naturallypixie | Weekend Update (Reply)

So a lot has happened since I last posted. A few of the more important things include starting my own website Sylfaen Blends and my future participation as a vendor at both Baltimore Pagan Pride Day and DC Pagan Pride Day. I am all sorts of excited about selling my teas to the people :)

If you want to read about my last sweat lodge experience,

This past weekend we went back to Abram's Creek for the last sweat lodge of the season. This one was important to me because it fell on the equinox and I was looking forward to using the energy of the day to help with balance in my life. It started out great. In fact, I had a pretty remarkable experience. Since we arrived the day before, Bart and I were able to assist the lodge facilitator, Dougie, in preparing the stones, which entails arranging the stones and building a raging fire around them so that they will be literally red-hot for use in the lodge. We got to chose which direction we wanted to work with and I chose North, the direction of earth, because I have a problem grounding. I am much happier off in a daydream somewhere than I am firmly planted in reality. You know that person you describe as having his/her head in the clouds? Yeah, that's me. After we had placed the stones and the wood we all took some dried tobacco that Dougie had grown specifically for the purpose of being offered to the sacred fire, and held it in our hands. I was holding the tobacco cupped in my left hand with my right hand cupped over the top. My intention in holding the dried herb in this manner was to infuse it with my energy before offering it to the fire, but I'm not certain that is what happened. As Dougie said prayers of thanks I stood concentrating on the tobacco. I felt my hands become hot, as if I were holding a very warm ball of fire and then... woosh! I felt the warmth spread from my hands out to the rest of my body. It was incredible. I felt big. I felt full. Apparently there was a visible change in me when this happened because Dougie who was standing directly across from me in the South, stopped talking and tried to get my attention by saying, "Hello? Are you with us?"

At the time, I was thinking that I was filled with energy from the North, but in talking to Bart about it afterward, he suggested that it was the energy from the tobacco and I am inclined to think he is right. If that was what I felt, it is the first time I have ever consciously felt energy from a plant. I have to say that it was very cool and I would be happy to experience it again :) Unfortunately, that was the last good thing for me about the evening.

There were a TON of people there, most of them in a sweat lodge for the first time. That, combined with the complete lack of structure during the lodge, made for a completely miserable time for me. There was so much unbridled energy flying around that I was spending most of my energy trying to keep it out of me, so I had nothing left to give to the process. Dougie and the other facilitator, Manine, did nothing to help the new folks along and let them know what was expected of them and how the lodge is supposed to work. Very irritating for a person like myself who prefers structure for things like this. There was a woman who has attended lodge before and should know better, who spent most of the time speaking in a non-existent language reminiscent of that spoken by Jabba the Hut. I was too distracted with everything else to get anything out of it. Dougie added a 5th and 6th round later that night, but I was too exhausted to go back and attempt to salvage the night.

Here is the kicker for the weekend. Dougie did not have a ladle to pour water on the rocks during the ceremony, so I gave him my rather expensive REI camping mug to use. No problem. I left it there over the night because of the aforementioned 5th and 6th rounds. Then next morning I went to retrieve my cup only to find that Jabba the Hut had used it to collect HOT ASH from the fire used to heat the rocks!! Hot ash in a plastic cup = ruined cup. I was more than upset about this and more upset than I normally would have been, but it was overflow from the night before; she ruined my lodge experience and my cup!!!! Anyway, now I need to get a new cup.

So that's that. I suspect that if

aroraborealis reads this, she will think I am a complete whack job and feel the need to mock me in a friendly way.