Praying with the Sacred Pipe

©2012 by Dr. Clifford N. Alford, Th.D, DD, &

Naturopathic and Shamanic Services, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

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Notice to resellers: you are not allowed to sell this fixed-fee program for less than $26.00 USD. And, you are not permitted to place this on free attunement sites, swap sites, or in buy one get one free sites unless you have my specific written permission to do so. If you do otherwise then know that you will face both spiritual and legal wrath, and there shall be no mercy given.

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Introduction

The Power of the Sacred Pipe

The Spirit of Tobacco

The Sacred Pipe and the Elements

Four Kinds of Sacred Pipes

Preparing the Pipe for Ritual Use

Loading the Pipe

Smoking the Pipe

Some Basic Rituals

The Blow Pipe

Using the Sacred Pipe for Healing

Using Cigarettes and Cigars

The Truth Pipe

Conclusion

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Introduction It has now been well over forty years since the story about my

meeting Rolling Thunder took place and the Sacred Pipe

continues to be the main part of the Medicine Path that I walk

through this world. This manual will be filled with detailed

instructions on the care and use of the Sacred Pipe, and also

with the stories of what has happened when I have used the pipe

for both myself and others.

In these pages you will learn how to determine if a pipe will truly

work for you, and if the Creator will honor your prayers with it.

And, you will receive detailed instruction on the various rituals

and the meaning behind each part of the process. There will be

pictures detailing rituals step by step, and you will know how to

address any problem that comes along in life even if you have

never experienced it before.

There is nothing quite as silly to me as the notion by white

people that all pipes are peace pipes. It is true that our

ancestors would smoke the Sacred Pipe with white men when

making peace treaties, and that may well be where this idea

came from, but the only white man who ever kept a treaty with

us was General Santa Ana who was the President of Mexico at

the time. Right after those other white people broke the treaties

they made with us those self same pipes were used in our war

councils as well. Then they were not “peace pipes” but were war

pipes instead. Some pipes are used for only one thing, but most

of the Sacred Pipes from most tribes are not. The luxury of one

pipe for one thing is a rare thing in the lives of nomadic tribes.

The Power of the Sacred Pipe

I was living in Las Cruces, New Mexico ten years ago when I was

called by a lady named Tweet who ran a business selling Native

American ritual supplies in Lindrith, New Mexico. We were having

a drought, and she was calling to ask for help. She told me that

everything was dying there including the wild animals, and she

wanted to know if I would do something to help get them some

rain. I said I would, got out my sacred pipe, loaded it with

tobacco, and went outside to pray.

There was one little cloud floating across the sky when I lit my

pipe. I honored the Creator, Mother Earth, the four directions, the

four elements, and my spirit within, and then the spirit of that

cloud. I asked it to talk with it’s cousins in other places, and to

send some rain to Lindrith, New Mexico. It did. There was a

hurricane hugging the Texas coast and headed for Louisiana,

and it suddenly turned due west and moved across Texas to New

Mexico, and was a tropical storm by the time it got to Lindrith

where it just hung out and rained.

One week later, Tweet called to tell me how grateful she was for

all of the rain. She said that she couldn’t remember the last time

things had been so green. I asked if she was ready for it to stop,

and she said, “Oh, no, this is wonderful!” So, we let it be.

Another week passed, and she called again to say that they now

had large mud puddles the likes of which they had never seen,

and it was still quite wonderful. She still did not want it to stop.

So, we let it be once again.

About five days later she called in a panic. They were having mud

slides, and needed it to stop! I told her I would talk with the

cloud people again, and went out to do so with my pipe. Two

days, and several more mud slides, later the storm headed

northeast, and died out somewhere over New England.

A few years later I had an Apprentice in Michigan who brought a

friend of hers down to see me. Her friend had seven different

kinds of cancer. We prayed about what to do, and then did four

rituals per day for seven days of which one per day included

praying for her with the sacred pipe, and the last ritual on the

seventh day involved doing a tobacco healing ritual with a Blow

Pipe which will be covered in Chapter 9. When they went home

she was completely cancer free, but her MD (Murder Doctor)

wanted her to do radiation and chemotherapy anyway. Her family

brow beat her into it, even though all tests had shown that the

cancer was gone, and the unneeded treatment was what had

killed her in the end. When I heard about it then I did another

pipe ritual to deal with the MD, and he committed suicide a few

days later. I can give you a pretty good idea what his next few

lifetimes will be like as well, and they will be anything but fun or

easy. We Cherokees are not like white people, and we don’t think

like them either. For us revenge is a virtue. If that offends you

then know that I don’t care. As I said, we don’t think like white

people do.

Such is the power of a Sacred Pipe.

The Spirit of Tobacco

Tobacco is the most powerful spiritual herb in North America,

and is not to be used for any purposes other than prayer and

healing. And, it should never be used for any purpose without

expressing gratitude in the process. For example, I am grateful

that the spirit of that doctor will learn to never again steal from

someone by forcing them to endure something bad for them

simply to enrich himself in some selfish way. And, I am grateful

for the help that I receive from the Elements, the directions, the

stone, plant and animal spirits and others with whom I come in

contact due to using the Sacred Tobacco in a good way.

Gratitude is a key ingredient for all tobacco rituals!

