Howdy!
Boy am I in need of rest! I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle over here. ; )
After I came home from San Francisco and packed up the car I headed down to Southeast MI to be a support person for a vision quest. What is a vision quest? It seems as though nearly all cultures who involve themselves in a spiritual practice have initiatory practices that help you to dive deeper into the big questions such as "Who am I? What is this? How can I help in the world?" The vision quest is such a ceremony. The person who is questing will spend a certain amount of time out in nature in seclusion. While out there they will fast from food and water, and only have basic things such as a sleeping bag, tarp, and a medicine bag. They may not even have the former two. I have never done such a quest...but I have helped out at two of them so far in my life. There is usually a community of people who support during the quest, and each person contributes in their own way. It may be watching children, cooking food, preparing medicine for ceremony, preparing the sacred ground for ceremonies both during the quest and for future times, eating food for the questers, etc.
The vision quest begins with a sweatlodge, where the questers will sweat for two of the four doors. After the two doors everyone will walk the persons out to their spot in nature and construct their temporary home. This is basically six long tree saplings that are driven into the ground with a prayer string tied around the saplings. The prayer string has tiny prayer bags that are tied onto the string months prior as a part of a preparatory practice. Once that is finished, the supporters will finish the last two doors of the sweat. The fire has to stay lit throughout the whole ceremony. So you have people taking shifts through all periods of the night/day to tend the fire. I helped as a fire-tender for the sweat (without entering into the actual lodge) and took the first night shift. Throughout the three days I was there we helped to organize all of the wood piles and clean up the area around the sweatlodge. This took a lot of work and we managed to get a lot done.
I am very happy to announce that I have been allowed to attend and support a "Danza De La Luna ceremony" this year. In order to be accepted, I had to bring a pouch of Tobacco with red ribbon tied around it to our Grandmother and formally ask to be accepted. This ceremony takes place along my route and I am very excited to attend...since I have known about it for years.
I have been attending sweatlodges since I was 16. At first I would go there just to sweat. But then I became more interested in getting involved and looked to one of the elders for guidance. This elder, who has been a mentor to me for many years, began showing me how to tend a fire. In all of our time together we did not talk too much about the nature of reality, spiritual realization, or the deeper aspects of that tradition. Mainly, he taught me how to tend the fire. In reflection this has been one of the best teachings I have ever received. It has had such a deep impact in my life that I could cry just thinking about how much I have developed as a result of that relationship. I love that man dearly and I thank him for all that he has taught me.
Unfortunately, I could not stay for the entire duration of the ceremony this time around. It happened to fall on the date of a dear friends graduation. I did not tell her I was coming...and I meant for it to be a surprise. In a way it was, but she had already guessed that I was going to attend. It was a very fun night.
So here I am spending a few days here in Grand Rapids resting and working. I plan to leave Thursday night and travel to P.J. Hoffmaster park (my favorite park so far that is close to Grand Rapids) where I will camp out for the night. On Friday I have my first ceremony for the 2013 trip in Pentwater.
Stay tuned for another blog before I leave!
Cheers,
Justin
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