Lakota Sacred Songs of Native: Sung As in Ceremony

Lakota Sacred Songs of Native: Sung As in Ceremony

The majority of Lakota ritual requires appropriate songs. Although the songs are excerpted from a Lakota healing ritual developed and practiced by Howard Bad Hand over many years, the listener should realize that not all Lakota healing rituals are designed the same way or use the same songs. Other ceremonial leaders use rituals and songs that differ from those presented here and discussed in Howard's book Native American Healing (Keats, 2001; Dog Soldier Press 2009. The words to these songs are powerful in their simplicity, expressing not only an indigenous American spiritual tradition and a compelling world view, but also a way of being particularly apropos to contemporary times. The music presented herein comes from a type of ceremony known as a lowampi (singing). These ceremonies are held at night, commonly in the largest room in the host's home. All furniture is either removed from the room or moved to the side to make room for the participants to sit on the floor around the margins of the roughly circular Owanka, the prominent features of which are illustrated in Figure 1. All external light sources in the room - doors, windows, sky lights, etc are covered so that the room will be totally dark when the lights are extinguished and the ceremony begins. The listener, in his/her imagination, may wish to place him/herself in such a room, seated comfortably on a cushion, with 10-30 other people who have come, for reasons of the own, to join with the hearts and minds of the others present in a common prayer (opening one's heart to the Universe) for balance and healing. Conversation among the participants is lively, often jovial, as the spiritual leader prepares the Owanka and his alter within it, and quiets immediately as he begins to speak. The leader's question "Have we all prepared?" is met with a chorus of "Hau!" and "Haye!" assents from the men and women present. Passing sunwise (clockwise) around the circle the leaders helper offers each participant a pinch of tobacco from the handful he carries. A few moments of silent prayer follow during which each person present is asked to direct all negative thoughts and/or fears into the tobacco he or she holds in their hand. When the leader says, "Mitakuwe oyas'in", (All my relations), his helper returns around the circle, recovering from each person the tobacco previously taken. As the singers present take up the Pipe Filling Song (Friend, Do It This Way in this recording), the leader uses the collected tobacco to fill his pipe, addressing in prayer each of the four cardinal directions, the earth, and the heavens in turn. When the pipe is filled and the leader's prayer completed, the song ends, and the lights are extinguished. The ceremony has begun! We invite you to close your eyes and to open your heart to the universe as you follow the ceremony in your imagination, through the songs, to its completion.
Country USA
Manufacturer CD Baby
Binding Audio CD
ItemPartNumber 4715615
Model 4715615
ReleaseDate 2002-07-15
UnitCount 1
Format Single
UPCs 824679025221
EANs 0824679025221

Country	USA
Manufacturer	CD Baby
Binding	Audio CD
ItemPartNumber	4715615
Model	4715615
ReleaseDate	2002-07-15
UnitCount	1
Format	Single
UPCs	824679025221
EANs	0824679025221

Lakota Sacred Songs of Native: Sung As in Ceremony

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