While researching "beauty," I started by looking for information on Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" ("Beauty is truth, truth beauty") and then what I thought was a poem about walking the Beauty Way--and found out that it's a chant (not a poem) and it appears in many forms. I enjoyed the sources about beauty as order and health and about the Dineh Night Chant Ceremony, so I'm posting that info here.
Sources:
Sources:
- http://nativeamericanconcepts.wordpress.com/natural-order-social-system/; ©Patricia Anne Davis, MA and the Navajo Nation Justice Department
Living Hozho,
in the Natural Order
The Navajo
language is a spiritual language spoken with living words that manifest
vibrations for affirming truth in the laws of nature or the natural
order of time and direction from East-thinking, West-planning,
South-decision making for collective survival and North-equity in restoring
resources to the next generation moving clockwise within temporal time and
cardinal direction.
For example:
sunrise, mid-day, sunset, mid-night; spring, summer, fall, winter; child,
youth, adult, and elder. Also, white people, red people, yellow people and
black people, all born equal in the sacred circle of life within the holiness
and wholeness of hozho. There is no concept of separation from creator or from
the natural order. There is only the principle of making constructive
and life-affirming choices.
Dineh
spirituality is the science of light-love-life-nature in one integrated
concept. The will-to-love, peace, beauty and joy within our Affirmative
thinking system and within the universe is called hozho.
Walking in
Beauty
Walking in
Beauty: “hozho naasha”
The four cardinal
directions principles defined below are the “beauty way path” in the
sense that beauty exists within us and around us as the light reflects
through a rainbow. The symbol of the rainbow is our sovereign communication
with creator.
“hozho” –
means “natural order.” The term natural order is temporal time,
cardinal directions, cycles of seasons correlated with principles placed in the
four cardinal directions for a life journey.
The Four
Corn-pollen Footsteps
The principles
placed within the four cardinal directions are blessingway teaching translated to English as “the four corn-pollen footsteps”:
child-youth-adult-elder.
- EAST – child:
sunrise-spring-spiritual moral standards for living
- SOUTH – youth:
noon-summer-learning/work/transportation
- WEST – parent:
sunset-autumn-family/home/story-telling/ceremony
- NORTH – grandparent:
midnight-winter-SELF-reverence/reverence for the natural
order/hope/restoring resources
- CENTER: fireplace/hearth of home –
spiritual family love
Once one has
experienced a ceremonial change process to correct the state of dis-ease/disease, their journey is in the natural order.
Then we are living the loving way, in right relationship to the elements of the
four cardinal directions. When we travel through life in this way we are walking
in beauty.
2.
http://zintaaistars.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html; Wednesday,
April 20, 2005 Walking
in Beauty by Zinta Aistars
Calvin Hill’s Journey from a Navajo Reservation in Arizona to the ministry of the Stockbridge Avenue United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Published as a cover story in the November 2004 issue of Encore magazine.
Calvin Hill’s Journey from a Navajo Reservation in Arizona to the ministry of the Stockbridge Avenue United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Published as a cover story in the November 2004 issue of Encore magazine.
“Western life has led to great frustration,” he says.
“People have pursued physical beauty while ignoring the richer beauty of an
inner kind, the wholeness of body and mind and soul as one. We have pursued
material things and live in big houses with televisions in every room, but in
truth, we are more alone than ever, caught in our own misery. We are out of
balance and feel a loss of harmony as we drift away from our creator and the
abundance of the earth around us.”
Abundance comes, Calvin repeats in a soothing voice, abundance comes. Walking in beauty is a concept rooted deeply in the Navajo culture, and it means to walk with your Creator, partnering with God as co-creators, and embracing the wholeness, even the ambivalence of all things that are life.
“The Navajos recognize that life has in it all things and so we must accept all things. That in beauty, there is also that which is evil; and with happiness comes sadness, as with life there comes death. To live an abundant life, we must feel and accept it all. We cannot escape the sadness. A full life means to accept all that is offered in balance.”
Abundance comes, Calvin repeats in a soothing voice, abundance comes. Walking in beauty is a concept rooted deeply in the Navajo culture, and it means to walk with your Creator, partnering with God as co-creators, and embracing the wholeness, even the ambivalence of all things that are life.
