Читать книгу The Redemption of Black Elk: An Ancient Path to Inner Strength Following the Footprints of the Lakota Holy Man - Linda L. Stampoulos - Страница 16

Draw your Sacred Hoop

After you have selected your sacred place and become familiar with the peaceful reflection and solitude it affords, you are ready to follow the next footprint left by Black Elk. You are now asked to Draw Your Sacred Hoop. Keep in mind that each of the symbolic metaphors given to Black Elk in his vision is open to various interpretations and that of the Sacred Hoop is no exception. One might say there are several interpretations of his vision hoop. There is the Sacred Hoop of Containment and Protection which will be discussed in this section; the Sacred Hoop of Harmony which is highlighted in the Talking Points of the Little Bighorn account; and finally, the Sacred Hoop as the Circle of Winters detailed in the next chapter. Before exploring each of these interpretations, consider the following words of Black Elk, telling of the Sacred Hoop presented to him in the great vision:

The Sacred Hoop

Four more riders, one from each quarter, came forth and presented me with a hoop, and with that hoop I was to make a nation and under that we were to prosper. The circle represented the old people that represented a nation. The center of it represented the prosperity of the nation. I was to raise a nation either in prosperity or in difficulty. In presenting the sacred hoop to me, the spirit from the west said: “Behold this sacred hoop; it is the people you shall have.” You realize that in the sacred hoop we will multiply. You will notice that everything the Indian does is in a circle. Everything that they do is the power from the sacred hoop, but you see today that this house is not in a circle. It is a square. It is not the way we should live. The Great Spirit assigned us a certain religion and etc. The power won’t work in anything but circles. Everything is now too square. The sacred hoop is vanishing among the people. We get even tents that are square and live in them. Even the birds and their nests are round. You take the bird’s eggs and put them in a square nest and the mother bird just won’t stay there. We Indians are relative-like to the birds. Everything tries to be round—the world is round. We Indians have been put here to be like the wilds and we cooperate with them. Their eggs of generations are in the sacred hoop to hatch out. Now the white man has taken away our nest and put us in a box and here they ask us to hatch our children, but we cannot do it. We are vanishing in this box.

In his great vision, Black Elk saw the eventual breaking of his people’s hoop, and in his lament he tells its painful meaning. The story does not end here. The rediscovery of his dream would have us mend the hoop, starting with our own personal circle.

The Sacred Hoop of Containment and Protection

Joseph Campbell tells us, the circle can be thought as the psychological expression of the totality of one’s self. Simply stated, circles shut out the outside and hold in the inside.

When you are in your sacred place, the next step is to draw an imaginary circle that contains only those elements of your life that are of most concern to you and which are at least to some degree, under your control. This exercise accomplishes two things: first it delimits the issues you need to address and are most on your mind; and second, it blocks out those more distant issues that are beyond your control. For our personal journey, the concept of the circle is one in which you are asked to define the limits of your immediate concerns, both positive and negative.

Your sacred hoop then, is in effect you. It gives you a oneness, a whole being. The focus now becomes inward. The hoop’s containment gives you a feeling of control. By definition we are now able to see exactly what you must face. The issues shrink to fit inside and become more manageable and less overwhelming. It is through these concepts of “shrinkage” and “containment” that the elements of your life are reduced to their proper proportions.

This is no easy task. In the beginning your hoop will contain many issues beyond your control. Throughout the day we face issues ranging from our local arena to world events well beyond our locus of control. It is our nature to take on the problems of the world in an effort to do good. Drawing the hoop of containment does not mean that broader issues will be ignored. On the contrary, the exercise is meant to build a good base where one can construct inner strength and have a solid place to move out into the world again.

Joseph Campbell often referred to the power symbolized by the circle. It represents a totality, he explained, a unit with no beginning and no end. It is an ever-present thing, the center from which you have come and back to where you go. He quotes Carl Jung’s description, “the circle is the most powerful religious symbol, it is one of the great primeval images of mankind; in considering the circle, you are analyzing yourself.”

Jung believed that the totality or the content of your circle comprises all the issues you are aware of (consciousness), and a personal unconsciousness which he defines as chiefly those issues which at one time have been conscious but which have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed. It is the combination of the conscious and the personal unconscious that Jung refers to as “the self” and claims both exist within the circle you have drawn.

We continue our journey of exploration by looking inward, secure in the knowledge that we have the peace and protection of our sacred hoop. Black Elk and his people enjoyed this harmony in their last days of freedom on the Great Plains.