Black Elk Peak, South Dakota
- Cindy Anderson
- Aug 8, 2025
- 9 min read
Ceremonial Record — Lion’s Gate of 8/8/25
At times of alignment, Ruben and I travel to sacred sites—energy points within the Earth’s memory grid, a living network that holds the story of our planet. We go to pray, sing, and offer healing, so the Earth may release old wounds and return to balance. If you feel the same call, I invite you to walk this path with us. Together, through our intention and presence, we can help the Earth remember wholeness.
Why We Chose Black Elk Peak
The Black Hills (Paha Sapa in Lakota) are a mountain range of ancient granite, over 70 million years old, rising from the vast open plains like a solitary island. Black Elk Peak is not only the highest point of the Hills—it is the highest elevation between the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Pyrenees in Europe. From its summit, one can see across five states: South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota.
On the Earth’s energetic map, the Black Hills are more than mountains: they are a vital node in the great network of ley lines — with the First Nations Ley Line running east to west, and the Rocky Mountains forming the planet’s spinal cord. From this spine, the volcanic chain of the Cascades acts as a junction of fire, carrying signals up and down the continent.
To climb Black Elk Peak on 8/8 — during the Lion’s Gate alignment of the Sun, Earth, and Sirius — is to stand at a crossroads of heaven and earth. It is here that ancestral memory, cosmic alignment, and planetary energy converge, making the mountain a living altar in the Earth’s body.
From this summit, the Lakota holy man Black Elk saw a vision that revealed the unity of all beings. He said:”
"Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.”
August 7, 2025 — Dream of the Choctaw Warrior
The night before the climb, I set my alarm for 4:00 am. In my dream, a Choctaw warrior appeared. He shared his life story of strength, knowing he can do anything he set his mind to.
The first time he met a white man on a thin, ragged horse, who looked at the Choctaws' well-fed, strong horse. Perceiving ill intent, the Choctaw warrior swiftly struck him down and took the weak horse to his village. There, the horse regained its' strength and was set free. However, the free horse choose to remain with the Choctaw. The warrior, returned the horse, its coat gleaming with health—as a gesture of peace.
Later he married, and his wife bore a son. His heart was full, his only desire was to see his son grow into a warrior. But tragedy came—his wife and child died of smallpox, breaking his heart completely.
In my dream the Choctaw stated to me:
“I have come to give you strength to climb the mountain.”
August 8, 2025 – Lion’s Gate —The Mountain Ceremony
The next day we awoke early and I asked my husband if he had ever heard of a Choctaw tribe? Ruben said “No, I have never heard that word.”
Hmmmm…..Because, I did not recognize the name either.
The early morning motorbike ride took 1 hour. In the parking lot we took off all the motorcycle gear and put on shorts and hiking sandals. This is our longest hike and it will take us 4 hours to climb to Black Elk Peak!
The trail is beautiful in the morning sun with flowers of every color! I pick a small handful and notice flecks of quartz crystal and mica within the granite that flicker and gleam in the sunlight. The granite rock formations are tall, beacon-like, and remind me of the stone circles in Ireland and England. Stone circles across the world were shaped from many kinds of rock, yet granite was often chosen for its crystalline, piezoelectric nature—amplifying the energy of the place. But here, it is the Earth which has formed the massive upright stones, and rooted to the planet's core these granite spires reach to touch the sky.
My legs are shaky at the last half mile. The climb became more steep and the path is now marked with hand hued stairs. At the summit is a fire lookout built in 1938–1939, its construction a wound upon sacred ground. For the Lakota, the mountain is an axis mundi, a meeting place of Heaven and Earth, and part of their sacred star map that mirrors the constellations, including Sirius.
Together, we entered into ceremony. Ruben’s flute carried a song to awaken the spirit of the mountain. With the cross pipe, we offered prayers—to the Four Directions, to the ancestors, to all our relations, to Earth and Sky. The Light Language flowed as a living prayer, and at the end the pipe was lifted to the heart, sealing the offering within.
Above us, the Lion’s Gate stood open—the Sun, Earth, and Sirius in cosmic alignment—illuminating our prayers. The cross pipe’s smoke rose to the sky as the Light Language called for peace and abundance for All Nations, and the pipe stone was presented to the Mountain.
Through it all, I felt the warrior’s strength supporting me, guiding my heart and spirit as we stood in that powerful, sacred space.
With tired legs and empty stomachs, we began the long four-mile descent. I realized quickly that if I let myself complain, even in the smallest thought, the heaviness was amplified. But when I kept singing the Light Language, my spirit was lifted and my body felt stronger. So I sang all the way down, carried by the song until we reached the end of the marked trail.
August 10th
From the vision at Black Elk Peak, I understood that the healing process would unfold in three layers: the first small, the second much larger, and the third overwhelming.
1st Vision: Three Flowers
A sprout emerging from the earth (the place where we stood ) that grew into a vibrant yellow flower. From out of that flowers’ bloom; a new sprout grew and blossomed into a second yellow flower. And then again, from the second flowers’ bloom; grew a third sprout that flowered. three beautiful blooms, one after another.
