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Black Elk - Native American Indians - The Hoop of the Earth
Identifier
011574
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A vision he has when he was 9 years old and ill.
A description of the experience
Black Elk Speaks – as told through John Neihardt
So I looked down and saw it lying yonder like a hoop of peoples and in the centre bloomed the 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.