Four Sacred Mountains (R. Carlos Nakai - Song For The Morning Star)

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Description

"The Navajo religion is defined by and cannot be separated from its relationship to specific geographical places. These sites are sacred because of special religious events which have occurred in that particular site.

The Navajo people believe that the Creator placed them on land between four sacred mountains: Blanca Peak in Colorado, Mount Taylor in New Mexico, the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, and Hesperus Peak in Colorado.

According to their own history, the Navajos have always lived between these mountains. The Navajo people have been instructed by the Creator never to leave their sacred homeland.

The story of the creation of the Navajo people and their emergence onto their sacred homeland is recounted in a ceremony known as the Blessingway, which is the foundation of the Navajo way of life. Blessingway focuses on the story of Changing Woman, who is the inner form of the Earth through its seasonal transformations. She is the major deity for the Navajo.

The Navajo are instructed that in the beginning, First Man and First Woman emerged onto this world near Huerfano Mountain in New Mexico. One day, First Man found a baby on a nearby mountain. The baby matured in four days and became Changing Woman. Changing Woman created the four original Navajo clans from her body. Her sons rid the land between the four sacred mountains of dangerous monsters and made it safe for the clans to inhabit. The Blessingway recounts in detail the instructions Changing Woman gave to the Navajo people she created. These teachings concern history and major religious practices, such as girl's puberty rite and the consecration of a family's hogan. When performed in its entirety, the Blessingway is a two-day ceremony whose purpose is to obtain peace, harmony, protection, and to help realise the goal of a long happy life.


The number four is sacred to many Native Americans. There are four sacred mountains, four directions, four colors, four worlds, four sacred plants, four sacred stones, and four times of day.

Time and space are defined by the four cardinal light phenomena: Dawn (white, east); Midday (blue, south); Evening Twilight (yellow, west), and Night (black, north).
The four cardinal light phenomena are results of the sun's apparent daily motion. These phenomena are a composite of the four directions, the four times of day, and the four sacred colors linked with them.

A Navajo thinks of the east, Dawn, and the white color of the sky at the beginning of the day. This is the thinking direction.

At midday, the association is with the south which is usually "horizon blue" or "blue haze" in reference to the band of relatively darker blue that lies on the horizon at midday. This is the planning direction.

Evening twilight is associated with the west and "around the area becomes yellow". This is the evaluation direction.

Darkness is associated with the north and with the blackness of the night sky. This is the direction of change.


The four sacred stones of the Navajo are: turquoise, white shell, abalone and jet."



"R. Carlos Nakai (born April 16, 1946) is a Native American flautist of Navajo/Ute heritage.

In fact, he began his musical career as a trumpet player, but a car accident left him unable to continue playing this instrument and he turned his hand to flute instead. Nakai's first album, Changes, was released by Canyon Records in 1983, and since then he has released more than thirty-five albums with Canyon, plus additional albums and guest appearances on other labels."

CD: Think Global - Native America // Oxfam House