In this long-awaited second novel by the best-selling author of SEVEN ARROWS, Little Wolf, a follower of the Old Way, is the sole survivor of a village massacre. As he travels, his adventures mirror an inner search along the hidden pathways of the mind and heart. Estchimah is a female shaman. Her path to self-discovery leads through dazzling worlds of natural beauty, dream landscapes, and the borderlands where these spheres overlap. SONG OF HEYOEKHAH is a Vision Quest, a search for meaning, harmony, and balance that returns the reader to "the time of the Medicine Ways," "the place of imagination," and the very heart of human nature, in a compelling, unforgettable, and magical reading experience.
This not the book I expected after reading Arthur Hyemeyohsts Storm's Seven Arrows, a book that I ingested and that brought me close and intiment with the Lakota Sioux ways, and spirituality but that read was 30 years ago when I was a different person and wa growing into my spiritual Way. While this, " Song of Heyoehkah" is a vision quest journey and there are many significant insights and teachings, underlined and reread, the story lingers to long in it's telling and conveying its message.. I chose to stop reading 3/4's go the way through. "Seven Arrows" is not on this reading list because it was read long before I began this list or recording the books I've read.
Impressive fiction. The characters move the reader across the emotional spectrum as they struggle with aspects of medicine work that is not at all romanticized in this read and reality. Beautiful Illustrations.
Excellent. An excerpt: "We hunt," Crazy Dog said, turning to Dancing Tree. "But what is there to hunt that has not already been invented by the Eternal? All things are created by the Power of the Universe. All things exist because the universe exists. We only discover them. If we should ever discover all there is to discover, we then would alter what was and become what it was we altered. We are what we eat. We are what we do. What we change with our hands we must live with. If we tear the earth, we must live with that tear, unless we alter it once again." "The whiteman is destroying the earth," Dancing Tree grimaced. "Then our children must forage in the ruins," Crazy Dog answered. "It is the children who must suffer because of these things. Do we love our children if we throw them into our ruins? No, we do not!" "But we are tearing everything to pieces," Dancing Tree cried. "The tearing will cease when the people awaken," Crazy Dog said. "They are a passing thing, these destroyers of the earth. They believe their day will be forever, but they are only one tiny breath within the shouting voice of those who wish to live." "Words," Dancing Tree said with anger. "Words, many words. We must do something to stop the destroyers." "The destruction will stop when the people themselves want it to stop," Crazy Dog said. "The people have what they make. If their camps are foul, then that is their choice. If their children are strangled, then it is they who strangle them. The people must awaken and realize that this is their world, and that what they build here they must live with." "Will we live through this terrible winter?" Dancing Tree asked. "Winter?" Crazy Dog smiled. "How do we know it is not spring? We as an entire people must listen to our Mother the Earth. We must honor her all together, and then we can honor ourselves. Maybe we are just about to be born?"