Within the heart of the final flower, the Choctaw warrior appeared reunited with the family he had lost. They embraced fully and lifted together into the stars! As this vision unfolded, I heard many, many voices make the celebratory cry! “Ho! How ya! How, ya how! Ya how, ya how!” I felt at peace.
August 11 — 2nd Vision: Three Circles
The vision came not in sequence, but as a full downloads of memory and knowing.
I became aware of deep agony, where in brief, swift, snaps of memory I was shown many types of acts of suffering. One, I looked into the eyes of a young soldier and saw the horror within him—for he had just slain a young Native girl who bent over towards the ground, shielded her younger sibling. His spear pierced them both at once. At that moment, the soldier realized himself to be a monster. He had not chosen to be a soldier; but was bound by orders; then he too was killed. The souls of the fallen splintered, and sank into the earth, leaving fragments of suffering bound into the land.
Out of earth and surrounding region, like hoops of hoops, arose Red man and White man. The perpetrators (young soldier) and victims (young native girl and sibling) were tied; not by rope or chain, but by karmic loops of fragmented terror, hate and fear. The Light language, as a healing balm for release of the collective trauma, guided these fractured souls, asking for the release of hatred. Circles formed, where perpetrator and victims joined hands; red man and white man——women, children, elderly—moving together. Three rings dancing. The inner ring counter clockwise, the second ring in a clockwise and the outer ring counterclockwise. hate and fear; could then hold hands and dance in a sacred hoop.
Then the bison came forward, the countless ones slaughtered without respect. The language of light lifted them as a great herd, ascending toward a star.
Then the Mountain revealed herself; she made of animals and creatures of every kind, seen and unseen, known and unknown. Circles of flowers covered the place where we had stood in ceremony at Black Elk Peak. And, the mountain took breath as the face of the Earth lifted up through the peak into the sky. The living mountain took breath through Her!
I felt the healing. My heart overflowed, and I sang in gratitude. Later, in the shower, still singing, a bear appeared playfully through the curtain and licked my face. And I laughed out loud, knowing it was a kiss of gratitude from the mountain.
August 12 —3rd Vision: Buffalo Ancestral Healing
My third vision came in flashes of memory, as countless people and animals of every form and kind gathered from all directions.
One
I saw from the perspective of a male bison—Through his eyes, and from him I witnessed—the anger this bison felt as he lay upon the ground, injured and unable to stand up. He saw and watched the skin peeled off a cow and young calf, they lay upon the ground before him, in his view. But many more bison were strewn upon the land, dead or suffering. The smell of blood, the sounds of suffering all around him.
And next, this same strong male bison, who was still alive, he himself was skinned alive, until he did die. The hate and vengeance held in the heart of the bison echoed like a drum strike, a resonance; as bison are connected to the land. Looping out against the one who caused this suffering to himself, his herd, his tribe. Return what was given; skin the man who skinned him, like a vibration moved outward rippling the grass as a wave.
I stood in the space between, I prayed with the pipe on my knees before that great male buffalo. From every direction , so many, many gathered who had suffered ………..more and more came of the memories and trauma. In my minds eye, we, the looping of circles, see all the stories of those who are tortured and skinned………nausea grips me ……..from within came a voice telling me to sing…………….
(The bison herds collapsed from 40–60 million down to less than 500 by the late 1800s. The white settlers, killed buffalo in masses.)
Two
Next, I was given a second vision of being a young Native American hunter, as myself being him, to witness countless buffalo bodies strewn upon the ground. Their carcasses partially destroyed, their skin removed, flies swarmed over them. And I felt that I saw my family lying there, skinless on the ground! I fell to my knees in such dismay, unable to comprehend the scale of death and suffering before my eyes…..why was their skin was missing? ….. arms out, my face to the sky......... I cried the song for the dead; for the loss of family as my sacred ancestors!
As flashes of memory another unfolding wave; smallpox ravaged and killed.
And another wave unfolded; the exodus (the trails of tears)
And another wave revealed how policies of that era placed bounties on Indigenous lives—even the scalps of men, women, and children became currency for violence.
The scalped Red man and the skinned body of the bison became mirrors of the same wound. Both used as economic incentive for genocide.
Three: Completion of a Sacred Contract
The Light Language came…. for the buffalo and the song wrapped around the bison and I saw the many bison reunited as a herds of herds eating grass. I lay upon the earth with my arms and legs spread wide, as bison grazed around me, making the sounds of when they eat.
A small white flower bloomed in the grassy valley of the Black Hills From the mountain to the valley, and valley to the mountain, beside the flower, a spring begins to flow. The waters — sacred, bitter as medicine — gathered into an eye of glass at the summit of Black Elk Peak. There, the stars reflected, An eye opened into a portal above the water.
Through this gate, many departed,
the spirits of all who had gathered transitioned in a place of harmony
The last I saw was the Bear,
But then, reaching backward with his arm, through the funneling portal eye
A young Indian warrior — Held in his
hand a small white flower offering it to me
I reached out, but it was my inner child
A hand so small that received the flower
The eye folded shut and the portal closed
I holding the flower
in peace.
The Hoop Remembered
In vision and ceremony, the voices of warrior, bison, and mountain rose together. What was broken - mended. The hoop of the world remembering wholeness.
The End.
— Arzayana —
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