There was this one time I can remember, Wilson, you remember him? Tall skinny man, with a wonderful sense of humor.. any way we were at a sweat in my back yard. I had just finished building it when he was at the church across the street and saw me putting the finishing touches on it. I was hanging a blanket that my mother in law had given me over the door. It wasn't but a couple of minutes that he was there... He was laughing because he saw that I was really tired, so when he said that when you build a traditional sweat house, you have to use it the same day... well you can imagine how I felt. So it just so happened that he had a load of wood in his truck, as he usually did. He was going to take it home but since there was a chance to break in a new sweat, he couldn't pass it up.
Not having to chop the wood was a blessing, giving us a chance to just sit and talk and smoke and after a while he got up and said a blessing for the sweat house and blessed it with corn pollen and we lit the fire one more time.
Great care must be taken in the placement of the wood for burning and the order in which they are placed. And even the way the rocks are placed into the fire.
Fire going, rocks getting hot, sun going down, every thing was perfect...
It was dark by the time that the rocks were hot enough to make good steam. They become so beautiful when they are red and glowing with a shimmer that looks as if they are moving around.
Inside the sweat once again, but it was in my back yard, too cool. Wilson sang as usual, it was something that I always looked forward to. After two rounds of sweating, he began to tell me the Dine' Creation story. And after he was through talking, almost an hour had gone by. The only reason I knew it was an hour was that my wife at the time came out and yelled at us to get out of there, we had been in there too long she said and that we could go back in when we cooled off. Wilson said, "Better listen, I didn't get this old by saying no to my wife!" I agreed, mad Navajo women are not wise to make madder.
We did get to the fourth round after we had some water and some fresh air and a couple rounds of a pipe. Wilson smoked what is called mountain smoke, sage and other desert plants. It's good for cleaning the dust out of your lungs, as it makes you cough pretty good if you get too much.
A story that was as wild as anything you could imagine. Part of which I will tell you because it is a really long one... But it wasn't a story of the past, it was a story of the future.
He told me that this world that we live on is the fifth world. That the People had made it through four previous worlds. Each one was not suitable for the People to live.
According to him there are still two more to go. But that from this world on it was an individual journey, rather than as a whole People at once.
By individual he meant each one being with the Holy People. And that eventually everyone would reach the next two.
The sixth world is the "World of the Spirits of Living Things". All living things have a spirit and this is their place, our place for only a while because there is still more to come.
Then he told me about the seventh world. It is called the "Place of Melting Into One". When all things are completed, and everything is restored to perfect balance.
I am what I am
Mike: Wilson was a gentle spirit and was certainly good to share with you this first time in your sweat lodge.
ReplyDeleteas usual, very interesting in both the telling and the story. Can't wait to hear more.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the spirit of Wilson when the new lodge is used for the first time.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful place to have in your garden and I am sure you made good use of it too. I would have loved to have met Wilson as he sounds like he was a very interesting person to know. I guess I could have spent hours listening to his stories.
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