Indian camp

The Argentinian shaman has arrived with his assistant to conduct a North American plains Indian sweatlodge ceremony for a personal development group that has coughed up some hard cash for the event.
First we must build the ceremonial lodge. We chop down a dozen willowy saplings and plant them regularly around the circumference of a circle, with offerings of tobacco in each hole. Then we bend opposing poles to the centre and whip them together with twine, (for everything must be organic,) until they have formed a star enclosing a square in the centre. The whole is covered in a dozen, brown, woolen blankets reminiscent of army ones.
A hole is dug about 15 inches into the floor ready to receive stones heated on a large open fire 3 metres distant. In line with the door and the fire a small rock pile forms an altar, where the ceremonial tobacco pipe should be but isnt as this would be politically incorrect in the atmosphere of CentroAnidra.
The shaman invites us to attend but it does not seem appropriate to crash someone elses party when they have paid for it. Instead, I catch glimpses of half naked (for this is Roman Catholic Italy, and traditioinal nudity would be unseemly,) figures chanting in circles before entering the lodge circulating a number of times and slipping out covered in sweat.
Afterwards all the participants seemed happy.Read more