You are invited to participate in the next Feather Blessing at the Prayer Pole (sculpture) in downtown Ashland (on Main St. at the base of Church St.) this Sunday, March 28 at Noon.
R.E.D. is helping to care-take the Prayer Pole as a community. We put "fresh" feathers up every six months and bring the "veteran" feathers down from the Pole to rest (at the time of the Equinoxes). We offer feathers to fly on the Pole as a community prayer for healing and unity. Our vision is to share the indigenous way of trust and faith in Creator by creating a public "space" for allowing this prayer to touch the lives of all people in this region. A few years ago we had the dilemma of people climbing up the Pole to take the feathers--probably young people who didn't know the sacred significance of this prayer. R.E.D. discussed how to take care of this and IF feathers should be put up on the Pole in this way. We deferred to our Elders, who advised us to keep trying--keep putting our feathers up to fly for our community. They told us people need the prayers and we need to trust that the feathers are "doing the work" for the people to heal. For our community, this has been a teaching of compassion, trust and tolerance.
The downtown sculpture was blessed over four years ago by our Grandma, Aggie Pilgrim-Baker, Takelma descendant of this land, in a Ceremony (First Nations Day) honoring the First Peoples of our region. We intend to keep honoring Aggie's intent and her Tribe's presence here by using the sculpture as a Prayer Pole. It is alive and will continue to breathe with our prayers. Please know it is a place you can visit anytime and offer your own personal blessings and prayers. We welcome and encourage you to help us keep it living and working this way.