The Medicine Bag is a portable altar, a physical manifestation of your inner dream that you take with you wherever you go. Inside are all the objects that symbolize the challenges you desire to overcome, and the goals you set with your intent to bring into reality. The Medicine bag is worn diagonally over the shoulder, and becomes part of you, the wearer, the living dream inside the medicine bag incubating and helping to bring about change in your life. Whenever you need to, you open the bag, take out the handkerchief or other soft fabric containing your sacred items, and spread it on the floor or table in front of you, contemplating and meditating on your next step and spiritual breakthrough. Items can be placed next to one another in a significant way as you look at your living dream spread out before you.
For example, let’s say that you are in the process of healing wounds from childhood, when the people around you (your parents, siblings, teachers, etc.) judged you. You might take a photo of yourself as a little child and keep it in the medicine bag as a reminder to lovingly tell that child the truth each day — she is not bad, he is not wrong for being himself/herself. If you find as an adult that old beliefs and judgments still “hook your attention,” you might keep a screw with a hook on the end (see photo below) in the medicine bag, and place it on top of the photo of those who still “hook” you.
These items (for sale along with the medicine bag) are examples for what you can carry in your medicine bag. There is a small, round mirror to gaze into and remember your Divinity, a hook to remind you where you focus your attention, a heart to represent the unconditional love of the “spiritual warrior” for the inner child, and other things to remind you where you are on your journey. Some items will represent where you’d like to go, such as the Mexican coin. The symbol on the coin is an eagle with a snake in its mouth. The eagle represents the biggest part of yourself — the You who knows the truth of your Divinity. Knowing the truth and making it a practice to remember the truth, helps you to avoid being a victim of the “Parasite,” (the Toltec concept of the inner judge and victim) which is represented by the snake.
When you sense that you have moved past a particular challenge, the items you carry can be modified to reflect your changing, evolving dream. The Medicine Bags that we have in our store come from Guatemala and Peru. It can be worn discreetly — after you wear one for a few days, you will be surprised how it disappears into your clothing, and no one notices. Your living altar is your invisible secret. Here is an old photo of Allan Hardman wearing his medicine bag on top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico.
