The
Path of the Feather:
A shamanic journey, medicine wheels and spirit animals
By Lane Cummings
eHow Contributor
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A Native American prayer tie is one way to create a physical representation of a prayer.
Creating a Native American prayer tie allows you to create a physical representative of an actual prayer from your mind and heart. The prayer tie both represents and holds the powerful energy of the prayer. According to the official website of the "9th Engineers Battalion," in Native American culture, once you've made your prayer ties, you would burn them in a respectful and dedicated ceremony, as an assurance that your prayers would reach the heaven and the Great Spirit. Repeating this ceremony and tradition today is easy and an effective way to put an image behind your prayers.
Things You'll Need
Blanket
Red or blue cotton cloth
Scissors
Herbs: sage, sweet grass, tobacco, cornmeal
Red yarn
Stick
Fire
Instructions
1 Spread out a special, clean blanket on a flat surface where you will do your work. According to the book, "Star Medicine: Native American Path to Emotional Healing," by Wolf Moondanc, this blanker can later become your medicine blanket and the place where you do your praying,
2 Cut pieces of red or blue cotton cloth into 1-inch squares. Take a pinch of tobacco, sage, sweet grass and cornmeal and place them in the center of each square. Gather up the sides of each square and pull them together, gathering the herbs together at the bottom.
3 Cut a small piece of red yarn and wrap and knot it around the neck of each bundle. Make at least four separate bundles and string them together on a piece of red yarn, wrapping the yarn around the neck of each one to create a line of prayer ties. The four bundles signify the unity of the four separate directions.
4 Tie the line on a stick and place the stick in the middle of a fire and allow the smoke to carry the prayers up to the heavens.
Read more : http://www.ehow.com/how_8297568_make-native-american-prayer-tie.html
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