Walking the Red Road with Abrahamic Astrology, Black Elk and Terri Jean

3:43 AM Wednesday.

Let me begin by quoting a couple of sections from my 10 October 2025 Friday afternoon post:

This coming Monday morning, on Columbus and Indigenous Peoples' Day, I am taking Mom out for breakfast to celebrate her 82nd birthday. That makes it an extra-special Old World-New World Convergence Day for our family this time around. There are some interesting things happening astrologically on Monday, too....

I see that at 5:25 PM here in Albany on 13 October 2025, Neptune will be on the Ascendant, opposite Venus on the Descendant, in a kite aspect with Pluto and Uranus. It's a very interesting chart. Venus has just entered 0 degree 0 minutes of tropical Libra, forming a grand air trine with Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini. The tension-release point is Neptune at 0 degree 12 minutes of Aries, right on the Ascendant. I've made a free-writing follow-up appointment for 5-7 PM Monday evening.

Thirteen days later, on 23 October 2025, I wrote the following:

Monday, 13 October 2025 (the release of the remaining living hostages from Gaza; Columbus Day; Indigenous Peoples' Day; and my mom's 82nd birthday) ended up being such a watershed moment in my spiritual development that I couldn't bring myself to write from 5-7 PM as intended and haven't been able to write until now. 

Taking into account all that has happened during this period, on top of all that has come before, I am revising my life mission (the title of my blog) from "Discerning a Christian Vegan Eremitic Vocation with a Psychiatric Disability" to "Discerning an Abrahamic Eremitic Blogging Vocation with a Psychiatric Disability." 

Less than a day later, I was moved to write this:

This weblog is now nearly seven months old. It's a transformational end-of-Pisces Abrahamic newborn with a mind of its own, but I have plans for it, too. My name is Jonathan Wade Maxson, and I am the humbled, awe-struck father of this emergent literary miracle. Allah may in turn be the father of us both. I am not yet sure, because I am not yet sure if I believe in the oneness of Allah or the prophethood of Mohammad. I also have some questions about the absolute divinity of Jesus and the interpretation of Torah by God-fearing gentiles. All of this said, it's a good time for me to name my literary offspring. I will call it...drumroll please...the Book of Jonathan.

(Tropical western astrologers may be interested to note that Mercury is in Scorpio forming a grand water trine with Jupiter in Cancer and Saturn in Pisces as I make this decision. It's 4:07 AM EDT on 24 October 2025 CE in Albany, New York). 

The Book of Jonathan is surely not inspired in the same way or to the same degree that the Quran, New Testament, and Tanakh are inspired, but I am not yet ready to say that my magnum opus will prove entirely uninspired by the God of Abraham in the last analysis. So much depends on our understanding of prophethood, the minor prophets, the ultra-minor prophets, the living canon, and the intersection between a psychiatric disorder and veridical Abrahamic revelation. Much also depends on the future of my psychotropic-assisted cognitive performance. With enough of God's grace, the Book of Jonathan could eventually land somewhere in the ultra-minor "vegan climate alarmist" school of Gen-X Abrahamic American prophecy. But perhaps I am significantly misreading my potential.

I didn't stay with the Book of Jonathan for very long. I quickly realized the title was much too grandiose.

Now, however, I am wondering if the Creator doesn't want me to see the Red Road as the path that Abraham walked from Ur to Canaan, and the path that all of Abraham's faithful descendants have walked ever since:

https://share.google/aimode/jHTPC3weCY0qySaXd

The conjunction between Neptune and Saturn in Aries adds intriguing additional significance, astrologically speaking, to Saturn's next 29.5-year cycle through the natural zodiac (from the beginning of Aries through the end of Pisces). I am tempted to call this the "Saturn Red Road" for anyone interested in Abrahamic Astrology and Black Elk's teaching who wants to take the journey with me. We are looking ahead to Columbus Day and/or Indigenous Peoples' Day on Monday, 11 October 2055. The chart here in Albany at 5:44 PM puts Saturn on Ascendant in Aries and Jupiter on the Midheaven in Capricorn. This will follow a rare Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Pisces that powerfully concludes this "Saturn Red Road" cycle:

https://share.google/aimode/XbJgcIwD5okQA2jHx

Please don't hold me too tightly to this. I am just putting it out there provisionally to see what the Creator sends back. I am still a good distance from deciding whether or not to say that I am on the Red Road as Black Elk taught it. A lot depends on just what Black Elk meant. I've ordered a print version of The Sacred Pipe to get very clear about just what the written text says, and I also expect to be consulting with contemporary Black Elk scholars.    

