Nourish the Word

A few months ago, I came across some interesting things in Edward Benton-Banai's The Mishomis Book that would stand out, I think, to any current or formerly endowed LDS Mormon. I showed these things (one was an illustration of a man in a particular pose, the other a passage that I will include below) to someone I know with an LDS background (a temple worker) and Ojibwe ancestry. These things also stood out to him as being familiar. The context of the passage I mentioned has the culture hero, Waynaboozhoo (aka Nanaboozoo, Nanabush), coming home after an epic battle with his father. This battle is reminiscent of the Old Testament Jacob's wrestle with an "man." It should be noted, the manitou father acknowledges his son as his equal at the end of this battle, and gives him a symbol and tool for peace (the peace pipe). And Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touc

The Medicine Wheel A year or more ago, I was having a conversation with a Lakota man. He asked me whether I knew the cardinal directions. I was confused by the question, thinking, everyone knows those.  But the way he asked me, convinced me he wasn't talking about just East, South, West, and North. I explained that I didn't know what he meant, and he proceeded to teach me there are actually no fewer than 7 cardinal directions. In addition to the four main directions indicated in a compass rose and the Native American medicine wheel, there is also the directions of the sky above, the earth beneath, and at the center of them all, the self. My brain imploded for a moment, before it clicked into place. Of course there must be seven directions. How did I not know this before? It makes perfect sense. Here is a link to a website that explains a perspective of the different parts of the medicine wheel. I've been noticing lately some things about the four main parts of the med