Medicine Woman
by Roslyne Sophia Breillat
(Music: Hidden Queen by Maia Oden)
For thousands of years she has lived serenely as natural custodian of the earth. And for thousands of years she has lovingly bestowed an intricate wealth of instinctive wisdom as the natural custodian of medicinal plants.
Within her female psyche she carries a simple yet profound knowing of plant and herbal lore, of mysterious magic and of magical mystery.
Her body embraces an innate affinity with the curative power of her beloved natural medicine. The flowing threads of this affinity have woven their wise ways and their wise deeds through many generations. They have been essential for the health, healing, vitality, strength and wellbeing of families, cultures, countries and communities. She is Lady Bountiful, healer, muse, witch, herbalist, medicine woman. And for this she has been tortured. And for this she has been persecuted. And despite such unrest, she still rests within the psyche of every woman.
Her body represents the body of the earth for she is the soul of the earth. Her body is soft, yielding, powerful, strong, open, surrendered. And within her female body and psyche she carries a wealth and a depth of ancient knowing that is forgotten, suppressed, feared and ignored by contemporary civilisation. Her abundant plants and herbs are essential medicines for the physical body. Her wild wisdom is essential medicine for the soul. And her profound love is essential medicine for her lovers, her family, her children.
Every culture and every tribe has long revered the medicine woman as sacred, wise, holy, powerful, deeply rooted and deeply grounded in the flow of nature’s ways and rhythms. Long ago she was acknowledged as an integral part of the earth’s wild heart. Like Mother Nature’s solid rocks, majestic trees and open valleys, she carries the earth’s healing mysteries within her womb.
She knows the deep wisdom and life-giving power contained within every nourishing leaf, berry, root, fruit and flower within her environment. And she is at one with this nurturing power of Mother Earth’s healing wisdom because she is at one with the healing power of life.
She knows instinctively and intuitively with every cell of her being which plants are poisonous and which plants are beneficial for vibrant health. She knows which plant to reach for to create healthy conception and pregnancy, abundant milk flow, pain free menstruation, childbirth and menopause.
She knows which plants to use for welcoming new life and which plants to use for easing the journey of death. She anoints new babes with the gentleness of her nurturing plants as they take their first breath upon the earth. And she anoints the dying as they take their last breath before being gathered into the womb of the earth.
Her beloved plants heal and nourish. Her beloved plants create harmony and balance. Her beloved plants are an integral part of her as they are an integral part of the earth. She is an offering of healing. And she is an offering of love.
All medicines originally came from the earth, for Mother Nature is so generously beneficent in providing for her children. Her healing plants are too often perceived as annoying weeds that disrupt the discordant presence of concrete buildings and noisy highways. They ramble wildly along meandering pathways and winding roadsides. They tumble joyfully down steep hidden gullies. They sprout prolifically between narrow rock crevices. They nestle sweetly in shady places along damp fertile riverbanks. They trail gently around the roots of tall trees and they spread haphazardly across sunny open spaces.
Some healing plants flourish in cool dark places protected by ancient standing stones. Others thrive in hot dry places enlivened by the warmth of the sun. Healing herbs dance chaotically across the desert’s colourful landscape and throughout the forest’s lush wilderness. Healing herbs spontaneously grow underfoot in tidy suburban backyards and neat city parklands. Healing herbs rise gracefully from the ocean’s floor, dancing and swaying with the flowing currents of tides and sea. And each one grows within the rhythms of the earth, emanating precious vital elixir from its sap, from its juice, from its life-giving cells.
The more that modern society moves away from the integral wisdom of the earth, the more it produces substances, products, foods and medicines that are alien to the body, to the spirit and to Mother Nature’s innate capacity for natural healing.
Modern medicine does not recognise, acknowledge or trust that everything we need for healing is already here and that we are surrounded daily by the glorious bounty of every necessary herb and plant. Modern medicine has forgotten about the life giving elixir of the female essence and about the life enhancing balm of love. Modern medicine has followed science instead of following the natural rhythms of the body and of the earth.
Every woman becomes Medicine Woman when she attunes with the subtle depth of her love and the innate qualities of her natural healing power. Every woman becomes Medicine Woman when her body and spirit harmonise with the gentle wisdom of the earth’s natural cycles. Every woman contains the potential to live and love as the embodiment of Mother Earth. For the true medicine woman walks, talks, loves, lives and breathes with the earth.
