* A couple of significant reference notes:

* It was reminded today by a close kin and political mentor of mine that the terminology of "Natural Law" was used by colonialist to justify slavery and other similarly abhorrent acts of exploitation and oppression. This was drawn to my attention AFTER the writing of this piece. It is necessary to acknowledge the limitations of using English (a colonial language for most of us) to communicate and express common indigenous spiritual understandings from all the corners of the globe that we come from. The indigenous healing communities in the diaspora may need to take it upon ourselves to critically examine the use of our terminology and recreate this particular term to describe what we are actually meaning, rather than align with the ways it has been used against our people in horrendous ways. In the understanding of "Natural Law" that I have been taught and speak of here, I refer to the responses of nature and the cosmic elements that uphold a balance and respect for the interconnected abilities of all life to thrive in harmony. In this framework of understanding, acts such as slavery are an EXPLICIT VIOLATION of this relationship and the cosmic energies that dictate it. I hope to dedicate a space for dialogue in which we can proactively address the problematic history tied to this language we are accustomed to using, and develop terms that more accurately speak to the righteousness of our intentions.

* I refer to the word "healer" a lot in this writing. I use it as a general term to describe a role that has traditionally been described with various specific words that are different for each role and tribe/community/group in their respective parts of the country/world. I am most often referring to the role of traditional spirit based healers which sometimes include the work of medicine people/ceremonial healers/folk healers/traditional elders/traditional priests and priestesses or others who facilitate spirit based healing work within an indigenous (ancestral land-based) paradigm and tradition. I realize that there are many different levels of initiation and kinds of even these "healers" in traditional communities and that they all carry different roles and modalities and have often gone through elaborate processes of training and initiation to receive their positions, and have been called by their ancestors to do so. I was not able to account for all the specificities through my language in this particular reflection, and want to acknowledge this respectfully so that folks reading can seek more deep information before taking these reflections and titles on too lightly.

Please accept the underlying spirit of the offerings expressed here humbly and with these linguistical limitations in mind. Thank you.*

A context of political and ecological upheaval:

Huge changes are happening, and it has been a whirlwind of some heavy circumstances in the process. The world is literally aflame all around us. For some, it has hit closer to home than others. The tides of socio-political consciousness are turning with barely a choice of our own, as what is ugly is getting severely and dangerously uglier, and what is righteous is forced to strengthen and maintain itself to be victorious in the face of it. From Syria to Ferguson, from Palestine to Iraq, from Detroit to Honduras and beyond- humans are facing a fight with the darkest and most unfathomable of our nature and the systems of power that we have created to care for us for the past several centuries. The fight for those on the line, is for life its very self, and its result as well as what it is fighting against has implications for all of us. From every corner of the earth, humans are being pushed to delineate which side of LIFE they are on. While our ancestors suffered such massacres and genocides, never before has the whole world been able to watch so closely from a distance as we can with social media today. What does this imply of our position? Of our response(ability)? We can neither ignore it, nor be defeated by the despair that surrounds it.  What is clear, is exposing itself clearly, and nature (including HUMAN nature) is responding accordingly- some in the right and some in the wrong. Yes, there IS right and wrong, there are ethics and morals of justice, even in nature. And in the ways of nature, we have free will but the consequences of our action always catch up to us eventually.

Simultaneously, while the destructive fire of state violence goes ablaze across the planet, the waters of the earth are dwindling. Droughts abound while buckets of ice get dumped negligently, and pipes in big places burst and leak on concrete (remember that incident at UCLA?), while drinking water gets withheld systematically from those who are deemed undeserving by the powers that be (Detroit and uncountable cities and villages throughout the global South). The water which cools and nourishes things and which embodies the very essence of life we depend on and ARE, is herself at deep risk, and is herself being deeply undervalued and diminished. This mirror is the voice of nature speaking loud and clear- when life is not valued, life does not know its value. When life is not valued, life itself becomes withheld from its privilege.  Healing, of the earth and of her people, is needed more in times like now than ever. Liberation is all bound up with healing, and frankly, depends on it. LIFE itself needs to be uplifted and restored to the sacredness that it in fact is.  In moving towards liberation, our actions need to demonstrate and reinforce the value of life, especially as its being so severely threatened.

And so my question leads: what is the role of our communities "healers" in the times of genocide and violence we are witnessing, amidst political strife and unfathomable amounts of grief and trauma that are impacting so many of our people? In times of crisis of the land and water, and of people and nature alike, what is the role of our community leaders and members in creating a liberation that restores dignity and sacredness to all life? What is our role as humans and community members, as political leaders and/or healers, and what is our place and position in light of these serious and very powerful times where human life seems to be making her choice about how and whether to persist at all, and where we as a species choose to relate in restoring the natural order of things?

