Literalism, colonization, and conquest

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The previous post explored some of the important issues raised by Mark Plotkin's recent TED talk entitled "What the people of the Amazon know that you don't."

Specifically, it explored the contrasts offered in Dr. Plotkin's talk between those who are acting as part of the world-encompassing western system and those who have thus far managed to avoid being that system and whose people have called the Amazon rainforest their home for centuries or for millennia. 

It suggested that contrast may spring from the fact that one group is characterized by harmony with the natural world and the spirit world (and indeed, it could be said that this group sees no hard-and-fast distinction between the visible, material, natural world and the invisible, immaterial, spirit world) and that the other group is characterized by a disconnection with the world of nature (if not an antagonism towards it) and an almost total disregard for the spirit world (if not an antagonism towards the very idea of a spirit world, as understood in shamanic cultures).

It further noted that this antagonism in earlier centuries stemmed primarily from literalist Christian dogma and in later centuries has stemmed from the "ideology of materialism" which has in some important western circles become a replacement religion for literalist Christianity).

This divide can be seen as central to the very different approaches highlighted in the TED talk between "western medicine" and shamanic healing, between living in harmony with the rainforest and clearing it out to create grazing land for a few skinny cows, between pursuing the old ways while avoiding western contact and pursuing uncontacted groups in order to take pictures with them, enslave them, or  try to convert them to literalist Christianity.

Regrettably, there is a very real and ongoing doctrine among literalist Christians that they are under divine commission to reach every people group on the planet in order to attempt to replace the indigenous or traditional belief with literal Christianity. For an example of the seriousness of this ongoing belief, and the numerous groups that have been organized to pursue this "mission" or "great commission" of converting some members of every culture on earth to literalist Christianity, simply type the words "reaching the unreached" into a decent search engine and visit some of the links that come up as results.

This doctrine of a "great commission" to convert everyone is regrettable because, as it turns out, there is substantial evidence that the Biblical scriptures were never intended to be understood literally, being built upon a foundation of celestial metaphor (see for example this recent video, as well as some of the Biblical stories listed in this index of "Star Myth" explanations on this blog).  Ironically, I believe that there is extensive evidence to suggest that this exact same system of celestial metaphor can also be shown to be the foundation of the sacred traditions of nearly every culture on the planet, including those in the so-called "New World" (some of those are discussed in the Star Myth index linked in the previous sentence). 

For this reason alone (along with many others which have to do with not trying to conquer other men and women), I believe that the idea of aggressively working to teach "unreached" people to reject their traditional sacred knowledge and replace it with literalist interpretations of the Biblical scriptures is profoundly misguided.

Among some literalist Christians, this mission is also joined to an apocalyptic vision regarding the end of the world, the end of the age, and the prophesied return of the literal and historical Christ. This connection is generally based specifically on words attributed to Jesus in Matthew 24:14, which declare: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." 

In fact, it can be demonstrated that Christopher Columbus wrote quite extensively on his own belief that the scriptures teach that end of the world and the return of Christ require the conversion of the people of the new continent to the Christian faith, as well as the physical rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem -- and he believed that his voyages to the Americas were instrumental in both of those requirements (the second he felt would be aided by the opening of a new westward route to the Holy Land for the western European monarchs, bypassing some of the obstacles of the eastward route from western Europe, and aided as well by the gold which could now be brought back from the Americas and put to good use in facilitating the rebuilding of the Temple).

In his Libro de las Profecias ("Book of the Prophecies"), which Columbus wrote in the years 1501-1502 in Spain, in conjunction with a monk named Gaspar Garricio, he explains his belief that the Americas serve this important apocalyptic purpose in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, and cites extensive scriptural references from the Old and New Testament to back up his claims, often commenting on them to tie them to his thesis. Strangely enough for a work of such apparent historic importance, it has only very rarely been translated into English, and even those translations can be difficult to obtain (it's not as though Columbus is some kind of marginal figure of minimal historical importance, so the scarcity of this work in easy-to-access online English translations is somewhat puzzling and perhaps worthy of comment -- especially in light of the fact that one of the most important sources Columbus cites in his work, the medieval Joachim of Fiore, is also rather difficult if not impossible to find in English translation as well).

But, the link above will take you to an online transcription of the original text as it was written in Spanish, albeit with frequent archaic spelling conventions (for instance, places in which the letter "i" would be used in the Spanish spelling of a word today often use the letter "y" instead, and some words which today would be spelled using the letter "v" contain the letter "b" where we would expect to see a "v," which is consistent with the pronunciation but not the modern spelling -- and that in some places we would expect a "b" we find a "v" instead). However, it is fairly readable for those who can read modern Spanish. There, you will find that Columbus declares that: 

El abad Johachin, calabres, diso que habia de salir de Espana quien havia de redificar la Casa del monte Sion (see Folio 6, "B").

This translates roughly to: "The abbott Joachim [of Fiore], of Calabria, said that he has to come from Spain the one who is going to re-build the House of the Mount of Sion [or Zion]."

Earlier, at the end of the first side of Folio 5, Columbus states of the prophet Isaiah (according to the interpretations of San Geronimo and Saint Augustine) says that, "Este puso toda su diligencia a escrevir lo venidero y llamar toda la gente a nuestra santa fee catolica" which I translate roughly to mean "This one exerted all his diligence to write of what is coming and to call all the people to our holy catholic faith."

Columbus then begins to cite extensive passages from the scriptures on the subject of the end of the world, as well as passages from the writings of Augustine and others. When he gets to the important passage from Matthew 24:14 quoted above (regarding the requirement for the gospel of the kingdom to be preached "in all the world" and then "shall the end come"), Columbus comments:

<<En todo el mundo>>: es evidente que antes de la destruccion de la ciudad [Jerusalen] por Tito y Vespansiano, el evangelo fue predicado en las tres partes del mundo, es decir, en Asia, Africa y Europa, pues viviendo todavia Pedro, la fe fue predicada en Italia &c. Hay que inquirir [estas cosas], si le place a uno.

My rough translation of this passage might be as follows:

"In all the world": it is evident that before the destruction of the city by Titus and Vespasian, the gospel was preached in the three parts of the world, that is to say, in Asia, Africa and Europe: even more, within the life of Peter, the faith was preached in Italy etc. It needs to be examined, if it pleases him to [have it preached] in one more.

While it is undeniable that the historical context of the writing of this Book of Prophecies by Columbus included his desire for the rulers of Spain to send him back on another mission to the Americas, no one who reads it can come away unconvinced that Columbus was deeply versed in the scriptures and that he possessed a thoroughly-developed framework of eschatology, predicated upon the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem and the conversion of all the unreached nations of the globe to the literalist Christian faith -- and that he could back up his vision with an interlocking lattice of verses from both the Old and New Testaments. It is difficult to argue that this vision was not dominant (or at least extremely important) in his desire to undertake voyages across the Atlantic from the outset. 

