Sweating ALL the Stuff

I decided to go to Alexandra's sweat lodge on the new moon. She does one each month at The Oaks in New Rochelle, and preparations start early. Due to some commitments, I arrived at 1:30pm in the pouring rain, bringing with me a few necessary items.

Some of you may have seen the story about a sweat lodge in Arizona run by James Arthur Ray where three people died. This story ran about one week before the sweat lodge I attended. I had a very different experience, but needless to say, I told almost no one what I was doing that Saturday afternoon.

The sweat lodge is built from a frame of wood, then covered with cloth and tarp. We certainly needed this, as we had a major storm with driving rain during the "sweat." Already there were two people tending to the fire --firekeepers--who keep the fire hot and heat the stones that are placed inside the lodge. Theirs was a particularly difficult job that day.

One of my first assignments was to make sure there was no light showing through the lodge interior. I crawled inside, careful not to cross the "power line" that runs from the fire to the lodge. With black cloth, we threaded pieces through the frame to block out small pinpoints of light. My second task was to help put on the door to the lodge. This consisted of a quilt affixed to a wooden pole which has ropes that hang down the other side and are secured by heavy rocks.

We then went back to the house to make prayer ties which would be hung in the lodge. Some ties were made for the ceremony itself, and others were our own personal ties. Each was a small square of fabric into which we placed a pinch of tobacco, and then we folded it and tied it onto a string after saying a prayer. When the ties were done, we were told what to expect during the sweat.

When it was time, women changed into skirts and t-shirts; men wore shorts. We all carried a towel, and since I didn't have flip-flops, I went barefoot. Any shoes left out in the rain would be soaked.

We were in the lodge for about three hours, and I'm told it was one of the gentlest sweats they ever had. There were 10 or 11 people, so it wasn't crowded, and it never got unbearably hot. It felt, at the warmest, like a sauna, and then only for a short time. Perhaps it seemed gentle because the elements outside were so aggressive! The sweat was conducted according to Native American custom, and it was a sacred ritual. Alexandra spoke, we drummed and sang songs, voiced our prayers and smoked a tobacco pipe. The stones were brought in four different times. Although I have yet to see if I am transformed in any measurable way, I did enjoy my first sweat lodge and am eager for the next one.