This is deeply connected to the question of what I should do about Terri Jean's 365 Days of Walking the Red Road. Today I did a good bit more Google Gemini research into the question, which you can see here:

https://share.google/aimode/EwQRVHETy7I1zAac9

Here is my question thread:

• Do we know for sure that Terri Jean, author of 365 Days of Walking the Red Road, is not a Native American?
• Has Terri Jean publicly addressed claims of cultural appropriation?
• Has anyone spoken on Terri Jean's behalf about the controversy?
• Has her book been cited as helpful by any in the sobriety and recovery movements?
• Have any Native American scholars criticized the substance of the book, or just the author's alleged lack of Native American ancestry credentials?
• To be absolutely clear, no one has brought forth proof that Jean lacks Native American ancestry, and she has not addressed the allegation one way or the other, is that correct?
• The back of the book says that Jean founded the Red Roots Educational Project to enlighten Native Americans about their history and culture - does one need to be a Native American to provide this kind of education, or can non-Native educators play a supporting role here, too?
• What about books like 1491 by Mann and Indian Givers by Weatherford - can these books enlighten non-Native Americans and Native Americans alike about Native American history and culture?
• So the content of these books is what determines their capacity to enlighten Native American students about their history and culture, not whether the authors themselves are Native American?
• But no scholars have proven that Terri Jean lacks Native American ancestry, and even if she does, no scholars have proven that the content of the book misrepresents Native American history or Red Road teachings - is that correct?
• Was the Red Road concept first taught and defined by Black Elk, and was he both Native American and Catholic?
• Do we have any reason to believe that for Black Elk, the Red Road and the Christian path were contradictory?
• Where in print do we have a record of the "Red Road" as a reference to the path of salvation as opposed to sin in Native American thought prior to Black Elk Speaks [The Sacred Pipe]?
• Do the Sioux see the Red Road as their own tribal intellectual property, or do they see it as pan-Indian intellectual property, or do they see it as American and world religious heritage?
• From a US legal perspective, is the English term "Red Road" to describe the way of salvation as opposed to sin as taught by Black Elk the exclusive intellectual property of the Sioux, or is it in the public domain?
• What about the term for "Red Road" in the Sioux language as understood by the Sioux people themselves without any English connotations - is that a different story legally?
• Even if US law protected indigenous intellectual property, wouldn't the people who buy the Black Elk books have a first amendment right to talk about his Red Road vision and teaching in public?
• Do scholars generally believe that Black Elk wanted his visions and teachings to belong only to the Sioux, or did he want them to be shared with a wider American and world audience, including among non-indigenous people?
• Is there a Black Elk educational center in Sioux country and can people make donations to the Sioux on its behalf?
• In both Sioux and Christian tradition, when someone is grateful for a gift, is it common to want to give something back to the giver, as well as to share the gift with others?
• Does Oglala Lakota College offer any fee or donation-based online courses for non-indigenous to learn about Black Elk and his vision and what it means for the world?

Taking all of this into account, I think what I am probably going to do is carefully read Jean's devotional alongside all the rest of the content the Creator seems to be lining up for my Native American studies program. I like the structure of Jean's devotional, which feels just right as a focal point for me in 2026. I am not ready to cancel a non-indigenous author (if she is) just because she is labeled as "New Age" by traditionalists. If I get into the devotional and it becomes clear that Jean is misrepresenting herself, Native American history, and the basic ethics of the Red Road, I won't hesitate to stop reading and let you know why. So far, I am not seeing any evidence that Jean's devotional is anything like a Lynn Andrews book.

This said, I will be looking directly to Black Elk and Black Elk scholars for authoritative Red Road teaching.

End 7:00 PM.