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What is amatl?

Inipi

Inipi is an ancient, Native American purification ceremony. Inipi requires many stones to be heated outside of the dwelling and usually seven rocks are carefully placed inside for each prayer session.  According to Bruchac (1993), there are two kinds of inipi in North America, one is a dry and the other is steam however, both require a somewhat permanent structure for most natives in California.  This structure is built with wooden poles that create a dome shape strong enough to be covered by layers of blankets. The inipi ritual is called inikagapi: i meaning of, ni meaning life breath and kagapi meaning they make cause.  The ritual is held in a “sweat lodge” or oinikage: o meaning in and inkage also called initipi from ini meaning ‘take a vapor bath’ and tipi meaning dwelling (as cited in Bucko, 1999).  The red hot stones that enter the lodge during ceremony represent the ancient ones who have passed on and now reside in the stones of the earth.  As water is poured, the steam from the stones allow one to reconnect to the earth and speak to and the heart as well as to give thanks and pray for one’s relatives in the universe.

Tlazohcamati: Thank You

Tletl: Fire

Ehecatl: 1. Wind, air. 2. God of wind.

Tepetl, Altepetl:

Tepetl is related to the word altepetl, which literally means “water hill” (Lockhart, 1994).  Altepetl is also used to describe a community kingdom and may encompass a broader meaning with regards to community and its people (Boone, 2000:53).  James Lockhart (1994) proclaimed that names of altepetl are not toponyms because they do not necessarily name geographic features.  Therefore, altepetl may also refer to towns and ceremonial centers and even the spiritual nature of “place” or the home of a deity. However, by 1615, almost a hundred years later, the tepetl icon almost disappears entirely from Mesoamerican cartography, implicating possible cultural and religious suppression by missionaries (Aguilar, 2003:161).

Temazcal:

Temazcalli or Temazcal steam baths were common practice in almost every Aztec household before the Spanish conquest. (Aguilar, 2006:53) The azteca temazcal or Mayan zampul-che was made as a permanent structure lined with stones and tile, however today they are usually made of stone or adobe brick (Bruchac, 1993).  The fire is built outside against a shared adjacent wall.  Inside the temazcal, water is usually poured onto the wall with herbs to create steam. Mesoamericans also used temazcal to help in birthing; a practice that is very rare today (Huber & Sandstrom, 2001:146).