Chapter 24 The Story of the Hair — from my book Changes

Chapter 24

The Story of the Hair

Tom taught us a pipe ceremony, which he called the first ceremony, or, the personal pipe ceremony.

The reason he taught us a ceremony was to give us something to occupy our busy minds.  He also called any ceremony a “hair”, and told us The Story of the Hair.

The Hair —

There was a farmer walking along the road one day and he saw a demon sleeping on a boulder nearby.  The farmer was excited because he had heard if you capture a demon, it will serve you.  So the farmer snuck up on the sleeping demon and caught him.

The demon woke up when he saw he had been caught and asked the farmer to give him a task to do.

The farmer was delighted at his change of fortune and told the demon to go plow his field for him.

The demon took off at a run and in only a few minutes the demon was back, saying, “It is done,” and asked for another task to do.

‘Wow,’ the farmer thought, ‘this is great!’  And he told the demon to go milk his cows.

The demon left, and was back shortly, saying, “It is done,” and asked for another task.

The farmer started to think bigger since the demon was so fast, so he told the demon to build him a nice big house.

The demon, after only being gone a few seconds said, “It is done.”

Then the farmer told the demon to run his business and make him rich.

This time, the demon didn’t even leave and said, “It is done.”

The farmer was beginning to run out of things he could think of for the demon to do.  The farmer was also becoming frightened because the demon was growing larger and scarier, waiting for the farmer to tell him what to do.

“Give me something to do!” The demon roared, as it loomed menacingly over the farmer.

In his panic the farmer started running away from the demon, who began chasing him.

The farmer could hear the demon pursuing him, and as the farmer rounded a corner he saw a shaman on the path.

The farmer quickly told the shaman that a demon was chasing him and asked the shaman to please, please save him.

The shaman pulled a long curly hair out of his head, handed it to the farmer and said, “Tell the demon to straighten this hair.”  Then the shaman disappeared.

The hulking, drooling, gigantic demon caught up to the farmer with hunger in his eyes and screamed, “What shall I do?”

The farmer, shaking in his boots, not knowing what else to do, handed the hair to the demon and said, “Straighten this.”

The demon pulled the hair straight.  When the demon let go of the hair, it curled up again so he had to pull the hair straight again and hold it there.

As the demon was kept busy holding the hair straight, he shrank back down to his original size and held onto the hair, keeping it straight for the man.

Once the farmer saw the demon was under control, he took the hair from the demon and told the demon to take him home and put him to bed for a nap, and make a nice dinner for he and his wife.

The demon obeyed,  put the farmer to bed and prepared a sumptuous feast for the farmer and his wife.

The farmer sat down to eat and handed the hair to the demon, telling him to straighten it, which the demon did.

From then on, until the farmer needed the demon to do something for him, he had the demon straighten the hair.

                                              . . .

The ceremony, Tom said, is like the hair because it gives your busy mind something to do so it will quiet down and allow the spiritual communication to come through.

The ceremony is a crutch until you can quiet your mind without it.