Encyclopedia as Matrix for the Democratic Spirit of Inquiry
Presented on: Thursday, December 18, 1980
Presented by: Roger Weir
Symbolism
Presentation 12 of 12
American Indian Symbols in Ritual Year Cycles
Presented by Roger Weir
Thursday, December 11, 1980
Transcript:
There was a, ugh interesting account in India of the way in which the great epic around The Ramayana was written. The author of The Ramayana was a sage named Valmiki. And Valmiki was a very great sage, and he was meditating beside the river one day, quite a beautiful river. You know, some of the slokas would have the stream was vibrating like the silver strings of an instrument. And he was at peace with the world and in a very light samadhi and listening to a bird singing. And along came a Hunter with a bow and arrow and shot the bird right before the sage. And Valmiki rose and shouted at the hunter. And after a few minutes, he sat down and resumed his samadhi and he began to focus his meditation on why it was that his language came out in the form that it did. And while he was meditating on it, uh, he realized that feelings have form and that language always takes the form of universal mathematical style relationships. And that language is not anything haphazard but has its structure. Has its nature. And that it is the fulcrum of reality as we are able to conceive it. In fact, the very notion of turn and the form of conception is based on the fact that language has its nature. And what we could say and what we could hear comprise the universe form in its essential nature. And Valmiki and the Sanskrit sages refine the magic of language down to the single mantric word ohm.
In a very interesting way, we in the West, as Mr. Hall so often points out, in the last seven or 800 years have had our source of confusion in the fact that we are given a cacophony of meanings. Because there are too many languages, too many systems of expression offered. And one of our preoccupations in the West has been to find the real one. Or the secret essential nature behind them all. And from time-to-time various people have suspected that it had existed at one time and should be recovered. Or conversely that it had never been finished and therefore should be finished in this generation.
And those kinds of thoughts and speculations are the record of this, of which this book is the, uh, large report. Just one example out of it, uh, if you read the section on the four different myths on Rosicrucianism can be an example for yourself. Uh, this, whether to believe the story of father, uh, R.F.C. or whether to believe the stories of the early, uh, masons or, or whatever. The essential interesting thing for us is not the content of any of the reports. Or the content of any one of the chapters in the big book. But the interesting thing for us is rather than the way in which we might address ourselves to this circle of meaning and find something. A path of intelligence for ourselves. And not only that, something which we could express in our own terms and seek an understanding with others. Then come finally to some sense of companionability with others in terms of this large circle of understanding.
One of the ways in which we've done in addressing this of course is to try to find a way to grasp, literally grasp, to grasp somehow the nature of the term symbol. And I've been encouraging you all along in various ways to set aside that mentality, which would seek to explain symbols as merely something which stands in place of something else. So that this or that symbol, a tree, a rosy cross, the alchemical symbol for sulfur, any symbol would merely stand in place of a meaning which somewhere is writ down definite and recoverable and that's it. Rather than suspend that, don't seek the expert, and don't see, in the beginning, the secret cipher. But rather, I've been trying to encourage you to move with confidence into the unknown carrying only this process of discovery, which, uh, if you need some kind of a contrast, you might apply the term aspiration to it. An aspiring quester. That would be the language description, uh, the character of what we would do if we were doing that work, which we've been studying all this time. An aspiring quester.
But we need mentally contrast in order to at first, bring a form forth so that we can inspect it. And thus, I'd like to bring forth a term against which aspiration can be formed in your mind, perhaps a little easier. The other term is the authority. And do you might just jot down in your mind authority versus aspiration. Now those who were in self-unfoldment seminars realize that aspiration is always intimately bound up, almost like the Tai Chi as the yin and yang, aspiration is always bound up with inspiration. They always go together. And it's almost as if the very process of breathing were symbolic of the way in which aspiration and inspiration work together. You really can't have one without the other. So that aspiration inspiration as a complimentary unity are different from authority.
