Secrets of Shamanism

(Tina Meador) #1

CHAPTER 10


Transformation Through


Ritual and Ceremony:


Practices


The meeting had been heated and intense and when it
was over the room had that thick, cut-it-with-a-knife feel
to it. Marian's living room was spacious enough to hold
the fifteen or so people who came together each month to
debate community projects; and she had not minded the
meetings. What she had minded was the way the room
had felt afterward. Marian found that she could barely
stand going into her living room for several days after one
of these meetings. It seemed that all the debate and ten-
sion from the heated discussions remained in the room
long after the meeting itself was over. But things had
changed.
This time, after all the people left, Marian opened the
windows wide and carried in a clay bowl that she filled
with smoldering dried leaves and stems from the sage
bush. She had picked the sage herself on her vacation to
the high desert in Utah. Memories flooded in: how she
had sat with the sage bushes for a time and had asked
their permission to pick a few branches. The bushes had
been generous and enthusiastic in their response. Not
only did they offer their branches to her, but they also
gave Marian information about the specific qualities of
sage and instructions on how to use it for cleansing the
atmosphere in her house.
Marian stood in the center of the room and raised the
bowl of sage up to her eye level with her arms out-
stretched. Then, slowly turning around, she described an
imaginary medicine wheel with the bowl. Marian stopped
for a moment to invoke each of the four directions. She
raised the bowl up above her head and then lowered it to
the floor to invoke the Sky and then the Earth. Marian let
the smoke drift over her body, using her hands to guide it
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