THE SACRAMENT (PEYOTE) CEREMONY
Written Thoughts by - Kevin ‘He Who Has Know Name’ Towt, President of Oklevueha Native American Church of Orderville and Touquerville
The Sacrament Peyote has Its’ Way
The uninitiated observer calls it a powerful hallucinogenic. Medicine Persons trained, schooled and experienced with It know Its’ Way and rightly call it the Flesh of God. Others experience Its’ Way as a passage into a new life with wonderful, fresh perspectives. Some have transformation of mystifying proportions. The Peyote Sacrament and Its’ Way is part of the Great Mystery. Its’ focused agenda is for the maturing of the soul. Peyote’s unique abilities can cut through any resistance, whispering to the inquisitive heart a fundamental question at the core of every soul’s experience, “What are we?”
Indigenous people of North and South America have a long, rich tradition of experiencing themselves as part of all that we see. There is no separation between our surroundings and us. Intelligence is experienced to be in and through all things…birds, bees, rocks, trees, plants and water…the list includes all of Creation. It can and does communicate in a myriad of ways to individuals attuned to their sounds. Balance and harmony could be every day observations until conquerors from other lands came. Over time, the delicate balance once perceived as part of the indigenous way of life disappeared.
Peyote is the only Great Spirit gifted plant that Oklevueha Native American Church utilizes for its Sacrament and / or Eucharist Ceremony.
It was prophesied one day this delicate balance would return and the indigenous people of this land would rise again to establish the Old Ways. But severe imbalances do exist at the beginnings of this great time of fulfillment. It is our Intent to see deeply into our present moment and expand upon the possibilities for healing, for personal and collective empowerment, and ultimately a transformation into human abilities unheard of before. Peyote will richly empower any one willing to take responsibility for their Transforming Journey. There is no disease, sickness of the body, mind, heart or soul that cannot be amended with the right actions. That being said, let us begin with a short overview of the significant Sacrament of Oklevueha Native American Church.
Peyote it self does not dissolve kidney stones. It will not remove gallstones, it cannot not clear the arteries and heart of deposits of all kinds. Peyote does not, it self, cure and mend the asthma of millions or the diabetes of tens of millions. These modern day plagues are left to a myriad of other Creator provided medicinal and nutritional plants and grass that given the chance, work ‘miracles’. But from the increased light added by Peyote and now emanating from the transforming nature of the soul, ‘mountains’ will be moved of epic proportions.
Many of the tribal nations today still struggle with white man diseases. European colonizers came to this land hundreds of years ago…in their filth…as a plague upon the native inhabitants. It is estimated that their diseases accounted for up to a 90% loss of indigenous human life within our ancestral populations. And still today, on tribal lands everywhere, heart disease and diabetes (diseases unheard of before now) lead the way on a list of “modern” diseases whose “cause” is yet to become common knowledge. This exists largely in the over 40 population but the children are also experiencing tremendous challenges. For instance, Lakota children are committing suicide at an alarming rate. It is the highest of any youth group in America today.
At the heart of our quest and vision to bring all things into balance and harmony once again is the personal health of every soul. As a people with extraordinary powers to shape our environment, how can we assist our Mother Earth to heal man made pollution if we cannot first clean up our own piece of the planet? These are not the blessings our ancestors enjoyed. Their freedom was as a direct result of first…freedom from sickness and disease. Their Old Ways played a vital role in maintaining this state of Being. Now after 400 plus years of genocide, the Old Ways are re-emerging.
OTHER READING CONCERNING OKLEVUEHA NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH SACRAMENT: Sacrament History, The Sacred, Transformational Journey, Indigenous Medicine Ways and Sacred Ways.