In his most-recent book, Thrice Great Hermetica and the Janus Age, the insightful and extremely thorough researcher Joseph Farrell makes this very argument regarding the purpose of the voyage of Columbus: that it was part of a carefully-planned vision for bringing about the fulfillment of prophecy by powerful groups at the top of the power structure of western Europe (see pages 156-157 in particular). Of the reference to Joachim of Fiore, Dr. Farrell says:

Joachim, in other words, more than anyone else, is responsible for viewing prophecy as a code to be decrypted, and once decrypted, as a playbook or agenda to be followed by the power elite of his day. [. . . ] Thus, in terms of the hidden "prophetic" agenda driving Columbus and his backers, his voyage of 1492 was not a chance discovery, but a planned revelation whose every last detail was coordinated, including especially those details meant to exhibit "the fulfillment of prophecy." 156 - 157.

That there remain to this day those who continue to believe some version of this "playbook or agenda" and who see both the Americas and Mount Zion as important to that prophecy's ultimate fulfillment is hardly possible to doubt. Some of those who continue to hold to these beliefs may also tie the  "reaching" of every last "unreached" culture into their vision of the fulfillment of such "end times" prophecies.

Again, I believe that there is extensive evidence from within the Biblical scriptures themselves to support the conclusion that they were not intended to be interpreted as literally and historically as they are often interpreted. For example, both Joachim and Columbus published specific predictions for the year in which the Apocalyptic events predicted in the scriptures would take place on earth -- and yet I believe that the scriptures in general and the Apocalypse of John in particular (often called the Revelation today) are celestial in nature and were intended to convey esoteric teaching and not historical or literal predictions. 

Some discussion of the celestial foundations for the events described in the Revelation of John (particularly in chapter 9, where the celestial connections are very clear) can be found in this previous post, as well as in the three chapters of my book The Undying Stars, which can be read online here (see pages 9 through 13 of the book, which are part of the selection that is posted online).

Ultimately, I believe that the above discussion points to some of the very substantial evidence which suggests that literalist Christianity itself can be seen to encourage a kind of "colonizing mindset," in that literal misinterpretations of its content can lead to the regrettable conclusion that it should be "forced upon" others, either by persuasive or even aggressive arguments or -- in some extreme but by no means isolated instances -- by physical force or violence (see the record of Charlemagne in Europe, for example, as well as many other cases in later centuries). The connection between this mindset and the other forms of imposing the western world-system on others who might be more disposed to live without it or outside of it should be clear.

Further, I believe there is strong evidence to support the theory that literalist Christianity was deliberately designed as a vehicle for taking over the Roman Empire from the inside, and that it turned out to be a very effective vehicle for doing so (see previous posts such as this one and this one). If this theory is in fact correct, then we should hardly be surprised that it continued to be an effective tool for colonizing and taking over other cultures around the planet in subsequent centuries, and that it continues to do so today. 

Some may object at this point by saying that there have been plenty of non-Christian examples of conquest at the point of the sword, and colonization and cultural takeover of one people by another throughout history, and of this there is no doubt. But it is also extremely notable that western Europe, where the literalists who took over the Roman Empire had the most power and influence for the longest period according to the theory mentioned above, has proven to be the most aggressive and most "successful" (if taking over the culture of others can be measured as a success) colonizing entity the world has ever known (at least, as far as history is known to this point).

It might also be pointed out that, unlike sheer physical conquest by the force of arms, if Christianity was designed to take over a culture from the inside primarily by tactics other than physical force, it can be said to have a powerful "built-in" propensity for what might be called "mental colonization" or "mental conquest" -- or, to use a term which has been defined more precisely in other posts: "mind control."

Thus, I believe that it is no small item that Mark Plotkin mentioned the efforts of Christian missionaries alongside the other deleterious impacts of the western world-system upon the human and natural ecosystems of the Amazon. In many ways, it can be said that literalist Christianity is at the heart of this entire pattern, and has been for many centuries -- stretching back to Columbus, and perhaps even for centuries before that.

Harmony with nature and with the invisible world in the Amazon rainforest

Above is a sobering and thought-provoking and -- yes -- hopeful talk from ethnobotanist and Amazon conservationist Mark Plotkin, entitled "What the people of the Amazon know that you don't," given at TEDx in Brazil in October of 2014.

In it, he addresses many important subjects, all of them interconnected: the threat to the rainforest and the threat to the cultures of those who have lived there and whose ancestors have lived there for centuries or millennia, the relationship between the indigenous cultures and nature contrasted with the disconnect and even hostility towards nature exhibited by modern "western" culture, the shamanic wisdom that has been preserved and passed down in those cultures and the loss of that wisdom as members of the older generation leave this life, and the desire by some representatives of literalist Christian religious groups to convert uncontacted indigenous peoples to their literalist religion.

The issues that Dr. Plotkin addresses so movingly in his talk are important in their own right, as they apply to the specific situation of the Amazon rainforest and its precious ecosystems and the irreplaceable cultures and wisdom of the people of the Amazon. They are also illustrative, I believe, of the disconnectedness which has been an unfortunate aspect of literalist Christianity since its inception: by insisting that the scriptures of the Bible are literal and "historically true" in a way denied to all the other sacred traditions of the world, this literalist approach creates an artificial disconnect between the world's sacred traditions (when in fact they are all united by an incredible shared system of celestial metaphor -- including the scriptures in the Bible), and it also creates an artificial disconnect between humanity and the universe, between mankind and nature.

Dr. Plotkin provides powerful examples of the contrast between western medicine and traditional healing techniques derived from a deep connection to and knowledge of the plants and animals of the rainforest.

He provides stunning visual evidence of the contrast between the traditional stewardship of the rainforest and the devastation and destruction wrought by representatives of the western world-system.

And he describes the precarious state of uncontacted tribes. It is no accident that the people who have not come in contact with the source of the "disconnects" described above are described by Dr. Plotkin as the most connected, saying at 7:22 in the talk:

These are the people who know nature best. These are the people who truly live in total harmony with nature.

And it can be argued that the critical element in this contrast between connected and disconnected stems from the relationship to the spirit world, as evidenced by the frequent references to shamans and shamanic knowledge throughout this discussion. I would submit the possibility that the deep connection to and harmony with nature Dr. Plotkin describes among those who have not been absorbed into the western world-system cannot be separated from their sense of connection to the invisible world, a connection which the shamans embody and preserve for those shamanic cultures.

And I would submit the possibility that the disconnectedness from and hostile relationship with nature that characterizes the western world-system is also directly related to the deliberate rejection of the shamanic worldview and denial of the importance of the spirit world that is inherent in the western world-view (a rejection and denial which has remained the same whether driven by literalistic interpretation to the Bible or whether driven by the new western religion of "Science," which I have also called "the ideology of materialism," after a phrase in an essay by Dr. Neal Grossman).

