Black Elk Speaks

At the height of her vision, she is visited by the wise Lakota shaman, Black Elk, who appears to her surrounded by a cloud of beautiful butterflies -- gold and black monarchs, painted ladies, orange gossamer wings and many others, in all hues of the rainbow.  

"These are my people," he says, offering them to her.

"Take them and help them in their need. It is your task now." The butterflies swarm over to Meredith, enveloping her in a cloud of light feathery wings. Overhead the songbirds chirp their approval and the birds of prey dip their wings. 

Slowly the images fade.  

The Sacred Forgotten

After a moment, Meredith's vision moves on to the Fourth World, the modern world of her own time, where the sacred has been forgotten. People are no longer living in harmony with the ways of nature, with all creation, but instead strive to conquer and exploit the earth, to steal and plunder her riches, without respect or reverence for her bounty.

Here they begin to worship the power of the machine, the power to control all things. Like a terrible disease, the world of mechanical gray man begins to swallow up and suffocate the beautiful green-blue planet.  Dreadful visions of the suffering earth appear before her eyes.  

Vast rainforests burnt down, contributing to global warming. Deserts grow larger.