The Making of a Healer…A Fable Retold

By Jennifer Morse, MS PhD

I’ve learned the hard way healing does not always mean the cessation or disappearance of symptoms. I’ve spent decades searching through holistic healing, studying the paths where the mind and body meet trying to unravel the pain in my body and the pains of the past. Some people heal into life and others heal into death. Patients follow treatments and reduce or cure their symptoms. Other patients follow the same treatments and remain ill. And yet they may be healed.

I was twenty plus years on my quest and in my forties when I realized maybe I wasn’t going to find the key to resolve my symptoms. Could I find a way to soften and buffer the erosive effects of chronic pain?

Is it through acts of compassion we heal ourselves and the world? Is compassion the missing element in a world that glorifies science? Let’s not forget the influence of the Sacred Mystery. A portion of life operates beyond our ability to comprehend its scope. It is known by many names: The Great Unknown, The Sacred Mystery.

 

Here is a story of a healer and how he came to dwell in The Great Mystery…..

Our healer began the study of healing as a child learning from his father the community shaman. Eventually he grew in his abilities and wanted to live beyond his father’s shadow. He wanted to push beyond the boundaries of what he knew and venture into the unknown. He left on a day when the clouds thundered and lightening split the sky. He left his home and friends. It was a heart break. The rain poured in straight lines. The storm masked the weeping of his mother and the roar of his father’s disappointment. Yet something was pushing him beyond his comforts, beyond the pleasures of the familiar.

He was hungry for healing. He had lived too long, invisible, within his father’s shadow. He was ashamed of his unspoken agreements to remain invisible. He allowed his loyalty to his father, his teachings, the family and even the greater community to subvert his personal strengths. Now he must reclaim himself.

He was hungry to define himself on his own terms. He longed to test his skills without looking over his shoulder for approval. He traveled until he was far beyond the reputation and influence of his father. He found a community looking for an apprentice to assist their healer. Within the forest of tall pine trees he studied the paths of mind, body and spirit. First traveling the geography of each dimension individually, next he studied their interactions and relationships. It seemed an eternity before he understood the effects of interventions on one level interwoven with all levels. Long story short when he attempted to heal the body it affected the mind and spirit.

And as much as he loved his teacher they had a falling out. On another stormy afternoon with the thunder at his back he moved on once again. Traveling into different lands he studied the ways of medicine. He hungered for both traditional medicine and esoteric or holistic medicine. He began his studies with the different bodies that live within the skin of one man.

The brain was one control center with its powers of observation. The heart’s wisdom held within its power the drumbeat of life. When the heart is filled with love it beats steady and strong. Even when weakened with illness the heart can sometimes transcend itself with love. We call this a peaceful death.

Our healer found the gut is the third control station of the body. It is lined with antennae. Each filament is designed to read truth. When he learned the truths of the gut he came to live within his personal power. But there is more….

He learned blood, the rivers of life, carried hormones and other messages throughout the body. The bones of each body form a structure. The muscles hold the bones in place. To support this knowledge our healer learned massage and adjusting the body so the components, the power stations of the body, could work together in alignment and harmony.

To give the body strength he studied healing with herbs. Discovering energy fields resonating beyond the skin’s surface, he learned the healing properties of gems and minerals. And eventually as a healer he was able to hold a patient’s hand and listen to the pulse of health and perceive the shadows of illness.

Using himself as the laboratory he practiced the tools of health and vitality. He found engaging personal strengths, in conjunction with purpose for a greater good, created vitality. To tone his body he walked in the hills and the ripple of wind flowing over his skin called him into attunement with the forest. He practiced yoga until the movement became a prayer. Engaging strengths, at one with the forest, in prayer with yoga made him happy.

One day a yoga teacher said, “The purpose of yoga is to prepare the body for meditation.” He turned his attention to meditation. There were breathing meditations, sitting in stillness, guided imagery. He tried them all. He cultivated an openness to hear the quiet stillness within. Beginning with intentional rest he learned the pathways of meditation. He traveled the dimensions of dreaming. He magnetized the powers of healing.

When his teacher retired he decided to move on. He did not want the responsibility of becoming a community healer. His next teacher initiated him, by blowing power through the top of his head, into the hands of healing. A channel of cosmic light opened. This fueled the health passing through his hands freely. Wellness was transmitted to the patient he touched.

This time when it was time to leave he was able to make his goodbyes with thanks. He left gifts. He told his teachers how they changed his life. He left with a light heart on a sunny day. He traveled to the city where he studied a long time and learned to heal with his words. This required he first listen with his full presence. Sometimes just listening with care was enough. He became attuned when to speak and when to listen. It was if his studies in meditation had changed his ability to hear with the mind, the heart and the gut. They fueled his words and contained his silence.

He moved to a monastery along the cliffs of the sea, where through prayer he cast out illness and encouraged health. They taught with prayer to release his agreements, his ties, to negativity. Continuing in prayer he petitioned Infinite Intelligence to fill the void. His greatest prayer was to be at one with the Divine. The Sacred in the silence began to fill him. This was a new kind of prayer. It revolutionized his perceptions.

At the monastery he learned to set bones and sew up cuts. He learned the secrets of nutrition as medicine. Fish oil in conjunction with primrose oil reduced the body’s inflammation. Magnesium malate calmed and soothed muscles. Potassium rich diets increased heart health. Dandelion root is a blood cleanser. Cinnamon reduces and stabilizes the blood sugar. The list grew longer and longer.

Eventually he combined all he knew of healing methodologies into complex treatment regimes. It would be easy to say he had integrated the diverse modalities and had been transformed. But it was more than a transformation. He no longer practiced the elements of healing. Through cohesion the dimensions of healing were ingrained on his DNA. The essence of his cellular replication was imprinted with the essence of healing. He was at one with healing. Healing was at one with him. He had undergone a radical transmutation within the essence of life.

Hopelessly ill patients were waiting at his door each morning. He became well known and successful. People crowded together waiting for an appointment. Day after day he treated patients. He worked long into evenings. Absorbed in the needs of others he had little life beyond illness.

Toxicity began to crowd out his health and vitality. Even when he wanted to stop and walk in the forest his gift insisted on its expressions. He could not turn away from the need. He gave of himself until there was no more to give and then he left to become a wandering healer. Life pulled him. He surrendered into life and was reborn.

When there was no where else to go, when he embodied the art and science of healing in its totality, he surrendered again and no longer called himself a healer. He simply traveled the world.

Eventually he returned to his village arriving on a cold winter’s day. The trees had lost their leaves. The branches stood stark against a grey sky. The mountains in the distance were covered in snow. A hawk flew around him in a full circle. The forest rushed a greeting to him on the rustle of evergreen trees. Walking at the center of his knowledge long ago translated into wisdom; warm within the glow of self illumination, as he walked past the Cherry tree, the flowers blossom.

Author’s note: When I hear this story I understand the healer transcended the methodology of healing. He was dwelling within the Great Mystery. His presence was Grace itself. Is Grace the dimension of life that transcends healing and is born of the Great Mystery?

Jennifer Morse is the author of a motivational book: The Way of the Fairy Godmother. A fictional book: Letters from the Land of Midlife Dating. Together with her husband, William Mortimer, they co-authored the young adult book: Redemption’s Warrior.

A short story: Awaiting the Fairy Godmother is awaiting publication this fall. Also coming soon is a full length book: The Fairy Godmother’s of the Four Directions.

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