Medicine Bags

A medicine bag is an ancient item that spiritually represents the person who wears it. Medicine bags can be as small as 1 inch by 1 inch or as large as 30 inches in length. They are typically made of leather from the deer, elk, moose or buffalo and you can purchase such a bag at most metaphysical stores or make your own.

The reasons to carry a medicine bag are for guidance, healing and protection. Most medicine bags contain a quartz crystal as one of its objects. Quartz energy resonates with all the energies of the physical body and is considered a remarkable healing stone. It connects you to your spiritual self.

Other items you might like in your medicine bag are items you may have found a special attraction to or resonance with in your life. For example, a special shell you found at the seashore, a feather you found, or a piece of pine tree or a juniper berry that holds meaning for you. We often meet up with items that seem to be just waiting for us to pick them up and carry them home and then we don't know what to do with them. This is one place to give them a home close to your heart. The essence of these special items create an energy in your medicine bag and that energy is the force that represents you. So by creating a medicine bag and wearing it close to your heart you are connecting with your spiritual self, the authentic you and always remembering who you are.

Traditionally most Native American had a "medicine bag" much like a purse. Like the purse, the medicine bag, which might be three or four feet long, contained objects and substances which had a meaning for the owner. As years went by items were added. For example, a person could find a feather, and come to believe that he/she could access the power and magic of the Great Spirit, therefore, that feather would go into the medicine bag. The same thought and meaning could be giving to roots, herbs and stones.