night chant
This is a Navajo prayer sent to me a long time ago by my second father. I save it for times of great weariness, and times of great change.
Tse’ gihi
House made of dawn,
House made of evening light,
House made of dark cloud,
House made of male rain,
House made of dark mist,
House made of female rain,
House made of pollen,
House made of grasshoppers,
Dark cloud is at the door.
The trail out of it is dark cloud.
The zig zag lightning stands high upon it.
Male Diety!
Your offering I make.
I have prepared a smoke for you.
Restore my feet for me,
Restore my legs for me,
Restore my body for me,
Restore my mind for me,
Restore my voice for me.
This very day take out your spell for me.
Your spell remove for me.
You have taken it away;
far off it has gone.
Happily I recover.
Happily my interior becomes cool.
Happily I go forth.
My interior feeling cool, may I walk.
No longer sore, may I walk.
Impervious to pain, may I walk.
With lively feelings, may I walk.
As it used to be long ago, May I walk.
Happily, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant dark clouds, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant showers, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant plants, may I walk.
Happily, on a trail of pollen, may I walk.
Happily, may I walk.
Being as it used to be long ago, may I walk.
May it be beautiful before me,
May it be beautiful behind me,
May it be beautiful below me,
May it be beautiful above me,
May it be beautiful all around me,
In beauty it is finished.
24 Responses to night chant
Wow.
No quips or smart remarks on this one.
Wow.
Beautiful.
Thorough, also.
Oh, it’s raining and there is a dark cloud outside my door. So I felt this just a bit more than I might have. Your second father gave you this.
I like that, It makes it even better.
Beautiful.
I love the part where the prayer says that he/she prepared a smoke for God. My God definitely smokes.
Whenever my dad is going to show me something sacred he says, Grab your cigarettes. Tobacco is a big offering.
I don’t know Max…I think it only counts as an offering if don’t smoke them.
I mean, it’s sort of like having a birthday cake for yourself and then making everyone else watch you eat it…right?
Now that I’ve got that out of my system…my Grandfather ( my Dad’s Father ) was sort of self absorbed- anyway when I was about 10 he invited me to hang out with him and what he did was to play these Mozart pieces on his old record player.
We listened to this music for hours and he told me about Mozart, what the pieces were about and all of this music theory stuff.
To this day Mozart means the world to me- so I DO know how you feel about this Prayer. Like when I need a boost I just play some Mozart on my stero or my guitar and I’ll be darned if I don’t feel better.
No- I feel STRONGER.
amm
Well you do not smoke the offering. You break the cigerette and give tobacco to the wind.
When my dad helped me bury Loke, I tucked a cigarette in with Loke and said, Take this, I hear it has a lot of value on the other side. And my dad gave me this raised brow and said, He’s going to the other side, Max, not prison. It was the one moment I almost smiled saying good-bye to Loke.
When I was in my early 20’s my Alaskan Malamute died ( he was about 11 at the time ) and me and my brother and sister buried him with our quilts and our favorite childhood toys.
You know, it seemed like the right thing to do.
Still does now.
amm
“When my dad helped me bury Loke, I tucked a cigarette in with Loke and said, Take this, I hear it has a lot of value on the other side. And my dad gave me this raised brow and said, He’s going to the other side, Max, not prison. ”
hahaha, thats exactly what I was thinking when I read the “value of the other side part”. I like this father Mark II of yours; in sofar as he has been revealed to me.
He is special to me.
Anita it was the right thing to do.
I love what your Dad did. There has to be humour somewhere, no matter how dark.
The night before my Dad’s funeral, his best friend (who I’d only met once before) took me for a walk down the street, away from the solemn masses and we stood on a street corner and smoked a joint of dope that Dad had given to him a few weeks before. I was a long way from home and it was a happy highlight in that nightmare. He told me things. I liked it.
We made our way back to the masses, happy and connected, somehow.
I’m way off track here, aren’t I?
It’s about the right thing to do. That was right.
I’m drunk again.
“I’m way off track here, aren’t I?”
I don’t think you are.
It’s about people seeing past pretense and into the moment…how spiritual bonds are as simple and powerful as we allow them to be.
Nice thought provoking prayer about surrender.
I had not thought so much about the surrender aspects of that. You are right that is very much there.
There is a story about the origin of this, that two weary and crippled men had helped each other keep going along a path on a journey a long time but they had no food and no water and no strength left and they prayed to their gods for help but the gods were unmoved. So they gave up. And, in giving up, they sang. And the song did move the gods, so the gods gave to them prayers, and this was one of the prayers.
I probably do not tell that exactly right, but that is how I remember the story.
“It’s about people seeing past pretense and into the moment…how spiritual bonds are as simple and powerful as we allow them to be.”
When you say things like that I see the man.
Isn’t she lovely? Can you see her? I’ll break a smoke for you Max.
There is a story about the origin of this, that two weary and crippled men had helped each other keep going along a path on a journey a long time but they had no food and no water and no strength left and they prayed to their gods for help but the gods were unmoved. So they gave up. And, in giving up, they sang. And the song did move the gods, so the gods gave to them prayers, and this was one of the prayers.
Makes perfect sense.
When all else fails, sing.
and like Winston Groom says- if you can’t sing, sing loud.
I do that and it works.
When all else fails, sing.
Some of us should stick to singing in the shower. I come from a family of horrible singers lol
Hope the gods aren’t too picky.
Nah…I’m sure the gods laugh their god like backsides off at people like us who don’t sing.
I mean, it’s good for a laugh-
Gods are mercurial sorts. Who really ever knows.
Well. You can always dance. These guys were pretty tired though dancing for them was probably out of the question.