smoke n mirrors (aka rituals and spirit animals)

Honestly, I get so upset reading about the history of the Takers, of the Wasichus, of their culture so “dirty with lies and greed” (264).  It’s just so heartbreaking to think of the genocide of not only a people, many peoples—but also of the generations of wisdom that were lost to the wind.  (Clearly, not completely lost, as the survival of the story of Black Elk confirms, but much was no doubt utterly destroyed).  So, I will not comment or dwell on this particular story line because it pisses me off.  Instead, I want to explore a less grave thread that has intrigued me. I was thinking of the ritual of calling upon higher powers—powers at once beyond the self and within the self. Spirit animals, after all, are reflections of one’s individual spirit and manifestations of the collective Spirit.  

At first glance, the topic may seem like a tangent, but I think it is central to understanding our relationship to animals, spirit animals and to the spirit world in general.  But the question I’ve been wondering is why is smoking—or simply, smoke—so spiritual?  I mean, we have the hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland who addresses the question at the heart of exploring the self and spirit.  Rastafarianism is centered on a ritual of ganja smoking.  Many Native American cultures burn sage to purify living spaces.  Burning incense is a significant part of prayer in the Orthodox Catholic faith.  But why this common denominator of smoking and smoke as a ritual for tapping the spiritual world?  Maybe I focused on this idea because as I was reading today, I was chain-smoking in San Antonio, where I was stranded for six hours (long story short: car broke down. Again).  I know I should be focusing on the theme of power animals, but I want to explore specifically these rituals like “The Offering of the Pipe.” 

In many cultures, smoke is central to accessing the spiritual world.
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-48769120/stock-photo-photograph-of-smoke-colors-and-filters-added.html

 “and because no good thing can be done by any man alone, I will first make an offering and send a voice to the Spirit of the World, that it may help me to be true.  See, I fill this sacred pipe with the bark of the red willow….these four ribbons hanging here on the stem are the four quarters of the universe.  The black one is for the west where the thunder beings live to send us rain; the white one for the north, whence comes the great white cleansing wind; the red one for the east, whence springs the light and where the morning star lives to give men wisdom; the yellow for the south, whence come the summer and the power to grow.” (261) 

Burning anything carries connotations of detoxification, of enlightenment, of cleansing—basically, good and true things.  “Now, my friend, let us smoke together so that there may be only good between us” (263).  Smoking is fundamentally just inhaling and exhaling something burning.  Breathing is perhaps the most basic bodily function and the common denominator between all living beings.  One way or another, we all respire.  And in this way, breathing is life-giving; good.  Furthermore, when we were asked to probe our subconscious to find our true spirit animals, isn’t this basically just finding truth?  So here, the connection between ritual, truth, and spirituality solidifies.  Indeed, Native Americans like in the Black Elk story, smoked, made offerings, so "that it may help me to be true" (261).  And just as discovering one’s spirit animal is a ritual of finding truth, so too is the ritual of smoking the sacred bison pipe: “The scouts smoked, meaning that they would tell the truth” (284). 

“I will first make an offering and send a voice to the Spirit of the World…See, I fill this sacred pipe” (261).  Smoke, then, somehow bridges the earthly and spiritual worlds.  Calling upon power animals and spirit animals is perhaps most fundamentally a ritual of connecting the Spirit Father and Mother Earth.  After all, “Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother…?” (261)  Smoke is born out of burning something earthly (physical) and then rises into the sky.  Then in some abstract sense, smoke is the offspring of an earthly thing and a spiritual thing.  I suppose the connection is that when we call upon our spirit animal guides, we do just that: unite the earthly animal with the spirit it embodies.  

Yo sky, meet earth.  Earthling, meet spirit animal. Only connect!
http://www.gpb.org/earth-and-sky

This has little to do with my aforementioned thoughts, but I had to include it anyway as I really like the way it reads: “Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking” (264).  It reminds me of Alice and how upon re-entering the real world—“to dull reality,” she thinks “what a wonderful dream it had been” (125).  How curious that the “dream” was more a quest of personal exploration than was her waking life.  Sometimes, I suppose, dreams are the stuff of wisdom.