four
The Healer
Birthing and Growing
I, the fiery life of divine wisdom,
I ignite the beauty of the plains,
I sparkle the waters,
I burn in the sun, and the moon, and the stars,
With wisdom I order all rightly …
I adorn all the Earth,
I am the breeze that nurtures all things green …
I am the rain coming from the dew
That causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.
I call forth the tears, the aroma of holy work.
I am the yearning for good.
–Hildegard of Bingen
Imagine that you have made your way up the canyon and arrived at the top. You are holding the immense inner power of the sacred feminine and ready to open to the soft, gentle caress of love. As you crest the final steps of the canyon, you come upon a large meadow filled with flowers and trees. There awaits your beautiful, shimmering sacred garden. This is your own creative garden, which you can arrange as it suits you. This is a place of healing, a place to return to when you need nourishment. As you walk through the meadow and garden, observing the stones and flowers, you come to a beautiful stream lined with colored pebbles. You wade up the stream until it becomes a deep, emerald green pool. The water is cool and refreshing. A small waterfall runs into the pond and the sound of rushing water soothes you and begins to heal you from your journey to the depths and your return. A beautiful woman sits on a rock next to the stream. She is the mirror of your inner healer, the watery spirit that breathes love into your being.
The Healer is the cleansing that occurs after the intense shifts of calling in the power of the sacred feminine. We have climbed up from the abyss, made our way out of the underworld fueled by our inner power and into the nourishing and expansive realms of love. After descending down, meeting with our inner spirit and the fire of transformation, we are ready for the flow of the Healer’s water to wash over us, to let our tears become a voice and heal us with watery wisdom. The Healer visits us in the form of the mother earth and her waters. Mami Wata, the wild and powerful African mermaid of oceans and rivers, is the Healer who blesses us with her ancient knowledge of the vital life forces on earth.
The Healer is deeply connected to the mother, the quality in us that receives the creative seeds, grows life, and births forms of beauty. She may be the literal mother of children, or the mother of ideas, an emotion, an artwork, a company. The Healer is found in the healing of mother earth and gives us the gifts of potent medicine in the form of plants, animals, waters, soils, and minerals of her body.
The Healer is the nurturing part of us that knows when to hold our children close, listen to a friend over tea, weed the garden and plant new herbs for our cooking, lay hands on those who are emotionally troubled or wounded. She is the part of us that effortlessly renews our body and regenerates our cells. She is the midwife who births new projects, healing, babies, ideas, and healed bodies. She is the wonderful balm to all of our sores and afflictions, who can remind us that peace and love are inherent in all things. When we open ourselves to our inner Healer, we become like pure, clear water, capable of moving effortlessly through the world.
Our Body as a Planet
Our home is the earth. The earth provides us with everything we need: all our food, clothing, resources. Everything we use comes from the earth; in this way she is truly like a mother. Many indigenous creation stories speak of the great mother who gave birth to all things or split herself into pieces to form the earth. From the earth grow all the living things, including sacred plants that abound for our delight to use for food, healing, and medicine. Many of those uses are now being reclaimed as we reconnect to the lost arts of working with herbs, fruits, barks, and plants in healing.
Traditional cultures recognize that spiritual sustenance, as well as physical, comes from the earth herself. In various parts of South America, people are intimately connected to the spiritual qualities of plants. Several of these plants are considered to be healing aspects of the sacred feminine, including ayahuasca, a psychotropic plant that provides healing visions through shamanic ceremony. The cultures who use ayahuasca believe it is imbued with a feminine spirit that enables the healing. In certain cultures, at birth the umbilical cord is packed with small amounts of ayahuasca, so the newborn can begin his or her direct connection to mother earth, known as Pachamama. This connection to the earth promotes a deep sense of belonging and connectedness to the natural world.
We can feel our own connection to the earth when we are in nature. For example, when we visit an incredible natural place such as the Grand Canyon, we admire its magnificence and grandeur. We are compelled by the rawness of age and its effect on the rock and earth that have, over the course of millions of years, been worn away by a single river! When we visit places where glaciers have cut away mountains, leaving behind formations, we admire them, take photographs, and tell stories. Our bodies are a reflection of these planetary processes: they grow, they shift, they change, they decay, they die, then are born again, as soil, sunflowers, or oak trees. Our inner Healer enables us to view our own bodies as a planet of change, power, and natural beauty.
