I'm not Cheyenne so I cannot speak to the esoteric meanings of their Sundance and what they refer to as Seven Arrows. Perhaps we have a Cheyenne on the list: however, some of that is a part of my instruction. The part I can explain is the belief that the world can only be described metaphorically and not concretely. Part of that is poetry and part of it is math. That's why math and zero was so important to the cities in the South that wrote the books. Unfortunately the books were burned by the Christians and now we only have shards and oral tradition. Let me try.
Like my understanding of Niels Bohr, we come to an infinite environment of possibilities and uncertainty. We organize the world with our perceptions, our expression i.e. Art our memories and our words. Both Art and Words are metaphoric representations of the possibilities. Memories are inferential. Agreement i.e. "facts" are the way we organize the world together. Being sloppy with a ceremony is a great sin because the ceremony organizes the agreements that the community has as to what constitutes the world. The community dance is a rhythmic kinetic of the metaphor (story) that everyone participates in as a holistic form of agreement about the nature of things ala our community. There are social dances for the strengthening of traditional rhythms and motion and there are sacred dances for exploration into the agreement on the possibilities. Agreement about space, love, purification, potential, growth, charity and balance. Seven Arrows is a metaphoric statement that I related to the physical tools of perception or as we call it, the "original instructions" given that come from four realities (states of mind) and become seven arrows out into the world that we use to organize and agree about the world. The four realities are what the scientists in the West call variously "minds" , "states of minds", "frames of minds" etc. The four realities are peri-natal and are 1) chemical, 2) kinesthetic,3) aural and 4) visual. After birth they become the Seven Arrows that we shoot out into the world to bring back information and create the world. Those are smell, taste, feeling, touch, movement, sight and hearing. Those then become spiral feedback loops with information and memory to create the tool that neurologists call "inference." Inference fills in the holes that our "arrows" miss and creates a complete, balanced picture of what we call reality. Did the Medicine Priests understand inference? Sure. They called it Animal Medicines which focused on the extreme specialty that each animal and plant had into the nature of the environment and uncertainty. See how a bee sees, smell like a bear senses, hear like a wolf, etc. Learn the dance of life that your community dances and the songs that create the world that you call home. As master gardeners and subtle foresters our ancestors considered the animals to be their teachers at designing the ideal forest for all species of plants and animals to thrive and live within a state of peace even though we were and are food for each other. I hope that I didn't insult any Cheyenne. They have a beautiful religion and are a beautiful people. REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robert Stennett Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 9:56 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] To the Jewish, Chinese and Cherokees -- and Muslims -- on the list. Ray, can you elaborate a little for me on the "seven arrows"? Thanks! Barry On Sep 8, 2010, at 9:02 PM, Ray Harrell wrote: These days are holy because the human instrument, with what the Cheyenne call the "seven arrows" or the seven perceptual systems, offer the possibility of a masterful human filled with generosity, courage and love.
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
