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Native American Sacred Hoop Visionquest
Background Beliefs Overview Traditions
The Dream Catcher consists of a perfect circle web with a hole in the center which symbolizes the Web of Life and Future Destinies.
It is hung above beds to sift through dreams, ideas, and visions, catching the good ones so that people may be helped and goals may be attained; and, purging the bad ones by discharging them through the hole in the center of the web.
Native Americans commune with the Great
Spirit by smoking the scared pipe and by feathering themselves with sweetgrass,
allowing the smoke to convey their prayers throughout the Sacred Hoop to Great
Spirit.
Native American Teepees
The sacred pipe was used by the great chiefs to seal the peace treaties with the white man because it bore the same special ceremonial significance to them as taking an oath on the Holy Bible did to the white man. During private and group ceremonies, prayers are transmitted through the smoke of the sacred pipe. The pipe bowl is symbolic of the female and the wooden pipe stem symbolizes the male.
The joining of the two represents the connection between Mother Earth and all the creatures that inhabit Earth. The pipe bowl may be made of soapstone or wood and often resembles an Animal Totem. The bowl may be inlaid with silver, decorated with beads and leather and painted with symbolic colors. There are sacred pipes used only by men or only by women.
A sacred pipe belongs to the community so the holder of a scared pipe must spiritually earn the right to be its custodian, usually through cleansing or fasting.
Smudging is a ritual burning of sacred herbs such as Sage (for purity of spirit), Sweetgrass (for healing ceremonies), and Cedar (for dispelling negativity). Bundles of these sacred plants are tied together forming smudge sticks or braided together and then dried.
Traditionally a council, central, or cooking fire was used to light the end of a smudge stick or a braid. Today a candle is often used instead; and, then the herbs are put in an abalone shell or a ceramic bowl.
Generally, the smoke is first offered to the Four Powers, then to Mother Earth and Father Sky, and then a smudging prayer is recited.
Afterwards, the hand or a feather is used to direct a few curls of smoke, imbued with the fragrance and spiritual energy of the sacred herbs, to the people, places, or objects that need cleansing.
Storytelling, passed down through the generations, teaches valuable lessons by example. This precious oral history of stories, legends, and the teachings of the Elders is now being written down and recorded in order to preserve it for posterity.
Native Americans communicate
with the spirits by singing traditional, ceremonial, and medicine songs
accompanied by drums and sometimes also by rattles, flutes, and whistles...
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Read Native American Articles
All are Kin Clans and Making Relatives,
Clans Giveaways and the Keeping of Souls,
Cosmology of Sacred Hoop Great Spirit,
Drumming Smudging and Sweat Lodges,
Glossary Terminology,
Goddesses Gods and Star Teachers,
Medicine Wheels and Four Directions,
Native American Indian Spiritual Beliefs,
Sacred Pipe Ceremony and Powwows,
Visionquests and Power Animal Totems,
Wakan Tanka and White Buffalo Woman
Visit other Beliefs Faiths Religions Traditions
Aboriginal Dreamtime,
Alchemy Alchemist,
Cosmos Astronomy,
Buddhism Buddhist,
Christianity Biblical,
Daoist Confucian,
Druidry Treelore,
Heathenry Ásatrú,
Hinduism Vedas,
Islam Sunnah,
Judaism Talmud,
Native American,
Paganism Wiccan,
Shamanism Shaman,
Shintoism Kami
Native American Sacred Hoop Visionquest Copyright © 2002-2008 Maureen Grace Burns, Blessings Cornucopia. All Rights Reserved.
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