There are many people who use tobacco casually, and it causes

them to become addicted and to become sick from many

diseases because it knows that there must be consequences for

disrespecting sacred things. White people call these

consequences revenge, but that is okay since plant spirits don’t

think the same way as white people. It used to be only white

people who abused tobacco’s spirit, but now many Native

Americans have lost their way, and they misuse the spirit of

tobacco as well. However, some people feel remorse when they

hear the truth about tobacco, and they desire to change. There

are ways for them to do so that causes what was once an evil

practice and habit to become a great blessing for them. This is

as true for white people as it is for red people. The spirit world

works the same for, or against, everyone according to their

actions. Here is an article that I wrote about it a couple of years

ago:

The Naked Shaman's Method to Stop Smoking © 2010 by Dr. Clifford N. Alford www.NakedShaman.net Tobacco is the most sacred herb in North America, a nd that is the reason why we use it in our most powerful rituals. When Europeans first came here and encountered it, they made the e rror of thinking that their religions were better than the spiritual practices of this land, and began using tobacco casually as a wa y to mock our beliefs. The Native Americans of that day and time let them do it as it was none of their concern if these crazy white peop le wanted to curse themselves and their descendants. Air represents Sp irit, and the diseases of the lungs caused by casual smoking is i ndicative of the inability to hear the Spirits that often manifests in people who smoke for other than spiritual purposes. There are two great ways to overcome this problem t hat have been around for many years, and now a third way is also available. We will cover the first two before moving on to the third n ewer way. The first way is one that you can begin immediately, and the second way takes some preparation. If you are a casual smoker who is addicted to tobacco (which is a part of the curse) then I recom mend that you read the first way, immediately stop reading at that poi nt, and go out and do as instructed. That will begin the process of ov ercoming the results of the curse. Then, finish reading this rep ort! Make Every Cigarette, Pipe or Cigar a Form of Praye r: Tobacco is intended to be used for prayer to the sp irits of the seven directions, and you can do this in a seemingly casu al way even in a company smoke break area. Simply light your smoke, and take a puff blowing it upward to honor the Creator, and then th ose that follow downward to honor Monolah (Mother Earth), to the Ea st to honor the Spirits of Spiritual Enlightenment, to the South to honor the Spirits of Faith and Trust, to the West to honor the Spirits o f Death, our

Ancestors and the Shadow (The darker side of oursel ves with whom we all need to make peace), and to the North to hon or the Spirits of Physical Providence (The things we need to be able to live in a physical world). The seventh direction involves blo wing through the pipe, cigarette or cigar, and waving some of the sm oke back at yourself to honor your spirit within. When you do t his first tobacco ritual you should address each direction consciousl y, and apologize for having offended them by smoking tobacco casuall y. Acknowledge that you didn't know any better, and that every time you smoke in the future then it will be a time used for prayer. Ask them to help you overcome this addiction, and express your gratitude for the help you are receiving from them. Gratitude should always be offered when praying with tobacco! After this first prayer, cont inue to express gratitude for their help in overcoming the addictio n, and offer whatever prayers you will to each of the directions . Then, finish out your smoke by blowing the remaining puffs towards t he East. Now, stop what you are doing, and go offer your fir st prayer with Tobacco. Be certain to honor the Spirit of Tobacco as well, and to ask for it's help and understanding too. Either now or i n the near future, you will get a pleasant surprise. The Spirits will begin speaking back to you! Then you will be well on the way to re covery. Breaking One Habit at a Time: Smoking is a spiritual, mental/emotional and physic al addiction, and this also goes for the abuse of other sacred smokin g herbs such as marijuana, henbane and cocaine. Therefore, it's easi er to break the habit in stages. We do this by substituting somethi ng else for you to physically smoke that will help you get over it in the process. We do this with what is known in Asaga Cherokee circles a s “Indian Tobacco”. You make Indian Tobacco by mixing equal quantities by volume, not by weight, of two herbs called Mullein and Lobelia in what is known as “cut and sifted” form. Do this in a gallon baggi e, and then mix one or two shots (ounces) of Dark Rum into the mixture, stir them well, close the bag tightly, and let it sit for twenty-fo ur hours. In most cases, one ounce works just fine, but two may help initially if you live in the desert where the air is especially dry. Then , get a pipe, fill it, and smoke it while SITTING DOWN! If you don't then you will fall down when you get hit with the strongest dose of ox ygen you have experienced in many years.

You will want to wear a dust mask while mixing thes e herbs as the Mullein is very light and fluffy. It will get into the air while you are mixing it and if you breathe it without the additio n of the rum then everyplace it touches in your trachea and lungs wil l begin to extract mucus as it is an expectorant. Read below for more information on what these herbs do. Lobelia is the only “thinking herb” on this contine nt that literally does whatever is best for you in any situation. Also, it always enhances the abilities of any herb it is used with, cuts craving s for addictions, helps overcome anxiety and depression, is anti-spas modic and is an expectorant. Mullein is also an expectorant (helpin g get tar and mucus out of the lungs), and it causes the lungs to take in more oxygen. Using the two of them together is a powerfu l combination that helps with virtually anything causing disease in the lungs including Tuberculosis, Asthma, Emphysema, COPD and Congestive Heart Failure. The dark rum makes it more aromatic, and reduces the harshness of the smoke as well as making it burn be tter in your pipe. NOTE: You should keep this mixture in a dark place, and carry it in public in something like a leather or dark plastic tobacco pouch as exposure to the sun will take the spirit of the her bs out of it causing to not work for you. That is why tinctures, for exa mple, come in colored bottles. The sun gives the herbs life while they are growing, and takes that energy away when they die. So, if yo u carry these herbs in a baggie in your car then also keep them i n a paper bag to protect them from the effects of direct sunlight. Side Effects of this Mixture: As mentioned earlier, you will get an oxygen rush w henever you light up this mixture so be sitting down at first until y ou get used to it. In other words, don't use it while driving until you ge t accustomed to the rush, and don't light your pipe while moving in traffic, but only at a red light so that you can get over any dizziness before the light changes. You will also need to get used to being st ared at as it makes a heavy yellow smoke that people find very interest ing! So, only carry small quantities in a tobacco pouch in case your em ployer or the police want to test it for drugs. Yes, people who s ee something different will often do such stupid things since th ey don't understand it. Providing them with a copy of this report may h elp somewhat. That way, I will be the one who is telling them they hav e reacted poorly and not you. The last side effect is the best of al l! The second-hand

