I appreciated GG’s fine meditation on sensuality and spirituality in yesterday’s DM along with his commentaries on the book Tantric Jesus: The Erotic Heart of Early Christianity. (I had forgotten I had written a Preface to it, actually.)
I am reminded of the non-dualist attitude toward the body, matter, and prayer that one encounters in the Native American tradition. One reason I have felt so blessed by praying with indigenous people over the years is that their prayer is as bodily as it is. In a sweat lodge, one sweats—I mean, really sweats.
My very first sweat lodge was led by a Chippewa leader at a large Tekakwitha Conference in Minnesota.
I entered the sweat lodge with my lower back very much bothering me due to a serious car accident a few years previously. I left the sweat lodge with my back feeling better than it had since the accident. In between, I had faced death (I felt) as my first reaction to the heat of the lodge was to look for an exit–and then a fire extinguisher. I could find neither. Then, finally, I yielded to the experience and was taken to a deeper place. All the while, sweating profusely.
Years later, I took a well-known journalist who was researching an article about me for Rolling Stone to his first sweat lodge, and it was very severe for him; he had to lean on me to survive the ordeal. But when I met his wife several years later, she told me that in her opinion, he was a changed man because of that sweat lodge experience.
A sweat lodge is 180 degrees different from most churches with their air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter, roof in the rain or snow, and cushions on the kneelers. A lodge is not that different from a Cosmic Mass (TCM), however, because there we dance and often sweat our prayers. As one Sun Dancer of 21 straight years of dancing said to me following a TCM at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, “the TCM is your version of a sweat lodge. Each of them is divided into four parts” (cf. the four paths).
My vision quest, which I describe in some detail in my autobiography, was both sensual and spiritual, as has been every Sun Dance I have participated in.
Yes, in indigenous practice, you are invited to bring your body to prayer; the sensual and spiritual unite.
Jose Hobday, a Seneca woman and Franciscan sister, a good friend and co-faculty member at our creation spirituality programs for over 20 years, introduced us to a special ceremony called “Pelting with Flowers,” where participants throw flowers at one another, and when they fall to the floor, pick them up and throw them again.
The ceremony is especially effective for honoring leaders by keeping a couple of bushels in reserve and at the end of the ceremony, surprise the honored leader by dumping the baskets of flowers on him or her. The teaching was that we are all here to give and receive beauty, but a leader requires more beauty than anyone else in order to lead wisely. The smells, laughter, surprise, and beauty of the flowers in that ceremony was itself a prayer of memorable sensuality.
Indeed, we honored our friend and colleague M.C. Richards, who taught clay as meditation in our programs (doing clay as meditation is very sensual, I assure you) on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of her iconic book, Centering: In Poetry, Pottery and the Person, with a Flower Pelting Ceremony. She was so moved that she composed a poem about it, which I will share in Monday’s DM.
To be continued.
Banner Image: Sweat lodge. Photo by Hvoenok, Adobe Stock
Queries for Contemplation
What is your experience of prayer and sensuality, sensuality and prayer? Is all art as meditation sensual as well as spiritual?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Whee! We, wee all the way Home: Toward a Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality
Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Sins of the Spirit, Blessing of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation
Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jen Listug: Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
3 thoughts on “Sensuality, Spirituality & Indigenous Prayer Ceremonies”
My Faith on my contemplative spiritual journey is being open/aware in my heart with her physical and spiritual senses to the Loving Sacredness and Diverse Oneness of the Divine Flow of the Eternal Present Moment in All physical/nonphysical spiritual dimensions of Our evolving Beautiful Co-Creation~Cosmos ….
Thank you for reminding us of the power of praying with the whole body as well as the spirit. When I used to dance and twirl I sometimes felt that I was praying in gratitude for life. So many cultures do pray with their bodies–as you say most native Americans, but also most African cultures (as far as I can tell). Shakers did too. I have not had the opportunity to worship in African American churches, but having seen videos, I believe as they respond with Amen and Praise the Lord during sermons I feel they are praying with their bodies too. Who else? Oh, if only white churches could pray so well.
Apophtic (or Neoplatonic) Mysticism — which is the core Mystical stance of the Bible, was the core of the teachings of Jesus Christ. It has also been my personal belief structure since I had the Mystical Experience of it in college, and have learned about it and grown in it in the decades since. Within this Mysticism, sensuality can be experienced AS deeply spiritual, but it really takes practice to overcome the conditioning of culture. And sexual sensuality has even more baggage. It requires a huge degree of empathy and patience to work through its tangles.
It’s worth noting that the actual EXPERIENCE of apophatic Mysticism (i.e., the “Mystical Experience”) requires an incredible degree of totally relaxed “just BE-ing” without ANY expectations, thoughts, or distracting feelings. It is completely, utterly “letting be.” This is a HUGE ask in ANY time, but especially in today’s culture of saturation and distraction.