Nag’i ksapa (nah ghee ksah pah)               Lakota

Etymology of ni, life:

            ni                                           alive, living

            mni                                        water, fluid, flowing

wamniomniye                        whirlwind, spiral

kini                                        come to life, spirited

            wani                                       I live

            niye                                        h/she breaths, respiration

            woniye                                    the value of life, and breath

            woniye wakan                         the sacred breath, air

            wani’etu                                  time of life (struggle,) winter

            inipi                                         they the force of life, the rite of purification

            ini okag’e                                the purification lodge, perspiration

            inikag’a                                   make, do, participate in the purification ceremony

            wichoni                                   a people’s collective space-life in time, generation

            wanikiya                                 giver of life: word used for savior, and Jesus in

                                                           hymn books; in prayers and songs in the

                                                           Native American Church. 

The  words based on ni,  give a sense of renewal.  There are plants, people, songs, and rituals that surface to make the spirit of life continue.  The purification ceremony is done before all other ceremonies.  The trust that is born from the intimacy of this ritual inspires the novice to know that the creator breathed life onto man.  The Lakota pour the water on the hot stones placed in the center pit in the purification hut to reenact the inspiration of the breath of life.  Mitakuye oyas’in.

Interview Questions

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Edwin: When was the first time you personally experienced the sense of nag’i ksapa?

Jerome:  My first nag'i ksapa happened when I was four winters old, and my first day of knowing I was a participant on Earth (the great ceremony.) That was the first day of the 1949 blizzard on the great plains. I was sitting on the edge of my bed with mackinaw coat, red overshoes, mittens, stoking cap, and quite warm. My grandmother was hanging quilts on the oblong windows to keep the cold out. She was on a chair and pounding with a hammer. As the objects outside came bouncing and crashing on the side of the log home, she would tell what it was that hit the outer wall. Perhaps she was describing each sound to ease any fright that I may have. What frightened me was the hum high in the sky. I was familiar with the whistles around the edges of the home in varying octaves, the hum was scary and new, and loud. My grandfather cradled a wash basin in his arms and was sprinkling the stovepipe to keep the red glow from reaching the ceiling. The little pot-belly stove was shaking from the up-draft from the strong wind. Panic state was here, but these two grandparents took control of the frightening situation. I was scared to consciousness, scared alive. I always say that this day was my birthday, when I knew I was cared for and loved, when I knew I was alive, nag'i skapa. This stayed the strongest in my memory.
 

Do you  know of any artwork that express some aspect of nag’i ksapa?

I once say a painting of a grandpa sitting with a small boy and telling him perhaps a story. He would probably remember the stories, because they are told again and again. A story heard as a small child will have a different meaning for the teen listener and the adult. By the time elder hears the same story he will know it was necessary. Each had a different perspective, and each became more wise. When one views a movie more than once h/she sees something missed before.

Flowers tell us much. Some flowers blossom early in the spring some a little later in the spring, others in early summer, then some in mid summer and so on. Humans are like the flowers: Some of us become conscious of life's surroundings very early, like the early spring of our lives, others a little later in spring, some in early spring and so on, that is four years old, ten years old, twenty years old of the early summer of our lives, others forty years old and become responsibly aware to leave some mark for our history, others even later. There is nothing wrong with this, it is just that we blossom in our season...or become nag'i ksapa...at all.
Floral designs on dance regalia mean a lot for me, the practical art. The art of caring for plants.
 

How is nag'i ksapa similar or different from the English inspiration?

Nag'i skapa has a permanence, experience memory. Like the imaginary ratchet that only moves forward and doesn't turn back. A traumatic experience is also remembered for a long time. The Lakota have a latent knowledge of the spirit as, perhaps, most humans do, the Lakota tell of the wanag'i or the spirits in stories and at times in everyday conversation. Inspiration, the way I hear it, is more fleeting, but we can act on an inspiration. Nag'i ksapa is more a human condition.

Have you had an experience of nag'i ksapa while taking part in a purification sweat lodge?

Many times I have experienced meaningful revelations both physically, in my heart, and mentally. Once I knew that the inipi was going to be very hot. I knew I would not last, that I would holler for the door to be opened by traditionally saying, "miyakuye oyas'in, all my relations." But I must stay in because I am a singer and must stay and sing. I concentrated and the extreme heat was a cool breeze. I looked up and say in the center of the hut a perfect hole to the blue blue sky.  Inspiration: I am inspired to speak to everyone of the miracle "I believe that there is help when we strengthen ourselves." Nag'i skapa: h/she came to help.
This is probably the only time anyone asked me this type of question.

My experience just happened the way I described and hoping for strength to withstand the heat. The outside temperature is about 100 degrees, so the inside heat in the lodge would be hotter than usual even with very little water on the stones. I gave myself to anything that may happen, I will concentrate on the song. I did not anticipate a grand happening such as what I saw at the top of the center of the lodge, the opening. The knowledge of the spirit showed itself, "wise to the spirit" happened. When something happens, and no one else sees it, it is special. At my age it is meaningful to tell about it. When I was younger, the passing on of stories of renewal didn't have as much meaning as now.

The part you wrote about the sweet lodge reminded me of how I like to go to natural hot springs to take a soak. Working at the computer all day as well as all the worries and cares of life get me all tensed up. To relax, I like to go to the local hot springs. Going from the hot, hot pool into a cold one and back and forth gets the ni flowing in me again. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long after getting home to get in the same state 'lifelessness'.