Post by sparklekaz on Apr 24, 2012 13:30:10 GMT
The unity of all life, is a theme that runs through the myths of the creation of the Native North American world. Native American peoples believe that the Earth is female. She gives birth to all the animals, birds, insects, human beings and plants, and continues to offer them healing from her abundant store. Her life force is imbued equally in minerals, plants, and animals, including humankind. Different species are interlinked, so that a plant for example can offer a human healing, but in return the human must care for the plant.
Healing in this tradition involves maintaining and if necessary restoring the natural balance in the land and people, a harmony that operates on the spiritual as well as on the mental and physical planes. Medicine in the Native North American world means power or energy.
A Medicine Women is therefore healer, teacher, preacher and weaver of magic. Jamie Sams, a Native American shaman of Cherokee and Seneca descent explains: "When we look at the idea of Medicine, we have to embrace the total person, the body, the heart and the mind and spirit. When these parts are out of balance, there is a need for healing" A person's medicine is that power which is generated by his or her own talents and strengths, used in a positive way to achieve the right path in life, a path that is called the Beauty Way.
Medicine Women have always been as prevalent as Medicine Men among the Native American peoples. Even where there is a Medicine Man, it is his wife who is keeper of the herb, plant and tree lore that is central to the healing tradition, and who will prepare the herbs for smudging and create healing potions and salves.
A family might have a strong tradition of Medicine Women who inherit the role, or a women may be chosen as a gifted child who might be trained by a practicing Medicine Woman. But in every case, the calling of the initiate is confirmed in a special dream, which is sometimes induced by fasting or a period of solitude. In the dream, the spirit of an animal, a plant or one of the goddess/spirit women imparts secret healing knowledge that can only be validated by the Medicine Women of the people.
The Medicine Women's training is not complete until middle age. For healing wisdom does not involve just a knowledge of healing plants; it is a connection with the living spirits of the trees, the herbs and the wise ancestors. An initiate learns to read the cause of imbalance or missing strength from the aura of a sick or distressed person, and to identify the plant whose aura reflects the missing quality or antidote. The process therefore involves intuitive and clairvoyant powers, and the ability to contact The Ancestors to call down their healing energies.
Because women were revered as daughters of Grandmother Spider Woman, Medicine Women were once asked to make shields for warriors or those who traveled far away, or to endow the shields with power using special chants.
Modern Native American Medicine Women hold the repository of ancient secrets and acts as a powerful cohesive force through difficult times, teaching the ways ways of the ancestors to those of the young who are willing to listen. They have also increasingly handed on their wisdom to other nations, holding moon lodges where women can learn to harmonise with their own cycles, to gather herbs for healing potions and to smudge away their own imbalance. To learn more about the ways of the Amerindian wise women, I can heartily recommend the book 'Medicine Women', by Lynn Andrews.
I hope that you enjoy reading this post as much as I did learning about the ways of the Native American Medicine Women, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it and would be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Healing in this tradition involves maintaining and if necessary restoring the natural balance in the land and people, a harmony that operates on the spiritual as well as on the mental and physical planes. Medicine in the Native North American world means power or energy.
A Medicine Women is therefore healer, teacher, preacher and weaver of magic. Jamie Sams, a Native American shaman of Cherokee and Seneca descent explains: "When we look at the idea of Medicine, we have to embrace the total person, the body, the heart and the mind and spirit. When these parts are out of balance, there is a need for healing" A person's medicine is that power which is generated by his or her own talents and strengths, used in a positive way to achieve the right path in life, a path that is called the Beauty Way.
Medicine Women have always been as prevalent as Medicine Men among the Native American peoples. Even where there is a Medicine Man, it is his wife who is keeper of the herb, plant and tree lore that is central to the healing tradition, and who will prepare the herbs for smudging and create healing potions and salves.
A family might have a strong tradition of Medicine Women who inherit the role, or a women may be chosen as a gifted child who might be trained by a practicing Medicine Woman. But in every case, the calling of the initiate is confirmed in a special dream, which is sometimes induced by fasting or a period of solitude. In the dream, the spirit of an animal, a plant or one of the goddess/spirit women imparts secret healing knowledge that can only be validated by the Medicine Women of the people.
The Medicine Women's training is not complete until middle age. For healing wisdom does not involve just a knowledge of healing plants; it is a connection with the living spirits of the trees, the herbs and the wise ancestors. An initiate learns to read the cause of imbalance or missing strength from the aura of a sick or distressed person, and to identify the plant whose aura reflects the missing quality or antidote. The process therefore involves intuitive and clairvoyant powers, and the ability to contact The Ancestors to call down their healing energies.
Because women were revered as daughters of Grandmother Spider Woman, Medicine Women were once asked to make shields for warriors or those who traveled far away, or to endow the shields with power using special chants.
Modern Native American Medicine Women hold the repository of ancient secrets and acts as a powerful cohesive force through difficult times, teaching the ways ways of the ancestors to those of the young who are willing to listen. They have also increasingly handed on their wisdom to other nations, holding moon lodges where women can learn to harmonise with their own cycles, to gather herbs for healing potions and to smudge away their own imbalance. To learn more about the ways of the Amerindian wise women, I can heartily recommend the book 'Medicine Women', by Lynn Andrews.
I hope that you enjoy reading this post as much as I did learning about the ways of the Native American Medicine Women, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it and would be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Love and Light
Kaz
