A PRAYER FOR HEALING (Navajo Night Chant) 
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     You who dwell in the house of dawn,  
     In the house made of the evening twilight,  
     In the house made of dark mist,  
     Where the zigzag lightning stands high on top,  
     Oh, male divinity! Come to us, come.  
  
     With the zigzag lightning flung over your head,  
     come to us soaring!  
     With the rainbow hanging high on the ends of your wings,  
     come to us soaring!  
     I have made the right offering;  
     I have prepared a smoke for you.  
  
     My feet restore for me,  
     My legs restore for me,  
     My body restore for me,  
     My mind restore for me,  
     My voice restore for me  
     Today take away your spell from me.  
     Far off you have taken it.  
     Happily I recover.  
  
     With beauty before me, I walk,  
     With beauty behind me, I walk,  
     With beauty below me, I walk,  
     With beauty above me, I walk,  
     With beauty all around me, I walk,  
     In beauty it is finished.  


  
     Beauty, harmony with Mother Earth, and walking in balance
seem to involve the same concept.  Thus, in the CHAOS that is
around us, we still may walk in beauty.  The healing rituals of
the Navajo all are based on the concept that illness is a
disruption of the beauty that envelops us.  By the way, Changing 
Woman is the important spirit in Navajo religion, with others
such as male divinity assisting.  I once read that the Bishop of
Fairbanks, where a very large part of the native population are
of the same cultural goup as the Navajo, has almost NO conversion
succcess.  It seems that the Dineh's matriarchal tradition see no
point in the patriarchal structure of the RC Church!!  What goes
around, comes around. May you walk in beauty.   
 
                                                  Maureen Brucker