Welcome! I am a contemplative thinker and photographer from Colorado. In this blog, you'll discover photographs that I've taken on my hiking and backpacking trips, mostly in the American West. I've paired these with my favorite inspirational and philosophical quotes - literary passages that emphasize the innate spirituality of the natural world. I hope you enjoy them!

If you'd like to purchase photo-quote greeting cards, please go to www.NaturePhoto-QuoteCards.com .


In the Spirit of Wildness,

Stephen Hatch
Fort Collins, Colorado

P.S. There's a label index at the bottom of the blog.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

It is the job of humans to connect the material, spiritual and supernatural powers.


"God put Three Powers into the world for us to use.  We need them all.  We Indians know all three.  It took us a million years to find them.  There's the material power, the spiritual power, and the supernatural power.  The material power is the goodness of this Earth.  The spiritual power is the goodness of human beings.  The supernatural power is the goodness of God, the Great Spirit.  The Three Powers are separate.  They're not connected.  It's the job of human beings to make that connection.  We connect the Three Powers with our prayers, with our ceremonies, with our deeds.  Every good deed is a pillar of the Creation.  Every prayer holds up the world.  Our ceremony, our Sun Dance, keeps the Universe in harmony by connecting the Three Powers . . . The third power refers to God Himself, the Great Mysterious.  You can't use it for yourself.  That's sorcery.  IT'S supposed to use you."

Noble Red Man (Mathew King), Lakota elder

Photo: Bear Lodge from my campsite, Devil's Tower National Monument, WY; May19, 2012

No comments:

Post a Comment