Viewing our bodies as a planet is a positive first step in cultivating inner nourishment and self-love. This will help us to dissolve some of our cultural attachments to beauty and physical appearances. We are surrounded by media and culture that values permanent youth, physical perfection, ultra-white teeth, and flawless skin. These images are the antithesis of death, blackness, decay, and even birth, qualities long associated with the goddess and her power. When it comes to the decay of our bodies, to our own canyons that form on our faces, to the formations that seem to pop up all over our skin as we age, many of us worry over it, hate the aging and work to hide it, or use chemicals or surgery to defy it.
I have a fantastic photo of an old woman in Ladakh, who has lived in some of the highest mountains on earth her entire life. She has probably only looked in a mirror a few times, on her wedding day perhaps, many decades ago. Her face is as brown and wrinkled as a walnut and she has only a few teeth. She is smiling a smile that moves throughout her entire body; she is caught in mid-laugh, her dark brown eyes sparkling like a million suns. Every woman who sees that picture sighs and says, “Wow. She is amazing.” Why do we say this? Because we still remember that even though image after image in the media continues to propagate a particular brand of beauty, the dark mother, the woman of the earth, the voice of the goddess is a source of beauty that nourishes our souls.
I am calling out for a revision to the notion that we must look smooth, white (or perfectly tanned), flawless, arched in heels, and made up to be considered beautiful, professional, powerful. Take time to sit and ask yourself about some of these practices. We have the freedom in this country to question our physical identities. For example, you may want to ask yourself, “Why, really, do I wear high heels? They make my legs and butt ‘look better’ but to whom?” Why do we continue to perpetuate a custom that contorts our spines, hurts our feet, and pinches our toes? How is this custom really that different from customs we now perceive as horrible, such as foot binding, corsets, or metal girdles? We can ask this about many things, such as shaving, bras, makeup, and fingernail polish. I am not saying we should abandon self-adornment, but I do think we need to ask ourselves a little more deeply, why do I do this? If we have been told to do it by the culture, how then does that empower us? We may find pleasure in these things—many women do, and I understand that. I too like getting waxed and putting color on my eyes. Yet, I do feel it is important to reflect on these practices and not buy into them blindly.
To remember that our bodies are the earth is one of the deepest healing practices we can do. We can recognize that each wrinkle is a canyon formed by tears and laughter, joy and sorrow. To reframe our thoughts so that each new growth on our skin is a new mountain, a new hill, a place that increases our worth, not diminishes it. That every stretch mark is a ripple of silvery time etching her way across our bodies as strands of wisdom. Each new lump of cellulite is the soft mound of dimpled sand that one has piled high to see the horizon a bit better. That each new ache and pain is a reminder that our bodies are impermanent and are on a journey back to the earth.
I am thirty-four (at publication) and have yet to experience certain aspects of aging and changes that the body goes through. My older friends talk about how hard it is to accept these changes, especially when they were once beautiful, young women. Yet, I strongly believe if we can turn our minds toward our connection to the mother, to the living earth, we can see how our bodies reflect the earth at every phase in life. When I look at the stretch marks on my thighs, I can choose to be horrified, or I can see how these lines look like the rippling water lines of sunlight across the bottom of the ocean. I know that it is easier said than done, that it is hard to resist standing in front of the mirror and pulling up your face, but I also believe we can do it. We can use the immense love of our own inner Healer to reclaim our true beauty.
Lying on Mother Earth
Connecting to our inner Healer helps us to mother ourselves and develop self-love. When the love for our self grows, it fills up our heart and then naturally overflows outward toward others. When we deeply nourish ourselves, we touch the loving quality of motherhood; the expansive, infinite healing part of us. Ammachi, the saint from South India who travels the world giving millions of people a touch of grace through a warm, motherly embrace, says, “The essence of motherhood is not restricted to women who have given birth; it is a principle inherent in both women and men. It is an attitude of the mind. It is love—and that love is the very breath of life … for those in whom motherhood has awakened, love and compassion are as much part of their being as breathing.”9
To help awaken our inner Healer, we can connect with the earth as a mother and remember that our body is really her body. This is a simple exercise to reconnect you with the earth. Pick a morning or afternoon when you can be alone. Find a place, either in your yard or at a park, where you can lie directly on the earth. Figure out the best way to lie, on your back or side, and do so for some time. Focus on your breath and let your muscles and bones sink into the flesh of the earth. The earth has a pulse too, a rhythm, and by being present you may tap into that pulse, the energetic “breathing” that moves through the planet.
