Women's Healing Ways from Belize
We live in an age of separation and duality. Healthcare is mostly in the hands of male ‘experts’ and its practice is so full of machines and scientific abstraction that we have become disempowered and hardly feel able to deal with the common cold. Of course many of us are working to change this. We are exploring subtler healing ways that require us to quieten ourselves so that we can listen to our clients’ bodies. We are beginning to remember how much plants have to teach us. All over Britain, homeopaths, acupuncturists, herbalists, naturopaths and many others are expanding our knowledge of safer and gentler ways to heal ourselves.
Some of these teachings come from indigenous peoples from other lands who have never forgotten their healing ways. However it is hard to find teachers for women’s ways. I once talked to an Australian aboriginal woman, who explained to me that when the anthropologists arrived, the men stepped forward to give their teachings and the women stood quiet in the shadow and said nothing. And so it has continued. Many men have arrived on these shores from many places to remind us of our connection with the earth. Few women have come with them. So I was excited this summer to learn that two women who were midwives and spiritual healers were visiting this country from Belize in Central America. And I became even happier when I discovered that they would like to visit Bath for a few days and give some teachings while they were here. Their names were Miss Hortense Robinson and Miss Beatrice Waight and between them they carried a formidable history. Miss Hortense now a lively and vivacious 73 year old had brought up eight children of her own and fourteen others whom she had adopted. Miss Beatrice had brought up thirteen children of her own. Between them, they have delivered literally thousands of babies stretching over at least three generations.
So what could they teach us? There was so much to tell that the remedies and cures poured out of them and it was hard to keep up. We were told of many herbs for many conditions and it became clear that we were being shown the tip of the iceberg. These women have worked for decades in their own country, diagnosing complaints and making up remedies from herbs that they have found in the wild, grown in their gardens, picked, dried and prepared themselves. Their confidence was wonderful to see. They were at home with their work and they trusted their judgement and experience. They had no access to the many sophisticated and expensive machines on which we rely here. Instead, they would take a little handful of herbs to guide them and then read a client’s pulse, close their eyes and pray. They have a system that is complex and subtle while at the same time free from machinery. A system that we too had in this country at one time.
As they taught, they constantly reminded us of the importance of prayer and thanksgiving in this work. They prayed before picking plants, before and during treatments. They prayed and lit candles in thanksgiving every week for all the work they had been helped to do. And they introduced us to techniques that seem simple and yet have been completely forgotten by us. They explained how you could relieve and heal symptoms in the womb in the same way that we heal lung and catarrh infections: using the steam of boiled herbs. Instead of putting a towel around your head and inhaling menthol or olbus oil, you would put a towel around your waist and allow the fragrance and healing qualities of certain herbs to drift up into your vagina.
Probably the most important of their techniques is their ability to deal with prolapsed wombs through the use of external massage. It was this skill that had brought them to England. An English woman discovered that she was suffering from prolapse of the womb and was advised to have a hysterectomy. Loth to submit herself to such radical treatment, she did some research and discovered an article in a medical journal about two midwives who claimed to be able to reposition the womb without the use of surgery. Being a brave and determined woman, she decided to fly out to Belize and find these two women and ask for treatment. This she did. And she was so delighted with their treatment that she agreed to bring them over to England so that other women might benefit as she had done.
The Belize midwives stressed how important is the wellbeing and correct placement of the womb for the general health of women. We were all happy to agree with them. We know that our wombs are important, a whole mythology is woven around them and yet we seldom have much physical experience of them outside of pregnancy unless through pain. To feel one’s own womb and learn how to massage it into wellbeing was an amazing experience. It is a moving thing to have a midwife direct your fingers until you can clearly feel the shape and form of your own small womb.
Of course in two talks we could gain no more than a taster of what we could learn for ourselves. The teaching covered work with women’s wombs during menstruation, pregnancy, birth and after birth. Miss Beatrice touched on herbal ways of dealing with the menopause and talked about treatments for newborn babies – what to do about the umbilicus, how to treat colic. But she could do no more than touch on the subject. And give us a tantalising glimpse of more advanced techniques through demonstrations. How you diagnose by reading pulses and how this was done with the help of herbs and prayer. How if things were really complicated, you might use a fertile egg - a method known as ‘lympia’- to learn of the disease.
They talked about the different phases of the moon and what activities and healing related to each one. They suggested that we clear our gardens, cut our hair, plant seeds on a new moon. This is also a good time to deworm children they said and then gave us a fascinating and detailed reason for this. Eight days on into the waxing moon is a good time for starting a new business and for new projects in general. Taking a bath filled with white, red and yellow roses on the full moon would increase your courage. You should work to get rid of things on the waning moon - this applied to both external situations in your life and physical problems. We were given a recipe of herbs and flowers to boil up and then wash ourselves down with. Or we could collect nine pebbles and they explained how we could take them to running water and throw them away in a ceremony designed to help us let go of whatever was bothering us in our lives.
Certainly by the end, we felt more empowered and were sent away to indulge in a few steam baths and to bathe ourselves in red flowers and to wash bad emotions off us.
And we were reminded that we do none of this on our own. That every healer calls on the power of spirit to help at every step. And that every healer remembers that an exchange is necessary. Why should we just be the takers? To give back with gratitude is essential. And so on the last evening we celebrated a Promicia – an honouring of nine Mayan saints. We did this through prayer, through the beauty and adornment of our altar and ourselves, and through the feast we gave. Which we, as manifestations of the divine, were able to enjoy.
