July 20, 2019
Big Dub Sweat Lodge & Volunteering
We are going to be sweating at Big Dub! Earlier in the season, we constructed a new sweat lodge in New Camp alongside the river to provide ceremony for guests on the New Camp side. We will be having ceremony on Thursday afternoon of Big Dub to inaugurate the New Camp Lodge. Then we will relocate back to Main Camp Sweat Site for what will be an honorary theme camp for ceremonies on Friday & Saturday. We expect to do at least two midday and afternoon lodges both days, and fires will be set at the end of Quiet time. The Welcome fire will be lit into the night for stories, songs, drumming and chilling.
We invite you to come by to pray and sweat with us! Anytime the sacred fires are continuously burning, you are welcome to come meditate, chill out, talk with us, and reconnect in this area.
The Sweat Lodge at Four Quarters holds to the same interfaith view as Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary and does not follow a single tradition or path. All are welcome. Our ceremonies facilitate personal and collective inner cleansing and healing and prayer. As with other spaces at Four Quarters this is ceremonial space and is to be respected as such.
Remember the Lodges and ceremony areas are SOBER.
Volunteering at Sweat
Not surprisingly, running Sweat involves a lot of Chop Wood, Carry Water, Haul Stones... Ceremony does not begin when the flap is closed, or when we bring the Stones, or when we start, or set the sacred fire. Ceremony begins the moment we manifest intention to do so, logistically when we make our first preparations for the Lodge. Strictly speaking, we began our ceremonies in the dead of winter, with planning for the 2019 season and declaring our intention to provide ceremony.
We approach all of this in an intentional and sacred manner, organizing, caring for and preparing the site, the aforementioned chopping wood and carrying water. Procuring good stones, herbs and medicines, building the fires, making the Lodge ready, ceremony leaders preparing their ceremonial items and medicine. All of this takes place typically before the first guest arrives and goes into one purpose, creating a good place for the People to pray, be healed and purified, to talk to Spirit.
In addition to our Ceremony Leaders, we have Sweat Lodge Staff who serve as Site Keepers, Fire People, Doorkeepers, Greeters and all-around helpers. Truthfully, everybody does a bit of everything. Our Regular Sweat Lodge Staff maintains Four Quarters Staff Memberships. A limited number of Event Internships may be available for individual events. Four Quarters Members receive priority for Event Internships. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in advance to inquire about Staff Memberships or Event Internships.
However, volunteers can literally just step up.
We welcome volunteers to help out when lodge is running at Four Quarters, and especially at the larger events. You'll be expected to chop wood, carry water, haul stones, tend fire, hold space, help greet guests. It amounts to come early, stay late, pay attention, follow safety and sobriety rules, and maybe learn a thing or two about how we do this. We learn by doing, there is always work to do, and a lot of good times too. All of our staff members have started as volunteers and helpers around sweat! It is good work, worth doing, lela wakan!
Anyone interested in this sacred service, please see a Sweat Staff member or ceremony leader at a quiet moment. Mostly it's SHOWING UP! Woplia tanka inipi kunkushe!
Mitaquye Oyasin,
Kurt Griffith/Talking Stone.
Left. Sober Ceremony,
Right. New Camp Lodge Site, Spring 2019.