Photo on right was taken looking down the sand cliff at the pool of water near the shore.  The location is about 70 feet above water level.

On the left; Ken, Joe and Don.  Joe was our host. Thank you my friends!

 

I revisited this site on August 5, 2004.  Joe and Ken accompanied me.  Eagle came and greeted us as soon as we arrived.  Unlike the May or June times, the sun was out and warm and everything was green and bearing fruit.  We spread a blanket and sat and shared thoughts about our journey with and to Creator.  Shortly before we started Pipe Prayer, two eagles came.  They  used the updraft of wind from the lake that rose  from the cliff and hovered over our heads at tree height.  First one would hover directly over us, then trade places with the other that had been waiting just a few metres over.  They traded places several times and  remained there for about 5 or 6 minutes, declaring their readiness to take our prayers to Creator.  They were so close it was easy to see the full detail of their eyes and head and the clear outline of every wing feather fully spread to take advantage of the updraft. 

I had brought one of the hump vertebrae of Brother Bison.  After our prayer we gathered a few stands of sweetgrass and examined the tree, located just a few metres behind the prayer place, which bore the marks of Brother Bear.  And once more, on our exit from that location, as we came onto the trail that led out of the forest, there was a large and clear territorial scratching of Brother Wolf with distinctive paw prints in the newly disturbed earth.  My Helpers were with us to help us in our prayer.

 

I stood with weak and trembling legs on the final morning of  my hanblecheyapi holding on to the chokecherry  stem planted in the ground and bearing the Red Path banner that been prepared for me to help me through my Pipe Fast.  I promised Wakan Tanka to do my best, with the help of all the human and spirit helpers  I have been given, to follow that path

(Note: The Red Path Banner illustrated here was given to me with the instruction to take it with me always and display it in a very prominent place in my home so that all can see it.  It is to be an object of pride and a renewed call to live in a manner according to the plan of Creator for me.  I have done so. )

Inside the willow-supported structure that protected me from nearly three days of rain and very cold nights, but warm under the skin of Brother Bison, I turned my eyes to the skull of Brother Bison that had been blessed in a special Inipi / sweat ceremony at the beginning of the hanblecheyapi.  I added the sacred sage to the eye sockets and the nose opening and used it to support the Sacred Pipe that was my companion and strength.  Resting on its skull was a small rock that came to me from the Black Hills to assist me in my spiritual journey

(I received one email berating me for speaking of my Pipe Fast experience in any way and putting this on the www.  I have asked that person for an understanding of why this would be wrong.  The reply that I received explained little but expressed a lot of anger and a lot of judgement and made a lot of assumptions.  I trust that anyone looking at pages on this web site will decide for themself what they want to see and if it has any value for them. If it  is not to their liking they will disregard it and move on.    I doubt that anything I do or don't do on this web site will have any great impact on anyone, much less impact on Creator or the influence Creator has in each of our lives.)

  In my limited experience with the Dakota / Lakota traditions I have found that there is GREAT pride in the spiritual tradition.  Judging from the old photographs of the medicine men and leaders, there was great pride in being photographed holding their Sacred Pipe and medicine bundles and displaying all of their finest ceremonial clothing.  

Posting some of these reflections and images on the www is part of my response to the call to share the good things that have come to me.  If you read this and understand things in a different manner, please contact me and help me understand your perspective.

From the vantage point of the sacred space / altar on which I stood I looked East over Tobin Lake on the first day that the sky broke and allowed the sun to share its direct light to me and the other creatures that surrounded me.

The same at a different time