Prayer Ties
For many years, Native Americans have offered prayer ties to the Great Spirit in exchange for blessings. It is an old tradition among the Lakota and Seminole peoples. Even if you are not Native American, you may study and practice this earth-centered ritual of making and using prayer ties as an intention tool for prayer or healing.
Four colors of fabric are traditionally used when making a prayer ties to represent the four directions or the four winds—east (yellow), south (red), west (black), and north (white).
A single prayer tie is made from a square of cotton cloth no larger than five by five inches. A pinch or two of loose tobacco is placed in the center of the square. (In Native communities, tobacco is considered a sacred herb and a gift to the spirit world. It is used as an offering of gratitude.)
Once you have placed the tobacco on the cloth, gather the four corners of the square together and secure the tobacco into a small bundle by looping or tying the string around it. Leave approximately four inches of string on one side of the prayer tie and leave the other end untrimmed.
As you create additional prayer ties, add them to the same string, spacing the prayer ties so that they are three to four inches apart. You can add as many prayer ties as you like, but there should be no cuts made to the string except at the ends. This continuous string represents the flow of energy from the beginning to the end of your prayer. Any breaks in the string will interrupt the natural flow of your intention.
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