Interpretation of Ancient Navajo Chants by Annie Khan


He who is all wise, all knowing, brought to the Navajo people something like a Holy Book except that the Navajo could not write at that time so He gave it to them in the form of chanting. To chant is to speak in rhymes like poetry so that the ancient wisdom is remembered longer. This chanting is like the Holy Scriptures. It tells the Indians what to look for at the 'Time of the End' when he would come to the people again.

One of the Holy Medicine Men said that the 'Time of the End' is like two more stages to climb forward: the first is to have the Spirit of the people live again, and second, the people shall melt into one, meaning that true love between people shall be practiced. In the chanting He (the Great Spirit) has said that He is expected in the east, but also expected in the west. As He comes and brings these good things of the spirit and of love it will be the most happy and glorious occasion.

The 'melting into one' is like the wonderful feeling of the Navajo girl when she falls in love and says of her beloved "Hey John, how I melt when I see him!" But the love of the Great Spirit and of mankind that comes in the New Day is so great that all the world's afflictions and its dangers can in no way harm us.

In the chants it says that when this New Day comes to us it is like the birth of a new baby, like a mother bringing her new baby home from the hospital. Everybody in that home cries" "let me hold the baby!" even the grandmothers, even down to the little ones, all cry: "Let me hold the baby; it is so clean; it is so fresh; it is so wonderful!" So the new religion is clean and fresh in the same way because it has none of the prejudices and misunderstandings that the older religions have accumulated down through the centuries.

The new Faith comes also to the Indians like the Sun at dawn. As the sun rises it touches the peaks and buttes first with it's light; then slowly it moves down into the canyons. The light is at first visible only to a few who are awake, high up and watching. Some of the Navajo and other people Indian peoples are like people down in a deep canyon. They are listening for the Voice of the Great Creator, but do not know where to look for it yet because the dark shadows blind them. But there are some Indians who are as if they are on the mountain tops and they begin very early to dance and sing with joy when they see the Glory coming.

The fact that the new Light is said to come like the dawn warns us that, even as the early sunlight rises up through the mists of morning and slowly drives away the dark shadows of the canyons, so the coming of the New Teaching will not be widely visible at first, but will reach in the beginnings only those whose whose spiritual eyes and ears are open. It is taught, however, in the chants that even the people down in the dark canyons will hear the Voice of the Great Spirit and they will search for Him until they also receive the Light of the New Day. Many of the Navajo people now believe that this glorious light has come, but we must seek it out with understanding hearts, even as lost children seek for their father in the wilderness.


Navajo...

The chants say that there are two signs of the New Spirit that all the people should look for. The first sign is the NINE POINTED STAR that must come from the east. The number nine is the sign of the highest unity, for all members can be found in this one number, and so all religions and races and nations will come together in love and unity under the sign of the NINE POINTED STAR. (NOTE: the nine pointed star is one of the symbols of the Baha'i Faith) Another sign of this coming is that there will be a great chief in the east who will wear (symbolically) a headdress with twelve feathers. The chants say that these twelve feathers mean twelve great principles that He will bring to mankind. If we search carefully we will find that these twelve principles of world unity have already come to the world and, even in this day, are beginning to bring people together in unity, understanding and love.

In the Unity Chant the Great One says He will come like the dawn and like the Shepherd who gathers His flock and brings all the wandering sheep back together again. In the Day of Unity you will walk in beauty; the beauty will walk before you; the beauty will walk behind you; you will be surrounded by beauty. Through the beautiful writings of a new Prophet of God, these meanings will become very clear. Man himself in this Age has found many ways to create beauty. With all these beautiful things we must now have beautiful minds. With beautiful hearts we will talk in beauty. The speech of all men will be in beauty.

Again in another place in the chants He says that those who speak with beautiful speech will lead the world to beauty and He says the center of this beautiful speech comes from a Holy Mountain. What is the most Holy Mountain in the world? Is it not Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land where the Bible says "...the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, They shall see the glory of the Lord?"-Isaiah 35:1-2 This is closely linked with the Promised Day of the New Spirit when "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like the rose." Today, Mount Carmel, which, only a few decades ago was nothing but desert, is now being covered with beautiful gardens. From there we are beginning to hear the Message of Beauty and of the Spirit that is awakening the World. So are the prophecies of all peoples of the Day of Unity being fulfilled.

These prophecies of the Navajo clearly foretell the coming of Baha'u'llah
with the symbol of the nine pointed star.


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Much of the material on this homepage consists of extracts from existing Baha'i publications, but also included are a number of insights and comments about prophecies which are entirely the author's own understanding and, as such, do not necessarily represent the official position of the Baha'i Faith.

This article extracted from a booklet published in 1963 by:
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