Coming Together
"We can see the pipe stem as Sky Father — that which is the absolute, unchanging, unmanifested invisible spirit. In the wheel of life and in the hub of motion, there is always stillness in the center. The center is a concentration of the power of all the directions. There is a time appropriate for each of us individually, and sometimes collectively, as families, clans, tribes, to withdraw from the wheel of motion in life and go to the center of the hub — to get centered and become focused.
"The manifested, ever-changing spirit becomes visible as nature in Mother Earth, represented by the bowl. The bowl aids in recalling to mind acceptance of change in nature: Although we are in a sea of constant flux and change, there is always warmth, order, and beauty in nature. When our lives are in harmony with other lives (our relatives), and if our will and behavior are in balance with the sustaining natural law (order) of the Creator, then we perceive and directly experience this warmth, order, and beauty of our Earth Mother.
"While Earth Mother teaches acceptance and nourishes us, Sky Father teaches transcendence and liberation, to gain release from harmful relationships, substances, and desires. When pipe smoke is breathed out by exhaling, this calls attention to that which must be released — transcended. The puffs of smoke ascend from Earth to Sky. Drawing on the pipe brings smoke into the mouth and calls attention and realization to that which in life is accepted. Thus, the inhaling and exhaling of the smoke is as the ebb and flow of life.
The Sacred Pipe and what it symbolizes are part of the Native American view of life — that the Source and center of all existence is pure spirit, existing in all created things simultaneously as Great Spirit.
"Joseph Epes Brown so powerfully states:
" 'As the pipe is filled with the sacred tobacco, prayers are offered for all the powers of the universe, and for the myriad forms of creation, each of which is represented by a grain of tobacco. . . . Indeed, in the liberation of the smoke, one is helped not only to find God's presence within, but also to realize that oneself and the world are mysteriously plunged into God.'
"Nick Black Elk once said, 'Peace . . . comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers and when they realize that at the center of the Universe dwells Wakan Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.' "
