Sweat Lodge by MarVeena Meek

Dark, Moist, Mother’s Womb.

The Fire stones burn cedar, sweet grass.

Smokey, steamy, primordial place

Birthplace of the Mother.

I was born again today.

I went in on my hands and knees,

bowing reverence to many things.

I came out on my hands and knees.

This time a newborn infant seeing the world for the first time.

I have seen spirals in the days, months and years.

Today I remembered that there are spirals in the womb,

I felt all the many children throughout time I have given birth to.

I felt all my many mothers holding me safe and warm in their

wombs throughout time.

I turned somersaults in my mama’s womb,

Dancing and singing and praying to be born

In a good way.

Today I sat with my sisters,

My elders,

My teachers.

Women of Power!

Let us be born in a New World,

A good world, a

 World of love and beauty.

Ho

Beth Moscov wrote this poem for her sisters in March 1993, after a women’s only sweat lodge ceremony on the spring equinox.

MarVeena’s first sweat lodge!

It was around this time that I had my first sweat lodge experience. Since my near death experience I had a hunger to really get out into the universe and see more. I wanted to have a better understanding of my place in the big picture. My meditations were good. I just had a sense that they could be a lot better. I had heard a sweat lodge was a very powerful meditation like experience.

The first time I went in it was in January and very cold, like 35 degrees. One of my friends had been going to these sweats for a while and was telling me how neat it was, so I got my courage up which took a whole year and decided to go. We arranged to meet in Dallas and travel up to the lodge in Denton together, which is about an hour’s drive.

The day of the ceremony my friend calls me and tells me she is sick and can’t go. I was crushed, I had been looking forward to it for a while and had my courage built up and they only had them once a month. So I decided to go on my own.

She told me all the stuff to take. A robe, two large towels, one small one for your hair after you get out, some food for the feast. And heart gifts for the Dance Chief and the Fire keeper. I drive up there and find the place, which was a warrior task to start with for me. When I walk in to the Ashram there is a beautiful fragrance of sweet grass and sage. A woman shows me how to make prayer ties and what colors go with what type of prayers. Lots of very eclectic folks are coming and going.

Right at sundown we get ready to go out and light the fire. The fire and the stones are very ceremonially set up. Each rock is set into the fire pit with a prayer of thanksgiving for its contribution and intent. We gathered in a circle and the Dance Chief introduced himself to us and he introduced the Fire Keeper and Rock Runner. We then held hands and the Fire Keeper started lighting the fire. We sang to the fire spirits to come into our space.

The Dance Chief drummed and we danced in a circle around the fire and him singing to the fire spirits. After the fire was going fairly well we stopped singing and did an invocation to the four sacred directions and elements and to Sky Father and Earth Mother.

Then we all went inside the dojo except the Fire Keeper and Rock Runners, they watched the fire until she burned completely out. We went into the Dojo and gathered in a circle while Ra, the Dance Chief, started to talk about the ceremony. This took a long time, but was very informational.

We needed at least an hour and a half for the rocks to get hot enough. We could make more prayer ties while listening to the talk. He asked a lot of questions some were very personal. He asked if there were any moontime women. He explained that he is an apprentice Moon Chief and that moontime women were honored in this lodge.

Some lodges don’t let moontime women in. Something about their energies being too wacky for the rest of the gang. He explained that the moontime women could request a certain place to sit if they like, he suggested the south the place of waters and emotions; a place where energy could flow. He told us that we could take in a personal water bottle, but recommended we didn’t because water makes you expand and feel hotter. I took one in anyway. It was my pacifier.

He told us ways of connecting to Mama Earth and grounding into her and pulling from her strength. He said it is good to keep your prayers short and sweet. (When you are in there and its 140 degrees you really appreciate the short prayers). The first thing to do is to introduce yourself to spirit. You say something like this “Great Spirit it is your little One Bright Star and I send my voice. I pray for…”When you have finished you say, “I have spoken, Aho.”

Then the Dance Chief pours water on the rocks which creates steam that grabs your prayers and takes them to spirit where they can be heard.

