Elders' Wisdom Series: Magic and Power

00:08:04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Six0oL0AxD0

Summary

TLDRA narrative shared by a storyteller begins with a traditional smudging ceremony, a practice for honoring and transferring ancestral stories. The tale revolves around the storyteller's father reminiscing about his experiences with a powerful medicine man and reflects on a particular healing ceremony. In this ceremony, the father observed the medicine man, known for his vast knowledge, conducting a ritual where red-hot stones were handled without harm, and seen as magical, as butterflies emerged from them. The story highlights the essence of power being rooted in knowledge, and magic being the collective moment of understanding among the observers. This exchange underscores the enduring need for such powerful and knowledgeable healers in the community.

Takeaways

  • ✨ Smudging is used to honor and pass down stories.
  • 👣 The father missed his childhood friends and old traditions.
  • 🔥 A healing ceremony involved handling hot stones without injury.
  • 🦋 Butterfly emergence symbolized magic during the ritual.
  • 🥁 Drumming played a key role in the healing process.
  • 💡 The power lies in the knowledge of medicine and songs.
  • 🔄 Magic was the collective understanding of the ritual.
  • 🌿 Recognition of the need for medicine men today.
  • 🧠 Knowledge creates power and magic.
  • 🔮 Ceremonies were central to healing in the past.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:08:04

    The narrator begins the story with a smudge ceremony in honor of their father's storytelling tradition. The story, told by the father during a visit when he was in his eighties, reflects on his loneliness for his childhood friends and the powerful medicine men of the past. Within a teepee, he watched a medicine man perform a powerful healing ritual involving red-hot stones and a butterfly phenomenon. The father explained that true power and magic lie in knowledge and the shared understanding among those witnessing the ritual, highlighting the importance of these traditions and the belief system behind medicine and healing.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What is smudging in the context of this story?

    Smudging is a ceremonial practice involving the burning of herbs, such as sweet grass, to transfer knowledge and stories in a respectful and spiritual manner.

  • Who was the storyteller's father lonesome for?

    The storyteller's father was lonesome for his childhood friends who had passed away and for the powerful medicine men of the past.

  • What did the storyteller's father witness in the healing ceremony?

    He witnessed a medicine man performing a healing ritual where the man handled red-hot stones without getting burnt and saw butterflies emerge from the stones, illustrating the power and magic of the ceremony.

  • Who were the participants in the healing ceremony described in the story?

    The participants were a medicine man named Eagle Speaker and a sick man named Miigabi. The storyteller's father played the drum during the ceremony.

  • How did the storyteller's father describe the source of the medicine man's power?

    The source of the medicine man's power was his extensive knowledge of medicine, healing practices, rocks, herbs, and his ability to perform songs and ceremonies.

  • What was considered 'magic' in the ceremony?

    'Magic' was considered the moment when the people in the teepee understood the medicine man's actions and words, creating a shared belief and vision.

  • What did the storyteller learn about teaching and understanding?

    The storyteller learned that true magic is realized at the moment of understanding, where people comprehend and connect with the knowledge being shared.

