prior to the creation of the earth, the gods resided in an undifferentiated celestial domain and humans lived in an indescribably subterranean world devoid of culture. Chief among the gods were Takushkanshkan (”something that moves”), the Sun, who is married to the Moon, with whom he has one daughter, Wohpe (”falling star”); Old Man and Old Woman, whose daughter Ite (”face”) is married to Wind, with whom she has four sons, the Four Winds. Among numerous other spirits, the most important is Inktomi (”spider”), the devious trickster. Inktomi conspires with Old Man and Old Woman to increase their daughter’s status by arranging an affair between the Sun and Ite. The discovery of the affair by the Sun’s wife leads to a number of punishments by Takushkanshkan, who gives the Moon her own domain, and by separating her from the Sun initiates the creation of time.
Old Man, Old Woman, and Ite are sent to earth, but Ite is separated from the Wind, her husband, who, along with the Four Winds and a fifth wind presumed to be the child of the adulterous affair, establishes space. The daughter of the Sun and the Moon, Wohpe, also falls to earth and later resides with the South Wind, the paragon of Lakota maleness, and the two adopt the fifth wind, called Wamniomni (”whirlwind”).
The Emergence..
Alone on the newly formed earth, some of the gods become bored, and Ite prevails upon Inktomi to find her people, the Buffalo Nation. In the form of a wolf, Inktomi travels beneath the earth and discovers a village of humans. Inktomi tells them about the wonders of the earth and convinces one man, Tokahe (”the first”), to accompany him to the surface. Tokahe does so and upon reaching the surface through a cave (Wind Cave in the Black Hills), marvels at the green grass and blue sky. Inktomi and Ite introduce Tokahe to buffalo meat and soup and shows him tipis, clothing, and hunting utensils. Tokahe returns to the subterranean village and appeals to six other men and their families to travel with him to the earth’s surface. When they arrive, they discover that Inktomi has deceived them: buffalo are scarce, the weather has turned bad, and they find themselves starving. Unable to return to their home, but armed with a new knowledge about the world, they survive to become the founders of the Seven Fireplaces.
The Seven Sacred Rites..
Wohpe (”Falling Star”) appears to the Lakota as a real woman during a period of starvation. She is discovered by two hunters, one of whom lusts for her. He is immediately covered by a mist and reduced to bones. The other hunter is instructed to return to his camp and tell the chief and people that she, “White Buffalo Calf Woman,” will appear to them the next day. He obeys, and a great council tipi is constructed. White Buffalo Calf Woman presents to the people a bundle containing the sacred pipe, and she tells them that in time of need they should smoke from the pipe and pray to Wakantanka for help. The smoke from the pipe will carry their prayers upward. She then instructs them in the seven sacred rites, most of which continue to form the basis of the Sacred Lakota way of Life today.
(To be Continued…)
_________________________________________________________________
“From electronics stores , items like cell phones as well as cd players are easily available. However for digital cameras you will have to try different genre of stores.”
_________________________________________________________________
Enjoying Mother Earth Enchanted…
Posted by msterilinn on Nov 12, 2007
Ever so often I am greatly touched by a video… the song, as well as the visuals. Once again, my daughter has brought something quite worthy of sharing, to my attention. The Beauty and Wonder of the Earth and all that is magical in this world is brought to Life. What more can I say? Words will only get in the way, so I will just introduce this lovely video called “Mother Earth Enchanted”…
Thoughts about Spring and the East by my friend Storm
Posted by msterilinn on Apr 2, 2007
As written in her own words, I would like to share… Thanks Storm!!
In just a few scant days and hours, the hoop of life will turn into East, or so it is said by my people. We would have been anxiously checking the marks on the centuries old calendar rock that now sits in a farmer’s field. With excitement and yes, some dread, we wait for that one moment, that click of time, when the creation decisively turns. And when that click happens, we would sing to welcome the sun back from its journey and prepare to sing as well to the first salmon that comes up the river/stream lifeblood of the people.
Now there are just a few scant days and hours left of the time of North; the time of wisdom - the doing time when one uses the knowledge gained during the this last full turn of the circle. Are the nets ready, are the root sticks sharpened, the bark scrapers ready for the baskets and mats and capes to be made? Are we ready with all that we know to face the unknown of the new turn?
East, the time of spirit, the time of renewal, the time of newness and innocence. The time when never more clearly we see the same in a different way. Everything is right before our eyes, if we’ll just take that moment to see it. Outside my front window I see a cherry tree, and, as always, I am astonished as I see this old friend changing before my eyes. Every winter, I fear for it…with limbs so bare and brittle and seemingly lifeless. And I wonder, is this the year it won’t bloom? Is this the year it won’t be able to welcome and feed the winged that always return to it? But now I see the buds breaking from it skin and know those buds for the promise of renewal and newness. Oh, how painful it must be and oh, the struggle it goes through to meet this promise one more time.
Commercials tell us that ‘new’ is better, improved, exciting. I think ‘new’ is scary and disturbing and unsettling. New is when everything is the same, but different. New is when my comfortable, self-satisfied, knowing certainty is rocked. New is when I believe..I dream and I have no knowledge to support that belief or dream…just the surety that anything is possible because that is the way of Creation, and I am, after all, a piece of it. The faith, the hope to give me the courage to face ‘new’ until it too becomes a comfortable warm place for me to rest in.
I don’t know what I don’t know…and the promise of East is that with the willingness to see with the innocence of a trusting child, to look at the same thing in a different way, to allow myself to step out of the comfortable and into the uncertainty, I will see and hear and taste andlearn things I can’t even possibly imagine. And the older I get, the harder it gets to do so. So many winters..so much struggle to gain what little knowledge and wisdom I have…so much loss, heartache…so many questions for so few answers.
And yet, and yet…East stirs my blood and focuses my vision even further outside my window. My woman’s hands long to plunge into the dirt and plant and help my Mother in her birthing pangs. My woman’s heart speeds up to meet the nesting call…time to purify, to clean, to build for the future. And so, if I let the Creation into me..and if I let myself join into it, then East will sweep me along in the hoop and there won’t be room for fear or courage…just the living…facing the new, the different…with the comfort of what was, to face what is, to be ready for what will be.
Hoi, my relations. Just a few scant days and hours and we will be the East, one another, as part of this hoop of life.
Storm