smoke is good for everyone who breathes it, and wil l make them healthier! How this Mixture Works for You: Besides what the spirits of these herbs do for you, as covered above, this allows you to continue doing something with yo ur hands, and inhaling something as well. This means that you onl y have to break one habit at a time while keeping this one to do so mething that helps overcome the mental and physiological ad diction and smoking something that helps reduce the damage caus ed by years of tobacco abuse. NOTE: It's also appropriate to pray w hile smoking this mixture, but is not required. However, gratitu de to the Spirits of Mullein and Lobelia would be appropriate at all times. My favorite source for these herbs is to harvest th e Mullein myself as it grows here, and any herb from within 50 miles of your home is better for you. However, if you don't have access t o it then the best source for pure herbs in the USA is Blessed Herbs o ut of Oakham, MA. You can find them on-line as well. Remember to get the herbs in “cut and sifted” form. So, these are the first two methods for overcoming an addiction to tobacco. And, here is the third: “Stop Smoking Reiki”: This is a Reiki attunement that targets addictions in general and smoking tobacco specifically. You may purchase the attunement at www.NakedShaman.net . Read the information, and then call in the attunement. This will help with the spiritual, psyc hological and physiological aspects of the addiction while doing the methods given above will deal with the habit of doing some action with your hands. Doing the second method with this one makes the process a lot easier. However, if you just prefer to go for i t “cold turkey” then this attunement will give you the energetic support that you need to succeed at doing this the “hard way” much easier. A s with all of our programs, if you have received this from The Naked Shaman then you will receive three years of e-mail support to m ake certain that you get the most out of your experience with us. Howeve r, it will take very little of that time to get over this habit.

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There is another powerful form of tobacco that we should cover

here that is called “Grandfather Tobacco”. This is a very special

and powerful form of tobacco that is generally used for only the

most powerful and difficult rituals. This kind of tobacco has two

processes involved in its creation known as “becoming” and

“making”. The becoming part of the process involves taking the

tobacco seed to a remote location where it is scattered

haphazardly, and then left to either grow or not. You only come

back to the clearing once or twice to make certain that no other

human has been there other than you, and then you harvest the

tobacco when it has matured. Then you dry it in preparation for

the “making” part of the process.

Making involves shredding the tobacco, and then mixing it in

with Grandfather Tobacco from the past, if you have some, and

then dividing all of it into five portions. One portion is kept in its

purest form, and the other four portions are mixed into larger

bags of regular tobacco. Then, on a New Moon you take all of the

bags to a flowing stream about thirty minutes before the sun

begins to rise. Give a pinch of each bag of tobacco to the spirits

of the “Long People”, the spirits of the flowing waters, and then

wet the fingers of your dominant hand. Flick some drops of the

water into each of the bags, and use a pinch of tobacco from

each bag to load your Sacred Pipe. Then wait for the first rays of

the rising sun to touch the Dawn Star if the sky is clear, or to

color the lowest clouds if the sky is overcast.

When this happens then you honor Mother Earth below, Father

Sky above, the four directions, the four elements, your ancestors

and your spirit within. Then you light your pipe, pray to the spirit

of the tobacco, and sit facing the sun as you smoke out the pipe.

Take four puffs on the pipe, and then blow the sacred smoke into

the bag of the pure Grandfather Tobacco, and then do the same

with each of the other bags. Along the way, take four puffs and

blow the smoke along your pipe to honor its spirit, and also blow

some smoke through the pipe waving it back over yourself to

honor your spirit within. Continue this process until the pipe is

finished, and all of the tobacco in it has been smoked to ash.

Pour the ash into your hand, and then sprinkle it into the flowing

water of the stream, and thank all of the spirits that have

assisted you in this process.

Use the purest Grandfather Tobacco for only major life and death

issues, and use that which was mixed with the other tobaccos

for very special uses requiring more powerful energies. Regular

tobacco can be used for other activities such as general prayer

and in honoring Elders and Teachers. This brings us to a rather

thorny issue, and now is as good a time as any to get it over

with.

I have a number of Apprentices, especially in Oklahoma and New

Mexico, who know that Elders and Adawehi are always supposed

to be greeted with a gift of tobacco, and some of them used to do

so with me whenever we met. Most of them have not done so in a

long time except for the one Apprentice that the others tend to

talk down to the most. He doesn’t always do so, but often does

other things that have the same meaning even though he is

financially less well off that the others. Not greeting an Elder, an

Adawehi or a formal Spiritual Teacher with tobacco is a sign of

gross disrespect that has some profound spiritual consequences.

Doing so also brings profound spiritual blessing. I generally

mention such things once or twice, and then allow Apprentices

and others to either bless or curse themselves as they will.

I mention this here because the best mixed Grandfather Tobacco

I have ever had has always been made from the tobacco gifted to

me by people over the previous year. Whenever I receive tobacco

from someone then I smoke it when I talk with the spirits about

that person and do things ritually in their behalf. Then I mix it in

with other gifted tobaccos, and they receive other forms of

blessing from whatever rituals their energy is shared in along

with their tobacco as I do work on the behalf of others

throughout the years to come.

