Sweat Lodge

Over the last few years the idea of building a sweat lodge has been creeping in and out of my mind. It started with wanting a detox room... a sauna, and progressed into a sort of experimental archaeology. Although I used a shovel, granite, and river cane, and have no idea if the indigenous peoples that occupied the land around the Coosawattee river were making these ceremonial saunas, I have nevertheless found it fun to fashion my lodge from the cane that still grows along the banks of this river.

I need to do more research, but for right now it's all a work in progress.

Let me give you a little information about sweat lodges.

They were typically used by Native Americans for ceremonial detoxification purposes of cleansing the body, mind, and spirit. They are usually six feet in diameter and five feet high. Granite is heated in an exterior fire and brought into the lodge to be placed into a pit. Water is then poured on the rocks to create steam. Depending on the person, one can stay in the lodge for hours. The door faces east, the direction of the rising sun. There are many more ceremonial practices involved in the creation and implementation of the sweat lodge. You really should look this stuff up... but for now:

I'm simply here to show you my process. I think this is going to be awesome considering I have stopped smoking cigarettes... this will be a great way to detoxify my mind and body. But I will not have a lodge leader, etc. And I will not be chanting or performing any other Native American religious rituals.



So, first things first, I chose a spot located next to a larger fire pit. It was important to position the lodge close to this fire pit as I will be carrying the hot granite rocks from the original fire, into the lodge.

I also chose a flat spot so that others who sat in the lodge would not be rolling down hills, etc.




I dug a pit that was big enough to support the granite rocks, but not so large that it would consume the entire lodge. The digging process was kind of hard because I had to dig through roots.



Then I buried the cane at angles so that they will not come out of the ground once they have been tied together. I also went ahead and bent the canes into each other so that when the fresh canes dry they will have been bent into position. This is the back of the lodge.



This is the interior fire. I lined the pit in granite for insulation, but this could be a design decision. I do not know how other fire pits are dug. I do know that granite is the rock of choice for HEATING in the EXTERIOR fire.




And this is the front. The canes have not been tied together so they do not look as "perfect" as they will once they are together and covered.



This is my hand after all that work!! I don't wear gloves.

So. All I have to do now is cover the thing, put down some mats, and heat some granite. In no time I will have created my own sweat lodge from rudimentary materials. Spas? Bullshit!!!!