creative leadership

2022, spring, creative leadership

Sustainability Focus

This collective work is based on an interview with a prominent leader in the Denver and abroad community. It integrates an ecological perspective on our current economic, environmental, and ethical crisis of today’s world.

Objective

The four-part, de-mystique with Alicia, is a passion project that explores the importance of rituals as they relate to rites of passage in a traditional Inipi sweat lodge ceremony. It explores how traditions have the potential to build community and achieve sustainability. This piece of writing is part one of a four part series. Please see below - note that it may take a moment to view.

Intro

While getting some ink, I bonded with my tattoo artist over a Russian bathhouse in Denver, Lake Steam. Talking over a cup of coffee a year later, I learned that Lake Steam was just an extension of a relationship that she has with steaming in a traditional sweat lodge called an Inipi ceremony. I interviewed her about her experiences. Alicia is a strong leader in the community. She is a business owner of a tattoo studio and is coming into her elder hood to where she can run a lodge. 

Part 1

I've never experienced being in a sweat lodge and I don't know how you feel about talking, opening up about them because they're a spiritual practice. What are your initial thoughts and feelings? 

It’s trippy, that’s a tough subject. I think it's important to educate everybody about cultural stuff, right? There have definitely been sweat lodges and situations and ceremonies where we've been asked not to talk about it. I think that's at the discretion of the facilitator. We have an unspoken rule about not talking about, outside of that specific sweat lodge, what has been discussed in that lodge. Talking about it as an all-encompassing sort of educational aspect of what is, is safe, but not what happens, necessarily. There are some powerful things that happen, and I can sort of explain that and talk about it in really broad strokes. Healing happens and that can look like a lot of different things: tears happen, laughter happens, visits from spirits happen, but it's different every time and there's never a guarantee.  

What is a sweat lodge?

It has been described to me as a womb, and every culture especially the Norther Plains and the Mezzo America, has a little different variation of it. The one I originally learned is called Inipi, it’s a Lakota tradition, and it is made of Willow and cloth (skins going over the top of it, lots and lots of skins but now you see blankets, lots and lots of blankets). Willow is harvested in a ceremonial way and built in a certain way and with certain mathematics. It’s very beautiful. The whole thing from start to finish is mobile. You can move it and break it down and build it up in a day; whereas the pre-Columbian version, or the Temescal (which is the Mexican version), is an adobe structure often made of stone and mortar. Sometimes you will see a grass top. I've seen variations of it, but often it's just Adobe, and that's a little different in our culture. 

There are two different types of sweat lodges. There's what you have in your home, typically attached to like the outside of your home, for your own holistic reasons, like for healing and sickness - very private, very small for your family. And then ones that are community based which are more for ceremonies, ritual celebrations, that type of stuff. They both have their own different protocol, but we're still learning about some of those designs. Some of those designs are still coming forward. I have a friend who has a Temescal here and we’ve had to break it down and rebuild it a few times to figure out what works and what doesn't work. I mean, these are all ancient practices that are being re-examined and of course they look like one thing in the book, but they really act like something different when you get down to it. You actually learn to work with it. 

I'm very familiar with the Inipi because that was how I was introduced to it and it's a lovely structure. Willow is pretty local here (Colorado). You can find Willow pretty easily and put together an Inipi very easily.  Willow is used because it's a very bendable wood. Most of them are in that Dome shape, in that circular shape, which is also indicative of the womb—of the earth womb and what not. 

What do the rocks symbolize in the ceremony?

Those are grandpas, and in our way of life they are the eldest of the ancestors. They are the oldest, oldest of the energies. We call them stone people and we treat them really, really well because they treat us really, really well. So, whereas some people would not even understand, or disregard stones on the side of the road, we’re a little more connected with what those stones can do—what they can do for us. You want to stick with the stones that you know; that you make relationship with. They’re usually always first or second generation volcanic or assault stones. These are the ones that hold heat and last a long time. They can go for a long-time, as in hours, and go for a long-time, as in many ceremonies over. Depending on what the instructions have been given for that particular altar, we try to find rocks the size of your head. They will break into pieces, and you can still use them.

That’s huge, in the sauna, the rocks are much smaller.

And I’ve had those too. One of the ceremonies that I was invited to, or instructed to do, was a ceremony with 100 rocks. They ended up being a little bit smaller because you can't get 100 in there otherwise. But you know, every Inipi, every ceremony, is a little different in that way, so the number of rocks is specific and significant. One of the things that I remember striking me as being really interesting when I first got involved, is how much they (the rocks) were revered and how personified things were in that setting: the stone people having an energy, and us being in relationship, in conversation with them, being so grateful to them, and talking to them, and them talking to us—which is insane until you're there. 

