Spirit Dance, the way it is intended, created and offered, is a ritual for healing the heart, the body and the Spirit(s).
Know that eating too close to a rigorous effort like a spirit (medicine) dance, can be counter-productive, as most of your physiology will be engaged in digestion.
There is no mistake in the fact that every indigenous ritual I have ever participated in, prescribes a fast prior to the ritual.
As of recently, in a Hopi Kiva ceremony, the clan fasted and sweated for one day, in preparation for the dance, while we also practiced the songs and the dances, as well as totally redress the Kiva for that particular Equinox dance.
I was just one of the singers in the ritual. A mere beginner in that lodge and clan I have recently been invited in.
The energy that it took me, to just concentrate on all the nuances of the many songs, and sing with all my heart to carry the vigorous, long and in full-regalia dance of the Kachinas, Mud Heads, Cocopelli and Manna (Guadalupe), was enormous.
I was drenched and exhausted, and in that state, my heart opened to my brothers in the circle. A deep bonding was forged by the medicine. Much healing took place in the kiva were sixty-some people had gathered.
The Medicine of a ritual, we co-create by our willingness to give ourselves fully for the healing of all.
To penetrate (navigate) the multitude of layers accessible in a successful ritual, one must be able to sustain the physical and emotional demands of even the shortest of trance state.
Because when trance happens, Spirit(s) can dance you. The benevolent Spirits you call forth to be with you and support you in the ritual, wish you to sustain any trance, because they know that in that state, the potential to heal (oneself, the collective gathered and the broader Planetary community) is vast.
Whatever you do, just know that in creating extraordinary conditions by all of the ways we prepare for a ritual, we greatly increase our chances to experience extraordinary healing phenomena.
May I suggest that you eat in a ritual fashion if you eat? To already prepare for a healing ritual?
Maybe eat with a toast to your healing, and if eating with others, state to your dinner circle what you truly wish to heal.
Please eat light and refrain from alcohol.
Drink water before, during and after the ritual, as the heat often generated during a ritual can draw a lot of water out of your body.
Arrive on time
Is there a particular way to dance in the ritual?
What offering should I bring?