This disconnectedness and hostility towards the shamanic worldview is perhaps most nakedly exhibited in the example of missionaries from literalist Christian religious orders who, as Dr. Plotkin explains at about 13:40 in the talk, "want to get in there and turn them into Christians." One can deduce from the expression in his voice that Dr. Plotkin has personally encountered this attitude and activity from missionaries during his many years of working to preserve the rainforests and the rights of the indigenous people of the rainforests.

Viewed in a wider context, I believe it is abundantly clear that the ongoing desire of some literalist Christians to make contact with and then attempt to convert men and women who have remained outside of the world-encircling western system and who have preserved their original shamanic wisdom and shamanic worldview is part of a pattern stretching back nearly two thousand years. Another example of the manifestation of this desire to spiritually conquer and colonize was discussed in the previous post entitled "Literalists against the shamanic."

Other examples can be found around the world, starting at the center of the Roman Empire in the second through fifth centuries AD and then spreading in ever-expanding circles worldwide from that point, first across western and northern Europe and ultimately across oceans and continents in successive centuries to reach nearly every corner of the planet. The depths of the Amazon are some of the few places that this system has yet to fully reach.

The good news is that this artificially-imposed disconnect is becoming harder and harder to pass off as legitimate or healthy. More and more people are realizing how much has already been lost, and realizing the urgency of preventing further destruction. Courageous individuals like Dr. Plotkin and his fellow-conservationists and researchers are helping to expose the world to this enormous issue, and to express it in terms of human rights, and to enlist aid and create groups and perform the hard work to defend the human rights of those who are most threatened by some of the worst aspects of the disconnectedness that is such a hallmark of the western world-system.

We should all do what we can to support that work and to help to spread that message. The website of the Amazon Conservation Team can be found here.

Giving the blessing

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

There is a movement by some to tar the celebration of Thanksgiving with the brush of imperialism, colonialism, and genocide, and to decry its celebration as misguided or insensitive or outmoded and in need of replacement (see for instance here and here).

These sentiments are obviously a reaction to the horrendous record of violation and slaughter that did in fact follow the arrival of Europeans on the shores of the Americas. To be outraged at what took place in the centuries that followed that arrival is of course appropriate. We should be more aware of and outraged by the record of wrongs which ensued, and the types of thinking and ideology that enabled people to participate in and encourage what took place, and to ask ourselves in what ways such wrongs can be addressed, as well as to examine what ways we might be participating in or enabling similar violations today. 

However, I believe that to turn Thanksgiving into "an example of hypocrisy and insincerity," to quote the second article linked above, is itself misguided. One need not believe that what happened in the centuries following the "first Thanksgiving" in 1621 was in any way excusable in order to believe that the holiday's focus upon giving thanks is almost entirely positive.

The fact that by all accounts the Native Americans rescued the settlers from starvation in Plymouth is an example of the way we should provide succor to those in danger of perishing when we see that it is in our power to do so. And the response of giving thanks for having food enough to stay alive is certainly not an inappropriate one.

The act of giving thanks and in fact "saying the blessing" has always been central to the Thanksgiving meal, and one need not share the literal approach to the Biblical scriptures that certainly characterized many of those fleeing the tyranny in western Europe who came to these shores to believe that giving thanks and blessing with every meal is appropriate and worthwhile.

In fact, the focus on giving thanks and blessing at an annual meal can point us to the fact that we should probably be giving thanks and blessing with not just every meal but with every bite of food we take or every sip of drink, and even with every breath of air we enjoy in our lungs while incarnated in these human bodies of ours.

It can even be said that the act of blessing is absolutely central to our purpose of coming into the material world in the first place, as explored in this previous post entitled simply "Blessing."

The ancient writer Plutarch wrote a powerful essay in which he imagined the goddess Demeter and the god Dionysus admonishing us for our lack of gratitude at the abundance of the gifts of the vegetation of the earth which spring up to sustain us. Thanksgiving can be seen as an antidote to such an attitude.

I am very thankful for all of those who interact with me through what I write and through their feedback and positive responses, and I wish all of you blessings on Thanksgiving and throughout the years!

The Ghost-Dance and contact with the spirit world

image: Ghost-Dance Religion and Wounded Knee, Mooney. page 933. Public domain (link).

James Mooney (1861 - 1921) preserved, as best as he could do so, the Ghost-Dance movement of the late 1800s in his careful and thorough description of its extent, its teachings, and most importantly the dance itself. 

Mooney traveled extensively among the tribes who participated most, from the Arapaho and Sioux in the Great Plains all the way out across the Rockies, among the Paiute where the Ghost-Dance originated, and into California, where it reached all the way to the edge of the Pacific.

The specific details of the political conditions of the time are very important history, with many lessons to teach us: for example, it seems very important to ask why the powers of the US government were so anxious to suppress a movement whose main features included peaceful dancing, singing, and the achievement of a state of trance or ecstasy in which participants reported seeing and speaking with departed loved ones. 

However, in addition to the extremely important circumstances of the particular situation of what was happening to the Native Americans during the years that the Ghost-Dance movement arose, and the extent to which it was a response to the injustices and violations that had been perpetrated against them by the agents of the US government and which had finally reached a point of culmination, the first-hand descriptions and careful historical background which Mooney compiled about the dance itself provides important insight into the broader phenomenon of "trance conditions" in general, a phenomenon which in fact has been part of nearly every culture on our planet, stretching back millennia and reaching forward to the present day.

Mooney's account, entitled The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, which was published as part of the US Bureau of Ethnology annual report in 1894 and which is still available today under the slightly-revised title of The Ghost-Dance Religion and Wounded Knee, consists of around 450 pages of detailed description. Obviously, it contains so much detail and valuable information that only a very small amount can be examined within the scope of this short post. Some of the subject matter which Mooney covers has been explored in previous posts, such as this one.

Here, only a few important details will be examined for some of their implications, especially as they fit into the broader subject of what we might call ecstatic experience, or contact with the hidden realm, or entry into trance conditions. It should be noted that Mooney himself devoted a section of his study to the similarities of the trance-states achieved during the Ghost-Dance and other accounts from history, including the case of Joan of Arc, the practice of dervish or Sema ecstatic whirling and dancing, and accounts from ancient times including some hints in the Bible (and several others). Many of the common features among such ecstatic practice across cultures and across centuries are very striking, which is no doubt part of the reason Mooney decided to discuss these commonalities in his text.

