David Shapshak lifestyle
‘This is spirit’s place,” said John Twobirds as he closed the flap on the sweat lodge. It was now completely dark and very hot.
What, I thought to myself with my usual cynicism, sitting in the sweltering dark, could I really get out of this Native American sweat lodge?
With a group of friends we’d decided to do this ancient ritual, spending a weekend with Twobirds, a Native American elder, and his group, who are currently touring South Africa doing lodges and giving lectures.
Spirit is the Native Americans’ concept for divinity, as embodied in the natural world, and whether you believe it or not the sweat lodge is a powerful spiritual ritual.
We began our lodge by building the small bungalows that we would use, covering the bent stick frame with blankets and lashing them in the old traditional way. The lodge must be completely dark inside during the sweat, which can take hours. Once inside, the ritual pattern is much the way Native Americans have practised it for centuries. It is a potent mix of ritual and personal interpretation, in our case, that left me astounded at the wisdom and inherent spirituality of the experience.
The Native American philosophy and its potent mythologies of living in harmony with the natural world have gained a new vogue in recent years. It is a compelling world view that believes humanity is both physi-cal and spiritual and there is an innate balance in our own lives and in nature as a whole. It is the simplest and purest of personal philosophies, and something perhaps only its originators, the Native Americans, practised well: “Be in balance, live in harmony, walk in beauty.”
It’s a rich and beautiful culture that has teetered on the edge of destruction. The devastation wracked on the Native Americans by the settling Europeans ranks, along with the sublimation of the Australian Aboriginals and the virtual destruction of the Aztecs and Incas of South America, as one of the world’s great genocidal crimes. All were cultures with advanced knowledge and were prosperous and working societies in their own right. But the global village has gotten smaller and an eclectic world view is one of the hallmarks of many people’s own quest for spiritual and everyday meaning.
John Twobirds is one of those men steeped in the traditions of his people and is taking them into the world at large. So as not to offend his ancestors, he says, or any of the particular tribes who have their own unique customs, he has reworked the rituals he uses so they are more generic than specific. He calls the movement neo-traditionalism, a fitting way to describe the dedicated, but sometimes eclectic, work he does with a crew of initiates drawn from around the world.
All of the process are steeped in tradition and poignant meaning.
Cynical and disbelieving as I always am, I was overwhelmed by the simplicity, beauty and potency of the medicine lodge. I could relate the slow, physical application of a spiritual process I learnt as a young boy wrapping Tefillin, the Jewish prayer accoutrements, around my arm and head as I learnt to pray.
Life, after all, is highly ritualised. It’s one of the sad consequences of urban, secular life: the rituals have been forgotten, and with them the spirituality they invoked. Unless you belong to a particular, usually exclusionistic sub-culture that adheres to them strictly, usually decrying the modern state of the world and often avoiding any of today’s world by denying it completely.
John Twobirds is that rare kind of man with a foot in both worlds: his ancient tradition and the modern world. Twobirds taught at several universities and developed one of the first courses on North American Indian religion and philosophy ever taught in the United States by a Native American Indian. He was an activist in the 1970s and spent time in Vietnam, before setting up and administering several Native Ameri-can organisations, cultural centres and family crisis centres. His visit is a rare opportunity to hear him talk about the rich tapestry that is the Native American tradition and do the extraordinary weekend medicine lodges. John Twobirds is holding two medicine lodge weekends, one starting today and another next week; a lecture and drum and chant on Wednesday and a genetic meditation on Thursday, both at the Sandown Hall. He is also holding a Vision Quest weekend in the Cape from December 14 to 18. For bookings or more information: Tel: (011) 728-8119 or e-mail [email protected]