Photo of a sweat lodge I found on the internet.
Today CJ was nice enough to take me, Robin and Max to a traditional Cree sweat. One of the First Nations Profs. Ross and his wife had the sweat lodge at their house, a little bit outside PG in beautiful surroundings in a BC provincial park.
A sweat is a spiritual ceremony where you pray for your own and others health.
We didn't not the do's and dont's, but thankfully Ross was very good at explaining the different parts of the ceremony.
In Cree culture tobacco is seen upon as a sacred, thus before we even got in the lodge Ross took some time to prepare the pipe, which was to be smoked before the sweat began.
When everything was ready we entered the lodge, women on one side and men on one side and the pipe was sent around to everyone. CJ had been carrying red-glowing stones in to the lodge, which Ross put in a pit in the middle.
After the pipe was smoked, the entrance was covered up and it was made sure that no light got in. Ross then sang the song to welcome the grandmothers and grandfathers into the lodge while pouring water on the hot stones. Quite an experience sitting in pitch black, sweating and listening to the songs with the good smell of herbs - one almost got the feeling that you were sitting there all by yourself. We did four rounds of sweating and we were singing two songs in each round.
After the sweat it was arranged for a feast, we had really good food and sat in Ross' and his wife's house just chatting for a while. Quite an amazing experience.
More about sweat lodges can be found here: http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/swlodge.php
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