Two Visions of Sundance

The Sundance was incredible.  The energy of the spirits, Sundancers, ceremonial grounds, and the five days was beyond words.  Grant, Phil, Tim and myself were there from Sacred Path and we all were asked to help as Fire Keepers which gave us a back stage pass to the ceremony since we were directly helping the Sundancers through the 5 days.  There were approx 70 Sundancers (50 men and 20 women) and our day started at 5:30am and ended at midnight each day.  We each teamed up in pairs to take our turn in staying up all night to watch the fire and prepare for the next morning Inipis.  Even though we were going non stop during this time the days went fast and we felt no sense of being tired until after the Sundance was completed.  The magic of ceremonial space and time.  Andrew pierced all four days that piercing was performed and he was strong the entire time considering the amount of dancing he did, the fasting as well as the heat and sun during the day.

We constantly felt the presence of spirits and even saw spirits and rattling sounds on numerous occasions.  I think all of us experienced something that we NEVER experienced before and we came back with a whole new appreciation and understanding of the Sioux traditions.  We all were cooked by the fire and the sun, which took another layer of our onion off of our touch shells.  I think we will look at life and sacrifice from a very different perspective from this point forward... 

– Dan Stanton

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During the first week of this month, I and fellow WC members, Grant Mays and Dan Stanton, traveled to South Dakota to attend Michael Cross’s Sundance in support of our two Sweat Lodge Leaders, Andrew and Thomas.  For me, it was the first trip outside of California since the river trip several members of the WC enjoyed several years ago, so I was immediately taken out of my comfort zone and moved from my usual places of stability. 

This would be more than going to the mountain; this would be a journey into the meaning of ritual; this would give a deeper understanding of what Andrew and Thomas endured for the People (Lakota) and us; this would provide a background for the why sweats were done.

The first day of Sundance, which is the Lakota New Year, is tree day.  All in attendance trip out to the site where the selected tree was.  There was a caravan of cars that stretched at least a mile down the road.  The tree is chopped down (no chainsaw here), and before it can touched the ground, it is lifted by all the men and carried to a flatbed for transport back to the Sundance site, where it is placed in a prepared hole – again without touching ground from flatbed to the hole.

From that moment on we are in ceremony.  There are many things that happened following that moment that I have yet to fully process.  All three of us worked as Fire-keepers and assumed the responsibilities of such.  They are not just to keep the fire going that heats the stones for the sweat lodges (there were four); fire-keepers are the go-betweens and go-fors of the ceremony.

There are so many moments during the five days of dancing that it may take a year just to assimilate them all within.  There is a day that all the dancers pass by everyone in attendance and bless them with healing.  And on the last day, all the dancers shake the hands of everyone there.  The tree is removed from its hole, again without touching the ground, and carried to its resting place.

There is so much more that I could write, but what I wrote in my journal four days after my return seems to place it all in a nutshell: I went to Sundance to learn who I was to myself.  I went to Sundance to find myself.  I went to Sundance to support.  I went to Sundance to understand, to help and to be helped.  I went to Sundance.  At Sundance I learned humility.  At Sundance I learned my ignorance.  At Sundance my heart broke because of stupidity.  At Sundance, I came to know that I was nothing and nothing held me to its bosom and taught me to be something other than myself.  At Sundance I bathed in enlightenment and waded into its pools of understanding.

–Phillip Jennings