(Notes from a one week course taught at Schumacher College from 9 - 13 Nov 2015, teachers Loretta Afraid of Bear, Linda Delorimer and Tim 'Mac' Macartney.)
Ceremony and Ritual
We are always in ceremony. Life is a ceremony. The ancestors are around and they are listening. They want to help us, if only we would to ask. Nothing about ceremony is a contest. Be prepared each day of your life to get involved and to be challenged. As in life, ceremony has beautiful aspects and hard aspects. You don't have to make excuses for anything. You are part of the ceremony whether you go inside the inipi (Sweat Lodge) or not.
The first grandfather was rock. In the beginning there were four gods - Sun, Air, Earth, Rock - in the four directions. This is known as four to the fourth power. The rock grandfathers know everything. If you are in a place of huge challenge you can say to them, 'It is too hard for me, I am going to give this pain, question, issue back to you because I do not know what to do with it.' Our time on Earth is short. Make this time count. Feed the grandfathers in ceremony. Ask the grandfathers for help and healing. Take care of yourselves in this most critical and challenging of times, where many are governed by convenience and commerce and not those activities that are regenerate and life bringing. Be humble and respectful of the natural ways. YOU can make things happen. The holiest time is between 1.30 - 3.00am in the morning. It is the most holiest and magical time for an inipi.
In 1883 native peoples in North America were prevented by law to practise their ceremonies. This pushed these ways underground until the law was relaxed in 1978 and repealed in 1994. It has only been 21 years that Inipi and other ceremonies life the Sundance have been legally and openly practised again.
There are certain times in the year to observe sacred practises. These are similar if not the same for all indigenous traditional peoples. Such as, new moon and full moon, or the solstices' and equinoxes. The purpose of the Inipi at 1am is to activate our dreams. Woman on their moon do not enter the lodge because they are already in a powerful and activated state. We all gather the following morning and share our dreams.
Lakota/Oglala Creation Story
Indigenous peoples often practise an oral tradition in the telling of stories and history. Loretta Afraid of Bear comes from a long lineage of ancestors who do just the same when telling their creation story. So it was for us on the first evening, we sat and heard the story to begin all stories.
We call the Creator, movement. That movement brought about where we are today. We are all star people. Women bring everything. Women bring life. Women are the co-creators. It is important to be in sync with spirit. Put spirit first. Place life at the centre. Every action has consequences. There are no rules and yet we seek balance and to bring balance back.
Take care of family. Take care of the old people. Take care of the children.
There is a spiritual connection to bring us in sync. We don't have hierarchy. Women own everything. There's a balance that comes with that. Every race has original instruction. Native Americans have their instructions. Do the indigenous peoples of the British Isles have a memory of their instructions?
People are going to start waking up. Who is responsible for taking care of the Earth? The Lakota people say that in the mountains of Asia and Africa some of this knowledge is being kept.
White Buffalo Calf Woman brought Lakota the sacred pipe. She was black, red, yellow and then finally white. First came the black people in the west, then the red people in the north, followed by the yellow people in the east and finally the white people in the south. The common thread between them all is spirituality. What is it within our spirituality's that we can all link together?
There is a place where we all are the same colour, we are one race, the human race, and our palms remind us we are one, as all palms no matter what your heritage are the same colour. This is a powerful way to be reminded of our commonality. This also links us back to Pat McCabe and the five fingered ones, as the human race is known. By showing our palms we are all one.
Let's Dream
When in ceremony it is important to be attentive to everything going on around you. The next morning after the Inipi we sat in circle and shared our experiences of our night and day dreams. Two different themes arose from the group sharing. The first was 'Water', which appeared strongly in three people's dreams. It was suggested they walk to the river Dart near by and bring water back to our alter for us to be humble before. The second theme was the sacred feminine and masculine. Again this dynamic came up in many sharings that day.
We were reminded that transformation is hard. That we are going to feel things strongly and yet not to be sombre about it. Life, the work, ceremony is all about relationship. It's about building relationship. This is the cosmic flow and we don't want to interrupt the movement.
During ceremony, particularly Sundance, the highest offering we can make to Spirit is our flesh. Woman give from the top of their arms. Men from their chests. When you are making a decision your body knows the answer. The giving of blood and flesh is particular to Sundance. In the UK, Martin Shaw strongly recommends not to cut flesh or give blood as it communicates to the spirits in a way we may not wish to encounter. Menstrual blood giving is a different matter again. When in ceremony everything is in conversation. Be attentive. Listen. And most of all be kind.
The Lakota have seven sacred ceremonies.
- Keeping the Soul
- Sweat Lodge - Inipi
- Vision Quest
- Sun Dance
- Making Relatives
- Puberty Ceremony
- Throwing of the Ball
We stand in sacred space all the time. The idea is when in sacred space we all hold one another and we move about with complete freedom. This is how it should be. The themes that arise within the group during ceremony alert us to where our fears are and what is open to transformation. It is the twin path. The intertwining of the practical, down to earth and grounded part of life with the loftier spiritual, imaginal and invisible part of life. Where the profane and the sacred meet. We are all walking the twin path, each of us finding our own balance and relationship between the two aspects of life. When in ceremony the spirits teach us songs and provide us with other messages to bring back to our communities, to our village. Remember ultimately there is nothing to fear in our world, not even death.
Inipi - The Sweat Lodge
I - you
Ni - energy inside our bodies
Pi - all of us together as one
Our bodies do not forget how to heal themselves. Inside the inipi what one person feels we all feel. Our ni recognises each others ni. When someone has stress or fear we can smell it. Don't feed the negative energy by saying bad things. When things are 'outwards', negative or out of balance it is not so much what happens as how we respond to what happens. We have to help one another. Healing, ceremonies and rituals are coming together. The Lakota do not have a word for compromise. To find balance does not mean giving up your values, your needs or your alignment. Duality and wholeness co-exist. That is the way. That is the twin path. And that is paradox. It all comes together by being in relationship. Participating in the whole. Bringing what you bring and contributing this to your community. It is about seeking to listen to the whole and by being good to one another.
Overwhelm, Discomfort and Pain
The ancestors are waiting for us to let them help us. They are always there, ready and willing. We are being asked to lean in to the void, to the abyss, to our fears, discomforts and pain. It can be overwhelming. It can be a barrage of feelings, memories, images, nightmares and all kind of difficulties and challenges. Remember it is ok. Our mind creates the abyss and our hearts cross it. The way through is to feel it all and be with it. Listen to the message trying to be heard. What is the truth wanting to be spoken. The river beneath the river.
Discomfort and pain is a hard place to inhabit. Native people have been through excruciating challenges from previous attempts at genocide and removal from their land, sacred sites and ceremonies. This is on-going. Native peoples understand the discomfort.
Indigenous peoples ask in such times: what is available? are all the elements of earth, air, water and fire in play? Go to safe and holy places. When you feel unseen go to places where you feel witnessed. Ask, what are the protocols? what is allowable? What allows this sacred space? What do you want to bring into it? Ask your elders for permission to do this? Ask, what are you trying to get out of this? What is it you need to receive from the ceremony? Is it a guidebook, teachings or witnessing. And finally ask yourself, how will this be good for my people? If you can answer these questions you will have something tangible.
Elders are the wisdom keepers of tradition.
Children are the future.
Adults are the bridge.
On the twin path it is essential to attend to both strands - the practical/domestic and the holy/sacred. I commit to attending to craft and using my hands to make things in 2016. I commit to learning sacred song, playing my drum, journeying in pilgrimage the sacred sites of the British Isles and to being in circle.
No comments:
Post a Comment