Praying for the non-religious

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Continuing with the story of the sweat lodge, one of the elements that was very moving was the praying. As a person who doesn't follow a Christian tradition, prayer has often seemed impossible for me to do. If I don't have a god I believe in, how can I pray? In ...

Singing in the sweat lodge

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

As I mentioned earlier, there were four rounds in the sweat lodge: The first round was for calling in the ancestors and spirits. The second round was for praying. The third round was for healing. And the final round was the “going home” round. At the beginning of each round, ...

Postscript to perfect pedicure: parking ticket!

Monday, June 1st, 2009

That about sums it up. The incident I mentioned earlier about the unsatisfactory pedicure had a reverberation through time, namely a $75 parking ticket. The appointment had run over the scheduled time (torture can be time consuming), and my parking had run out. Unbeknownst to me, because the ticket wasn't ...

Sweat lodges, vision fasts, smudging with herbs: whose practices are these?

Friday, May 15th, 2009

As I continue to tell you the story of the sacred time in the sweat lodge, I am troubled by a recurring theme that has arisen over the years, about cultural appropriation, or misappropriation. I just came across this article from 1993 in the New York Times, Spiritual Seekers Borrow ...

The gift of fire

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

 Meeting in Circle with the Wilderness Guides Council Fire is the element of the east, the direction of springtime. When I first sat in circle at the Wilderness Guides Council, on Monday, April 13, I deliberately sat in the east. This is a part of the wheel that I am least ...