Whenever I think of that word, my first association is with something that tastes incredibly nasty, like castor oil ( yes, I’m old enough to remember castor oil) or the cringe in my mouth when I accidentally bite down on an antibiotic pill.

I have also had way too many highly unpleasant and even scary experiences with the ever surprising “side effects” of Western medicine. Which often means I am very likely to initially feel worse before I hopefully get better after taking some form of prescription medication. I have been TOLD by various authorities that whatever I’m putting into my mouth or on my skin is good for me, but my body, in it’s infinite wisdom, often has different ideas as to what good really means and will go out of it’s way to reject what it perceives as toxic and not healing at all.

In our Western worldview, we need medicine because something has shown up in our lives that is bad or wrong and healing means that we make this bad thing go away. And when it’s gone we can return to our original status quo which is often less than truly healthy to begin with.

Taking medicine is associated with some kind of a problem that has to be changed or fixed or solved. This problem is also something that is often perceived as separate from us and something that has been inflicted upon us from the outside.

And it’s very often something that makes us feel victimized and powerless.

But there is a whole other conception of medicine and what it means to heal that comes from more earth-based indigenous cultures.

In the indigenous approach, healing is linked to the concept of personal power and it’s relationship to wholeness. If we are sick or struggling or suffering it is because we have lost our sense of being whole and complete. We have difficulty finding our connection to our natural power sources. And sometimes forget that we have any power at all.