Remember everyone in spirit is witnessing your prayers, your spiritual relations since always and for always, your master guides and angels, your family in spirit. Ra said it is important that our prayers come from the heart and we don’t over load our bobo with our mouths.

The purification lodge or sweat lodge represents the womb of the Goddess or The Great Mother.  Before we go in the lodge we take off our clothes and all of our identity like our jewelry, clothes, and watches etc… I didn’t feel comfortable taking off my clothes. I remember standing out side the lodge waiting to go in. Here it is January, I am naked outside, barefoot thinking my God I’m a crazy woman! And it didn’t really help matters when the Dance Chief blessed me; the last thing he called in was my ancestors to witness the ceremony.

I’m thinking great now grandma will know I’m naked in front of God and everyone. She’s probably rolling in her grave. Oh well I know my heart is in the right place and I have good intent. I am going to have a spiritual experience in my life if it kills me. Of course being naked outside in January could do that. The blessing at the door of the lodge is very beautiful.

The Dance Chief greets you and blesses you with a huge Eagle Fan. First he touches the ground, to connect with the earth spirit, then he touches the little sacred tree and grabs some spirit in the air and invokes our spiritual relations to come and witness out ceremony. He calls the Touliquay, who are the little people. The Tougashala are all our relations and the Toushilahey are all our awakened selves. They represent our ancestors who have danced in the light in other life times. He taps them into our body with the fan. The presence of our ancestors is important because we have a lot of karma with them. By them witnessing our vows, and giveaways in the lodge and hear our prayers, they can gauge our growth & spiritual maturity.

You can wear a towel or T-shirt and shorts if you wish, but it is better to leave your entire personality at the door. Your subconscious is hard to fool. You cannot create change with out the help of your subconscious. That’s who we want to be transformed by this. So we want to really make the subconscious self think she is back at the beginning. You are going in to be rebirthed and you know that the first time you were born you didn’t come out of the womb fully dressed and accessorized.

The alchemy in the lodge is meticulously set up to have a balanced mini universe in there. All the things that you used to project into this incarnation in the first place are there. You have earth (the lodge herself), with fire (hot rocks) and water (which is poured on the rocks) creates air (steam) that carries your prayers to spirit. The combination of the five elements is the perfect birthing vehicle.

You enter the lodge by crawling in on your knees; this is to show honor and respect for the mother. You touch your head to the ground just before you go in and say a short prayer or intention, like “Omitakewasin” or “For All My Relations.” The idea is I am birthing myself anew in Honor of all my Relations since always and for always.

The lodge is very dark and sometimes there will be singing as the other people are blessed and come in. I loved this part of the ceremony; the quiet singing fit the mood and eased our transition into an altered state.

This is a good time to gather your thoughts about what you what to release or give away, and what you want to pray for, or whom you want to pray for. I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to pray for. It is good to do this ahead of time and have your prayers short and to the point. When the lodge starts to heat up, and the ceremony starts you tend to get into an altered state and it is hard to think then.

The first thing to do is have the Fire Chief bring in hot rocks, usually twenty to start with. Each rock that comes in the lodge is blessed with scared herbs, and dedicated to a part of the invocation and an element or energy. The aroma of sweet grass and herbs is so beautiful; it almost brought tears to my eyes. Well that could have been the smoke, but I loved that wafting of the herbs. It sends me!

The invocation that he used is called the Twenty Count, and this invocation brings in to the lodge twenty aspects of our most Holy Creator/Creatress. Typically there are four rounds of prayers in a lodge though not all traditions follow this.

The first prayer to go round is where you pray for yourself, what kind of support or confirmation do you need from spirit to move to higher levels. I prayed for some confirmation from Spirit that I was on my soul’s path. You can ask for anything. Usually when you ask for something from Spirit you need to be prepared to pay for it some way that is proportional to what you are asking for energy wise. You don’t get something for nothing anywhere.

