From Black Elk Speaks, the fourth ascent of Black Elks Great Vision of the Flowering Tree and the Hoop of the Nation. Black Elk: "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 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. A