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"Whether we were Native Americans returning to traditional ways or urban aboriginals responding to some inner universal archetype, one thing was clear: we had all rejected the Western cultural biases about ownership and use of the body. We believed our body belonged to us…”
Body piercing, cutting, and tattooing are just a few of the rituals that have been used as methods of subjecting the body to physical stress for a transformative experience, the origins of which are derived from practices of indigenous peoples around the globe. Among the many rituals performed is the ritual now known as hook suspension in western culture. The modern day hook suspension is an elaboration of some of these tribal rituals such as the First Nations O-Kee-Pa and Sundance ceremonies practiced by many of the Plains Indigenous communities of North America, and the Chidi Mari and Thaipusam festivals originating in south India with Savite Hindus (currently practiced mostly in parts of Southeast Asia including Malaysia and Thailand since being effectively outlawed in India and Sri Lanka).
Historically, body rituals have been performed amongst tribal communities for a multitude of reasons including, but not limited to, rites of passage, tribal or personal healing and bonding, personal or spiritual evolution and exploration, or reconnecting with nature and humanity’s own natural origins.
The O-Kee-Pa ceremony practiced by several Plains Indian Tribes of North America was performed as a rite of passage for all young men and as a repeated practice for a vision-seeking shaman. The rite would begin with a fast for several days. On the last day of the fast, a piercing ritual was conducted where wooden skewers were inserted - twice in the chest and twice in the back, after which initiates were suspended from either set of piercings from the roof of the lodge. This ritual was performed for the purposes of gaining approval from the Great White Spirit and to prove one’s strength among the tribe. Alternatively, the Hindu Festival Chidi Mari, practiced by Savite Hindus (those devoted to Lords Siva, Murugan, and Kali) is devoted to worship of the “Great Mother” goddess Mari[amman] (there is some speculation that Mari is Kali by a different name). The ritual often includes two hooks pierced into the back, followed by a vertical suspension from the end of a long pole rotated high in the air. Another version would have the devotee pierced numerous times along the length of the body on both sides for a horizontal suspension lasting multiple hours. Each of these practices of suspension are done for the purpose of achieving a “state of grace” or ecstatic trance, where the Great White Spirit in the case of the O-Kee-Pa ceremony, or Goddess Mari in the case of Chidi Mari would communicate with or embody the initiate and provide guidance and blessings.
The Sundance festival was a tradition born of some of the Great Sioux Nation tribes of the North American continent that neighboured the Mandan tribal region along the Missouri river in North and South Dakota. It is a ceremony that represents life and rebirth. Performed in the summer, some rituals have been known to last as long as 28 days. It should be noted that Sundance rituals vary in their duration and ritual specifics depending on which First Nations are holding the ritual. The last four days of the ritual are spent in dance, prayer, and meditation. The third day of the Sundance is the piercing day, which is the most sacred part of the ritual because it represents the sacrifice of the individual for tribe and Mother Earth. All dancers are pierced from the chest with pegs [hooks] made of wood or bone and then attached from rope to a large pole or tree in a center circle. The dancers pull with their wood or bone pegs from the tree until they tear free from their chests. There are many variations of the dance. One such variation is a suspension from a cottonwood tree, or in a Sundance lodge by one’s pegs until they break. The roots of modern hook and body suspension in tribal communities run deep and pull inspiration from them, yet deviate in practice. Modern hook suspension as popularized in western culture is much to the credit of “the father of the modern primitive movement,” Fakir Musafar.
As a young person in mid-1940’s United States, Fakir Musafar felt a calling to the ancient body-based rituals that were used for transformation, rites of passage, and personal growth through ecstatic states. Respectfully cautious of public repercussions for his actions, he began experimenting in secrecy with various body rituals from around the globe that he read about or had seen as a young boy, over a 30-year period. He went public in 1978 with his research and exploration and began to cultivate a following of like-minded body-based ritual and modification (body mod) enthusiasts. Forming a community allowed the experience of body ritual and body mod to be pulled out of isolation. For many people who experienced the detriment of moral constructs they did not identify with in their current lives, they found community – a tribe. Body rituals such as piercing and modification took on a life of their own, including modified versions of tribal hook suspension. As these rituals evolved and expanded in western culture, the practice, while inspired by the ancient rituals, deviated radically from its origins. There grew concerns that practitioners were not performing these rites for the appropriate reasons. However, after a qualitative study of interviews, it seemed that reasons for the ceremonies in modern times were very similar to those of their origins (Musafar). One notable difference was that many women in these modern rituals were performing them for the purpose of reclaiming a part or all of their body from trauma of the past. Modern hook suspension rituals are significant for women not only in that they provide this opportunity of reclamation, but in that they provide a rite of passage not previously or commonly enjoyed in body rituals stemming from the patriarchal societies of the tribal influences of these rituals. Piercing rituals of the past often centered around rites of passage of men. Modern primitivism in North America created new, gender-blind rites of passage that allowed for proof of strength, devotion, and a physical mark of spiritual evolution in the lives of women as well as men.