As you lie there, imagine looking at yourself from above. See yourself lying on the grass and slowly move outward to see your body in the park, then the larger city, the state. Let yourself spiral out and up, seeing the state melt into the country, the continent, and finally the entire earth, spinning on its axis, rotating around the sun. Remembering that we are on a planet that is moving thousands of miles every day reminds us that we are constantly in flux, that nothing is permanent.
After some time, slowly drift back down to your continent, country, state, and place where you are lying. Notice that your breath has deepened and you are in a state of complete relaxation. This is a good time to practice a journey, if you are accustomed to it. Journey and meet with your spirit guide and ask for healing and renewal or any other question you may have. When you are finished, slowly sit up and press your hands into the earth. Feel gratitude for being alive, being present with the very being that nourishes and supports your life every day.
Mami Wata
Mami Wata is likely the most worshipped mermaid today and honored as the goddess of water, wealth, healing, and magical powers in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. She is a striking contemporary goddess who works powerful healing magic needed for our aching planet. She has the ability to cross great divides and is one of the most potent images of the sacred feminine. Unbound to any particular place, she swims through many kinds of waters, absorbing, dancing, and reflecting the varied traditions of Africa, India, Santeria, and Latino culture. Mami Wata wanders the waters of the earth as a beautiful, haunting, sumptuous, multicultural, and multidimensional spirit of healing and bounty.
As a mermaid, she is sometimes called an in-betwixter or between creature: part woman, part fish. She appears sometimes black-skinned, other times white, with wild bountiful hair. Transgendered, Mami Wata is portrayed as both female and male; she is transcontinental, an African goddess influenced by imagery on European ships from five hundred years ago. She is transmutative, often shown holding snakes, the animal that sheds its skin and is known for its healing symbolism. She is transformative, easily changing shape and her associations, just as water does, to dance with sacred aspects of a myriad of cultures. Mami Wata also shows us the importance of art and its use in both healing and transformation. She is accessible for all women as the powerful Healer archetype.
Mami Wata is both the great mother goddess of primordial life energy, female deity of the sea, as well as mami watas, the smaller watery spirits of various types and kinds that navigate through cultures, as diverse as rivers, waterways, marshes, tributaries, lakes, and ponds. In the Mandé languages of West Africa, both river and mother are the same word, ba. Thus Mami Wata is also connected to the more ancient goddess Faro, the spirit of water. According to West African scholar Naomi Doumbia, “Faro arises from her bed in the deep crevices of the river’s bottom, visiting us through watery vapor, showering us with rain, streaking the sky with colorful rainbows, communicating to us through thunder, and punishing our infringements of taboos with lightning … Faro represents the word, the word which connects all things; the means by which the world comes to reflect upon and express itself.”10 Some cultures fear her associations with wealth, sexuality, fecundity, wildness, and women, while others worship her and make offerings so they may receive the gift of healing, a child, or magical powers. In the story below, Mami Wata appears a dark and beautiful mermaid, Mama Jo. This tale comes from the southeastern coast of the United States and is retold by Robert D. San Souci; it illustrates how the story of Mami Wata has migrated from one continent to another.
Sukey and the Mermaid11
A young girl named Sukey lived in her old, ramshackle cabin on a windy island. She lived out each day a dreary existence under the thumb of her cranky stepfather, Mr. Jones. Sukey secretly nicknamed him “Mr. Hard Times” as he forced her to work all day doing endless chores, hoeing the back garden, washing clothes, cooking meals.
One day, Sukey escaped and ran to sit on the sandy shore next to the sea. The sun was shimmering across the water and the smell of pungent salt filled her nostrils. She breathed deeply, enjoying the quiet solitude away from her troublesome home. As her mind drifted, her gaze settled on the beautiful sea beyond. Sukey felt the cool breeze brush her skin as she pushed her toes into the soft, wet sand. She remembered a song that she had heard once before and sang it aloud:
Down below the ocean water,
Come and see me, Mama Jo.
Suddenly, a mermaid emerged from the waves! The mermaid was the loveliest thing Sukey had ever seen. She had a beautiful bright face, dark skin, shining black eyes, and wild green hair. She introduced herself to Sukey, “I am Mama Jo.” Mama Jo coaxed Sukey out into the cool, fresh waves where they played and frolicked all day long. At the end of the day, Mama Jo gave Sukey a gold coin to take home to her parents.
