Teachings: Ceremonies & Spiritual/Medicine Tools
Practical Tools & Transformative Ceremonies
Ceremonies & Spiritual/Medicine Tools
Teachings
Over the decades, I’ve learned specific ceremonies and the ways to use specific spiritual/medicine tools both from my elders and from Spirit itself. In each case, where I have been given permission, I have shared this wisdom with my students.
A good resource for both beginner and advanced students is the book Dancing with the Wheel: The Medicine Wheel Workbook by Sun Bear, Wabun Wind, and Crystalis Mulligan, Simon & Schuster, 1991.
Ceremonies
For over four decades, ceremony has been an important and daily part of my life. The following lists what I consider to be the most important ceremonies that I have used on my own spiritual path and that I have taught my students.
Sacred Pipe
One of the most sacred rites of Indigenous peoples in North America, the Sacred Pipe is a portable altar representing the entire universe and is used to send prayers for self and others to Great Spirit. It honors:
- The four elements:
- earth (stone/wood),
- water (breath),
- fire,
- air (smoke),
- The four kingdoms:
- mineral (bowl),
- plant (stem/sacred herbs),
- animal (feathers/fur),
- human, and
- The powers of creation:
- feminine/receptive energies (bowl)
- masculine/active energies (stem).
From my very first experience of a pipe ceremony, I knew this was a medicine that I would hold close to my heart for my entire life. After becoming a pipe carrier, I eventually became a pipe teacher with the Bear Tribe. Over the decades, I’ve been gifted with my own sacred pipe ceremonies from Spirit. This is the medicine I still feel most connected with and the one that I still teach the most.
Sweat Lodge
The Sweat Lodge or Stone People’s Lodge is a purification ceremony practiced by many Indigenous peoples in North America. There is rich symbolism and teachings associated with both the ceremonial area (lodge, altar, fire) and the ceremony itself, honoring the masculine and feminine principles of creation, the four kingdoms, the four elements, etc.
In a sweat lodge as we practice it, stones are blessed and placed on an altar, which is subsequently set on fire, heating the stones for several hours. A low structure (the lodge) is covered with blankets and tarps and houses participants who humble themselves and crawl into it for the ceremony. There are four rounds during which heated stones are brought into the lodge and placed in a pit in the center. The door is closed and the ceremonial leader (water pourer) guides participants through a round of songs and prayers. As participants pray, water is ladled onto the stones causing steam to rise, which helps participants sweat out toxins and focus their prayers to cleanse themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A sweat lodge helps us connect with All Our Relations and returns us to right relationship with all of Creation.
We participate in sweat lodges to honor the solstices and equinoxes, to purify ourselves when we gather for other major ceremonies (e.g., Medicine Wheel Gatherings, Pipe Carriers’ Dances), and for times when we seek clarity, a return to balance, and healing.
Healing Ceremonies
Traditional peoples understood “healing” in a far more holistic way than we do in Western cultures. For them, it not only encompassed physical health, but also mental, emotional, and spiritual health. In the same way, their understanding of what constituted a “medicine” involved far more than substances they ingested. They used smoke (smudge), crystals and other stones, feathers, sound (drumming, rattling, song), trance, energy work, and more to help restore balance and reduce suffering not only for humans but for the Earth herself and our sisters and brothers in the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms.
We individually and collectively smudge ourselves, our spaces, and our medicine tools to cleanse and rebalance energies. We use feathers and stones and crystals to move energy. We use drumming, rattling, and song — sometimes coupled with shamanic journeying — to help achieve specific mental states, focus prayers, and open ourselves to Spirit to receive answers to our questions. We participate in sweat lodges to rebalance our energies and create right relationship with Mother Earth and All Our Relations. And we use our pipes in many ways to help bring healing for self, others, and the planet.
Vision Quests
Many traditional peoples believe each of us comes into life for a special reason. However, in Western cultures, most people don't know what that reason is and, without this knowledge, they can feel lost and confused.
