Woman as healer

Why weren’t we taught the extent of the “woman as healer” dynamic? How might the world be different if we were?

Why weren’t we taught that the so called “witches” murdered over hundreds of years weren’t necessarily casting spells, but rather tending to the sick with their natural gifts, commitment to study and practice - herbalism, midwifery, bodywork, food as medicine, rest, certain surgeries?

Why weren’t we taught that women healers were actually a THREAT to the male dominated Church and the professionalization of medicine?

Why? Because they were women. Wild women. Wise women. Immensely knowledgeable women. Women who used empirical and experiential evidence to evaluate their patients and those they nursed. Women who were living in their power, their life force, and sharing it. Throughout history, women have always been connected to the cycles of life and death, birth and rebirth, nature’s rhythms and wisdoms. This is not a secret. And, yet..

That was too dangerous for some. Still is to some.

***

I’ve been reading several texts recently about women healers through the ages - Witches, Midwives, and Nurses and Woman as Healer being two of them, and have been astonished at the lack of depth these women have been given in history.

I cried when I read the passages about the atrocious and violent ways women were killed in Europe and the colonies during the so-called “witch trials,” and what they endured before being hanged or burned at the stake. The trials wiped out huge populations of women, so much so that only one or two women were left in villages at times. Again this wasn’t for “witchcraft,” it was for their healing practices…healing practices that actually worked.

Eventually, midwifery was condemned to make way for male dominated obstetrics.
Herbalism laughed at.
Innate traditions abhorred.
Women began to be barred from licensure during the professionalization of medicine.
And, the women who DID become licensed doctors often did so on the backs of the women lay healers who came before, turning against them to get ahead (read the history books).

It’s no wonder that so many of our systems, including health, are oppressive and patriarchal in nature. Hysteria was manufactured, stories quite literally made up to wipe out the women healers. It’s no wonder that I (as an ayurvedic yoga therapist) and my colleagues find it hard to operate in the current health system as we know it…because we weren’t meant to. And, finally…I’m okay with that.

So, tell me. Who was really casting spells? Wreaking havoc on humanity? Creating tall tales to place some people in power over others? Was it really these women?

No. It was not.

***

Perhaps if we were actually taught the truth of what happened to anywhere between 100,000 to 1 million women who were burned, tortured, and hanged, then our world would be much different. We wouldn’t be operating as a society in wounded masculine or wounded maiden. We wouldn’t be obsessed with dominance, oppression, capitalism, extraction, and so on to get ahead…or over-giving, over-extending, over-working to prove our worthiness.

Perhaps the perinatal period wouldn’t be shrouded in mystery.

Perhaps obstetrical violence would be obsolete.

Perhaps more women would know the difference between a doula and a midwife. A midwife and a doctor. And, would have faith in their decision to decide the right support team.

Perhaps women wouldn’t be coerced into procedures or practices or have “white coat” syndrome.

Perhaps women wouldn’t feel so alone during pregnancy and caring for their babies postpartum.

Perhaps there would be different (and effective) go-to methods for fertility, conscious conception, pregnancy discomfort, birth practices, and postpartum healing.

It’s time to go backwards so that we may go FORWARDS to create systems for thriving life.

We must go back to understand the cultural wounding…to understand why there aren’t more women operating in the role of “healer,” “physician,” and beyond.

In my own life, I have bristled at the term “healer” whenever my work was referred to in this way. For one, I don’t “heal.” I offer the tools to help your body heal itself. And underneath that superficiality, the word didn’t feel safe because of the generational trauma women before me endured. Want the science on that? Search for the epigenetics studies on generational trauma. Generational trauma is real.

Now, I declare: No more.

I’m owning it. I like this word. I love my work in Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy. I see its transformative power in the lives of those I work with who are finally getting pregnant, alleviating anxiety, getting free from chronic pain, exploring their emotional and energetic bodies, creating more solid foundations as a mother, experiencing the rawness and wonder of birth, and having the confidence to do their work in the world, too. I LOVE being in the healing arts.

I’m owning that this work, my sacred work, was never intended to work inside the current medical and healthcare systems as we know it, and so I envision anew. I envision a place where ancient medicine and healing practices (like yoga therapy) work alongside advances in modern medicine. Where women are celebrated in their roles and celebrate each other. Please don’t mistake my writing - I believe in Western medicine for acute conditions, I also acknowledge its limitations (and my own).

If we want to create new systems for thriving life, it won’t be because we tore down current ones. I’m not wasting my precious life force energy there. It will because we consciously create something different. Let’s open the doors for women as healers. As caregivers. As yoga therapists. As talk therapists. As herbalists. As midwives. As doulas. As doctors. As physical therapists. As astrologers. As sound healers. As chefs. As nurses. As mothers. As Ayurvedic practitioners and doctors. The list goes on and on. Let’s invest in them. Believe in them. Believe in the power of woman as healer.

Who are the women healers in your life? Are you one of them?

Jai Mai.
With love,
Leanne

P.S. In the Afterglow Mentorship, we explore more about the concepts of cultural wounding and how it leads us to places of depletion, overwhelm, isolation, mistrusting our instincts and our bodies during the perinatal period. We have high caliber conversations about preparing for birth, healing postpartum, navigating new identities, and redefining what motherhood, work, and womanhood really mean for us. And we do so through a blend of yoga therapy and Ayurvedic practices, like movement, meditation, breathwork, and group discussion. We’ll open for the summer cohort soon. Please let me know if you’re interested and join the waitlist for 10% off.