• Mooney describes the features of the dance itself in great detail, as well as the actual methods used to induce the trance state, particularly in the pages numbered 922 - 927. An online edition of Mooney's text is linked above (here is the link again) and it is well worth reading the description with care. Be sure to use the page numbers "printed" on the facsimile pages themselves, from the original book: the page numbers of the "online edition" do not match up, in this particular case (page 922 in the original text matches up with electronic page 352, for instance). The image above shows participants in trance-state: Mooney explains that some go rigid while still standing, some slump into half-standing positions which they hold for some time and which would be extremely unlikely for anyone who is actually conscious to be able to hold, and all of them eventually "fall heavily to the ground, unconscious and motionless," as seen in the image at top.
• Mooney notes that he observed some examples of "humbug" behavior (persons pretending to go into the ecstatic state, possibly because they thought that by pretending to be experience the trance they might actually induce themselves to go into the trance), but that in the great majority of the cases he observed the ecstatic state was "unquestionably genuine and beyond the control of the subjects" (926).
• By far the majority of the visions experienced and reported by participants, from tribes located at great distances from one another and even by a young East coast visitor who declared he wanted to experience the trance for himself (Paul Boynton, page 923), involved contact with departed relatives. This is remarkably similar to the first-hand accounts related by literally thousands of modern near-death experience survivors, a phenomenon examined in great detail in the excellent book Science and the Near-Death Experience, by Chris Carter (discussed in this previous blog post).
• In some of the variations of the Ghost-Dance movement, participants were specifically told that they would be encountering "maternal ancestors" (see descriptions on pages 812 and following, in the original "book" pagination). This seems to have some resonance with the ayahuasca experiences described by Graham Hancock in the lecture linked in this previous post.
• In most places that the Ghost-Dance was practiced, men or women who went into the trance state were left alone and not disturbed (even dogs were shooed away from the Ghost-Dance sites, so that they would not go up to a participant who had entered the trance). However, Mooney relates that in one particular place -- among a group which were called the Cohonino (some letters written at the time, which Mooney includes in his text, spell it Cojonino) and who are described in a contemporary account as living in the region of Cataract Creek (which runs through the Havasupai Reservation) Mooney remarks upon the observation that there, the medicine-men  wait for some period of time deemed sufficient and then revive those who go into the trance-state. Of this distinctive detail, Mooney states: "Resuscitation by the medicine-men, as here mentioned, is something unknown among the prairie tribes, where the unconscious subject is allowed to lie undisturbed on the ground until the senses return the natureal way" (814).
• This detail about having the attending shamans revive the trance participant is remarkably similar to the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, which Dr. Jeremy Naydler has convincingly argued appear to describe a ritual in which the king falls into a trance state and has out-of-body visions. In the Pyramid Texts, there are distinctive lines which command the king to return to the body, and to wake up, saying "You are not dead!" These texts have been interpreted within the consensus academic view which see the pyramids as tombs and the Pyramid Texts as descriptions of an imagined afterlife journey as being "wishful thinking" (the living are wishfully saying that the king is not dead, even though in fact he is dead, according to that consensus view). However, Dr. Naydler argues that the Pyramid Texts are more satisfactorily understood as describing a ritual of shamanic journeying, and that the specific texts in question are "revival" or "resuscitation" texts, in which a formal "call to return" is issued to bring back the traveler. See more on this subject here.
• The same Cohonino ritual of inducing the trance described above involves climbing a pole towards the top, where the tail-feathers of a hawk or eagle (or the entire tail) are affixed. Climbing a tree is a shamanic practice around the world, and it is also manifest in many of the ancient mythologies of the world, all of which I believe can be shown to be shamanic in nature. One clear example of mounting a tree in order to gain vision into the other world is found in the famous "sacrifice of Odin," described here. That post also notes some very clear similarities between the ascent of Odin on the World-Tree and the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross (which itself is often referred to as "the Tree" in the Biblical scriptures).
• Finally (for this particular examination of the Ghost-Dance -- more in the future), it is significant to note that the Ghost-Dance is all about contact with the spirit world, and that the motion of the dance itself is specifically and consciously described as being imitative of the motions of the heavenly bodies through the sky (see Mooney's description, page 920, where the motion of the dancers is described as being "from right to left, following the course of the sun"). The connection between the motions of the heavens and the spirit realm which is invisible but always close at hand (in fact, it permeates and even generates all that is here in the material realm, according to some accounts), is thus clearly established in the Ghost-Dance, just as in so many other sacred traditions in human history.

Although there is abundant evidence that the knowledge of techniques for entering the ecstatic state and making contact with the unseen world was once common to all cultures of the world, I believe that there is also very specific evidence that the worldview which we might today label as "shamanic" and "ecstatic" was deliberately stamped out in Europe (especially western Europe) by the people behind the rise of literalist Christianity. 

Note that this fact does not necessarily mean that those responsible for the campaigns to stamp it out in the western Roman Empire (which, after the dissolution of the Roman Empire, became simply "western Europe") did not themselves believe in the importance of the shamanic or the ecstatic! One possibility is that they knew very well the fact that our universe is in fact composed of what we might call a spirit realm plus a material realm, and that they knew very well the power of such techniques for contacting the spirit realm, and wanted to keep those techniques for themselves while denying them to everyone else (see for instance the previous post entitled "The Cobra-Kai sucker punch . . .").

Such a theory would explain the campaign against shamanic drumming (and even against shamanic drums) which can be documented as lasting for centuries in some places, as discussed in this previous post.

Such a theory would explain the "War against Consciousness" that Graham Hancock described in his famous TED talk (a talk which elicited strong protests from some who opposed his message, perhaps because they are devotees of the "ideology of materialism," or perhaps because they actually are not materialists but actually oppose contact with the spirit realm for other reasons).

And such a theory might also explain the violent opposition to the Ghost-Dance exhibited by the US government, which itself might be seen as descended from and representative of that western European tradition stretching back to the Roman Empire, and the historic opposition to the shamanic worldview. This violent opposition, of course, led directly to the horrific massacre perpetrated by soldiers of the US government at Wounded Knee in December of 1890.

Chiasm and the spirit world

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The gematria key proposed by Marty Leeds for the English alphabet, through which he has been able to discover and explore some amazing correspondences such as those discussed in this previous post, seems to have suggested itself to him based upon the abundant "seven-patterns" in the natural world, including the 

• seven visible heavenly spheres of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, 
• seven notes of the major musical scale before repeating in the octave,
• the seven chakras within the human body,
• and the seven days described in the Genesis story of creation, which included six days of creating and a sacred seventh day of rest.

Based upon this pattern, Marty created a cipher for the 26 letters of the modern English alphabet which breaks the 26 into two halves, and then assigns numerals of 1 through 6 in an ascending and then descending pattern on either side of a central 7, as shown below:

This setup is explained the many hours of teaching videos that Marty has shared on the web here.

Marty's inspiration to arrange a cipher that contains two "mirror-image" patterns on either side of a central "hinge" or "pivot" can actually be shown to have very significant precedent, as mentioned briefly in the previous post, where it was noted that this pattern is called a chiasm  (usually pronounced "KY-asm") or a chiastic structure (or sometimes a chiasmus). 

