The Spirit Path Read Free

passed all the tests required of him and now he faced the biggest test of all. His courage and his confidence had always been strong. He prayed fervently that they would not fail him now.
     
    The evening before the chosen time, he went down to the river to be alone.
    A chill wind blew down out of the mountains, whispering to the cottonwood trees, sighing as it danced over the tall grass.
    Shadow Hawk took a deep breath. He refused to admit he might be afraid to enter the sacred cavern, that the calling of a holy man might not be his.
    He squared his shoulders and shook off his doubts. If Heart-of-the-Wolf could travel the Spirit Path and return unharmed, so could he.
    Shadow Hawk smiled faintly as he recalled years past, remembering how awed he had been at the old medicine man’s unerring predictions of the future. Heart-of-the-Wolf had always known when it was time to move the village, where to find the buffalo, how to avoid the white men who ventured into their country.
    Shadow Hawk had marveled at the old man’s powers, but now he knew where those powers had come from. Now he knew that the Cave of the Spirit Path was more than just a legend.
    And tomorrow night he would enter the cave and learn its secrets.
    Shadow Hawk shivered as a gust of wind embraced him, whispering in his ear that once he crossed the threshold of the sacred cave he would never be the same again.
    Standing there, gazing at the starlit sky, he saw a great black hawk soaring overheard. Closing his eyes, he willed his spirit to join with that of the hawk and he felt himself soaring upward, felt the power and wisdom and patience of the hawk flow through his soul, and he knew that no matter what happened at the cave, his medicine spirit was still with him, still strong.
    Gradually, the spirit of the hawk faded, leaving him feeling refreshed and at peace. Tomorrow night he would enter the Cave of the Spirit Path.

Chapter Four
     
    Shadow Hawk left his mother’s lodge early the following morning, walking purposefully toward a quiet bend in the river to offer his Dawn Song to Wakán Tanka. It was a song of joy that lifted to the sky like the sacred healing smoke from a holy fire; a song that told of the earth and the sky and the great circle of life with the Great Spirit in the center, and man yearning to be a part of it.
    “ Hee-ay-hee-ee! ” he cried, lifting his arms overhead. “Help me, Wakán Tanka , guide my steps.”
    He lowered his arms, listening to the sound of the river as it eddied and swirled at his feet, to the carefree song of a bird as it flitted from tree to tree. In the distance, the vast Lakota horse herd grazed on the short yellow grass.
    Looking up, he gazed at the clear blue sky, felt the warmth of the new sun caress his bare shoulders and chest, and once again he lifted his arms overhead.
    “Hear me, Wakán Tanka,” he murmured earnestly. “Grant me the courage to do what must be done to help my people.”
    He stood there for an hour, his heart and mind sending silent prayers to the Great Spirit as he prepared himself to do what must be done.
    At the appointed time he went to the sintkala waksu with Heart-of-the-Wolf. The medicine man had dug a small iniowaspe , or pit, in the middle of the sweat lodge to hold the sacred stones, which were called inyan . The pit made a circle within a circle, representing life which had no end. The door of the lodge faced the setting sun, the floor was covered with a blanket of sage. The dirt which had been removed from the iniowaspe was used to make a small mound about two paces from the entrance. The mound was called hanbelachia , the vision hill.
    Between the pit and the hill, the dirt had been cleared to form a path called the smoothed trail, which symbolized the path Shadow Hawk would travel to find his vision. Tiny bundles of tobacco were attached to sticks and placed on the west side of the vision hill; the sacred pipe was also placed on the hill, its stem facing east.
    Naked, Shadow