My first Sweat Lodge experience
For years, I have been intrigued and wanting to experience a sweat but, what with a lack of opportunity and some anxiety about the unknown (and doing the wrong thing), nothing happened.
And then along came Roderick (Freeman, our Director for Slave Lake and High Prairie). Roderick, a sundancer and a sweat lodge leader and a great guy, was just the person to introduce our group to a ‘sweat’, the cleansing and healing ritual in the aboriginal culture.
On a beautiful warm and sunny day in June, we all drove up to an idyllic location and found the lodge, set up beside a pond, with the fire heating the rocks in front of the doorway. Our particular introduction was to a ‘community sweat’.
Putting us at ease, he promised he would be ‘gentle’ and it wouldn’t be too hot…..but nothing can prepare you for the absolute pitch dark once the entrance was closed and the incredible heat when the ‘grandfathers’ are brought in and the medicinal herbs and the water added. I like the heat but I was bowled over. No place for anyone with a respiratory ailment.
I had to focus on the teaching, then the singing and the drumming. By the second song (and more water on the grandfathers and MORE heat), I was thinking I wasn’t going to make it. It wasn’t the heat or struggling to breath. It was more, something primordial. I was afraid I couldn’t make it but finally the blankets were pulled up, I could see light and feel fresh air.
I pushed through and went back in after each round – the second round (the prayers) with tears running down my cheeks; the third (self) and finally the fourth, all with profound thanks and lightness.
Wow, I walked out after 4 rounds and did feel ‘cleansed’, lighter, not weighed down. This isn’t a sauna, this isn’t a recreational activity – it was a deeper, meaningful experience, one that did touch the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual. So much still to learn.
— Sally Walker, Chief Operating Officer, Alberta Region, WJS Canada