What are the characteristics of the
shamanic healer? What ought a shamanic healer not
do? Here's my beginning list of the characteristics
of shamanic healers/herbalists. Please change and
transform as you will, as you wish, in person, on
the Web, and in dreamtime.
1 * Shamanic healers and herbalists
answer to universal law; they do not need permission
from, nor to be licensed by, man's law.
2 * Shamanic healers and herbalists
work without regard for payment, but absolutely insist
on being honored for and supported in the work they
do.
3 * Shamanic healers and herbalists
use local herbs, harvested in ways that sustain or
build plant populations. They talk/pray with the plants
and accord them power, dignity, and sentience.
4 * Shamanic healers and herbalists
use psychoactive plants as healing allies. They frequently
keep a personal supply on hand, plus enough for apprentices.
Restrictions on the use of these plants unfairly prevents
shamanic herbalists/healers from accessing needed
information.
5 * As shamanic healers and herbalists
may be very limited in their ability to read and write;
written tests are of little or no use is determining
their knowledge, wisdom, or worth.
6 * Shamanic healers may be quite limited
in their understanding of Western anatomy, physiology,
and chemistry. Nonetheless, each shamanic healer has
a "story" about the nature of the world(s)
s/he inhabits, and a vision of the health/wholeness
toward which individual patients are moving.
7 * Shamanic healers use drama and ceremony;
whether public or private, a shamanic healing is rhythmic,
colorful, memorable, and suffused with the unexpected,
unique gifts of the moment.
8 * Shamanic healers use the power of
kundalini/life force. They may be raunchy, suggestive,
and lewd. They generally do not engage in genital
sex with their patients/clients, however, nor do they
imply or state that their healing help can be best
accessed through sexual connection.
Resources
1. This reference has been removed by request of the reference
herself for the sake of privacy.
2. Richard Evens Schultes, Robert F. Raffauf. Vine
of the Soul. 1992, Synergetic Press.
3. DNA tests strongly suggest that humans began to change
or "cultivate" psychoactive plants about 40,000
years ago. The earliest validated date for cultivation
of food plants is 10,000 years. Is it four times more
important to us to dependably fill our minds than to dependably
fill our bellies?
4. Isla Burgess. Weeds Heal, A Working Herbal.
1998, Veriditas Publishing.
5. Stephen Buhner. Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological
Importance of Plant Medicine to Life on Earth. 2001,
6. Alvaro Estrada. Maria Sabina, Her Life and Chants.
1981, Ross-Erickson.
7. Schultes, Hoffman & Ratsch. Plants of the Gods.
1998, Healing Arts Press.
8. Ray Thorpe. Happy High Herbs. 2001, Possibility.com
9. Chris Kilham. Psychedilicacies. 2001, Rodale.
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