Dear Wonderful Person,
Please notice that I have addressed you as wonderful person rather than as friend, patient, or client. The reason I did this is that I have been reading about the life of Fools Crow, who was a great native American healer. He never used the words patient, or client, to address the people he worked with, because he considered that to be disrespectful. He always called people either by their names, or used the word ‘Person,’ as a sign of respect. Learning from Fools Crow, the Native American Shaman, I am addressing you as person and to show my admiration, and love, I put the word wonderful in front of it.
The way that Fools Crow worked was very different from the way I work in many respects, and similar in a few respects. First of all, Fools Crow never worked with anyone if he did not feel that they had faith in Wakan Tanka, the Lakota word for the Great Spirit, and faith in him as one of Wakan Tanka’s Hollow Bones, or Healers. He would place his hand on the person’s shoulder when they requested a healing. If his hand warmed up, he knew that this person would be receptive to the healing work and had the necessary faith. If his hand remained cold, he knew that he could not help that person. With grief in his heart he would let them go. Unlike Fools Crow, I never refuse to heal someone who comes to my office, even though many times I feel their scepticism and lack of faith in me, or in homeopathy. When this happens, the healing will often not be successful, though sometimes sceptics end up becoming the greatest believers.
Once Fools Crow took on the healing of a person, that person would live with him for four days and receive four treatments, four times a day during that time. They would eat with him, sleep with him, pray with him, and do all his spiritual rituals with him. There were many reasons for this, but primarily it was to help the person deepen their own connection with Wakan Tanka, and their own spiritual centre, so that Wakan Tanka would shine His healing grace upon them, and so that they would be receptive to that grace.
Spiritual Healing
Fools Crow was a deeply spiritual man and he performed unbelievable feats of healing during the course of his 99 years. People would ask him how he did it, and he would say that anybody who lived as he lived could do the same. How did he live? He lived immersed in worship of Wakan Tanka, Tunkashila [the Great Grandfather], Grandmother Earth, and the Helpers. He meditated daily, performed purification practices, lived a very spiritual life, so that Wakan Tanka would see fit to use him as one of his Hollow Bones. By being a Hollow Bone for Wakan Tanka he would empty himself of ego and impurities so that he could channel Wakan Tanka’s wisdom and healing energy and direct it to the person he was healing. He always maintained that he himself could do nothing and knew nothing. Wakan Tanka did all the work and knew everything. Wakan Tanka showed him what to do, what healing herbs to use, what prayers to utter and dances to waltz.
How different this scenario is from the healing that happens when a person visits a homeopath, such as myself. First of all, I only spend a few hours with that person. There is no four-day intense immersion with purification rituals, or any spiritual rituals at all.
Our world has become so secularised that even to mention the word god has to be done with care and caution. People who come to you often do not have faith in your ability to help them, or even in a higher power. They put the burden of proof on you. As a healer, I can tell you there is a big difference in the experience and the joy the healer has when working with someone when they feel the faith and when they don’t.
Then, of course, we are all in a hurry. To take two hours out of one’s busy day is a big sacrifice. We must get down to business. We must gather the information efficiently, so that we can be in and out of the office as soon as possible. After all, we have e-mails to answer, phone calls to return and there is no time for a relationship with the healer, or for any rituals of connection with the healer, or with the higher power. This is the reality of modern urban life for most people.
One thing that Fools Crow and I do share is love for the person who comes to us for healing. Like Fools Crow I believe that the healer has to be a Hollow Bone. Fools Crow’s rituals of purification were different from mine, but I have my own. Central to that is a daily meditation and prayer practice. Like Fools Crow I also know that the healing comes from a higher power than my ego and faulty intelligence. When I am selecting a remedy for a person, I always look inside and ask the higher power for guidance. I ask is this remedy correct? Is this potency correct? Is there another remedy that will be better? Will this help the person?
Gratitude
One thing that Fools Crow did that I do not do enough is to thank Wakan Tanka for the healing. He displayed constant gratitude. When someone felt better, he said, “Thank you, Wakan Tanka, for helping that person.” All healing came from Wakan Tanka and he spent his entire day immersed in gratitude. This I do not do, but now that I am aware that I should do it, I am starting to do it, but often I forget to be thankful. Fools Crow never forgot to be thankful. This was probably the key to his success as a healer. The fact is his life was a constant practice of gratitude.
How many times as a person who has visited a healer, a homeopath, a doctor, have you remembered to say ‘thank you’? When you are enjoying vibrant good health do you remember to say thank you? When for a moment your pain eases, do you remember to say thank you? When you are in pain and suffering do you remember to say thank you? After all, god in his infinite mercy, has given you that pain for your own good, even if you do not know the reason for it. Can you trust that and say thank you?
My world is too different from Fools Crow’s, but I want to learn from him how to be a better healer, and human being, so that I can be one of Wakan Tanka’s Hollow Bones.
For those people who have seen me in the past, please remember I am still here, and for others who may benefit from my brand of healing, homeopathy, please spread the good word. God bless you this season and always.
