In this Article:

• What is an Indigenous healing ceremony?
• My personal journey to healing through traditional methods
• The role of the Wapiye (healer) in the Yuwipi ceremony
• The impact of community and spiritual support in healing
• How Indigenous healing methods can bring profound change

How an Indigenous Healing Ceremony Changed My Life

by Jonathan H. Ellerby, Ph.D.

It was late evening, and I was sitting in the basement of a small Indigenous American reservation home in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the land of the Lakota, Sioux. It was a fairly large rectangular room, windowless, without furniture. Around the perimeter of the room, community members sat against the wall on pillows and blankets. I was the only non-local I could detect.

The room was dimly lit and people were talking and joking quietly, waiting for the ceremony to begin. These were people who came seeking healing, connection, blessing, and with a desire to support those who came for help with their prayers. In the middle of the room, a blanket was laid out. On it was an elaborate and intricate arrangement of ceremonial objects.

The Wapiye, the healer, was busy preparing the ritual items and himself. He seemed to be slowing down his movements with each moment.

It seemed as if his actions were becoming more precise, more contemplative with each passing second. This man, whom anthropologists would call a “shaman,” was well recognized throughout the surrounding areas for his amazing abilities to heal through a special ceremony known as the Yuwipi. The Yuwipi is a ceremony in which the healer communicates with the spiritual world—sacred forces and spiritual beings—to assist in the helping and healing of individuals and the community.

At one side of the room, his assistants and the ceremonial drummers prepared themselves. His lead assistant moved about the room organizing people and protocol. I was sitting in a sort of “honor seat,” the seat at the head of the room. This was the seat for the person who called for the ceremony, the main sponsor who asked for healing. That was me. I had never experienced anything like this before. I didn’t know anyone in the room and I was the only non-native person present. I had no idea what to expect and was filled with a mixture of emotions: excitement, anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and a strange undercurrent of peace. Years ago when my problem first began I would have never expected that this is where it would lead me.

When I was an infant, the doctors noticed that I was pigeon-toed and wanted to “correct” the “problem” with leg braces. They were sure this course of action was to prevent me from future problems. Until the age of thirteen I had no obvious problems or pains in my feet and legs. I enjoyed an active childhood. At the age of thirteen, however, I developed a problem in my feet and legs.

I experienced sharp pain in my knees and hips when running, or walking long distances. I continued to play sports and began to sprain my ankles repeatedly. Soon I was forced to withdraw from many of the high-intensity physical activity programs in my high school. Ultimately, it turns out that when I was a child the problem was over-corrected, and my legs were turned outward causing a misalignment of my ankles, knees and hips.

Over the years of high school my parents pursued many options and all the specialists we could track down. The choices were always few: prosthetics, surgery, physiotherapy. The most significant option was to “break” my feet and then reconstruct them to include an arch and realign my legs. That did not feel like a reasonable intervention, and so I decreased my physical activity, focused on my spiritual pursuits and hoped that one day I’d meet a healer who could help.

Years later, after I had begun to journey in the world of Indigenous American spirituality and tradition, I asked my Lakota mentor and spiritual father, Wanagi Wachi if he knew of any medicine in his culture that could help. That is how I ended up in that far-off place.

The Ceremony Begins

The time for the ceremony to begin was drawing near. I was feeling isolated and unsure. I had never experienced anything like this before and had no idea what to expect. I was torn between my disbelief and my desire for healing. I wanted to believe that somehow this healer could work some magic and change my body, but everything I knew told me otherwise.

Just then, the lead assistant to the healer approached me. He kneeled closely and looked at me intensely. “I don’t care where you are from or what you believe. Tonight we all need to be of one mind for this healing to work and so no one gets hurt. This is no time for fear or doubt. You asked for this and now a lot of people are here to support you and to ask for their own healing. For some people here, this night means more than you can imagine.”

“This man,” he motioned toward the healer, “he is risking his life for you. As long as this ceremony goes on, you focus on your prayers, positive thoughts and trust that this will work. Do that and everything will be fine.”

He left as abruptly as he came. Everyone suddenly settled down. He took his seat. The healer moved to the middle of the room, sat on the altar space in the middle of the room, and the lights were turned out. I was at a total loss, not knowing what to expect, what to do, or even how to relate to what was happening. Excited, scared, trying to keep an open mind and willing heart, the setting became overwhelming and something in me pulled my awareness into the dark silence and I simply waited.

