Dearly Beloveds & Friends, cherished Reader,
This year, together with Oana-Sophia I once again traveled to the sacred lands of my Blackfeet sisters and brothers in Montana (US), joining them in a season of ceremonies across the summer - including a deeply traditional, non-commercial Pow-Wow (one of the very few still held in its original form, of which I will report you in our Soul-Letter next week) and a rare Sacred Pipe Handover Ceremony. It is this powerful moment I wish to share with you today. I invite you into the sacred circle - a space of reciprocity, prayer, and divine connection.
On August 14th, 2025, the Sacred Pipe Handover Ceremony was held at Chief Mountain - the most sacred site of the Blackfeet in the US and the Blackfoot in Canada. In respect of the Elders and their sacred tradions, I do not mention their names.
Today, I would like to offer you a glimpse into the background, the deeper meaning, and the role of the sacred pipe - so often misunderstood, especially in Western culture.
There are some traditions so ancient and so deeply woven into the fabric of humanity that they feel less like "rituals" and more like the memory of who we truly are. Among the Plains Nations, including the Blackfeet, one of these is the sacred pipe - often called the "peace pipe," though its meaning runs far deeper.
The sacred pipe-often called the "peace pipe” is far more than a ceremonial object. In Lakota, the act of pipe smoking is called wacȟékiye, the same word used for prayer. The smoke is understood as the messenger carrying offerings to the Great Mystery, linking all dimensions of existence.
Black Elk once said:
Most people call it a 'peace pipe,' yet now there is no peace on earth... Perhaps through our sacred pipe, peace may come to those peoples who can understand - an understanding of the heart, not the head alone.
To hold the pipe is to hold a living prayer. Its bowl, carved from the earth, is the heart of the world. The stem, straight and true, is the breath of life. Together, they unite the elements - earth, air, fire, water, and spirit - into one. When the sacred tobacco, “Abastan”, burns, the rising smoke becomes a bridge between worlds, carrying our intentions to the Great Mystery. Tobacco here is not casual - it is medicine, a holy offering, gifted back to the unseen realms in gratitude.
The pipe does not remain in one pair of hands. It moves in a circle, each person taking it in turn, not merely to smoke but to join their breath and prayer with the whole. In this way, the circle becomes one being - mitakuye oyasin, "all are relatives" - humans, animals, plants, winds, waters, and ancestors. The pipe reminds us that life itself is ceremony, and in the circle, no one stands above another.
There are ceremonies in which the pipe is formally handed over - a sacred transfer that carries with it not only an object, but the responsibility, prayers, and blessings of generations. When it is lit, the keeper touches it to the four directions, to the sky, and to the earth, acknowledging the web of life. When the circle is complete, the ashes are returned to the soil, closing the prayer as it began - in reverence.
And in the words of Crow elder Yellowtail:
With this sacred pipe you will walk upon the Earth; for the Earth is your Grandmother and Mother... all things of the universe are joined to you who smoke the pipe.
May we remember that the sacred pipe is more than an artifact of the past - it is a living reminder that our breath, our prayers, and our lives are part of a single, unbroken circle. And that the peace it represents begins within us, with each conscious breath, and radiates outward into the great hoop of all our relations.
With reverence,
Unyah!
Bear Saorin
or as the Blackfeet adopted me with “Natosi Kyi-yoo” (The Bear of Light / Sun-Bear)
& The One Mind Team
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