A SACRED PIPE IS A PEACE PIPE!

A Sacred Pipe is a Peace Pipe and wherever it goes, it goes to create peace. It will show where disharmony lies and what is in the hearts of those who hold it, use it or even covet it. Sometimes the pipe’s action is subtle and may take time to eventuate and sometimes it is harsh or even accompanied by brutal acts. This however is not the pipe itself, but our reaction to the stimulus of the nature of the pipe. The pipe can invoke our pain that exists because of what is already in our hearts.

Please note, this posting is of my thoughts and insights.  I have not been instructed by any authority other than my own, and I apologise if what I write here gives cause for any grief or distress to anyone.

One day, I was contemplating a story told to me by a friend about a White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe, which, some years ago, had a change of custodian and dissent had grown around the new custodian’s fitness for the role. It was believed the pipe was being disrespected, neglected and allowed to gather dust.

Usually, a change of custodianship occurs after the new custodian is already prepared in the ways of protecting the pipe, and also following the death of the current custodian. In the case of my friend, this transfer happened shortly before the current custodian died but it was gifted without any such preparation and although from the outset the choice of custodian upset a few people, there was nothing they could do about it. As the pipe changed hands it moved to another country, yet the discord and disharmony about the situation reigned. Could it be that the new custodian was chosen for reasons beyond imagining? Was the new custodian a person who did have respect for peace and was the pipe going to bring about a change for them or their community? In fact, the pipe never left it’s people despite travelling over the seas. It remained in the hearts of the people who loved it and the problem of their dissent did not leave them.

Indeed, a pipe may even move to a new custodian to eventually create a greater peace by detecting discord and finding a way to relocate closer to that energy, seeking it out, if you will. We attribute wisdom to a sacred pipe, but it actually demands healing of discordant energy in our hearts, through actions of forgiveness, commitment to friendship everlasting, and future actions that create and respect that peace...these are all tenets that the White Buffalo Calf Pipe represents and can empower in each of us by challenging us. We may then do something to bring about peace or further highlight the discord which is so far preventing peacefulness.

I am reminded of Custer, with whom, by his own admission, there was not the intention of peace, when he accepted the pipe smoking ritual. He had no intention of actually honouring the meaning of the ceremony, even writing in his memoires about his actions, words to the effect of, if only the Indians had known what I had in my heart they truly would never have smoked the pipe with me. The pipe Custer smoked was White Buffalo Calf’s Pipe. As we remember that the White Buffalo Calf Pipe's action is to show up a lack of peacefulness at the point of intention by having that intention’s energy become truly manifest, we can understand that this is what led Custer to war, just as it can similarly lead anyone who comes into contact with the pipe and who is not true, into trouble.

The White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe which Custer smoked, was protected in sage, not simply to keep it clear of lower energies. Was the pipe insulated in sage because it was so powerful that it had to be kept away from the other tribes-people, who could from time to time become impure? If that impurity would surely manifest and bring about troubles between the people of the community and even outside the tribe, with other tribes, then the wisdom of the custodian was to preserve the best peace possible by protecting his own people from suspecting the power of the pipe.

Being a custodian of the pipe could encumber one with the care of many people at whatever level of consciousness they were, as well as of the peace. The sacred pipe custodianship is a critical role in a peaceful community, which could demand such commitment from the custodian for their entire life. The secrets of the custodianship were so important that they were not fully shared with anyone, not even with the custodians family members and perhaps with the Medicine Man, who had the capacity to understand the dynamics of the role.

The sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe was considered so powerful that it was kept hanging within its own tent, which was only entered by the custodian and perhaps close family members being groomed into future custodianship. At any rate, the whole family of the custodian shared the custodianship to some degree and had great respect for the protection of the pipe, which meant more than life itself.

Contact with the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe may have lifted a veil between dimensions, and the un-truth of this world, once made manifest, would be in contrast with the heavenly world, where the existence of such duality is impossible and lower energies are eradicated. In the realm of lower energetics, the purpose of the arising trouble is to show what our reservations may be, so that we may work to resolve dishonesty, fear, jealousy, envy and so on, and for this work, we may need guidance in order to overcome our concerns, which can at times may seem so great to us that we cannot overcome them alone.

The pipe is a sacred object that must be approached in the rightful manner. It could be said that the white man has not understood the dual aspect of the sacred pipe's action, partly because their tradition is not to embrace the negative and by negative I simply mean the opposite, diametrically opposed energy, of that positive. Surely, this is a wisdom that a traditional custodian of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe would know, but which wouldn't be discussed openly with those who may be affected, a Medicine Man being the exception because to discuss it openly could cause a kind of hysteria to ensue. If people do not understand the dual nature of the pipe and mistake the pipe itself for a cause or source of evil, there could develop a generalised fearful suspicion of the object and it's keeper and their family, who are most necessary in maintaining the pipe, it’s ritual and ceremony.

It is better that things are dealt with in the house where understanding also resides, as passed on by the tradition of the bearing of the custodianship. For the custodian, knowing the dual nature power of the White Buffalo Calf Woman pipe, imagine the emphasis on keeping themselves pure! What a task! So, the pipe can stir up trouble to bring about eventual peace but it is not an object of evil, it simply manifests the unrecognised discord that already exists within us, doing so through challenge. Bearing a peace pipe is an opportunity to be strong in the knowledge that the pipe wants for the resolution of un-manifest peace for us and will help us to achieve it.

It's worth remembering, ceremonially, from any location, you may smoke the peace pipe with anyone! The sacred pipe knows your intention as truly as you do.