Klaas-Jan BAKKER - AMORC

y Mary Jones, SRC
he northern plains of the USA
were home to many Native American
tribes, possibly the most famous of
which were the Sioux. In early postcontact
European times they had
travelled from the east to what are now the states
of Minnesota and North and South Dakota. Those
Sioux who lived around the Black Hills of South
Dakota called themselves Lakota, and this is a part
of their story.
World View
The Lakota world was characterised by its oneness,
and its unity. There was no separation of the
natural world from the world of the supernatural.
This unity in nature was thought to be beyond
the comprehension of mankind and could only
be shared in through the practice of rituals. The
“animating force” that acted as the common
denominator of the universe was known as “Wakan
Tanka” (wakan means sacred and tanka means
great). This force, which has come to be glossed
as “God” was incomprehensible. The physical
world was composed of the manifestations of
Wakan Tanka. The Lakota believed that the essence
of every object was spirit, or wakan. Wakan Tanka
employed the use of “Wakan people” to interact
with the material world and control the lives of
men. These characters were often the objects of
worship and praise. Every object in the world has
a spirit and that spirit is wakan. Thus the spirits
of other animate objects such as animals or trees,
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The Rosicrucian Beacon -- December 2007