This excellent discussion of chiasm entitled "Chiasmus: An Important Structural Device Commonly Found in Biblical Literature," by Bible scholar and professor Brad McCoy offers a very succinct definition of this vital literary form "the use of bilateral symmetry about a central axis" (from Robert Norrman), as well as Professor McCoy's own, slightly expanded definition: "the use of inverted parallelism of form and/or content which moves toward and away from a strategic central component" (1).

As an example, a chiasm might follow the pattern A - B - C - B' - A', in which the symbol written

B'

is commonly expressed as "B-prime," and in which the concepts expressed in A and B are expressed again or at least referenced again in A' and B', each of which represents a sort of reflection of the original but elevated or transformed in some way, usually in reference to whatever is expressed at the central point C, which is the pivot or hinge of the entire structure. Most authors on this subject make a distinction between a chiastic structure and a simple "inverted parallel" structure, in that a chiasm contains the central pivot which is not repeated, while other types of inverted parallel structures will simply reflect one another, without the central pivot (for example, in a format such as A - B - B' - A').

Obviously, Marty's arrangement of the cipher proposed for the modern English alphabet above follows a classic chiastic pattern, with a central pivot at the number 7 and a sort of "reflection" of the numbers 1 through 6 on either side of the central point. Tellingly, author James B. Jordan demonstrates that the seven days of creation depicted in Genesis 1 contain numerous examples of chiasm. In an appendix to his book Creation in Six Days he writes (using language which also invokes the patterns of music):

Not only are the seven days to be understood as a chiasm, but there are other chiastic flows in the passage as well, providing a beautiful "polyphonic" symphony of melodies that harmonize with one another perfectly. [. . .].

The refrain "And God saw that it was good" occurs seven times in the passage, and the arrangement is chiastic:

A. Day 1 Light good

B. Day 3a Both separations good

C. Day 3b Plants good

A' Day 4 Luminaries good

C' Day 5 Fishes and birds good

B' Day 6a Animals good

A" Day 6b Man good Just as the chiasm of the seven days associates light with the luminaries and with the sabbath, so this chiasm associates humanity with the light and the light bearers. [ . . .]

The refrain "and God said" occurs nine times in the passage, and once again it is chiastically arranged:

A. Day 1 Light

B. Day 2 Firmament

C. Day 3a Dry land appears

D. Day 3b Plants

E. Day 4 Luminaries

D' Day 5 Fishes and birds

C' Day 6a Land animals

B' Day 6b Man as image and ruler

A' Day 6c Plants for man and animals. As always, the luminaries of the fourth day are central. The D sections link the glorifying plants with the glorifying fishes and birds, as above. The C sections link the land with the land animals. The B sections once again link the firmament with man. The A sections don't seem to correspond, but perhaps we are intended to see a link between the light produced by the Spirit and the life given by the Spirit through the consumption of plants. 220-221.

In the actual text in the print edition of the above book, Jordan has arranged each chiasm so that the indentations become progressively deeper up the central point, and then successively shallower back outwards from the central point, so that they actually form a "left border" that resembles the "left edge" of a letter "X" (the letter which gives the chiastic structure its name, after the Greek letter X or

chi

 -- Professor McCoy notes in the first page of his essay that this ancient pattern was specifically called a chiasm by the Greek rhetorician Isocrates in the fourth century BC). 

Unfortunately, I am not able to create such an indented structure in this online format. Nevertheless, the discussion above should demonstrate conclusively that the chiastic structure is abundantly present in the Genesis 1 account of the six days of creation and seventh day of rest, and hence to provide strong support for Marty's decision to use a chiastic structure for his cipher centered on the central 7 in reference to that creation account (among many other "sevens" in creation).

It is also noteworthy that both of the above chiasms have as their central hinge or pivot the creation of what Jordan calls "the Luminaries" on Day 4 of the creation week: the sun, moon and stars described in Genesis 1:14-18. This centrality of the stars should not be surprising to us, once we realize that virtually all of the sacred texts and teachings of humanity can be said in a sense to be centered upon the motions of the stars and other heavenly bodies, to hinge or pivot upon the Luminaries, so to speak (see here for examples from many different cultures from around the globe and across the millennia). 

Note also that in the first chiastic structure explicated above this central pivot point of the creation of the Luminaries is mirrored on the outer edges by the commanded presence of light at the very beginning and by the creation of men and women at the very end -- which indicates that men and women are in their own way Luminaries who mirror the Luminaries in the heavens, in an "as above, so below" pattern. In fact, the chiastic structure by its very nature seems to invite contemplation of the "as above, so below" pattern and to point towards it at all times.

In the essay by Professor McCoy linked previously, evidence is presented from various researchers who show that this pattern of chiasmus is present "as early as the third millennium BC in the organization of certain Sumero-Akkadian and Ugaritic texts" and that in fact it was used throughout the ancient Mediterranean world (1, 5). He also cites a researcher who explains that ancient Greek scholars

"were trained throughout their school years to read from the  center outward and from the extremities towards the center," and to conceive of the Greek alphabet from beginning to end, from end to beginning, and from "both ways at once, alpha-omega, beta-psi . . . (to) mu-nu (in the middle)" (5). 

He even notes that ancient texts were written on scrolls all the way until the second century AD, which themselves can be seen to invite a kind of chiastic form, in that "a scroll creates a symmetrical perception of overall content and leads to a focus on the content in its center" (5). It is interesting to speculate about the possible significance of Professor McCoy's comment that the replacement of the scroll by the "leaf-form" or "book-style" codex corresponded to the rise of the literalistic Christian church in the second century AD!

The importance of chiasm is stated in the description of Professor John Breck's The Shape of Biblical Language: Chiasmus in the Scriptures and beyond, one of the most-referenced modern examinations of this literary structure, in no uncertain terms: "Written chiastically, the Bible should be read chiastically." In other words, we cannot truly understand its full message unless we are aware of the centrality of chiasm: an assertion with which Marty Leeds, whose numerical cipher is absolutely rooted in chiasm, would no doubt agree! 

And yet, for some reason, chiasm is not widely taught or understood: one could attend church every week for decades and never hear it mentioned. This fact, coupled with the interesting line about scrolls and their "chiasm-like" form being replaced during the very same period that literalistic interpretations of ancient scriptures were on the rise, is most noteworthy. 

This is the exact same time period that the centrality of the celestial metaphors (and the understanding that the ancient Biblical stories were not intended to be taken literally but were instead esoteric Star Myths designed to convey spiritual truths metaphorically) was also being replaced by a rigid literalism -- and a period in which vicious polemics against "gnostics" and their esoteric hermeneutic were proliferating. It is most significant to note that the understanding of the centrality of the Luminaries, which is only revealed in Genesis 1 if we understand the chiastic structure, was thus being stamped out at precisely the same time!

What could this chiastic structure be trying to convey to us? What is so important about it that it manifests itself throughout the ancient scriptures, not just throughout the Biblical texts but also in other ancient literary forms from throughout the ancient world? 