The drums began, then the singing began. The room had been prepared so that not the slightest bit of light could enter. It was pitch black. I heard songs and sounds I’d never heard before, I felt an excitement and a nervousness that was hard to contain.

My mind raced to make sense of what was happening. But there was nothing familiar to grasp. At first I heard the healer praying in his language, Lakota: the tones and words were strange to me, but beautiful, powerful and comforting. Soon after, the healer fell silent. The ceremony, drumming, and singing continued for hours.

Deep into the ceremony I heard the sound of a rattle shaking in the middle of the room. I looked into the darkness to see if there was a sign of movement. I couldn’t see anything—not my hand in front of my face. Then, a flash. I saw flashes of blue light dancing around where the healer had sat. I had read about Spirits appearing in ceremonies as blue lights, but never thought it to be literally true. Then the rattle began to glow. It flickered on and off, then faded to black again.

The next thing I knew the rattle was right in front of me. As if it had flown from the healer’s hand to me. I sensed he was there before me as well. I could not imagine how he moved from the complex arrangement of objects without knocking things over, nor could I imagine how he located me precisely in the absolutely blacked-out room.

The rattle immediately went to my body, as if attracted to the exact places I had experienced pain. It did not fumble or search, it was exact, touching me lightly, but vigorously. Then the light began to flash again. I could tell what it was, but I felt like crying.

Tears welled up. Emotion surged. I wasn’t scared or sad, but felt blessed. I felt the most profound gratitude. I didn’t understand any of it, but somehow I felt that something, or someone was present to help.

Somehow it seemed that the world was much, much greater than anything I imagined. The rattle then moved. It danced around the room and stopped in specific places on specific people. It seemed that it was the tool of healing.

This continued for some time. I prayed and prayed for everyone in the room. I prayed for my healer and for myself. I prayed for all I didn’t understand and gave thanks to whatever was present.

The Healing Continues

When it was over and lights came on, I was relieved and yet sad that the dark cocoon of ceremony was dissolving. People began to talk again. A few rituals followed and late into the night the whole event was brought to a close. At that time the healer called me over to him. He shook my hand. “You’ll be fine,” he said with quiet confidence. “Here, take this.” It was a piece of a root as wide as two fingers, but no longer than my thumb.

“Every day you can grate some of this into a powder. Make two cups of tea with it. Drink one cup and use the other to wash the parts that trouble you. Make sure you pray as you do these things.”

I looked at the small root and worried it was not enough. I wondered how a simple tea could change the structure of my bones, muscles, and eliminate the pain I was so used to. “Could I have a little more?” I asked. He laughed and smiled. “You take this until it works. If you run out, give me a call, I’ll mail you more.”

It was only six weeks later that I stopped taking the medicine. I got rid of my whole-foot prosthetics. I started exercising, hiking, and running again and have never had trouble since.

I still have half of that root today. I cannot explain why or how that ceremony worked, but it healed my body, changed my life, and I remember every day, with each step I take, that true magic is not only possible—it is more common than we think.

Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission of Findhorn Press,
an imprint of Inner Traditions Intl.

Article Source:

BOOK: The Seven Gateways of Spiritual Experience

The Seven Gateways of Spiritual Experience: Awakening to a Deeper Knowledge of Love, Life Balance, and God
by Jonathan H. Ellerby.

A journey through the seven most common and important spiritual experiences: 
• Discover how to recognize experiences of the Sacred and integrate them into daily life for spiritual growth, healing, wholeness, inspiration, resilience, and connection;
• Shares intimate, firsthand examples of spiritual experiences and explores how they happen, what they are like, what they mean, and how they can help us;
• Presents simple exercises and common practices to enter the states of super-consciousness that lead to spiritual experiences and connection with the Sacred.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here.  Also available as a Kindle edition and as an Audiobook.

About the Author

Jonathan H. Ellerby, Ph.D., has been a spiritual teacher, ceremonial leader, wellness expert, and leadership consultant for more than 25 years. With a doctoral degree in comparative religion, training as a counselor and chaplain, ordination as an Interfaith Minister, and certification in a variety of intuitive and energy-based healing practices, Jonathan has dedicated his life to understanding the spiritual world. Author of several books, including Return to the Sacred, he lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.