For anyone who does not have Grandfather Tobacco of their own,

if you come to see me then I will be happy to gift you with a

small quantity of my own so that you can use it when you make

your own Grandfather Tobacco, and also to mix in the general

tobacco that you may have to use for your ritual purposes.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to mail it to some countries who

have turned it away and sometimes have not bothered to send it

back, and I suspect they have simply smoked it instead. Rather

than take the chance of possibly cursing someone who doesn’t

know better then I don’t take those chances with whether it will

be treated respectfully or not so no longer try to mail it to people.

For my Apprentices who are unable to come here to get it I have

other means of getting that Grandfather energy to them.

The Sacred Pipe and the Elements

Most forms of the Sacred Pipe contain most of the elements in

their construction, and all of the elements are a part of their use.

My family pipe, for example, has a clay pottery bowl, a wooden

stem that is wrapped with buckskin and rabbit fur (two of the

most sacred animals for Cherokee rituals), colored strings of

plant fibers, and the dyes and paints are from both stones and

plants combined with a powerful mordant provided from the body

of my great great grandmother one-hundred and forty-seven

years ago.

When we smoke the Sacred Pipe then the tobacco comes from

the earth, contains some moisture so that it can burn, and keeps

it from becoming too packed so that air can flow through it, and

it is the element of Fire that burns it. Further, each of these

physical elements contains a spirit of their own, and the Sacred

Pipe takes on a spirit of their own as well. So, all of the primary

five elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit) are represented

in the smoking of the Sacred Pipe.

The involvement of the spirits of the elements in any form of

ritual makes it more powerful. That is why I encourage people to

do the two minute process, every morning and before all ritual

and healing work, called “Awakening the Fiery Kundalini” as it

invokes the power of the elements in all that you do. (If you are

reading this, and don’t know what I am talking about, then e-mail

me and I will send you the instructions.) This is also why we

invoke the elements when praying in a medicine wheel.

Four Kinds of Sacred Pipes

Ritual pipes are generally used only by an Adawehas, medicine

person or medicine family for sacred purposes such as healing

work, talking with the spirits about various issues, weather

magic, transition work, Death Walking, and other such issues

that are more formal than average daily life. This is because

these pipes have often been passed down for generations, and so

they also connect us to our ancestors.

The pipe on the top in this picture is my family pipe that I use for

this purpose. Whenever I use it I know that my ancestors are also

involved in the process as are the Elders and spirits of the Asaga

lineage. And, since the bowl of the pipe represents the womb of

the Earth Mother, whom we call Monolah in Cherokee and whom

the Tibetan and Nepalese tribal shaman I studied with called

Mahakali, then every time the pipe is smoked then I know that

great and powerful energies are birthed in the sacred fire in the

womb of Mother Earth, and so change is effected in the earth.

There is another kind of ritual pipe that is known as a “truth

pipe”, and it will have its own chapter later on in this book. Truth

pipes are very specialized pipes, and are well worth covering in

such great detail.

Community pipes are, in many ways, like the ritual pipes used by

families of Adawehi. The basic difference being that they are

used by the Medicine chiefs of the tribe or clan on behalf of the

tribe or clan’s members. Once upon a time there was a group

known as the Red Nation of the Cherokee that was formed with

the agreement of all of the temporal Cherokee nations as a

spiritual nation, and I was their Medicine Chief. The Principal

Chief was a man known as Randy “Two Bears Standing” Tate,

and he and the tribal council gave me a pipe to use to pray for

the members of this new spiritual nation, and they used my

credentials as the means of getting set up as a 501(c)3 nonprofit

religious association. I used that pipe to pray for them daily, and

yet in the end that pipe showed me the truth about what they

were really about.

We Cherokees, as I have said before, don’t think the same way as

white people, and we have a different morality as well. When

Two Bears Standing, and his wife Shaunasay Feather, began

putting people out of the nation for living well within that

Cherokee morality then I prayed with the tribal medicine pipe,

and was told to immediately make the five hour drive from my

home to theirs where the truth of the situation would be revealed

to me. I got a few things together and did so, and I arrived at

6AM in the morning.

Shaunasay answered the door, and wanted to know why I was

there. I told her the spirits had told me to be there to ask Two

Bears Standing a question, and she let me in. I was told to wait

in the living room while she woke him up, and so I sat on the

couch. The spirits then said that I was to sit on the floor, and

look at the case that had all of his regalia in it. I did so, and saw

a framed certificate hidden on the bottom shelf. I got it out and

looked at it, and it was a certificate proclaiming him to be a

Mormon Priest. I called a man I knew in the Mormon Church in

Ogden, Utah, and I asked Duane if he knew anything about a

Mormon Priest named Randy Tate. He told me that Tate was “a

missionary to the Cherokees”. Then he wanted to know if he was

going to be in trouble, and I said “Yes”.