One likely message that this structure may be intended to convey has already been suggested: the form itself reflects the message of "as above, so below." If we look at the shape of the letter "X" from which the chiasm takes its name, we see that the letter itself consists of two triangles, balanced at a central point of contact -- like two worlds, an upper heavenly (spiritual) world, and a lower earthly (material) world. The shape and message of the chiastic literary form, then, appears to teach that this lower world reflects a higher world, that it in fact reflects the spirit world, the heavenly world.

Not only that, but it teaches that the two realms are actually in contact with one another, that they meet and interact.

In other words, it can be argued that the chiastic structure points to a view of the nature of reality, of the universe and of humanity's place in that universe which can be described as shamanic in nature, a term which here is broadly used to describe a worldview characterized by the belief that the material world reflects or is even derived from an invisible spirit world, which is connected to and interpenetrates the material world, and to which it is possible and even necessary to make deliberate journeys in order to obtain knowledge or effect changes which would otherwise be impossible to obtain or accomplish. 

The assertion that the Bible, along with all the other sacred traditions of humanity, may actually be attempting to convey a worldview which we today would characterize as broadly shamanic has been expressed in many previous discussions, such as this one and this one (as well as in greater detail in The Undying Stars).

Given the other independent evidence for such a worldview, it is very likely that the chiastic structure is intended to convey the mutual co-existence of these two realms, the manifest realm of matter and the hidden realm of spirit. What's more, the act of reading a chiasm, or of listening to a chiastic pattern being spoken, inherently involves motion: it moves the reader or the listener from the beginning (at the broad "base" of the double-triangle or "X") towards the central point of contact with the spiritual realm, and then across that central pivot-point into the other realm beyond. In other words, the very nature of  encountering language which is arranged in such a fashion can be seen as a kind of allegorical shamanic journey! 

It is very significant that in some Native American tradition, the imagery of two triangles (or, more accurately, two infinite cones) arranged in the very same fashion as the two triangular regions in an "X" with one inverted above the other, meeting at a central hinge-point or pivot-point of contact, was used to express the mutual co-dependence of the material world and the spirit world.

For example, in Lakota Star Knowledge: Studies in Lakota Stellar Theology (1992), researcher Ronald Goodman explains:

There is a Lakota family who own a document that combines on one hide, what is usually found on separate star and earth maps. The symbol for the earth sites is ^, and the symbol for the stars is v. These shapes are not to be understood as flat triangles, but as cones, as vortices of light. Thus, the inner shape of a star is an inverted tipi. When earth sites and stars are combined (as they are on this hide), the image looks like this: X. This symbol is called in Lakota, Kapemni, which means "twisting." Thus, what is above is like what is below. What is below is like what is above. 16.

Note that in the above description, the symbols indicated by

^

and

v

are actually completed triangles (due to the internet formatting options used here, you will have to imagine the third side as being drawn in), and the symbol indicated by an 

X

is actually drawn with two complete triangles (you will have to imagine the top line and the bottom line as being drawn in).

The discussion goes on to explain that the Lakota understood the conical tepee as forming the lower vortex which connects with and points towards the vortex of light above, the "stellar world" or the spirit world (for more on the spiritual significance of the tepee, see this previous discussion). The whirling motion of the dancers around the central pole in the sacred Sun Dance was understood to create the same vortex here on earth which opens the connecting vortex of the unseen world (16 - 17).

Thus, there appears to be very good reason to believe that the structure of the chiasm, found throughout the scriptures of the Bible and indeed throughout many other ancient sacred traditions as well, is intended to evoke the awareness of the invisible world of spirit which reflects itself in this world, and to point us towards that point of connection with the spirit world, that point where we can actually make the leap "across the chasm" to the world that cannot be perceived with our five material senses, but which we are in fact equipped to perceive.

There are many more aspects of this chiasm structure which could be profitably explored, and many examples of important episodes and passages in ancient scripture which can be shown to be chiastic in form, and perhaps we can return to this concept and explore some of them in future posts.   

But for now, it is important to return to the pattern which launched the present discussion, which is the chiastic form of the cipher which Marty Leeds, following the inspiration contained in the description of the seven days of creation, has found hidden in the modern English alphabet. Not only does the long ancient history of chiasm lend additional support to the form Marty follows in his cipher, but the fact that the metaphorical aspects of chiasm (a literary structure whose form by its very nature "brings down" the heavens to the earth, and then lifts us back up to the celestial and the spiritual) seem to reflect and embody the very same metaphorical messages we have seen his gematria to embody and to reveal seems to argue that we must acknowledge the existence of yet another layer of simultaneous metaphor which the ancient sacred heritage of humanity employs to point us towards these profound truths about ourselves and our place in this material-spiritual universe.

Walking the good red road

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The previous post examined some aspects of the power and spiritual significance of the circle, as related by the holy man Black Elk when he decided to let his vision be written down and published for all people to share. 

This decision on Black Elk's part was very deliberate, of course, and one he obviously thought about very, very carefully: he explains at one point in the narrative that he "has lain awake at night worrying and wondering if I was doing right" by telling the full story of his vision and allowing it to be printed in a book. Then he says: "But I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even though I may die sooner because I did it; for I know the meaning of the vision is wise and beautiful and good; and you can see that I am only a pitiful old man after all" (206).

Having explored a little of the sacred meaning of the circle, and its connection to the unending circle of life, to the sky, to the infinite and to the unseen world, we can now better understand one of the most significant aspects of Black Elk's great vision, which came to him in the summer when he was nine years old and which guided him throughout his life. That vision was extremely rich in detail and symbolism, all of which became important to him in the years ahead, but one image which he was shown in his vision which informs the entire book and to which he refers over and over again is the image of the two roads that he was shown crossing inside the sacred hoop: a black road running east and west, and a red road running north and south.

Black Elk first introduces the concept of the black road and the red road in his full description of his vision. It is shown to him and explained to him by one of the Six Grandfathers, whom he meets in the spirit world and who fill him with awe and cause him to shake with fear when he first meets them, because, as he says, "I knew that these were not old men, but the Powers of the World" (25). They are six in number because they each represent the power of a different direction: the first being the Power of the West, the second of the North, the third of the East, the fourth of the South, the fifth of the Sky, and the sixth of the Earth (25).

It is the fourth Grandfather, of the South, who shows Black Elk the vision of the sacred hoop of the people and the two roads which bisect it into four quarters:

Then when he had been still a little while to hear the birds sing, he spoke again: "Behold the earth!" So I looked down and saw it lying yonder like a hoop of peoples, and in the center bloomed a holy stick that was a tree, and where it stood there crossed two roads, a red one and a black. "From where the giant lives (the north) to where you always face (the south) the red road goes, the road of good," the Grandfather said, "and on it shall your nation walk. The black road goes from where the thunder beings live (the west) to where the sun continually shines (the east), a fearful road, a road of troubles and of war. On this also you shall walk, and from it you shall have the power to destroy a people's foes. In four ascents you shall walk the earth with power." 29.

