For the Earth People healing and health involves the whole life of a person, rather than just the physical body. Healing and health involves the physical, the emotional, and the mental aspects of a person, as well as their spiritual direction in life. These are the four basic aspects or sides of a person, and each aspect has its particular kinds of needs and its ideal of health and fulfillment.
Each aspect or side of the person can be healthy, more or less, and the degree of health in any one of the aspects will effect the health of all the other aspects. So the person can be understood as four-sided, or composed of four basic aspects, and each of these effects the others. Therefore, complete health and healing involves each and all of these aspects, since they are inter-related and inter-dependent. The physical body effects the emotional life, and the emotional patterns effect the physical. The way one thinks, or how one thinks of oneself and the world, can effect the emotional life and the physical as well. And without spiritual direction and inspiration, or without creative inspiration, the mental life seems a bit lost and confused and the emotional life feels out of touch and insecure. And if the emotional life is upset or in turmoil or dominating, then the person cannot think straight or is unable to meditate and unable to find their spiritual direction in life. If the physical is weak or sick, then the emotional life suffers as well, and one’s thought and creativity is effectually weakened. Examples of this interrelatedness are endless, the point being that every person is multi-sided, comprised of the four aspects, so that true health must involve all these aspects, and the health of any one aspect depends on the relative health of all the other aspects.
Yet complete health is not a static state, nor is it simply a matter of good food and exercise. The physical has its own needs and the emotional its own needs. The emotional life needs the feeling of peace, security, love, friendship, as well as challenge and excitement. The emotional needs are pluralistic and often interwoven with the physical, mental, and spiritual needs. Let the emotions tell of its own particular needs. Listen to your emotions life and your feelings, to hear what is being asked and needed. The mental life is seeking understanding, about oneself and others and the world in general, and it is seeking coherency and logic in the order and events of the world. Sometimes the mind is troubled, because it cannot seem to make sense of things, or it is trying to solve some problem, so the troubled mind is the mind seeking its own health and harmony of being.
The mind will also be seeking spiritual direction in life, or spiritual purpose, or some creative aim which feels meaningful and significant. The illumination and unfoldment of this spiritual or creative purpose becomes a great healing for the mental and emotional life, because this gives purpose to one’s life, a purpose and direction which relates one with a greater view of life. This helps one realize their spiritual relatedness to other lives of creation, and how one fits into the greater picture or circle of life. This spiritual awakening, or inspiration, may emerge gradually, and it will gradually harmonize and give direction to the other aspects of the person. So true, complete healing can be thought of as a gradual life-process, as the emotional life is gradually fulfilled, as the mind gradually comprehends more of the greater picture of life, and as the spiritual and creative purpose is gradually awakened and gradually fulfilled. Therefore we can see the whole life of the person, in each and all their aspects, gradually coming to fulfillment, as the the various aspects are harmonized and integrated and interwoven into one complete health. And healing, in its greater meaning, is continuous, as long as the spiritual purpose, the understanding, and the relational love continues to grow and unfold. Health is understood as a relative balance in the person or in the body, while healing is really continuous as the person achieves ever-greater self-integration, harmony, beauty, and understanding, within oneself and also with the social and physical environment around them.
Balance and related integration are central to the ideal of health, and to become more balanced and integrated, in all our aspects, is true healing. And this balance and integration is not just about oneself, but also involves our relationship with others and the environment. Our life, our emotions and understanding and creativity necessarily exist within the context of our world or the environment So health and healing of the whole person, or even of just the body, cannot be separated from the health and healing of the environment and the other lives of our world. Each of us exist in relation to a greater field of life and in relation to the various energies of the world around us. The idea of a separate self is an illusion or false concept of the mind. So each must find integration and balance in oneself, and this self-integration must find its integration with the energies and lives of the world. Being in balance, or in health, then must involve a harmonious balance and integration with one’s social community and with the natural environment. This harmonious and balanced relationship between the person and the environment is an emotional, ethical, and creative relationship, as well as physical. It involves a responsibility in relation to the environment, or an ability to respond cooperatively to the needs of the environment, respecting and responding to the needs of the environment as well as to one’s own needs. In fact, the self needs and the environmental needs, and also the community needs, must be seen as relating and working together. The needs of the whole must all be fulfilled together, and then each life within the whole is benefited Separation is ill-health, while integration is health and promotes ongoing process of healing.
The Native View recognizes this relationship between each life and its environment, or between oneself and the world. And this relationship is not merely physical, in the sense that each life depends on resources and food from its environment, but also is spiritual, in the sense that the various lives and forms of the environment are meaningful to one’s own self-understanding and to one’s emotional feeling of unity and harmony with the world. because this Native View recognizes the whole world as one’s greater Self. The world, including all natural forms, is seen as a reflection of one’s whole self, and the self is seen as reflecting the forms and qualities of the world. The great Unity of Life is acknowledged, and the native person seeks to cooperate and harmonize with this greater unity of life. At the same time the person seeks to creatively express beauty and nurture beauty and harmony in life. One is nurturing and expressing the wholeness, the harmony and the beauty, through the physical, the emotions, the mind, and the creative will, and this is the ideal of complete health and balance. Thus health is not static, because it involves an ongoing process of harmonization, within oneself and with the environment, and an ongoing feeling of emotional connectiveness, and an ongoing unfoldment of creativity towards enhancing the beauty and harmony of life. One respects the unique beauty and expressive qualities of each life within the Whole, and allows that beauty to unfold and be-as-it-is, and one also respects and allows the expressive and creative qualities of oneself to unfold.
