Great Spirit
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The Great Spirit is an omnipresent supreme
In the Lakota tradition, the Great Spirit is known as Wakan Tanka in Lakota,[1][2] According to Lakota activist Russell Means, a more semantically accurate translation of Wakan Tanka is the Great Mystery.[3]
In the
In the Algonquian tradition, the Great Spirit is known as Gitche Manitou.[5]
Due to perceived similarities between the Great Spirit and the Christian deity, "God", European colonial missionaries drew comparison between the two deities as a Christianization conversion technique.[6]
Conceptualization
The Great Spirit has at times been conceptualized as an "anthropomorphic celestial deity,"[7] a god of creation, history and eternity,[8] who also takes a personal interest in world affairs and might regularly intervene in the lives of human beings.[7]
Numerous individuals are held to have been "speakers" for the Great Spirit; persons believed to serve as an earthly mediator responsible for facilitating communication between humans and the supernatural more generally. Such a speaker is generally considered to have an obligation to preserve the spiritual traditions of their respective lineage.[8] The Great Spirit is looked to by spiritual leaders for guidance by individuals as well as communities at large.[9]
While belief in an entity or entities known as the Great Spirit exists across numerous indigenous American peoples, individual tribes often demonstrate varying degrees of cultural divergence. As such, a variety of stories, parables, fables, and messages exhibiting different, sometimes contradictory themes and plot elements have been attributed to the same figure by otherwise disparate cultures.[citation needed]
Wakan Tanka
Wakan Tanka (Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka) can be interpreted as the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, resembling some animistic and pantheistic beliefs. This term describes every creature and object as wakan ("holy") or having aspects that are wakan;[10] tanka corresponds to "great" or "large".[11]
Prior to the
Chief
- From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things – the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals – and was the same force that had been breathed into the first man. Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery.[13]
Manitou
Gitche Manitou
The
According to Anishinaabe tradition, Michilimackinac, later named by European settlers as Mackinac Island, in Michigan, was the home of Gitche Manitou, and some Anishinaabeg tribes would make pilgrimages there for rituals devoted to the spirit.[16]
Other Anishinaabe names for such a figure, incorporated through the process of syncretism, are Gizhe-manidoo ("venerable Manidoo"), Wenizhishid-manidoo ("Fair Manidoo") and Gichi-ojichaag ("Great Spirit"). While Gichi-manidoo and Gichi-ojichaag both mean "Great Spirit", Gichi-manidoo carried the idea of the greater spiritual connectivity while Gichi-ojichaag carried the idea of individual soul's connection to the Gichi-manidoo. Consequently, Christian missionaries often used the term Gichi-ojichaag to refer to the Christian idea of a Holy Spirit.
Native American Church
The contemporary belief in the great spirit is generally associated with the Native American Church.[17] The doctrine regarding the great spirit within this modern tradition is quite varied and generally takes on Christian ideas of a monotheistic God alongside animistic conceptions.[18][19] The number of adherents to these contemporary beliefs in the great spirit are unknown, but it is likely they number over a quarter million people.[17]
See also
- Hail to the Sunrise, 1932 statue
- Appeal to the Great Spirit, 1908 statue
- Native American religion
- Aṣẹ
- World Soul (disambiguation)
References
- ISBN 0521605903, pg 26.
- ^ Marks, M., & Fauteck, L. (2007). Great mysteries: Native North American religions and participatory visions. ReVision, 29(3).
- ISBN 0312147619pg 241.
- ^ McDonald, Thomasi (2023, November 16) | Duke Today.Recapturing the Indigenous roots of lacrosse
- ISBN 0313347794pg 35.
- ^ References: Schoolcraft, Henry R. The Myth of Hiawatha and other oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric of the North American Indians. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1856. Brehm, Victoria. Star Songs and Water Spirits, a Great Lakes Reader. Ladyslipper Press. 2011.
- ^ a b Cave, Alfred A. Prophets of the Great Spirit: Native American Revitalization Movements in Eastern North America. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2006. Google Books. 2006. p. 3.
- ^ University of Nebraska, 2006. Google Books. 2006. Web.
- ^ "The Great Spirit". www.phy.duke.edu. Duke University. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
- ^ ISBN 0-8263-1868-1.
- ^ "Great". New Lakota Dictionary Online. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
- ^ Helen Wheeler Bassett, Frederick Starr. The International Folk-lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893. Charles H. Sergel Company, 1898. p. 221-226.
- ISBN 9781567319934pg 15.
- ISBN 9780231114523.
- ^ The Life of Tecumseh.
- ^ The Americas: International Dictionary of Historic Places The Americas: International Dictionary of Historic Places; editors:Trudy Ring, Noelle Watson and Paul Schellinger. Routledge, Taylor & Francis; 1996; p. 349].
- ^ a b "Native American Church | North American religion | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- OCLC 276406250.
- .