Annie Spencer has worked for many years with Native teachers and integrates the Medicine teachings she has learnt from them with the ancient teachings of this land. She runs groups both here and abroad and is the founder of Hartwell. Annie can be contacted on 01225 312728 or through her website: www.Hartwell.eu.com.
Some of these teachings come from indigenous peoples from other lands who have never forgotten their healing ways. However it is hard to find teachers for women’s ways. I once talked to an Australian aboriginal woman, who explained to me that when the anthropologists arrived, the men stepped forward to give their teachings and the women stood quiet in the shadow and said nothing. And so it has continued. Many men have arrived on these shores from many places to remind us of our connection with the earth. Few women have come with them. So I was excited this summer to learn that two women who were midwives and spiritual healers were visiting this country from Belize in Central America. And I became even happier when I discovered that they would like to visit Bath for a few days and give some teachings while they were here. Their names were Miss Hortense Robinson and Miss Beatrice Waight and between them they carried a formidable history. Miss Hortense now a lively and vivacious 73 year old had brought up eight children of her own and fourteen others whom she had adopted. Miss Beatrice had brought up thirteen children of her own. Between them, they have delivered literally thousands of babies stretching over at least three generations.
So what could they teach us? There was so much to tell that the remedies and cures poured out of them and it was hard to keep up. We were told of many herbs for many conditions and it became clear that we were being shown the tip of the iceberg. These women have worked for decades in their own country, diagnosing complaints and making up remedies from herbs that they have found in the wild, grown in their gardens, picked, dried and prepared themselves. Their confidence was wonderful to see. They were at home with their work and they trusted their judgement and experience. They had no access to the many sophisticated and expensive machines on which we rely here. Instead, they would take a little handful of herbs to guide them and then read a client’s pulse, close their eyes and pray. They have a system that is complex and subtle while at the same time free from machinery. A system that we too had in this country at one time.
As they taught, they constantly reminded us of the importance of prayer and thanksgiving in this work. They prayed before picking plants, before and during treatments. They prayed and lit candles in thanksgiving every week for all the work they had been helped to do. And they introduced us to techniques that seem simple and yet have been completely forgotten by us. They explained how you could relieve and heal symptoms in the womb in the same way that we heal lung and catarrh infections: using the steam of boiled herbs. Instead of putting a towel around your head and inhaling menthol or olbus oil, you would put a towel around your waist and allow the fragrance and healing qualities of certain herbs to drift up into your vagina.
Probably the most important of their techniques is their ability to deal with prolapsed wombs through the use of external massage. It was this skill that had brought them to England. An English woman discovered that she was suffering from prolapse of the womb and was advised to have a hysterectomy. Loth to submit herself to such radical treatment, she did some research and discovered an article in a medical journal about two midwives who claimed to be able to reposition the womb without the use of surgery. Being a brave and determined woman, she decided to fly out to Belize and find these two women and ask for treatment. This she did. And she was so delighted with their treatment that she agreed to bring them over to England so that other women might benefit as she had done.
The Belize midwives stressed how important is the wellbeing and correct placement of the womb for the general health of women. We were all happy to agree with them. We know that our wombs are important, a whole mythology is woven around them and yet we seldom have much physical experience of them outside of pregnancy unless through pain. To feel one’s own womb and learn how to massage it into wellbeing was an amazing experience. It is a moving thing to have a midwife direct your fingers until you can clearly feel the shape and form of your own small womb.
Of course in two talks we could gain no more than a taster of what we could learn for ourselves. The teaching covered work with women’s wombs during menstruation, pregnancy, birth and after birth. Miss Beatrice touched on herbal ways of dealing with the menopause and talked about treatments for newborn babies – what to do about the umbilicus, how to treat colic. But she could do no more than touch on the subject. And give us a tantalising glimpse of more advanced techniques through demonstrations. How you diagnose by reading pulses and how this was done with the help of herbs and prayer. How if things were really complicated, you might use a fertile egg - a method known as ‘lympia’- to learn of the disease.
They talked about the different phases of the moon and what activities and healing related to each one. They suggested that we clear our gardens, cut our hair, plant seeds on a new moon. This is also a good time to deworm children they said and then gave us a fascinating and detailed reason for this. Eight days on into the waxing moon is a good time for starting a new business and for new projects in general. Taking a bath filled with white, red and yellow roses on the full moon would increase your courage. You should work to get rid of things on the waning moon - this applied to both external situations in your life and physical problems. We were given a recipe of herbs and flowers to boil up and then wash ourselves down with. Or we could collect nine pebbles and they explained how we could take them to running water and throw them away in a ceremony designed to help us let go of whatever was bothering us in our lives.
Certainly by the end, we felt more empowered and were sent away to indulge in a few steam baths and to bathe ourselves in red flowers and to wash bad emotions off us.
And we were reminded that we do none of this on our own. That every healer calls on the power of spirit to help at every step. And that every healer remembers that an exchange is necessary. Why should we just be the takers? To give back with gratitude is essential. And so on the last evening we celebrated a Promicia – an honouring of nine Mayan saints. We did this through prayer, through the beauty and adornment of our altar and ourselves, and through the feast we gave. Which we, as manifestations of the divine, were able to enjoy.
Annie Spencer has worked for many years with Native teachers and integrates the Medicine teachings she has learnt from them with the ancient teachings of this land. She runs groups both here and abroad and is the founder of Hartwell. Annie can be contacted on 01225 312728 or through her website: www.Hartwell.eu.com.
