Dawn Ceremony

               The Navajo people have a tradition of doing a ceremony at dawn. My husband started doing it, and I thought he was nuts.  Dawn is really early.  I heard that one way to do it is to get up just before the sun comes up, go out the east door of your house and run towards the east as the sun rises.  Some elders say you should get up while it’s still very dark because pre-dawn is important too.  Some say it’s OK to go back to bed afterwards, while others say, no you should get up and stay up. 

               I decided to try it one morning, getting up while it was still dark and being present for the whole process.  Back then I wasn’t good at sitting, waiting, and being aware, so it seemed to take a long, long time.  First the birds started singing, next there was this feeling of hushed expectancy from the trees, which makes total sense when you consider how important sunlight is to them.  The San Francisco Peaks in the west lit up with sunlight, the sky became very blue, and then, a pinpoint of orange light appeared on the horizon, and finally, the bright yellow ball of the sun rising quickly in the sky.  I offered tobacco to the four directions of the compass, and Father Sky and Mother Earth.  I was so tired that I went in the house and back to bed.  It didn’t seem possible that I could do it as a regular thing.

               I had a lot of trouble doing dawn ceremony at first, mostly because having a house with electricity, I was staying up long past sundown.  Also, there seemed to be something oddly tiring about it for some reason, completely apart from getting up too early.  This was intriguing. To me it meant there was something unusual about dawn ceremony, even more than just being a good, traditional thing to do.  I got the bright idea of cheating and doing an evening ceremony instead, but even though sunset is beautiful, I didn’t get the same sense of it packing a punch.  I got a job where I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. for a long time, which made me have to go to bed earlier.  I was buried in the middle of a big building, so I did dawn ceremony by checking my watch.  When it got to be more or less time for the sun to come up, I thought about it and thanked Creator for this new day. 

               To do a dawn ceremony, the most important thing is to have an attitude of reverence and gratitude for the gifts one has been given, no matter how small or ordinary and no matter how overshadowed by trials. Indeed, one can directly tackle pain, fear and adversity by deliberately thanking Creator for those things as well.  An appropriate prayer to say when it feels like the God of your understanding is there at dawn, looking you right in the eye, is to give thanks for the good day just past, and ask for help in living this new day in a sacred manner. 

I don’t run a lot because of orthopedic problems, but I have been out there sometimes when the sun is coming up and the road is turned in an east direction.  I think there is potential in this for great body – mind – spiritual connectedness, but I found myself very distracted by trying to see with the sun in my eyes and attempting to avoid twisting an ankle.   What I do instead is take symbolic steps toward the east as I offer cornmeal and tobacco.  It feels actually, really good.   Our Nordic Track points east, and I can see straight out the window while I’m on it.  In the interest of science, yesterday I mentally focused on the sun coming up while running on it.  I expected the experience to be pretty lame, but it wasn’t.  At the level of illogic, it felt like I was really doing something to get closer to Creator. 

               It is also important to pay attention.  When I go out of my house in the early dawn, whether I want to or not, I’m hit with the shock of Nature in all its raw reality.  This, I feel is one of the great divides between ancient peoples and the technological societies of today.  They could never get away from this.  So when I go out in the morning, I get adjusted to a reality that is not in my head, and that I wouldn’t last long in if I didn’t have systems constructed around me to provide food, water and warmth.  Gratitude is true coin.  I offer cornmeal to the directions to acknowledge the Source of these essential things by symbolically giving some of it back.

I notice what is going on out there.  Sometimes it is a fine rain which feels like a blessing from All That Is.  Sometimes it will be an elk bugling on a day when I’m feeling tired and not up to things, providing the medicine of vigor.  I’ll notice ideas that occur to me.  I started blessing everything around the area with the spirit of the eagle, including the trees, birds, structures, spirits, husband, sacred water of life deep in the ground, the neighbors, the trucks going by on the highway – everything.  I also offer a pinch of tobacco to the four directions, Father Sky and Mother Earth.  With this, I thank Great Mystery, the unfathomable beauty and complexity of Creation, for the spiritual gifts I have received that are mostly beyond my understanding and comprehension.  With all these things and paying attention day after day, I feel my connection deepen and my fears diminish.

Other ceremonial elements that one may utilize at a dawn ceremony are purification with the smoke of herbs, playing a flute, a rattle or a drum, and chanting and singing songs.  When we go out on vision quest in particular, at many times we make a micro-fire and smudge ourselves with the purifying smoke of sage, juniper, sweetgrass and copal.  None of these herbs are psychoactive.  It is our gut feeling that intoxication during ceremonies disrespects the spirits and the people around us, prevents connection with Creator, and brings spiritual development to a standstill.

               There are lots of good reasons to do a dawn ceremony: To be mindful of Creator; to deepen connection with All That Is; to ask for help for the day on a particular matter; to ask for help walking in beauty; to express profound gratitude for life and all good things; to exercise spiritual discipline; and to receive the balancing medicine of nature.  In addition, the spirits seem to like these ceremonies.  When they are around, I get a sense of invisible “snapping to.”  I don’t know exactly what the spirits and the spirit world are all about, but they give me and others endless loving assistance for which I am humbly and deeply grateful.

Dawn Ceremony Song

Rise up with the morning sun, offer prayers for all relations.  In the sacred Directions, pour out soulful affection.  When the day is new, may I walk in beauty.  As the wheel turns on, may I stay true to the One who set this fire within me.  Great Spirit, I trust you!  Great Spirit, I need you!  Great Spirit, I love you!

(Attributed to the spirits and singer/songwriter Stormie Jackson)

               Modern science tells us everything about the sun and the movements of celestial bodies.  It’s about chemical elements and gravitation.  All this knowledge we have today makes it seem as though the old ways must have resulted from ignorance.  For a long time I couldn’t reconcile them.  Now I can see that these two ways of seeing things go together in harmony – the entire marvel of Creator and Creation.   Available to me at that moment of dawn, when I feel like I’m looking into the face of Other, I can therefore permit myself the profound joy of awe.  It makes me want to honor the situation and do a ceremony.