When Tate came out then I informed him of my discoveries, and

he admitted to it, and said that he was not concerned as he was

too powerful and would simply destroy me, and he told me to get

out of his house. I left, and went home, and then smoked the pipe

one last time to help the people if I could, and the pipe would not

light! I tried again, and it literally jumped off of the stem so I

packaged it up, delivered it to the tribal council along with my

resignation, and proceeded to make the Tate’s wish they were

dead. When the legal authorities learned the truth about then

their home, land, cars, bank accounts and other things listed as

belonging to their fraudulently obtained nonprofit corporation

were confiscated by the IRS, and Tate was fired from his job with

Raytheon, an aircraft manufacturer with secret government

contracts, and he and his wife were last seen walking out of

town with only what they could wear and carry with them. He

and his friends had tried to raid a class I was supposed to be

teaching dressed as federal agents, and such an impersonation

is a felony. He was not formally charged, but his company could

not keep on someone who had done such a thing so he and his

wife were the ones who were destroyed in the end. Today there

are other groups who claim to be the “Red Nation”, but they are

not to be confused with this defunct group that used to be

headquartered in Andover, Kansas.

This is the way Sacred Pipes are. They will do wonderful things

for you, but they are rather intolerant of falsehood, and they will

bring it to light in the best way for the “Real People”, and to the

detriment of those who choose to do evil. I have seen this sort of

thing happen many times. Never tell a lie with a Sacred Pipe in

your hands as it will wreck your day and maybe your whole life.

Randy Tate, and those who made the poor decision to stand with

him, found this out for themselves. As for me, it helped me get

over myself as I though I was someone really great since they

had asked me to be their medicine chief. It’s really humbling to

simply find out that my ego had allowed me to be used. However,

I am grateful for the lesson, and I learned much that was good

because of it.

Personal pipes are often the same size as my family pipe or

larger, and yet can also be as small as the one shown below my

family pipe in the picture above. That pipe was the personal pipe

of one of my teachers, and he sent it to me just before he died.

Now I use it for anything that I need for me personally, and also

for my own healing and empowerment. It is very rare that I will

ever use it for anyone else.

Blow pipes are another very specialized form of pipe that looks

two funnels stuck together at the narrow end. They are used for

only the most powerful forms of tobacco rituals, and also for

sucking healings in which various forms of exorcisms are

needed. This will also be covered in its own chapter.

Preparing the Pipe for Ritual Use

There is a very interesting way to determine if the Creator will

honor your prayers with a Sacred Pipe, and we will cover that

process in detail here so that you can do so for yourself. And, will

show you pictures detailing the process step by step. Further,

many African tribes have traditions with the Sacred Pipe that are

almost exactly like ours, and I used a very powerful Sacred Pipe

that you will see here from Ghana in West Africa. This pipe has a

would that I am unfamiliar with, a bronze bowl and figures

representing water buffalos and some kind of antelope, the skin

of the Egyptian Cobra. Here are a couple of pictures of the pipe:

This proved to be a wonderfully powerful pipe, and since I have a

couple of Apprentices from Africa then I use this pipe when I

pray for them each week. Whether it’s one pipe or another, I do

so for all of my Apprentices regularly, and if you do so for your

people then you will see wonderful changes in their lives

because of it.

The Ritual of Proving is a fairly simple process, but it does

require some patience! This will be evident from the photos and

descriptions below. The supplies needed for this process are

some container to smudge (smoke) things with for which we

prefer to use abalone shells, due to the protective energy they

bring, and some sacred herbs that we use to expel negative

energy and bring in positive energy. Here on this continent that

includes such herbs as sage, sweetgrass, cedar, copal, palo

santo wood, tobacco, coca leaves, and others according to the

desires and traditions of various tribes. In Tibet and Nepal they

use tobacco, sandalwood, rose and henbane. However, the

process is basically the same.

Here is the pipe and my basic smudging supplies on the center

stone of my medicine wheel.

I light the herbs on fire, let them get started burning, and then

blow out the flames so that the herbs smolder and smoke a lot.

Then I wave the smoke all over me to cleanse me of any negative

energy that I may have picked up along the way.

Then I hold the pipe upside down and at an angle over the shell,

and hold my hands in such a way as to cause the smoke to be

funneled into the bowl of the pipe.

The goal is to see some smoke come out of the end of the pipe

which indicates that the Creator has smoked the pipe first, and

has approved your use of it. It took about ten minutes for it to

happen with this one. If the pipe doesn’t work for you then pray

about who to give it to and it may well work for them.

Loading the Pipe

Four and seven are sacred numbers for the Cherokee, and there

are three major realms of the spirit world (the lower, middle and

upper realms) so when we load the pipe with tobacco we use

three fingers, put four pinches of tobacco into the bowl, and then

we tamp in down seven times.

Smoking the Pipe

When we light the Sacred pipe then we take seven puffs on the

pipe, turn it around so that it faces away from us toward one of

the directions, and then blow the smoke out past the pipe

inviting the spirits of that direction to smoke the pipe with us.

In this way we are including them and honoring them. The end

result is that they are more open to share their ancient wisdom

with us, and the sacred smoke carries our prayers on the wind

wherever they need to go.

Some Basic Rituals

Pipe rituals can be as ornate or simple as you care to make

them. The basic rule I use is to decide what works best for

anyone I am doing it for or with. If I am doing it out of my own

interest, and I am in a public place, then I may either sit or walk

around, load my pipe, and smoke it without anyone having any

reason to think something special is going on since I honor all of

the directions and the spirits within myself rather than

demonstrably and out loud. Or, if I am in a public smoking area

with people who are smoking casually then I may do a fairly

obvious ritual process, and explain why I am doing it when they

ask. In this way they learn to treat tobacco with respect, and

many of them learn how to do it just as you read about earlier.

There are two basic rituals that I was taught while growing up,

and they are based upon the time of the month during the moon

cycle. One is generally done during the waning cycle, and the

other is generally done during the waxing cycle. I will cover both

here in detail as well as some of the variations in intention for

each part of the process.