What is a "healer"?

The role of a "healer" is a calling to live in service to humanity's righteous place, sense of wholeness, and deep wellbeing as a part of the interconnected web that makes up our natural ecology. Healers work with individuals and groups to address the physical, cosmic, mental, emotional, ancestral, and relational wounds faced by humans. They may use ritual and ceremony, medicinal plants, cleanses, heart to heart talks, divination, body work, working with the natural elements, sound/song, and more to fulfill the healing needs of their community. For those of us that acknowledge traditional paradigms of healing, healers are ultimately acting as mediators and vessels for Spirit in service to Natural Law above all. Natural Law means the sacred balance of nature as deemed by Creator and our righteous place in it as humans, which means helping restore balance when these terms have been broken- and do not doubt, the disrespect of life and the elements that we are seeing are most certainly violations of this Law (they are perhaps also the consequences of prior violations to this Law which have lead us here and need to be cleaned up as well).  At their best, healers are keepers and translators of justice at the most fundamental and cosmic level. They ensure that our role and relationship on this earth is in harmony with the purpose we were put here to fulfill with respect to all our relations in the natural and cosmic world who we fundamentally depend on to be alive- this includes respect to ourselves and each other as humans as well. Healers, at their best, partner with nature and the benevolent spirits and ancestors to support humans in understanding, maintaining, and respectfully fulfilling what this balance is, so that life itself can be upheld and sustained for the collective as well as personally. In nature (which we are a part of, in case you forgot), life is sacred and should be treated as such. DEATH is also sacred and should be treated as such. When we commit acts that deem otherwise, these terms are violated and major imbalances ensue, as we are seeing right now. In nature, we have the right to defend life when it is being threatened, and we have the responsibility to act in ways that respect life. So, this is all to say, the healer's role is to support the human community in upholding life itself, ensuring the optimal flow of its very essence and ability to sustain itself as directed by Spirit/or the Natural Order of things, and living in accountability to our unique place in the arrangement we have with ourselves, nature, and each other in our respective roles that make life on earth possible and harmonious at the material and unseen levels.  It is fundamentally based on principles of reciprocity, mutual respect, and sustainable relationship with our natural resources and communities, all values in direct alignment with and service to the objectives sought by secular liberation movements.

Tradition's healers in times of colonial genocide:

Having come out of years of training and working as a community organizer dedicated to the liberation of my people at the socio-political level, I have found myself thinking a lot lately about what it means to relate to all thats happening from the role of healing that I am evolving into.  I have found myself reflecting on the position of our ancestors and indigenous people all around the globe, healers, medicine people, and spiritual leaders who have themselves experienced genocidal threats and survived them alongside their people. Traditional healers who were part of the eras in which their people fought to exist and sustain life despite all odds, and who in those moments were committed to upholding a vibration of resilience, restoration of cosmic balance, and a dignified and uplifted livelihood amongst their community when they needed it most. HOW did they do this? I have wished they would visit me in my dreams and tell me their stories and wisdoms of healing through those times. I've asked some of my own mentors and continue to seek guidance from elders and wise peers in my own life who perhaps themselves had to live through such times, or heard stories from their elders that did. I thank all those kindred ones who have shared with me their guidance.

A few examples that I know of have lingered in my mind... one is the story of a very kindred traditional healer, Saint Teresita Urrea of Sonora, Mexico. This powerful curandera of Tehueco Indian & European lineage, was known to speak vocally in support of the Indian revolutionaries of her own community who actively fought against colonization in the times of revolution in Mexico in the late 1800's. Even the Yaqui fighters were said to invoke her name for protection and healing when they went into battle. She was perceived as a major threat to the reactionary state powers that be, since she had major influence over the masses who would come from all over Mexico to receive the miracles of her healing blessings. They would line up at her door and she would heal people using prayer, laying of the hands, and traditional rituals and plants to heal ailments of body and spirit alike. She spent hours upon hours, whole days at a time tending to the ailments of the people- ALL people who came to her, with no discrimination based on class, ethnicity, or other factors. At some point, she was imprisoned and later exiled due to her active voice in support of the indigenous revolutionaries in their fight for self-determination on their lands. Though supporting them with her voice and writings, she first and foremost continued to maintain a commitment to the role of healing the masses (including revolutionaries) who came to her in need. She maintained a clear recognition that the colonial projects taking place were an unacceptable and explicit violation of Divine and Natural Laws and that the indigenous peoples actively resisting it were entitled to defending themselves, their lands, and their communities' right to live on it, though she did not actively participate on the front lines as a fighter herself. Her role was to pray and to heal. She did this with the vibration of love, pure and clear enough in spirit to heal people with her mere embrace and her prayers, and said to be always compassionate and kind to those living in conditions of poverty, oppression, and illness. This was her participation in the liberation and resilience of her people, a contribution that she full heartedly made throughout the course of her life.

