I thank you for sharing your experience, wonderful words and your Spirit here, and I thank Divinity/Creator for this space here to be able to share and learn. You helped me to learn more about the Sweat, Inipi and of what it means to be Fire Keeper. Thank you!

I am grateful you were able to have the experience you had and to hear Spirit. I offer my prayers to you for all good Blessings for whatever you may need or want, ‘An it harm none, Blessed Be.

My physical heart is not strong enough to endure a Sweat (I would quite literally have a heart attack and need emergency care, therefor knowing that I would only become a disruption to the Ceremony, I respectfully do not join in the Sweat) however I am grateful and very honored to be able to help tend the Fire when I am called. It is hard and good work, and I am grateful and glad to be able to be a supportive part of the Ceremony in whatever way I can.

I will not render any judgement on the message you felt you received. Sometimes we must trust in our instincts. But it is true that such messages can be misinterpreted. What a Blessing it is then that there is this thing called the internet where we can share experiences and hear others’ points of views.

I have had somewhat similar feelings of peculiarity as roughly what you describe. For me, I am choosing for the present moment to interpret these Spiritual vibrations as reminders that it is okay for me to be me, that I do not need to abandon my own Spirituality in order to be of some kind help, even in tiniest of small ways, to those of different Spirituality. And my responsibility at the moment is to observe and leave things as I found them with those beings to which they belong, unless of course something is outright given to me to hold in trust and keeping on their behalf. I have a Smudge Wing that is in this level of keeping. I do not use it for my own rituals but instead wait for if or when I am called to help, and then bring the Smudge Wing along with me.

Sometimes our purpose is to serve as host, or helper, bringer, Be-er. One of the Gifts of the human animal is flexibility and sometimes that aspect gets exercised in Spiritual as well as intellectual, emotional and physical senses.

As I approach a Ceremony, I make it known who and what I am (which, by the way, is Wiccan/Solitary…) to the best of my knowledge (for the inner self can be a rather dynamic, changing thing) at that time to the Spirit / Divinity / Creator, I give Them honors and my Spirit-heart love, and then entrust to Them to either accept me or not.

I believe if Creator / Divinity didn’t want me there, then I wouldn’t be there. Thus if I am called and allowed to be present for Ceremony, it would appear Divinity must have some kind of confidence in me to have me be present at all. Up until very recently, I didn’t even know what an Inipi was or who the Lakota people were. It seems clear to me that until recently, I wasn’t ready yet to learn.

Divinity brings to us what we’re meant to learn and when we’re ready to learn (regardless though that sometimes we might disagree with the timing of it). It’s what we choose to do with the knowledge once we receive it that potentially becomes confusing and / or challenging. Very often it is that I pray for guidance on what is it I am meant to do with knowledge-gifts shared with me. Sometimes the answer is to only observe, or wait, or learn more, or venture further and deeper unto the Path.

Whatever answer or answers there be for you, I pray for you for Blessings of Light of Peace, Well-Being, Safe-keeping and Simple Joy. ‘An it harm none, Blessed Be.

ToniAyniaNightFish~Djhrck
Family With My Beloved CroneLunaWulf And All Our Kindred Fur, Feather And Fin Spirits…
Harrisburg, PA

the old ways did not prohibit women from doing inipi with men, particularly when used as an adoption ceremony to have you reborn into their people. what happened to you was the equivalent of a catholic priest refusing to give you communion since you were not catholic.

i have been adopted by an oglala family, and been reborn as an oglala, along with my wife, and i feel strongly that i am now oglala, and the responsibility for worshipping as they worship. i was a white man, but now i am red man.

this happened thru my oglala brothers and sisters, who accepted my spirit, and thru wakan tanka, the great mystery, our creator. i am building my own inipi lodge, and i will worship in the oglala way.

i talk with grandfather every day, and he helps be to be worthy, to understand wakan, the spirit in all of his creation, and he will guide me every day to accomplish this, and it will be wakan, holy.

this is an everything, or nothing proposition, and this is what the spirit told you in your mind. you did the right thing. when you are ready to become one with a tribe, interview with a holy man, have the true desire to be one with his tribe, honor their traditions, go to inipi with them conducting the inipi, and you will be as i am, one with the tribe and our creator.

to whom much is given, much is required.
to whom much is given, who are not ready, that much is taken away, or lost.
be willing to give all to achieve this rebirth, and i can assure you, it is more than worth the sacrifice.

we are all together, we are all one…your brother, torchholder