Sweatlodge

Just off for a weekend on running Sweatlodges, led by Leo Rutherford. I'm going to be staying in a treehouse! It's been many years since I've been on something led by Leo, though I went on a couple of long courses of his in the 90s which helped get me up and running with this Shamanic thing, and out of the Buddhist thing that had begun to strangle me. It's about 15 years since I ran a Sweatlodge, and I'm supposed to be leading one at the Shamanic Gathering this year, so I thought I would brush up on them in good company. 

And I love sweats, for me they are the epitome of what this Shamanic thing is about. And I think they are something we have to re-invent for ourselves, there is no 10-year traditional training for us to go through. But I think if you've been to the underworld and back in your own life and begun to sort a few things in the process, that gives you an underlying qualification to do quite a lot of things. 

There is a spirit of freedom and openness and tolerance in what is called the New Age, which is sometimes used as a put-down for not being serious. But even though it can have its faults, I think there is something in that spirit that describes who we moderns are and how we connect with spirit, there is a power in it for us to claim. And that is the way in which I see our re-inventions of the Sweatlodge.