And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates the beauty and harmony of nature, symbolized by the rainbow, and the significance of understanding in experiencing it.
This quote by Black Elk reflects the connection between understanding and the appreciation of the natural world. The imagery of a rainbow, vibrant and alive with colors, suggests that through the lens of understanding, one can fully recognize the beauty, diversity, and wonder of nature, as well as the deeper truths in life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about environmental conservation to highlight the importance of understanding nature.
I cured with the power that came through me. Of course, it was not I who cured,it was the power from the Outer World; the visions and ceremonies only made me like a whole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds. If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other. Each family is a circle, and those family circles connect together and make a community, and the community makes its circle where it lives on the Earth. It (the community) cares for that part (of the Earth) but cares for it as a circle - which is to say in a cooperative and egalitarian way, where everybody is cared for, and everybody is respected.
They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear's uncle and a medicine man, had brought me back to life.
Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to earth as rain, and it was drought that I had killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me.
Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
Gardening is not a rational act.
Nature in America has always been suspect, on the defensive, cannibalized by progress. In America, every specimen becomes a relic.
From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows.
My special cause, the one that alerts my interest and quickens the pace of my life, is to preserve the wildflowers and native plants that define the regions of our land-to encourage and promote their use in appropriate areas, and thus help pass on to generation in waiting the quiet jobs and satisfactions I have known since my childhood.
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