Chapter 1: The Initiation

[The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Gospel of the Stone]

"Long before there were nations, there was a People. Long before separate languages created a division among men, the People spoke openly to one another. Long before your books and written history were invented, the Record of the People was inscribed on the Land. The sound of their voices was carried on the wind, and their inner thoughts and emotions were like a fragrance that freely gives of itself when the flower of Human Expression blooms. Long before books existed, there were rocks, mountains, and canyon walls to absorb the sound of Human Love and to record the struggles of hope and pain. Great boulders captured Prayers intended for the sky. Sea pebbles heard sounds far more complex and Divine than those made by the monotonous and eternal waves of the tide."

I knew that the old Blue Bird Chief had never spent one day of his life in the White Man's Schools; but to hear him speak was like listening to a learned scientific scholar. Summing up, he said:

"The Earth is the Mother of the People, and she sustains them with her body and watches them grow. She teaches a 'Way of Life' to guide and nurture the People. She watches and listens and knows every secret; she remembers every trifling incident and keeps a record of it all."

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