Sweatlodge.......where is the old thread??

[Joana]

Hey all- have been searching the old thread that was here about sweatlodges. I think Mikey started it.
I went to a sweat lodge ceremony following Lakota tradition last night and..... WOW. So I was going to look what other people had said about it in the other thread. And help? Did Mikey (if it was him) ever report back how the ceremony he was thinking of going to went??

[Bumper]

Try a search with it as two words - sweat lodge - and it will get you to the thread from last year. Nope, Mikey never did report back on how it went.

[Joana]

Thanks for the help- obviously found it!!!

[kirbyfan]

Originally Posted by Joana

Hey all- have been searching the old thread that was here about sweatlodges. I think Mikey started it.
I went to a sweat lodge ceremony following Lakota tradition last night and..... WOW. So I was going to look what other people had said about it in the other thread. And help? Did Mikey (if it was him) ever report back how the ceremony he was thinking of going to went??

How on earth do you get involved in a Lakota sweatlodge in Germany???
Lakota are mostly found in the Dakotas.

[Joana]

Originally Posted by kirbyfan

How on earth do you get involved in a Lakota sweatlodge in Germany???
Lakota are mostly found in the Dakotas.

This sweatlodge was held as a ceremony of cleansing for a friend who is marrying tomorrow, also a ceremony for her to say goodbye to her old life so to speak. It was her hens night.......

Our waterpourer is a German lady who was instructed by two Lakota medicine men in a timespan of over ten years- she has been a waterpourer (if that is the correct term in English) for ten years now (meaning she has been involved with sweatlodges for twenty years) after she recieved her calling, a calling that was confirmed by the medicine men she learned from.
Her teachers were Brave Buffalo and another medicine man whos name I forgot. She has learned in the States as well as over here in Germany. Brave Buffalo used to travel here as well to bring this tradition back to Europe- he actually died here because he wanted to make a connection between the old and new world by that.
Sweat lodges- or stupas as they used to be called way back in this region- are also an old tradition in Europe. The saunas of the northern regions come from that- they used to be ceremonial. But just like the Indians we lost that tradition when the church took over.
So Brave Buffalo saw it as a point to bring that tradition back- which is how the lady learned and why he accepted her as a student.

She actually spoke all prayers in Lakota and her daughter was her singer- and sang all songs in Lakota as well.
She doesn't take money for doing this- only tobacco and what the participants are willing to give for it aside from the tobacco.
I read up on the procedure before and can say that everything was adhered to- from getting smoked to cleanse beforehand to the setup of fire, altar and lodge, the setup of the stones, how the rounds were conducted etc. etc. etc..

It was VERY touching and mindboggeling, very altering indeed. And that coming from me- someone who is a scientist and not a treehugger.

I really want to experience it again when I can.