Medicine Tool Workshops
Spiritual Medicine Tools
Medicine Tools are a Gift from the Great Spirit. They are tangible objects that help you discover and understand your spiritual reality. Medicine Tools can help you learn secrets about yourself and the Universe while allowing Spirit to communicate to you and through you that flows through life and is life. They are physical manifestations of prayers you are making or energies that you are calling in to be with you.
Periodically Smudge your Medicine Tools to keep Sacred. If your Medicine Tools are out in the open, best to tell people not to touch. Medicine Objects are often awakened each use by a Tobacco Offering or a Song that is sung. They need to be activated, so the energy will flow from it. Whenever using a Medicine Tool, firstly Smudge it and you as well. It is good to do a Bonding Ceremony whenever you get a new Medicine Tool. Keep in mind when you are honoring the Spirit of your Medicine Tool that you are giving love and thanks to the Spirit or Energy of the tool.
Wind Daughter does Workshops to Make Medicine Tools.
Or learn how to create your own Medicine Tools:
A Sun Bear Book: Dancing with the Wheel, The Medicine Wheel Workbook
Prayer Staffs,Prayer Poles & Healing Wands
Medicine Tools of Prayer Staffs, Prayer Poles and Healing Wands are objects of great power. Rulers of all times and cultures used a Prayer Staff of strength and authority. You can use it to take back your own authority that has been lost or weakened. Prayer Poles are like Prayer Altars where you hold it with prayers as strength transmits to you. Healing Wands are used with you as a conduit for healing energy to flow through you like a hollow bone. These Medicine Objects can be used for energy balancing, dream work, healing, ceremonial dancing, weaving or cleansing energy, massage work, praying to connect with Spirit, full moon or other ceremonies, and work with the Elementals. Allow your Spirit Tool to guide you. Sleep with your Wand or lean your Staff or Pole close to your bed so you can become familiar with its energy and Spirit. Be open to its messages.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
Rattles
Rattles are powerful tools for communicating with Spirit and enhancing your prayers for almost any Ceremony. They are especially good with song, dance, journeying or healing. Different Rattles invite a variety of energies depending on their sound, what they are made from, how they are made, and how they are decorated. If a Rattle is used for spiritual purposes rather than simply a musical instrument, it should be made in a Ceremonial Way and treated with respect. A Rattle can be made of hide, gourd, wood and adorned with paint, feathers, bells, seashells, stones as whatever Spirit guides you to do. Occasionally sleep with your Rattle to make a deeper connection. Smudge it and yourself before using.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
Masks
Indigenous Peoples have used Masks since the earliest times for dancing, healing, inducing trances, shamanic journeying, driving illness from a home, portraying spiritual beings or elementals, while communicating and connecting with the spiritual plane. While wearing a Mask, you can lose yourself and become what is being portrayed by the mask. Each Mask will have a name and personality of its own.It needs to be made in a Ceremonial Way. If you already have a purchased mask, it is good to do a spiritual Bonding Ceremony with it.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
Shields
Like masks, Shields have been very important to humans since the dawn of time. Whenever you are needed strength or protection, whether it be physical, spiritual, mental, or emotional, it is wise to make a shield. The types of Shields are varied as to their uses. besides protecting self, home or family, Shields can be used to heal, to dream, and to represent medicine wheel, family, clan, lodge, or society affiliation. Shields can be used to form an alliance with one's personal or tribal Animal Totem and to tell stories or record important events. They are made of a wood or willow branch circle, covered with hide or cloth, painted and adorned with stones, feathers, herbs and other objects Spirit guides you to use.
You can make a Medicine Wheel Shield with all the animals on it, a Plant Medicine Wheel Shield with plants on it, or Gemstone Medicine Wheel Shield with stones glued on the Shield.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
See Sun Bear's book: Dancing with the Wheel for all the attributes.
