My sister learned that she had ovarian cancer at age 62. The frightening diagnosis is a devastatingly increasing occurrence. The science showed that a complete hysterectomy would be the best first course of action. Had “the science” included a psychological examination, it might have shown my sister’s risk for ovarian cancer long before its onset. But science is impersonal and psychology isn’t considered “true science.” And what does psychology have to do with a hysterectomy? Wisdom knows that a woman who develops this type of cancer is much more likely to have experienced separation from an offspring, separation from a parent, or suffered sexual abuse. My sister had experienced all three. Wisdom also knows that cancer has many repressed and unexpressed emotions festering within.
The wisdom traditions based on experience and empirical observation are in danger of being lost to the measurement of science. Who has not been in a hospital room watching the numbers on a monitor rather than the person? Relying on averages of what is “normal” and test results alone, which may instill fear, without physically examining or observing the person, increases the risk of losing an entire dataset called empirical observation. The norm of 40 gestational weeks is an example. Some women gestate longer, depending on the length of their cycle. But a scheduled C-section or induction, because a woman may have gone past her dates, can put a woman at far greater risk for maternal mortality. The PCR test for COVID is another example of empirical observation thrown out the window where questionable test results no longer relied on clinical analysis of symptoms.
We must talk amongst ourselves, between multiple disciplines and differing belief systems. Communication, cooperation, and a team approach are necessary to help a person move toward healing. And healing isn’t always what we think. It doesn’t necessarily help a person to extend their life. Psychological growth through disease takes the support of an integrative health care team like it takes a family to raise a child. But the family is broken, and science isn’t saving us.
Change is inevitable. Growth is optional — John Maxwell
The Mechanistic Model of medicine’s tools are drugs and surgery. While these are necessary and life-saving, they are becoming increasingly irrelevant and disconnected. The signs are flashing. We can see it in the rising mortality rates resulting from technological intervention. These interventions disrupt the flow of natural processes and create complications that require further intervention. The reductionist view of the body, and big pharma’s drugs developed to treat its symptoms, has a narrowing lens. Profit being one of them. We have lost sight of the whole. We took the world apart, and now we need to figure out how to put it back together again.
Incessant drug commercials, food propaganda, litigation, and legislation for control have left us brainwashed and vulnerable to corporate interests. Corporatocracy and Technocracy limits our choices. The technological approach to the human body and its Mechanistic Model is rapidly approaching the end of a rampant growth cycle. Wisdom knows that uncontrolled growth leads to system collapse. We need a new system. One that makes the old system obsolete. We need a system that marries science with wisdom.
Wisdom traditions have been around a lot longer than our current technology and led to its development. It continues to lead us into a new paradigm for health and healing. I see it as an upward-spiraling, evolutionary journey that brings us around and around again to the same point. And each time it does, we find ourselves at a higher octave. The questions look the same but are more refined and have better answers because we have more information and can see it from a clearer perspective. The higher technology of wisdom governs the linear approach of science and connects us to our inner authority.
When someone approaches me for help as an herbalist, I am amazed at how deeply the Western mechanistic model of allopathic medicine (science-based) and the heroic model (overuse of pharmaceuticals and detoxing) have become embedded in their psyche. All too frequently, I hear questions like, “I have this symptom or that complaint, and what can you give me for it?” Or, “I tried herbs once, and they helped for a little while, but then the symptoms returned.” And, “I tried herbs, but they didn’t do anything for me.” But herbal medicine used in an energetic approach doesn’t just treat symptoms. It treats the whole person as sovereign unto themselves.
My sister lived for ten years with cancer until she died at age 72. After her doctors tried everything and chemotherapy reduced her to a bare-boned skeleton, a cousin recommended Essiac tea at the end of her ordeal. My sister didn’t believe in herbal medicine but she drank it anyway and died within a few short months. Herbal medicine as a last resort is not how herbal medicine works.
The longest-lasting result of herbal medicine is its tonic ability to restore bodily systems. A tonic is something taken consistently over time. It is not a quick fix and takes commitment. Long before a “ Big D” disease like cancer takes hold, there are systems of disharmony. That is the time to employ a holistic approach to health – before disharmony advances to a disease process. Energetic medicine, like herbalism, homeopathy, and acupuncture, also addresses psychological and emotional states.
When my girlfriend, Laura Cerwinske, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 60, she chose the Wise Woman approach and followed the Six Steps of Healing, and the Hypocritic Oath of “Do no harm.”
Six Steps of Healing:
Do nothing – sleep, meditate, unplug
Do research – collect information, self-diagnosis, support groups, divination
Engage the energy – dance, pray, journal, ceremony, affirmations
Nourish and Tonify – herbal infusions, nourishing foods, massage, stretching
Stimulate & Sedate – herbs, acupuncture
Supplements and Drugs – concentrated vitamins and minerals, potent herbs, pharmaceuticals (chemotherapy, hormones, etc.)
Break & Enter (drugs and surgery) – surgery, radiation, psychoactive drugs, invasive diagnostic tests
Laura chose first to sit with her cancer and do nothing rather than be motivated out of fear. Then she did her research and gathered information. After getting a second opinion, she created an integrative health care team. Her team consisted of an oncologist, nurse practitioner, acupuncturist, herbalist, and a shaman priest skilled in diagnosis. The latter spiritually counseled Laura and used divination to determine the best course of treatment for her. She lived with cancer five years longer than expected, healed her relationship with her mother and other family members, and traveled to Italy, checking off a bucket list item. Laura died, leaving a legacy of creative works, books, and art. She is an example of how a team approach helped her to heal. And healing doesn’t necessarily mean living any longer than she did.
The alchemical law of correspondence (as without, so within; as within, so without) states that dis-ease doesn’t exist solely in an internal landscape. The asphalt, fossil fuel-burning cars and motorhomes, and concrete shopping malls covering the earth could be called a cancer. Shamanic wisdom has always known that there is a far greater inner technology.
Cancer is just a symptom caused by disharmony. Some call it an imbalance, but we are never in balance. Everything ebbs and flows from one state into another, rising and descending and rising again, ever-changing: Yin and yang, the light, the dark, no difference. That is the Tao, the way. If we were in perfect balance, the pendulum would no longer swing, and life would become static, which equates to death.
Wisdom looks at dis-ease through the lens of harmony and disharmony. It is a vibrational and energetic approach. Everything has a spirit, energy, a frequency. When we marry the inner technology with the external science, the intuitive with the rational, the divine masculine with the sacred feminine, and the human with the divine, we become integrated on the spiral journey.
In alchemy, creative works result from a tension of the opposites, which holds everything in this dimension together. Integration of the opposites, however, brings us to the point where we are greater than the sum of our parts. At this point of unity, there is no longer anything to heal, just as there is nothing left to forgive. The aim of alchemical work is this union of opposites. The time has come to evolve the science. May we marry it wisely with the wisdom of the ancients.
Read Laura’s personal essay about her journey with breast cancer in Fuck the Pink Ribbon. Laura is the author of more than 20 books on art and design. My friendship with her spanned more than 45 years, and is she who put me on the path of writing as a healing art from the beginning… This post is dedicated to Laura Cerwinske.
Wisdom of the Plant Devas: Herbal Medicine for a New Earth by Thea Summer Deer, InnerTraditions International, Bear & Co. The book and the blog.
Learn more about the Steps of Healing and the Wise Woman Way:
Healing Wise: The Wise Woman Herbal by Susun Weed, Ash Tree Publishing
Breast Cancer? Breast Health the Wise Woman Way, by Susun Weed, Ash Tree Publishing