Especially when you add water to them because they'll talk loud to you and tell you what's up. I love the stone people. I love that in many Inipi’s, or at least the ones that I grew up in, when those first 7 come in, nobody speaks. It's much more like having a reverence for them and holding space that they're about to heal us. I love that because it doesn’t feel unnatural, it doesn't feel based off mythology. It feels natural to introduce them to the group, and then knowing at the end of it, that they've provided this service.

Can you speak about the entrance of the sweat lodge, does it always face East? And what is the significance in direction?

It’s different for each Inipi or different for each tribe. Of course, many people will say East and West and North and South, but it really depends on the alter, because some people have gotten different instructions and it's hard sometimes to delineate what is human instruction and what is spirit instruction. I can say a good chunk of them are facing the East, but it also depends on the property, where the alter is, who set the tobacco down, and there's just a whole like thing there. So, typically it's very calculative. I'll just say that it’s not necessarily one way or the other. And sometimes it's just, ‘do what you got to do with what you have, with what you’re set up for.’ There is a specific way that the door faces, and that journey is a four-door journey, and that takes you into the four cardinal points. So, you're going to travel East first, then you travel West, North, and South, or however that altar goes. Some of them take you in a different direction, a different journey. I’ve been to enough now to know that there is a rhythm, and it will be disclosed to you when it's disclosed to you. You're not fully prepared for anything. However, it's very mathematical and in that respect a natural way for people to measure time and not let our mind focus so much on “How long have we been in here? When do we get out?” 

Do you have points where you feel physically exhausted?

I mean it really depends. For me, that surrender can take all four doors until that last bit, and then I'm like totally fine, or it can be a struggle every single moment from the minute they close the doors. It really depends on what you’re praying for, what you need. 

Are those prayers or those intentions shared with the group? 

It depends, we've always said that psychic prayers are just the same. People don't always have their words, nor should they have to, this is a space for them to go deep within. But there’s power to words and part of the design of this ceremony is to amplify a prayer, making it a bigger prayer, a community-based prayer. You take a prayer, speak it using words, and then suddenly all the collective consciousness goes to that, and with that comes power. This is considered a portal for that prayer to go out into the universe. So, it behooves you to sort of get your words about what you have to say, and there are times and places for that. Whoever is facilitating will let you know if you’re going to pray collectively out loud, or encourage, you know, one at a time so everyone can hear, or just going to sing straight through it. 

Everybody has a different relationship with it, so you'll hear people pray out loud, sometimes you’ll hear nothing at all, or there are times when you’re like, “are you done praying? Ok, let’s go!” It’s different for every group, but I encourage people, when I facilitate or when I’m part of the group that’s facilitating, to utilize their words because it really is a powerful time. Nobody's looking at you, you can’t see anybody, there's no right or wrong, you just express yourself. And some people don't express themselves at all, until they’re there in that moment and then suddenly it just like, “it comes out!” That’s been amazing to watch as well or hear (heh). But yeah, there are times for expressing yourself, times to listen, and then there are times to joke and chat a little bit. When the doors are open it's not so intense. It's a little bit of a release. 

How many people are typically in the lodge at one time?

It just depends on who you invite and how big it is. I've been in ones that had three or four people and then I've been in ones where there were 40.  Often what we’ll do is set up 2 layers, an outer circle and an inner circle, so you're sitting skin to skin with other people in front and back of you. The fires outside and you heat the rocks for two to four hours. Those rocks are then taken into the center, the door is shut, and the water is poured over the rocks.  So, you’re bummed if you’re in that front row and you're sensitive, cause you're not going anywhere.

Do you remember you’re first experience in a sweat lodge?

I don’t remember, but I do remember certain moments throughout all of them. 

How old were you when you started?  

I was a teenager, and it was in a Lakota Inipi. At that time the people I had been involved with were scary, they were scaring me, like it was scary; it was more, they weren't laying it out, so I had to discover it for myself without an explanation which is tough. I don't let people do that too much because I think it's important to give people a heads up so they can prepare. But that’s just not how it was at that time. The thing I remember about it is that at that time, the rules were (because there are some structured ones, that have lots of rules, that you had to take out all your body piercings and jewelry. I had already started getting pierced, right, because I was like a punk rocker and my reaction was, I gotta what?

