Sweat Lodge

Today I had my first experience with a Sweat lodge. I went with one other teacher Julie who had been before. She was able to brief me a bit by telling me to bring 3 towels, one for my legs, one for my body and one to cover my head. She also told me to wear a skirt because it is believed that women have a great deal of power that flows from their 'lady parts.' All I could think at this point was, start your engines: SUPER VAG! Anyways, I got there and was greeted by the person holding the sweat. They were preparing the rocks and water on the fire.

The way it works is, a small, dome shaped structure is built in a garage using wood and is covered with various layers of different cloth. There is a fire pit in the middle where the rocks sit and once the door (which is a heavy blanket) is closed, it is pitch black. The lodge looks like this:


I watched as they chopped wood for the fire and prepared sweet grass to add to the water buckets and fire pit. In front of the garage there was a tiny fire where they were burning what I believe was sweetgrass and anyone who would bring anything into the lodge first waved it through the smoke to bless it. I brought fruit as I was instructed to do (blueberries) as it acts as an offering to the spirits and a refreshing snack after the sweat. You are also supposed to bring an offering of tobacco to throw on the fire for the spirits. Julie was nice enough to give me a few cigarettes to break up and throw on.

Once we were ready and all the men where in the lodge, we were asked to come in and take a seat. They then closed the door and told me: "Don't freak, Just pray." I liked that line, but wasn't quite sure what it meant. Then i found out...

They started chanting and praying aloud in OjiCree as I expected, and Julie told me to lean forward with my head as close to the ground as possible and put a towel over my head. I did this and stayed that way as they put more and more water on the rocks and the air got thicker. It was hard to not focus on how hot it was or how hard it was to breath but I tried to just listen to the singing and chanting and remind myself it only lasts fifteen minutes.

I was fine doing this until I felt a hand on my head guiding it upward. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I went with it (remember, PITCH black...could not even see my own hand in front of my face). The person took the towel off my head and as I was struggling to breathe, started touching my cheeks and forehead and speaking to me in what sounded like tongues or grunts, right in front of my face. Then the man blew hot air in my face several times and tapped me on the head with a large feather. He went around to the rest of the people as well but I think I got some special treatment, it being my first time. Finally, I heard those sweet golden words "Open the door" and light and cold air flooded in.

We sat around for a few minutes letting the cool air come in and recovering. They explained to us all that we should try not to look on the experience in a negative light and to not be afraid of what is going on. Then they made fun of me for jumping a bit every time they put the water on the fire and all I could think in my head was...how did you know?! Do you have owl-like night vision!?

Soon enough it was time to do another sweat so they closed the doors again and used a hand drum, singing songs in Ojicree. They had put new rocks from the fire into the fire pit and they were literally glowing and crumbling because they were so hot. The only way I can describe how it felt this time was to get you to think of the hottest, muggiest, mid-August, humid, 40 degrees Celsius day and then pretend it's 10 times hotter. You actually don't want to breathe because it's like being in an oven. You are drenched and dripping with sweat (hence the name of activity.) Just when I thought I'd have to get up and leave (while trying not to fall into a pile of burning rocks) they opened the doors. While I might be making it sound unpleasant or not worth it, it really was an amazing experience. I left feeling 'cleansed' in an odd sense, even though I was really sweaty and had to guzzle gatorade for a few hours after.

Before we left, the men who ran the sweat asked us if we'd like to learn more about it and we agreed. So tonight we went to my portable and two of the men who ran the sweat told us traditional creation stories. I learned that the songs they were singing in the sweat were actually telling a story of the first two people the creator sent down to earth (Adam and Eve type deal) and how they met a bear who helped them find their way. It all came together when I realized that the man who I thought was speaking in tongues was actually, in effect, channeling the spirit of the bear and was touching my face to 'discover' me as the bear did with the first people in the story. The bear was also said to have brought them berries to survive, which made it HIGHLY convenient that I went to the store before the sweat and randomly happened to buy blueberries as my offering without knowing about this story. Perhaps the bear spirit told me to! ;) We ate some of the berries at the end of the sweat too.

At the meeting tonight we sat on the floor of my portable, in a drum circle, burning sage in a casserole dish i found in my drawer and listening to an Ojicree song-story. This is an amazing experience I could probably never get anywhere else, but it did occur to me how much my Saturday nights have changed lol.

Here is a good article that helps describe sweats more if you are interested: http://www.aht.ca/sweat-lodge

In other news, my dog is still adorable and I love her so, but she is infested with some sort of bugs :( Luckily a vet friend is going to help me identify what the problem is so I can get her fixed up ASAP.

Next week there are a few festivities going on at the school, one of which is the staff Christmas dinner. I am looking forward to lots of different types of food including TURKEY! Woot!