Authority, to just common language, is interested in behavior. Aspiration is interested in experience. And there's quite a different emphasis, a different focus. Behavior can be characterized by many structures and forms. But what shapes behavior to authority is a notion of power. But in the aspiring quester, who is experiencing, what shapes the world are symbols. And symbol shape meaning. And then if you need some sort of thumbnail definition, symbols are shapes of meaning.
Authority has for its background, always the society of the day. And sometimes the society of the day claims to have inherited from a tradition. Or to have absorbed through conquest. Or to have rediscovered through initiative other society. But it is always the society of the day. Aspiration always has for its background nature as such. Nature just in its primordial way. The fact that at least on this planet, we have one moon, one sun. We have a certain starry spance that have a certain geologic history. A certain biological, uh, development, that nature. So that symbols as they shape meaning always take a natural image base. But authority in it's shaping it always takes a social power construct as its basis.
These are two different world view. And they are in conflict from time to time. Usually, the penetrating insight of someone living in a symbolic realm allows them literally to walk through the corridors of power unscathed. Simply doesn't relate to them. Has, has no real purchase, except from various times. I guess the, the classical, um, Christian word contrast would be that authority is, uh, Caesar's realm and symbolism is, uh, Christ's realm. Just a historical reference.
As symbols are shapes of meaning they instead of representing something else, they in fact present themselves. And what it is in themselves is a sense of fullness or at least the opportunity for fullness of understanding within experience. So that if we have a maturing, symbolic vision as we live life, it occurs to us more and more that in any particular image or feeling or idea are all kinds of connectors and, uh, implicators and, uh, vibrators, which relate out and relate in and begin to create literally a web of understanding.
The fulcrum for the emergence of this web of understanding for consciousness is always language. And one of the best little thumbnail sketches in how this actually happens is in this little book by Ernst Cassirer Language and Myth, which we've mentioned at the beginning. And, uh, he has in about a hundred pages or so condensed down for the reader the essential arguments, which are viable today with our background and history and knowledge today. And there's a little section, which you might look at it sometime called Word Magic. Word Magic. And the essential point here, for us, is that again words never just represent something else they present themselves. And it's epitomized in the fact that one should not speak the name, the true name of divinity. But always use some other kind of a metaphorical illusion. Some kind of reverential, uh, approach. But never the true name itself because that which is expressed symbolically really is identical with the language used to characterize it.
This like all angles of vision starts very small and seems inconsequential. But as one progress along the differential becomes greater and greater and greater. The mind, which accepts a one for one referencing kind of a comportment tends to reduce other persons, for instance, to props in a play, which their mind directs. That's the tendency. And that increasingly becomes the power of purpose of their activity. On the other hand, other human beings symbolically to experience increasingly become as fully cosmic as one's own self. And you stop yourself from, um, any kind of labeling, mishandling, manhandling of human beings.
This of course is the kind of traditional understanding of wisdom that most human groups that have a continuity that, uh, uh, survives have handed down. We've looked at several examples of that. Probably the greatest extent in this particular course has been the Hopi Indians. And in their cycle of, uh, ceremonies, as we've been trying to reconstruct their ritual ceremonies. The very words that they use seem so mundane on the surface. And to someone who looks at the behavior they would seem quote primitive and ineffectual. And anyone believing in the efficacy of such pedestrian kinds of expression, uh, are indeed, uh, beneath any kind of true rational consideration. We have learned otherwise. We have seen otherwise. And we have had the experience of the Chalk film and the Oakon film to show us that not only the Hopis but the Mayans and the Blackfoots. And thus, I hope by implication for you, whole tribes of other, uh, regional inhabitants of North America also share the kind of understanding which we're finding increasingly expressed in the symbolic comprehension of the Hopi people. It's a peculiar thing.
