Sacred Texts: Native American

Oglala Sun Dance: Translations of Texts: Invocation By A ...

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This is a primary ethnographic text documenting Lakota Sioux ceremonial practice, specifically a shamanic pipe invocation ritual as explained by Sword and interpreted by Thomas Mills. The text presents both the invocation itself and a detailed theological commentary explaining the meaning of each gesture and phrase in the ceremony. Its central content is the ritual protocol for offering a pipe to the Four Winds (West, North, East, South), the Wind as father, and the Great Spirit before conducting any ceremony involving supernatural beings. A distinctive feature is the rich mythological context provided: each Wind has a specific personality, history, and proper mode of address — for instance, the North Wind was demoted from birthright precedence as punishment, and the South Wind is addressed through his feminine companion rather than directly because this pleases him. The text also explicates the symbolic geometry of the ritual, explaining how the circular movement of the pipe encompasses all gods, all directions, and all cycles of time simultaneously. This is a rare insider theological explanation of Lakota ceremonial logic, making it valuable for understanding the cosmological reasoning — not just the outward form — behind the ritual.

Oglala Sun Dance: Translations of Texts: Invocation By A ...

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