To Breath is to Live

posted by K Carter Steeves

A Pipe Carrier myself three children four other women gather in a circle around the fire bowl.e are inside a Sweat Lodge.We smile, we sit in grateful silence, and reverence to all creation.The morning has just broken,the air clear,crisp and its essence fills me with vitality.Crawling into the circle we were laughing at the children's questions this is their first Sweat.We do not talk.The Pipe-Carrier asks the door keeper to wait there is going to be time for a lesson before he brings in the fire rocks.
"GREAT SPIRIT! is air.Her eyes are closed her voice is monotone.She looks deep with in as if her words are coming from another realm."GREAT SPIRIT is air given to earth given to us freely.We commune with Great Spirit with this Pipe.The bowl is woman the stem is man.Male and female is within all things.Sometimes visible sometimes not known.This tobacco is a gift to Mother Earth it is a gift to us given by Great Spirit freely. We  talk with Great Spirit as we pray and celebrate the Sweat leaves what is past behind as we smoke the pipe.Here we are one with Mother Earth and Great Spirit.All we have comes from Mother Earth we give thanks here today.As we smoke this pipe we are one in Spirit the smoke is passing this tobacco gift of prayer,so are our lives passing here in Spirit on our earth walk.We are given to this earth freely into this world of illusions then we pass away into the Great Mystery back to Great Spirit with our ancestors.This is all we have been, all we are and all we are becoming.The eight pathways of the medicine wheel.
The smoke is filled with our intentions,our prayers.Intentions is the lightening rod to Great Spirit.If your intentions are poor so are your prayers.Your life will speak for you.
The children were now silent, hanging their ears on her every word.She then asked the doorkeeper to bring in five Grandfather rocks from the fire.He slid the pitchfork out over the earth through the door setting each one in its proper place very gently and closed the door.
We sat in darkness, the Great Mrstery.

Eastern Star Way

posted by K Carter Steeves
After the Sweat Lodge I was ready to join into the dancing and drumming.My friend had sewed me a Grandmother Ribbon Dress.I am honoured in my heart each time I wear it,to respect my ancestors,the four directions and all those who love me.Sometimes it only takes one single event to awaken a truth that was there all the time.For most of us it is a gradual process that unfolds by flashes of understanding,temperance,clues and strength.That is how it has been for me.Here at my first POW WOW I saw and felt an ancient Spiritual Way of Life, not a sermon ,not an order of requirements,not a race for the pulpit,nor a picture of a Jewish sacrifice.This ancient tribal way em brassed me in vitality from Mother Earth and the Sacredness of dimensions in Father Sky.I felt the terror of Grandmother Moons Mercifulness and the energising   web of Grandfather Sun.My rebirth set in motion My ability to focus,gentle gathering information to make my own decisions,set my own visions own my feelings and harness the energy of my medicine seeing my efforts go out into the Universe and return to me.The living cycles of life came into being and I began to flourish in ways that made sense to me and made me very passionate about my life and still to this day.
Now I know what all those people were doing in the 70"s going off to India and it was right here in my own back yard.We are healed we are enlightened in Gods time not ours and for the times we live in .
Nameste`

Stars

posted by K Carter Steeves
Would that I could lay your strength
Like a cloak here surround me
Feel your tender thoughts flow through me
Embrace the light of Oneness
Our hearts speaking to the stillness
Mirrors in a Universe, Creators Grace
Unfurled upon the World