From the beginnings,
there has been the feminine healing found from the environment they lived
in.Much respect and dignity for those
who follow in the known healing ways.(I
acknowledge the masculine healers as well, but this is for my sisters). There
is balance needed, of course.Women were
the bearers of medicine, of the next generations.They needed to keep their men healthy to
provide.They needed to keep their
children healthy for assurance that their tribe would grow.They shared their information, experiments
and findings with each other.They had
the younger ones gather and be taught and would answer any questions to help
them know more about healing things, properties, even magics.There was, in our ancient feminine times,
many feminine secrets about life, birth and death.(Read the Red Tent, if you have not).
Women were warriors,
they were strong, they were adaptable, they were keen and curious, and they
were always on the look out for healing things in their environments.They developed customs around healing, around
pregnancies, around births, are care for infants and children, around puberty,
around gender and age; all specific ways of keeping healthy, around menopause,
and aging and death.
Most of their healing
properties came from the nature they came to know in dearest and desperate
ways.They learned whether to dry, to
pulse, to grind, to eat raw, to eat cooked or burned, to use as rubs, to use as
oils, etc.Many of these exact plants
have been passed down through the ages.They taught their daughters what to use as tinctures, what to use as
powders, what to use as poultices or salves, what to ingest and what not
to.They learned what worked for pain,
to help with infections, how to treat aching bones and muscles, what to use for
stomach problems, what to use for headaches or toothaches, what to use for
cuts, what to use for broken bones and what to use fo rashes.Later they learned what to use for asthma and
chest ailments, what to use for diabetes, what to use for cancers, what to use
for gall or kidney stones, what to use for each new ways of knowing what can
ail their people.
They were a great
deal of protocols that went with gathering, with using, and many used tobacco
offerings, with many certain types of prayers and songs to use.They knew even dances (jingle dresses and
dance being one).They always always
gave thanks.They harvested only what
they needed and they never hurt the plants.
There is a story from
the Algonquian that tell of a Medicine Woman in the Moon who teaches us and
protects us, and has us keep some medicines to our own, and to learn such
things may take a long long time when she deems it necessary to teach us.There once was a powerful woman healer that
was very gifted with healing knowledge.She eventually traveled to the moon to learn more, and sometimes we want
to know more than we should.When she
arrived, she was kept there because we have to be careful who we share healing
mysteries with and how we share them, how we learn about medicines and how to
prepare them.The Old woman of the Moon
will only teach us what we need to know.When the moon is full, we can see her there, waiting for us to be ready
and she is a patient woman.When the
moon is full she can be seeing weaving herself a headband.She desired to know when life would end.She is there, waiting for the answer.Once she finds out the secret, she will
return and will share it.
That is why women should
stand out under the moon.Each of us
might be ready at a different time for different learnings.When we are ready, she will teach us.
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