Black Elk refers back to these two roads many times throughout his narrative: together these two road form one of the most important themes in his entire telling of his story. 

Many years later, when Black Elk was twenty years old, he realizes that he must perform parts of his vision for the people to see, and he carries a pipe to "a wise and good old medicine man" named Fox Belly, and asks him to help him with this duty of performing the vision for the people (205). After explaining part of his vision to Fox Belly, the old medicine man tells Black Elk: "My boy, you had a great vision, and I can see that it is your duty to help the people walk the red road in a manner pleasing to the Powers" (206). Black Elk explains how the performance of the vision was prepared:

First we made a sacred place like a bison wallow at the center of the nation's hoop, and there we set up the sacred tepee. Inside this we made the circle of the four quarters. Across the circle from south to north we painted a red road, and Fox Belly made little bison tracks all along on both sides of it, meaning that the people should walk there with the power and endurance of the bison, facing the great white cleansing wind of the world. Also, he placed a the north end of the road the cup of water, which is the gift of the west, so that the people, while leaning against the great wind with the endurance of the bison, would be going toward the water of life.

I was painted red all over like the man of my vision before he turned into a bison. I wore bison horns, and on the left horn hung a piece of the daybreak-star herb, which bears the four-rayed flower of understanding. On the left side of my body I wore a single eagle feather, which was for my people, hanging on the side of the bison and feeding there. 207.

Throughout the book, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of Black Elk's story is the anguish he expresses over the fact that he sees his people walking the black road and the sacred hoop being destroyed, and his feeling that he has somehow not lived up to the vision he was given. At one point he says, in explaining his decision at the age of 23 to travel with Buffalo Bill's show to see the east coast and eventually even cross the water to England:

I looked back on the past and recalled my people's old ways, but they were not living that way any more. They were traveling the black road, everybody for himself and with little rules of his own, as in my vision. I was in despair, and I even thought that if the Wasichus had a better way, then maybe my people should live that way. I know now that this was foolish, but I was young and in despair. 215.

Later still, when he hears of the beginnings of the Ghost Dance and the fact that the holy man, whose name was Wavoka and who had the original vision for the Ghost Dance, gave people sacred red paint as part of his vision to bring back the old ways, Black Elk says:

When I heard this about the red pain and the eagle feathers and about bringing the people back to the Great Spirit, it made me think hard. I had had a great vision that was to bring the people back into the nation's hoop, and maybe this sacred man had had the same vision and it was going to come true, so that the people would get back on the red road. 234.

And finally, when he was very old, Black Elk returns to Harney Peak which was the center of the hoop in his vision, to ask the Six Grandfathers, to help his people to "once more go back into the sacred hoop and find the good red road" (274). In that final recorded prayer of Black Elk, he uses words to describe the cross inside of the sacred circle which are very significant, right at the beginning of his prayer:

Hey-a-a-hey! Hey-a-a-hey! Hey-a-a-hey! Hey-a-a-hey! Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you -- the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, the wings of the air and all green things that live. You have set the powers of the four quarters to cross each other. The good road and the road of difficulties you have made to cross; and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in and day out, forever, you are the life of things. 272.

The deep aspects of Black Elk's vision and of the hoop and the sacred cross of the red road and the black road can be very valuable to all of us to this day, to ponder and consider and reflect upon in our own lives and in our own time. We have already seen that he felt very strongly about sharing this vision with the world before allowing it to be written down, and that he felt so strongly that others should hear it that he decided to tell his vision, even if in doing so he might somehow "die sooner because of it." We should all be very grateful to Black Elk for sharing the great vision he was given, and try to do what we can in this life to fulfill the vision he desired so strongly, of going back into the sacred hoop and finding the good red road.

It also seems that an understanding of the similarities of this symbol of the two roads in the sacred hoop to that expressed in other versions of the ancient wisdom that was given to the people of the world might help us to do that. It seems very clear that the sacred hoop with the four quarters created by the crossing of the two roads has powerful points of connection with the crossing lines within the zodiac wheel, which has been shown in previous posts to relate to the "casting down of the Djed column" (horizontal line, drawn between the two equinoxes) and the "raising up of the Djed column" (vertical line, drawn between the two solstices). Below is a depiction of the sacred hoop:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

And below is the image of the zodiac wheel with the cross created by the line of the equinoxes and the line of the solstices:

The similarity to the east-west black road and north-south red road described by Black Elk in his vision of the sacred hoop is obvious. We have seen in previous discussions that the cross above in the zodiac wheel goes back at least as far as ancient Egypt, in which the horizontal line was clearly associated with the death of Osiris and the "Djed column cast down," with incarnation in matter (which relates clearly to Black Elk's description of the black road as "a road of difficulties" and of struggle and hardship and war), and with the "animal" aspect of our existence (note that Black Elk says that when the people are on the black road it is "everybody for himself," or as we might say "dog-eat-dog").

Note, however, that Black Elk very clearly says in the words he uses to describe these two roads at the start of his final recorded prayer, that the place where "the good road and the road of difficulties have [been] made to cross" is a place that is holy: in fact, this crossing can be seen as this material life we are in now, in which we are figuratively "crucified" on the cross of matter, spirit plunged down into bodies of clay, or encased in "coats of skins." Both roads are somehow important to us on this journey; both roads support the sacred hoop. Our experience in this world of matter and struggles and difficulties is somehow importance to our spiritual elevation as well.

The vertical line was clearly associated with the raising up again of the cast-down Djed column, with the spiritual aspect of our dual human nature (in which we are both material and spiritual), and with seeing beyond the material aspects of our existence (the ones that cause us to act in a "dog-eat-dog" manner). For blog posts which explore this symbology as it appears in many sacred traditions around the world, including ancient Egypt and also the ancient Hindu Vedas of India, see here, here, here and here for example (there are many more). 

The vertical line can also be shown to be related to the divine spark or fire hidden in our material forms of clay, and to the myth of Prometheus bringer of fire, as well as to the vertical "fire-stick" used to call forth fire out of another horizontal fire-stick, a symbol which is found in many ancient cultures but also a symbol which was used over and over by various prophets and visionaries among the American Indians, who often urged the people to go back to using fire-sticks to make fire as part of their message for bringing back the good life that was being stolen from them by the successive betrayals of the invading culture from western Europe which itself had lost touch with the same vision of this sacred cross in the hoop, long centuries before.

All of this can be shown to be related to the concept of "walking the good red road" that Black Elk so fervently desired. It is a message that involves the re-connection to the spiritual source of power and of life, of not being put into "boxes" or living in squares, and not acting in an "everybody for himself" fashion. It is a message that he desired to tell us to consider on both an individual level and a level of the greater whole, for each individual man and woman and also for all the people together. 

And it is a message and a vision that is just as urgent today as it was in the terrible and turbulent times in which Black Elk lived.

