Taken from the back cover of, Sun Dancing, A Spiritual Journey on the Red Road.

“Michael Hull, the first white man to be given a Sun Dance bundle and recognized as a Sun Dance Chief by traditional Lakota elders, has led Sun Dances in Texas since 1998. He works as a lawyer in Austin, Texas.”

I first read Hull’s book after returning from Pine Ridge, South Dakota seeking solace from having left my religious roots. His heartfelt search and hard-earned learning were a powerful inspiration to me. As I wrote in my request to Hull for quoting him here, “I came to the point of tears and gratitude. Mid book there was a place I actually knelt in prayer, to who or what I wasn’t sure! But it was the beginning of coming home.”

What follows from his book will only be the beginning installment, for he offers views on many subjects yet to be explored here at Liminal Insights over time.

-I think we need to share these pieces with one another, not because we trust each other, or like each other, or have a historical basis to have faith in one another, but rather because if we don’t do this we will not survive.

-It is my experience that God must be the center of my life. This special infinite, this hole without boundaries, is as jealous as the prophets said it was: it is of its nature that it can be satisfied only with itself.

-When I follow my heart, I am on the path. Following one’s heart can be a difficult and daunting task. One must learn to listen for the heart song, learn to hear and understand the language of the heart, become aware of and help clear away the filters that interfere with our ability to learn.

-Pain is not necessary for development but growth is necessary to experience pain.

-One of the barricades to getting to the place beyond knowing is fear, because it involves such a complete loss of control.

-Teachers stress the importance of service to others; in the crucible of service we experience the truth about where we are on our paths.

-…help me learn that the divisions I imposed between secular and the sacred or between the sacred and the profane are self-imposed divisions and that, in fact, all we see is sacred.

Michael S. Hull (2000) Sun Dancing, A Spiritual Journey on the Red Road. All rights reserved. Used by permission.