Sweet Medicine
now is the time for you and me to look in at the second Muse
There were twelve great tents that stand in a circle upon the prairie, each of those tents is protected by a guardian
There are many paths leading from every direction to the tents, but almost everybody who approaches those tents goes by the Way of the People.
Some of the People have already approached one or another of those great tents
It is they who prepare anyone seeking power there.
Some of the People (to His Name and Her Name, brother and sister together)
Sit in the middle of those tents and prepare yourself for one of the powerful dogs that will rush at you from one of the tents
His Name
What will happen if we run when one of the dogs charges us?
Instructors
You will fail
Her Name
If we prepare ourselves and do not run, how can we gain the power from one of those tents?
Instructors
Follow the dog that charges you back to one of the tents
Go into that tent and you will have the power within it.
His Name
How will you know if we have that power?
Instructors
You will lead a fine horse back here to the People.
This is how we shall know
Her Name
What if we question the dog instead of following?
Instructors
Then you will open all the doors to all the great tents,
The dogs and all the powers of all the tents will charge upon you
You will be destroyed.
His Name sits down right there in that circle, and begins to talk to his sister about what they should do. Her Name takes her brother’s hand, and they begin to talk.
Instructors (yelling to People)
It is forbidden!!
the People arrest His Name and Her Name and put them in separate lodges.
The people guard those lodges by watching them very carefully.
The only ones that visit Her Name and His Name in their lodges, are two very ragged crows, and these come because they know they will be fed.
Her Name (to crow)
What is in those tents that is so terrible?
Crow
There are twelve tents, as you know
One is white. It is a tent of wisdom.
The second is black. It is a tent of introspection.
The third tent is red. It is the sign of the blood of the People.
The fourth tent is blue. That tent is the sacred tent of imagination.
Her Name
But what does that mean?
Crow
We must eat or otherwise will disappear
His Name asks the same questions and receives the same answers from the crow he speaks to.
Her Name and His Name are brought from their enclosures on the day appointed by the People, and they are led to the entrance of the circle of tents.
His Name and Her Name walk silently to the center of the circle of tents and sit down.
Her Name (to His Name)
It is forbidden that we should speak to one another…
… but my love for you is more important than my fear
she tells her brother what the crow said
His Name (smiles at his sister)
You are brave
You have given me the strength to speak also
he tells her what the Crow had said to him.
Their own power roars between them,
the boy and girl each see the other
as a fearsome, snarling dog.
Both, without the other knowing it, gather all their strength and say together,
without the other hearing it,
Why am I afraid of my sister,brother?
(And what was between them flies into the tents, and those tents are transformed into beautiful lodges.
Twelve Voices from the Lodges (together, thunderous)
Come and hunt in each lodge!!
(His Name and Her Name rise to their feet trembling, and begin their visit of the lodges. The sun moves backwards, reversing the days, until twelve years have completed themselves backwards, and then the sun reverses itself and moves forward twelve years. The People who watch do not see this, because it happens in one day. )
His Name and Her Name return to the people but this time they have two powerful rainbow circles about them, like two Sun Dance belts.
They ride, each of them, a powerful horse with a bridle of gold. And they move among the People with gentleness and care because they see that the horses of the People are really only emaciated dogs.
You and I are constructing the clothes of the shaman and the shamaness. Muses are painted or beaded on the shaman’s clothes. On the clothes of the shamaness are the reflections of these signs.
They are husband and wife.
On the loincloth of the shaman is the tree painting which portrays a beaded snake beneath the roots of the tree, and an Eagle in the branches. On the shaman’s spirit shirt is painted a beautiful rosebush, right over his heart.
The shamaness carries a beautiful shield and a wonderful drum. She does this because she knows of all the healing herbs. It is in this way they sing together
The shamaness stands with her arms upraised encircled by the trees. She is praying to the mirror each of us holds within our sacred lodge
The millions of flowers upon our Mother the Earth are her words of prayer.
Bless and care for my children physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Paint rainbows in their minds and hearts.
Bring the Sweet Medicine,
The flame of the lodges,
And my children will gather
In the light of the council circle.
This shamaness sometimes is called White Buffalo Woman, or Silver Comb.
Her husband, the shaman, is always calling some kind of meeting together. He does this because he enjoys it.
He wears a buffalo cap with two black and white horns on it. He does this because it makes him feel good.
He is always sitting around and saying things like:
Within me is a spirit.
That spirit then must know me.
I am talking to myself.
My spirit self is speaking to the universe.
The universe is talking to me.
I am telling my spirit what I see.
We are dancing to the sun.
We are dreaming with the moon.
Around and around the Muse tree.
The Sun Dance Chiefs tell us that the signs of the shaman and shamaness are written everywhere upon the earth.
I now find myself within the laws of the Kachina,
also known as the Heyoehkah, the Contrary.
My own People speak of this as the Crazy Dog.
Others of our brothers and Sisters have even more words for this teacher.
The name Kachina has been given by the People of the South.
The People of the West call the teaching the Tree Mask Dance.
In the East it is called Walking With Old Man Coyote,
and in the far North it is called Wolf Roads, and The Ice Light Curtains.
Through these different names the People see many kinds of beautiful moccasins.
Before I think about these teachings I usually find a very comfortable and beautiful place within my mind. It is from there I dance with these things.
Dance with me now into a wondrous world where everything is beautiful.
Many people know this world as the World of Enchantment. Sometimes it is also called the Place of Imagination.
Everything is possible within this miniature circle.
This Children’s Maze is the world of the Kachina.
There are two gifts given to children from this world: fantasy and the image.
Bringing The Dream Into Reality is the name of the shaman of this very special world.
The name of his wife, the shamaness,
is The Breath Spirit Woman Of The Law.
Every human invention upon our earth has come from this world.
The gods were born in this world, and so was the use of fire.
This world is the place of creativity.
The laws of the community, the laws of the camp, the laws of the spirit, and all other humanly contrived laws are called the Kachina
Children know of this world before they know themselves or any of their earthly family.
There is no force on earth as great as that of the teaching of the Kachina.
The Sun Dance chiefs tell us that a People
can call forth the incredible of incredibles,
and powers whose mirrors could burn the galaxies,
or be the gentle sweet corn,
if those People hold sacred the Children’s Maze.
Modern inventions, so called by the old within a camp circle,
are old medicine hats to the very young.
To the young, those inventions are already ancient.
Children set those medicine hats upon their heads matter-of-factly.
They expect them to work.
After all, don’t they work?
But remember also that these children sit at the edge of discovery.
The children are our inventors because they are our poets.
It is the children who reach into the special world and bring forth the magic of discovery.
They do this sometimes when they are very young,
and sometimes when they are grown men and women.
Remember this:
It was in the Fountain of the Children’s Maze
that they first saw the dance of the Kachina.The Kachina dance around the tiny growing tree.
The Kachina are dressed
as the rain, the sun, the moon, the growing things, the dream.
They are dressed like everything.