Article: Spirit and Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition by Susun S. Weed

[Guest guest]

A wonderful article IMHO ...

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

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http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Spirit_WiseWoman.htm

 

 

Spirit and Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition

c. 2001 by Susun S. Weed

 

 

 

As we enter the twenty-second century, herbal medicine is being

integrated into mainstream medicine in the United States. Or is it the

other way around? Are we in danger of adopting the limited, linear

scientific view of a practice that is also considered an art? Are we

abandoning the sense of delight that drew us to herbal medicine? Are we

vulnerable to needing to be validated from outside because we don't

value ourselves highly enough?

 

In order to answer these questions, we will use the model of the Three

Traditions of Healing--Scientific, Heroic, and Wise Woman. Knowing the

differences between these three views allows us to become informed

consumers of health care, to repossess the power of our

health/wholeness/holiness in a new and uniquely functional manner, and

to maintain our dignity as herbalists in a world dominated by

scientists.

 

I want to focus on the Wise Woman Tradition, its spirit and practice,

because I believe it offers us a way to look at what we have as

herbalists, and what society seems to be offering us, and to make a

better-informed choice as to the path ahead.

 

What Are the Three Traditions of Healing?

 

The three traditions are ways of thinking, not ways of acting. Any

technique, any substance can be used in any tradition. There are

scientific and heroic midwives as well as wise woman midwives; there are

MDs who are heroic and those who act as wise women, as well as

scientific ones. There are scientific herbalists, heroic herbalists, and

wise woman herbalists. There are preferred ways of working in each

tradition, granted, but surgery is not restricted to the scientific

realm, nor is a shamanic trance strictly relegated to the realm of the

wise woman. To determine the tradition of the practitioner, we must look

at the thoughts that lie behind their use of any form of healing.

 

Each one of us contains some aspects of each tradition. And these

different aspects may want different things -- at different times -- or

at the same time. The scientific aspect wants facts, the heroic aspect

wants to be told what to do, and the wise woman aspect smiles and offers

you a bowl of soup and some bread and cheese she made herself. As I

define the characteristics of each tradition, identify the part of

yourself that thinks that way.

 

The Scientific Tradition defines truth as measurable and repeatable. The

whole is the same as its most active part. Herbs are reduced to

standardized extracts; only the active ingredient is important. Healing

is fixing. Linear thought, linear time. Good and bad, health and

sickness always at war.

 

Nature is mechanized. Bodies are machines. Anything that deviates from

normal needs to be fixed. Measurements determine deviation; drugs insure

normalcy. Plants are potential drugs, safe only in the hands of licensed

experts.

 

The legalized use of herbs in Germany follows the scientific model.

Herbs are available by prescription and paid for by National Insurance

because they are viewed and treated as drugs. Herbs are available only

to those with a prescription written by an MD, who has received little

or no training in the use of herbs, so the overall effect is to severely

limit the use of herbal medicine and its availability.

 

Ready access to a wide variety of manufactured herbal medicines is a

freedom that many American herbalists seem to take for granted. It is

due, in part, to the strength of the Heroic tradition.

 

The Heroic Tradition is not one unified tradition, but many similar ones

collectively known the Heroic tradition. Predating the scientific

tradition, the heroic view sees that the whole is a circle made up of

all its parts -- body, mind, and spirit.

 

Sickness is caused by pollution of the body, mind, or spirit. Healing is

the removal of the corruption, the detoxification. Puking, purging and

bleeding. Removing curses. Cleansing the colon and the aura. Making

everything light.

 

We are all filthy sinners. We have to pay for our fun. No pain, no gain.

If it tastes bitter it is good for you. Food is the first addiction,

learned at the mothers' breast. Control yourself. Control your thoughts.

Control your appetites. Control you desires. If you want to get to

heaven, follow the rules.

 

If you are sick, it is your own fault. You were negative. You were bad.

You ate the wrong food, thought the wrong thought, sinned. You stepped

outside the charmed circle. You need a savior, purification and

punishment. The Heroic healer saves the day thanks to rare substances,

exotic herbs, and complicated formulae. Powerful, drug-like herbs (such

as cayenne and golden seal) and vitamin and mineral pills are favored

remedies in this tradition. Most books on herbal medicine, and many on

nutrition, are written by men of the Heroic tradition.

 

Wise Woman Tradition is the world's oldest healing tradition. Its symbol

is the spiral. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Life is a

spiraling, ever-changing completeness. Disease and injury are doorways

of transformation. Each one of us is inherently whole, yet seeking

greater wholeness; perfect, yet desiring greater perfection.

Whole/healthy/holy. Substance, thought, feeling, and spirit inseparable

intertwined.

 

Good health may be freedom from disease, but it is also openness to

change, flexibility, and compassionate embodiment, even when dancing

with cancer or healing from a serious accident. Uniqueness rather than

normalcy. Not a cure, but an integration; not the elimination of the

bad, but a nourishing of wholeness/health/holiness.

 

Nourishment of wholeness/health/holiness is invisible, simple, grounded,

holographic, both/and, ever-changing, woman-centered, and compassionate.

