Spiritual Perspectives
Sand Painting in the Lightning Way Ceremony

By Johnson Dennison
Special to The Independent

The Navajo sand painting is a form of art used in ritual ceremonies for healing purposes. The word "sand painting" may not be an appropriate word since it is really a dry image using dry sand. There are at least six different colors of sand used: black, blue, yellow, white, red, pink, and brown. All are natural sand colors from stones carefully collected, crushed, and ground into fine sand. The black is a mixture of natural sand with charcoals. These colored sands are used to make the beautiful and colorful art of Navajo sand painting ceremony.

The Navajo sand painting is part of the process of numerous healing ceremonies, and most of the medicine men and medicine women have learned the art of sand paintings for healing purposes. The Lightning Way Ceremony is conducted with the sand painting. The figures in the sand painting are the symbolic figures of the four thunder people from the Navajo creation story. The sand painting is constructed in the morning by a medicine person with his or her helpers. It is a time consuming task, but it is also an interesting project for some people to practice their artistic abilities. There are some people who are not interested in becoming medicine people, but they go to ceremonies just to do sand paintings. The art of making sand paintings takes patience and practice to become skillful. There are no patterns, measuring tools, or stencils used. But a skilled sand painter can make perfect figures just by sprinkling colored sands. The sand painting is not new to the Navajo people; instead it is very ancient, and it has always been part of the treatment for healing. As a medicine man, one has to learn and remember every detail of how all parts of the figures are fit in place, otherwise it will not be effective when a mistake is made. Therefore, there must be close supervision by the head medicine person while the sand painters are working.

A Lightning Way sand painting can be done as a shorter version of the ceremony to treat a patient with an illness caused by a lighting strike. The patient may not remember about the lighting strike or may have just ignored it at the time until an illness occurs. The sickness caused by lighting could be anything from aching body, migraine, to digestive, urinary, respiratory disorders. The medicine man does not perform a Lightning Way Ceremony until it is recommended by a diagnostician. A diagnostician is a person who performs a diagnostic ceremony, a "Hand Trembling Ceremony," to advise the patient. The diagnostician is called a "Hand Trembler" or a "Crystal Gazer."

To do a sand painting, a sand painter will bring in a bucket of fine sand and pour it on the center of the hogan floor. The sand is spread out in a layer of about an inch thick in a radius of three to four feet. This first layer of sand is used as a background of the design to be made. The colored sands are used by sprinkling on the natural sands to make images. It could take at least three hours to complete the Lightning Way sand painting. When it is done, the patient will come in from outside and do an offering to the images by sprinkling white corn meal. The patient will then get to sit on the sand painting while the medicine man sings the sacred songs. The singing will last about an hour while the patient is treated with medicinal herbs. When the Lightning Way Ceremony is done, the sands used are taken out. Then, the Lightning Way Ceremony is over. This type of short version is an immediate healing ceremony.

The longer version of the Lightning Way Ceremony is done through a Shooting Arrow Way Ceremony, which is a five day ceremony. It is properly conducted by a well trained medicine person. This type of ceremony is still being practiced, but it may become extinct in the future.

Johnson Dennison is a coordinator at the Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility's Office of Native Medicine.

This column is the result of a desire by community members, representing different faith communities, wishing to share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues.

For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at the Independent: (505) 863-8611, ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.