Supporting Our Tribe
Earth Keepers Medicine Council & Medicine Wheel Gatherings
EarthKeeping is an ancient concept of deep ecology and was once the ongoing daily expression of reverence and ritual associated with honoring the life force. This reverence and awareness was an inescapable aspect of being human- living in harmony with the ways of the earth. Within the indigenous community, Medicine Council was the forum for healing and "reconnecting" the individual, the family, and the community.
In Medicine Council, we can share and affirm. We can bridge the gap between the past and the future as we gather to share a wide range of disciplines and traditions and share our unique perspectives on health, wellness, and spirit.
Medicine wheel gatherings are held at specific lunar cycles and are based on ancestral rituals and rites of passage. The Medicine Wheel gatherings encourage an Earth Walk inspired by respect, balance and sacred conversation. In these gatherings we will learn about our connection to all of life and the way of foraging. We will also be taught the primitive skills necessary to sustain ourselves under all conditions.
Stone Peoples Lodge or "Sweat Lodge"
The sweat lodge is an ancient method of cleansing found in many cultures around the world such as the European sauna and Russian sweat bath. The purpose, style, and use of the sweat varies among cultures. Here in the United States, the North American Indigenous People used the lodge not only as a means of purification, but as a very sacred act of prayer. The People of the northeast, southeast, west, and northwest differed in the way they built and conducted their lodges.
One should be aware that the lodge and other religious ceremonies of the indigenous people were forbidden by the Federal Government until fairly recently and the sweat lodge tradition that most successfully survived the oppression was the Lakota inipi. The Lakota lodge is the one now adopted by the Bureau of prisons. The structure of the inipi is the “upside down basket” of willow saplings and is covered with skins or blankets. The rocks are heated in an outside fire and brought into the lodge where water is poured over them.
There are many books written on indigenous spirituality and a few on the sweat lodge. One recommended on the sweat lodge itself is “The Native American Sweat Lodge - History and Legends” by Joseph Bruchach.
Earth Keepers Peace Tours
EarthKeepers’ international peace tours have strengthened an interest in traditional healing and have opened up new distribution channels for EarthKeepers’ products and services. This broadened market interest has given new opportunity to EarthKeepers’ Tribal Revival initiative. In an attempt to reestablish our sacred connection to the earth, EarthKeepers is currently organizing forces within the Native American community to reestablish connections between native peoples and the use of medicine. One aspect of this protocol involves putting native peoples in touch with traditional ways to grow, harvest, and produce herbs and fibers. EarthKeepers plans to use these authentically produced materials in medicinal botanicals and other earth-based products in hopes of setting an example and providing a model for healing through the responsible and reverent manufacture and consumption of goods and services both at home and around the world. This economic force will be accompanied by a powerful message of the interconnectedness of all things - inherent in the integrity of EarthKeepers products. This, in turn, will create healing for the indigenous communities as well as the broader “community of man” worldwide.
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