Photo: Sun Worship in Monatana
Charles M. Russell
Humans hurtle through space making elaborate worshipful movements. As they hurtle, they point their bodies in endlessly intriguing ways. The human body is like an arrow: the tail of the arrow is the soul and the tip of the arrow may be directed with surprising flexibility toward things in its vicinity, earthbound objects like crosses or banners or monuments or books or carpets or clergy or idols. The human arrow is also easily directed toward faraway, more mysterious objects like the sky or the planets or the sun.
More importantly, the arrow of the body may also be directed toward what feels like another realm. The human arrow points there almost instinctively. For some humans, the pointing happens once a week; for other humans, the pointing happens five times a day. The nature of this other realm is difficult to describe in words. Fortunately, such a description is not the topic of this essay. Enough songs and bibles have been written about that lovely and terrifying land. Let’s turn our attention from
where the arrow is pointing and focus instead on
how the arrow is pointing. Let’s inspect the human arrow itself, and how it bends religiously.