Sukey was thrilled by her meeting with the mermaid and began to sneak out from her home every day to visit her. Mama Jo became Sukey’s friend and taught her how to swim. Each time they met, Mama Jo gave Sukey a gold coin before leaving. Sukey brought the money home to her parents so that she could go play with Mama Jo without having to work. Inevitably, Sukey’s mother’s suspicions arose as day after day Sukey brought home gold coins. One afternoon, she followed Sukey to the beach and spied on her. There, she saw Sukey playing with the beautiful mermaid and then saw Mama Jo give her the gold coin.
Sukey’s mother ran back to the house and told Mr. Jones about the mermaid. They plotted to capture Mama Jo for themselves so they could get more gold. They rowed out to sea and called to Mama Jo, just as Sukey had before:
Down below the ocean water,
Come and see me, Mama Jo.
When Mama Jo surfaced, they tried to capture her with nets, throwing them out into the sea over Mama Jo. But Mama Jo was far too quick for bumbling humans and escaped easily, swimming back into the depths of the ocean.
Sukey, horrified by their attempt to capture her precious friend, ran away to Mama Jo. The beautiful mermaid took Sukey down under the sea to live with her in watery beauty and soft comfort. At first Sukey adored her new life. She learned many things from Mama Jo about ancient history and the wonderful healing properties of mermaids. But, after awhile, she longed for other humans and begged to return to her home. Reluctantly, Mama Jo brought Sukey back to the beach and gave her a bag of gold to take home. Before Sukey left the sea, Mama Jo told her, “One day, many men will come and ask your hand in marriage, but you must marry only one man. His name is Dembo.”
Sukey was welcomed home by her overjoyed mother and mean-hearted stepfather. When Mr. Jones saw the bag of gold, he plotted again to steal it. Sukey was grown up by then and carried the wisdom of dear Mama Jo in her heart. When many men came to court her, she refused them. Finally Dembo appeared. He was a kind and gentle man, full of love for Sukey, and she, in return, fell deeply in love with him. In a fit of rage and terror, Mr. Jones lashed out against Dembo and killed him, stealing the precious bag of gold from Sukey. Sukey screamed in terror at Mr. Jones’s vicious act and ran to the sea for help. She called for Mama Jo just as she had as a child:
Down below the ocean water,
Come and see me, Mama Jo.
Mama Jo surfaced once again, beautiful and wondrous. Sukey told her of her troubles and pleaded Mama Jo to help her. Mama Jo agreed and gave Sukey a seed pearl that would bring Dembo back to life.
Racing home, Sukey, covered in tears and shaking, placed the pearl in Dembo’s mouth. After a few moments, Dembo awoke and they embraced, filled with joy to be reunited. The townspeople, upon hearing of Mr. Jones’s dreadful act, chased him into the sea where he was swallowed up by a sudden storm. Sukey and Dembo watched his disappearance into the storm, falling back relieved onto the beach. They found a final gift from Mama Jo, a bag of golden coins that had been buried in the sand, and took each other’s hands, happy to be in love, with their small fortune and freed of Mr. Jones.
Keys to the Tale
Sukey is a poor and overworked girl, on the edge of womanhood, who is under the thumb of her stepfather. As a young black girl, Sukey carries the burden of her people and her gender, yet she also contains the gift of a powerful story that has its roots in her distant homeland. Sukey is the young girl in each of us who seeks healing and guidance when dealing with our hard times. Sukey does not need to accomplish anything to receive healing and love, she is simply available. After we have reclaimed our power, we are also ready for deep healing and precious gifts.
Mr. Jones, or, as Sukey calls him, “Mr. Hard Times,” is the part of our mind that still seeks to oppress us, that is critical and overbearing. He is the aspect of our lives that prevents us from receiving real nourishment and looks to get in the way of our healing. As women, often we not only have many duties and chores, we also give to others more than giving to ourselves. Sukey reminds us that we too must break away from this part of us and remember that sometimes, “Saying no is actually saying yes.” Not only saying no, but also physically removing ourselves from our hectic and fast-paced life is crucial to our own healing. Just as Sukey does, we must choose to escape every once in awhile and seek a nourishing place, like a beach, a retreat center, a walk in the woods. Finding a place in nature is one of the most healing things we can do.