But for us the discovered, the literally uncovering discovering, of the shapes of meaning within experiences like the Hopi ritual cycle create a problem for us. And the problem is that once we are no longer naive and we realize what a large circle of learning we have before us to choose from. The problem becomes almost the opposite of what it was when we were ignorant and naive so long ago or so recently. And that is we no longer wonder does anyone know? We wonder how are we ever to relate to dozens and dozens and dozens of possible traditions? Any one of which we realize no it be quite adequate. How are we to choose? And are we merely to become Hellenistic and syncretistic in our, our, uh, piecing together? Or is there not some other way commensurate with any one of the great traditions?
Sorry.
**Inaudible comment from the room**
I don't think so.
**Inaudible comment from the room**
No, you're fine.
**Inaudible comment from the room and silence for a minute or so**
Thank you, Jenna. Thank you. That's called stealing the energy. I was in a seminar in **inaudible word** one time and one of the participants, he was a black man and he got so uptight about descriptions of a shadow. He leapt at the professor, and they wrestled (laughter) for the class. And after about two or three minutes both the **inaudible word or two** they stopped. They were middle-aged and they couldn't pursue it very much. And the rest of the class was **inaudible word**. It was interesting as a graduate seminar in San Francisco, and everyone was just analyzing like crazy. And both of them realized that it was fruitless. That it was, anything they did was grist for the mill for the others. And there was no particularly sympathy for either one. Well
**Inaudible comment from the room**
Yes.
Comment from the room: Huh?
Yes.
Comment from the room: **inaudible few words** series of lectures and the professor to tell me that every man had enough anima and a female inside of him and is **inaudible few words** individual said, I don't have an anima. (laughter) **inaudible few words** a whole lecture about that.
Interesting. Interesting.
We have, we have to get to our Hopi Indian ceremony. But I wanted to bring it forth for your attention, um, one of the really fine minds in our time is Joseph Campbell. And I'm sure that you've all run across Joseph Campbell and his, uh, collection of books on world mythology. Four **inaudible word**, three are collections of myths of the Oriental peoples, The Occidental, The Primitive. The fourth book is a book entitled Creative Mythology. And in it, he addresses himself to this problem of how are we to choose. And he's rather, uh, knowing about it. The series is called The Masks of God. Creative Mythology. By the time one gets to the quandary of what to choose it's also equally apparent that the way in which we do something is just as important. And so, this old Hermetic process symbolized by the infinity sign becomes quite a queue. It's almost like the, uh, uh, even though, uh, the star in the lantern of the quester is a star. The path by which he moves with that guiding star is that kind of a figure eight, the sign that the magician has over his head and strength has over her head.
He relieves in Creative Mythology that as we mature as individuals in our symbolic understanding experience, we become as complex in our individual selves as entire tribes of people had been at various times in history. And so that we require an organization feeling and thinking and intuition so forth. Almost as if we were a whole population in ourselves. And it's, it's interesting. And near the beginning, he writes this couple of sentences, which I think are fantastic. Very expressive. And then this will lead us back to the Hopi and we'll finish up there.
In the context of a traditional mythology the symbols are presented in socially maintained rights through which the individual is required to experience. Or will pretend to have experienced certain insights, sediments, and commitments. In what I'm calling creative mythology on the other hand, this order is reversed. The individual has had an experience of his own of order, of course, of beauty. Or mere exhilaration, which he seeks to communicate through signs. And if his realization has been of a certain depth and import his communication will have the value and force of living men. For those, that is to say, who receive and respond to it of themselves with recognition uncoerced. Mythological symbols touch and exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of vocabularies of reason and coercion. The light world modes of experience and thought relate very late developments into biological pre-history of our species. Even in the light of course of the individual, the opening of the eyes to light, occurs after all the main miracles have been accomplished of the building of a living body of already functioning organs. Each with its inherent aim. None of these aims either educe from or as yet known to reason.
And so on.
