Rituals, Spontaneity and Religion!

Oh my Geepers!  There are so many things to blog about!  And I actually have time! :)

So Chisasibi's unpredictability is really quite wonderful at times!  (frustrating at others...) 

So, we (generally) plan out our activities every Sunday night (unless we have to move things around) for the rest of the week.  It's a structured group meeting called "CCK" (not sure what it stands for- Council Committee something.)

Just to tell you more about CCK, we're organized into three different councils- Activity Committee, Community Committee and Languages Committee.  They're kind of self-explanatory, but each is responsible for coming up with activities that adhere to the 8 Katimavik competencies.  We have to have so many activities each week with 4 slots for Free time. Slots are just morning, afternoon and evening and each activity has to be at least 1.5 hours.  The meetings are quite structured, with a President, Secretary and Treasurer and there are specific rules for when we can do certain things (For example, you can't have two free times in a row.)  We also discuss details of plans and whether or not the whole group is for that activity.

So, in short, we plan out our whole week every week and every week we have to have at least one more group meeting to change our plans around to accommodate another community event that we find out about.  For example, last week we were informed that our help was wanted at a hockey tournament, so we changed a bunch of things around in order to be able to go.  This week, we were supposed to go to a Pipe Ceremony at a friend's place, which was canceled (a second time) because our friend was invited to a sweat lodge.  

(Give me some time, I'll explain!) 

A pipe ceremony is a sacred practise in their religion (I believe this is generally practiced throughout native cultures) that is meant to unite the spiritual world and the physical world[1]. As a general summary, a pipe ceremony is a ritual where tobacco with a mixture of herbs is burned, smoke will rise, representing the invitation for spirits to enter and prayers are sent to the spirits all around.  Everything, I should add, has a spirit - "Every rock, and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name." (Thanks Pocahontas!:)

I don't know specifics since we have yet to partake in a Pipe Ceremony, (this is supposed to happen Sunday now, but I won't be able to participate.)  But the pipe represents prayers in physical form.  More specifically, the stem of the pipe and the bowl are a metaphor for the marriage of Mother Earth and the creatures that inhabit the earth. [2]

I'm not sure if this varies from culture to culture, but at least for Cree, men and women smoke from different pipes because in some cultures women are believed to be more powerful than men and others can get sickness after women smoke from them.  Instead of smoking from the pipe, women are touched upon the brow and that is how they send their prayer to the spirits.  Unfortunately for me, women cannot participate in the ceremony during their time of the month because they are believed to be the most powerful during that time.  (This is a really interesting concept I'd like to learn more about.)  Women have their own pipes and rituals that they smoke from that men can not even touch.[2]  Also, women must be fully covered in skirts to their ankles and shirts that cover the chest and men only need to wear shorts and all are barefoot (no jewelery since that is how we were born)

So we were originally going to do a pipe ceremony last week, but our friend's kids were sick and this week, he is attending a sweat lodge, which is another religious ritual here that you must be invited to.  

A sweat lodge is basically a really hot sauna that men and women attend if they are invited to pray for a specific request.  For example, people may request a sweat for someone who has cancer and the community will come together to perform this practise to pray for this person to get better.  The same deal applies for women in their time.  It's also a practise that is believed to generally cleanse the mind of all impurities or negativities and provide all with new hope (rebirth) [3].

I should also add that in both practises, the number four is a significant number to represent the four directions of Mother Earth

There are four rounds of a sweat lodge that are meant to honour for specific sources:[3]

     First:  Mother Earth - giving thanks for our creation and all that exists

     Second:  Sisters - the backbone of first nations

     Third: Brothers

     Fourth: Oneself

So, we actually ended up being welcomed to the sweat lodge (five of us including Chris are there now since two are at our time, two are sick and two are babysitting our friend's kids.)  And I'm anxious to see how it goes! 

I couldn't be happier that I'm keeping this blog because it forces me to research some things and now I can educate the group as well! :)

But yes, if you ever get the opportunity to perform any of these practises and you're not getting many specifics from anyone, once I've performed one of these ceremonies, you can always check out these sources or ask me to give you specifics ;)  In fact, I might just try to perform some of these with friends at home if anyone is open to it! 

Gosh, I'm learning so much and I hope my readers are too! This is so darn fantastic!

1.http://www.native-americans-online.com/native-american-pipe-ceremony.html

2. http://www.gct3.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/pipe_ceremony.pdf

3. http://www.firstnationstreatment.org/sweatlodgeceremonies.htm