Today brings a Navajo prayer from the largest Native American Tribe.
The word for 'wind' is 'nilch'i', which means: Holy Spirit; Life (breath); speech; movement. It's believed it appears at conception, then when the baby takes it's 1st breath, it brings within the air/atmosphere/life/spirit of its human tribe. This Life-Spirit enters & departs at the whorls on one's fingers & toes; the whorls of hair on one's crown; at the tip of one's tongue - to convey speech & carry it on the wind, and in the lungs. It's invisible, just as the gospels teach that the Holy Spirit cannot be seen, but is evidenced by the movement of tree-tops & leaves - it goes where it is directed by God.
A much more widely known Navajo Prayer (and Way of Life) is the Beauty Way Prayer. The word Beauty often replaced by other meaningful variations, keeping to the same chant-like format.
A long way from prophets and Bibles, but that same recognition that all things are created; that the Earth has been given to us as custodians, and it speaks volumes about it's Creator, and our relationship.
It's hard to look at the indigenous peoples of America without a feeling of grief; guilt; and pain at what they suffered at the hands of White Men; the need to control and claim territories, with no regard for lives; livelihood; culture; traditions. Painful to read a little on the 'Long Walk' they were forced to endure, which claimed the lives of so many. It seems good things can be forged in the furnace of great suffering. Rooted and guided by Nature.
Sorely in need of a little humour, it helped to read the story about NASA sending their astronauts to the Navajo reservation, in 1966, as it appeared to resemble the Moon's surface, watched by 2 curious Navajo shepherds. In meeting, the Elder asked excitedly if they would convey a message from them to the Moon. This was duly recorded on tape, but they could not get the son to translate for them, nor any other tribe member, until, finally, with a little bit of financial persuasion, they got the message: 'Watch out for these guys; they come to take your land!' [https://www.indigenouspeople.net/navajo.htm]. The travesty of that action is bound to remain, as noted in this quote by Ginger Hills: 'They came with the Bible in one hand and the gun in the other. First they stole gold. Then they stole the land. Then they stole our souls.' That would be an example of what happens when Dark Wind enters a soul. All souls matter.
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