Dialogue with the Healer

                 

The role of the Healer is a universal cultural figure, and the relationship between Healer-Patient is likewise universal, though it patterns distinctively in specific cultures.  The Western “doctor” with the white coat and stethoscope presents the Healer in a powerful if sterile position, while the dynamic Shaman found in many societies in various forms presents the Healer as a Mediator between the energies of this world and the forces and Spirit beyond the surface reality.

What is YOUR Healer like? This is that archetypal part of your Self that exists within your psyche as a Healing persona. When does h/she step up for you in your life? Do you allow your Healer a vital role in your life or do you suppress your own Healer nature? How can you strengthen this modality of your Self? Perhaps you express your Healer nature more in relation to others than for yourself? Bur s/he is here for You, too!

When we go to visit a doctor or other healing agency we may project our own Healer archetype onto that person, and on the other hand we develop our Inner Healer based on role models we have observed over time. Perhaps we tend to select healers who best mirror our own Healer persona, especially when we like our doctor a lot.

Recently I have had an outer dialogue with a very capable Healer, and I am responding by heeding her advice because I recognize that this advice resonates inwardly and allows my Healer to respond, “finally” (She says!).

If only I had LISTENED more about diet and good nutrition in my younger years, I thought, after receiving the Healer’s advice. So, my advice here for myself as well as others is to call upon your inner Healer and LISTEN to what h/she has to share with you, because h/she wants to help!

To tune into your Healer persona archetype, pay attention when you feel a caring impulse to help another, and draw upon that positive, gentle energy to help yourself too. Last night, for example, my cat Loki needed some loving care because he had overgroomed and scratched himself under the eye. So I trimmed his nails and put some ointment on the wound. Then my dog Sophie got an overgrown nail of her own caught in her long hair, so this morning I trimmed her nails and also groomed her undercoat to thin that. I could feel how my Healer was moved to action, and my pets seemed to recognize this special energy so they allowed me to do what I needed to do for their benefit.

images are from pixabay.com

Have a conversation with a Healer! Whether an outer doctor or other healer, or WITHIN. You can dialogue inwardly with your own Inner healer through active imagination and journaling. This is a very natural and simple process of simply “tuning in”, allowing a dialogue to occur, and Listening.

Just to model the technique, then:

L: Calling Judy!

H: Thank you for hearing that I wanted you to call me that. Nurse Judy, I will be, if you like.

L: OK, Nurse Judy, what would you like to tell me?

H: Now that you are asking, finally!, be very careful with your new diet. Do not allow yourself to overdo even the ‘good’ carbs. The fruit in yogurt, for example, is a No. Listen to myself as you might ‘muscle test’. FEEL your way through to a better health Horizon.

L: I know I need you to be a potent energy in my life from now forward.

H: Yes, dear, it’s about time. But I am with you so please let me be here for you in greater conscious awareness. As the outer Healer advised you recently: “Put yourself first!”

I invite YOUR Comments and Stores!

 

Saint Teresa: Archetype of the Healer

We develop our persona archetype ‘parts of Self’ in large part from observing others who enact roles–either positively or negatively–that clearly represent that archetypal energy. For the primordial HEALER archetype, what better image is there to imprint upon in cultivating one’s own Healer persona than the iconic Mother Teresa, recently canonised as Saint Teresa?

Teresa of Calcutta’s humility and her dedication to bringing aid, love and succor to the poor and afflicted is known globally. Her Missionaries of Charity order, founded in 1990, in 2012 had 4500 sisters who vowed to serve the poor and afflicted in 133 countries.

Teresa rejected fortune and did not seek fame, adhering closely to her vows of poverty and obedience in the Roman Catholic tradition. Wherever she could, she gave selflessly and solicited aid in any ways ethically available. A true Healer, she encouraged those she administered to not only to survive physically, when possible, but to have dignity and survive in Spirit as well.

Religion aside, St. Teresa demonstrated by her very demeanor and by her relentless caring that caste, class, race, nationality, gender, religion or any other human social constructions matter not at all when ot comes to enlivening human dignity and spiritual worth.

images are from pixabay.com

Here are some quotes from St.. Teresa to help you connect with your own Healer nature:

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.  

