It has taken a while for me to assimilate the feelings and images flooding up into me from my recent sweatlodge ceremony in Hawthorne. So I appreciate all your patience. For whatever reason it may be important, I offer these to you in the way they came to me....

Green Willow branches, ripe with spring sap...pliable, bendable, shapable...tied with cords...joined individuals, holding each other together in unity to make a shell of protection, power, harmony, healing.

Holes in Earth Mother, open to our needs, inviting us to bring our torments, our needs, our prayers, our wishes, our awe, our joys, our tribe, our power...cool soil made of our living ancestors, rich with biologic life...multicolored sacred sands, different but of one common origin, holding, protecting, supporting.

FireSpirit Dancing, warm to the touch, life bringer, collector in wood of all the millenia of starlight...coursing through the stillness of the night air, releasing power and healing into our eyes...rebirthing the place of beginnings when Mother's heart formed these stonepeople....HOT.....red glowing energetic little suns, expectant, dancing with the ancestors wisdom.

Night Skies, twinking stars, shooting comet, meteor shower over the lake, brilliant bright, even, cool, gentle, soft, Grandmother's love.....velvety smooth as the inside of the Mother, keeper of secret places, harbor to Spirits Shyly appearing in the edges of the woodlines.

Grandmothers, spiritwalking from the pines and oaks, beckoning...showing themselves only slightly, gently shapeshifting, bringing gifts of water, life, venIson...Teaching, waiting, beads....trade cloth, songs....gentle speech and laughter, expectant energies floodIng my head and heart.....familiar from so long ago.

Coverings of blankets, cloth, laced together in the wind, warriors proudly displaying powerful shields against the edges of other realities...tribe...keepers of our special place...Gathered together by all who came, special colors, different patterns, different smells, different energies, all together over Mother's Back....the shell becomes...like the sisters...each bony covering unique, yet part of the whole....synergy dancing.

Rain, Thunder, Lightning,.....boom, boom....Songs of power in our hearts and minds....Clouds racing low, giving place to the fire, waiting for ceremony, eager to show their power...adding mystery...drumming overhead, yet beneath us, inside us all.

Friends enter humbly on hand and knees, joining close, bound together in expectant quietness...finding sacred places in which to come for healing, for prayers, for empowerment, for giving of gifts...Brothers and Sisters, together in old time, not in this dimension, other realities begin to find our minds...other lodges...other walks...East sings songs of the morning...Eagle cries....we are in the heartspace again as we have been so many many times before....South cries...the deer people and the Corn Mother...ancient Selu'...giver of Life....Bear talks of the West, deep, places of quiet rest....dark skies, introspection and spirit....ho!......North prays for us...Wolfsongs...Ancient wisdom...White Buffalo Woman lights the pipe...sacred tobacco prayers fill us, envelop us in the mystery.......We are one...sacred union restored......Hoop sings, Ho! O'Itchikiye'.

Pipe, smoking....scent of old medicine... rings of light from each mouth as prayers become power bubbles next to Earth and Heaven....sings....songs....chants......warm....Smell of sage, clean, sweet, cleansing gifts......Hiss of water, breath of Grandfather given to us for our cleansing.....deep inside......visions of other days when we ran free,...visions of the Mothers caring for us, giving us songs and words of power....the hunt...

Prayers, multicolored ties of tobacco and cloth, tied in prayerful union and deep sharing, suspended from the canopy of space over our heads, yet still and expectant, eager for their release into reality....Flags of place and hope...another energy binds them before, transformed into light, healing, power, joy....Hope sings through the Mothers.....chants come through the Fathers, visions dance...

Hot, red Grandfathers...Hot red Grandmothers....walk the path of spirit, ask to be admitted to share their powerful energy.....All sit patiently, awestruck in the power of their heat and knowledge. Red dances in sparkles of bright yellow orange pink violet as sage joins with herbs, sacred scent.....finding our hearts through our eyes, our nose, our skin, our ears, our mouths....Light flashes in the darkness....over us, through us, under us......Mitakuye' Oyasin'.....

Powerful energy of the Grandfathers come...the warriors....teaching....healing...showing coup sticks.....warshirts...horsehair...painted faces screaming old words...lances planted...staffs of elders....bringing the shields to stand over us...allowing us to find our vital power....old...real...hunters again....

The soft gentleness of the Grandmothers come.....sweet forgiveness....tears...flowingheartsongs.....gentle voices of the teachers....otters and wolves....caring caresses....One is lifted over the stone people....scent of too new medicine escapes her....body becoming whole in the floating cinders....filling the shell of their medicine lodge.....finding violet rays of swirling light....red stones becomes white-pink in the energies of the ancient Mothers holding her, tending her wounded body....nurturing....blessing....prayers of powerful knowing touch.....sitting in the bright winding spirals of joy and soft places....reiki places...star places again...maya mother, Ho!.

Strong Ancestors come....bringing game....fresh skins.....new totems....knives.....shells....sage...cedar...tobacco....Songs and Gambling tonight...much to share from many trails long forgotten, coming in families, coming in clans...reminders of tribes....adoptions, homes....Hot searing breath of the strong ones...the elk, the strong trees....men walk as men now, unafraid....bringing wisdom of our place in the universe....strong virile progenitors, keepers, makers of nations. Red seems as their blood, streams of honor coursing inside us, making us whole and strong. Hearts beat in black, white, yellow, green.....colors of the winds....Eagle cries, Raven stares, Owl watches....Bear Smiles.

Lake sings softly under the showering rain....accepting her own, holding power blessed of stars...Silver, quiet, cooling...inviting our hot energy to blend in union...giving yet taking...dancing together in old rythyms...locked together in ageless joining....man and woman....night and day....inner and outer....heaven and earth....hot and cold.....reminders of our natural gifts...our joy to spirit, our special relationship with our creator, need, giving and receiving.....community.

Sweat...Sand...grit....old becoming removed, new skins grow to replace the old, weak as new babies, needful of water, energies building in the strange light of night, emerging cleanly, thankfully expectant, kissing her, hands on her, praying for new life, looking first for each other....needing tribes....breezes....wonder.

Joy abounds here....pain is gone from here....Earth Mother cleanses us and is also cleansed. Peace comes to my heart again, inipi. Mitakuye' Oyaisin.

Dance well, my beloved gentle family. I love you so.

Dan EagleBear

A PERSONAL POEM FROM EAGLEBEAR TO ME ABOUT THE INIPI EXPERIENCE

things are strongly stirring....? always when we visit the stone people, realignments, and opportunities for cleansing, newness and growth come.

a little verse for you today,

In the air between us flies the One Silently.... Swiftly watching the sacred spaces giving place to wonderful things, not speaking or squawking... Feathers shine, black to blue

Songs only are thought planted deeply until the time they need to emerge as Loud raucous rhymes

Smoke and Breath mingle

Dancing the old dances Given in Purity

Cleansing comes

Strongly, gently, the sacred and the profane Speak together in heart counsel... growing sacred groves where meetings bring Offspring of pure intention, harmony and questions

We are one. We are loved. We sang. We sing still. And our ancestors dance in our hearts and eyes.

I love you. Dance Well my dear Brother. DEB

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