As Sukey rests on the beach, she meets a guide, a magical helper, a wondrous friend. Mama Jo, the beautiful dark-skinned mermaid, loves Sukey completely and unconditionally. This is crucial on our path, knowing that even in times of great aloneness and suffering we have guides around us, healers, helpers, and special spirits who can assist us in our troubles. The mermaid in particular reveals one of the precious qualities of the sacred feminine, the ability to extend healing power through the waters of our earth. The mermaid is the Healer and gives Sukey powers in the form of gold to overcome the obstacles of her own life and navigate through the hardships bearing the wisdom of the Goddess.
Mama Jo is likely connected to the watery mermaid goddess, Mami Wata. Barbara Walker says the image of the mermaid descends from “very old traditions connecting Goddess figures with the sea as a universal womb.”12 We find water spirits and mermaids not only in Africa, but in cultures worldwide. In medieval times, the image of the double fish tailed siren was called a nixie or evil water spirit. Yet, the nixies were more likely daughters of the primordial goddess named Nyx or mother night, who hovered over ancient waters, rather than evil spirits. The nixies were similar to the Greek nereids, female water spirits known to Christian authorities as “she-devils.”13 In India and eastern Asia, the Nagas were similar to mermaids, half human and half water serpents that lived in springs and rivers, guarding treasure. Interestingly, Mami Wata is often portrayed holding snakes, the powerful quality of transformation and healing that is ever-present in goddess symbolism. These images of watery feminine spirits portray the regenerative forces and wisdom of the Healer archetype.
From the first meeting with Mama Jo, Sukey receives a gold coin each day and brings them back to her parents to be exchanged for food. Gold is also a symbol of spiritual wealth and wisdom that Mama Jo is imparting on Sukey. Mama Jo is the Healer who provides both material and spiritual nourishment. Yet, Sukey’s mother and stepfather become greedy and seek to destroy the mermaid and gain their own wealth, seeing the gold only as material, not the true spiritual wisdom. Sukey’s parents are not seeking Mama Jo from the purity of their own hearts, and she escapes back to her home in the water.
Sukey then decides to join Mama Jo, staying with the mermaid in her underwater caves and learning her ways. Similarly, Zimbabwe legends speak of shamanic practitioners who tell the story of visiting the nsuzu, or water spirit. This spirit, like Mami Wata, is associated with snakes, rainbows, whirlwinds, and healing. When a medicine person visits with this special water spirit, who lives at the bottom of lakes or rivers, she or he is given powerful healing talents. Sukey also receives a special gift from Mama Jo, a piece of advice she carries in her heart. Mama Jo tells her many men will come for her, but to only choose one in particular, Dembo. She also gives Sukey a large bag of gold this time. Thus Sukey returns bearing the gifts and wisdom of the sea creature and Healer.
When Sukey returns, just as Mama Jo has told her, many men try to court her, but she only falls in love with Dembo. Dembo represents the aspect of us that reflects our inner feminine united with the whole and healed inner masculine. Many parts of us clamor for that recognition, but only the pure and clear-sighted part of us can properly unite our inner masculine and feminine. Still, in that moment, the critical self will often return and lay claim over that pure, healed aspect of our being. Just as our demons may arise again in the glimpse of pure enlightenment, Sukey’s own stepfather reacts violently at Sukey’s choice, killing Dembo and stealing the gold. When we work toward deep healing, we may reach territory where the old demons try to claw their way to the surface and sabotage our progress. Often when we open ourselves up to the love, we become vulnerable in our surrender and latent fears. The Healer must work a bit harder to overcome these obstacles and remember the power of our guides.
This final violence of Mr. Jones against Dembo also represents the intense push for us to again return to our deep, inner healing resources, just as Sukey returns to Mama Jo for her life-saving pearl. This is the classic pearl of wisdom, the pearl of enlightenment, beauty, purity shining forth from the depths of our watery souls. Mama Jo, the mermaid, carries this wisdom and in great times of need gives it as a life-saving obstacle remover. This wisdom is akin to the stories of African shamans who return from their underwater journeys bearing the ability to heal certain ailments. Sukey’s choice to return to the world above also reflects the path of the initiate who has gained deep and transformative healing wisdom and can pass this on to others. This is the true power of the Healer.
