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The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced differently by several North American Indian Nations, but many of the ceremonies have features in common, including dancing, singing and drumming, the experience of visions, fasting, and, in some cases, self-torture. The Sun Dance was the most spectacular and important religious ceremony of the Plains Indians of 19th-century North America, ordinarily held by each tribe once a year usually at the time of the Summer Solstice. The Sun Dance last from four to eight days starting at the sunset of the final day of preparation and ending at sunset. It showed a continuity between life and death - a regeneration. It shows that there is no true end to life, but a cycle of symbolic and true deaths and rebirths. All of nature is intertwined and dependent on one another. This gives an equal ground to everything on the Earth.

The Sun Dance symbolizes a resolution with the conflict between being a people that view the buffalo as wise and powerful, even closer to the creator than humans, and having to kill and eat them to survive. Making the buffalo sacred, symbolically giving new life to it, and treating it with respect and reverence acts a s a sort of reconciliation. Without the buffalo there would be death, and the Plains Indians saw that the buffalo not only provided them with physical well-being, but kept their souls alive, too.

Refrain from using mind-altering narcotics.

How long does this take, will it happen the first time? Possibly, possibly not. We can’t determine how long this process takes, all we can do is persevere, intent is all that’s required and the ability to loose your mind. What we do know is that the experience enriches your spirituality and makes future communications a damn sight easier.

Remember that I draw these techniques from my own early explorations and they worked for me. Be inspired by them, don’t accept them as written in stone, explore and develop your own unique method of connection. Us it all by all means, or twist and tweak them to your own suiting. Above all, enjoy the process, loose yourself in a relationship that will last forever.