St. Teresita clearly had effective ways not to get swept up in the (understandable) rage of the time, in her own pain and grief, in her own struggles through that time, which perhaps touched her as closely as the rest of her people whose pain she worked with so intimately. How she kept her own spirit clear enough to be uplifted and able to serve her people in this profound context, is a key in this question of roles. After all, the healer must be present enough with the suffering of their people to understand and support them with compassion, but always more present with the LOVE TO UPLIFT LIFE and reinforce its highest value despite all circumstances that threaten it. It is this spirit of Life which is directly connected to creation/the Creator itself, and the universal powers that are harnessed to help transform our aches and wounds where they seem most unmovable- these energies that reinforce the power and righteousness of our own lives, which our warriors ultimately fight to defend. As my wise kin in this work spoke so clearly this week, "we cannot take on the identity of the events our people are experiencing. We have to identify with the world as it should be, not as it is". Yes. Precisely. We cannot become the chaos that threatens our people. We need to be clear and available to the life force that reinforces our people's liberation- with the perspective of an eagle or a hawk, seeing circumstances clearly for what they are but not allowing them to consume or (mis)direct us. We hold space for the fundamental energy under our liberation's goals, as we EMBODY the energy of life and love which itself is being fought for, and which itself will get us thru intact. We walk this way as a reflection of our peoples' fundamental essence and POWER as sacred vessels of life, unwilling to be distracted from the empowerment of this deeply shielding truth. This is the right and power which we cannot ever as a people afford to forfeit, because it is the one that protects and strengthens us most of all in the face of oppression, and which most aligns us with the actual state of liberation which our freedom movements strive towards.

I have thought also about the role of traditional healers and spiritual leaders in supporting African people who endured the unfathomable oppressions of trans-atlantic slavery. Slavery imposed multiple layers of severe and intentional trauma upon the African people affected, including a systematic effort to break every form of cultural and familial bond that could sustain a peoples resilience thru the exploitive conditions they were being subjected to. This is a key- colonial projects actually INTEND to break our spirits, culture, and bonds in order to weaken and conquer us. The effectiveness of our work as a community requires us to keep our own spirits and the bonds of our traditions, cultures, and other customs which reinforce our loving relationship with one another, strong and healthy. In these expressions of kinship, we practically express honor for value of one another's lives- we empower and reclaim the worth of life and its expressions as deemed by our own cultures. We strengthen the bonds of life that protect us and help us to stay in touch with the blessings of who we really are, our histories, lands, and worth, and the collective power we carry within us to fulfill it. How did the healers and leaders of the time respond in addressing such profound oppression and trauma when even these fundamental bonds were being threatened?

When we were talking again, my wise kin and historian friend Sanyika Bryant educated me that in those times, traditional African priests and priestesses, in an act of liberation, actually volunteered themselves to join the diaspora so they could serve their people struggling under immensely violent conditions of exploitation and forced displacement from their homes and livelihoods. The priests came to uplift the traditions that would be able to keep their folks alive and connected to the power of where they came from, and the ancestral practices that could support their spirits and the practical efforts of their liberation to remain steadfast through the most horrendous times. They worked in secret to serve the survival of their people as well as the long lineages of land-based traditions, keeping alive whole cultures within the diaspora where it was threatened to be extinguished or stolen completely.  Babalawo Adechina is amongst the elders who contributed to his people through the context of slavery. He was a Yoruba priest of Ifa who was enslaved to Cuba as a young man. He swallowed his sacred divination tools so that he could bring them with him across oceans without being found and discarded by the oppressors. He eventually managed to buy his freedom and purchase land, and eventually was able to return to Africa where he collected sacred items simply to return back to the diaspora with. The tools he brought were specifically to fulfill a dedication to initiate new babalawos in Cuba, through which the Ifa traditions could be more profoundly sustained and utilized by the communities who seeked this ancestral form of counsel. Despite the efforts of slavery to eliminate every trace of it, these traditions survived thanks to these acts of sacrifice. Read more about him here at this blog post by The Ase Fountain.  To this day, there are parts of the African diaspora whose lineages carry traditional wisdoms more complete than regions of continental Africa itself, simply due to the willingness of these spiritual leaders and medicine people who worked to arrive for their people in a time of violent plight- from Brazil, to Cuba, Haiti, and beyond. African diasporic communities have clearly continued to find power through engaging these old ways, otherwise they too would have been lost by now.

