Revelation Video - Let's Talk Cedar & the 4 Sacred Medicines

It is hot in here. If you see sweat on my forehead, it's legit. But I also reviewed the last two videos I just shot and realized my little fan in the background was making a horrible buzzing noise. So hopefully that's gone this time and we can just enjoy the video. Hi everybody, my name is Sandy Boucher. If you're new here, please subscribe. I got some quality content for you. If you're in interested at all in Indigenous Canadian reconciliation, in Indigenous teachings, Indigenous worldview, even conflict resolution, you're going to find quality content here. And if you are a subscriber, hello my friend. Welcome back. Today, as I promised yesterday, I've got a Revelation video for you. Something happened last weekend that made me realize wow. And, and I think by sharing it again, you're going to get a real up front front row idea of what Indigenous worldview is like. But to explain this to you, I have to explain our four sacred medicines and why we use them. So let's talk about it. Hi everybody, my name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And I am an Indigenous Canadian reconciliation consultant. Which means I do a lot of keynotes, I give a lot of seminars and I do a lot of consulting working with amazing Indigenous and non Indigenous people. And all of us are just trying to bring this country together in a way that has never been together before. So we can take all that energy from the infighting and apply it to other areas to make sure that we all thrive instead of just barely surviving. Now I have a story to share with you. The Revelation. But as I mentioned first, I have to share with you about our four sacred medicines. They are the medicines we use in the smudge and the smudge you think of bathing yourself in the smoke. It's one of our sacred ceremonies. It's something we use before meetings to start every day to calm ourselves if we're upset. There's many, many reasons someone would smudge. So the first medicine that I want to talk about is sage. And sage is considered the cleansing medicine that'll cleanse you of those negative thoughts or your struggles or your frustrations. It is also considered the woman's medicine because when a woman's on her time each month, she doesn't go near the sacred medicines or any sacred items. And it's not because she's dirty. It's not because some guy isn't allowing her to. It's because in Anishinaabe culture, a woman on her time is more powerful than any of those sacred medicines or sacred items. And if she were to actually touch them, she would exalt, absorb the power from them, rendering them useless. So it's actually out of respect for the medicines and the items that we stay away. We are already in ceremony when we're during that time of the month. That's what we're supposed to be focusing on. But sage as the woman's medicine, because on our moon time, our body is cleansing, sage is the cleansing medicine. So during that time, women can smudge. We just use sage only. The second medicine is cedar. And cedar is the protector. I personally, from my indigenous worldview, when I'm driving around the city and I see some nice home with a cedar hedge, I smile as I think to myself, they don't even realize they've protected themselves by putting that hedge between the world and their home. Right. And one of the teachings. Shall I share this now? No, I'm going to wait till I get to the story. Well, I can mention that we are taught that if we're going to go speak in front of an audience that may not be open to hearing us, or if we have to attend a meeting that might be hostile, then we put cedar in our shoes. Just a little piece of cedar to protect us. So sage, cedar. The next one is sweet grass. And sweet grass gives us strength. If you think of the sweet grass is braided and we all know how strong a braid is, so we smudge with sweet grass too to invoke our strength as we go about our day today. And then the last one is tobacco. And tobacco is considered the messenger that the smoke is literally taking our prayers to creator. Which is why I have a problem with the modern day version of smudging in a bottle. I don't know if you've ever seen that. I've seen it way too flipping often. Convenience is not reconciliation. And I way too many times smudge in the bottle has been made so that you can smudge in areas that don't allow the smoke. You're not smud. There is no smoke. The messages are not getting anywhere. Go outside to smudge, right? Like it's not supposed to be convenient and it's not supposed to be colonized to fit a boardroom's rules. Didn't mean to go off on a rant, but that one bothers me. Like, no, hard pass. Hard, hard pass. So those are the four medicines. Sage to cleanse, cedar to protect, sweet grass for strength. Tobacco, the messenger but today I want to talk about cedar. So one of the teachings I received and one of the practices that I definitely practice is in whatever home I live in, the teaching is to put a sprig of cedar over every door and window that goes outside. And the idea is it will stop negativity from coming into your home, whether it's a negative person, whether it's the negative thoughts and gossip of someone who's talking about you, that it will not get into your life and get into your home. But this weekend, as I was working out on my treadmill, which is an amazing thing to do if you want to clear your mind and actually having inspiration come in, I find treadmill in a shower or a drive. Those are the times that I'm going to get those great ideas or the solution to a problem I've been struggling with. So I was on the treadmill, and I don't know why. I assume I saw the cedar over the window that was in front of me that I can see from my treadmill. And I realized or remembered that there are two windows in my boardroom that do not have cedar over them. I just totally forgot about those windows when I put the cedar up, because it used to be a storage room, not a boardroom. And so I never went in there. And that's my excuse. I'm sticking to it. But as it so happens. So, one, we now use that space. It's the boardroom. Two, this is the important part. Those windows overlook the back alley. And I live in an intercity area. So all of the things you imagine that happen in a back alley happen in the back alley. Many, many, many houseless people in this area. Many, many, many attempting to escape their lives or battling with addictions or both. All of that happens. Couldn't believe how many drug deals I saw going down while I was on my treadmill. But that is the nature of the area and the lives of the people that I was observing. So I realized that I didn't have cedar over those windows. And of course, my first instinct is I must put up the cedar because I don't want the negative to come in. And then I kind of smiled to myself because I thought of the people on the other side of that brick wall on the other side of those windows. And as instantly as I thought, I have to put cedar up, I thought, they're not the negatives. They are the result of way too much negativity. Their lives, their challenges, their mountains they're trying to overcome or their acquiescence. They're Giving up is all the result of way too much negativity for any human spirit to take. So I kind of smiled to myself because you know what I thought, I don't need to keep them out. They are not the problem. They're the result. And if some of my passion and positivity and hard work and prayers make it out the window to them, I don't think that's a bad thing. Just an indigenous way of looking at it. So I hope that made sense. Don't go appropriating our teachings now. If you're Anishinaabe and you these are your teachings as well, and you just forgot to do it, well, feel free to go do it. If you're not, appreciate the teaching. Don't mimic it. That's important, especially on the path to reconciliation. Now, what do I have for you tomorrow? I know what Fridays is. Oh. I've talked about internalized oppression before, several times. But this time I really want to focus in on, because I know way too many people. You know the definition, but you don't recognize it when it's right in front of your face. And we talked about the general generalities of what people battling internalized oppression, what they do. I want to take that a step further because there's a really good chance, if you're working with indigenous people, you're seeing these actions. We need to talk about that. But that's tomorrow. Until then, take care of you. I love you. Bye. Bye.