The ritual of hook suspension was further distanced from its indigenous roots as it was popularized through body ritual as art through the likes of Stelarc (Australia) and Allen Faulkner, and CoRe (Constructs of Ritual Evolution) (United States). Viewing the body experience of the world as a dying medium, Stelarc incorporates body ritual and modification in several of his artistic creations as a means for exploring the limits of the body and the possibilities through synthetic enhancement. He is noted for further popularizing hook suspension through his artistic creations from the 1970s to 1980s where he performed a series of 26 hook suspensions around the globe, incorporating various technological enhancements as well. Similarly, Allen Faulkner is noted for bringing hook suspension to the stage through performance art founding the first suspension group, Traumatic Stress Discipline (TSD). Always pushing physical limits farther for either a physical audience or a digital one, he made hook suspension accessible and popular among the body mod subculture. He also helped consolidate body mod subculture by collaborating to create an online community for this subculture. Creating a cohesive online community worked as a social medium to connect previously disparate groups and encouraged the sharing of information and a centralized location for that information to be stored and accessed in the future. CoRE, founded by Steve Joyner, carved out its own niche, finding the space between performance art and ritual while still maintaining a focus on education.
I try to remove bricks off the wall of society. In my lifetime, I will probably remove one brick from that wall, and that’s the whole point of this.
Bringing body modification back to its tribal origins, Edgewalkers focuses on hook suspension and other ritual rites of passage through the vehicle of a supportive tribal community where rituals are passed down to members through community practice and education. Edgewalkers has a focus on the spititual aspects of body ritual while also recognizing that each individual may need something different from their experience. While the act of hook suspension is taken back to its ritual origins, we have been careful not to claim native rituals as our own. Ancient traditions having been modified with current technology and health standards have resulted in the formation of a new tribal community not based on geographic or genetic roots but rather self-identified similarities. The advent of a modern tribe accessible to people beyond genetic roots has given many a vehicle for spiritual evolution that was desired but not previously available. Many hook suspension groups have evolved throughout the North American continent and in other parts of the globe that are not bound by one type of expression or experience through hook suspension thanks to these pioneering leaders of modern primitivism. Those who choose to experience hook suspension now have the freedom to choose their purpose, be it art, performance, spirituality, all of the above, or other.
Modern primitivism has seen an apparent circular path of evolution since it began in North America. With an initial migration away from tribal roots in the form of suspension art and performance as seen with Stelarc and Faulkner, it circled back again to the ritual roots of spiritual growth and rites of passage by creating a new tribe not bound by genetic influence as with Edgewalkers. These rituals maintain validity in expression today with each of evolution of purpose it has taken. Modern day hook suspension takes inspiration from tribal rituals of the colonized west as well as India. Ancient and modern practices vary in method and purpose, but all share some common threads. The notion of the body as the ultimate sacrifice, or a confining vehicle from which to observe existence is not new. Edgewalkers believes that it’s important to focus on the intent in ritual, yet be open to any other learning that you may find or experience during the ritual. These are the greatest gifts.
In Plato’s allegory of the cave, he reflects on how the soul existing within the body is similar to living inside a box with two holes for the eyes to see from. That transcendence of the body, or ecstatic trance as some may call it, was the true beginning of experience and understanding as it was the point at which the soul could see completely. Similarly in other religious practices, fasting is done for the purpose of divine influence. As did their predecessors, modern primitives seek personal and spiritual evolution through stress of the flesh. They offer the greatest sacrifice a human can offer, their vehicle for existence to achieve growth, transformation, community, reclamation, proof of strength, communion with the natural world, etc. … and much like their indigenous origins, these rituals are conducted within the embrace and love of community to support them in their journey.