Post by tatanka on Aug 5, 2008 10:26:20 GMT -5
As recounted in The Gift of the Sacred Pipe by Vera Louise Drysdale, when the mysterious holy one, White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman, came to the Lakota people and gave the Sacred Pipe, she spoke to them - and now to all of us -in this way.
"With this pipe you will, during the winters to come, send your voices to Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, who is your Father and your Grandfather. With this sacred pipe you will walk upon the Earth ; for the Earth is your Grandmother and Mother, and She is sacred. Every step that is taken upon Her should be as a prayer. All things of the universe are joined to you when you smoke the pipe. When you pray with this pipe you pray for and with everything. Every dawn is a holy event, and every day is holy, for the light comes from your Father, Wakan Tanka. You must always remember that the two-leggeds and all other peoples who stand upon this Earth are sacred and should be treated as such. This pipe will take you to the end. Remember, in me there are four ages. I am leaving now, but I will be back upon you in every age, and at the end I shall return."
Our Elder Sister, White Buffalo Woman, is presently "calling in her accounts" as a representative of the Creator, whose only given law at the beginning of the world was that we should be in good relationship with all beings and all things. We are each being called into account for living - or not living - this law that White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman expressed with her words. We have forgotten the message she and all other holy ones have brought us, which reminds us that whatever we do to any other creature or thing, we do to ourselves.
"With this pipe you will, during the winters to come, send your voices to Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, who is your Father and your Grandfather. With this sacred pipe you will walk upon the Earth ; for the Earth is your Grandmother and Mother, and She is sacred. Every step that is taken upon Her should be as a prayer. All things of the universe are joined to you when you smoke the pipe. When you pray with this pipe you pray for and with everything. Every dawn is a holy event, and every day is holy, for the light comes from your Father, Wakan Tanka. You must always remember that the two-leggeds and all other peoples who stand upon this Earth are sacred and should be treated as such. This pipe will take you to the end. Remember, in me there are four ages. I am leaving now, but I will be back upon you in every age, and at the end I shall return."
Our Elder Sister, White Buffalo Woman, is presently "calling in her accounts" as a representative of the Creator, whose only given law at the beginning of the world was that we should be in good relationship with all beings and all things. We are each being called into account for living - or not living - this law that White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman expressed with her words. We have forgotten the message she and all other holy ones have brought us, which reminds us that whatever we do to any other creature or thing, we do to ourselves.