Brothers and Sisters
A colleague of mine invited me to a sweat lodge, which is a ceremony in the Native American tradition. She and her husband host these ceremonies at the times of the solstices and equinoxes as a way of bringing more consciousness to the change of seasons, and the ceremony itself is one of personal renewal.
When I arrived about 5 people were sitting around a blazing fire in a deep pit. We just sat and chatted, introducing ourselves again each time someone new joined the circle. As the time to enter the lodge neared we made prayer ties as a way of focusing our thoughts and capturing our intentions. Ties are made from tiny pinches of tobacco wrapped in squares of cloth whose colors represent the directions according to the Lakota tradition; earth (green), heavens (blue), east, childhood, new life (yellow), south, adolescence, ideals (white), west, adulthood, our personal gift to the world, (black), north, ancestors, wisdom, the realm between worlds (red) and the creator spirit (purple).
At around sundown (not that we could tell through the dense cloud-cover) we shed our warmer layers and entered the lodge, a frame of willow branches covered with layers of blankets. The prayer ties were hung from the willow frame and will remain in the lodge for 4 days and then be ceremonially burnt. The work of the lodge, the transformation, also goes on in us for 4 days.
The lodge is cool and dark and by now there are 13 of us and we do not have the luxury of sitting cross legged. Red hot rocks are brought into the lodge one by one and sprinkled with 4 sacred substances, sweet grass, sage, cedar and I forget the fourth. When there are seven in the pit in the center, the door is closed and we begin.
Prayers and thoughts are offered, songs are sung to the beat of a drum and water is poured over the rocks, making the air thick with steam. It is completely dark. It is a timeless realm inside the lodge, so nobody quite knows how long it is before the door is opened again.
There are four rounds, four times when more rocks are added through the open door. The first round is a welcome round, the second for prayers, the third for healing, and the fourth for gratitude. With each addition of rocks the air gets hotter and thicker and we are dripping with sweat and steam. By the fourth round our singing is more raw and I have to concentrate on every passing second, breathing deeply, to not be overwhelmed by the heat.
In prayers there is much talk of connection (an idea I am ruminating on a lot these days) to ourselves, to our actions, to others, to the earth. In the native American tradition, the stones are spoken of as our grandfather and the water poured over them as our grandmother and we who sit in a circle are brothers and sisters.
At the end of the last round we slowly leave the lodge and the air outside is like a perfect bath! Some folks hose off with cold water, but I feel cooked to perfection and change right into dry clothes. Everyone's faces are very rosy.
To bring ourselves back to earth we share a pot luck meal. Uncharacteristically, I am drawn to the stir-fried seaweed and the curly kale. We sit in communion over the meal and talk like the brothers and sisters that we are.
When I arrived about 5 people were sitting around a blazing fire in a deep pit. We just sat and chatted, introducing ourselves again each time someone new joined the circle. As the time to enter the lodge neared we made prayer ties as a way of focusing our thoughts and capturing our intentions. Ties are made from tiny pinches of tobacco wrapped in squares of cloth whose colors represent the directions according to the Lakota tradition; earth (green), heavens (blue), east, childhood, new life (yellow), south, adolescence, ideals (white), west, adulthood, our personal gift to the world, (black), north, ancestors, wisdom, the realm between worlds (red) and the creator spirit (purple).
At around sundown (not that we could tell through the dense cloud-cover) we shed our warmer layers and entered the lodge, a frame of willow branches covered with layers of blankets. The prayer ties were hung from the willow frame and will remain in the lodge for 4 days and then be ceremonially burnt. The work of the lodge, the transformation, also goes on in us for 4 days.
The lodge is cool and dark and by now there are 13 of us and we do not have the luxury of sitting cross legged. Red hot rocks are brought into the lodge one by one and sprinkled with 4 sacred substances, sweet grass, sage, cedar and I forget the fourth. When there are seven in the pit in the center, the door is closed and we begin.
Prayers and thoughts are offered, songs are sung to the beat of a drum and water is poured over the rocks, making the air thick with steam. It is completely dark. It is a timeless realm inside the lodge, so nobody quite knows how long it is before the door is opened again.
There are four rounds, four times when more rocks are added through the open door. The first round is a welcome round, the second for prayers, the third for healing, and the fourth for gratitude. With each addition of rocks the air gets hotter and thicker and we are dripping with sweat and steam. By the fourth round our singing is more raw and I have to concentrate on every passing second, breathing deeply, to not be overwhelmed by the heat.
In prayers there is much talk of connection (an idea I am ruminating on a lot these days) to ourselves, to our actions, to others, to the earth. In the native American tradition, the stones are spoken of as our grandfather and the water poured over them as our grandmother and we who sit in a circle are brothers and sisters.
At the end of the last round we slowly leave the lodge and the air outside is like a perfect bath! Some folks hose off with cold water, but I feel cooked to perfection and change right into dry clothes. Everyone's faces are very rosy.
To bring ourselves back to earth we share a pot luck meal. Uncharacteristically, I am drawn to the stir-fried seaweed and the curly kale. We sit in communion over the meal and talk like the brothers and sisters that we are.
posted by Eiren at 9:05 AM
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