RITUALS By: Paul Goree and
KIOWA BELIEF AND RITUALS By: Benjamin R. Kracht
https://chi-espirit.blogspot.com/2017/12/chi-espirt-page.html
Rituals are specific courses of actions, done by social collectives. The rituals extend from the root of the society and represent the terms of the constructed reality as lived. The principles, moral, beliefs, virtues and expectations placed upon each individual within the collective. Rituals include collective behavior that is utilized in religious worship, rites of passages, community development/witch doctor, and sacraments. As with Christian Sacraments, rituals involve a physical activity within the environment, which is observable. Sacraments signify God's grace in a way that is outwardly observable to the participant. That grace of God is defined differently in different cultures around the world. The grace of God, being the blessing by which we are in existence-becomes more interesting as we observe it from different cultural lenses. All of the variation have basic core elements. One being the need for humans to interact with the spiritual realm of the divine/universe. The way this is done in all cultures is through rituals, where by repetitive drums beats, creating waves of sound cause a hypnotic state of consciousness, by which the spiritual realm can be contacted. There is always some type of olfactory natural to the earth. Many indigenous cultures use sage, lavender, or cedar to create a olfactory pleasant offering to the energies of the universe. There is usually a verbal hum, that is accompanied by a physical dance/body movement, that corresponds to the drum beats. All of these practices provide a way for the human to interact with the spiritual realm.
Also included as rituals are prays, in psychology it is the used in a technical sense for a repetitive behavior systematically used by a person to neutralize or prevent anxiety; it is a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are praise rituals for the human living experience such as the Swahili 'matunda ya kwanza' - first fruit of the harvest. Which evolved into African Americans celebration of Kwanzaa. Another harvest ritual is the Native Americans description of a "Strawberry Moon" which becomes a Farmer’s Almanac to agriculture.
The following is a ritual of the Kiowa Indians, and explains the metaphysical powers of various animals on the planet as they interact with humans and the environment. It details how the powers of these animals can be utilized by humans and like wise for them. This is another great way of detailing the dynamics of CHI as it is the order by which God has created the world. And all living things upon it can share the energy for growth.
KIOWA BELIEF AND RITUALS
By: Benjamin R. Kracht
Published by the University of Nebraska Press 2017
ISBN: 9781496200532
(page: 79-80)
Kiowa country is home to venomous rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, spiders, and scorpions. Snakes allegedly have power because they are without friends. Those possessing snake or spider power typically doctored snake, spider, and scorpion bites. Hunting Horse, Haumpy, Lone Bear and Mary Buffalo remembered that in earlier times three women and three men practiced Snake medicine, including Kiowa Charley’s father, Tonsatoma (Heating Tallow), who used the sucking method to remove venom and sometimes snake fangs from snake-bitten victims.
Bagyanoi told the story of how Heating Tallow once treated Red Otter, who had stepped on a rattlesnake skeleton while barefooted during a fast on Hunting Horse Hill, east Mt. Sheridan. Within a day, Red Otter could not walk due to paralysis in his legs, so he was taken to Heating Tallow, who recommended fasting in the Wichita Mountains because his condition was incurable.
Taken back into the mountains by horseback, Red Otter lay on a bed of sage for four days and nights, smoking and praying to the spirit world. Snakes appeared in a vision during the second night, informing him that the “sickness you have is very hard to cure, because the snake which harmed you was dead.” On the third day, an enormous thunder cloud passed through the area, pelting Red Otter with rain and hail and pipping at his bison robe. Weak and dehydrated by the fourth day, Red Otter was surrounded by snakes and lizards that scurried away when a large, two headed snake –like bird twenty times larger than any bird he had ever seen swooped down and grabbed his legs with its talons.
Red Otter felt something icy cold withdrawing from his legs and a voice saying –“now you’re already cured.” Horned toads and lizards are associated with certain powers that Jim Ahtone and Haumpy could not specify, though Sankadota claimed that in his youth he once sat under a tree when a “green lizard with black stripes” said to him “You are a poor boy. I will take on you. “ This spirit represented by the lizard became his special proctector.
