not to pee into it! To this day, I've yet to try it.

lol

Or it will be some Dyson slicin' of the worst kind for me!

Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2024, 04:21 AM - Edit history (1)

the wind has multiple colors.

When the song was popular back in the 1990s, I kept wanting to reverse the words so that they made more sense.

Instead of, "Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains, Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?" I wanted to sing "Can you paint with all the colors of the mountains, Can you sing with all the voices of the wind?"

In visual language, mountains signify creation, sacred space, connection to the ancestors and the land. Singing with all the voices of the mountain symbolizes healing, the higher vibration of deep spirituality, harmony and beauty.

One of the interpretations of the 'four directions' is the Blessingway, four corn-pollen footsteps:



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.

Above and below me hovers the beautiful
I am surrounded by it
I am immersed in it

The mountains, I become part of it
The herbs, the fir tree, I become part of it.
The morning mists, the clouds, the gathering waters,
I become part of it.
The wilderness, the dew drops, the pollen
I become part of it.

From the doorway of rainbow,
The path out of which is the rainbow,
The rainbow passed out with me,
The rainbow rose up with me.
Through the middle of broad fields,
The rainbow returned with me

With the rainbow hanging high over your head, come to us soaring.

With beauty before me
With beauty behind me
With beauty above me
With beauty below me
With beauty all around me

It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
'Sa'ah naaghéi, Bik'eh hózhó

The Night Chant

a few words of Dine language, from reading the books of Tony Hillerman and his daughter, Anne. The last line of the chant that you posted looks like it might be Dine.

I wonder, though, if the Algonquian nations of the Powhattan Confederacy in what is now Virginia held the same beliefs and perspective. They were the people being depicted in the film.

While the Disney film was more about marketing than historical accuracy, the lyrics do mention the sacred hoop, which would explain 'the colors of the wind' in the song.

"Shamanism" is, indeed, a spiritual practice but it refers to the practice of a person traveling between the physical world and the spiritual one through trances, use of plants, and various other techniques. Similar to what we would call a medium. A shaman does this for a variety of reasons, i.e. to heal people, drive away evil spirits, induce weather changes, protect people, ensure a good hunt, gain insights and self knowledge, etc.

Anthropologists do not agree on the use of the word shaman, which comes from Asia and was first used for describing the practices of one particular group of indigenous Asian people. The main problem and objection to the term is that it gets used across the board as a generic term for religious practices of a variety of indigenous people in Asia, the Americas, and Africa without regard for differences of belief or practices among such a wide variety of cultures. Many of them resent the term being applied to them.

Most Native Americans prefer the term medicine man or medicine woman. Some have specialized groups who perform sacred healing ceremonies rather than one person.

The term "sacred hoop" refers to the interconnectedness of all living forms -- plants, animals, and humans. That concept is in the lyrics of the song where it says, "And we are all connected in a circle, in a hoop that never ends."

It can also refer to the cycles of life, from birth to death to becoming part of the earth again which nourishes other life forms.

Some people would include things that Western world scientists call inanimate, i.e. rocks. For many indigenous people, even inanimate things in nature also have a life force, from rocks to stars to planets. Sometimes even human made objects have a life force, an essence or identity.

Yes, the circle, or sacred hoop can also refer to the 4 directions, the 4 seasons, and to the 4 colors of the hoop -- red, black, yellow, and white.

When I heard the song, I just did not connect the hoop with the singular word "wind" in the lyrics, so "colors of the wind" did not sound right to me. But, perhaps the song lyrics are supposed to be a reference to the colors of the hoop when they say colors of the wind and I simply missed the connection.