Bonjour,
Noelle Cormier in Dijnekaas.
Hello,
My name is Noelle Cormier and I would like to share with you a smudging ceremony.
You can listen to this meditation without doing this ceremony.
Listen to it over and over.
Learn it.
Share it.
If you do not have access to the medicines used in the smudging ceremony right now,
No worries.
The meditation will encompass the energies of the medicines and you will have an experience just the same.
Ceremony is a way to connect to the creative flow of the universe and if using your imagination right now is how you perform this meditative ceremony,
So be it.
There is no right or wrong way to do a meditation or a ceremony.
Our desire to be perfect comes from what we were taught to do,
How to do it in a certain way in order to distract our minds.
If you think of how humans were born,
They were born head first,
So we tend to put our minds first.
In actuality,
Creation comes from the heart.
So let your heart lead.
Ceremony is a way to connect to the creative flow of the universe,
That loving energy of creator which carries no judgment.
Without judgment,
There is no failure.
Take a moment and set your intention now to perform this meditation or this ceremony with pureness of heart and a desire to connect to the creative flow of the universe.
Creator lives there in your heart,
So let the heart lead.
When I prompt you during the ceremony,
You can close your eyes and imagine you are doing the action.
This way,
The ceremony becomes your meditation.
The medicines used will return us to balance,
Wellness,
Innocence and humility,
All the gifts we were born with.
Smudge ceremony opens us to receive.
It is the doorway to true consciousness and oneness with all.
Take a moment to gather the four medicines of the Ojibwe people that are used to perform this sacred ceremony.
Tobacco,
The first plant given to the Anishinaabe people after the great flood.
It was a sign to the people that life can regenerate upon the earth.
It teaches us about the sacrifice that muskrat made so that life could continue.
Tobacco is used as a sign of thankfulness and it carries our prayers to the creator.
Tobacco also teaches us gratitude for all things.
Gratitude comes from the ability to be humble,
Which is one of our seven grandfather teachings.
To see yourself as a sacred part of everything is to be humble.
We offer tobacco in all our ceremonies for these reasons.
Sage is the next medicine.
Sage is used in many cultures to release negative energies.
Sage is often placed on the tongue when you feel hungry.
It is used to release what's troubling the mind.
Cedar is used to cleanse and to ground.
It can be made into a tea to drink or placed in a bath to bathe in.
Cedar reminds us to have clear thoughts and intentions.
It is used under the feet or placed on the ground to sit on for ceremonies such as sweat lodges.
Use cedar when you need to cleanse your thoughts,
Mind,
Body and spirit.
Sweetgrass is the fourth medicine used in a smudge ceremony.
Sweetgrass calls in positive energies and it teaches us to be soft.
Hard things will break.
When grass is walked upon,
It bends with the weight of our step and when left,
It springs back and returns to its form.
Sweetgrass teaches us to walk softly upon the earth,
To bend and return to the self when the weight of the world brings you down.
Sweetgrass reminds us to be soft in our words,
Our touch,
Our walk and in all that we do.
In that softness,
We can find strength.
Now that we have our four medicines,
Let's perform smudge ceremony together.
Close your eyes.
Open your heart to the creative flow of the universe.
Feel the breath relaxing your body and clearing your mind with each inhalation and each exhalation.
Take a moment to be grateful.
Feel for the ability to come together to share sacred ceremony.
When your mind is clear of all thoughts,
Open your eyes.
Take a pinch of tobacco as a sign of newness,
New beginnings,
Regeneration.
Place the tobacco in your bowl and give thanks.
Think of the sacrifices you've made to come to this place of ceremony,
Such as sacrificing time and space.
Breathe in and breathe out.
Next take a pinch of sage and as you place it in the bowl,
Know that all your negative thoughts,
Your worries and other people's negative energies will be placed in the bowl too in order to be given up to the creator with gratitude.
Acknowledge the lessons of negativity for without them,
Your true self would not be realized.
Now take a pinch of cedar and place it in the bowl as a reminder of all those things you wish to cleanse,
Body,
Mind,
Physical space,
Your words and finally sweet grass.
Its sweet fragrance carries the energies of positivity,
Softness,
Bouncing back.
As you place sweet grass in your bowl,
Let it teach you that what you put out into the world comes back to you.
And now take a wooden match to create fire.
Fire reminds us of the stories told around a campfire.
Fire gives us warmth and shelter from the cold.
It brings us together as community and teaches us that we belong.
We are one spirit when we gather this way and remember just as the medicines in the bowl become one prayer wafting up in smoke to the creator.
Light the medicines now and let the smoke rise up.
Take a handful of the smoke and waft it over your hair so that all you think you think clearly.
Waft smoke over your eyes so that all you see you see clearly.
Take some smoke over the ears so that all you hear you hear clearly.
Take some smoke over your lips and mouth so that all you say you say clearly.
Take some smoke and waft it over your heart so that all you feel you feel from this place,
The heart.
Now waft the smoke in front of you to be reminded to go forward with clear intentions and an open heart.
And now behind you to be reminded of those ancestors that walked before you and shared with you all the wisdom of the universe that leads you to walk your path with love and light remembering who you truly are.
Ground the smoke down into the earth and give thanks for your journey upon it.
Take a moment now to be grateful for all the lessons,
All your experiences in life for without them you cannot be who you truly are.
There is a saying that goes,
Nothing new can come into your life until you are already grateful for what you have.
In our tradition,
As with many other traditions,
Being grateful for what you have allows the free flowing energy of the universe,
The energy of the creator to come into your life.
Take this time now to say a little prayer.
Release the need to want for if wanting is what you pray for,
Then wanting is what you'll get.
Be grateful.
A ceremony is only complete when you share it.
So go now and share the teachings of the medicines and the smudge ceremony.
Miigwech.
Thank you.
