Joelle and Birgitt - a few answers on curanderismo

Hamilton Lock hamilton.lock at btinternet.com
Thu May 15 02:00:41 PDT 2003


Dear Joelle and Birgitt.  Thank you so much for your response and encouraging words.  

Yes, to my knowledge and as Joelle wrote so clearly, you do need permission to do any kind of healing work with anybody, whatever the modality - anything less would be disrespectful.  So as with Open Space, another healing modality, working with curanderismo is  by invitation. 

Thereafter, the two processes converge.  As often happens before an open space day, participants are given an opportunity to 'tell their story' - this too is a technique which is often used in curanderismo for individual or group work.  To me, the purpose and intent is no different from OS theory, neither is the outcome - what happens next, happens; is the only thing that could happen and when it is done, it is done and so on.        

Reference soul retreival - for me the difference curanderismo brings to this work, is that the client or group co-create the situation for retreival to occur - so you see, it's not something that gets 'snuck in' . Once the stories have been told [often for the last time] and layers of pain/blockages etc have been cleared by use of simple cleansing techniques, collective or group soul retreival can occur, and it is profound.  However, if an individual chooses not to participate, that's ok too  - the law of mobility applies [I've never experienced this, but you never know...].

The thing about soul retreival however it is done, is that if a person is not ready to retrieve part of their fragmented self, then it will not happen.  Souls aren't silly, and know when it is safe and appropriate to come home.  This I believe, is also why people can have spontaneous soul retreival wherever they are, whoever they are, without knowing anything about this work;  they just know that something has changed.   

What happens with curanderismo, is that the platicas [heart to heart talks/story telling/performance/ or whatever form a platica takes] are deeply clarifying - the result is that folk often work with an aspect of themselves which they hadn't touched base with for many many years - if ever.  And this is where spirit working in this way is so profound.  Sometimes you have to look back, to go forward.  Same with OS in the community or oganisational environment.  

I wrote because my heart went out to the women of Ingushetia and to Raffi and the work Raffi is there to do.   

You are quite right, Birgitte, there will be people there who do healing work including soul retrieval, and who know the culture and speak the language.  Following your line of thought on teaching curanderismo skills - here's a scenario that could be used as a building block.   

In February this year, I was in circle with Elena Avila and her other apprentice curanderas.  The theme was, 'Mending Wings and Building Bridges'.  The invitation was to those working in mainstream medical, para-medical, therapeutic and social/community roles.  They came from Canada, USA, and Europe [Ireland].  The aim was to teach  curanderismo tools to the group, and to show them how to employ them within their own work area/practice to support their clients, and to use on themselves, as a means of caring for themselves too.  

There were 32 people in the circle, all women on this occasion, each curandera worked for 3 days with 2/3 women.  We taught platicas, limpias, introduced the concept of sacred [safe] space, and explained the significance of the directions etc.  The women then practised platicas and limpias on each other - and on the final day, a group soul retreival occured - everyone at this point knew what they had let go of, knew why - what the letting go was creating space to bring in - the soul retreival was a way of symbolically re-integrating that aspect of themselves.  It was very beautiful, extraordinarily creative, and whilst done as a group, each participant took responsibility for accepting and re-integrating whatever aspect of themself they had worked to reclaim.  

So maybe this would be a more practical route to  investigate - to me the important thing is to share all healing techniques as and when we can.  It never ceases to amaze me, that they are all so similar, when offered from the heart.  Curanderas say, Curazon con Curazon - heart heals heart.

That's all from me for now.  I trust I have answered your queries. 

I wish you well!


Anne
 
 



  

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