Sacred Transformative Sweat Lodge
Ceremony in Hebden Bridge

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Sacred Sweat Lodge Ceremony is a powerful and strongly supportive means of deep healing and empowerment: building the lodge and participating in prayer and ceremony

The lodge of withies is built over a central pit which is dug into the ground to hold the heated stones during the ceremony. Herbs are scattered on the floor of the pit. Prayers are uttered. The lodge is built over the pit by pushing tall withy-willow stems into the ground around the circumference of the circle, then bending them over to create a dome shape, bringing them together and tying them (accompanied with prayers and songs) and covering the framework with a tarpaulin. This pit and the lodge are sometimes seen as a feminine form of the divine energy.

A second pit - the fire pit, is dug close to the sweat lodge. Stones are placed in it. Timber is heaped in a pyramidal manner on top of the stones so that they will become extremely hot when the timber is lit. The fire pit, too, is sanctified with herbs and prayers. The fire pit can be seen as the male manifestation of divine energy. The stones which are carried in from the fire pit to the sweat lodge pit can be seen as analogous to fertilizing sperm: they fertilize on the physical level, producing steam and heat, and on a spiritual/psychological level they produce transformation.

The hot stones are carried into the lodge by the Fire Keeper or stone carrier, who stays outside the lodge tending the fire throughout the rite, but s/he brings in the stones at the appropriate times, when the Lodge Keeper (who leads or facilitates the ritual) calls out for more.

During sacred sweat lodge ceremony, the participants sit in the lodge with their knees drawn up tight to avoid getting their feet burned. The dark and the heat are very powerful and it is the bodily sensations caused by this that are seen as burning out past unwanted attitudes and bringing in fresh insights - cleansing not only the pores of the skin, but the soul and body as well.

The ceremony itself is a sequence of 'rounds': water being poured by each of the participants on the red hot stones, uttering prayers from the heart as they do so. The strict Inipi format is not used, but a more democratic form, as this is felt to produce higher individual authenticity.

At the beginning of each round, a fresh set of hot stones is brought in to join the stones already in the pit in the centre of the lodge. As each person pours water on the stones they utter their prayer.

Each person in turn, therefore, has the opportunity to make a prayer. Prayers must always be in the first person, and they must be made from the heart. Water may be poured in silence if no prayer arises. The saying is Great Spirit knows the prayer in your heart.

After each prayer has been uttered, the other participants may feel moved to voice their assent or support.

By the end of each round, heat build up occurs - it is this that produces the spiritual transformation.

Typical comments afterwards are that, in answer to their prayer to Great Spirit, 'things have really moved' for participants on some obstacle or issue in their life, or on some concern, or in the handling of some tragedy.

(Individuals with heart conditions or high blood pressure are not recommended to undertake sweat lodge, and should consult their medical practitioner before doing so)

Please contact us if you want your name to be kept so that we can notify you of future sweat lodge ceremonies, which are always held around Hebden Bridge.

Sacred Sweat Lodge ceremony is held in the exalted landscape of The Earth Sky Retreat Centre, in Yorkshire. You are inspired, strengthened and supported by this ancient landscape. Click here to see details. Rediscover what has been lost. Let the land teach you how to find your direction.

We Are

Pauline Stephenson has practiced as a complementary medicine practitioner, hypnotherapist and psychotherapist for over twenty years.  She has a Degree in English and Complementary Literature and a number of diplomas in forms of body work and psychotherapy.  She has led training sessions and workshops in a variety of skills from aromatherapy to working with power animals and chakras. Throughout this period Pauline has followed her own evolving devotional practice so that all her teaching is based on her own experiential learning.  Pauline encourages people to test and find their own paths as she believes there are many ways up the mountain.  Pauline is a grandmother, lives with cats and has an allotment. She believes plants and animals have taught her as much as anything she has learnt more formally. Pauline first began seriously working with visualizations, dreams and path workings in the 1970's and has continued ever since. Pauline is a poet and practices a weaving of healing and spiritual empowerment.	Michael Conneely’s path has combined Wicca with Vajrayana Buddhism and Kali tantra. Michael is committed to men’s’ work, Vision-quest, sacred sweat lodge ceremony and Rites of Passage. He seeks to offer these courses and events in a dedicated way as a gift of love. Michael’s spiritual practice arises especially from experience gained in a five-year field study of new spiritual forms, based in Glastonbury as a global centre of pilgrimage, including academic and practical study of the ritual, visionary and body-energy ways that Buddhism, Hinduism, Wicca and Northern Spirituality invoke gods into individuals. Michael has five degrees gained from three universities and practices as an astrologer. Michael has written three magical visionary novels: ‘The Tribe’, ‘The Magic Land’ and ‘Rune’. He has written a guide to new spiritual forms: ‘The Backpacker’s Guide to the New Spirituality’. His two forthcoming books are ‘MEN invoking GODS’ and ‘Rune Gateway’, the sequel to ‘Rune’.
To inquire about Sacred Sweat Lodge Ceremony, please contact:
Pauline stephensonpaulin@aol.com 079-080-26505	Michael info@michaelconneely.com 077 992 96821