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Lame Deer - Native American Indians - The Power of Four
Identifier
003110
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Lame Deer Seeker of Visions – John Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes
The ordeal of the vision quest lasts for 4 days because all things are enumerated in series of fours. There are four cardinal directions to which the peace pipe is extended. There are four elements combined in the inipi purification that precedes each ritual – fire, earth, water air...... there are four times four things, each representing part of the sacred circle that is the whole universe. Lame Deer said that his people do everything by fours because 'four is the number that is most wakan – most sacred'.