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  • 00:00:09
    okay I want to start out the story with
  • 00:00:15
    a smudge again this story is a story
  • 00:00:18
    that my dad smudged and I heard him tell
  • 00:00:23
    me this story
  • 00:00:25
    so we transfer knowledge and stories
  • 00:00:29
    with the sweet grass and the smudge so
  • 00:00:33
    I'll start out this story in a formal
  • 00:00:36
    way in honor of my dad's knowledge I'll
  • 00:00:41
    put my herbs on the smudge my sweet
  • 00:00:44
    grass and as the smoke comes up then
  • 00:00:48
    we'll acknowledge creator I step add a
  • 00:00:51
    few more galaxies dad's got to my son
  • 00:00:54
    Christian quick I use forged I've seen a
  • 00:00:58
    team play any kg of iron a woman stark
  • 00:01:01
    ocupado sending me down a kamikaze bad
  • 00:01:05
    to me
  • 00:01:15
    so the story I heard from my father the
  • 00:01:19
    story that we did smudged I would say he
  • 00:01:27
    was probably in his eighties when we
  • 00:01:30
    were visiting and as we visited and of
  • 00:01:36
    course he always smoked he had a secret
  • 00:01:39
    so he would smoke on his cigarette then
  • 00:01:42
    he would stare into that into the fire
  • 00:01:45
    we were in a teepee and the fire was
  • 00:01:48
    going in the centre so he would look
  • 00:01:50
    into it and smoke and then all of a
  • 00:01:55
    sudden he called me Alec Hasina and I
  • 00:02:01
    acknowledged him he said at my age I'm
  • 00:02:09
    lonesome for all my my friends my
  • 00:02:16
    childhood friends he said they're all
  • 00:02:19
    gone he said the elders they call elders
  • 00:02:23
    today or we're still where some of them
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    weren't even born when I was young so I
  • 00:02:31
    don't know really know who they are but
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    all my childhood friends are passed on
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    he said I'm lonesome for them he said
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    I'm lonesome for the time that medicine
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    men were powerful and when they did
  • 00:02:52
    their practice of healing they actually
  • 00:02:55
    perform magic he said I seen that in a
  • 00:03:00
    teepee when I was young but I don't see
  • 00:03:04
    it today and I'm lonesome for that I
  • 00:03:08
    haven't seen it so of course the
  • 00:03:13
    medicine man he was talking about was a
  • 00:03:15
    medicine man from our community and he
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    in our as we do medicine songs are
  • 00:03:23
    important so he had
  • 00:03:28
    my dad's drum his medicine songs for him
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    while he was doing medicine and my dad
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    said young man Eagle speaker asked me to
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    come and drum so he grabbed his drum and
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    he went over to his teepee and he sat
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    were the drummer's sad and then he
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    watched the old man he said the old man
  • 00:03:56
    was at the head of the teepee and the
  • 00:03:59
    other old man he was healing was next to
  • 00:04:01
    him his name is me Gabi red old man so
  • 00:04:07
    me Gabi was the one that was sick and
  • 00:04:11
    your man Eagle speaker was a was healing
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    him so he asked my dad to put some rocks
  • 00:04:22
    in the fire all about this bigger rock
  • 00:04:26
    put in the fire so they put in a fire
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    then he told my dad sing my song so he
  • 00:04:36
    started hitting his drum and he's saying
  • 00:04:39
    the old man's song and the old man
  • 00:04:43
    reached into the fire and took out the
  • 00:04:46
    stones they were red-hot and the old man
  • 00:04:50
    said I watched him in the heat I never
  • 00:04:53
    seen him get burnt on those rocks but he
  • 00:04:56
    picked them out and he said he talked
  • 00:05:00
    about his power of healing and as he hit
  • 00:05:04
    the rocks together butterflies came out
  • 00:05:07
    and my dad said I seen that and then he
  • 00:05:12
    put the rocks in a base in a water and
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    as the steam came up then he took his
  • 00:05:19
    steam blower and he started it was as
  • 00:05:22
    bone Hui GLE boat and he started it
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    steaming the old man where he was sick
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    but he went through the whole healing
  • 00:05:34
    process and the old man was singing he
  • 00:05:37
    said I I don't see those kind of
  • 00:05:40
    powerful medicine man
  • 00:05:42
    anymore and I don't see the magic they
  • 00:05:45
    perform then he sat there and he started
  • 00:05:48
    smoking and everything went quiet again
  • 00:05:52
    as it went quiet I asked him I asked him
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    a couple serious his name is weasel tail
  • 00:06:01
    I called him a boxer you what is magic
  • 00:06:07
    and what is power in our language he
  • 00:06:15
    said the power is knowledge the old man
  • 00:06:20
    wheeze or legal speaker he had so much
  • 00:06:25
    knowledge about how he would feel and
  • 00:06:28
    how he uses the rocks and the medicine
  • 00:06:32
    and the herbs all together through his
  • 00:06:34
    song and ceremony he it was his
  • 00:06:37
    knowledge of medicine and healing and
  • 00:06:40
    that was his power he said when he went
  • 00:06:44
    to heal read old man and he hit the
  • 00:06:48
    rocks together to start feeling that
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    were we actually seen the butterflies
  • 00:06:53
    come out he said those were the points
  • 00:06:57
    when everybody that was sitting in the
  • 00:06:59
    tepee that was looking at him when they
  • 00:07:02
    the minute they understood what he said
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    and what he was doing that minute of
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    understanding is what he called magic he
  • 00:07:12
    said because they all seen the same
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    thing and they all understood what he
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    says and that's where the belief system
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    in the power in our medicines are strong
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    because of that power and magic so if
  • 00:07:28
    I'm talking to people the best at the
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    time they understand at that point of
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    understanding that's where I would say
  • 00:07:38
    magic is so those were his words and the
  • 00:07:44
    stories that he told me about how
  • 00:07:48
    medicine men were power and magic from
  • 00:07:52
    the old days and we still need them
  • 00:07:54
    today
  • 00:07:55
    and yeah
Tags
  • smudging
  • medicine men
  • healing
  • tradition
  • magic
  • knowledge
  • ancestors
  • understanding
  • ceremony
  • spirituality