Pipe Ceremony 2012 or a Fire Yagna

Not sure just yet whether we’ll be having a Fire Yagna or a Pipe for our 37th annual retreat. Will keep you posted.

The pipe was so wonderful in 2011 that we are hoping Brent Titcomb will lead us again in 2012. The Pipe ceremony has all the same elements of the fire yagna that we have done for 36 years from the Native peoples. Brent Titcomb is a non-native who has practiced ‘The Way of the Pipe’ for over 30yrs. and has conducted Pipe Ceremonies for 25 yrs. He feels truly blessed to have known and be taught by Sam Osawamick, an Odawa Elder, for 15 yrs. It was Sam who recognized Brent as one who should carry a Pipe and blessed him for that purpose.
Brent believes Pipe Ceremonies can be non-denominational. In the Ceremonial circle, Sacred space is created, in which we can all commune with our Maker in whatever language and belief system we may have. Through honesty, surrender and dwelling in the Presence
together….Pipe Ceremonies can be very healing and powerful.

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Every year we perform a yagna ceremony which is from the tantra yoga tradition. If the weather is dry we do a fire yagna outside & if it is rainy and wet – we do a mantra yagna in the tent. Chanting (kirtan), prayers, mantras, pranayam (breathing exercises), meditations all help to make for a powerful experience and a wonderful culmination of the yoga weekend. To attend the yagna, everyone is asked to please wear clean clothes and to have a shower beforehand.

Absolutely everything in the ritual of yagna is highly symbolic and it is an austerity or ‘tapas’ to attend a full yagna. Usually they last 1.5 hours to 2 hours in length. At the end of the yagna, arati a ceremony of lights is performed, and a small feast of kheer(Indian rice pudding) and other treats, is enjoyed by all.

Mantra Yagna Mound.