The Potlatch has come and gone and everyone had a great time. There was gifting, singing, dancing, story telling, testimonials, lots of food. Neighboring clans came. Being farmers, our gift was a truck full of root vegetables. The welcoming Grand Chief appreciated our offering, but that didn’t stop him from saying, ‘I said Potlatch, not Potluck’, which got everyone laughing and set the tone for the rest of the ceremony.

Like I say, everything was great and at the end, they held the initiation ceremony for me and the boys. It was held on the last night, and was like an event all to itself. On the day of the ceremony, Raven and his buddies set up a huge tent beside the Big House.

Raven comes up to us and says, ‘We’ll hold the ceremony there’.

‘Damn, that’s a big tent’, Andy remarked. ‘What do you call it’?

‘The big tent,’ Raven said.

‘Very wise,’ Andy replied, nodding and putting this little fact away for the next time he had a chance to tell someone something about the tents.

‘The ceremony will begin in the potlatch, where we gift you your ceremonial masks’.

‘What’s our spirit animal?’ I asked.

‘The coyote’, Raven answered.

‘Why the coyote’, Jason asked.

‘Because you’re too stupid to be a fox’.

Bubba laughed at that.

‘Once you’re given your masks,’ Raven continued. ‘we’ll lead you into the tent, where we’ll drink the Ayahuasca, dance and greet our spirit ancestors. Afterwards, we’ll end with a special smudging ceremony we’ve prepared for you’.

‘Why’s it special’, Andy asked.

‘Because we’ll be calling your ancestors, not just our territorial ancestors’.

‘Ah! Okay,’ Andy replied. ‘Now it’s starting to make sense’.

So, the time for the ceremony arrived and we’re led into the Big House. Everyone was in there waiting and cheering us as we entered. Once inside, we were taken to the masks which were placed on altar-like display stands. They were the elaborate and beautifully carved transformative masks of the people of this region. I have to admit, I was surprised they would go through so much effort for us four shed dwellers, but of course the masks were intended for the commune, not just us. The ceremony symbolized a much closer relationship with the First Nation.

Next they had us undress in front of the whole gathering. Bubba gave me a look like he wasn’t really buying this as a necessary part of the ceremony. If you were thinking there was anything sacred to our undressing in front of the crowd, you’d be wrong. They very quickly broke out into laughter, quite possibly led by Leita, Kate and Tasha, all of whom were doubled over and holding their sides. To make matters worse, kids chased and taunted us as we were being led into the tent while covering our junk. They even threw firecrackers at our feet causing us to dance a jig while cupping our balls. Going in a boy, coming out a man, right?

Inside the tent, was a different matter altogether. In the center was a great fire, with smoke rising to an opening at its top. In an area along the edge of the tent, were four small fires with the coals glowing red. In front of the smaller fire was a similar fire, only bigger. We sat down, each of us beside one of the small fires, and Raven and the clan members sat around the bigger one. We were brought the Ayahuasca.

‘We will drink to our ancestors and call for them to join us,’ said the spiritual leader who would guide us through the experience, and happened to be Raven.

‘So when you’re dancing,’ Raven continued. ‘If you have to puke, there’s bowls around for that. Don’t just puke on the ground where everyone will step in it.

‘Our dance and the rhythm of the drum will cause our ancestors to be curious,’ he continued. ‘They will come and fill the tent with their spirit, and we will spend time with them, and learn the secrets of their world’.

Then a low primal drum started beating; boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom boom. Raven stood up and started a simple dance toward the great fire, calling to his ancestors in a howling chant, and moving in rhythm with the beating drum. The rest of us followed.

When you’re high on Ayahuasca and dancing and chanting to the beat of an earthy drum, things get surreal fast. You get lost in the fire and the other’s around you. You’re transported to another world. It’s primal and spiritual at the same time, taking you back to before we walked as humans. The spirit comes through the steady beat of the drum, the fire, the dance, and the chanting. It’s pure, and it fills you. You become part of a timeless order. You become one with the pulse of the drum.

Then the chanting and dancing stops, but the beat of the drum continues; boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom boom, and out of the shadows comes a lone dancer wearing the mask of the deer. The deer looks around. He looks up and down, and moves to a new position and looks again. With one final look he sees he’s not at home and he knows what must be done. He slowly swirls around in a circle, and when he reappears, his face is now the face of man looking onto the new world with awe and wonder. It is the creation story, and you are a part of it. You are the pulse of the drum. You too, stare upon this new world with awe and wonder.

