Right now the sweat lodge is being build up at Ängsbacka. I had an opportunity to interview, the promoter of the sweat lodge event, Robert Larkin.
 Robert Larkin “Coming back to Ängsbacka is like coming back to the beginning family here in Sweden." |
“I came many years ago and now I live outside Klippan in Skåne. Sweden appeals to me, I love the wild nature – the water – the spaciousness. New things happens all the time and life shows a new face when you get older. Here my life is unfolding and I have found a real calmness and kinship in this country. After some small inconveniences I got my permanent residence. The immigration authorities did not understand why I liked to stay here”, says Robert smiling .
He is eager to share his gifts to others, loves to be in service and meet friends. Meeting with the ground and nature, doing ceremonies in the summer, is precious to him. He has done The Sweat Lodge Ceremony for nine years, at Ängsbacka, 2012 will be the tenth. He, himself believes that he has done it for at least fifty times, maybe a hundred since the start in 1994.
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“The sweat lodge practise comes from many indigenous cultures and I have learned from the native Americans. It is a healing and dark space for rebirth in Mother Earth’s womb. The same energy exist in male form. It is a place where shamans offer a non- ordinary reality. You connect with your deeper inside, your spiritual and soul essence. You are very close to others in the dark and the heat”, says Robert.
It leads to a transformation and purification inside and you find peace in your heart together with your “family” in the lodge. It is a process of two and a half to four hours, but often you are not really aware of that time passing. You can have water to drink, but Robert says it is different in different cultures. You have to do three to four rounds to build up the heat again.
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I ask him if he has a particular memory from any ceremony. “Once when the door to get air was too small, but we all survived the rebirth and now we laugh about the memory”, he answers.
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I ask him: “What is enlightenment for you?” And he answers: “It is an ongoing state of beingness, from presence towards expanding and the journey is always ongoing. When the universe grows the enlightenment grows. You remember more of yourself and that our source is God and the divine. “
(disclaimer: You should have “normal health” to do the ceremony. People with heavy medical issues or heart problem should avoid it.)
Author: Lena
Photographer: Vuokko Isoherranen