A Vision Quest is used to help focus our thoughts and awareness and to open the door to Spirit to help us get the answers we seek. By going into the silence, via purification, fasting, isolation, and meditation, we can more easily meet our guidance and higher selves and gain understanding about what we are meant to do with our lives.
The Vision Quest was a rite of passage for young people in many tribes and adults at crossroads in their lives also could choose to quest for guidance about which path to take. I apprenticed for 9 years to Bear Heart, traditionally trained spiritual leader of the Muskogee-Creek Nation, to learn how to lead Vision Quests.
Drum, Sing, Dance
- Drumming: Whether done alone or in a group, drumming is a grounding activity that connects us with the heartbeat of Mother Earth and can be effective in shifting our minds to other states of consciousness.
- Singing: A form of prayer/entreaty that helps connect us with specific energies we wish to draw into our ceremonies and our lives, singing helps us pray, focus our intentions, and express joy and gratitude.
- Dancing: Moving prayer, dancing opens us up to the flow of life and helps us release energies that no longer serve us. It also helps us channel energy from the Universe down through our bodies and into Mother Earth. Like drumming and singing, dance can help us shift our minds to different states of consciousness, enabling us to access information and healing.
Shamanic Journey
This powerful and ancient practice is used to move our consciousness from the mundane world into different realms of Spirit to seek healing, missing objects, and gain information that is difficult to access otherwise.
Child Blessing
One of my all-time favorite ceremonies, a child blessing is often conducted when children are present in larger ceremonial programs or gatherings. Each child is smudged, blessed, and given gifts such as feathers, medicine pouches, special stones, or seeds.
Naming Ceremony
This ceremony is performed by an Elder who consults with Spirit for a new name for a person, then decides the timing, location, and circumstances during which the person will receive their new name. This can be done privately (as during the discussion that follows a quester returning from a vision quest) or publicly (as during a pipe ceremony, sweat lodge, or other gathering). Spiritual names should be treated respectfully as the sacred gifts they are.
Prayer Ties
Prayer ties are small cloth bundles tied to string and containing tobacco (with or without corn meal) and used to hold/carry a participant’s prayers and intentions. Different Indigenous peoples use different color fabrics and different numbers of prayer ties to represent the sacred directions or in honor of a particular ceremony (such as a sweat lodge or vision quest). Prayer ties can be carried or worn, placed on an altar, hung outside on a tree or a prayer pole, burned in a sacred fire, offered to the water, or buried in the Earth.
Spiritual/Medicine Tools
A critical component of many spiritual ceremonies are spiritual/medicine tools, which help us focus intention and prayer, move energy, and achieve specific mental and emotional states to shift our consciousness from the mundane world so we can receive energy and information from the realm of Spirit. Foundational tools, many of which are inexpensive, easily obtained, and helpful for practitioners of any level include the following.
Smudging
Smudging, the act of wafting smoke from sacred herbs and/or resins (in the form of loose herbs, incense cones and sticks, crystalized resin on burning charcoal briquettes) across people, objects, and spaces, has a long tradition of use in many parts of the world — from the frankincense and myrrh of the Middle East to sandalwood and rich florals in India to copal in South America to white and/or gray sage, cedar, and sweetgrass in North America. Smudging is widely used to energetically cleanse participants daily or before entering ceremony. It also is used to cleanse ceremonial and living spaces, sacred medicine objects, and other tools. All that’s needed is a fireproof container (we often use abalone shells), sacred herbs and/or resins, lighters/matches, briquettes (if using resins), and a feather, feather wand, or even your hand to direct the smoke where needed.
Altars
An altar is an important focus for prayer and ceremony and can be either permanent or portable, always in place in a dedicated location or unfurled and set up minutes before ceremony begins. It typically features a cloth, sacred objects that are meaningful to the participant and ceremony to be conducted, including smudge bowl/feather/herbs, and candle(s). Altars can be dedicated to a specific ceremony (such as a pipe bundle or a seasonal altar) or can be more general (to pray for/bless family members and ancestors).