And just so just in the maturation of any entity nature does not produce one step at a time, but rather like a Shakespearian play, the entirety of the plot is being developed all the while. And it's only when comprehension surfaces into consciousness that you realize that the shape was being made all the while and just now has become.
For the Hopi Indians, this play at mystery cycles, uh, is quite, quite an interesting phenomenon. And it really is valuable for us to have considered. And I hope that all of you that found it somewhat, uh, uh, interesting even, uh, in just the, the reading as a, as a curiosity. But like last time there was a beautiful image when John was recounting how it would be if we were citing the winter solstice through a hole in our room here in the darkness. And to see that it actually worked. We actually shared that.
The other end of the ritual year, the other solstice of course, is that time where the sun seems to be at the Zenith. And the ceremonies involved in that, um, the flute ceremony or the snake antelope ceremony. I think we need to get to. And, um, I had received, uh, one typed page that had three sentences on it from Christine, who was going to do the flute ceremony. But unfortunately, um, that kind of condensed esoterica is very difficult to unravel if the person is not here to, uh, fill us in. And it would have done, I think, as I remarked to someone earlier, sort of the ultimate Pythagorean mystery, just to give you her three sentences. So, I have refrained from that. And my apologies to Christine. But at some time, um, I'll xerox extra copies of it, and you can have those, um, to puzzle.
I used to spend great gobs of, of, um, university money on xeroxing, every student paper, uh, as no editorial corrections and passing them out to every other person. And sometimes it would just be mountains of material. My justification was, is that somewhere along the line we have the right to see what others are doing. And, uh, it's quite interesting. What I'm always discounting is gee I'm not so bad after you see all this mashed potatoes of ideas instead of kind of language that usually you hear from the podium. It's best though, I think, to have the mashed potatoes of ideas. We have to have confidence that we can move, how is it that **inaudible word or two** defined reason? We have to be able to approach new situations with an open mind. And from scratch make some kind of personal relationship to an order that we find varying. That's what reason is. Carrying somebody's category like a set of cookie cutters to other people and other **inaudible word** is not it.
Well, let's see the fruit ceremony. We have Colleen. Let's, let's come to Colleen and try and imagine ourselves back that the wonderful Hopi people.
Comment from the Room: **inaudible few words**. That basically two purposes. One to help mature the crops. And the second and most dramatic is to enact mankind's emergence to this present forth world. And when the third world was destroyed by water, uh, mankind emerged into the fourth world with the vapor **inaudible word**. And they settled somewhere in South America. And there were two, several different clans in society. Um, there was a fire and bear and, uh, the grey flute and the blue flute. Uh, the gray flute migrated East, and the blue flute went North. And their purpose was to, um, dissolve the eye at the North pole, the artic eye. If it were the North pole **inaudible word or two** and...
**inaudible comment from Roger**
Comment from the room: And the, they did this by using Eagle feathers to evoke heat. And, uh, singing songs and also playing the flute. They tried four times and failed. And the reason for their failure was that they used their supernatural powers before they were supposed to, or before the time for them to use them came to be. And so, they were considered, uh, less than the **inaudible word or two** clan who then became the dominant clan of the two.
Continued Comment from the Room: And their ritual preparations, uh, began at the **inaudible word**. And it's interesting I think when John spoke at the Siam last time and talked about the star in the sky, how I, um, parallel that to the ancient Egyptians...
Yeah sure.
Comment from the Room: We were talking about not too long ago. Where the **inaudible word** star Sirius, when it went over the pyramids opened all the doors. **inaudible word or two** And to get back to this...
Comment from the Room (second person): **inaudible word or two** Isis **inaudible few words**.
Isis. Yeah.
