The Role of Native American Healing Ceremonies

Prayer-filled ceremonies, herbalism, and other all-natural practices play critical roles in Native American healing traditions. These traditions focus on the collective system of mind, body, emotion, and spirit and seek to fully cleanse the individual inside and out. This simple overview will detail the role of Native American healing ceremonies and their importance.

The Goal of Healing Ceremonies

The role of Native American healing ceremonies is to create balance or harmony in an individual’s life. They don’t just treat disease—ceremonies aim to alter the patient’s worldview and encourage them to gain a healthier outlook on life.

The type of treatment applied depends on the perceived root of imbalance in the patient’s life. The outward-presenting symptoms of the sickly person are considered, as are their mind, spirit, emotions, lifestyle, social group, and more. Treatment can involve making amends, climbing a sacred mountain, or performing a selfless act. It can also involve herbs, prayer, lifestyle modifications, a sweat lodge ceremony, or a vision quest. Smudging is another common treatment ceremony. It involves the burning of herbs such as sage and wheatgrass and wafting their scent and ashes onto a person and their belongings.

Commonly Used Tools

Drums and Medicine Rattles

Music and a sacred chanted song frequently accompany public and private healing ceremonies. The tribal elder or medicine man chants while fellow tribesmen provide a steady drumbeat and shake bells, medicinal rattles, or other handheld instruments.

The significance of medicinal rattles and drums is immense. They play critical roles in the healing process. The noise the instruments produce is referred to as “Mother Earth’s heartbeat.” It calms and relaxes the sick, shakes away disease, and expands the medicine man’s awareness of self and spirit.

Animal Totems

Small animal-shaped totems are frequently consulted during ceremonies. They’re used to seek well wishes and guidance from the animal spirits, and they’re common during private and group ceremonies alike. For more information about spirit animals, visit spiritanimaldreams.com.

Dream Catchers

These carefully woven instruments are some of the most well-known Native American healing tools. They ward off illness and nightmares by restoring the balance of mind, emotion, body, and spirit to the person using them.

Smudge Sticks

Smudge sticks, as we previously mentioned, are common ceremonial tools. They’re ribbon- or tie-bound herbs, miniature in size and simple to carry. They’re disassembled during ceremonies and re-bound after the necessary herbs are taken. The types of herbs used vary from region to region, but milkweed, echinacea, wild ginger, and elder are all common, as are sage and wheatgrass.