Feathers
Indigenous peoples used feathers in a variety of ways, from decorating regalia, their horses, and themselves, to using the feather to direct smudge smoke to using it as a talking stick. Sometimes a single special feather is decorated and attached to a stick; other times many feathers are joined together to make a feather fan. Because birds fly highest (and closest to Creator), feathers were often considered to be very helpful for carrying prayers to Great Spirit. Be on the lookout for feathers that suddenly appear in your path and ask permission to take the feather with you to do medicine work (gifting the Earth and Spirit with a pinch of tobacco or cornmeal or even a bit of your hair as thanks).
Do be aware that raptor feathers (from owls, hawks, eagles, etc.) are illegal to possess in many places without proof of Native ancestry.
Talking Stick
Not needed for solo practitioners, but if you gather and do ceremony with others, a talking stick is a helpful communication tool to ensure everyone gets a chance to speak and people don’t talk out of turn, since only the person with the talking stick is supposed to speak while other participants listen respectfully. Many different items can be used as a talking stick, from a single feather to a feather fan, rattle, crystal or other stone, to a decorated stick.
Drums & Rattles
Drums and rattles are powerful medicine tools for helping shift consciousness, move energy, and connect with the heartbeat of Mother Earth and All Our Relations. Peoples with strong shamanic traditions often use drum and rattles for healing, protection, and trance work. When drums or rattles are intended for more than just making music, they should be made purposefully, consecrated in a special way, and always treated with great respect.
Masks & Shields
Masks have been used by humans for millennia in many parts of the world. In fact, many Neolithic rock and cave paintings portray human-like figures that appear to wear masks representing animals as well as other shapes. Indigenous peoples around the world still use masks as part of ceremonies designed to bring luck during a hunt, to pray for specific weather so crops are abundant, for healing work, and during Shamanic Journeys to communicate with the Spirit realm. Donning a mask and then dancing or doing other ceremonial work can help shift our consciousness so we see the world through another perspective.
Similarly, spirit shields have also been used for ages by many different groups to invoke strength and protection for self, family, tribe, etc. Shields can also be used to draw oneself closer to a totem represented on the shield, or even to record important stories and teachings.
Medicine Pouches & Bundles
Medicine pouches have long been used by traditional peoples to carry their personal medicine close to them. Typically made of a leather or fabric cloth and worn around the neck or tied to the waist or carried in a pocket, medicine pouches can hold stones, herbs, talisman, and other symbolic or literal representations of energies we wish to work with and have access to in our day-to-day and ceremonial activities.
Medicine bundles are larger versions of pouches and involve a large hide or cloth (often made into a bag) that is used to secure and carry medicine objects (such as pipe bundles) when not in use.
To keep your connection strong to the medicine contained in pouches and bundles, they should occasionally be opened, smudged, and the objects taken out and used.
Prayer Staff, Poles & Healing Wands
Leaders across the globe and throughout time have used staffs and wands as symbols of power and authority. Staffs can be used in ceremony to remind us of what we have learned and how we have reclaimed our personal power. Wands can be used to move energy and intention, and for healing work. And prayer poles can be used in ceremonial areas to represent and call in the energies of the directions.
Crystals & Stones
Humans have been drawn to stones and crystals throughout history and culture. Certain types of stones/crystals carry specific energies that can be helpful for healing, growth, learning, and focusing intention and prayer. Clear quartz crystals are especially good for focusing intentions and helping us manifest our intentions. Always ask a stone if it is willing to come and work with you before just taking it. It is always appropriate to offer a gift (e.g., a pinch of tobacco or cornmeal) in reciprocity for the stone. Then cleanse (smudge) the stone and give it a job (a focused intention) to do for you. Many stones like to be washed periodically and put outside under the sun or moon and stars to recharge.
Contact Me
Text/Voice: +1.251.583.5984
E-mail: WDWindDaughter@gmail.com
Address: P.O. Box 851927, Mobile, AL 36685, U.S.A.