Scientists Discover Native Americans Used Plant As Mosquito Repellent (Picture)

Rituals may have their roots in traditional culture, or they may originate from personal intuition, dreams, or prayers. The use of plants for ritual is often accompanied by other  practices for shifting consciousness, including fasting, dancing, drumming, chanting, storytelling, song, meditation, dreaming, or prayer. Rituals strengthen our connections with plants, the earth, and the spirit world as well as helping to heal and sustain us.

 

Methods of using plants for ritual:

 

Tea infusions or decoctions Leaves and flowers are generally infused, steeped in hot water, while roots, seeds, barks, and berries are often decocted, simmered at a low boil for an extended time. Smoking, incense and smudging, ”Nature understands fire and smoke better than words.”

 

Plants of Power 

 

 

 

“There is a ceremony before the ceremony, and there are ceremonies within the ceremony, and then there are ceremonies after the ceremony is complete.”

 

Sacred Smoke

 

Before gathering herbs for smudge, many wildcrafters pray, ask for guidance, and ask the plant’s permission. Sometimes a ritual bath, a sweat, a fast or a smudge is also part of  purifying one’s self before gathering the herbs that will be used for a sacred ritual. The herbs are then cut at the appropriate length for the smudge stick, and may be hung upside down so the energy doesn’t drain out of the cut end. Sometimes it is easier to allow the plants to wilt slightly to reduce moisture so they are easier to bundle .Bundle with the stems all at one end and the tops at the other end. The stems represent the earth energy, and the physical plane. While the tops of the herbs represent sky and the spiritual realm. Both the growth of the plant and the rising of smoke during smudging express the movement of prayer from earth to sky. Wrap the string or thread in spirals around the bundle, starting from the stems towards the tops and then back down. Wrap snugly but not too tight. Do not bend or fold the tips of the herbs in the bundle as this interferes with the movement of energy. Also, do not trim off the tips as this severs the connection with sky. Tie off the bundle at the base, leaving a loop at the stem end for hanging the bundle until it is dry.

 

 Smudging 

:Light the tip of the smudge stick or braid with a candle or in a fire. Once the smudge stick has a steady flame, blow it out so it is smoldering and smoking. Use an abalone shell, a bowl, or any other sacred (and safe) receptacle to hold under the smudge stick to catch any ash. Offer the smoke to each of the four cardinal directions. Wash or fan the smoke over heart, head and body, using your hand or a fan. Traditionally a fan made of eagle feathers is sometimes used, with the belief that the prayers contained in the smoke are then carried to the heavens on eagle’s wings. 

 

Sweat lodge

The sweat lodge is a powerful cleansing and healing ceremony in many Native American traditions. Participants often prepare for a sweat by fasting, smudging, and prayer. It may be a steam sweat or a dry sweat, depending on the tribe. During the sweat herbs such as sage, cedar, mugwort, and sweet grass aid in the ritual purification and energetic cleansing.

 

Others:

Food, infused oils, amulets, baths, strewing, pillows, elixirs, wreaths

 

Plants used for purification, consecration, and protection:

Cedar - various species - Calming, uplifting, and grounding. Cedar is used in amulets,incense, smudging, in sweat lodges, to weave splitwood baskets and to make hearth boards for firestarting. Also used externally to make oils and ointments for sore muscles and chest congestion or colds.

 

Sage, Salvia spp. and Artemesia spp

The Latin name Salvia means “to heal” or “to save”. Sage is said to make bad spirits sick when used in smudge for ceremonial purification. It is included in medicine pouches, strewn over the floor during sweats, and wrapped around sacred objects such as ceremonial pipes. Some species may be used in tea to calm, focus and center the mind. Sage is antifungal and antiseptic as well as astringent.

 

Tobacco - Nicotiana spp.

The blossoms and leaves of tobacco are given as offering to the spirits. Tobacco may be smoked, smudged, chewed and snorted as part of ceremony. It soothes over excitement of the nervous system and protects the energetic body. It is used in ceremony by shamans to fan over the bodies of patients, to divine the cause of their illness and to heal. Traditional Native American beliefs hold that tobacco comes from the gods. It is believed that when tobacco is burned, it dies and releases its own spirit,which joins the spirits of the universe that influence the fate of humans. When used ceremonially, tobacco helps put a person in a state of mind to be in contact with the spirits.

