Healer, heal thyself!
I have been recently involved in a Women’s Healing Circle, hosted by a local Native Outreach and Resource center. The experiences I have had there, the welcome I received from the wonderful women there, has been beautiful. I am so grateful for the openness of my sisters there, even though I am not an Indigenous Canadian. We meet weekly and hold a ceremony, talking about what we are each working through that week, what we are thankful for, and learning from one another.
One of my sisters who has described one of her gifts being healing others, said something interesting to me one week. She had been feeling sick, and overworked, and expressed that she wished someone would help her heal, for she couldn’t heal herself, only others.
This confounded me. I assumed that healers following their traditional approaches, with access to their ancestral wisdom, would know that they could indeed heal themselves. It has been my understanding ever since coming across teachings like that of Susun Weed and the Wise Woman Tradition, that Wise Women have the ability, and the obligation to heal themselves and others.
The Wise Woman Tradition speaks to the wholeness of our being, and focuses on nourishing our bodies (minds and spirits too) to strengthen them to do what they already have the power to do themselves. So a dis-ease is just an exercise in trusting ourselves, our intuition and an opportunity to nourish ourselves, to seek the Wisdom of our grandmothers and old ones.
I feel it is imperative for me, as a healer, to also work at healing myself. For how can I help to heal another, if I cannot even do that for myself? If I believe that I cannot heal myself, how can I hold the belief that I can heal another?
I did tell my sister that I believe she can, and should, heal herself. I believe we all have that ability. We must awaken that truth within ourselves, and begin that journey.
So, for me the saying “Healer, heal thyself” is true. We must walk the journey of healing within, before we can take those lessons and apply them without, sharing them with others around us.