The Sacred Circle

 My native friend Dale had given me a book on the life of Crazy Horse (Lakota holy man and warrior extraordinaire). In it he sought a vision on Bear butte (a sacred mountain to the northeast of the black hills, kinda sitting out there all by itself). He got more than he bargained for. In the vision he saw the coming darkness (settlers moving inexorably west) that would envelop his people and bring down their culture that had been strong for many generations since White Buffalo Woman had come to give them their religion and spiritual way (that's another story in itself if you ever want to hear it). It was a sad vision indeed for him to see - the near destruction of his beloved way of life. But at the end of the vision he saw that the Light would one day come again for his people and recreate the sacred circle that was being nearly destroyed.

 Not only that, but when the light came again it would not only recreate the Sacred circle for the Indian people, it would include all of the Great Spirits children in the new Sacred circle. Also the descendants of the white oppressors would come to respect and revere the old ways practiced by the native peoples and come to the old ones that never lost the old ways and ask to be taught the ways. (In native American lore, legend, and prophecy there are also other examples of similar visions by other holy men and women - some said that when the rainbow warriors carried a message of hope across turtle island {name for north America} the time would be at hand for the light to re-enter the world).

 When these things happen our deliverance is at hand and peace will reign! This was the reason he fought so hard against the colonists of the west, he wanted to leave his people that would live through the hard times a little hope for the future. It was said that Creator gave him power to see the bullets coming at him and he just ran in between them. In all his battles he was never injured, and he was known for never leaving a wounded comrade on the fields of battle - risking his own life countless times to rescue a fallen warrior.

 Quite long for an introduction,eh? Bear with me if you can stand it, and I hope you like the story! On the 2nd walk day going west (remember 4 directions) I was walking down state highway 75 somewhere within my first 7 miles, when I noticed a small lake off to the left. It was partially obscured by the trees, but it looked inviting and cool. As I was contemplating how good it would feel to jump right in a great blue heron flew over me going from right to left and disappeared over the treeline along the water. I was feeling very inspired by the heron flying by, after all, my name is Crane, I feel an affinity for all members of the family, and I am also somewhat sensitive to omens and signs.

 At about that time I heard the whistle call of a hawk and immediately started to look for it. The magnificent redtail was soaring in right over my left shoulder from behind me and landed in a tree along the road about 50 yards down the way. As it sat there softly whistling I returned its call as best I could and it answered with a loud hunting call. We carried on this strange whistling dialogue until I came abreast of the bird, at which time it flew off in the direction it had approached from. As I spun around to see where it was going it landed again way up on a power line tower and joined its mate who had been sitting there waiting.

 Since I had to continue my miles I reluctantly turned back down the road thinking to myself "I can't believe I have just seen a heron followed by not one hawk but a pair". I was having a hard time containing my jubilation at this point, and I considered this occurrence to be a powerful omen. As I focused back in on my walking and developed a good pace, for some reason my thoughts turned to Crazy Horse and I received the teaching for the day I had been anticipating. I saw that coming to Kickapoo and sharing time with my native friends and walking/running miles with positive affirmations and prayers for healing in my heart could very well be the activity Crazy Horse foresaw so long ago.

 I was part of a small, dedicated, selfless group out here putting down "FOOTPRAYERS" (as we like to call em). We truly were carrying a message of hope - All Life Is Sacred! In a way we were trying to help reform the Sacred circle of creation. At that point I thought about all the other people who were doing what we were doing - a small group in Australia walking to save the Aboriginal people from the ravages of uranium mining, a group of Buddhists and others walking for peace at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, a group of peace and democracy advocates from Burma walking to the UN (a group I plan to walk some with this summer), a group of activists walking in Belgium this summer in memory of Hiroshima, and a group of Zen monks and some of our group bringing some embers from Nagasaki to Alamogordo to remember the first atomic detonation on earth - and I saw that perhaps this is the beginning of the fulfillment of his visions. We choose to do this work, people from all races, creeds, and religions making the selfless commitment to sacrifice their time and energy for the betterment of all humanity (perhaps the survival) and the stewardship of the Sacred Garden of Eden - our blue orb home Mother Earth. 

Larry Crane - June 24th, 2005