Crazy Horse Was A Mystic.
May 6, 2013 8:32 AM Subscribe
Crazy Horse’s actual quote translates into English follows: “To day is a good day to die for all the things of my life are present."
So the message that Crazy Horse spoke was not the message the untrained ear heard often credits him with saying. What he was telling his people was not about being brave or to be full of bravado and courage but to be calm and know that all is as it is supposed to be, life is complete in and of itself and whatever transpires next is not in the hands of the individual but it is all in the hands of The Creator.
Thus they went into the battle with the American 7th Calvary trusting in a power far greater then themselves knowing that what ever the outcome it would be right, and those that would pass on that day did so in completeness and those that stayed to live another day did so at the discretion of The Creator. They simply did what was next to be done.
From Neil Tubb's blog There is a door: "It came about after a prolonged period of meditation, having the same image come up in my mind's eye over and over - A Closed Door in the middle of a giant hall. Someone said write about it and I did."
So the message that Crazy Horse spoke was not the message the untrained ear heard often credits him with saying. What he was telling his people was not about being brave or to be full of bravado and courage but to be calm and know that all is as it is supposed to be, life is complete in and of itself and whatever transpires next is not in the hands of the individual but it is all in the hands of The Creator.
Thus they went into the battle with the American 7th Calvary trusting in a power far greater then themselves knowing that what ever the outcome it would be right, and those that would pass on that day did so in completeness and those that stayed to live another day did so at the discretion of The Creator. They simply did what was next to be done.
From Neil Tubb's blog There is a door: "It came about after a prolonged period of meditation, having the same image come up in my mind's eye over and over - A Closed Door in the middle of a giant hall. Someone said write about it and I did."
Obligatory link to the song that the title made me think of.
posted by blixco at 8:45 AM on May 6, 2013
posted by blixco at 8:45 AM on May 6, 2013
I love that album.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:48 AM on May 6, 2013
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:48 AM on May 6, 2013
This was much more clear in the original Klingon.
posted by DecemberBoy at 9:50 AM on May 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by DecemberBoy at 9:50 AM on May 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
I'm not seeing how a shift from "Today is a good day to die" to "To day is a good day to die for all the things of my life are present" adds any goddy-afterlifey overtones to Crazy Horse's words. It's a little less "Yippee-ki-ay, motherfucker" and a little more "It's been real," but that's all one can take from the words alone, and I don't see any other sources being cited, so...?
Heavy whiffs of I-bought-some-moccasins-at-a-craft-stand-so-now-I-know-all-about-Indians coming off this.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:51 AM on May 6, 2013 [7 favorites]
Heavy whiffs of I-bought-some-moccasins-at-a-craft-stand-so-now-I-know-all-about-Indians coming off this.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:51 AM on May 6, 2013 [7 favorites]
also this ...
that's Public Image Ltd. by the way.
posted by philip-random at 10:03 AM on May 6, 2013
that's Public Image Ltd. by the way.
posted by philip-random at 10:03 AM on May 6, 2013
Heavy whiffs of I-bought-some-moccasins-at-a-craft-stand-so-now-I-know-all-about-Indians coming off this.
I encourage you to read Black Elk Speaks, if you haven't done so already. He knew Crazy Horse and talks about him & his spirituality at length in that book.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:06 AM on May 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
I encourage you to read Black Elk Speaks, if you haven't done so already. He knew Crazy Horse and talks about him & his spirituality at length in that book.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:06 AM on May 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
There's some proper exoticising going on here. Perhaps crazy horse was a "mystic", whatever that means, but I'm not getting a sense of real knowledge of the man from the author of Zen and the Art of Walking Lightly ...
posted by iotic at 10:14 AM on May 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by iotic at 10:14 AM on May 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
Last week I went to New London and, hungry, went nearby to have a Mystic pizza.
I like this about the Crazy Horse legacy:
"Even the most basic outline of his life shows how great he was, because he remained himself from the moment of his birth to the moment he died; because he knew exactly where he wanted to live, and never left; because he may have surrendered, but he was never defeated in battle; because, although he was killed, even the Army admitted he was never captured; because he was so free that he didn't know what a jail looked like. His dislike of the oncoming civilization was prophetic. He never met the President, never rode on a train, slept in a boarding house, or ate at a table and unlike many people all over the world, when he met white men he was not diminished by the encounter."
