I liked that a lot and was still thinking about it. What if the whole world was holy? What if our religion wasn’t separated from our lives, centralized in a square church, but if the sacred was held between us at all times, in every interaction? This is the principle of Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ, meaning ‘All My Relations,’ which is as central to Lakota theology as the Trinity in Christianity, or “The Opening” in Islam.

My life is not about me. My life is about the people.

-Will Peters, Elder and teacher

That sure sounds like Christ.

I realize the center spokes of the medicine wheel form a cross. A most basic design form, yes, but there nonetheless. That upward relationship with God and outward relationship with the world at Γολγοθᾶ / “golgotha¹” / calvary is taking on new energy whirling around in the dynamic circles and stories of the Lakota. The divine presence is electric. Not the finger shock of an outlet but a hair raising soft buzz in the air like lightning.

To me, it seems being a Native + Christian today means, in part: Name and reject the evils perpetrated against you by the Church, but holdfast to the Gospel, the good news. Honor the teachings of your ancestors, which are not at odds with it. Trust in God / Great Spirit. I was seeing a lot of examples here, all offered with exceptional humility.

This is not a dull, obedient power structure pushing and pulling between sin, righteousness, and shame, but a vibrant, creative, wholistic energy system that sees God everywhere.

Back to Jan. 13. Pastor Karen and the staff at PRRC raved about this little coffee shop down the street. I had avoided it until now, feeling too bad walking past the old men standing outside in the cold waiting for their free cup of Maxwell House. But on my birthday I felt like I could treat myself, and a group of us got together to walk to Higher Ground. The clever name drew a smile, setting the stage for far more meaning than mere marketing. The thick brown heat of the Mayan Mocha made from more southerly Native beans facilitated the thaw of the winter morning.

When we got back to the house one of the neighbors had made us cinnamon rolls.

It was 9am and I’d already had an amazing birthday full of surprises.

As I wrote in my journal, “then Basil Braveheart [sic] came and blew my mind.”

We’d heard a lot about Basil Brave Heart. Whenever anyone had a question about Lakota theology, ceremony, religious traditions– I had a lot– I kept being told: “Ask Basil, he’ll know.” 

Basil told us his story. It was incredible. He’d been wounded a great deal, in many ways. The Church, the boarding school, at war, by alcohol. But the wisdom he’d gleaned from his traditional elders, born in the 1800s, stayed with him in his heart and soul. 

He didn’t have a carefully prepared speech, just the opposite. He jumped around and talked in circles. But as we were coming to understand, all Lakota ways move in circles. This teaching method reflected the interactivity of life in the world, not the linear railroad of time that dominated mindscapes in the West (and Christianity). Vine Deloria, Jr. had already blown up my frame with that notion years before in God is Red. I can blame him for breaking down my construct and leading my first steps down the Red Road. Thanks for that, Mr. Deloria.

Now I was here, listening to Basil Brave Heart, one of the most respected Elders in the Americas. He’d been on the On Being podcast² and introduced Greta Thunberg when she visited. Not to mention he seemed to be a local legend, a medicine man who spoke with the Spirit World. I noticed his Airborne hat, then was surprised to hear he was in the 101st. That was the same unit wherein Gordon Cosby served in WWII, after which he returned and founded the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C. where I worshipped and had been ordained. Come to think of it he kind of reminds me of Gordon, talks like him, too. Huh.

He picked me out of the group and asked me to record him on my phone. Said he was writing a book and wanted the audio. Sure thing.  

His main thrust was unity consciousness and the emerging evidence of this within physics. He talked about French Jesuit evolutionary biologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s work about evolution as a process of unity with God. I hadn’t mentioned I’d brought his seminal work The Phenomenon of Man and had just started reading it.

You see I am also writing a book. About this exact thing. Some might be worried about “stealing ideas”, but we weren’t. No, I was profoundly encouraged. These are God’s truths that need to be shared. My and Basil’s efforts to do so are a calling, not a competition. I was amazed and enraptured.

He’d been holding this little leather pouch. Toward the end of his talk he brought forth a beautiful, shiny ball of Lapis Lazuli. It’s a precious stone of old, appreciated by ancient kingdoms for its blue brilliance, carrying a depth and mystery like the ocean waves and clouds at dusk. It’s also the core stone of my and my wife’s forest-crafted wedding rings, full circular bands around, held in evergreen Magnolia.

All of this before noon. 

I felt like the most blessed man in the world.