**Inaudible Comment from the Room**
Comment from the Room: And the flute ceremony lasts 16 days. Everything's in to be fours, and, uh, eights. Sixteens, four by four. And I think one of the most important parts of it is the altar as part of their ritual. And the alter have on it, uh, the backdrop is carved with a paneling. It has the clouded **inaudible word**. And also, the, uh, **inaudible word** lightning. And then on the altar itself, on one side is the water urn and, uh, for corn husks in different directions. And on the other side of it are, um, statues, **inaudible word** statues. And something else. But the most important part isn't the center, I think, of it the three figures either carved out of wood or out of stone. And to me, this is what this whole class has been about. With the feminine figure on the one side and the masculine figure on the other side and a deity in the center. And, uh, then the actual, uh, enactment of the society is simply a procession winding up the maze and into the village headed by two small girls who periodical toss little rings upon cornmeal lines that are painted on the ground. And the crowds of people seem to the music of the flute then silently disperse. That is all. Yet the simple ceremony embodies in song and symbolism the whole patterning of mans emergence to the present world. **inaudible word or two**.
It's interesting. **inaudible few words** squash there and shape. The thick curl. The massive **inaudible word**. **inaudible word or two** interesting. The first time that I saw that I thought **inaudible word or two** odd that the Mickey Mouse hat that the little children wear and it's very much like that. In those parades that **inaudible word** they march along and **inaudible word**. It's like a parallel reenactment of these emergence myths, you know. Very, very strange.
And the flute ceremony is not given every year.
**Inaudible Comment from the Room**
**inaudible word** very famous ceremony. I think Gabrielle is...Massachusetts. Well, she's not going to talk to us by spirit voice perhaps. **inaudible word or two** You have the same kind of ceremony too.
**Inaudible Comment from the Room**
And Priscilla, who is not here.
**Inaudible Comment from the Room**
Now I'm supposed to **inaudible word** unknown there **inaudible word or two**. So that when you look at the **inaudible word**. And all of you I imagine will go through this **inaudible word** to see it. You look at these photographs, the **inaudible word or two** photograph I believe that the Southwest **inaudible word** has set **inaudible few words** photographs of the snake ceremony. And, uh, it's extraordinary the **inaudible word** expression in the eyes of some of the Hopis in the ceremony. **inaudible word or two** of the ceremony is such humanity and depth and everything and yet the expression in the eye and carrying snakes in their mouth **inaudible word**. It's an incredible kind of a concentration. It's almost like a yoga with a yoga **inaudible word** who is not in the physical realm whatsoever. And neither is the snake. Yeah.
Comment from the Room: I follow the **inaudible few words** hypnotized. It's such a absolute **inaudible word** to the eyes.
Yeah.
Comment from the Room: That they, that you know that they totally, I don't know **inaudible few words**. Rattlesnake.
Yes, these are rattlesnakes. And they're not de-venomed or defanged.
Comment from the Room: No, they go catch them.
They catch them. They use them and turn them loose. Yeah. Right. And, uh, I guess maybe, maybe next year when we have the King and Queen in the quest, we get around to that. There's, uh, there's some very fun expressions for that.
It's quite a phenomenon the way in which man in his symbolic vision can walk in step with the very essence of terror and not be affected by it whatsoever. And free the terror and let it go back into the world. And realize that he had to understand that he could do that in order to be free. And that's one of the great, uh, **inaudible word**. It's true **inaudible word or two**. Very often I think Western psychology, especially, which are all based on keeping the fear under control and away from you are so fragile **inaudible word**. Because the fact is, is that one need not fear it all, or **inaudible word** against it at all. That it has absolutely no real effect whatsoever. And that he has something to discover.
You were there and saw the ceremonies.
Comment from the Room: Yes.
So, give us just a few more words then. **inaudible few words**
Comment from the Room: Um. I think I; you mean **inaudible word or two**. I don't think. I think that to me made an impression to go out and to catch a snake. And then as you said, this, **inaudible word** and not **inaudible word**.
Yeah.
