This is Part III of the Introduction to "Teachings of the American Earth, Indian Religion and Philosophy" by Dennis and Barbara Tedlock.
========================= The vision itself may provide the seeker with the voice of its own expression, but this will be in chant or song rather than in the plainspoken word. The songs are not merely ordinary description set to music; instead, the words may give brief, enigmatic sketches which evoke a whole vision. Here is the song of a returned Papago salt pilgrim: The ocean water hurts my heart. Beautiful clouds bring rain upon our fields. Some of the words may be archaic, or the whole song may seem to be in another language. The syllables of the words may be embedded in other syllables which are meaningless, or the entire son may be in nonsense syllables. Archaic language, foreign language and these meaningless syllables--or better, abstract syllables-al share an otherness. The singer knows what is meant; may even, in the case of Isaac Tens, keep the meaning in his mind while singing aloud the "nonsense." This is a noncalculative use of language, a way of communicating directly the joy and strangeness of the other world without explaining it away in ordinary language [in other words, metaphor. -Arlo]. As the Kashia Pomo healer Essie Parish puts it, "I speak another language so that the people will understand." Some visionaries, instead of expressing the enigmatic quality of the other world by using strange language or nonlanguage, take ordinary language and break it in half, separating the words from their meanings and putting them back together again the wrong way around [Zen koans? -Arlo]. Then, whatever they may seem to be saying, they mean just the opposite. If they say "Turn to the left," they mean, "Turn to the right. " This is the way of the sacred clown of the Plains and Southwestern tribes. Another way of talking about the experience of the other world is to give names to its enigmatic qualities, names which will evoke these qualities when the experience speaks them. If a name of this kind is further understood to be that of a person, a blood relative of the other world, then it simultaneously expresses the strangeness of that world and the seeker's own nearness to all things when he is in that world. These are the names of God. There is Tirawa of the Pawnee, who is a mighty power in human form, yet cannot be seen or heard or felt except through sixteen lesser powers, especially Wind, Cloud, Lightning, and Thunder. There is Wakan Tanka of the Sioux, who "is like sixteen different persons; but ... they are all only the same as one." This same Wakan Tanka, in his person as Wakinyan Tanka, the Thunder Being and the giver of revelation, is shapeless but winged, headless but beaked; all of his young come from a single egg, and when he devours them they become his many selves. Then there is Takanakapsaluk of the Eskimo, who sends all the worst misfortunes to mankind but also sends all the good things of the sea, the many animals which are her fingers. There is Yagesafi of the Beaver, who is both male and ,female, motionless but the creator of all motion. Poshayaank'i of the Zuni, who lives in a place of mists, is "almost like a human, but he looks like fire." Ma'ura. the "Earth-maker" of the Winnebago, made man in his own image but appears only as a voice and a ray of light. In the other world, everything is numinous, suffused with sacredness, holiness, light in proportion to the seeker's nearness to the ultimate being [The Sun of Quality? -Arlo]. The Sioux call this holiness wakan, the Ojibwa and other Algonkian peoples call it manitu, and the Iroquois call it orenda. Among the Zuni it is expressed not by a word but by an affix, te, which may be attached to the words for ordinary actions, qualities, or objects in order to give them a cosmic dimension. The vision of this holiness, once ended, is of no value unless something of it can be brought back into the ordinary world and kept alive there [SQ/DQ -Arlo]. For the Papago pilgrim, it was possible to bring , back a token, a strand of seaweed, a shell, or a pebble that he noticed while he was at the edge of the world. The Plains seeker who I saw an eagle in his vision might later put an eagle's head in his personal medicine bundle, 'Or paint an eagle on his shield, or his vision might even show him directly the actual design he should paint on 1 his shield or his drum or, in the case of the Ghost Dance, his shirt. If the use of a particular plant was suggested to him in his vision, he might later include this plant in his medicine bundle. The Gitksan shaman Isaac Tens, instead of keeping objects or making paintings, held visual images of Mink, Otter, and Canoe in his mind. Over half the continent and especially in the Columbia Plateau, the seeker hopes to encounter a being of the other world who will become his lifelong guardian. Everywhere the visionary hopes that songs will be sung through him, songs that he will keep with him, repeating them to himself as he lives. A person who has these gifts from the other world can use them to help him see as he did there. to recognize manifestations of that world in this one. This ability to see what is going on in the world is the source of good fortune, of sudden strength in times of danger or uncertainty, as when a man hunts or goes to war. A person who has had an especially potent vision may be able to make himself a manifestation of the holiness of the other world, giving him the ability not only to see but to work a change. This is the shaman, the holy man, who uses this power to cure the sick and may even translate his visions into ceremonies that give a whole group of people some access to the cosmos, some understanding, as when Black Elk dramatized his great vision in the Horse Dance. Among the Navajo, it was similarly powerful visions that gave rise the present-day ceremonies called "sings," with their long ants and elaborate sand paintings. Throughout North America, ere are secret societies in which holy men share the power of their visions with a group of initiates, sometimes their former patients: the Iroquois Society of the Mystic Animals, the Midewiwin of the Ojibwa, the numerous medicine societies of the Pueblos, and many others. moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
