"Mountain Moon"  ©SusanneStill2011/BlueJaguarPress

 Meeting the Day and the Power of Beauty

 Andrew Quilliam Brewer/Susanne E. Still

In 1911, the Santee Dakota physician and author Oyiyesa said, "In the life of the Indian, there was only one inevitable duty---the duty of prayer---the daily recognition of the Unseen and the Eternal.  Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet Earth, and the Great Silence alone!  Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt, one came upon a scene that was strikingly beautiful or sublime...he paused for an instant in an attitude of worship."

 Behind these few words, a great secret is revealed---the secret of personal and planetary renewal.  This simple yet elegant teaching carries both impetus and inspiration for Blue Jaguar Medicine Arts.  Never has the need for unity with the natural world and reverence for all life been more urgent or personally imperative.  To heal our times and our people, we must heed the words of the late Oglala Sioux leader, Chief Luther Standing Bear.  He described his people as "true naturists---who loved the Earth and all things of the Earth.  They sat upon the Earth, close to its life-giving forces, to be able to think more deeply, to feel more keenly, to see more clearly into the mysteries of life, and to come closer in kinship to other lives about them...

 They were wise.They knew that man's heart away from Nature became hard, and that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too. So they kept their youth close to its softening influence."