Pouch & Bundle
A Medicine Pouch is one of the first Medicine Tools you can make. It is a necklace worn around the neck or tied around the waist, usually made of hide or cloth. It provides protection as well as gives you a way to carry items in it that enhances your own personal Medicine. When you are done working with a particular Medicine, you can change the contents for the new Medicine that you will work with. What goes in your bag or pouch depends on you and what Medicine Wheel aspect or energy that you are working with at the time. Common items could be stones, herbs, fetishes or written notes that you need for help and Healing.
A Medicine Bundle is a large cloth or hide wrapped around Medicine Objects and then tied with a leather strip, yarn, or string. The material used for the wrap is considered sacred, so should not be used for anything else. It is used the same as the Medicine Pouch or Medicine Altar. Sage, Cedar and Sweet Grass if added are good for cleansing, clearing any negativity, purification, and drawing your Spirit Guides and good spiritual energy to you.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
Prayer Feathers
A Prayer Feather is used as a portable altar to pray to Great Spirit. Feathers can fly to you any time to get your spiritual attention. You may like to collect them. One will stand out as being special. In this workshop they are put together with wood representing the Standing Ones or tied with leather/fur representing the Four Legged Ones. Crystals or Gemstones can be added to represent the Mineral Kingdom. The Feather of your particular Winged One will have special meaning for you with energy that you can work with.
A Prayer Feather is used to focus your prayers by connecting to your inner spiritual self. The winged ones will carry your prayers to Creator. All Sacred Powers of the Universe are honored when praying. Prayer Feathers are a good Medicine for Children to begin praying with.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
Prayer & Dance Shawl
The Women's Dance Shawl has become new at Pow Wows since the 1950. However, the Medicine Shawl has been worn by many indigenous peoples for centuries. It is a way to be enshrouded in the Medicine design that is portrayed on the Shawl. It holds your Spirit as it comforts, loves and binds to Great Spirit. It immediately put you into Sacred Space when wrapped around the shoulders. The Medicine Shawl is decorated with a meaningful design of Earth Designs, Spirit Animals or Guides.
When the Shawl is used for Dance, it expresses the Beauty and Power that is said in a Prayer as the Prayers are danced directly into the Earth herself. Jingles can be added to raise the vibration in a Dance. The fringes move like the flying of the Winged Ones.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
Altar
A Medicine Altar is a place where you would go to focus to pray. It could be on a table, floor, window, drawer or special spot. Or it could be a Prayer Cloth that gets folded and put away, only to come out when needed. A Prayer Cloth Altar is simply a square cloth that that you put a Tobacco Offering on each of its four corners and into the middle for Prayers while honoring the Seven Powers of the Universe.
Altars are Sacred Space where you connect with your Spirit Guides and Spirit Animals while you join the forces of Great Spirit. Most prayers are done as Gratitude Prayers while Request Prayers are done in a humble, thankful manner. The objects on the altar are directed to you from these beings, your Higher Self or Creator. Altars are not meant to be lavish and full of ego. Sometimes it is good to just have a small mound of dirt on it to represent the Earth Mother.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.
Talisman & Wotai Stone
A Talisman is a spiritual object that helps focus your attention by connecting to your inner, Spiritual Power. It may be a stone, ring, fetish, amulet, or totem. Often these objects are handed down in generations of families. They are most often used as a prayer object like a beaded rosary.
An Amulet or Talisman can serve to remind you of something important or can be used in stressful situations. It also could be a gemstone or a fetish of an animal. It can be used as a portable Altar.
The Lakota People used a Wotai Stone to empower their prayers as stones do hold energy. A Wotai Stone can come to you in a special manner. It may be the day you are sitting by a river and the sun will gleam of of the stone to catch your eye and call you. It might have images on the Medicine Stone of Power Animals or Spirit Helpers. Carried in your pocket, it reminds you to live your day in a spiritual way. A Talisman can be used to honor the sacred directions and pray to Great Spirit.
Medicine objects when made are always Smudged along with a Bonding Ceremony.