“The Navajos recognize that life has in it all things and so we must accept all things. That in beauty, there is also that which is evil; and with happiness comes sadness, as with life there comes death. To live an abundant life, we must feel and accept it all. We cannot escape the sadness. A full life means to accept all that is offered in balance.”
Bodhipaksa
In beauty may I walk…
In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I
walk.
Through the returning
seasons may I walk.
Beautifully will I possess again.
Beautifully birds . .
.
Beautifully joyful
birds
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers
about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my
feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before
me, may I walk.
With beauty behind
me, may I walk.
With beauty above me,
may I walk.
With beauty below me,
may I walk.
With beauty all
around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I
walk.
In old age wandering
on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in
beauty.
A Navajo Indian Prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant
(anonymous)
4.
http://www.hanksville.org/voyage/poems/fulldawn.html;
From Four Masterworks of American Indian Literature edited by John
Bierhorst, University of Arizona Press. The text is the translation of
Washington Matthews. © 1974
John Bierhorst Return to Navajo
Ceremonials
House Made of Dawn The Navajo Night Chant
In Tse'gihi
In the house made of the dawn,
In the house made of the evening twilight,
In the house made of the dark cloud,
In the house made of the he-rain,
In the house made of the dark mist,
In the house made of the she-rain,
In the house made of pollen,
In the house made of grasshoppers,
Where the dark mist curtains the doorway,
The path to which is on the rainbow,
Where the zigzag lightning stands high on top,
Where the he-rain stands high on top,
Oh, male divinity!
With your moccasins of dark cloud, come to us.
With your leggings of dark cloud, come to us.
With your shirt of dark cloud, come to us.
With your head-dress of dark cloud, come to us.
With your mind enveloped in dark cloud, come to us.
With the dark thunder above you, come to us soaring.
With the shapen cloud at your feet, come to us soaring.
With the far darkness made of the dark cloud over your head,
come to us soaring.
With the far darkness made of the he-rain over your head,
come to us soaring..
With the far darkness made of the dark mist over your head,
come to us soaring.
With the far darkness made of the she-rain over your head,
come to us soaring.
With the zigzag lightning flung out on high over your head,
come to us soaring.
With the rainbow hanging high over your head, come to us
soaring.
With the far darkness made of the he-rain on the ends of
your wings, come to us soaring.
With the far darkness made of the dark mist on the ends of
your wings, come to us soaring.
With the far darkness made of the she-rain on the ends of
your wings, come to us soaring.
With the zigzag lightning flung out on high on the ends of
your wings, come to us soaring.
With the rainbow hanging high on the ends of your wings,
come to us soaring.
With the near darkness made of the dark cloud, of the
he-rain, of the dark mist and of the she-rain, come to us.
With the darkness of the earth, come to us.
With these I wish the foam floating on the flowing water
over the roots of the great corn.
I have made your sacrifice.
I have prepared a smoke for you.
My feet restore for me.
My limbs restore for me.
My body restore for me.
Mt mind restore for me.
My voice restore for me.
Today, take out your spell for me.
Today, take away your spell for me.
Away from me you have taken it.
Far off from me, it is taken.
Far off you have done it.
Happily I recover.
Happily my interior becomes cool.
Happily my eyes regain their power.
Happily my head becomes cool.
Happily my limbs regain their power.
Happily I hear again.
Happily for me is taken off.
Happily I walk.
Impervious to pain, I walk.
Feeling light within, I walk.
With lively feelings, I walk.
Happily abundant dark clouds I desire.
Happily abundant dark mists I desire.
Happily abundant passing showers I desire.
Happily an abundance of vegetation I desire.
Happily an abundance of pollen I desire.
Happily abundant dew I desire.
Happily may fair white corn, to the ends of the earth, come
with you.
Happily may fair yellow corn, to the ends of the earth, come
with you.
Happily may fair blue corn, to the ends of the earth, come
with you.
Happily may fair plants of all kinds, to the ends of the
earth, come with you.
Happily may fair goods of all kinds, to the ends of the
earth, come with you.
Happily may fair jewels of all kinds, to the ends of the
earth, come with you.
With these before you, happily may they come with you.
With these behind you, happily may they come with you.
With these below you, happily may they come with you.
With these abovee you, happily may they come with you.
