#pipe ceremony

[tiliman2]

Welcome to my pipe ceremony ✨💨

[grade11religioncpt-blog]

Aboriginal Spirituality

The pipe ceremony is a sacred ritual for connecting physical and spiritual worlds. "The pipe is a link between the earth and the sky," explains White Deer of Autumn. "Nothing is more sacred. The pipe is our prayers in physical form. Smoke becomes our words; it goes out, touches everything, and becomes a part of all there is. The fire in the pipe is the same fire in the sun, which is the source of life”.The pipe itself was a symbolic microcosm. Its parts, its colours, and the motifs used in its decoration each corresponded to essential parts of the indigenous universe.  The ceremony itself is quite simple. The pipe holder stands holding the bowl of the pipe in his left hand, the stem in his right, pointing the stem to the East. He sprinkles a small amount of tobacco on the ground as an offering to Mother Earth and The East. The same is done for South, West and North, Skyward and Earthward. A prayer like saying is said every time there is an offering.  Ed McGaa (Eagle Man), an Oglala Sioux, and author of Mother Earth Spirituality once said “Most pipe ceremonies have the same intention: to call upon and thank the six energies: All of our Sioux ceremonies beseech to the four directions, the earth, and sky, and ultimately the Great Spirit. We see our Creator through nature, and we try to emulate what the Creator has made”. That is why in my opinion the sacred pipe ceremony is one of the most impressive traditions. It has so much meaning to the Aboriginals that you really have to attend the ceremony itself to understand how important this ceremony is really.

[shamandrummer]

Sacred Pipe Ceremony. This is a beautiful film of a Pipe Ceremony. For all those who have never been in one they are not all exactly like this one, but they all have the sacred feel of this one and thus the film captures the feeling well. I've walked with a sacred pipe for almost 25 years now. Prayers and blessings to all pipe carriers.

[parabola-magazine]

Sioux Indian with his pipe and the Great Mystery or "Wakantanka" a pipe ceremony. Photograph found here.

‎“The sacred woman then started to leave the lodge, but turning again to Standing Hollow Horn, she said: “Behold this pipe! Always remember how sacred it is, and treat it as such, for it will take you to the end. Remember, in me there are four ages. I am leaving now, but I shall look back on your people in every age, and at the end I shall return.”

—Words of Pte San Win after bringing the sacred pipe to the Sioux. Taken from Frithjof Schoun, The Feathered Sun: Plains Indians in Art and Philosophy (Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom Books, 1990)