The Healer’s Faith in his or her own abilities

Author: Christopher Chayban

In this post I will be talking about the healer’s total faith in his own abilities. Perhaps, this is part of the Christian teaching of having “faith” and almost a “blind faith” in regards to the religion. Because maybe the details don’t matter, that if you put your faith in anything, by law or by way of having a positive attitude, you already start moving towards healing (which is the positive goal you are after). There is also a quality of “don’t give up” with faith, which on some level, gives more humanity to the healer, despite his otherworldly and supernatural powers. Knowing that he or she is human and can make mistakes or even the basic requirement of being a shaman, for instance, requires you to be a human that has gotten over an illness in order to be in the position to heal others gives a feeling of “faith” in the healer’s abilities.

Now, sanctioned by the community and the public display still seems rather curious to me. It almost speaks to the fact that biologically we are social animals, and need the warmth, affection, and acceptance of the group for our survival. This keyword survival is already inherent within the group. Strength is found in numbers, and since there was no split between the abstract and literal, the concept of your strength and survival depended on your group. To which, one was likely identified with.

It is amazing how much support and faith plays into healing. Your mind and attitude is essential towards the recovery. Perhaps that is why the Moon and Mercury (planets of the mind and Mercury is the son of the Moon) are archetypally the indicators of medicine and healing (especially through plants).

And, something contrary is happening in these modern times, where it seems like we do not have faith in our healers and people don’t appear to get better. At least in regards to mental illness, that area seems to be increasing rather than decreasing. Is this in part, due to the fact that we have no faith in our healers? Or, that also, we don’t have a supporting community? Interesting to ponder.

Comments

comments