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samedi 5 janvier 2013

the four-rayed herb for curing

"It was in the Moon of Shedding Ponies [May] when we had the heyoka ceremony. One day in the Moon of Fatness [June], when everything was blooming, I invited One Side to come over and eat with me. I had been thinking about the four-rayed herb that I had now seen twice--the first time in the great vision when I was nine years old, and the second time when I was lamenting on the hill. I knew that I must have this herb for curing, and I thought I could recognize the place where I had seen it growing that night when I lamented.

After One Side and I had eaten, I told him there was a herb I must find, and I wanted him to help me hunt for it. Of course I did not tell him I had seen it in a vision. He was willing to help, so we got on our horses and rode over to Grass Creek. Nobody was living over there. We came to the top of a high hill above the creek, and there we got off our horsesand sat down, for I felt that we were close to where I saw the herb growing in my vision of the dog.

We sat there awhile singing together some heyoka songs. Then I began to sing alone a song I had heard in my first great vision: "In a sacred manner they are sending voices."

After I had sung this song, I looked down towards the west, and yonder at a certain spot beside the creek were crows and magpies, chicken hawks and spotted eagles circling around and around.

Then I knew, and I said to One Side: "Friend, right there is where the herb is growing." He said: "We will go forth and see." So we got on our horses and rode down Grass Creek until we came to a dry gulch, and this we followed up. As we neared the spot the birds all flew away, and it was a place where four or five dry gulches came together. There right on the side of the bank the herb was growing, and I knew it, although I had never seen one like it before, except in my vision."

Black Elk Speaks by John G Neihardt
http://www.firstpeople.us/articles/Black-Elk-Speaks/Black-Elk-Speaks-Index.html

vendredi 22 avril 2011

wisdom : correcting the distortions of conscious purpose

Finally, it is appropriate to mention some of the factors which may act as correctives—areas of human action which are not limited by the narrow distortions of coupling through conscious purpose and where wisdom can obtain.

(a) Of these, undoubtedly the most important is love. Martin Buber has classified interpersonal relationships in a relevant manner. He differentiates “I-Thou” relations from “I-It” relations, defining the latter as the normal pattern of interaction between man and inanimate objects. The “I-It” relationship he also regards as characteristic of human relations wherever purpose is more important than love.

But if the complex cybernetic structure of societies and ecosystems is in some degree analogous to animation, then it would follow that an “I-Thou” relationship is conceivable between man and his society or ecosystem. In this connection, the formation of “sensitivity groups” in many depersonalized organizations is of special interest.

The arts, poetry, music, and the humanities similarly are areas in which more of the mind is active than mere consciousness would admit. “Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.” Contact between man and animals and between man and the natural world breeds, perhaps—sometimes—wisdom.

(b) There is religion.

Bateson Gregory, 1972. Steps to an ecology of mind. Chandler Pub. Co.