Spiritual Journey

Required Web-Based Reading for The Sacred Pipe

Please read the supporting material from the web sites below in the following order, paying particular attention to the ways that Black Elk's interviews were used by the writers of the books featuring his words, and to the controversy around his conversion to Catholicism.

The Wikipedia article (very brief - has some links you can explore):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Elk

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/BlackElk.html
Copy of the account of Black Elk's vision as a young person (from Black Elk Speaks).

http://www.freestone.com/blkelk.html
Black Elk's account of the Winter of the Hundred Slain (from Black Elk Speaks).

http://www.peace.mb.ca/00.Native/nlrnz02.htm
Brief account of Black Elk's later years as a Catholic catechist (teacher).

http://www.heroesofhistory.com/page89.html
An overview of Black Elk's life with some additional pages and links, along with a nice bibliography of additional works. Read the sections BELOW the bibliography (also linked). Pay particular attention to the bottom of this page, "Why is Black Elk So Controversial?"

http://www.sage.edu/faculty/salomd/mystic-l/9810.html
Then read this brief book report of Clyde Holler, Black Elk's Religion: The Sun Dance and Lakota Catholicism. From this and the site above, think about the question of whether (and how) someone can be a proponent of and practitioner of two faiths without being false to either of them.

Posted by Mary Shaw at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Spiritual Journey -- Questions for Week # 5-6

Sep 24 - Week 5 - Do Web assignment reading first, then read through chapter 4 (p. 66) of The Sacred Pipe;
Oct 1 - Week 6 - Complete The Sacred Pipe.

Reading straight through The Sacred Pipe at one sitting is probably not the best way to proceed. The language and way of thinking found here is quite different than most urban Americans are used to. Try reading one or two sections and then go back and reread again. Read the entire book over these two weeks, while focusing especially on four of the ceremonies: the rite of purification; crying for a vision; the sun dance; and preparing for womanhood. As you read, keep in mind some of these questions, which we will use for class discussion (and you can use any of them that spark particular interest as prompts for your reading journal as well, but are NOT required to write on them).

1. What are some of the common themes, visual images, materials, actions, and rituals that run through the various sacred ceremonies? What unites them?

2. Reflect on Black Elk’s life experience: early life embedded in Lakota culture; visions at age nine; response by his community to these visions over his youth; his experience with the destruction of his people and the Ghost Dance religion; his experience as a dedicated Christian catechist (prayer leader and teacher); and his “discovery� late in life by the writer/compilers of his two books, Neirhardt and Brown, as an expert on Native ways. How is this history reflected in The Sacred Pipe? Do you think his years of active Catholicism have influenced his views? If so, in what ways?

3. In this book, what attitudes does it appear that the Lakota people hold toward spiritual beings? How would their approach to the divine compare to the Jewish or Christian approach, as you understand it?

4. These are sacred ceremonies, and in that sense the book is a sacred text. Certainly contemporary Native people are treating this work as a source of inspiration. Did this reading provide you any opening or window to the divine? What parts of the text did you find most personally engaging?

5. What did your own religious upbringing teach you about relating to the natural world? How is that different from the attitude reflected in this book?

6. After reading about these rituals from a different tradition, do you see the rituals of your own tradition differently? If so, in what ways?

Posted by Mary Shaw at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)