Comment from the Room: There were **inaudible word** like, um, **inaudible few words** photographs. **inaudible several words**. And, um, there seems to be, um, a quandary or a **inaudible word or two** with the people sitting there watching. And these people seem to be **inaudible word** to each other who **inaudible few words**. And there's, um, **inaudible word**. There's no, um, you won't get any, um, **inaudible word** tension or **inaudible word**. Sense of anxiety **inaudible few words** a little complex feeling from the people watching **inaudible word**.
Yeah.
Comment from the Room: And it shows that **inaudible few words**. And it shows the picture that **inaudible word or two** of watching them **inaudible word** and carry **inaudible few words**.
If you **inaudible few words**. Go ahead.
Comment from the Room: The technique **inaudible few words**. When I pick up the snake it's gotten by grabbing it near the neck. And there was another man that was right there with a feather. He **inaudible few words** to charm the snake. **inaudible word or two** put it in their mouth and then they hold him a certain way here. And I saw it when I was a ten-year-old boy **inaudible word or two** high school. A **inaudible word** of Hopis came through and gave us **inaudible word or two** with the snakes. So, I remember it was a very awe inspiring **inaudible word**. And I was aware **inaudible word** and there was **inaudible few words**. And stage and other tribes. And it was completely, um, uh, with perfect **inaudible word** they mastered the snake. There was no question about who was handling it or what was done. There was no snafus or **inaudible word**. It was all just as if they all belonged as part of the whole **inaudible word**. The **inaudible word** the snake was there. In the book, uh, I remember that when they put the snakes down in the center in the pit when they first hold the ceremony in the first or second day after they catch them. They just sat there until snakes **inaudible word** crawl. So that's a good sign if the snakes pick them out, so to speak. And then as they released him in the desert, like a walk across the desert, and of course the whole purpose of the snake dance to begin with is right. Getting rain. And then of course that's great differently. And then as they release them in the desert, they, um, they go out across the desert. And of course, the whole purpose of the snake dance to begin with is rain.
Right.
Comment from the Room: So, if they get rain then of course that's very significant.
And also, the flute ceremony.
Comment from the Room **inaudible word** ended differently.
END OF SIDE ONE
**inaudible few words** which is not in the Hopi **inaudible word or two**. The great **inaudible word** it's going to. Roman Catholic in Egypt to find **inaudible few words** his father in his temple. His whole army **inaudible few words** snakes for miles and miles and out to the desert. So, if you **inaudible word or two** Hopi **inaudible few words**. Anyway.
The way **inaudible word** oasis of **inaudible word** off limits. He's been off limits for a long time. I tried to, uh, **inaudible few words** photograph. That's where Alexander the Great went when the Egyptians left. No one there **inaudible few words**.
Comment from the Room: Where is it?
It's in the Libyan desert about 250 miles from the coast. **inaudible word or two** the earliest shrine of **inaudible word**. The shrine of Aman-Re some 15 or 20,000 years ago. He went, that's where he went to **inaudible word or two**.
Comment from the Room: **inaudible word** had dreams of Aman-Re father **inaudible word or two** the way he was conceived. **inaudible several words/sentence or two**
Yeah.
**Inaudible comment from the room**
I'm sure that you've seen that, um, uh, the more esoteric the **inaudible few words**. Someone who **inaudible few words** by snakes. Yeah.
Now incidentally **inaudible word or two** of the Hopi people, um, synchronically and **inaudible word or two** that page in The Book of Kells **inaudible few words**. During the break you can go back and take a look at Saint John Divine's **inaudible word or two** the illustrator from The Book of Kells. And as you may not know **inaudible word** made The Book of Kells at the time when Vikings were slaughtering everyone. And, uh, the, uh, The Book of Kells is made several places and **inaudible few words** in hiding. Uh, the **inaudible word** unholy terror all the while.
It, it's interesting how the, the fulcrum of presence of understanding or liberation is always right there. **inaudible few words** and all of the iconography of love and compassion is to convince us to approach it as if it has been **inaudible word or two**. So, it's a **inaudible word** great function of the mythology is to usher us in to learn and then **inaudible few words**. Yeah.