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no hurt, only more love.

I welcome your comments and stories!

September: Month of the HEALER

It is time for the HEALER archetype (part of Self) to step forward and take a bow, as September and Virgo are associated energetically with the primordial Healer archetype in us all.  And Whew (HU!), I am ready for this one!

This past few weeks I have been on somewhat of a roller coaster in my life regarding especially health matters. I don’t go to the doctor often or perhaps even often enough, but I went in for a wellness exam with a new doctor, and wham! She uncovered two daunting health challenges I have been trying to adjust to ever since. I needed a biopsy that fortunately was negative but it uncovered an autoimmune condition I will be treating for life of a personal nature. As well and nearly as challenging, my blood work shows me in the diabetic range, so I have completely shifted my diet to exclude all wheat, rice and ‘bad’ carbs.  I am still learning about both conditions, but I am extremely grateful for the wake up call!

Sometimes waking up to the need to address physical conditions can alert us to emotional and spiritual conditions as well that need healing on a deep level. After the surgical procedures to conduct biopsies, for instance, I became acutely aware of how attached I still am to the apparent “solidity” of the Physical realm and my physical embodiment and relations. Although I have long practiced successful and illuminating spiritual contemplative techniques and am very involved in dreamwork so that I deeply value experiences beyond the physical day to day ‘reality’, nevertheless my experiences Beyond appear fragmentary and highly malleable in contrast to the sense of continuity of consciousness I experience in a physical body. So this has been a lesson for me over the past two weeks, even after learning the biopsy did not detect any immediately mortality-threatening condition.

Before I do translate into the realms beyond the Physical and leave this body-state to move on to higher planes of existence, I want to be prepared for that transition so it is smooth or even seamless then. So I have ramped up my daily contemplation practice aiming to achieve a deeper understanding of the differences between here and HERENESS, if you sense what I mean.

pictures are from pixabay.com

This reminds me of a visionary experience I had several years ago. It is of a very deep spiritual nature, of the sort sometimes I would rather choose not to share, but as I have shared it with some others already I will share it at least partially here. A loving, beautifully transcendent Being visited me one morning in that consciousness zone between sleeping and waking. IT addressed me clearly: “So, how are things going out there?” The answer that came through me as a response to IT was: “Well, there are lots of people practicing many different religions, but most people are still afraid of death.” After a pregnant pause this Being then stated: “Next time, we won’t do Religions.”

Zowie! Welcome to a month of engagement with the Healer in You!

Be the Healing You Seek

As you—all of us—embody the HEALER Archetype Ally within you, you also may be a healing influence for others.

Allow your Healer to be available not only to you but also through you!

This sort of healing influence that you might naturally bring to a relationship or situation is more often than not indirect and non-directed.  I am not endorsing “laying on of hands” or anything of that nature, as these forms of “healing” can actually be quite invasive or controlling, and I do not support that. Yet being a vehicle of unconditional love or impartial positivity is natural and often may be a helpful agency in itself, even if it is only to lend a shoulder to cry on or in your caring to provide a helpful hand.

Being a calm, centered, patient and positive presence in any situation or circumstance can lead to healing effects on yourself as well as bringing peace or balance to conditions around you. Non-directive prayers of surrendering a situation to Higher Wisdom or the use of centering and uplifting mantra chanting or mindfulness meditations can help you to achieve and maintain the balance you wish to achieve.

I remember a prayer I learned when I was exploring the Baha’i faith many decades ago. I am not sure if this may be from Rumi originally (though it is perhaps more likely from Bahau’allah as it is a Baha’i prayer); its reference to a hollow reed instrument has always reminded me of Rumi’s Song of the Reed. Recently I have found this prayer coming back to my heart awareness, and I am finding there is a reason for that within my life.

I provide a version here from my memory which is very near to a version you can read at www.bahaiquotes.com  :

Oh Lord, make of me a Hollow Reed

Through which the pith of Self hath been blown,

That I may become a clear channel,

Through which Thy Love may flow to others.

