Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the March full moon sweat lodge for women which took place this weekend, I noted a significant change within myself. This experience prompts me to share the following:
The misty moon was radiant and full before our small band of women walked out to the sweat lodge. An altar stood beside the door of the lodge, long streamers of black, red, yellow and white cloth draped on boughs. We stood around the fire blazing nearby where the stones for our sweat were warming. We then offered our prayer ties, laying them together like a garland around the base of the altar.
Earlier, each of us had made and infused our prayers into 28 tiny tobacco pouches - 7 each in the colors on the altar: black (west), red (north), yellow (east), white (south) tied on a string. My heart and soul were poured into these prayers, though at the time, I hardly knew what I was praying for. The tears and the deep feeling that came with them informed me that something out of the ordinary was taking place, something outside the reach of words and thought.
I felt lifted and cleansed as sage was lit and passed around our bodies in preparation for entering the lodge. Two of the women stayed near the fire to assist with bringing the stones into the lodge. The others of us found our places, crawling in clockwise direction around the circle inside the lodge that had been crafted just that day. I smelled and touched the fresh cedar boughs, the damp earth beneath me, and felt the womb-like comfort of the sweat lodge.
Our guide entered the lodge and began chanting. He spoke prayers aloud in his native language, calling on the ancestors to honor us with their presence. He explained that his prayers were to the Grandfathers. He had asked them to invite and escort the Grandmothers to this sweat lodge ceremony. "Some are already here. Many more are coming," he told us. In an earlier meeting, he said, "The Grandmothers have the last word." Today he is turning his attention and working with a Grandmother Spirit that nudges him to support, honor and celebrate women stepping more fully into our power as creative healers and carriers of sacred ways."
In alignment with the intention of 13 Moons and as a grandmother who has been called along with other "elderwise" women to the SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage, I was invited to attend the first of the eighteen sweat lodges.
We waited as the blazing fire began to reveal the stones piled in its center. With shovels, the two women waiting outside took turns bringing the stones which glowed like hot embers, placing them, one by one, in the center hole circled by rocks inside the lodge. When all of the stones had been retrieved from the fire, they entered the sweat lodge and the door came down. We were in darkness. A sprinkling of rain could be heard on the tarp overhead. Great Spirit was pleased.
After several more chants and spoken entreaties to the ancestors, we were asked to call in the family of Great Grandmothers and Grandmothers of our maternal ancestral lineage. We invited them to sit and converse with us. I was surprised by how little I knew of these women who were the cause of my being alive in the first place. It seemed as I sat in the lodge that I still relate as a child to my Grandmothers, Dada and Grandma Hull and step-Grandmother Vivian. I could recall only one Great Grandmother who was known in her time as "The Little General." I wanted to learn more of each of their lives.
As water was ladled onto the hot stones, the temperature inside the lodge rose higher. Waters were also pouring forth from every orifice of my body. A sweat is like being inside a giant neti pot, the cleansing is inevitable. From time to time the flap over the entrance to the lodge was raised, to relieve some of the heat and smoke.
I was lying with my head close to the ground, where the heat is less intense, when we were asked us to sing a song, "any song." I sat up. We went around the circle. When it came my turn, half a dozen songs flooded my mind, but the one that won out was a Sanskrit hymn to Saraswati, Vedic goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. "Grandmother" of another ilk, I'd done puja, honoring to her for years in India, considering her my "patron deity." In the sweat lodge, I sang for the women in the circle as the creative force that the Goddess Saraswati embodies. With each one's song offering, I felt a tender closeness with the ancestors and among the women gathered in the lodge.
At the end of the sweat, we were invited to return to the house. I was aware of the lodge door opening, but had to be nudged to leave. I had not seen nor heard the women exiting to my left. Grandmother Moon had slipped behind the clouds. It was after midnight. The air was still.
Most of us were wearing light dresses that covered our shoulders and knees. One of the women, a sun dancer and grandmother, guided me beforehand in the ways of the sweat lodge. She'd loaned me one of her dresses. By now, it was soaked. We changed out of our wet clothing and made ready for a meal.
When all were gathered in the house, around a candle, we lit and passed around a very long, beautifully carved pipe.
After the pipe ceremony, we ate the ample food we'd brought to share. All of us had worked up quite an appetite by then. We said our thanks and goodbyes; I drove home and crawled into my bed just before 3 a.m.
On Tuesday, I woke in a lighthearted mood. Reflecting on the day before, I realized that a major shift had taken place within me. I wept with the newfound sense of communion and support from my maternal ancestral lineage. What's more, it was clear to me that a major obstacle to writing had dissipated like smoke in the heat of the sweat lodge. I'd spent hours on Monday easily writing and posting a blog to the SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage website. The creative river, Saraswati, was flowing, unimpeded by former mysterious and seemingly impenetrable blocks. What's more, I've walked about in a state of stillness and Grace, a kind of open-eyed and eye-opening meditation, since then.
A flooding of feminine, goddess energy, is forthcoming, now, to balance out the masculine energy of domination and dominion that has held sway on earth and perpetuated war as a solution to conflict for millennia. One delightful and unexpected consequence of designing and building a gypsy wagon for SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony has been the men it attracts. Men of mastery and skill, who recognize that the time for this rebalancing is now, have come forward with offers of help and support to the women in making their voices heard and heeded. Our Grandmothers sweat lodge guide is one of these. Mick Dodge, the Barefoot Sensei, who shares his practice on this website is another. We find brothers among singer-songweavers, Laurence Cole and Rob Tobias. While all of humankind are in this boat together, these enlightened men are proving the mast for the women's sails. Together, we are crossing the great water, making our way home.