Comment from the Room: I'd like to talk about the Hopi before we leave the **inaudible word**.
Yeah.
Comment from the Room: Which I think should be **inaudible word or two**.
Yeah.
Comment from the Room: Uh, the ceremony that, uh, between the antelopes and the snakes **inaudible few words** Kundalini, which surprised me greatly. I, I really was **inaudible word**. That really shook me. I couldn't figure out how that would be true. But that, it's what he said. And I guess in the inner relationships, I suppose there's the **inaudible word** or meditation, or however you **inaudible word**. The Indian Kundalini **inaudible few words**.
Yeah. What is that what is that symbolic surface that, well **inaudible word or two**.
Comment from the Room: In traditional symbolic **inaudible word** the Kundalini **inaudible few words**. And the Hopi, uh, snake ceremony although it looks like it, obviously all could be true. You wonder how actually they do it. The actual mystery is what goes on there. **inaudible few words**.
Yeah.
Comment from the Room: I noticed some Japanese legends that also relate to snakes and the sins of the Kundalini. And so, I don't, I don't recall off hand, but I seen one Japanese movie where it was part of it. **inaudible few words** related to a snake. **inaudible word or two** a female **inaudible word** in snake form **inaudible word**. Which is, you know, obviously symbolic.
But how is actually **inaudible word or two**
Comment from the Room: **inaudible word** I did the best I could. I read a lot, but I just couldn't. **inaudible few words** Do you have any idea?
Yes, I do. They find the spinal column, uh, in a logical **inaudible few word**. And they encourage an approaching rattlesnake **inaudible word or two** and **inaudible word** approaching of them at such a capacity. And they anesthetize them through sympathetic vibration **inaudible word** capacity so that one is free to go through to the spirit **inaudible word or two**.
Comment from the Room: **inaudible several words/sentence or two**. In the sense of **inaudible word**. And so, the anima/amino idea may be related there in another way too in the sense that anybody's **inaudible word** and anybody's courage **inaudible word**.
Right. That seems, that seems more metaphorical though.
Comment from the Room: Yes. **inaudible few words**.
The other is experiential. In the **inaudible word** experience without metaphor.
For the, for the Hopis incidentally they are extremely **inaudible word** to the um, Tibetan Mahayana. And in fact, one of the largest, most successful Tibetan Dharma centers in the United States is in Santa Fe, um, New Mexico. **inaudible word** exactly. Uh, the **inaudible word**, the Rio Grande, the Hopi. All of the Pueblo Indians, uh, very sympathetic in their understanding of man's capacity for the **inaudible word**.
The goal of this **inaudible word** now, we should try to suspend why is it that the **inaudible word** ceremony, the snake and **inaudible word** ceremony, **inaudible few words**. Why is **inaudible few words** should **inaudible word** for the ceremony **inaudible few words**. The anesthetizing of snakes. The hypnotizing of the **inaudible word**. Has to do with the use and properties of the capacities of **inaudible word** vibrations.
**inaudible few words** because they are complimentary. And if one has a life cycle, and we should always insist on a life cycle that has, uh, fullness. All the aspects present and accounted for. That's one of the major ones. And that's what at the summer solstice, at the fullness when, what is happening agriculturally is that the very food stuffs that we depend on to live are **inaudible word**. The beans, the squashes, the corn. They're taking their final form. That is the nutritional essence of life is taking its set, the form is set. It's gelling. Man has to show that his capacity to utilize this modulation of rhythms and vibration is intact. Otherwise the **inaudible word** of life will not set ins the necessary rings to allow for a second crop. Or for, uh, uh, a better, uh, harvesting.