 

Nourishment is Invisible

 

Invisible as a bowl of soup. The World Health Organization says ninety

percent of the health care provided in the world is given by women in

their own homes. Invisibly. With a smile. A hug. A word of praise. In

small daily increments, the wise woman builds the health of herself, her

family, her community, her country, her world. She does it in the Tao,

so she is invisible.

 

Nourishment is Simple

 

Simple as the weeds in the garden. Simple as in one thing at a time.

Simple as in easy. Simple, common, single, unique. Open to subtlety,

simply. The wise woman uses what is local and common, allying herself

with one plant at a time, matching the uniqueness of the plant with the

uniqueness of the person.

 

Nourishment is Grounded

 

Grounded as the earth, flowing with the seasons, ever changing, ever the

same. Seeking to increase the power of the patient. Power flowing from

responsibility. Planting the patient in the ground, to become rooted, to

delve deep, to gain a foundation to grow up from. Praising the gift of

the body, the ground of our being. Eating from the ground, locally,

organically.

 

Holographic Nourishment

 

Holographic images contain the whole in every part. The more parts there

are, the clearer the image. The wise woman nourishes all the parts of

the unique individual so they become clearer, more filled with life. The

wise woman herbalist gathers holographic plants, not active ingredients,

not flower essences, but the amazing, complex, vital hologram of healing

that her green ally gives away. A hologram that nourishes all parts,

integrates all the parts, both/and.

 

Both/and Universe

 

The both/and universe embraces all possibilities. Allows distinction,

sees beyond opposition. Yin and yang cooperate, reach consensus. Walking

in beauty along the rainbow path of peace. We are all alive and dead,

whole and piecemeal, healthy and sick, good and bad.

 

No Diseases, No Cures, No Healers

 

Woman-centered, heart centered, the Wise Woman tradition has no rules,

no texts, no rites. It is constantly changing, constantly being

re-invented, open to the ever-changing perfection of the eternal moment.

The focus is on the person, not the problem, nourishing not curing,

self-healing not healing another. A give-away dance of exploration and

experience, with no answer to the question " why? " No blame, no shame, no

guilt, no reason, no answer ever to " why? "

 

The Six Steps of Healing

 

The Wise Woman tradition offers self-healing options as diverse as the

human imagination and as complex as the human psyche. How confusing! We

need a way to cut through the confusion and decide which option to use

when. I call it the Six Steps of Healing, a hierarchy based on the

concept: " First do no harm. "

 

Step 0 - Do Nothing

Step 1 - Collect Information

Step 2 - Engage the Energy

Step 3 - Nourish and Tonify

Step 4 - Stimulate & Sedate

Step 5 - Use Drugs

Step 6 - Break & Enter

 

I see the wise woman. From her shoulders, a mantle of power flows.

I see the wise woman at her loom. Every thread is different, each

perfect and splendid, alive with sound and color.

I see the wise woman. She is old and black and walks with the aid of a

beautifully carved stick. She speaks in song, in story, in dance. She

lives in every herb.

I see the wise woman. And she sees me. She winks at me and spreads her

arms.

" These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. Every pain,

every plant, every problem is cherished. Night is loved for darkness,

day for light. Uniqueness is our treasure, not normalcy.

" These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. Receive

abundance with compassion, knowing you will be food for others. Know

that dying is a portal just as birth is. Celebrate all comings and

goings, they are the turnings of the spiral.

" These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. The joy of

life is the give- away. You are the center of your universe. You are the

axis, life's matrix, the still point in the ever-moving. The designs of

the universe radiate through you. You are god/dess, unique and whole. "

I see the wise woman. And she sees me. She smiles from shrines in

thousands of places. She is buried in the ground of every country. She

flows in every river and pulses in the oceans. The wise woman's robe

flows down your back, centering you in the ever-changing, ever-spiraling

mystery.

Everywhere I look, the wise woman looks back. And she smiles.

 

This is an excerpt from Healing Wise.

 

Susun Weed - PO Box 64, Woodstock, NY 12498 (fax) 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com <http://www.herbshealing.com/>

and www.ashtreepublishing.com <http://www.ashtreepublishing.com/>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Chris,

Thank you for sharing this article with the group. It is AWESOME! We

always need articles like this to remind us of our paths in this life.

Again, Thank You!

Sincerely,

Rhavda Emison

Scents of Success (http://www.scentsofsuccess.com)

 

>A wonderful article IMHO ...

>

>*Smile*

>Chris (list mom)

>http://www.alittleolfactory.com

>

>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>

>http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Spirit_WiseWoman.htm

>

>

>Spirit and Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition

>c. 2001 by Susun S. Weed

>

>

>

>As we enter the twenty-second century, herbal medicine is being

>integrated into mainstream medicine in the United States. Or is it the

>other way around? Are we in danger of adopting the limited, linear

>scientific view of a practice that is also considered an art? Are we

>abandoning the sense of delight that drew us to herbal medicine? Are we

>vulnerable to needing to be validated from outside because we don't

>value ourselves highly enough?

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sharing Susan's wise woman ways with us Chris. She is

indeed a remarkable woman and I always enjoy her perspective.

 

Michelle

http://www.holisticmenopause.com