But I did. I followed the rules because I wanted to be involved. It was this whole ordeal for me. Probably the hardest part for me was to take out all this stuff that I had put in, right there on the earth, in some changing room, with a bunch of elder Native Americans. And they're telling me like you have too, and I'm like: but why? And like, am I going to get burned by it? Like what level of cruciality is this?

I remember first few years being really hard for me, and I did feel initially that there was a lot of, I wouldn't say competition, but there was a lot of ‘you need to be strong, you need to sit strong, you need to not move, and you need to fucking tough it out.’ And I think that that was a good introduction for me because I see people not pushing themselves very hard, and like as soon as that heat hits and they get scared they want to get out. Whereas because I was introduced in the way I was, I go a little bit deeper, and I’m like, no I just need to push through this moment of panic and get what’s on the other side.

So, you believe there was a reason for the way that you were introduced to it.

Yeah, I think so. I never get out during the four doors. Sometimes people need a break, or whatever, but I know what's out there, you know, very clear on what’s out there, still unclear about what’s in here, so I want to spend as much time in here as I can. But I get so much out of it that I take as long as I can to take it all in and meditate during that time. 

Has that influenced the way you’ve introduced Xochitl (Alicia’s child) to Inipi?

They (non-binary) were raised in a sweat lodge way, right, so they were there since birth right. It’s such a different thing when you're brought into it consciously as an adult and a child. For me it was like, I'm interested in this I want to try it. Xochitl was only six weeks old when they were introduced to Inipi, you know, and when they are raised that way, they don't know any other way, right? For their birthdays, specifically for their sacred birthdays (which are 1, 4, 7, 9 and 12), they have a lodge. 

Now Xochitl is getting to that age where they've had some fun with it, or they’ve had a couple of negative experience; they've had moments where they were uncomfortable and so they're like really exercising their right not do it. But it's always there for them and they're very familiar with the protocol. They know that it's there. Typically, right now they'll come and join us for maybe one round. But when they were a baby, they were just on the tit in the lodge with us, and we’d take off their diaper, and they’re just there in a towel. Those are some beautiful memories, because for them it’s just the warmest nicest thing ever, their mom in the dark? Come on!

And nobody in the native community is bothered by a baby crying in the way other people are, or by a baby being upset. One of the other lovely things is a child lodge (because we do have lodges just for kids where it doesn't get as hot, and we leave the light on). My kid was probably more bothered by the lights being off, and being in the dark, then they were by the heat. So often for a kid lodge we would leave a little bit of a light, just a little crack in the door, or something like that. But if they come in with us for any period it's a blessing. As soon as they leave, we thank them, and we’re happy that they tasted it even for a second because it's something that they're going to be able to revisit throughout their lives. It is there to help them throughout their lives. So, when the kids come in it’s a blessing. When anybody leaves and they’ve given just a bit of their time, no matter how difficult of a time they had, we always are super grateful they tried. So that’s cool you know, even though I've been taught, ‘suck it up, sit through it,’ there's also many lodges where they’re grateful for people just to try. 

The transition is interesting from sitting in there all the time to now having a child where sometimes you must step out or stay out of a lodge with your kid. There's a little bit of a transition because I love them so much. I believe everybody who ends up in that lodge is supposed to be there. If something happens where you have to be watching and minding the kids, then you're not supposed to be in that one right then. It is something that they will always have for celebration reasons and for difficult times. 

I have learned with my child that they are not allowed to be in healing lodges. They can be in celebratory lodges, that works good for them, and they can be in like more familial type settings, but I don't put them in lodges, my child, where there's a healing going on. This is a different type of lodge where there are a lot of strangers. Because Xochitl is very sensitive and they have energy and their energy is affected very greatly, it's just not good for them, my child. But that's not for everybody, you know, those are your individual parent judgement calls. Right now, where Xochitl is at with it, is they are a helper: they'll check in on us, like from the outside, they will come in at the end and have spirit food. 

They are required to come and have spirit food at the end of everything. There's a blessing of this spirit food that goes around at the end. It's a sacred food that we make and is symbolic of our sustenance in a survival. We don't have a choice as a parent who gets to make those calls. Xochitl stands and hold space and has spirit food with us and if they're not there, I bring it home to them so that they can get that blessing, so even the prayers that happened with that lodge can be ingested. It can be meshed with them at the end of it all. So, right now Xochitl kind of in that space with the lodge, where they're like, ‘Nah it's too hot, meh, meh.” But we do bring it full circle and they like spirit food, so it’s not a big deal, they like the taste.