The Sweat Lodge is for Everyone: We Are All Related.

The Sweat Lodge is for Everyone: We are all related

The non-Native’s guide to building, participating in, and benefiting from Native American Sweat Lodge ceremonies

Irene McGarvie

Smashwords Edition

Published by Ancient Wisdom Publishing on Smashwords

Copyright © 2011 by Irene McGarvie

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ISBN 978-1-926826-22-6

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – We Are All Related

Chapter 2 – The Sweat Lodge Around the World

Chapter 3 – Native American Religious Practices

Chapter 4 – Building the Sweat Lodge

Chapter 5 – The Sweat Lodge Ceremony

Chapter 6 – Totem Animals

Chapter 7 – The Sweat Lodge and Health

Chapter 8 – Lessons form the Sweat Lodge

Other Books of Ancient Wisdom

"All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness ... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives."

The Dalai Lama

Chapter 1: We Are All Related

All human beings come from a mother’s womb. We are all the same part of one human family. We should have a clear realization of the oneness of all humanity. All religions are essentially the same in their goal of developing a good human heart so that we may become better human beings.

The Dalai Lama

Generally, when we refer to the sweat lodge, particularly when we are talking about sweating as a spiritual practice, we are usually referring to the Native American sweat lodge, but there is evidence to indicate that almost every culture indulged in some form of sweat bathing since long before recorded history.

So who started it? Did the American Indians bring the sweat lodge ceremony with them from Asia many thousands of years ago when they crossed the Bering Strait into what is now North America? Or did we all just come up with the idea independently? We will never know for sure, but since science has conclusively proven that we are all descended from common ancestors, it is probably safe to assume that the sweat lodge is something that mankind has practiced since the beginning.

A great gift almost lost

Most people around the world have somehow forgotten the symbolism and spiritual lessons of the sweat lodge, and communal sweating has become more of a health practice or form of recreation than a spiritual ceremony, but deep down inside we all have the same need to connect with Spirit and with Mother Earth as our ancestors did.

Followers of Native American spirituality believe that the sweat lodge was a gift from the Great Spirit, a gift that can benefit us both spiritually and physically. I believe that it was a gift given to all of mankind, not something exclusively Native American.

Due to persecution from the government and the Christian church, during the 19th and 20th centuries, North American Native religious practices almost disappeared. The government and the church viewed ceremonies like the Sweat Lodge, the Sun Dance, and the Potlatch, with their sacred and religious implications, as threatening to their control of the Native people and banned their practice.

Fortunately some people, in spite of the risk of punishment, continued these practices in secret and thanks to them we have this knowledge available to us today. It is thanks primarily to the Lakota Sioux people, who stubbornly refused to allow their traditions to be wiped out, that the rest of us are now able to learn (or perhaps remember?) the lessons of the sweat lodge. As a result, when we refer to the sweat lodge ceremony we are usually talking about the traditional Lakota Sioux hot rock style sweat lodge.

Usurping a tradition?

It is important to mention a controversy that has developed regarding the sweat lodge. There are some Native people who resent the adoption of Native American religious ceremonies, such as the sweat lodge, by non-Natives, believing it to be one more attempt by the white man to steal or otherwise violate Native culture.

Considering the Native peoples’ history of suffering terribly at the hands of European invaders I can certainly understand why they would feel that way, but the benefits of the sweat lodge are so great that I think it is totally inconsistent with traditional Native beliefs to keep this knowledge away from people who desperately need it, regardless of their ancestry.

Traditionally, Native spiritual practices were passed down, in an oral tradition, from the Elders. Those in the next generation were very carefully chosen to carry on the traditions after many years of observing the individual’s character and after exhibiting evidence of being chosen by Spirit. But for the past 200 years, due to government interference and the influence of the Christian church, there have been less and less people able to hand down this oral tradition.

In recent years, due to the surge of interest in Native religious practices among both Natives and non-Natives, and the scarcity of Elders who can teach these practices, other people have begun teaching what was once strictly the domain of the elders. Most did so out of a sincere desire to help others, but unfortunately some had less noble goals.

Native religious practices were traditionally never done for money, primarily because it was not necessary to do so. The community was already providing for the Elders who were performing the ceremonies or providing the teaching. People would bring them food and firewood, not because they were getting paid to perform a job, rather simply because they were part of the community, and as such were valued and taken care of.

Unfortunately, it is a different world today, and even spiritual leaders require a source of income. I think it is perfectly appropriate to give a gift of money to a spiritual leader who has performed a ceremony or taught you something; similar to the concept of tithing in other religions, but this should be a gift, not a requirement.

In the words of Ed McGaa in his wonderful book Mother Earth Spirituality, Native spirituality is not for sale.

Unfortunately, leading sweat lodge ceremonies has become something of an industry, where people with spurious claims to being Medicine Men or Shaman charge unwitting participants large sums of money to take part. This is not appropriate. Choosing to give a gift is one thing, but charging people for participating in a sweat lodge is not the traditional way.

I think the fact that people can get taken advantage of by these opportunists is an indication of how desperate we all are to become closer to Spirit, and hoping that the sweat lodge can provide us with a direct line.

You might be asking yourself, by writing this book about the sweat lodge, am I not simply one of these opportunists hoping to make money out of people’s spiritual hunger? If you think so, then you do not understand the economic realities of the publishing industry in the 21st century. Believe me when I say that I have no delusions that this book will be the next ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘Da Vinci Code’, and propel me toward wealth and fame.

So then, what do I, as a white woman, hope to achieve in writing this book? This book has two purposes for me:

1) To explain this spiritual practice to other non-Natives as clearly as possible. I think that as an outsider I had many of the same questions as other non-Natives and can explain it from an outsider’s perspective.

2) To enhance my own understanding. In my experience, the best way to really understand something is to teach it to someone else.

There is no new knowledge. I do not pretend to have created any of the information in this book. The things we