The Waiting World
“I have wished to tell this story (of the Sacred Pipe) through no other desire than to help my people in understanding the greatness and truth of our own teachings, our own tradition, and also to help in bringing peace upon this earth, not only among men, but within men and between the whole of creation.”
Black Elk, Oglala 1955
In 1986, Kurt Vonnegut appeared before a Senate subcommittee to argue for repeal of the McCarran - Warren Act, which allowed the State Department to bar foreign visitors whose views were unacceptable to the government."All citizens are entitled to hear absolutely any idea anyone from anywhere may care to express,'' he said. ""And where did I get the notion there was such an incredible entitlement? I got it from the junior civics course that was given in the seventh grade at Public School 35 in Indianapolis.''
…(SF Examiner writer Ed Beitiks)
In these last days I have started work at last on a book-length work I have titled “Roots of the Sacred Tree” © 2007. I have thought about this book all my life.
I will compile as much of what I know of the sacred of my life with the teachers I call the old indians. I want it to be a detailed, very frank, and defining document for just what I have found out and just what I think it is important for people to know about the sacred pipe, the sacred fire, the objects and principles of power inside the mystery life. I hope to finish the first draft by the end of the year, before the winter solstice.
I think the best and most correct way to know these things about the sacred pipe is to work face to face, eye to eye, breath to breath. From my travels and my studies I have done that for myself. I have gone around the circle 8 times, the circle of the old indians of the 8 sacred gateways.
What I have learned is compelling. What I hope to bring together in the book is an atlas, a tao. A manual of some hope for consciousness and comprehension for what is at stake. For the Future.
Far into the future the people will need this information. As much information as possible. Good solid clear information. Good solid and clear ceremonies. The ancient future is going to take us to surprising places.
I have always believed that the ceremonies of the sacred pipe change things. Perhaps a record and some good reasons of this moment of change can find itself inside one book.
Kurt Vonnegut was a light inside the dark rooms where life sometimes brings us. When I went to his web site the day he died there was only a bird cage drawing, with the door open and the little bird flown away. I remember. Speaking to you. I was a little bird at that time. Now the spirit has gone inside my body. I was the one who there. I was. Picking up my life. I was there with them. When they dreamed. When they danced. When they were Silent. When they smoked the standing stone. When I put the sacred stone down on the earth. I was singing. I remembered who I was that day. I remembered where I was going.
