The Sweat Lodge

Share thoughts and ideas regarding what can be done to meet contemporary humanity's need for rites of initiation and passage.

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Clemsy
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The Sweat Lodge

Post by Clemsy »

I have been involved with the Ndakinna Education Center for some years. Both my sons have been involved in their camp programs, my oldest now works as a counselor and I am on the board of directors. The founder, Jim Bruchac, is of Native American descent (Abenaki) so the program is heavy on native culture, particularly Abenaki and Mohawk.

Jim's father, Joe, is a well known author and story teller and very well versed in native lore. Last year I was fortunate in being invited to particpate in my first sweat lodge experiece with Joe and another member of the Ndakinna (an Abenaki wordwhich means "The Land" pronounced en-dah-kee-NAH) board. Quite a special experience.

Last week I received an email from that same board member inviting me to yet another sweat, but this time my oldest son, Aidan, was invited. This was yesterday, which just so happens to have been his 16th birthday.

This was completely unplanned, and is one more example of the Universe speaking. What a gift!

He was tasked with starting the fire, and was given the place of honor, the middle position, in the lodge. In preparation, we each (there were 6 of us) made seven tobacco bundles (a pinch tied in a piece of cloth) tied along a length of string which was hung above our place in the lodge. We were also given a turkey feather, wrapped with string at the base.

We were purified with sage smoke and entered the lodge in order, and clockwise, saying in Abenaki a phrase which means "All my relations." After the rocks, which had been cooking in the fire long enough to make them glow, were placed in the center (and each sprinkled with a pinch of cedar) and door flap closed leaving us in complete darkness, Joe touched sweet grass to the hot stones, filling the space with a delightful aroma. Then each, in turn, offered thanks, or a blessing, or whatever came to mind, and chose how many cups of water to pour upon the stones.

After each round, the flap was opened and more rocks brought in. After the third, our bodies glistening, dripping with cleansing sweat, we exited to cool down. After a cup of water, and a little chat, we entered for one last round.

What a remarkable moment for Aidan! My heart swells with pride thinking how well he carried himself, and how indelibly the moment will remain carved in his memory.

Sixteen is a seminal age. What a perfect way to celebrate and mark the day.

What a gift!

Imagine if we had something as powerful for all our children.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

JDW
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Post by JDW »

Clemsy,

Your post made me smile; I wish there were more opportunities such as these for our young children. How I WISH my parents would have introduced me to the Sweat at that age. You are doing a wonderful job, truly.

I was introduced to the Sweat through Black Elk Speaks, which incidentally changed me forever. I was honored to be the Fire Keeper, after much deliberation, prayer, pipe making, ect. ect. at a women's retreat. A wonderful dear friend of mine helped me construct our own willow lodge on our property and later I attended a true Cherokee led sweat; it was terrifying. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding, life changing events of my life. I have never been so scared, panicked, and then thrown into peace like I've never known in the span of 3 hours. Purifying indeed. My husband was deployed at the time and I had much to pray for, much fear to loose. Of course my first true sweat had to be one where the leader asked for all the rocks to be brought in at once. Let's say it was hotter than anything I've ever felt and the sweat had two levels, I happened to be towards the center, on the top level. As you know, heat rises. I learned after the second door, to inch my way closer to the stones but on the blessed cool ground where I was able to dig my fingers into the dirt and cool my palms. I was one of the youngest and also the weakest. What a true humbling experience. Listening to the sacred Lakhota songs, crying in the pitch black lodge surrounded by unknown people, all going through heartache and in need of true purification-pounding on my chest to the drums, sharing the sacred pipe...it was like being close to God-to Great Spirt-the Divine, right there in the heat and fire, a true intitation.

Thank you for allowing me to "go back there". I hope, once they are of age, my children will know the Sweat as well. Your son will never forget.
Blessings,
JDW

Clemsy
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Post by Clemsy »

Hi JDW!

Wow! Your experienced sounds like it was quite the ordeal. Ours wasn't to that level, but it was nonetheless cleansing. The lodge is out in the forest surrounded by white pine, hemlock, maple and birch. Peacful and still. Perfect.

Joe told us how the sweat was banned for over one hundred years, and was only legalized after the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act of 1978 was passed.

Humans can be so bizarre.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

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Post by lone_wolf »

Clemsy--
That's the way it should be done! My experience with sweat lodges was at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron New Mexico. We stripped down, got in, had our sweat, and on getting out, we were pelted with hail stones half the size of golf balls. We had to run barefoot (ouch) a quarter of a mile to our campsite with buckets over our head. Metal Buckets. You might as well have stuck your head inside a bell. I really enjoyed the sweat lodge though, even though at 14 I didn't know exactly why, or what it meant. Perhaps I'll have the opportunity to do it again with a ore fully articulated knowledge of why it is significant.

The Adventure Continues,
LW

JDW
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Post by JDW »

I've been meaning to add...which I should have the minute it occurred-that a rather tall mouse skittered into the front door when I was posting about the sweat. My first thought was: how damn fitting. Ha Ha Ha! I thought of Fear and how I had overcome I so much after that profound sweat. Anyhow, the mouse ran into the house and under a little frontdoor dressing stand (the only way to describe it). I smiled, amused, and slowly walked over and looked under. He didn't see me right away, but ran out from under thinking which way to go-and then he saw me. He had huge black eyes and stood on his haunches. He immediately ran out and into the unknown. What is so amazing is that the day of the sweat, years ago, which I did not really have prior notice (my friend called me that morning), a large black snake (possibly a King or Rat) slithered up to our open front door and almost slid in. As my mom was visiting and would have had a coronary (she thinks we are a tad crazy living way up in the mountains to begin with), I ran up to the door and commandeered him back out. He slid off and under the deck. I Knew that Spirit was giving me a sign-I think of sweating, opening of pores, like shedding and consuming large amounts of energy or information or experience-what have you-as Snake does when consuming a prey. It was synchronicity or Sign...I knew I was meant to go to that sweat, eventhough I was scared, knew I'd be alone and had no knowledge of where I was going or who would be there. I took a risk, like Snake or Mouse for that matter, coming into my house-my Self.

