The Eagle Dance is a one day ceremony in which the participants dance to the “Tree of Life” with the intent of manifesting Health, Prosperity and Abundance for Self, Life and Others.  A tree is chosen to represent the sacred “Tree of Life,” around which a huge medicine wheel is constructed.  The tree is a symbol of the Source, the eternal light from which all consciousness, life and movement emerge.   The medicine wheel is the zero surrounding the Source.  “The Zero is Holy. - - - From the Eternal, which is Time, and from all Energies, which are Space, all of everything was born from the Zero. - - - The womb of creation is the Sacred Zero.”  (Hyemeyohsts Storm, Lightning Bolt.  Additional information on the medicine wheel can be found in Storm's book, Seven Arrows.)

"Eagle . . . Fly high, Touch Great Spirit.

Share your medicine, Touch me, honor me, So that I may know you too."

Jamie Sands, author of Medicine Cards and 
Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours

The dancers surround the periphery of the medicine wheel until they sense the cogent call of Spirit from the Source Tree.  The ceremonial drum sounds, emitting a continuous, hypnotic beat while voices echo chants reflecting the birth and growth of creation. Ancestral drums awaken, merging with the hearbeat of Grandmother Earth. Dancers in bright-colored ceremonial attire feel the call, take their own power, and rhythmically emerge from all eight directions of the medicine wheel arbor. The Eagle's piercing call resonates as participants ride the hypnotic beat, praying and moving toward the magnetic power of the Tree of Life.

The arbor is alive, pulsating, inhaling and exhaling as the ceremony progresses. Prayers soar on the wings of the Eagle to Great Spirit and answers spiral back to the Tree. With roots reaching deep into the Earth, the Tree gives participants the strength and stamina needed to dance impeccably. The branches, stretching to the As Above, inspire lofty dreams, and keep the connecting link to intent powerful and strong.

Dancers are in their power, taking responsibility for their lives. Progressing inward, one may offer prayers for personal health, prosperity and abundance, for a sacred dream, for the dream of the collective, or for Grandmother's planetary dream. Moving away from the Tree, but never turning one's back to it, the Dancer visualizes and celebrates manifestation of these prayers. The energy ebbs and flows as the day wears on, but the pulse never weakens. On and on the dance continues, as it has since time began. It is a magickal event, facilitating the dreams of all to be danced awake. Finally, the Dance Chief announces: "This Dance is finished in Beauty." The Tree rests in peace while a jubilant Eagle spirit nestles in its branches.

Special thanks is offered to Phyllis Cronbaugh for her heartfelt assistance in preparing the above description of the Eagle Dance ceremony.

"When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again.  They will be known as Warriors of the Rainbow."  Old Native American prophecy

The Rainbow Warrior Vow of the Eagle Dancer

I vow to walk the Path of inner Light and Awareness, to seek knowledge and wisdom in order to help others.  I am a Rainbow Light Warrior, Sundancer, a person who honors all teachings, ways, paths and medicines, accepting none above another, knowing all but dedicating myself to the One through those paths that have Heart for me.  I pledge to embrace and heal the distortions of fear, clarity, power, old age, disease, death, intolerance and superstitions that repress the Inner Light of the Sacred Human.  I vow to honor the Women, the Children and the Men in whatever way possible to help them find their own Inner Light.  I will use as tools the Light, the Pipe, the Sacred crystals and the Heart, Body, Mind and Spirit on the journey towards union with All That Is.