— Ian Frazier, Great Plains [20]
posted by Postroad at 10:15 AM on May 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
I like this about the Crazy Horse legacy:
"Even the most basic outline of his life shows how great he was, because he remained himself from the moment of his birth to the moment he died; because he knew exactly where he wanted to live, and never left; because he may have surrendered, but he was never defeated in battle; because, although he was killed, even the Army admitted he was never captured; because he was so free that he didn't know what a jail looked like. His dislike of the oncoming civilization was prophetic. He never met the President, never rode on a train, slept in a boarding house, or ate at a table and unlike many people all over the world, when he met white men he was not diminished by the encounter."
— Ian Frazier, Great Plains [20]
posted by Postroad at 10:15 AM on May 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
I am sorry, but that post is just another example of shitty New Age appropriation and misrepresentation of native culture.
In Native North American society once the circle or hoop is formed, once the ring is complete, then anytime after that is a good time to die because the person will pass in wholeness, in completeness. *citation needed
What a load of nonsense. I have studied native religion in one part of North America, and not a word of the above is true. It is just what some white, self-appointed "mystic" wants to be true, so he writes it and it is true. Because white people have the right to redefine native cultures, right?
posted by LarryC at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2013 [8 favorites]
In Native North American society once the circle or hoop is formed, once the ring is complete, then anytime after that is a good time to die because the person will pass in wholeness, in completeness. *citation needed
What a load of nonsense. I have studied native religion in one part of North America, and not a word of the above is true. It is just what some white, self-appointed "mystic" wants to be true, so he writes it and it is true. Because white people have the right to redefine native cultures, right?
posted by LarryC at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2013 [8 favorites]
Yeah, New Age-y bollocks. Lets take complex history and repackage it with a nice self-confirming bow on top. Blah.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:43 AM on May 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by lazaruslong at 10:43 AM on May 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:03 PM on May 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:03 PM on May 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
I encourage you to read Black Elk Speaks
Me too. It's a remarkable book, both in its subject matter (a look inside the head of) and in how it came about (through John G. Neihardt). It's good to keep in mind that this is one man describing visions to another (of another culture). Black Elk speaks for Black Elk.
posted by Twang at 4:59 AM on May 7, 2013
Me too. It's a remarkable book, both in its subject matter (a look inside the head of) and in how it came about (through John G. Neihardt). It's good to keep in mind that this is one man describing visions to another (of another culture). Black Elk speaks for Black Elk.
posted by Twang at 4:59 AM on May 7, 2013
I encourage you to read Black Elk Speaks
Noooooo! Niehardt made up all kids of stuff on his own and threaded it through the narrative, and he exorcised the parts of Black Elk's narrative he did not like. A duplicitous work. An article in the 1990s titled "Black Elk Speaks with Forked Tongue" lays it all out.
Instead check out Raymond DeMallie (1985). The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt. Also
posted by LarryC at 9:47 AM on May 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
Noooooo! Niehardt made up all kids of stuff on his own and threaded it through the narrative, and he exorcised the parts of Black Elk's narrative he did not like. A duplicitous work. An article in the 1990s titled "Black Elk Speaks with Forked Tongue" lays it all out.
Instead check out Raymond DeMallie (1985). The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt. Also
posted by LarryC at 9:47 AM on May 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
I will indeed look at those. Thanks for the rec.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:38 AM on May 7, 2013
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:38 AM on May 7, 2013
also Little Big Man, the book as well as the movie, fiction of course and Crazy Horse is not the main focus at all. Nevertheless, it's a great look-in at the Human Beings (aka the Cheyenne).
posted by philip-random at 11:10 AM on May 7, 2013
posted by philip-random at 11:10 AM on May 7, 2013
Lame Deer is another good book to read, and has the advantage of keeping Lame Deer's sense of humor intact - he is a funny man.
posted by Deoridhe at 10:59 PM on May 7, 2013
posted by Deoridhe at 10:59 PM on May 7, 2013
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