Very few cultures tell the creation story as well. It’s visual, physical, interactive and provides you with perspective on the evolutionary moment in our history. It moves you to the part of the world which is not temporal, but everything and you experience it all. The awe, wonder and mystery that comes out of an artful dancer and the west coast transformative mask, cannot be matched. It captures you, and places you right at the intersection of life.

This is the ‘wow’ moment of the Ayahuasca trip. You’re kind of stuck there in stasis, taking it all in. Time stops as you watch and experience the never ending story of life, and God. For several moments you stand bewildered, just like the dancer as you look out into the New World. The insight comes and goes quickly, but when you’re there, there is no time or place, just the thought that lives inside all of us. You’ve connected with the other side. For a moment, just like the dancer, you are part of the awe and wonder. You stay there long enough to look around, and then you come back. You’re yourself again; no longer part of everything, but you were and know it to be real.

With this vibe, you find a place to sit and think about the majesty of it all. At least that’s what Bubba and I did. We both returned to our fires, and whenever I looked over at him, he was completely lost in himself, just staring off into space. Maybe his spirit animal had come to him, and maybe mine would come to me.

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As the drum continued to pound, I focused on finding my spirit animal. I stared into the glowing embers of the fire, and an animal did come to me. It was a hawk of some sort. I looked at it, and it looked at me, tilting its head to see me from all angles. Then we flew off together, high over the Potlatch, and I saw Leita, and then Grand Chief Dan and Dr. Yamamoto. Seated between them in the place of honor was Tara.

The hawk left me then, and I knew my experience was over. It was time to reflect and I wondered what I had just been told. My thoughts turned to Tara. Throughout the Potlatch I had seen her around, and the interesting thing I saw but didn’t notice at the time, was the indigenous people’s response to her. There was none. That's what I remembered. It was like she was part of the clan. She was accepted like when someone bumps into you, but you take no notice because it’s your little sister playing. She’s part of the family, and you don’t give her a second thought. Tara is not a clan member. She’s part of the commune and try as we might, none of the rest of us have been able to establish such a bond with our neighbors, except maybe Doc. Somehow the indigenous people knew though, all of them. Tara was part of their family. If they thought about it long enough, they would know she was from the spirit part, but they don’t care to think in those terms. She’s just a sister or auntie to them and accepted as such.

That was my experience and it gave me lots to think about. The other’s will have to tell you their own experience, but like I say, Bubba was tripping balls, so I bet he has lots to say about it. As far as I remember, Andy just jumped up and down like he thought he was from the Maasai tribe, with his dingus flopping up and down. I don’t know what was going on with Jason. It looked like he was trying his best to become a werewolf, and was kind of loping around on all fours. Once in a while, he’d spy someone, and run up to them and either growl, or try to hump them. It kind of ruined things a little, as people were having to kick at him to defend themselves.

Finally, the drumming stopped and Andy and Jason were guided back and seated by their little fires.

‘We will now conduct the smudging ceremony.’ Raven said. ‘This is a special smudging and we will use these ancient plates made by my people and forged with their own hands’.

To be honest, they looked like those gold mining plates you buy made out of copper, but when you’re busy in the middle of a ceremony, you hardly take notice of such things.

‘Hold the plates over your fire while we sprinkle sacred herbs upon the coals,’ he said, sprinkling herbs on his fire and we followed suit with the herbs we found beside our fires. The herbs produced a thick gray smoke. ‘These are the spirits leaving us. The herbs will provide them nourishment for their journey home’.

The drum started pounding again. First slowly, but the tempo increased unnoticed over the span of the rest of the ceremony.

‘Get right in there with your plates. The plate is the symbol of your offering nourishment.

‘Rub first your right hand and then your left under the plate to show the spirit the food is not too hot’.

‘Now, set down your plates’, Raven said, ‘and hold up your hands in praise to the spirits leaving you and returning to their home. As you watch the spirits leave, you’re saddened. You cup your hands to your face to show your sorrow and anguish. That’s it. Rub it in good, and get your body. Rub your body too. Rub it all over your face and body. Get your arms, your chest, your legs. That’s right. You’re showing the spirits your anguish for leaving.

‘This isn’t like any smudging I’ve ever heard of,’ Bubba commented.