You want to give full value back to the universe for what they are giving you. For instance, you ask to be a channel then the universe will want you to do some giveaways of your time and channel for people who are seeking and needing guidance. By the time we had gone about five people around I started getting really Hot, I was sweating out of places that I didn’t know would even sweat. That felt good for a bit, then I felt like I couldn’t breathe and a little claustrophobic. That was a little unsettling.

The Dance Chief kept saying to us breathe, breathe from the stomach. Stay focused on the prayers, your mind can’t think about two things at once so think about your prayers and everyone’s else’s. If you hear a prayer that could fit your life, make a heart sound like “umm” or “Aho” and send that prayer to spirit for you too. The Dance Chief starts the round and then each participant prays out loud in a clockwise direction around the lodge. After each prayer the person says, “I have spoken, Aho” and the Dance Chief pours water on the hot rocks and the steam quickly carries the prayers to the Sacred Spirits we called in with the Twenty Count.

The second round is where we pray for others. Again the Dance Chief starts the round and prays for the collective others. We pray for our family, friends, loved ones in the physical and in spirit. If we choose to we can pray for loved ones in spirit.

The third round is the give away round. Think back to what you asked for in the first round and consider what quality or character trait you have to release or transform before you can be in vibrational harmony with what you desire. For instance I prayed to be a clear channel for spirit in the first round. In the give away round I gave away my own self-doubt. By this round I was wondering if I could live through it. I kind of wanted to leave the lodge but was too scared to ask and too stubborn.

The top of my head and my kneecaps felt like they were smoking. I leaned over and got as close to the earth as possible. That was a cool spot comparatively. Mother Earth has never meant so much as when she let me breathe through her. I think I have always appreciated Mother Earth, but we really bonded that night.

It was kind of hard to focus at this point on my prayers or anyone else’s. Some people prayed very long prayers. I wanted to smack them. I know that’s not a real spiritual thing to think, but that was then and how I felt. The Dance Chief advises everyone to stay on purpose, focused and to the point. No rambling please in the heat.

Some people were crying, some in very deep process. All through this I could see spirit swirling and spiraling around us, I saw visions of animals coming in and ancestors, I saw the grandfathers especially working with the Dance Chief, and I saw the grandmothers. I saw lights and sparkles that typically accompany the higher vibrational beings, the Masters. Enough to keep me interested.

We finally get to the last round; I’m dizzy wondering if I can make it. The last round we start to thank the Twenty, we do the Twenty Count over thanking each aspect and quality we had brought in earlier. The Dance Chief would say something like this “Wado to Grandfather Sun,” and the group would repeat “Wado” thank you) Grandfather Sun, Wado Grandmother Earth etc…” Then we thank Spirit and start to crawl out. Remember it is 35 degrees, winter misty raining. I step out of the lodge, on very wobbly knees.

Cold air never felt so good in my life. I am directed to a place by the lodge to lay my towel on the ground and I then lay down on the towel and am told to ground down into the earth. This was actually one of the coolest parts of the whole thing. I am so hot that I don’t even notice the cold air.

I laid on the earth and would breathe with her, sending my fibers deep in to the core. I felt myself going out of body spinning off the earth uh oh! What is a girl to do when you fall off the earth? This scared the snot out of me. I am not sure if I astral projected or just got spun out of body. I don’t know but it was cool and scary at the same time.

I finally got back in my body and was cooled off enough to get up, about ten to fifteen minutes. Everybody else was lying on the ground too. Everybody ignored one another and sort of pulled themselves back together again. No one made me feel self conscious about being naked. I didn’t feel like anyone stared or was inappropriate in any way which I was grateful for.

After this we would offer our prayer ties to the fire and go back in to the dojo for the feast. Cool beans! I made it! I didn’t die the big death, just a little one. I know it sounds like a wacky way to spend a Saturday night but I would not trade the experience for anything. Ra still does purification ceremonies in Denton, TX on the second Saturday night each month. You can stop by and participate if you are in the Dallas area.

Awanestika!

MarVeena Vision Seeker apprentice to Silver Ra Baker

Copy right © MarVeena Meek May 11, 2009

To read more about the path read the “Song of the Deer” by Thunder Strikes with Jan Orsi