 

Sweet grass - Hierochloe odorata

Native to the Great Plains of the US and Canada.Sweet grass is often braided and used for smudge and in the sweatlodge. It also makes a

 

 

 

 

 

Sweetgrass
Hierochloe odorata
Native to the Great Plains of the US and Canada.Sweetgrass is often braided and used for smudge and in the sweatlodge. It also makes a
pleasant and relaxing tea. Sweetgrass increases positive energy and purifies. The smokeof sweetgrass is said to be pleasant to all spirits, good or bad, so it is often paired withsage in doing cleansing smudges. Lakota myth states that sweetgrass came to grow in the place where White Buffalo Calf Woman’s tears fell as she changed from a red buffalo toyellow, to black, and finally to a sacred white buffalo.Corn
Zea mays
Gifts of sacred cornmeal are offered during ceremonies to feed andsoothe the spirits and make them happy with the people. The Hopi people believe thatwhen corn is eaten, its flesh becomes their flesh, so that when cornmeal is offered to thespirits, it is an offering of their own flesh. Corn, along with squash, beans, and tobacco,is one of the four sisters that makes up traditional Native American gardening techniques.The Pawnee people believe that people are descended from a union of the great spirit andcorn.Mugwort
Artemesia vulgaris
, Cronewort This herb is a symbol of health and hope thatoften grows in disturbed ecosystems such as roadsides and wastelands. It is also said togrow at the doorways of healers, and is used to repel bad spirits. Used as a skin lotion, itrepels insects and is an effective remedy for poison ivy It is used in smudge and hung by bedsides to aid in divination and dreaming. Used internally as a tea, it is a digestive bitter, helps regulate the menstrual cycle and ease cramps, and helps balance emotionalstates. It also acts as a vermifuge.
P
lants used for altering consciousness and building community:
Ayahuasca
 Banisteriopsis spp.
“Little Death” or “Vine of the Soul” A psychoactive tea isdecocted from this Amazonian vine and may include other herbs which moderate theeffects for the purposes of Shamanic journeying, healing, and religious ceremony inEcuador, Peru, Brazil, and Columbia. Consumption causes complex and colorful visions,which often involve visions of the origins of life on earth. Considered an
entheogen
, a plant which enables the user to connect with the divinity within themselves.Peyote
 Lophophora williamsii,
Mescal Button, a small, spinelesscactus whose nativeregion extends from the southwestern part of Texas, through centralMexico. TheHuichol of northern Mexico and the Navajoin the southwestern United States use peyote as partof traditional religious rites, as do more than forty tribes across the United States andCanada. There is documented evidence of the religious, ceremonial, and healing uses of Peyote dating back to over 20,000 years. Consumption of peyote triggers a sense of well- being and colorful kaleidescopic visions. It is considered to be a divine messenger, anentheogen, enabling the user to connect with God.Tea
Camellia sinensis
Native to Asia. Traditionally used in elaborate, formal teaceremonies in Japan. Contains the amino acid theanine which calms and relaxes, as wellas caffeine which promotes alertness and focus.Salvia divinorum Diviner’s Sage, Sage of the Seers This herb has a long tradition of use by indigenous Mazatec shamans, who use it to facilitate visionary states of consciousness

 
during spiritual healing sessions. The plant grows in isolated habitats in Mexico.Typically smoked, chewed, or consumed as tea,
Salvia divinorum
can produceexperiences ranging from ecstatic laughter to much more intense and profoundly alteredstates, such as the sensation of overlapping realities or the perception of being in severallocations at once.Kava
 Piper methysticum
The Latin name means intoxicating pepper. A mildlyintoxicating beverage traditionally consumed in various cultures in the Pacific Islands,including Fiji, Polynesia, and Samoa. Traditionally it is prepared by either chewing,grinding or pounding the root with water. It causes a mild feeling of euphoria, physicalrelaxation, talkativeness, and a tingling of the lips and mouth. It is typically used atsocial gathering to increase amiability. It is used as an herbal supplement in the Westernworld for anxiety, stress, muscle tension and sleeplessness. It is contraindicated for  people with liver problems, and should not be used with alcohol and certain prescriptionmedications.Tulsi
Ocimum sanctum
, Holy basil Tulsi, meaning “the incomparable one” in Sanskrit,is a rasayana, an Ayurvedic term for a tonic herb similar to an adaptogen in Westernherbalism. Holy basil is said to help nourish a person’s growth to perfect health andenlightenment. It is grown at the entranceways of homes and sacred places to deter evilspirits from entering. Tulsi may be steeped as an infused tea, or used in cooking. It isalso available as an herbal supplement in tincture and capsule form, due to its anti-depressant and anxiolytic (stress-fighting) properties, and also improves digestion,decreases inflammation, and boosts the immune system. The stem is made into prayer  bead which are worn as necklaces or bracelets and used to adorn altars.
 A traditional Navajo prayer:
The world before me is restored in beauty
The world behind me is restored in beauty
The world below me is restored in beauty
The world above me is restored in beauty 
All things around me are restored in beauty 
My voice is restored in beauty 
It is finished in beauty 
It is finished in beauty 
It is finished in beauty 
It is finished in beauty

Two earth-centered chants for rituals
We are an old people, we are a new people
We are the same people, deeper than before.
———– 
Earth my body, water my blood  
Air my breath and fire my spirit.

 

http://www.academia.edu/1705786/Sacred_Plants_Green_Allies_Used_in_Ritual_and_Ceremony