With these all around you, happily may they come with you.
Thus happily you accomplish your tasks.
Happily the old men will regard you.
Happily the old women will regard you.
Happily the young men will regard you.
Happily the young women will regard you.
Happily the boys will regard you.
Happily the girls will regard you.
Happily the children will regard you.
Happily the chiefs will regard you.
Happily, as they scatter in different directions, they will
regard you.
Happily, as they approach their homes, they will regard you.
Happily may their roads back home be on the trail of pollen.
Happily may they all get back.
In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
With beauty above me, I walk.
With beauty all around me, I walk.
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty.
5.
http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit01/context_activ-2.html;
Activities: Context Activities
Annenberg Learner; The Annenberg Learner:
Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Healing Arts: The Navajo Night Chant (Nightway)
In the words of anthropologist and ethnographer James C.
Faris, Night Chant practices are those that "order, harmonize and
re-establish and situate social relations." Hence the ceremony emphasizes
humans' ability to control their world and their responsibility to use that
control in the service of balance, respect, and healing.
This is a Navajo
Prayer that since I first heard it I begin every day with it. Facing East I
gaze at the sun and ask for guidance for the day. My prayers as sent off to
creator with a pinch of sacred yellow pollen to the four directions as I recite
the prayer below.
Today may I walk
out in beauty.
With beauty may I
walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty around me, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty around me, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
To walk in Beauty
is to walk in balance with all things. I ask that my words be spoken in beauty.
I wish to do nothing to harm another. This includes the small insects as well
as other humans. Words carry great power. Perhaps tomorrow we can discuss that
in greater detail. Words can destroy or heal. Our thoughts have strength, to
speak the thoughts aloud puts power behind them, to act on the thought is to
create something that was not there before. What is it that you have created? I
ask that my words be beautiful. My walk to be in beauty to be in balance with
all things. To see beauty even in what first appears to be ugly or distasteful.
I hope this short explanation helps give you an introductory understanding of
the Beautyway prayer. Try repeating it and experience the changes it brings to
your life.
Walk In Beauty
The Navaho term
for the spiritual path, their practice of the holy life, has been translated as
The Beauty Way. This way of referring to spirituality, when I first encountered
it, was so different from the dry, ascetic pursuits of Zen or intensive meditation
that I was first attracted to in my 20's, and spoke to the deep heart of the
Holy that was so missing from my vision of spirituality, and from my young and
undeveloped self at that time.
Understanding the
spiritual path as The Beauty Way also opened me to the wonder of the Creator's
creation that shone with holy light all around me, not only in the natural
beauty of nature, but also in the simple beauty of sunrise, of the in and out
of my breath, of the breath of my children as they slept. All was Beauty. It
took this Navaho prayer to open my heart to the same truth that my Jewish
roots, in the deep mysticism of Kabbalah, spoke to as well: there is no where
God is not-- all of creation is made of the sparks of the Creative.
I offer two short
versions of Beauty Way prayers here that their resonance may bless you as they
have blessed me.
R. Waldrip
prefaced his use of this blessing with a note that seemed appropriate to
include here:
"Let me
be clear: I didn't write this song. When I saw it at the Anasazi Museum at
Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, I was so impressed that I copied it for the
introduction of my novel, Anasazi Harvest."
R. Leland Waldrip
Today I will walk
out, today everything evil will leave me,
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever,
nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever,
nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day
long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
With beauty
before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age
wandering on a trail of beauty,
lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.
lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.
_____________________________________
Beauty prayers
are woven throughout the sacred ceremonies that include the complex sand
paintings. A short excerpt that I believe was extracted from one of those
Blessing Way ceremonies below.
In Beauty may I
walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With Beauty may I walk.
With Beauty before me, may I walk.
With Beauty behind me, may I walk.
With Beauty above me, may I walk.
With Beauty below me, may I walk.
With Beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
lively , may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
living again, may I walk.
It is finished in Beauty.
It is finished in Beauty.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With Beauty may I walk.
With Beauty before me, may I walk.
With Beauty behind me, may I walk.
With Beauty above me, may I walk.
With Beauty below me, may I walk.
With Beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
lively , may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
living again, may I walk.
It is finished in Beauty.
It is finished in Beauty.
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