Lone Wolf! Being pelted with hail-a gift from the Thunder Beings! - An awakening? How awesome that would be. A sign to be sure, but funny-really. Made me laugh. I would be wondering if I should go back inside and sweat some more... Sweating during the Summer, in New Mexico (I was raised in Arizona, so I know) would be challenging to say the least.

At any rate, I thought you all would appreciate the Mouse visitation.

Mitakuye Oyasin

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Post by Vissi »

Clemsy, JDW, Lone Wolf, Everyone,

Clemsy, congratulations on such a meaningful coming of age celebration for your Aidan. I also have an Aidan in my family and as you already know, the meaning of the name Aidan is "fire" so to have a sweat as the occasion of a young man's welcome into the beginning of manhood seems truly auspicious, a great blessing and honor.

Having been raised in Oklahoma, the cultures of many First Nations were (and are) part and parcel of daily living but it wasn't I until moved to Arizona I took part officially in sweats through the generosity of a remarkable Ojibwa lodge keeper and her family. Her ritual is somewhat different than those detailed here owing primarily, I would imagine, to her teachers' rites as given to her.

While the rocks were placed in the fire, we all sat in a circle outside the lodge and spoke our intentions for the ceremony and where we as people were in our lives. The lodge keeper then decided which directions we would sit inside the lodge, who would offer sweet grass, who would offer sage, copal, and who would hold which musical instruments for the sing. She is training, in the ways of her traditions, a young woman to be a lodge keeper and a young man to be fire tender. Once inside the lodge, the grandfather stones are greeted and honored as they are brought inside, the smokes offered, songs sung, the pipe lifted to the protectors and guardians of the directions. As the pipe is passed, the lodge keeper offered prayers and questioned those in the lodge about why they had come and offered guidance regarding how to honor whatever was received in the intense blackness of the womb of the lodge (this sweat was at night, on other occasions, sweats were held during the daylight hours). There are four rounds of sweats with breaks for water and cool down. For me, these occasions have been most beautiful.

One of my favorite stories associated with sweat ceremonies was when shortly after having received a medicine wheel teaching from a friend in which she told me there was no fire in my wheel, one of the grandfather stones rolled off the shovel and onto my foot. The fire tender was so apologetic and asked me for weeks how my foot was and I had to laugh and tell him it was all O.K. that whatever "fire" I needed in my life had obviously shown up. To me, since he was the chosen fire tender, I felt I'd been given a "tender fire" for my life.

Thank you to everyone for sharing your stories. It's an honor and a blessing to read them.

Help Set 350, Peace Now,
Dixie

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Post by deus_ex_machina »

Clemsy, I experienced a sweat lodge in 2004. It was a very cleansing and spiritual experience for me. I was 34 that year and it was a rite of passage to a place in my life where my own personal mythology began to converge and become known to me. It is not without a sense of irony that I read just today on page 38 of The Inner Reaches of Outer Space the following passage:
In the way of nature one may experience, from time to time, glimpses of the world in this light--after pelvig bioenergetic commitments have been honored and fulfilled, so that freed from the dictatorship of the species, one is released to live as an individual (some little time, say, after the age of about thirty-five).

I consider my sweat lodge experience the beginning of this realization, a cleansing of my past in order that I may be prepared and open for what lay ahead. As I near 40, I find so much of what puzzled me when I was younger has become clearer.

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Post by Evinnra »

As they say: life begins at fourty. (Even for those who don't get to go to a sweat lodge.) Perhaps it is at fourty that we feel confident enough to make our first summary of our life?

Cheers,
Evinnra
'A fish popped out of the water only to be recaptured again. It is as I, a slave to all yet free of everything.'
http://evinnra-evinnra.blogspot.com

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Post by Aquiessa »

Yes, we replaced those deep wonderful rituals with boys clubs, and now I see the boys clubs are disappearing. There is no place for a young mind to turn to get his or her berrings anymore. What an empty existence. It's wonderful that your son was willing to partake in this. It may change him and set him on a very different path in life that may not become apparent until later on. :) It may make all the difference to him. Sounds good! :)

PS, my grandson's name is also Aidan!
~ Don't follow Gurus who pale in your shadow ~

~ Do not speak to me of caged birds, unless it is to tell me you have set one free ~

~ Wherever there is a master, there is a slave ~

~ Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Give a man a religion and he'll starve to death praying for a fish ~

Clemsy
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Post by Clemsy »

Aquiessa,

Hi, Aquiessa! A bit of a belated welcome to the JCF forums! I've read your posts and am intrigued and delighted to have such a voice around!
It's wonderful that your son was willing to partake in this. It may change him and set him on a very different path in life that may not become apparent until later on.
We've been really blessed to have access to the Ndakinna Education Center. The opportunity to learn from Abenaki and Mohawk elders has been invaluable for my family but especially for both my boys.

Cheers,
Clemsy
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Aquiessa
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Post by Aquiessa »

Thank you Clemsy. Nice to meet you!
~ Don't follow Gurus who pale in your shadow ~

~ Do not speak to me of caged birds, unless it is to tell me you have set one free ~

~ Wherever there is a master, there is a slave ~

~ Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Give a man a religion and he'll starve to death praying for a fish ~

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