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The Healing Gift
By
Marguerite Elsbeth
Shamans and medicine people do not just wake up one morning and say, Hmmm, I
think I ll be a healer. The knowledge and wisdom attained by those who wish to
doctor the sick does not just drop down from the sky. In fact, many who receive
the haling gift are hesitant to accept the responsibility because they realize
that their lives will no longer be their own. Long-term study or apprenticeship
in working with stones, herbs, massage, emotions and the spiritual beliefs of a
particular culture or tradition, accompanied by selfless work and great personal
sacrifice, is what it takes to gain acceptance and status by the local people,
tribe, or community in which the healer resides.
Where Does the Healing Gift Come From?
A true healer acknowledges the real source of healing power as the universal
energy that animates, vivifies, and ensouls all creatures and things. We all
know this universal energy or healing power source by many names
electromagnetism, spiritual etha, limitless light, prana or prakriti, Great
Spirit, Great Mystery, God or Goddess. However, no matter what we chose to call
it, this universal power is both the healer and the medicine. The shaman or
medicine worker does nothing. All the totems, helpers, and guides the spirits,
animals and ancestors are very real friends and allies that the healer may call
upon for guidance, but it s not really all that necessary.
Healing
Customs
Tribal and rural village people rake the healing process very seriously. Among
many traditions, there is usually much discussion by the patient with family,
friends, and elders. Everything and everyone involved the healer, the illness or
issue demanding treatment, as well as the suggested therapy must all be
synchronistically correct and in its proper place according to custom before the
healer is called upon to perform the work. It may require several sojourns
between the healer, the patient and his or her relations before the patient
accepts the healer and the healer accepts the patient. Then there may also be
certain preliminary activities before the actual medicine work takes place, such
as fasting, seeking a vision, sweating or purification prayers, offerings and
feasting. The concept behind shamanistic medicine work is to alter the patient s
consciousness because a glimpse into non-ordinary reality may bring about
spontaneous healing, and thus affect a cure. Nor will the healer ever seek to
help a person who does not formally ask, as this would be considered a violation
of natural principles and laws.
Faith is a most necessary ingredient for successful healing. This spiritual
virtue forms an emotional connection between the healer and the patient,
allowing the healer to transmit vital life-giving energy via the methods
selected for healing. The patient should expect to be healed, for if there is
any doubt in the healer or his or her abilities, the results may be unstable. A
healer must be ready to compensate for any physical, emotional, mental or
spiritual imbalance within the patient. This makes the healer a spiritual
go-between due to his or her ability to speak with the spirits, animals, plants,
and stones, and receive an answer to how to achieve wholeness.
Do You Have the Healing Gift?
A Quiz
Answer yes or no to the following questions and statements:
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Are you knowledgeable, bright and productive?
- Are
you humorous, cheerful, and compassionate?
- Are
you forbearing, strong, and disciplined?
- Are
you bold and imaginative?
- Are
you fair, mindful, and alert?
- Are
you wholesome, calm, and clear?
- Are
you aware of the spirit world and well grounded in this world?
- Were
you born with the gift, is it hereditary, or was it willed to you?
- Do
you have the calling, which may come in the form of a dream, vision,
accident, illness, near-death experience or even actual death?
- Can
you communicate with sprits, dead people, animals, birds, insects, rocks,
monsters, space aliens, and/or elemental beings?
- Did
you receive your guardian spirit, healing and spiritual knowledge, power
objects, and doctoring tools through your dreams and visions?
- Are
you often lonely and misunderstood by others?
- Have
you sought spiritual aid, courage, and training through vision seeking and
power quests in sacred natural spaces, such as by the ocean, beneath a
waterfall, on a mountain, in the deep desert, or in a remote forest?
- Have
you been led to an older healer or medicine person who acknowledged your
gift and became your mentor?
If you have the a majority of yes answers to the questions and statements above,
your personality type, along with your unique qualities and experiences, may
indicate that you indeed have the healing gift.
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