With Beauty May I Walk

Walking In Beauty Song, The Navajo People (The Diné)

The Navajo prefer to be called the “Diné” meaning “The People” or “Children of the Holy People”

–Navajo People website [Navajo People – The Diné].

Leon Podles

“The religion is a [monotheistic] religion of healing, both bodily and spiritual. Evil is being out of harmony, out of the Creator’s plan of beauty for the world. This beauty must be restored by a Sing, which involves dances, songs, and the sand paintings which are the portal through which the Ye’i enter our world. All their prayers end with the equivalent of Amen, Hózhó náhásdlíí.”

–Leon Podles [It Is Finished in Beauty. Dialogue, Podles.org, 2 May 2010, Navajo People (The Diné)].

Another Variant of the Walking In Beauty Song

O’siyo: The following traditional prayer is from the Navajo People [the Dine’] and can be found in many places. The original author of this beautiful blessing is unknown. Some say that reading the words bring peace and calm. We have found this to be true…

Walking in Beauty: Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony:

In beauty I walk

With beauty before me I walk

With beauty behind me I walk

With beauty above me I walk

With beauty around me I walk

It has become beauty again

Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me

I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.

I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.

I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.

I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.

I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.

Through the returning seasons, may I walk.

On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.

With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.

With beauty behind me may I walk.

With beauty below me may I walk.

With beauty above me may I walk.

With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.

My words will be beautiful…

Hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shideigi hózhóogo naasháa doo
T’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa doo
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’

Linguistic Note: The word “Hozho”  in  Dine’  (roughly translated) Concept of Balance and Beauty. Consideration of the nature of the universe, the world, and man, and the nature of time and space, creation, growth, motion, order, control, and the life cycle includes all these other Navajo concepts expressed in terms quite impossible to translate into English.   Some Navajos might prefer the term: “Nizhoni” meaning  ‘just beauty.”

–Robert S. Drake, for Tom Holm, Ph.D. [University of Arizona American Indian Graduate Studies Program, Native American Religions and Spirituality].