Native American Religion [Gentle Deer Lion Tamer]

What do we mean when we speak of Native American religion? Unlike Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, it has no single founder. Unlike Judaism, it is not the ongoing story of a people with a strong sense of their own identity. Neither does it resemble Hinduism, with its ancient and all-inclusive adaptiveness. In a sense, Native American religion does not exist at all: There is no one religious expression common to the 250 distinct Native American peoples still surviving as America approac

Meditation and Sweat Lodge as Affirmative Prayer [Alfred Willowhawk, BMsc, RMT, CTM, Shaman]

Over the years I have been honored to facilitate many ceremonies in many different paths. Often, I am asked questions by true seekers and participants in these ceremonies for my reasons, and from “where” these ceremonies come. I welcome them, because I too have asked the same questions of myself in meditation and sweat lodge as affirmative prayer, and self-healing. Since the early 90's I have been practicing these and other techniques that can be traced in this country back to the indige

Shamanism: A Soul-Full Living Journey [Colleen Deatsman]

The golden rays of the new morning sun peek out from behind the mountaintops lending a ghostly orange glow to the thick fog on the lake. The dawn mist feels damp and chilly, but this promise of a sunny day sends whispers of warmth throughout the wilderness. The crow caws from the top bow of the mighty virgin pine as the diffuse sunbeams accentuate his black silhouette. As if signaled by the impending sunrise, the loon who has been fishing quietly twenty yards away from my canoe extends h