In the final scenes of the story, the oppressive Mr. Jones is swallowed up by a storm, a common symbol associated with Mama Jo, mermaids, and African water spirits. This storm is a watery magical power and works to finally dissolve our inner turmoil once and for all, leaving us healed and blessed. Sukey is finally back on the beach where her journey began, sitting with her dear heart, Dembo, counting their precious blessings of gold from Mama Jo. As we begin to heal ourselves, we know that we must channel this healing outward to heal others as well, that indeed we are all connected. The mermaid image of Mama Jo is cruising her way through the waters of the world as a very real spirit of modern times. She is the pure Healer, a living poem and expression of our hearts which, touched by her, can then pass healing on to others.
Dream Healing
Myths are akin to dreams, and by working with world stories we develop a better understanding for symbolism and archetypes. Our inner Healer has a strong connection to alternative realities and can be called on for working with our dreams. Occasionally we have a healing or initiatory dream that gives us powerful insight into the deeper parts of ourselves on the path of spirit. These dreams are special, and we can return to them to find continued insight as we navigate through our lives. They often give us clues as to what we need to embrace or heal, or act as the healing themselves. In the case of my dream below, it firstly helped me to reconcile our return to India, which I had been feeling very doubtful about. Any kind of initiatory dream is also a reminder that we are not alone, that spirit and helpers are guiding us at all times.
A Personal Healing Dream
I am walking along the narrow, dusty-red back roads of Varkala, Kerala in South India (where my home was at the time). Brilliant vermillion hibiscus and vivid fuchsia bougainvillea bob their luscious heads in the dappled sunlight, hanging loose and relaxed over whitewashed walls like the women who rest their elbows, smiling in the late afternoon light, dark eyes shining, hair oiled with coconut and decorated with jasmine. They are drinking chai and calling, “Hallo … sugam danay!” I am walking slowly, carefully, under the coconut trees that rustle in the luscious breeze. The feel of it on my skin makes me so alive, so full of breath and light and wind. Ahead of me is a cement wall with a new gate that has yet to be whitewashed. Someone has painted childish stars and hearts on the wall.
I want to go inside, through the gate, but suddenly a woman is there and she is giving birth. This is the second baby of twins, and she has just delivered the other a few hours before, in a nearby house. I am there to catch the baby, to midwife it into the world. He comes out, dark and gorgeous, into my open arms as easy as a coconut dropping from a tree. His eyes are full of love and radiance; he is covered in blood, a pure, brilliant, magickal blood, the life force of the universe. I press him close to me and feel so full of joy and wonder. As I hold him close, he begins to grow and grow. He expands outward and upward, and my spirit fills with even more light and love. Then he is a tall being, much taller than me, with a kind of colorful mask on his face or an energy pattern. Suddenly we are surrounded by eleven more of these beings, all with these colorful masks, each one completely unique. They number twelve altogether. They seem to each represent a different energy of the universe. I feel so honored to be in the middle of this circle as they send their love and tell me, in my mind, this is an initiation.
I woke suddenly, in the middle of the night, and realized I was not in Varkala, but at my parents’ home in Maryland. My seven-month-old infant was lying next to me, her mouth slightly open, a film of breast milk around it. I was full of brightness and awe as I remembered the dream, knowing it was a powerful one, one to remember. My dear friend had given me a tarot reading with her Ancestral Tarot deck the night before and I pulled the Initiation card. This was obviously a direct connection to the dream, the dream of initiation. We returned to Varkala a few months later, and I walked down that very lane where the dream took place. I later felt these beings were akin to the Orishas and this is what may have initiated me that night, or something very similar. These beings in their various guises such as the Orishas, the Kachina, or the Oracle are guiding forces who initiate people into the magical powers of life.
Keys to the Dream
This was a healing dream that I felt was both preparing me for my return to India and foretelling parts of that season in India, which in the months following brought me even more in touch with Africa, of all things. I taught Reiki that season to a dear friend who is Senegalese and his wife who has studied African mythology extensively. In some West African cultures, twins carry special messages from the spirit world. According to West African healer and scholar Ken and Naomi Doumbia, “Twins are the children of the spirit of water, Faro—the spirit who reflects, like a mirror, the shadow or double of creation.”14 Interestingly, the second-born twin is believed to be the eldest, having sent the first one to check out the situation. In my dream, I delivered the second twin.
