My Temazcal Ceremony experience

I’ve been on vacation for the last several days but still want to keep posting to my blog weekly, so I thought I’d share about one of my unique experiences. I went on a girls trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a long weekend, and on the first day, we did a couple of memorable activities.

Ghost Ranch in Abiquiú, New Mexico

The first was a Georgia O’Keefe landscape trail horse ride on Ghost Ranch in Abiquiú, New Mexico, where the artist lived for the latter years of her life. We saw the landscapes and other features that were the subjects of some of her famous New Mexico desert paintings. The second was a native Mexican Temazcal ceremony, also known as sweat lodge ceremony. The ceremony, which was a first for me, took place about 20 minutes from Santa Fe and was led by Concha Garcia Allen, a local healer and therapist, along with her assistant (who she called “nephew”) Bernie.

We started outdoors, standing in a circle. We faced 7 directions - East, South, West, North, Heavens, Ground and the Center. While burning herbs, Concha said prayers as she had us face each of 7 directions–East, South, West, North, skyward, down to the ground, and the center. She talked about how we are relatives - humans and animals, even insects. It was an interesting coincidence (or perhaps more?) given that I had just written about connection last week. Bernie accompanied with his drum, a wind instrument, and singing. Each of us shared our intention for the ceremony. Then we took turns standing in front of Bernie, facing East, as he waved smoke from burning herbs in front of us for cleansing and blessing and then touched us on the forehead with a feature.

We were ready to head into the sweat lodge, a small enclosed stone structure. We wore robes and were given towels and plenty of water. We entered the heated room, always from the left side, and sat in a circle around the heat source, which contained hot stones and was powered by electricity (important detail for later). Once everyone was seated, Bernie closed the door and the room was pitch black. I didn’t mind the dark, but my friends later reported that it was disconcerting at first to be in the dark.

I’m not going to remember all of the details, but the ceremony went roughly like this: Concha told a story centered around an animal representing a stage of life. She asked us to share what came up for us. Bernie started each round holding a stick that made a rattling noise when he shook it. He shared his story, and then passed the stick to the next person, who was told to “see” it by its sound. There were three of us plus Concha and Bernie, and everyone shared quite personal stories, so I’ll just describe the themes without getting into the personal details.

The first animal was a turtle that carries you on its back through the womb. Concha told us to think of a happy memory from our childhood. The second was a brown bear that offered medicine, and we shared what pain or ailment, physical or emotional, that we wanted to ask for the medicine to heal. The third animal was a wolf representing the wisdom we gained from others, whether young or old, human or animal, and we shared what that was. For the fourth and final round, she told us to imagine being an eagle perched on a branch, feeling our strength as we gripped the branch with our talons. We were bestowed with eagle vision, able to see great distances. This represented our vision of the future, which we shared with each other in turn.

Not surprisingly, it was extremely hot inside the sweat lodge, and part of the intention was to experience the discomfort. There was no escaping it, literally. I was grateful for the large towels and my water bottle. Normally, the heat is increased at each stage of the ceremony, but mercifully, the power went out in the entire town, so the electric heater stopped. It was still very hot from the residual heat, and Bernie may have amped up the heat through his prayers! The first round was the most difficult. I was completely drenched in sweat and could feel it streaming out of my pores.

After everyone had taken their turns sharing, Concha and Bernie sang a song, and then Bernie counted to three before we all shouted as loudly as possible, “All my relatives!” He opened the door and we had a reprieve between each section to cool and towel off and hydrate while he sang two songs. Then back into the sweat lodge for the next round. That made the heat more bearable, and I also got more used to it as the ceremony progressed.

All in all, our ceremony took about two and a half hours. That was a mental challenge for my restless mind, especially since I could tell we went over the expected two hours. At one point I just had to let go of my feeling of impatience so I could be more present to the experience. I was grateful that we had a relatively small group - Concha said she once had a group of 13, and they had to split into two groups to fit in the lodge.

I’m glad I took the opportunity to participate in a Temazcal ceremony. It’s not something I would necessarily seek out for myself, but I enjoy learning about different cultural traditions and meeting people with a strong and authentic spiritual presence. It brought up some fond memories from my childhood, and I left feeling more connected and grateful for many things at the end. And thirsty.