The waxing moon is from the time of the new moon until the full

moon. “Waxing” means that the moon appears to be getting

fuller. This is a great time, energetically, to adding to the power

of some things. For example, I am currently working with a young

lady who suffers from what is currently known as obsessive

compulsive disorder, and I pray the sacred pipe for her almost

daily. Right now we are in the waxing moon so I pray for her to

have more control over her actions and that she be able to set

realistic goals for her life, maintain her focus and not get drawn

away by distractions that keep her from accomplishing

worthwhile things in her life. Over a period of time then she will

be able to develop some discipline, and she will also be able,

with some counseling, be able to develop the right dietary

changes in her life so that the chemicals and hormones in her life

will be regulated naturally instead of by pharmaceuticals which

have lots of negative side effects.

A part of this lady’s problem is due to her previous life, and the

bad karma she accrued at that time. Since the time of the

waning moon – when the size of the moon appears to be getting

smaller – is the best time of the month to be doing things

involving taking away or reducing influences then I spend that

time working on helping her to learn her lessons both easier and

faster. This is because you never want to actually interfere in

someone’s karmic lessons as doing so causes them to become

yours instead. But, you can if you want to.

First I will show you the ritual for the waxing moon, and then I

will draw you a diagram of the differences from that to the

waning moon ritual. Between the two then you will have a clear

understanding of what is done and how to do it. For the waxing

moon ritual I will show you a picture, and then will give an

explanation under it. Here we go!

While it is not required to use a medicine wheel when praying

with the pipe I do encourage you to be aware of the directions

and what they stand for. I will be sending you a detailed report

on how to work with medicine wheels in the near future as well

as instructions on how to build them. In this picture you see me

standing at the center stone facing toward the east. Here I have

raised the Guyanese pipe with the stem facing upward to honor

the Creator whom we know as the Original Mind.

Here I am touching the bowl of the Sacred Pipe – representing

the womb of Mother Earth – to the center stone to honor

Monolah/Mahakali, and ask her to bless this ritual just as we

asked the Original Mind to do before.

Here I am standing at the stone for the East, and am facing in

that direction. I am lighting the pipe with a commercial butane

lighter, and have no end of fun with people with rigid minds over

such actions! Sometimes they get all offended when I don’t use

matches, which is why I do it, you know – and say that it isn’t

“natural”. This happened once in a seminar I was teaching in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the spirits told me to read out loud

where the lighter was made, and then to so as well for a book of

matches that I had. In both cases, the writing on them said, “Mfg

by the Acme Chemical Company in Euless, Texas”. Both are

made from chemicals. The old way to do a pipe was to bend a

green twig to make a pair of tongs or tweezers, and then use that

to place a small coal from a fire into the bowl of the pipe. It

works very well, and is my favorite way to do it, but I can tell you

from experience that you do NOT want to do it with wood from an

evergreen tree unless you want to take the chance on sucking

down some melted resin. Ouch! That hurt!

The Spirits of the East help us with all issues involving our

spiritual path and enlightenment in general. When you smoke the

pipe and say your prayers in this direction then express your

gratitude for their help in your life, which you should also do for

every direction, and then take your puffs on the pipe, turn it

around, and blow the smoke past the pipe stem toward the east,

and finish your prayer for that direction. The primary animal spirit

for the East is the Southern Bald Eagle.

The Spirits of the South deal with faith and trust and innocence

in our working with the spirit world helping us to discern the

truth in spite of how things may seem to be around us. There are

two primary animals for the South, and they are the coyote and

the mouse.

The Spirits of the West help us with facing our Shadows and

darkness, and to make peace with it. They also help us with

dealing with the issues involving the physical death of ourselves

and those we love in this lifetime. The animal for the West is the

Bear.

The Spirits of the North help us with issues concerning all that

we need for our physical life such as housing, food, money, good

health and our temporal work. The animal for this direction is the

Golden Eagle.

Then I return to the eastern stone, and smoke out the pipe.

Sometimes I feel the need to do something more for a situation,

and so after having smoked the Sacred Pipe to the four cardinal

directions and the center stone then I will pass up the East in the

end, and then will move to the stone for the southeast which

represents the Spirits of the Earth, then on to the southwest

representing the Spirits of the Air, the northwest representing

the Spirits of Fire, and then to the northeast representing the

Spirits of Water. Then I will return to the East and will smoke out

the pipe until there is nothing remaining but ash. Since the fire in

a Sacred Pipe is a sacred fire then you never want to disrespect

it by putting it out, but should smoke it out completely.

Here is the foot movement diagram for the waning moon ritual:

The Blow Pipe

From time to time the spirits get really annoying, and they tell me

to give away some ritual items that I value highly. When I do as

they tell me to then they always replace them with something

better, but sometimes it still irritates me greatly. That was the

case with my first blow pipe. Then, rather than giving me a new

one, a friend named Murv Jacob and I were meeting for coffee at

the Iguana Café in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and he said that he was

about to fire some pottery, and that he had some extra clay so

would I like to make something that he could fire for me. Of

course, the answer was “Yes”, and so I spent the afternoon in

Murv’s art studio fashioning, with Murv’s expert guidance, my

current blow pipe. We were both “assisted” by Murv’s pet ferret

that did his best to keep us entertained by playing with

everything in sight.

Murv was going to fire everything in the kiln the next evening

after he had finished making some more Cherokee leisure pipes

like the one he gifted me that is shown in the pictures with my

blow pipe and a mortar and pestle that was gifted to me by an

Aztec medicine woman named Rosa Carbajal. But, the next

morning Murv called to tell me that his ferret had played with

everything all night long, and had completely destroyed

everything except for my blow pipe, but that it had tooth and

claw marks all over it. He was willing to remake it for me if I

wanted a pretty one, but I was thrilled! The playful energy of a

ferret in a blow pipe just could not be more perfect.

