Medicine Bags are a container for your portable living altar. Meditate with them. Fill it with your intent. The reasons to carry a medicine bag are for guidance, healing and protection. By wearing it close to your heart, you are connecting with your spiritual self and always remembering who you are. Sleep with the bag under your pillow if at all possible. Your medicine bag is a holy item and should never be opened by anyone else.

The contents of a medicine bag can change over time. Items no longer needed can be discarded or passed on to someone else. New items may be added. Added items are those that you have a special attraction to or resonance with. The essence of these special items creates an energy that represents you.

Wear it until it needs to be replaced. If you should pass away, it's a good idea to have your medicine pouch buried with you. You can give your medicine pouch away, but you must also pass along the stories that go along with the items that are within.

MEDICINE ITEMS

Objects should include representatives from the following kingdoms:

1. Plant: Plant, leaf, bark, wood, or root.

2. Mineral: Crystals, minerals, rocks or stones.

3. Animal: Feathers, claws, fur, skull, especially something that represents your power animal.

4. Technology: Computer chips.

I typically fill medicine bags with the following:

Bird Feather – Symbol of spirit & flight, message between heaven & earth

Bell – Used to dispel evil spirits & ward off evil eye

Pine Cone – Symbol of growth

Arrowhead – Represents the masculine, the Peaceful Warrior with martial readiness & alertness.

Shells – Represent the feminine. The cowrie shell is used in divination in many cultures.

Tarot Card – Symbol of your energy.

Crystal – For clarity, spiritual attunement, & solidity. The amethyst is the gay quartz that helps amplify the 3^rd eye and psychic ability.

Tobacco – Sacred offering to the Spirits. Amplifies prayers, introduces sacred spirit, provides healing and purification and allows communication with spirits

Sage - Clears and purifies sacred spaces. Drives out evil spirits, negative thoughts and feelings, and to keeps negative entities away.

Sweetgrass - Bring positive energy in after negative energies are banished by using sage, to call spirits, ancestors, and spirit helpers.

Cornmeal – Offering for protection and abundance.

Cedar – Attracts good influences. Purifies, protects, cleanses, grounds, balances, heals, calms, comforts, and decreases negativity.

Rosemary – Protects against evil and cleanses.

Beans – For nurture & nutrition.

Corn – For harvest, abundance, fertility, & blessing.

Squash Seeds – The 3^rd of the 3 Sisters. The 3 sisters are the principle crops of Native Americans. Iroquois legend says that corn, beans, & squash are 3 inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together.

Sunflower Seeds – Considered the 4^th sister by many Native American tribes. Represents the sun, happiness, and growth.

MAKING THE BAG

The bag needs to be empowered. Lay all the objects and the bag itself on a table. Hold each object in your hand, close your eyes, and think about what you would like it to do. Thank it, and put it inside the bag. Do this for each item, one at a time. You can cleanse each object in the smoke of incense or sage. When the bag is filled, hold the bag in your hand, and concentrate on what it should do for you. Hold your pouch close to your heart and use your imagination and see the bag helping you in your minds eye. Then thank the animals, minerals, plants, etc. that gave of themselves so that you could have this bag. I smudge each bag with sage for cleansing & purification and charge with Reiki life force energy.