Sweat Lodge Ceremony

This is Luna’s experience of a sweat lodge....
I attended a Sweat Lodge Ceremony on Saturday. April 27th 2016.  The ceremony was held at a private residence in Box Canyon CA. This was an open invitation sweat lodge, which means that it is open to guests as well as anyone that has been there before.

The leader was Paul Eagle Bear of the Lakota tribe, he also practices Yaki ways. The instructions say that the ceremony begins before you get there. We were asked to set intentions for why we wanted to attend and what we wanted to pray or ask the Spirits for. I set my intentions for prosperity.

As I drive up the long windy dirt road I observe two different buildings, a picnic table, and an out house. There is one teepee and the other structure looks like a teepee but it is round on the top. It is called a Sweat Lodge. The teepee is a large cone shaped structure, wide on the bottom and small at the top. It is made out of plain beige colored tarps.

I entered the teepee through a large door that has a flap as an opening. The inside of the teepee is larger than expected, it had pillows and sleeping bags down around the edges for almost comfortable seating. In the middle of the teepee was a small hole where it looked like a very small fire could be. We were directed into the teepee where we sat, some people looked sleepy, some excited. There is one sweat leader, called the “Water Pourer” and one “fire keeper.” The fire keeper was sitting near the large open camp-like fire. With the service being open to the public I was not sure how many people to expect. There were 12 participants, all different races and religions. We gathered in the teepee and had an introduction. The sweat leader was named Paul Eagle Bear and is from Los Angeles and was on the Counsel at the Ojai Foundation.

Eagle Bear, started by explaining how the ceremony would proceed. He used a “talking stick.” The talking stick is anything that is used to denote that it is that person's time to talk. The stick was not a stick at all, it was a smooth black stone called obsidian, in the shape of a heart. When it is your turn to speak, you are holding the “talking stick.” Eagle Bear passed the stick around and we took turns describing why we were there and what intention was in our hearts or what we wanted to pray for. Then, we were instructed to change our clothes into what we were wearing to the sweat lodge and wait outside to be saged.

Getting saged is when the fire keeper lites a bundle of dried white sage until it is smoking and then waves it over our heads to “clear the energy.”
The sweat lodge is also round. It is made out of willow trees. Willow is a soft wood so it is pliable, the branches are bent inward toward each other and tied together. Some of the willow branches were growing and rooted into the earth. The entrance is a flap of the blankets that are placed over the round dome-like shape. The blankets cover the entire lodge and are all different sizes, shapes, patterns and colors. It looked like a blanket from grandmother's attic. The floor is dirt so we were allowed to bring in a towel to sit on. We were instructed to crawl inside the lodge and be quiet when we got there.

After everyone was inside Eagle Bear asked the fire keeper to bring in the stones. The stones are hot volcanic rocks that had been in the fire for hours before we got there. After each stone was placed in the middle of the lodge, a participant was asked to rub a bundle of braided sweetgrass on it and drop some cedar chips on it, it smelled delicious. Then a bucket of water, a heart-shaped rattle and a drum were brought in. The fire keeper was asked to close “the doors” and we began.

Each round is a round of prayers to the four directions of the medicine wheel. The first round was for the East that represents new beginnings and Mother Earth. Eagle Bear sang a song, we tried to sing with him and then we took turns praying for ourselves and asking for help from the great mother earth. Then they opened the door. I was glad, for I was very hot. We had a few minutes while the fire keeper brought in more stones for the second round to the South. The South is the direction to pray for the children and the water. Again, Eagle bear sang a song and told a story, then each participant took their turn. It was hot and very emotional as each participant took a turn to pray for their children. I wasn't expecting it to be so sad. What made me sad was one of the women’s prayers was so her daughter would successfully recover from drug use. The doors opened and again we received more hot stones for the third round. The third round is for the West. I was so hot I thought I was going to die at one point, but Eagle bear assured us that the lodge was like our grandmothers, stern but would not hurt us. The West is about transformation, the element of fire and releasing our adolescents to become adults. It was different from the first two rounds as we all prayed, some people were yelling and screaming and making all kinds of noises. Then Eagle Bear stopped singing prayer songs and the door opened again for more hot stones. Finally in the fourth round we just listened. We sat in the complete dark, all sweaty and salty and emotionally drained as we listened to the water being poured over the rocks. They sound like snakes hissing, the most soothing and relaxing of all the rounds. The North is for the element of air and integration into our highest selves.

Then we crawled out one at a time. We were instructed not to talk but to stay quiet as we rinsed off and changed our clothes. We met in the teepee again to have a final closing circle. Everyone took turns describing their experience. Then we had a potluck feast. I do not know when I've ever been so hungry before. We created a plate for the spirits and were not allowed to eat until the plate had been placed under a tree. The prayer songs we listened to came from different tribes. One prayer song was the Cherokee Morning Song. There was a song to call in the bear and a song to call in the grandmothers. They were all catchy and easy to remember during the ceremony.
When attending a sweat lodge there is no opportunity to really discuss religion. I think overall this entire experience was interesting to say the least. I was not confused at all during the ceremony, however, upon reflection, I realized that I learned very little about American Indian Folklore or their belief systems. This was an interesting opportunity to experience a culture very different from my own and it was an amazing experience!

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