The setting of the shape supply and it's as if in the whole cycle of nature, we are given everything except the last little tidbit which we have to add. That whatever form of meaning is finally expressed in the universe sentient beings, not necessarily just human beings but sentient beings, have to add to it in order to make it manifest. That that is our place in the economy of reality. And that without our willing and knowing unconscious participation meaning doesn't take shape. The nutritional basis of continuum doesn't take shape or takes a misshapen aspect. And then things go astray. They seem like a little **inaudible word**. A little mysterious. It needs to be said.
We should have the **inaudible word** ceremony but I see that there is no one here. For the **inaudible word** short ceremony. She couldn't be here. Like **inaudible word** and Marlow. Yeah. **inaudible word**.
Let's close with this and then I, I think Marybeth got us some nourishment. Some form of cake. **inaudible word** formed in **inaudible word**.
The qualities of aspiration. The verses **inaudible word**. And the quality, um, of the texture of a vision once noted never leaves one. We can forget about it. We can **inaudible word** it. But it as is if the recognition is like the kinetic **inaudible few words**. Once you **inaudible word**, you never forget.
One of the best expressions of the texture of symbolic vision. The last **inaudible word** item that I would like to present and add to this field of inquiry. This is a couple of sentences, a couple of paragraphs from the great **inaudible word or two** Black Elk. **inaudible few words** This is a first edition of Black Elk Speaks, about 50 years old. And, uh, I first heard this, my wife read it to me about 12 years ago in a traffic jam on the San Francisco Bay bridge. We had nothing to do and the only book in the car was Black Elk Speaks and she read it out loud to me. Took about three hours and traffic finally went away. And I **inaudible word** never realized you could learn this in that.
This is, uh, this is like Homer or Shakespeare. It is, it is a great way in which the language forms for ourselves meaning. And he's talking about a vision that he had at nine years old. **inaudible word** late in the life to John Neihardt on the windswept plains of Nebraska. In about, uh, the 1930s.
Now I was on my bay horse again because the horse is of the earth. And it was there my power would be used. And as I obeyed the voice and looked there was a horse all skin and bones yonder in the West. A faded brownish black. And a voice there said, take this and make him over. And it was the for rayed bird that I was holding in my hand. So, I rode about the poor horse in a circle. And as I did this, I could hear the people yonder calling for spirit power. Ahey. Ahey. Ahey. Ahey. Then the poor horse neighed and **inaudible word** and got up. And he was the big, shiny black stallion with dapples all over him. And his name about him like a cloud. He was the chief all horses. And when he snorted, it was like a flash of lightning. And his eyes were like the sunset star. He dashed to the west and neighed. And the West was filled with the dust of hoofs and horses without number. Shiny black came plunging from the dust. Then he dashed toward the North. He neighed into the East. Into the South and the dust clouds answered. Getting forth the plunging horses without **inaudible word**. Whites and **inaudible word** and buckskin. Fat, shiny rejoicing in their **inaudible word** and their strength. It was beautiful but it was also terrible. Then they all stopped short, rearing, and were standing in the great hoop about their black chief at the center and were still. And as they stood four virgins, more beautiful than women of the Earth can be, came to the circle. Dressed in scarlet. One from each of the four corners and stood about the great black stallion in their places. And one held the wooden cup of water. And one the white wing. One the pipe. And one the nations hoop. All the universe was silent listening. Then the great black stallion raised his voice and sang. The song he sang was this. My horses prancing, they are coming. My horses neighing, they are coming. Prancing, they are coming. All over the universe. They come. They will dance. May you behold them. Horse nation will dance. Hold them. His voice was not loud, but it went all over the universe and filled it. There was nothing that did not hear. And it was more beautiful than anything can be. It was so beautiful that nothing anywhere could keep from dancing. The virgins danced and all the circled horses. The leaves in the trees. The grasses on the hill. The valleys. The waters, the creek, the rivers, lakes. The four legged and the two legged and the winged. All danced together to the music of the stallions song.
Well, that's the way it ends. That's it.
Thank you and let's have some **inaudible word**.
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