The Traditional Anishinaabe World View.pdf

The Universe of The Ojibwe Anishinaabeg by Zhaawano Giizhik - 2014
Above: Birch bark inscriptions of Midewiwin, enabling the memorization of complex ideas. The most well-known birch bark
sacred writings are called the Order of Songs. Secretly, these sacred writings were usually translated and discussed among the
priests and medicine people in the Midewiwin Lodge. Sacred icons were also conceptualized in pictographs or petroforms found
in locations where the sky, earth, water, the underground, and the underwater meet. This is where the manidoog (spirits or
mysteries) reside. In Whiteshell, Manitoba, there is a location known as Manitou-abi that translates to ‘where the Spirit sits’.
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After a four-day period of fasting and praying and cleansing in a purification lodge,
followed by four ceremonial processions around the rectangular Midewigaan (during
which the candidate member encounters two groups of four contrary-bears), the priests
and novice enter through the eastern entrance and file into the sacred enclosure. By
having “withstanding” the forces of evil represented by the evil bears the novice’s
entering the Midewigaan’s inner sanctum symbolizes his or her triumph of good over evil,
and the promise of a new and better way of life. After the singing of chants by the
candidate, and the chanting of songs of welcome by the assembled priests, the candidate
sits down for a series of tests through which he (or she) demonstrates his (or her)
integrity and knowledge of plants.
Then the head priest symbolically “shoots” the nominee with the midemiigisag (sacred
shells), which represent a return to bimaadiziwin (a good way of life), in order for him (or
her) to find accomplishment and to recommence purpose and determination.
After this the Mide priest arouses the “corpse” from “death” with the breath of life. In this
dramatic fashion the candidate, once revived by the breath of life, is reminded of the fact
that, only through the death of his teacher Ode’imin, his student and successor had been
able to really enlarge (and put to good use) his inner curative powers that would be to
the benefit of his People …
Besides the Wiikindiwin or initiation rite, there are at least five other ceremonies of the
Midewiwin constructed around elements such as the Tree of Life, the Mide offerings and
sacred birchbark scrolls, the fire, the sacred pipe, the totems of the animals and effigies
of the spirit- grandfathers, the Mide drum and rattles, and, perhaps the most sanctified
objects of all: the little yet omnipresent Midemiigisag. Although the subject matter of the
ceremonies is diverse and there are minor variations in different areas of Anishinaabe
Aki, always the same ritual elements pervade. In outline, a ceremony will always be
conducted as described in the following.
After a four days’ time of fasting and praying and purification, four processions are held
around the rectangular Midewigaan. The reason for this is that, since GICHI-MANIDOO
caused everything in the universe to be in fours, the ancestors decided that mankind
should also do everything possible in fours.
The Universe of The Ojibwe Anishinaabeg by Zhaawano Giizhik - 2014
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