In the way I was taught, most everything about a traditional Lakota spiritual lifestyle and ceremonies are about balance.
When I was much younger, there were spiritual interpreters and healers that served the people with the resources they had on hand. That was the responsibility they accepted. If someone came to their door and needed food, they gave it away, even if it meant they would go without. If someone needed a healing ceremony, and they didn't have enough wood for a fire to heat stones for a sweatlodge ceremony, they would break apart some wooden furniture to create the firewood needed.
I was taught that true traditional healers give all they have, with no expectation for anything in return. However, in many traditional Lakota ways, there is a cultural value that no one goes without. Therefore, since it was known that spiritual interpreters and healers would be giving all they had to benefit "the people", including the gift of the knowledge and abilities they are provided by the spirits to help heal, the community looks after them and sees to their needs. This is why when I was younger, if a person asked a healer to do a healing ceremony, then the person who asked would have provided the food, the wood, and whatever else they were capable of providing, to lessen the burden of the healer, and restore balance.
The extended family of the person who asked for a healing ceremony, would then pool their resources to help out also. Sometimes this would have been in supplying food, water, wood, pots & pans, sometimes it was the labor to cook the food, and sometimes it was just being there to help pray.
The point is, that in the old days, it was my experience that spiritual interpreters and healers would never ask for anything. Usually, "the spirits" would not continue to work with healers if they did. It was up to the community to provide what was needed, if they could, because they knew it was the right and traditional way to do so.
Frequently, people in the community would just stop in to visit healers, spiritual interpreters and elders, to bring groceries, because these people were providing a service to the community, and to give-away to them helps to restore the balance.
If there was a time when a healer was needed to travel some distance, the person asking for his help would frequently pay for his gas, or go and get him, and bring him back. Again, not as a requirement, or a request from the healer, but as a traditional way of helping out and restoring balance.
When a healer has performed a service, say a healing ceremony is done and the person gets well, a traditional healer does not expect, nor does he ask for any compensation. However, if someone you loved was dying, and they were returned to good health, what would it be worth to you? Would it be right to accept the healing and walk away, or would you give something of equal value?
Unfortunately today, many do not know the full extent of the traditional ways of doing things. They expect to be served by spiritual interpreters or healers without restoring the balance and giving something back. Reciprocity is not taught as much anymore, partly because the sense of community has deteriorated.
Hiya
I do like your post.
I'd like to contribute this: in Reiki we are taught of the principle of exchange, one of the myths about Dr Usui is that he gave healing in the Beggar City for 7 years, until he noticed that he was healing people who would then go away, but then they would come back to be healed of the same things again. From this he deduced that people need to participate in their own healing, and that this can be done by exchange.
In our society the principle of exchange is mediated by money: we exchange cash for goods or services. We also have systems of barter, which mean goods and services can be swopped or exchanged for virtual money. One such is Bartercard, which is worldwide.
The idea that spiritual healing should be free violates this principle of exchange, and we should try and refute this idea if we can. I'm not just saying this because I make a living out of providing such a service, but we need to make sure that the spiritual principles - such as reciprocity - are perpetuated.
"we need to make sure that the spiritual principles - such as reciprocity - are perpetuated."
I agree with this. Reciprocity is a cultural-based tradition which only works when the majority of people in any given culture, recognize it and follow it.
I like this post Historian,my best friend is Lakota and this is so true x
thank you for sharing this..x