‘Shh, someone says.

The good news is, you can turn any ceremony into something spiritual when a second wave of Ayahuasca hits you, we overlooked any mistakes Raven made with the smudging, and were once again lifted into euphoria. I looked at my arms and hands covered in soot. It was mixed with my sweat, A kind of sweat you’d get in a sauna. My whole body was sweaty, and the soot mixed with it and looked greasy.

I don’t know. For some reason the whole thing seemed like another big spiritual message for me. Kind of like I was interacting with death or something, You know, ashes to ashes, and I had all these ashes rubbed all over my body. I kind of felt I was living through death, and thought maybe I should roar or something to acknowledge it.

‘That’s right Jason,’ Raven called, interrupting my thought. ‘Get in there and get some more smoke offerings. Throw some more herbs on his fire Danny’.

Everyone watched as Jason gave himself another good rub down, growling and gnashing his way through the entire performance, then Raven shouted, ‘Now!’ and the drumming stopped. ‘It is time for you to become men in this world you now understand’.

Danny walks up to him with what almost looked like a handful of snakes from a distance. It turned out it was just a bunch of leather thongs. We didn’t notice they had barbed hooks made of bone tied to one end until Raven pulled one out and showed it to us over the fire.

‘To prove to your spirit ancestors you are worthy of their acceptance, you will hang by the flesh of your chest until you break free of these barbs. Once you do, you will walk with your ancestors’.

With that, the First Nations guys set to work and brought out these huge poles that the rest of us hadn’t even noticed, which were alongside the wall of the tent. They secured them into equally huge stands around the fire. The whole works of them were happy as hell, setting about their task, smiling and nodding encouragement to us as they measured us up for the barbs.

Bubba walks up to me. ‘What is going on here’?

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘It looks like they’re planning to hang us off those poles’.

We looked over at Raven. He was intently pouring water over each thong and then checking it for its tautness.

‘Come on,’ Bubba said. ‘This is some kind of joke.’

‘You think so? Look at those poles. Who would have poles like that unless they hung people from them on a regular basis? I think this is real. Everything sure looks real to me’.

‘Yeah it does’ Bubba replied. ‘I say we make a run for it while they’re distracted’.

‘What?’

‘Let’s get out of here. I don’t need to be hanging from my tits to know I’m a man. Let’s bounce’.

‘What about Andy and Jason’?

‘Fuck em. Let’s go’ and with those words we turned and headed for the tent opening. Jason and Andy must have been watching us for a cue, because as soon as we made our move, they were right behind us.

The closer we got to the door, the faster we moved, but we weren’t noticed by our indigenous friends. They were intent on getting those straps just right for us. With one last look to make sure our escape hadn’t been detected, we jumped out of the tent and into freedom. Only to be greeted by the entire Potlatch who were sitting out there waiting for us.

The whole works of them were sitting outside the tent, seated on folding chairs, lined up in rows, like they were about to watch Shakespeare in the park. They even flipped on flood lights when we emerged, so it looked like we were passing through the curtains and onto a stage; naked and covered by soot from head to toe.

Well, if I gave you the impression the four of us standing naked in the Big House was the funniest thing the participants of the Potlatch had seen that night, I was misleading you. Laugh. I’ve never heard people laugh so hard or for so long. Everyone of them had their cellphones out and were recording us. You can see it on YouTube if you look.

The whole smudging thing was a big elaborate, initiation joke. I think the kids call it hazing these days. Raven and his friends spent weeks planning and building the things needed to pull off the prank. They had to get permission from the chief who under no circumstances would allow them to hold ‘their’ ceremony in the big house, or any other sanctified building. So they went and found a tent. Then they carved up those four huge poles, built the stands, and did all the other stuff all for one stupid prank. It was a pretty good prank though.

Bubba likens the prank as just another part of the creation story. It was Raven’s way of showing his people he was capable. The planning. The cunning. The leadership and composure to pull off such a grand deception. Whatever. I still got an experience that stays with me. All I know is Raven and his friends took us somewhere else, and gave us a night we won’t forget.

Aboriginal tradition is full of stories warning you to beware of the trickster Raven. I guess we should have paid closer attention to him. Still, the Potlatch was a rousing success, and ended on a high note. Our gifted transformative masks are now mounted proudly in our new Big House. Still, the moral of this story is beware of the Raven.