She knows the earth’s spirit in the icy breath that swirls the delicate snowflakes and in the fiery breath that heats the sun. She knows the earth as her love. Her dance of life emanates from the heart song, the womb song, the earth song. She is the keeper of medicine. She is the keeper of wisdom. She is the birth keeper and she is the death keeper. She is the keeper of ancient healing secrets. She is the custodian of all that is sacred.
She is the Rainbow Serpent carving steep ravines, dancing streams and undulating valleys that meander through the clay of the earth and nurture her healing plants. She is the old Spider Woman weaving the wisdom of her magical web.
She is the powerful creation of new life. She is the powerful destruction of old life. She is the medicine of the earth and the earth is her medicine.
Her breasts are the mountains reaching to the sky. Her yoni is the sacred cave leading deep into the earth’s treasure. The juices of her womb form the torrents of the mighty rivers and the clarity of the pristine lakes. Look deeply into her eyes and you will see beyond the stars, beyond the moon. Enter the blackness of her womb and you will burn in the fire of her passion, in the abyss of her love, as you sip the inspirational magic of her healing medicine, the sweet elixir of her healing balm.
She is the ocean into which all the great rivers flow and pour the gift of their healing waters.She is the fiery molten power of the volcano that erupts from the heart of the earth. Her soft round belly heaves as her call of love echoes upon the wind.
Are you ready for her? Can you see her? Can you hear her? Can you feel her shifting, shaking, quivering, roaring, as she dances her dance of wildness, her dance of earth, air, water, fire? Can you take all that she has to give? Can you give all to her? Are you ready for her? For she is your medicine, woman. She is your Medicine Woman. She is your love.
Look into her eyes, she is wise. She tells sacred stories. She lives within sacred stones. She sings the cycles of the moon and she dances the cycles of the seasons. She stands tall, her outstretched arms reaching gracefully to the heavens. She squats low, her strong thighs supported by the earth. She is wisdom. She is grace. Support her and life will support you. Ignore her and you will lose a vital part of you, an integral part of you that draws upon the heart of the earth for the radiance of its beauty and depth of its power.
Her womb carries the blood mysteries of her forebears. Her magical alchemy swirls and blends the essential ingredients of her healing nectar within the vast cauldron of life. Her love is medicine for her beloved, for her womb carries the delicious elixir of truth. When she makes love the vast power of Mother Earth pours forth from the eternal wellspring of her immortal abyss.
Embrace her power, sip her medicine, sing her song, dance with her, play with her, honour her. For hers is the most musical of songs, the most divine of dances. Or will you hide in your rut of complacency and ignorance, pretending that the earth and the female spirit are not undergoing an awesome change right now?
Can you feel her presence? Can you hear her beyond the roaring of the traffic? Can you hear her beyond the roaring of the ocean? Can you hear her beyond the roaring of the storm? Can you feel her beyond the roaring of your thoughts? Can you taste the healing sweetness of her medicine? Can you drink the healing power of her truth?
2009 © Roslyne Sophia Breillat
© Sophia is a woman who lives, writes and paints from the heart
© Email ~ sophia@wildheartwisdom.com
© Website ~ www.wildheartwisdom.com
Hidden Queen CD
by Maia Oden
This music is dedicated to the Creative Source from which it came, that which continually creates us and creates with us.
Maia Oden
Price: $15.00
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Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers:
The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation
by Stephen Harrod Buhner
This is the first comprehensive book ever written on the sacred aspects of indigenous, historical psychotropic and herbal healing beers of the world.
Paperback: 450 pages
Price: $19.95
"Filled with nourishment for the soul, body, and mind, this book is a unique view of the intersection between herbal medicine and fermentation. It will delight anyone interests in herbs, honey, brewing and folktales. Great Book!" -- Susun S. Weed
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A
City Herbal
by Maida Silverman.
The wild plants of the city are
potent herbal medicines and nutritious wild edibles, as
well as sources of comfort, fiber, and dyes. Learn to recognize
and use 34 of them. 192 pages, index, illustrations.
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“A City Herbal by Maida Silverman is a delightful way to get acquainted with wild herbs that you have no doubt walked on or over without ever dreaming how useful they can be. It has increased my interest and curiosity a hundredfold and I’m sure it will do the same for you.” -James Beard
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