As the dream continued, I received the boy child, covered in the primordial, life-giving blood. This blood is pure magic in my dream: it glows and sparkles and fills me with joy and brilliance. Birth blood, easily dismissed as disgusting, unattractive, or filthy, was traditionally believed to hold woman’s power as she gave her blood to bring new life into the world. Acting as the midwife for the birth, I received the power of this blood, which in ancient times, in a myriad of cultures, was considered the magical substance that creates life. Menstruation blood, which is held in during the creation of children, is akin to the cycles of the moon and attributed great power in a multitude of myths and stories. Countless creation stories speak of humans born of the Great Mother from the magical bloody flow of sacred feminine consciousness. Celtic kings became gods when they drank the menses blood of the goddess; girls are still prized in some African cultures because they have the powerful moon bloods; South American indigenous people believe that the first humans were made of moon blood.
Finally, in my dream, the newborn boy, embraced in my arms, grows into a mystical being. The feeling during that part of the dream was utterly magical; I was suffused with an overwhelming feeling of joy and love. As he grew taller and taller, his face turned into a kind of masked being or spirit that loomed over me, blessing me. Suddenly I was surrounded by spirit beings who proceeded to send me a bolt of energy that I was told was an initiation. They all had unique characteristics and were certainly a kind of tribe unto themselves, a group that blessed me with the power of love and healing.
For years I have reflected back on this dream, using it as a tool for transformation, love, and power. I felt I was seeded with certain qualities from the dream that I am slowly learning about as my life unfolds. I have received very few dreams such as this one; with such vibrancy, brilliance and a feeling of incredible joy.
Journaling a Dream
Think of a dream that had a powerful impact on you. It should be one that you clearly remember, one that was vivid in color, felt wonderful or beautiful, or perhaps was frightening. This should be a dream that you have held close to your heart for many years. If you cannot think of a dream, then use a story that you love or that your mind often returns to. Write it down as a fairy tale and try to look at it with fresh eyes. How is the dream still benefiting you today? What insight can you gain from the dream? How can you more fully integrate the lessons given to you from your healing dream? Even if the dream was many years ago, it still holds a potent power in your life. This is because our spiritual selves do not work in linear time. Although our bodies decay from birth to death, we are vast, multidimensional beings that are actually operating in different dimensions; we have simply forgotten. Healing dreams help us to remember.
Water Ceremony
This ritual is a ceremony to honor the water on our planet, on mother earth and in our bodies, as well as a rite of healing and cleansing. This ceremony activates the loving Healer within. Many people who vacation at the beach are seeking out water as a healing balm. In the Zulu language of Africa, icibi means lake and icibella means “to patch.” This is because the lake literally patches up the environment, by absorbing toxins and cleansing them. Peoples around the world give offerings and perform ceremonies in water in a myriad of ways. In India, they put the ashes of their departed back “home” in the waters, and in Brazil they honor Yemaya, goddess of the waters, on February 2, giving offerings of fruits and flowers to the ocean.
The best place to do this ritual is at a body of water, at the ocean or a lake, by a spring, next to a river or stream, or even at a well. If it is impossible to make a ritual at such a place, then you can simply fill a large bowl of water and use that, although I do recommend that you find a natural water source, as there are elementals that support and guide your practice. Elementals are spirits of a place and/or an element (water, air, fire, and earth) that protect the energy of that place and work in harmony with the earth. A potent time to start this ceremony is just before sunrise or sunset, so that the transition into day or night happens during the ritual—a transition which in itself is rarely given our complete attention.
The best time to do a healing water ritual is during the waxing or full moon. The full moon is especially beautiful if you can visit the water source at night, as the moonlight reflecting on the water brings more power to the space. This ceremony can be combined with giving offerings to the ancestors and/or a full moon ritual. It can be very simple and quiet, or longer with a lot of music and song; it can be done alone or in a group. Gather together what you will need for your ceremony: a blue or silver silken cloth (or any cloth you can use as an altar on the ground); offerings for the four cardinal directions; an oil lamp (if possible, although this is not necessary; this consists of a small clay or ceramic shallow bowl, a string wick, and a bit of oil to keep the fire burning—unlike candles, it will not blow out); incense; rattles and other sound makers; small boats to float offerings such as coconut shells, pieces of wood, or large leaves; small offerings such as tiny stones, sand, fruit, or bits of ash for the boat; a large bag full of flower petals such as roses, daisies, bougainvillea, or if it is fall or winter, you can use leaves and berries; several small bowls; water brought from your home.