Blow Pipe; bottom of the picture.

The working end of the Blow Pipe.

Note the ferret’s tooth marks on

the mouth piece of the Blow Pipe.

Working with a blow pipe is nothing most people will ever do

unless the spirits show that they are supposed to do it having

them find a round stone. These stones are anywhere from a half

inch to one inch wide, and are very nearly round, but not quite

perfectly so in the general way of nature that knows that an

ellipsoid is much more powerful than a “perfect” circle. When you

find your first round stone then you never give it away or sell it

for any reason. And, if you ever find a second or third one then

you never part with them except for a very high price. From a

financial standpoint, living on donations has put me in the lower

class economically so I asked the spirits what I should consider

a high price, and they said $1,000.00! I have found two more

round stones since then, but have not sold either of them yet.

The healing process with the Adawehas Blow Pipe goes like this:

First, you have everyone who is involved in the ritual remove

their clothes, and you smudge them with the smoke from sacred

herbs. Then you have the person who is being healed lay down on

a medicine blanket. I generally start with them being face down

as the back is easier to work on. Then you take your round stone,

charge it with energy, and then roll it in slow and easy circles all

over their body until it gets to a place where about an ounce of

energy will not move it in any direction. When I find that point

then I set my round stone aside, and mark a circle around the

spot using the soot from the end of my blow pipe. In this way

then we have identified where either the root of the disease is

located, or where the main part of a malignant spirit that has

invaded the body is situated.

Next, I load the blow pipe with four large pinches of tobacco

which I then tamp down seven times. Calling on my plant spirit

helpers to come and assist me in this ritual, I light the blow pipe,

smoke it, and blow the smoke on the place where the root of the

problem has been located, and do this seven times. Then, I take

the shell I used for the smudging earlier, and hold it near the

circle on the person’s body with the blow pipe over it pointed at

the circle where the root of the problem is located, and blow

gently through it until all of the tobacco has burned, and the area

has been well covered by the sacred smoke from the blow pipe.

Once this has been completed then I take a break for some

ginger tea while the blow pipe cools, and get a pot or cauldron

with some sage in it ready for what comes next. When I am ready

then I have whoever is assisting me drum and use rattles to help

build the energy, and then place the working end of the blow pipe

over the place where the circle is on the person’s body. Then I

suck forcefully on the other end until my mouth fills with a thick

liquid substance that comes out of their body which I spit into

the cauldron with the sage. I do this over and over again until no

more comes out which indicates that all of the disease or

possessing entity has been removed. Then I drink some more

ginger tea, and try not to vomit up my toenails.

If the energy is from a disease then the sage is burned in a hot

sacred fire, but if it is a possessing entity then we take the time

to determine how it got there and what it’s intentions are. In

some cases the entity was just wandering by and got sucked in

due to a hole or leak in the person’s aura. In this case then we

help the entity get to where it needs to be in the spirit world. In

the case of a malignant entity that was trying to harm the person

then we find out why it was there. If it was sent as a part of

curse without merit then we send it to possess the one who sent

it, and if it was with merit then we see what must be done to

settle the karmic debt. Or, if it’s a purely malignant spirit

operating on its own then we turn it over to either the Dragons or

the Nagas to do with as they will.

While this occasionally the best way to deal with such situations,

there are some serious drawbacks to doing this kind of work. For

one, the substance that winds up in your mouth is vile in the

extreme, and works like acid on your teeth and gums. I lost some

of my teeth due to problems in my military career, others due to

warfare in the spirit world that then manifested physically, and

several more due to this process rotting them right out of my

moth to the point that they disintegrated in my mouth. Suffice it

to say that it hurt! Therefore, if the spirits don’t call you to do

this kind of work then be grateful.

Using the Sacred Pipe for Healing

At the beginning of this e-book there is a story about Rolling

Thunder, our most famous medicine man in modern times, using

a Sacred Pipe to help with the healing of my damaged lungs.

Whenever you are directed to use a Sacred Pipe for healing then

pray with the tobacco, charge the bowl of the pipe with energy

for the purpose of healing the particular illness, smoke it, and

blow the sacred smoke on the place where the spirits direct you

to do so for the healing. Then, trust that it will happen according

to the highest good of that person. Healing does not always

mean that you receive a cure, but sometimes means that the

person will be released gently from this life. Trust the spirits to

do whatever is best.

Using Cigarettes and Cigars

A few years ago I was out smoking my family pipe when the

Spirit of Tobacco spoke to me in the Choctaw trade language,

and told me “This is Tabaku (Great Spirit Herb), and I require

something new from you.” Tabaku went on to tell me how I was

to begin smoking Captain Black Sweets Little Cigars for many of

my tobacco rituals. When I asked why this change was being

made then I greeted by a stony silence, and I went to a smoke

shop owned by the Creek tribe that was near by to find this form

of cigar. I took the pack home, did a ritual with one and was very

pleasantly surprised. It was like smoking candy! Captain Black,

whether in the form of little cigars or as pipe tobacco, is now my

preferred brand.

Use the cigar or cigarette just like you would a pipe when you

smoke it, or follow the ritual as given in the chapter on the Spirit

of Tobacco for people who are breaking the habit of casual

smoking so that you can do it in a public place without drawing

undue, and possibly unwanted, attention to yourself.

