World Summit of Indigenous Cultures and True Healing

Later this week, I will realize a dream.
It's funny how that happens when we aren't looking.

It leads me to contemplate Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and the passage about seeking and finding. When one is seeking, one does not find because seeking means we have a goal in mind. It could well be that we then overlook what we need to encounter:-)

I received a last minute invitation to speak at the World Summit of Indigenous Cultures in Taiwan and the assistance to do so.

It is an unbelievable honour, but more an honour to share, to learn, to interact with indigenous peoples from five continents to collaborate, participate in the process of collective knowledge and wisdom.

My focus will, of course, highlight the global public discourse on health and healing, the pressing questions, the quests for more than mere alleviation of suffering and true healing, the role of traditional/indigenous healers, knowledge and wisdom and areas of study and application.

As I penned that paper rather hurriedly, I became truly aware of the many pathways of healers and patients, the quests for cures, the curious way in which we are all connected--today increasingly so.

Moreover, I felt as if I retraced the footsteps of my life--the illness that has led me through the Native Americans, the Sioux, the Cherokee, the Navajo, and many others, through indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Maya, to the medicine in Laos and Sierra Leone, Ethiopian, Egyptian and Malaysian healers, Unani, Reiki, Energy, Tibetan and Quranic medicine, and to the diversity within Chinese medicine, informed by region, minority, multiple disciplines and practice. The last of these has more fully consumed my time and life, yet each medicine pulls me in, draws me, inexplicably. I submit, willingly partake of the ritual interaction, the multi-faceted engagement and imbibe the knowledge and experience humbly, appreciatively.

Indeed, each healing modality and medicine share similarities and commonalities. They also offer different ways to live, to experience, to engage and see life!

It has been a lengthy journey shared with many, informed and enriched by those encountered along the way and I thank each and every one of you for sharing it with me, for adding to it by giving the gifts of YOU!

Indeed, there is so much work to be done and so much work in progress--healing on every level.

Perhaps, in totality, it is the "magic Kool-Aid" as my daughter Sabrina would say.
It could well be that the phrase I so often utter is also true...
~One man's magic is another man's medicine.

More clearly, more concretely, the more I see I become more aware of all I do NOT. Yet, one thing is clear...Healing worlds on all levels is being uplifted!

Upon the ancients' shoulders we stand as the Ancients watch over us, whispering in our ears, nudging...waiting for our stillness to listen.

As I travel to Taiwan later this week, partake in the rituals, open my heart/mind and travel to the indigenous villages, I will carry you all within my heart. Together, we will share, learn.
Love and hugs to you all!
http://indigenous.pristine.net/events/2008/wsic/presentations/debra_hayes_en.html

Namaste, 湘君

Pondering Directions and Ix Chel

Within the waves of global public discourse............
between and among healers,
healer to patient,
patient to patient, healer to scientist/researcher and/or M.D.,
so much chatter and musings fill the air.

In the midst of all this, I contemplate, reflect.
During a similar period of time this summer, a book sitting on my bookshelf called to me.
From within it, the light emanated. It revived my soul and spoke to me on so many levels.

After reading SASTUN by Dr. Rosita Arvigo, I had decided that she was and is one of the most amazing healers. It is not surprising that she and don Eligio Panti, the Mayan Healer who taught her entered my paper for presentation next weekend in Taiwan.

Read a bit of her interview from Whole Earth Review, Summer, 1992, by Nadine Epstein and see what enters your streams of consciousness.

FindArticles - Mayan medicine: lunch with Rosita Arvigo, shaman from Chicago - woman from Chicago, Illinois apprentices with Indian healer; includes information on ethnobotany and a list of useful herbs.

More about Rosita and Mayan Healing Quest for Ancient Home Remedies

Picture and further information from Student Rainforest Fund

Namaste, IX Chel (The Goddess of Medicine)