Ceremonia Tradicional Temascal

THE SWEAT LODGE, OR TEMASCAL CEREMONY

The sweat lodge or Stone People’s Lodge is a very old form of purification. It is a global tradition among indigenous peoples. A dome structure is built with a pit inside. After the structure is adequately covered to hold the heat, hot rocks are brought into the lodge, where they become the source of steam. Water is poured over the rocks, creating a simple but highly effective sweating place. In virtually all illness, sweating is prescribed as a means of purification.

A sweat lodge is a good way to clear the past before stepping into the future with new intention. It is good to pause with all past experiences, to recognize their value and let them go with blessings. In this way, no thing from the past is presented as an obstacle to forward movement. Ritual cleansing is a very old and accepted way of dealing with the past.

The most widespread sweat lodge tradition today is that of the Lakota Sioux, who call it the Inipi. The Lakota people secretly kept performing their sacred ceremonies when many other American Indian tribes were forced by the pressures of the missionaries and the federal government to give up their traditional ceremonies.

All participants will be asked to help preparing the wood for the fire, covering the lodge with blankets and preparing soup, coffee and tea. These preparations are all part of the ceremony. This is why it’s important to be there from the start and to be on time! We will not know exactly how long things are going to take. We go by “Indian Time”. Which means we leave it up to Spirit as to how long things will take. We will do our best to make it possible for people to go home at a reasonable time, though!

There are two ‘leaders’ involved in a sweat lodge ceremony. The fire-keeper or firewoman (-man) is the person tending the fire. The Water-Pourer is the person pouring the water inside the lodge.

All participants are asked to bring a dish to share after the sweat lodge is over.
It’s a good tradition to also bring tobacco for the fire keeper and the water pourer.

Attention

We also advise the following issues before you participate one ceremony:

• No sex mínimum 5 days before and later also
• No red meat mínimum 5 days before
• No consume other seacred plants like marihuana, ayahuasca, San Pedro, and other  medicine, mínimum 5 days before and later also
• No consume drugs mínimum 5 days before and later also
• No alcohol 2 days before
• Eat light food the day off the ceremony like fruit, juice.
• Read  the document about ceremonies

Not following this advise can interrupt the benefits off the medicine and ceremony.
For the temascal:

• One change of clothes
• Towel

Also do not forget the following stuff:

• Red bandana or paleacate
• Little mirror and one penny
• Chocolate
• White candle
• Apple juice is good for take the medicine
• Fruits, breakfast, water, lunch packet
• Musical instruments
• Lamp
• Sacred objects

Janke y Raquel

Group Leaders in the Temascal Ceremony

We, Janke Annema and Raquel Haug, have been working together with the sweat lodge ceremony for the last seven years. We were first brought together for a women’s lodge in memory of our friend Feike, who had died unexpectedly in a car accident on her way to a vision quest in Spain in 2003.  Before her passing, Feike and Janke had started to organize women’s weekends and sweat lodges at a beautiful piece of land, owned by Janke and her former husband. This special garden being created in honor of the great Goddess was also the place were the ceremony for Feike was being held. It felt like Feike was handing over the baton to Raquel in working together with Janke as a fire woman/ water pourer team. Besides women ceremonies we organize sweat lodges for both men and women. Mixed ceremonies are a great way for men and women to heal on a personal and communal level.

Janke: My first experience with the sweat lodge ceremony was in France during the solar eclipse of 1999.  Even though the lodge was very crowded and I could not stay in for more than two rounds, the experience was overwhelming. It felt like being reborn from Mother Earth, nude covered with mud and sweat. This was truly the start of something new for me. A new way of connecting to the Earth and all it’s living beings and a new way of praying and sharing with other people. Since then the sweat lodge ceremony has become an important part of my life. I have come to develop my connection to the fire for the last seven years and I feel a strong desire to develop my ability to start pouring water in the lodge in the near future as well. I live in Rotterdam, Holland with two of my four wonderful children. My oldest two have moved out to start their own life.

Raquel: My first experience with a traditional sweat lodge ceremony was twenty years ago at a Medicine Wheel gathering from the late Chippewa Indian teacher, Sun Bear. I too was overwhelmed by this first introduction. Never did I experience the powers of nature in such direct way, nor did I feel the spirit world to be this close. Besides that, I love what ceremony does to people. Total strangers experience an atmosphere of honesty, openness and transparency that is very rare in daily life. I was lucky to live in the United States for fourteen years and to meet many different traditional and non-traditional sweat lodge leaders. As an apprentice I was thought how to work the fire and pour lodges. I also teach women (and sometimes men) about the importance of the female cycle in a traditional Native American women’ s ceremony called a ‘Moon Lodge’. I live in Amsterdam with my sweetheart and am the proud mother of two beautiful young adults.

More information about the Temascal Ceremony

Because we use the concept of ‘Indian Time’, which means that we do everything in a structure but without our watches.
I have not divided the day into a timetable. What I have tried to do is to name all the different tasks that are going to be performed in groups.

I also mentioned that it is important for the participants to be on time and to leave it open as to when things will end.
(We will keep in mind that people have to be able to get back at the end of the day!