Heal Thy SELF

This month I am encouraging you to connect with and to explore your own HEALER Archetype Ally. You know you have one! It is a part of your Self that serves the Whole as a Healer will, watching over your health and prompting choices that result in wellness and growth rather than any self-destructive behaviors or attitudes.

Your HEALER is internal, not external.

Listen to your inner HEALER. He or she is your Ally who is whispering sweet somethings into your ear. What might some of these inner promptings be?

Take that vacation; you have well deserved it!

Let’s watch this program or read this book about brain health, heart health (etc.).

Act on what you are hearing about Co-Q10, magnesium, (etc.)

Here’s a personal example I can share. About a year ago I changed two behaviors relating to my health. I had recently turned 60. First, I woke one morning with just the words “9 years” planted in my awareness. I knew instinctively this meant I could potentially save nine years of my life if I would stop drinking soda. I stopped that day.

A few months later, after having heard several weeks  earlier that the second of two aunts on my mother’s side had been dealing with brain tumors, as I went to sleep I heard “brain tumor,” which was a bit of a shock. All night I seem to have been dreaming about that. Then as I awoke, again in that fertile awareness between sleeping and waking, I heard and saw printed in my ‘mind’s eye’: LYSINE – L. I had never even heard consciously about this amino acid before. I did some research to  find only that it is helpful as a supplement to help with collagen. I have taken it ever since. Most interesting is that this past summer while I was able to visit with my Aunt Karis, who had a tumor affecting her optical nerve successfully removed by surgery, she told me her and my other aunt’s tumors were not cancerous but benign.  Lysine then made sense more than before!

I am always grateful for the inner guidance I  receive, and I thank my inner Healer for helping me remain open and receptive to information from the Higher dimensions and unconscious domains that help me to accept higher wisdom.

Your Helpful Archetype Allies

When I was a senior in high school in New York state (Lewiston, NY), our English professors came up with a great idea for that year.  Called “Universal Man”, the study year was segmented into a series of 3 or 4 week modules each on a different theme. Man the Lover, Man the Prisoner, Man the Seeker, Man the Adventurer, Man the Thinker, etcetera (now it would be Man or Woman…), was the basis of the themes. For each module we would choose relevant literature to read and we would write about it, plus we would reflect on that aspect of our own lives as well. Only many years later would I come to appreciate that these themes were “archetypal” in nature.  I really enjoyed that year’s English program. It helped me see how all these threads or energies interweave within everyone, giving us special qualities from each perspective.

Each archetypal character MODE has a unique viewpoint and stance in our overall Psyche. Some are more active and others are more suppressed, depending on the situation or context. This week I am inviting you to choose one of your own archetypal sub-selves to get to know better and to enlist in your adventure toward achieving a meaningful life goal. Since goals are usually related to some active role or career that we are already engaged with, let’s begin by selecting a goal associated with a role with which we are highly identified at this time. (For example, for me right now, it is my Writer/Author role that carries the most poignant goal; that of publishing LIFE PATHS.) So, after identifying your ardent goal related to some active role in your life, you can then identify an archetypal member (or more than one) from your unconscious ‘ensemble cast’ that could be most helpful aligning with you as you advance toward realizing your goal.

I will repeat Sunday’s lineup of archetypal character modes below. Which of these is most closely connected with the Role and Goal you are interested in strengthening?

Elder Leader: Strength mode—strong authority figure, self-confidence, director, leader; Shadow mode—harsh authoritarian, strict, imposing

Lover: In Strength—romantic intimacy, self-sacrificing, passionate; In Shadow—over-attachment, selfish desires

Warrior: In Strength—fighter for a good cause, courage, blazing new paths; In Shadow—attacker, domination or exertion of power

Nurturer: In Strength–Caregiver, gentleness, supporter, giver of consolation or understanding; In Shadow—stingy, over-protective, undue worrier

Artist: In Strength—expressive, talented performer/artist, creative, innovator; In Shadow—blocked creativity, inhibited, introversion, negative fantasy

Idealist: In Strength—High ideals, far-ranging vision, traveler, manifesting change; In Shadow—frustration, feelings of persecution, criticism, over-perfectionism

Golden Child: In Strength—charismatic, mover and shaker, destined for success, generous with largesse; In Shadow—overly controlling, vain, needs to be onstage or center of attention, fickle

