Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": AN ARAPAHO PRAYER
The Arapaho are an Algonquian tribe now settled in Oklahoma. With this prayer pronounced by
the priest, a woman is consecrated. She impersonates the Mother of creation.
My Father, have pity upon us! Remember that we are your children since the time you created the
heavens and the earth, with a man and woman!
Our Grandfather, the Central-Moving Body, who gives light, watch us in the painting of the belt
which our Father directed, as it is before us! Now speak to your servant who is to wear the belt!
Look at her with good gifts, and may she do this for the benefit of the new people (children) so that
this tribe shall have strength and power in the future! . . .
We cannot cease praying to you, my Father, Man-Above, for we desire to live on this earth, which
we are now about to paint on this occasion. We have given this belt to the sweet smoke for our
purity hereafter. May our thought reach to the sky where there is holiness. Give us good water and
an abundance of food!
G. A. Dorsey, The Arapaho Sun Dance, Field Columbian Museum Anthropology Series, IV
(1903), p. 74
Bibliography for this page:
Books by Mircea Eliade:
- Mircea Eliade, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona “Symbolism, the Sacred, and the Arts”
- Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask “Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth”
- Mircea Eliade “Two Strange Tales”
- Mircea Eliade, Teresa Lavender Fagan “Journal III, 1970-1978 (Journal)”
- Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask “The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History”
- Mircea Eliade “The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion”
- Mircea Eliade, Catherine Spencer “Bengal Nights: A Novel”
- Mircea Eliade, Philip Mairet “Images and Symbols”
- Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask, Wendy Doniger “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General))”
- Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask “Yoga : Immortality and Freedom”
Man and the Sacred | Main Menu | Keyword Search