The natural lives around us express unique creative beauty, and so can each of us, if we respect and allow our creative and expressive potentials to unfold. And just as each natural life seeks to empower and enhance its own survival and creative expression, but also serves the well-being and nurturance of other lives within its ecology, so too can we, as human beings. Our human creativity and expressive will does need to be in conflict with the sustaining and nurturing of the greater ecology in which we live. If it does, then this creativity is coming from a short-sighted and emotionally selfish perspective. It is ultimately coming from a misunderstanding of life as it really is. It is coming from the illusion of separation and the misguided thought that one can be fulfilled without respect to the greater whole of which any life is just a part. Selfishness, or creativity without regard to others and the environment, is ultimately stupidity, since it fails to see the interrelatedness of life and how one’s self-fulfillment is interdependent with the needs of the greater environment, both physical and social. But because humans have been given a greater power of freedom and a greater potential for diversity of self-expression, we unfortunately have the potential to act stupidly and harmfully, with disregard to the greater whole in which we live, and so unnecessary pain and imbalances are caused in the world.
So healing must also involve the relieving of pain and imbalances caused by selfishness and stupidity. This is re-establishing the harmony and balance which was upset and distorted by unenlightened activities of man and society. The Native View recognizes an inherent intelligence of Nature, which is continually in process towards harmony, integration and balance, and this intelligence of Nature works within the human being as well. But the human mind and free will is capable of creating a separation within oneself and also with the environment, and thus the natural intelligence within is denied and suppressed, and the intelligence of Nature is denied and fought against, so that imbalances and disharmonies are then created within oneself and in the environment, all of which makes it ever-more difficult for Nature to heal itself since there is this continual struggle against that natural healing intelligence. Because of this past and present struggle between the free-will and Nature, much of healing will involve a dis-arming of the fight against Nature and a re-establishing of respect and creative harmony with Nature. This to do with the natural environment, as well as within oneself. So, on one hand, healing must deal with what’s gone wrong and out of balance, and seek to re-establish the lost harmony and unity. And on the other hand, healing involves nurturing and enhancing the harmony, health and beauty, which is still present in oneself and in the world. The greater process of healing is this enhancement and unfoldment of self-wholeness, of balance, of enjoyment, of true understanding, and of one’s creative potentials for increasing beauty and fulfillment for all life. It is a continuous path towards a greater comprehension of all life, the diversity within the unity, a wonderful journey towards greater spiritual wholeness and connective relatedness to all lives, and a continuous unfoldment of the beauty of the nature within, the unfoldment of our own natural, spiritual self in relation with the spiritual Nature all around us. The spiritual journey is the unfoldment of the Nature, or Spirit, within, as well as being of help and service to the spiritual lives around us. The unfoldment of our Nature, or Spirit, is the unfoldment of our natural, spiritual intelligence and love and creativity, all of which is inherent within us and ready to grow and expand, like the seed of a tree. Let your true nature grow and expand and be fulfilled. This is the great unfoldment and the greater healing. Then, along the way we must also heal the temporary imbalances of the body, emotions and mind, and the suppression of the spiritual nature within us. This healing of the imbalances requires a balance of two basic forces or activities. On the one hand, the way to healing imbalances requires an attitude and energy of trust and letting nature heal itself. This applies to the healing of the environment, as well as to oneself or to another person. And on the other hand, the way to healing and re-establishing balance requires a decisive and intentional directing of energy, which may involve a clearing of old energies and patterns and may also involve a directed energizing and re-establishment of the natural flow. In other words, it may involve a removal or clearing of the pain or obstruction to the healing flow, like the clearing of trash or debris, and it may also involve a concentration of healing energy (vital and intelligent force) in areas of weakness, and this renewed healing energy may come from outside that particular energy field or it may come from retrieving and allowing forth the inherent energy which became lost or suppressed or blocked or merely forgotten.
Our understanding grows as to what kind of energy or medicine is most needed in any situation, and we are more able to project and circulate that energy for healing and harmony. Medicine Healers and Shamans will use or project different kinds of energy, vibration, or qualities of Spirit for particular purposes. Understanding and experienced skill in this is known as wisdom. There is only one Great Spirit, one great energy of Love, or one great Source of all good Medicine. And yet, there are many forms, kinds and qualities of this primal energy, which many believe is the Solar love-energy of Grandfather Sun, though our Great Sun is but a Star among many Grandfathers Who purely transmit the One Light of Universal Spirit.
