Wakan
Wakan is a term used by the plains Sioux to refer to the important principle of Force.
Syncretic Terms
Force > Imagination, Mana, Miwi, Nu Shug, Orenda, Perspective, Prana, Wakan, Will, Yang, Zaki
Notes
Wakan is will, the force of will, action in the world. "Wakan is not a mystery, something ethereal to be worshipped in the abstract. When Black Elk sings the western grandfather's song for Neihard--"The thunder nation is appearing, may you behold" -- his words reflect the emergence of warrior energy in the people.....Black Elk...learns that instead of passively receiving protection from the spirits, the must seize the power to live."[1] It is the warrior energy, the power available to all people to take responsibility and act/change the world. The will and energy to change the world. The warrior's job, in addition to defense, is to invoke wakan energy in the people.
Wakan is a basic principle, antagonistic to notions of the "Great Spirit" which "was either a missionary imposition or an oversimplification of Lakota belief offered by elders attempting to explain their spirituality to non-Indians. When a person prays, he or she must already have a firm resolve and a basic plan. The spirits can only supply the tools, not the will or the purpose, and man must initiate the relationship." [2]
Footnotes
- ↑ Rice, Julian. Before the Great Spirit: The Many Faces of Sioux Spirituality. University of New Mexico, 1998. p. 23 https://amzn.to/2C9fM5E.
- ↑ Rice, Julian. Before the Great Spirit: The Many Faces of Sioux Spirituality. University of New Mexico, 1998. p. 29.
