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For Native Americans everything in nature was imbued with Spirit. For Native Americans all creatures were kin (two legged, four legged, winged, and finned). For Native Americans guardian spirits empowered, taught, guided, and assisted everyone. For Native Americans all of life was sacred. The land was part of them and they were part of the land. Their primary sacred text was the wind whispering through cedar boughs, the sandy shores, the cry of an eagle, and the ripple of sparkling streams. These Native American heartcore beliefs, as well as, sacred pipe, fasting, making relatives, powwow, keeping of souls, sweatlodge, and visionquest ceremonies, were an integral and impeccable aspect of their existence. Native Americans communed with the Great Spirit by smoking the scared pipe and by feathering themselves with sweetgrass, allowing the smoke to convey their prayers throughout the Sacred Hoop to Great Spirit.
A sacred pipe belonged to
the community so the holder of a scared pipe must have spiritually earned the
right to be its custodian, usually through cleansing or fasting. There were
sacred pipes used only by men or only by women.
During private and group ceremonies, prayers were transmitted through the smoke of the sacred pipe. The sacred pipe was used by the great chiefs to seal the peace treaties with the white man because it bore the same special ceremonial significance to them as taking an oath on the Holy Bible did to the white man. The pipe bowl was symbolic of the female and the wooden pipe stem symbolized the male. The joining of the two represented the connection between Mother Earth and all the creatures that inhabited Earth. The pipe bowl was often made of soapstone or wood and resembled an Animal Totem. The bowl might also have be inlaid with silver, decorated with beads and leather and painted with symbolic colors. Smudging was a ritual burning of sacred herbs such as Sage (for purity of spirit), Sweetgrass (for healing ceremonies), and Cedar (for dispelling negativity). Bundles of these sacred plants were tied together forming smudge sticks or braided together and then dried. Traditionally a council, central, or cooking fire was used to light the end of a smudge stick or a braid. Today a candle is often used instead; and, then the herbs are put in an abalone shell or a ceramic bowl.
Generally, the smoke was first offered to the Four Powers, then to Mother Earth
and Father Sky, and then a smudging prayer was recited. Afterwards, the hand or a
feather was used to direct a few curls of smoke, imbued with the fragrance and
spiritual energy of the sacred herbs, to the people, places, or objects that
needed cleansing...Continue on
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