Lighting the Seventh Fire

Book excerpt: In Ceremonies of Renewal, everything from the movement of the sun to the stability of society is in a state of flux. It is through negotiating compacts with the energies of the universe and carrying out periodic ceremonies of renewal that stability and balance can be ensured. Thus, the People of the Plains meet each year to celebrate the Sun Dance, which is performed for many days around the sacred cottonwood tree. They claim this ceremony plays its role in maintaining the harmony and balance of the cosmos. For the author, the Sun Dance became his introduction to the world of Native American science. In sacred mathematics, numbers are not abstract, static things, but living entities that transform one into the other. And history is not written down but passed on by storytellers who recount events of past generations, including migrations that took place before time as humans experienced it.