Tag: Healing
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Healing in the face of cultural devastation
Patrick Flynn Los Angeles, California, United States Portrait of Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American woman to receive a medical degree. Source. In 1855, a young Crow boy, no more than ten years old, ventured to the top of a mountain in present-day Montana. Over the next two decades, the boy would rise…
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Sacrifice
Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece Ruins of the basilica of St. Achillios, Lake Prespa, Greece. Photo by the author. The supine and inert feminine form has been reduced to a few square centimeters of uncovered skin between the jaw and the sternum. Strategically placed green surgical drapes shroud the rest of the body. A series…
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Arthur Bispo do Rosário: Creation in psychosis
Rebecca Grossman-KahnMinneapolis, Minnesota, United States In a sprawling, cavernous art museum in Buenos Aires, I turned a corner and my eye caught on what appeared to be, from across the room, cardboard. As I walked closer to the display, I saw a large brown rectangle plastered with smaller blue rectangles in two rows. Each blue…
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The snake, the staff, and the healer
Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel Introduction In some ancient cultures, especially around the Near East, the snake was involved in healing. Today this seems counterintuitive. There are as many as 130,000 deaths from snake bites worldwide each year and three times that number of amputations and severe disabilities. Ophidiophobia is one of the more common phobias,…
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Learning to heal
Jeanne Bryner Nora Mazur Newton Falls, Ohio, United States Top pieced by Jeanne Bryner Quilting done by Nora Mazur Jeanne Bryner: Quilts are important in my Appalachian culture. Narratives of beauty and truth are pieced together, preserving family history. This quilt contains photos of a special family of international sisters and brothers in the…
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From the goddess of healing to hair of the dog: The role of canines in health myth and fact
Mariel TishmaChicago, Illinois, USA The landscape of Mesopotamia was riddled with challenges, but for every problem that arose there was a deity to petition. Of these perhaps the most well-known was Inanna or Ishtar, who influenced fertility goddesses across cultures.1 But when it came to issues of health, the people were more likely to turn to…
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How to treat a broken heart: An instruction guide
Kate Baggott Ontario, Canada Human beings are callous creatures. We pursue our own agendas, desires, and happiness at the expense of those who would love us. We have all done it. We have all disputed the purity of another’s love. We have all had our hearts broken in turn. We all know this state;…
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The thousand-year-old rainforest shamanistic tradition of healing touch
Søren VentegodtCopenhagen, Denmark An interview with the last Aboriginal healer from the Kuku Nungl (Kuku Yalanji) tribe on the sacred art of healing touch in Far North Queensland, Australia. The indigenous people of Australia, the Aboriginals, have an ancient tradition of healing that uses only talk, touch, and other active principles. In contrast to the…
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To Nurse – Hospital Halls – Breath – and more
Carol Battaglia Chicago, Illinois To nurse Hospital halls To Care To Solace To Touch To Feel To Hurt To Need To Heal, others as well as ourselves. I have walked these hospital halls for many years now. Thousands of steps, thousands of words, it’s no wonder I’m tired. Talked out. The emotions of others…