It is still Taurus season and I'm still in Geneva, weathering the New Moon and Uranus entering the bull's sign rather well. It feels epic, actually. The change and me, all of it in relation to the Earth. I'm riding a bull into the horizon as the sun sets. I'm excited about it. It feels lush and perhaps chaotic, yes, but also genius and creative, productive and juicy, like a big, messy peach. I'm excited to see where it takes me.

We Are All Healers

My friend Mayumi just shared on her blog what she feels about healing and it created quite a response in me (since then she has erased this post but I still highly recommend you read her take on what it is like to be human - basically she said that none of us really need healing), so I thought I would share my thoughts about it too, especially since I call myself a plant spirit healer and I talk about healing journeys. It's true it's a trendy word, but I can't think of a better way to describe my life, a healing journey. I agree that healing is not something that can come from outside of me, but I have had a lot of help along the way. I like to use the word. I think we are all healers healing each other, but I agree that the impetus must come from our own souls wanting to stretch and grow again into the wholeness from which we came.

On Wholeness

On wholeness: After reading Mayumi, I went on a little research adventure to find out about the word ‘to heal'. It comes from the Proto-Germanic word hailjan, a word meaning ‘to make whole', which later was applied to Jesus' holy touch. In Old English he was haeland, a healer, one who makes whole. In French we don't have that word; we have guérir and soigner, which come from, respectively, words that meant “to protect" and “to worry about". But that's what we want to do when we love someone, and love makes whole, as Jesus taught.

Energy Healing

On the Energy Healing I am learning: it is very clear, when we do it, and as we learn to do it, that the person's soul is in charge of the healing that is happening. The healer is a conduit for Source which guides the soul in its healing. The only healing that happens is healing that the soul wants. But still, we need that impetus; our souls do sometimes need that guidance and help, which makes me think that healing is ultimately about connection, and love, even in its harshest and most invasive modern forms. Anytime I practice on someone, I also feel healed, so the healing is mutual.

I also wanted to write about my healing episode that happened just when Uranus entered Aries 7 years ago. I've been thinking about that period because according to an astrologer I like to read, it is the key to understanding the Uranian era that is ending and the one that is coming in. In early Spring, 2011, I got a swollen knee that turned out to be a rather extreme symptom of Lyme's Disease. I don't really remember what happened during the three months that I was healing from Lyme (I couldn't really walk and I slept a lot), but I did heal from it, and I'm wondering why. A lot of people don't. What I do remember is being completely preoccupied with listening to my body, with the healing process. I spoke to and meditated with my knee and my entire body. I took antibiotics which made me want to die. I stopped eating wheat and dairy. I ate six cloves of garlic a day and a lot of echinacea tincture. It was before I had met the flowers, so I wasn't working with them yet, but I wanted to try everything I could. I saw a rheumatologist and got to look at the liquid that he took out of my knee with a huge needle. I also had a lot of help from body workers, several kinds. I got lots of lymphatic massage and regular Grinberg Method sessions. I had a session with Avi Grinberg himself (who is also all about teaching others to heal themselves) who was so completely inappropriate with me, as a “healer" - he rather rudely told me I wanted to die - that I got incredibly angry, and I think maybe that cured me. Incidentally, he was right, I did want to die, profoundly, and it wasn't just the antibiotics, it was a general metaphysical approach to life and it wasn't working.

Learning from Lyme

I learned a lot from Lyme, which got me thinking that illness is a gift that comes to teach us something, whether or not it takes us away. And I did survive, through to this new Uranian cycle. I remember at the time feeling also that my Lyme, which I got from a field in Vermont where the deer roam (I remember the day it probably happened, the desire to walk barefoot out into the field, towards the forest, prime tick territory, in shorts!) was actually a gift from the deer, and they have always been one of my protective spirit animals.

Remembering Our Connection to Everything

The plants have taught me that healing happens only as I can open up to it in my own body with my mind. The plants help me open to it, and since I can speak to the plants, I can help the plants help other people open to it. That's why I call myself a plant spirit healer. But you can become one too, you just need to learn to listen. Maybe it was my Lyme that taught me how to listen. I suppose healing for me is basically about remembering our connection to everything, our wholeness, mending the separation we feel before we go to the place where there is no separation, where we are all going anyways, when the soul is ready to go. In the meantime, I think the soul enjoys learning, in the myriad ways that this manifests, through pain, joy, suffering, health, illness, fatigue, disease and ultimately death. At least that is how I think of it, my healing journey.

I made two new essences on Beltane: Speedwell and... Self-Heal! How appropriate. Descriptions will be up on my Flower Essences page soon.

May all your journeys be sweet and the darkness as complete as you need it to be to integrate your healing!

(Originally posted May 16th, 2018)