March 2006

The Medicine Path

It seems a lot of people are asking about the Medicine Path. In this moment, this is my best understanding: In searching for the root of medicine, of healing, my journey most naturally brought me to indigenous people.
At first glance there is the obvious movement of all people to modernize, and western medicine (with the base of drugs and surgery) is now practiced throughout the world. One could assume old medicine has been replaced.

At second glance and with a bit of humility, I have watched doors open to a whole other story. Traditional medicine is very much alive.

The Medicine Path is a culmination of my continued study with traditional healers.
To these people the root of medicine is spirit. And to treat the body or the mind without this acknowledgment is just not done.

The most profound understanding is the recognition that these traditions have been handed down, generation to generation, sometimes in secret for fear of missionaries and governments seeking to eradicate the core of a people. In my search I have found a path of kindness. That people, visionaries and healers, sensed the hopelessness of the time in which we live, and planted seeds of hope with confidence. They knew that there would be people who would seek out principals of healing, who would eat from the fruit of their efforts.

This is the story repeated among all the people with whom I have had the good fortune to learn from. "Welcome home, we have been waiting for you." This is not just a nice story. I feel it. And it is from the strength of those before me and my own understanding, I teach.

The root of medicine is kindness and compassion, the delivery is courageous and impeccable. The healer can see broken spirit as easily a doctor sees a broken bone -- and knows the ways to bring about the healing.

In The Medicine Path, I seek to create a space where a person can feel, can remember, can heal. I do this because I have been asked to. Not by ethereal beings, but by my teachers. I do this because I can.

If this study calls to you, you are most welcome.