SACRED CERAMONIES FOR A PRICE

We believe American Indian spiritual beliefs and practice 

cannot be bartered or sold at any price.

It costs nothing to enter the Sacred Circle because it does not belong to anyone, it is a gift of the Creator.  There is no admission fee to a Purification Lodge because the messages, visions and teachings of the lodge are not owned by a human, but come directly from the Great Mystery.  There is no monetary price to pay for the honor of going on a Vision Quest because the Spirit of God is there.  When money and greed are present, the Spirit of the Creator is absent and thus there cannot be a Vision.  The spiritual connection has been broken.

Several years ago, this Manataka member wrote in the article False Shamans  "...Our ceremonies, dances, songs and symbols are sacred.  They must be protected from theft, exploitation and desecration.  We should encourage all people to seek their own ways of spiritual expression, the ways of their ancestors, and not to use American Indian ways to find spirituality within themselves..." 

Our belief has not changed nor is it in danger of being compromised after many years of bombardment and assault from those who wish to imitate American Indian spiritual ways, and by others of mainstream society who simply do not understand.  Most of these people who try to justify "voluntary donations" or an "abundance exchange" and otherwise attempt to force the acceptance of money in trade for ceremonies are intelligent and otherwise caring individuals. Yet, they find our very simple philosophy difficult to understand.  It may be greed that clouds their thinking, or it may be a lack of respect for the beliefs of others or a lackadaisical attitude toward anything not born in Eurocentric thinking.  We do not know why they find it hard to understand that accepting money for sacred ceremonies is not acceptable -- regardless of how it is arranged, how it is worded, or how it is accomplished.  Could it be they do not care to take the time or make the sacrifice necessary to comprehend the depth and breath of this ancient philosophy? 

Our ceremonies are sacred.  We do not own them.  The messages, visions, healings, insights, teachings and miracles given during ceremonies do not originate from the human psychic or even the human soul, they come only by the grace of God -- the Creator of All Things.  We cannot sell that which does not belong to us.  The act of accepting money in exchange for sacred ceremonies is an admission the person conducting the ceremony owns it and thus what happens is not born by the grace of God.