Descender: In Strength—introspective, reflective, thoughtful, cocooning; In Shadow—depression, self-restriction, hiding, avoidance, introversion

Teacher: In Strength—imparts knowledge with enthusiasm, studious researcher, reader, notetaker, patient instructor, coach; In Shadow—overly didactic, my way or the highway, micro-manager, overbearing

Communicator: In Strength—public speaker, writer/author, workshop presenter, interpersonal communicator, promoter, a good listener; In Shadow—tight-lipped, withholding viewpoint, holding ideas close to chest, suspicious, or overly extroverted, “rabble rouser”

Healer: In Strength—doctor or nurse, concern with diet and exercise, natural energy, implementing positive change; In Shadow—masochism, perpetuating pain or sense of fatalism

Mystic: In Strength—seeker, prayerful, contemplation or meditation, dreamer, focus on cosmos, monk-like, alchemy; In Shadow—addictive personality, dwelling in Darkness, isolated hermit, withdrawn

Have you identified one or more potential character allies? Next then, I invite you to engage with this archetypal aspect-of-Self in an active imagination and/or in a journaling DIALOGUE. Get to know this energetic part of yourself. What are his or her own goals for you? What are their greatest loves, fears, worries, hopes? How and when do they show up for you? How are they part of the ROLES you enact day to day? When and why do you sometimes suppress them or why do they sometimes retreat?

How can they help you to realize your Goal?

As a sample, while I find many of the 12 archetypes have qualities essential to my current goals as a writer/author, I want to get to know The Healer better this week, because I think that is a part of myself to which I do not give enough room overall in my life. I catch from the character description that Healer can be helpful with “implementing positive change” and has a quality of “natural energy”. I feel the need for a second wind lately to help circumvent some of my own habitual self-limiting attitudes. So I seek out HEALER as an ALLY on this leg of my journey.

First then, dive Down into the Deeps of your personal unconscious realms. Do not expect your archetypal sub-selves to necessarily come “up” to your world of consciousness to meet with you. You can use an active contemplation or meditation mode to “sink” into an imagistic realm that you share with your archetypal cast.

LW: Is one I can call Healer present here? Can we talk?

H: I am here.  How are you?

LW: Worried. I feel like I’ve been sabotaging myself lately; I need a dose of some positive self-confidence for taking the next big—or small—step. I am scared.

H: Why then is it me you seek help from? Why not some of the Others? Elder Leader or Artist, or Descender even?

LW: I feel I need your Healing energy to help me assuage self-doubt in order for me to be more empowered to communicate from a greater strength of awareness.

H: Who injured you? When?

LW: Wow! You are right, this goes way back to my father and others who led me to inhibit or to subdue my sense of confidence in life overall. Better to stay in the shadows they would tell me. Be silent; don’t make waves. The world will beat you down if you stick your neck out, they would say.

H: There is more. What did your father say that inhibits you so deeply? He is down here still you know, both as what you call Shadow and as Strength. Do you want to see him?

LW: …not right now. I remember several disparaging remarks, most of which I don’t want to include in the public blog…so I’ll reflect upon them privately instead.

H: What do you need a healing for then?

LW: For hiding from him all these years—or the Shadow side of him. I am still grateful for the rest and I know he ‘meant well’ and had his own dragons affecting him.

H: What do you need from me?

LW: Just to be with me as I forgive him. To be my Ally as I take a step to communicate ‘forward’ this week. I need you to acknowledge the purpose I aim to fulfill with this goal.

H: Many others can benefit; the time has come to release this child of yours into the world.

LW: Will you mid-wife then?

H: Yes if you will allow me to.

LW: Please.

H: Then remember to BREATHE, okay? Breathe and review where things are at. Breathe and communicate forward.

Enough from me. I hope that the process is clear for how you can engage with your own archetypal parts of Self. I invite you to do so. Identify a goal that matters to a role you seek to strengthen in your life right now. Identify an archetypal part of Self that could help you. Get to know that archetypal persona and invite that one to serve as an Ally.

I encourage and look forward to YOUR insights and STORIES!