Black Elk and the sacred circle

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The sayings of Black Elk, who walked on this earth between the years that we call 1863 and 1950, preserved in the book Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux as told through John G. Neihardt, first published in 1932, have many profound messages of great importance to individuals and society today.

Black Elk's message and his words should be pondered deeply.

This particular essay will examine only one small aspect of his message. Many, many more things are there to return to on another day. Other aspects of his message have been explored in previous discussions (see especially here).

One very important thread running through the words of Black Elk as recorded by John Neihardt concerns the sacred numbers of his people, which often appear in his visions, and which he often explains at the appropriate point in his narrative. Related to this concept is the concept of the sacred shapes which he discusses, and their meanings, especially the shapes of the circle and the square.

As an example of the importance of sacred number, Black Elk often discusses the number six as it relates to all the directions of the world: the four directions in horizontal space (which we might say relate to an X-axis and a Y-axis, as well as to the four cardinal directions of East, South, West and North), plus the two vertical directions of above and below, or up and down (and which we might also describe as including the Z-axis, and thus providing all the necessary referents for any point in space).

In addition to the number six, he also describes the importance of the number four, and relates it to the four stations of the sacred hoop which sustains all life on earth, and which he associates at some points in his narrative with the earth. The concept of the sacred hoop of the Lakotas and other American Indian nations was often expressed as a circle containing the equal lines of a cross, and it can be seen to be closely related to the outline of the zodiac wheel with its horizontal and vertical cross-lines which is discussed in many previous posts, including here and here. 

Here is a passage in which Black Elk explains these sacred numbers, which appear often in his great vision:

I sent a pipe to Running Elk, who was Standing Bear's uncle and a good and wise old man. He came and was willing to help me. We set up a sacred tepee at the center as before. I had to use six elks and four virgins. The elks are of the south, but the power that they represented in my vision is nourished by the four quarters and from the sky and the earth; so there were six of them. The four virgins represented the life of the nation's hoop, which has four quarters; so there were four virgins. Running Elk chose two of the elks, and I, who stood between the Power of the World and the nation's hoop, chose the four others, for my duty was to the life of the hoop on earth. The six elk men wore complete elk hides on their backs and over their heads. 209.

In another passage, a very poignant passage, Black Elk discusses the difference between the circle and the square, two sacred shapes which each played a very important role in his culture and in his visions. As he explains in this passage, even though the number four is related to the earth's four directions, and has an important role to play in the world, it is the circle which manifests the vitality and power of life. Note, for instance, that in the passage above, he actually associates the number four with the four quarters of the sacred hoop, preserved by the figures of the four virgins, who are connected with our life here on earth. In other words, he connects the number four to a quartered circle, rather than to a square, in the enactment of that particular vision. 

The importance of the circle takes on added meaning as Black Elk explains how it is at the heart of everything in his culture, and how he feels that his people's connection to the circle has been taken away, to their terrible detriment:

After the heyoka ceremony, I came to live here where I am now between Wounded Knee Creek and Grass Creek. Others came too, and we made these little gray houses of logs that you see, and they are square. It is a bad way to live, for there can be no power in a square.

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, and south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.

But the Wasichus have put us in these square boxes. Our power is gone and we are dying, for the power is not in us any more. [. . .].

We are prisoners of war while we are waiting here. But there is another world. 195 - 196.

This passage is very profound: it is like a deep pool into which we could dive and go down for a long time without ever reaching the bottom of it. One thing it tells us is that the heavenly realms are associated with the circle, for the sky itself appears round, and the heavenly beings such as the sun and moon are round themselves and also follow cycles that make endless circles: "the sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round."

Black Elk explains that the round shape of the tepee, and the arrangement of the tepees in a circle, is connected to the power of the circle, to the cycles of life, and the connection to nature (expressed in the reference to the round nests of birds). But now his people have been forced to live in squares instead of in circles.

There is much here to consider. One connection which I believe might be of value to draw out is the insights expressed in a recent interview by Marty Leeds, who has thought long and deeply on the significance of numbers and shapes and who arrives at many of the same conclusions about the numbers and shapes expressed above that Black Elk and his people seem to have known.

In this interview with Greg Carlwood of The Higherside Chats

published in August of 2014, Marty explains beginning at about 0:41:35 into the interview:

Heaven is known as a circle: it's a three; and earth is known as a four: it's a square. OK, let's break this down: the circle encapsulates the most amount of space. [. . .] So, really what you have there with the inherent or innate symbolism of the circle is you have the All or the Entirety or the Wholeness, that its you know encapsulating. 

Now, what's important about the circle is that we can never truly find its area! Why? Because we have to use Pi. We have to use Pi. And Pi, at one point, we have to approximate, as we were talking about before. So we can never, ever truly find the area of a circle. Why this is important is: why is itrelated to heaven? Because we can never truly measure the heavens! It's the infinite! Right? That makes sense -- that makes sense that it would be attributed to a circle. 

Because, you know, like I said, Pi is this infinite number, we can't see it's "tail," we look out into the heavens [. . .] where is the edge of the universe? I don't know! You know? But now, look at a square. A square is earth. Well we can measure the earth. [. . .] The square: we can always find the area of a square. Always! Because all we have to do is square something. So if the length of the side of a square is two, well two times two or two squared is four, so therefore we know the area of a square. So this is why heaven is known as a circle, and the infinite, and earth is known as a square.

Marty then goes on to relate the square and the circle to the stupa of Buddhism, which can be seen as bringing the sacred circle of the heavens down to earth, in much the same way that the tepee and the ring of tepees connected to the sacred circles of the sun and moon and cyclical motions in the passage spoken by Black Elk, above.

What I find very interesting in the Marty Leeds passage cited here is the symbolic association of the circle with the "unmeasurable," which Marty finds due to his focus on the transcendental number of Pi. He explains that Pi is a number which goes on forever, and can never be completely known, but only approximated by us, since we must at some point "cut off its tail" and thus use an approximation of Pi rather than Pi itself. Thus the circle in some sense moves beyond this material world and into the other world -- the realm which cannot be actually perceived by the five-senses, or measured with the tools used to measure things in the material realm. Pi becomes a symbol for the transcendental and the realm beyond the material.

And this connection to the realm of spirit -- and the Power that comes from that other world -- is exactly what Black Elk is lamenting when he sees that his people now live in square houses, and are cut off from their connection to the circle. The circle is a symbol of the unseen world, the spirit world: Black Elk often refers to it as the "outer world," as he does in the passage cited above. 

Elsewhere he makes very clear that, although that outer world may be invisible to our normal senses, it is very real -- and it is the source of power for those in this world. 

His message speaks to the critical importance of the spirit world, and of maintaining a connection to the spirit world. It can even be seen as a message of the importance of connecting to the other world in daily life, even in details which might at first seem mundane or unimportant (such as the shape of the dwelling in which we choose to live). 

His message also speaks to the tragedy of being cut off from the power of the other world.

This is something to think about deeply.