SEDNA

Sedna Mask
photo by
 Peter Hughes

Sedna, legend tells, was a beautiful girl who lived by the sea. Although many courted her, she would not leave her widowed father, and refused them all. But one day, a raven disguised as a handsome man came to her. He promised her a better life - and best of all, he promised he would also provide for her father. And so, full of hope, Sedna left with him.

But he took her instead to a desolate island, where she was cold and hungry. When her father came at last to visit, he grew very angry. Taking Sedna into his kayak, he paddled into the open sea, but Raven caused a terrible storm to arise. And Sedna's terrified father, in desperation, hoping to save his own life, cast his daughter from the boat.

Sedna clung to the side of the kayak, and would not let go, until her father cut off her hands with his knife. Then Sedna's hands and fingers fell into the sea, becoming the the fishes, the seals, and the whales. And handless Sedna sank to the bottom of the ocean, where she lives still in a house of bones.

"Sedna is cold and naked,"Grey Eagle, a Native American ceremonial storyteller and world-wide scholar of indigenious mythologies, wrote in 2004, "She is covered with a tangle of hair she can't comb out. And all the broken taboos and sins against nature of the people fall through the water, to collect on Sedna's body. When the accumulation is too great, Sedna sobs in pain. And all the sea creatures leave the shore, to gather by her door to comfort her.The people know then it's time to gather and publicly confess their broken taboos.

This is how they do it: The men, remembering Sedna’s father, do a dance of contrition. Slowly dancing, they sing of their remorse for sins done by man to women, to earth, and to her children. And all the people send Sedna their prayers. Their shaman purifies herself to take the dangerous journey to the underwater world where Sedna lives.

When she finds Sedna, she gathers fine sand to cleanse the filth from Sedna’s body. She sings while tenderly picking the crabs from Sedna’s hair. And she offers Sedna the confessions and prayers of the people, their promises to change their life stories. So Sedna is comforted, and asks Creator to forgive them for the ways they have become out of balance.

Her sobbing is no longer heard in the waves, and the animals end their vigil, returning to offer themselves again as food. She is generous, and forgiving. Knowing this of Sedna, the Inuit are inspired to return Her gift by making better life stories, and treating their relations with love and respect."1

For the Inuit there must be rites of reciprocity with the Great Mother when they become out of balance. As She suffers, so must they. And so they dance, purify and pray, to restore the balance between the above world and the below world, between men and women, between themselves and Creator.

READ MORE