If your spot is at a public place, such as in a park or a public beach, find an area that is farthest away from people. If you are in a group, you may need to be mindful of how your presence will affect those around you. This ceremony can be done gently and quietly without attracting too much attention; however, if you can find a secluded spot, all the better. You may use your small oil lamp or build a fire, depending on where you are. Set up the space with your ceremonial items by first laying down the cloth, then putting your offerings in each of the four directions. Pile your offerings of flower petals and/or gathered plant pieces in the center of the cloth. Light the incense and oil lamp or make a fire. Then create your sacred space, giving offerings of water from your home to the seven directions to honor the elementals of the place.
After calling the directions, honoring earth, sky, and center, then sit quietly and listen deeply to the sounds of the place: the trickle of the stream, the crash of the waves, the quiet lapping of lake ripples, or the echo of water dripping into the well. Spend at least twenty minutes sitting in silence, quietly allowing the sound, the smell, the vision of the water to fill up your senses, your being. Close your eyes after some time and feel the air on your skin and continue listening to the sounds, allowing yourself to merge with the water. Visualize your heart opening to the others in the circle and to the water. If you feel a desire to call a goddess of the water, you may choose Yemaya, Oshun, Mami Wata, or Aphrodite. You may wish to call the power of the water itself, or any water spirit you feel a connection with, or simply the energy of water to bless you. Focus on your breath for several moments once you have done this, then get up and fill one of the small bowls with water from the water source. Add some of your water from your house, saying, “Water spirits, may you bless this water, this melding of place and self, breath and spirit.” Then sprinkle the water on yourself and all the others present. Sprinkle the water on the altar as well, on the objects there and the flower petals. Visualize yourself as the Healer, casting healing waters on each person.
Then sing a song that you feel connects you to water. You may choose to use your sound makers now, rattling and soft drumming as appropriate for the space. Sing for some time, allowing your voices to rise and fall like the water, finding their own rhythm. If you feel uncomfortable singing, then spend time free toning, simply allowing your voice to open to sound coming through it. Imagine your voice as a gift to the water and earth.
After some time, the singing will begin to slow, then end. Again spend time in quiet space, watching as the night turns to day or the day to night, listening to the change in sounds that accompany the earth turning. Then have everyone gather their small “boat” of wood or coconut along with many flower petals and bring them to the water side. As you sit by the water, place an offering on your boat to float on the water. It can be very simple, such as a few petals, or more elaborate with incense and an oil lamp even, if it is okay to float this. One of the most beautiful images is a small flame on water and can evoke a sense of awe.
This is a deliberate and specific offering to the water spirit herself. You are giving a gift of healing to the waters of the earth. Contemplate the power and beauty of water as you construct your small boat using what you have gathered before the ceremony. This is an act of deep gratitude, a gift to the water and thanks for the nourishment it feeds you. Float your boats out into the water, perhaps singing or chanting a song.
After floating the small offerings, gather your flower petals into your lap. These you will also float into the water to ask for healing. You may begin with yourself, but then offer petals to the people you know who need healing, including both people you love and people you dislike. Offer petals for places on earth that need help, countries, environments, lands and waters, governments that will benefit from the healing power of water. Again, take your time and do this for a while, singing or chanting as you feel to. If you are leading this ceremony, you may want to use a soft rattle to accompany this process of healing. Watch as the flower petals take to the current and visualize them drifting to those who will benefit your healing work. When you are finished, return to the altar space and close the sacred circle. You may wish then to share the water you brought from home, or perhaps some food you brought with you. It is also a nice time to just sit with each other after the ritual, admiring the water and connecting through sharing what you have experienced. When you have done ceremony at a particular place by the water, you form a connection to this place and carry it with you in your heart. You can visualize going back there when you do rituals at home, with the power of the water assisting your magical work.
9. www.ammachi.org.
10. Naomi Doumbia, “African Goddess: Mother of Shadow and Light.”
11. This story by Robert San Souci is adapted here with his permission from the following source: Robert D. San Souci and Brian Pinkney (illustrator), Sukey and the Mermaid. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1992.
12. Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, p. 263.
13. Walker, p. 266.
14. Adama and Naomi Doumbia, The Way of the Elders, p. 120.