There is only One Light, though this comes in many ways and many colors. And it emerges from many centers of Being. We believe the Great Light can emerge from anywhere, if It is welcomed and received. The Wise Medicine Healers use particular qualities of energy and particular vibrations, according to the need. This is somewhat a science and somewhat an intuitive art. The main key in knowing what energies and vibrations are best in any case is by being sensitive to the changes in an energy field as it is receptive to new energies, and adjusting the energy and vibration toward a feeling of harmony and balance.
In other words, the right energy and vibration will be that which creates harmony and balance, or that which restores the inherent harmony of the person or situation. The focus is not on what is wrong or on negative symptoms. The focus and sensitivity is on feeling the restoration or the unfoldment of harmony and the circulation of vitality. When the focus is on the ideal or the intended solution, or on the feeling for right harmonious vibration, then the energies transmitted by the healer naturally adjust to meet the need or complete the ideal. Those involved with healing should pay particular attention to these laws. Other important rules for healing include right intention and purification methods. The healer needs to be clear and sincere in the intention to serve what is best for the greater harmony, and should be patient enough to wait for the right time which is only when there is full receptiveness and agreement to healing. The healer also needs to be pure of disturbing or stale energy, which can be rid of by aura cleansing through smudge fire or bathing or a purifying ritual.
The healer must also prepare the person or situation by one of these methods of purification. Also the healer must be rightly balanced and attuned to the highest light or vibration of Great Spirit, or attuned with a greater Spiritual Presence or Healing Helper. For a Christian this might be Jesus or Christ, or for a Native this might be a great Medicine Ancestor, or it could be your highest spiritual Guide, or it might simply be your most complete connection with Great Spirit or God. Also, the healer must become a focal point or medium for the greater energies and right vibration to come through, which requires that one be in the attitude of service and allow oneself to be of use to Great Spirit. Also, there are two approaches in healing, which can apply to both energy healing and medicine tincture healing. The one approach is to add or apply certain energies or vibrations to the person. This adding should have a harmonizing effect. The other approach is to use a vibration or make an energy environment which will nurture or resonate the inherent healing powers of the person to come forth.
This could be called nurturing or helping to bring forth the soul quality of the person, which is the healing and harmonizing vibration already inherent within the person. This soul energy would come into expression if it could, but it is often blocked by disturbances and impurities of the emotional body or by false beliefs and confused patterns of thought. Therefore, the healer can attempt to help the natural soul intelligence emerge, but there must also be work done to purify the emotional and mental aspects of the person. Often used are techniques such as emotional energy clearing, expressive catharsis, dialogue (didactic?) counseling, dream work, visualized journeying and vision quests. The first step in all healing is usually to do with some form of purification or letting go of the old substances and patterns of the emotional or mental body, because it is usually this stuff which is causing disturbances and disharmony in the health or in one’s life. All this stuff gets in the way of the natural healing intelligence and direction of the soul, which is the natural good spirit and true essence of each person.
Thus, many Shaman healers speak of the lost soul or the broken soul of the person. For many people this is the forgotten soul. They have forgotten and uprooted themselves from their own essence, from their inner truth and deeper passions. The Healer may be the one to help the person find themselves, or re-connect with their own inner feelings and natural wisdom of the soul. They might help bring forth the soul and inner wisdom of a person by providing the right resonating vibration, or the right nurturing environment, or a challenging situation to bring that inner spirit out into conscious experience. And of course, healing and the emergence of the soul also involves the ability to express one’s inherent and unique talents and qualities of spiritual being. The soul-qualities need expression and when this expression is blocked or neglected, disturbances and disharmonies are created.
First the soul qualities need to be recognized, and then allowed into expression. This brings about wholeness and harmony, on all levels of life. If the person cannot seem to recognize their own self qualities, talents and beauty, then someone else may be needed to recognize or make that known. Often we can help another by recognizing and pointing out and appreciating certain qualities of the person which that person neglects to recognize or self-accept. Recognition can bring forth energies and qualities, which otherwise remain sleeping.
Finally, last but not least in the principles of healing, the healer is one who helps re-establish the person’s relatedness to Earth Mother and to Father Sky Vision, and their relatedness to a greater circle of natural living relations. For this relatedness, and the coming into wholeness and unity with all life, is the true spiritual healing, and it will bring about harmony and balance in all aspects of life. The lines of relatedness, the connections, within the great Circle, must keep increasing and flowing. And then everything and everyone will be adding to the harmony and wholeness of everything else. So the healer can plant the Sacred Seed of a new Vision, of the emerging and growing potential of harmonious and balanced relationships, of unity-of-diversity, of a sharing spirit of cooperation, and a growing recognition that our self-wholeness is reflected in the living world around us. So, in the ongoing process of self-healing, we climb the mountain to Spiritual Realization, we root ourself in the relatedness of all life, and we walk the Path of Love and Beauty. We realize there is one essential spiritual Life, inspiring and moving through all beings. We serve this Life, and we enjoy this Life, in gratefulness.
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