The Truth Pipe

A Truth Pipe is a pipe made from white wood. Among the Tsalagi,

we primarily use the wood from either smooth or staghorn sumac

as it is white and of medium hardness so holds up well when

being smoked. However, one must be careful when picking the

wood, as there is also a poisonous form of sumac that will make

you wish you were dead before you get rid of the infection and

rash it causes. So, only get sumac wood from a bush that has red

berries on it.

When we make this pipe then we cut as straight a piece of wood

as we can find after giving tobacco to its spirit and asking for

permission. Then we whittle out the bowl, shave the bark off of

it, and burn a hole completely through the center with a long and

stiff red hot wire such as you can now get from a heavy metal

coat hanger. Then we drill the side hole for the bowl, insert the

pipe stem into it, and we check to see if the Creator will honor

our prayers with this pipe, and continue on with the truth finding

process when it is needed.

Here are the basics of how the truth finding ritual works: When

the community becomes polarized by the ill actions of two

people or groups then the whole community comes together to

deal with it. The two main antagonists are made to sit or kneel

on opposite ends of a medicine blanket, and each of them is

directed to pick a person from the opposite side of the argument

to stand behind them with a hand on their shoulder to speak for

them. Then the Adawehas running the ritual commands both of

them to tell the one who speaks for them his side of the

argument, and those people then relate each antagonist’s views

with corrections along the way until they can say it exactly

correctly. This often brings new understanding to the community

so that the problem is resolved.

When this does not resolve the issue then both of them are

challenged to briefly state their truth themselves and smoke the

truth pipe. In many cases then either one or both of them will

refuse which signifies that those who refuse have either lied or is

no longer certain about their position, and these issues are

explored. But, if one or both of them states their truth and

smokes the pipe then the community waits to see how the spirits

rule on the situation. Anyone who tells a lie and smokes the pipe

will sicken and die within one week, and anyone who tells the

truth and smokes the truth pipe will be richly blessed in many

ways during and after the same time period.

I will be making a new Truth Pipe this winter as I have reason to

believe that I may have need of it this coming spring. We will see

how it goes, and if I do then I will inform all of my Apprentices

who are not there to see it for themselves of the results of the

ritual.

Conclusion

Considering the level of donations that I receive then by the

standards of the nation in which I live I am considered to be in

the lower class economically. Indeed, if Diane did not allow me

to live here and do my work then at my current level I would be

living either under a bridge or in a hovel in the woods. All in all,

my level of physical wealth is pretty low, but my heritage, and

the Teaching of my Elders and the Asaga, makes me one of the

richest men on the planet in a spiritual sense. The Sacred Pipe is

a great part of that wealth, and the value of the relationship I

have with Tabaku through it is unrivaled by the wealth of the

richest billionaires in this world.

One of the greatest events of my life was when I became a Pipe

Carrier for my people. My grandmother was only a few months

away from the end of her life, and she called to ask my second

wife and me to go down to South Texas to see her. It took a long

day to drive down, and when we got there we were told to bathe

and prepare for a solemn ritual. We did as we were told, put on

our ritual necklaces, and went out to be smudged and stand

naked before the sacred fire where my grandmother and my aunt

were waiting for us along with the seven women who made up

the Dragon Heart Council for the Asaga Medicine Society at that

time.

Each of these Elders spoke to me of the responsibilities of a Pipe

Carrier, and asked me if I was willing to accept this honor and

role among our people. I must admit that I was somewhat

intimidated by all of this, but I chose to accept the responsibility

that Rolling Thunder had prophesied so many years before. Then,

my Grandmother had me hold out my hands before me, took our

family pipe from my dear and precious aunt, and placed the pipe

in its bag across my upturned hands four times. Each time she

did so for the first three times then she would ask me a question,

receive my answer, and take back the pipe. On the fourth time

then she gave me a personal charge concerning the Sacred Pipe,

laid the pipe across my hands, and left it there. Then I did a pipe

ritual in honor of my Elders and the Asaga, pledged myself to the

service of the Sacred Pipe, and knew beyond the shadow of a

doubt that I was the wealthiest man alive!

Now this sacred heritage is shared with you, and if you work with

the Spirit of Tabaku with honor then you will not only be a great

blessing to the rest of Creation, but you will also be wealthy

beyond measure in a way that no amount of money can ever

equal. Whether you inherit your Sacred Pipe, or if it comes to you

in some other way, know that the spirits will provide for you.

Several years ago I helped a lady find her Upper Realm Teacher,

and one of her gifts was a beautiful Sacred Pipe of the sort that

she knew she would never be able to afford. While walking with a

friend in Sand Springs, Oklahoma she saw that exact same pipe

in a store that sold Native American ritual items and crafts. Her

friend pushed her into going in to ask about it, and the owner of

the store told them that it was not for sale, and they left. Karen

was nearly in tears over it when her friend persuaded her to go

back and tell the store owner about her vision with her Upper

Realm Teacher and she did. When he heard her story then he

smiled, took the pipe out of the showcase in the window, told

Karen that he had been saving this pipe for someone special

whom he now knew to be her, and charged her just as my

grandmother and our Elders had done giving her the Sacred Pipe

on the fourth time.

Rest assured that when it is time for you to receive your Sacred

Pipe then it will come to you whether you can purchase it or

someone gives it to you as a gift. To those of you who receive

this sacred charge, there is one thing that I know for certain:

“You will do great things with a Sacred Pipe someday!”

Awaninsgi!

Henowetak Wunabee

AKA: Stone Heart

www.NakedShaman.net