Some lessons:

In these two examples alone, one thing is clear: the healers do not abandon their people in times of crisis, nor dismiss the conditions surrounding it- they actively meet the needs of their people through the most disturbing of circumstances by being present and available to them as centered anchors of light and Life itself- emotionally, spiritually, and physically clear vessels for Creation's power to renew, heal and transform the pain and obstacles within their communities and within ALL life. They do not necessarily (but, some have/do) act as on the ground revolutionaries in the traditional political sense, but they fulfill their liberation role in service of maintaining the psycho-spiritual and relational health of their community and its material efforts to survive and not become broken or defeated thru struggle. The healers maintain a clarity and focus on liberation's essence, and the tools to support others in upholding this work with integrity that can only be rooted when one is well from within. They keep the sacred essence of their community's life force, traditions of resilience, and ways which connect them to the strong legacies of their native lands in tact. Thru ceremony, ritual, personal, community, and ancestral healings, these means are fulfilled. Thru engaging in an attitude and way of relating that authentically rekindle and reconnect us to our innermost spirit of hope, joy, and life, this too can be fulfilled. Thru engaging in cultural traditions and ways that reinforce this spirit of hope and healing, it is again fulfilled. Thru holding space for the shadows of our pain to be transformed and reconciled with authentically, it is fulfilled. The healers are charged with the responsibility to transcend beyond (not ignore, but face and HEAL) the pain of the obstacles and conflicts at hand within themselves so they can be well enough to uplift the spirits of their people at a time where it is at greatest risk for being broken or severed completely. They are obliged to identify first and foremost with the liberation of life's rightfulness, rather than with the ways it has been taken away from us. They are in the role to support their people and ALL people in doing this work of healing and transcending their shadows and traumas as well, at times where they are quickly multiplying in pervasiveness. They are charged with being the bearers and vessels of unwaivering light amidst the deepest shadows of the most despairing and overwhelming of times collectively as a human species, steadfast bridges for the universal power of Creation itself to empower life where it is being threatened or violated, and bring perspective, possibility, and renewal where it is needed. THESE things ensure that warriors return to their communities intact, that we are able to effectively integrate our experiences without being later oppressed by the impacts of their traumas amongst one another, that we have ways of sustaining ourselves so that our liberation can actually be experienced. This is only a fraction of what place the traditional healers have held in these contexts, but a significant starting place to consider.

And they are not the only ones in this equation. These scenarios speak to the benefits and engagement that revolutionaries and the broader communities have had due to the healers’ sacrifices. In the traditional contexts, the healer played an important role in sustaining the well-being of the community, and the healer’s work was respected as necessary to a well-functioning community and culture- not to mention, a self-determined community. In these contexts, it is not only the healer who has a responsibility to maintain their highest spirits and character, but all our people need to be strong and accountable in that way in order to live well as a collective, relationally, and individually, especially through threatening and unstable times. In light of repeated exposure to systemic violence, and the internalization of oppressive behavior which has frankly not been addressed for decades in many of us, what is our responsibility as people and as political leaders in our community to pursuing our own healing? How do we benefit from taking this on and supporting our broader communities to reconcile with themselves, their histories, and the natural environment which supports us to stay alive? What is the impact it has on our collective liberation and abilities when we neglect responsibility for our own internal character and wellbeing? Through the support of traditional healers and spiritual counsels, community leaders have historically received guidance, strength, and blessings to support the optimal functioning of their work in greater balance with one another, the community at large, and THE LAND itself, integrity and resilience in tact.

And they are not the only ones in this equation. These scenarios speak to the benefits and engagement that revolutionaries and the broader communities have had due to the healers' work and sacrifices. In the traditional contexts, the healer played an important role in sustaining the well-being of the community, and the healer's work was respected as necessary to a well-functioning community and culture- not to mention, a self-determined community. In these contexts, it is not only the healer who has a responsibility to maintain their highest spirits and character, but all our people need to be strong and accountable in that way in order to live well as a collective, relationally, and individually, especially through threatening and unstable times.  In light of repeated exposure to systemic violence, and the internalization of oppressive behavior which has frankly not been addressed for decades in many of us, what is our responsibility as people and as political leaders in our community to pursuing our own healing? How do we benefit from taking this on and supporting our broader communities to reconcile with themselves, their histories, and the natural environment which supports us to stay alive? What is the impact it has on our collective liberation and abilities when we neglect responsibility for our own internal character and wellbeing? Through the support of traditional healers and spiritual counsels, community leaders have historically received guidance, strength, and blessings to support the optimal functioning of their work in greater balance with one another, the community at large, and THE LAND itself, integrity and resilience in tact.

While contemporary movements fight for the political and social rights to live in dignity and autonomy on our ancestral lands, traditional healers have carried the wisdom of our land-based ways as extended by our pre-colonial ancestors whose ways of living were in fact most intimate with the land. What responsibility do land-based liberation movements have to reconciling and reciprocating our actual relationship with the land we fight for, and the paradigms of living that have preserved the LIFE of our land and by extension, our people? The traditional healer becomes not only a bridge between spirit and humans, but between modern folks and the lands we claim as our fundamental key, the right that our self-determination depends on. Healing our traumas and imbalances is a process that helps reconnect us to our fundamental relationship to not only ourselves, but also the land and elements that dictate life- a natural state of understanding which was severed for many of us through the violent processes of colonization and the westernization of indigenous and tribal values expressed across the globe by our pre-colonial ancestors. For thousands of years preceding western colonization, this knowledge and intimacy with nature determined our total livelihood, and composed the behaviors that allowed us to sustain ourselves, manage our communities, and delegate our resources in a responsible, harmonious, and autonomous way.And besides, trauma is no liberated state to live in, and we truly don't have to.

Finding our place in things:

We, as a community, have a lot to live up to. I offer these reflections as I myself strive to understand and step up to my OWN role in abating the impacts and traumas pervasive in our communities throughout the whole world at this time. It feels to me that something huge is happening and may be transpiring with increased intensity for a while, that a distinct line is being drawn around our role and life as humans and the way we plan to go forward with that from here on- how to reckon with and defeat our specie's shadow IF we plan to go forward.  The political acts we are observing ARE of the most severe violations of Natural Law, they ARE the breaches of humanity's role that need to be reconciled in order to heal, and we are all at some level implied in choosing how to move forward, as well as how we have arrived here. How do we meet the task of reinforcing life and the paradigms of living that uphold Life at the systemic, interpersonal, and environmental levels? How do we uphold the righteousness of this from a place of love and deep alignment to the Collective Good?To be in the role of upholding light through it all, is a responsibility that requires us to be extra clear in heart, committed in spirit, and disciplined in our role of service to the higher will of Life and a deep respect for its sacredness.  It requires us to be whole enough within ourselves so that we can actually support our people when they are feeling broken or weak. Healers must keep emotionally pure and clean in this way to be of service to those on the front lines and those caught in between the whirlwind of it all.  To do this, we need to know and be honest about our limits and commit to those ways of living and engaging that can uplift our perspective so we are able walk as embodied reiterations of life's sacredness- reflections of who our people ARE, not just what has oppressed them. We need to be able to be like the water which the earth so badly needs, soothing and cooling, cleansing and nourishing to all that it touches. How do we embody the lightness and righteousness that is Life? Walk as reflections of that for our people to be anchored by constantly and consistently when it is needed most? And how do our people meet us (themselves) in their willingness to transform their own wounds and barriers to living in their best as well, as we collectively get through the material challenges of this transformative time?

May peace be upon you, kindred ones. May Nature's Good Will be victorious, bringing a sweet justice of life that instills the sacredness of life on this earth. And may you always find reflections that support your resilience and uphold the light within your own value, to sustain your highest goodness and most righteous and loving nature through these challenging but important times and whatever unique role you have in making things better. May your actions be in alignment with Life itself, and the nature that upholds us all. May the spirit of Life itself be always alive in you. And may all thats being cleansed and purged from the earth be for our collective highest. Salaam and One Love.

And also, please do feel welcome and encouraged to share and exchange here in the comments of this blog post. There is so much knowledge and relationship I did not get to in this piece, and I welcome the community sharing around the subject.

Lots to be continued on in this conversation, and perhaps will revisit it with more posts as things unfold...

Layla Kristy Feghali is the creator of River Rose Apothecary, the home of نجمع جذورنا | reGathering our Ancestors Program and the SWANA Ancestral Medicine HUB. She is a plantcestral educator, aspiring ethnobotanist, & apprentice of ancestral healing traditions. Her work is dedicated to the decolonization, healing, and re-membrance of the original teachings and medicine of our indigenous ancestors, with a particular focus on the SWANA region.