History of Medicine contd: Dossey's ERAs of Medicine

Last post on this blog I wrote about Eric Cassell and Leslie Weatherhead, both active in the 1900s in trying to educate the medical profession towards a greater “healing” ethos in medical practice.

When I started researching for my book on the Wounded Healer (Healing This Wounded Earth) information on Weatherhead was not so easy to come by and I had to satisfy myself with a very old secondhand copy of the revised 1955 version of his thesis, which I treasure as being an important influence from which much of my early research progressed. It is surely a positive sign of change in our attitudes towards spirituality and a resurgence of interest in the links between spirituality and medicine that Weatherhead’s thesis has been made available again as a reprint in 2008.

And now, forty years after Weatherhead, we have Larry Dossey who has looked back on what he saw as a new era in medicine from the 1950s, but said that the then prevailing study of the mind/body question within medicine would be more accurately described as the brain/body question to reflect the widespread scientific attitude of the time. This was the medicine of physicians such as Eric Cassell, a phase that Dossey calls ERA II in the development of medicine to follow on from the first 100 years or so of what he called mechanical medicine which he identified as ERA I.

Like Weatherhead,
Dossey foresaw and hoped for the start of a new era, ERA III, when the importance of the soul would properly be recognized and even the field of ‘non local’ approaches to healing, such as prayer, would also be seen as a respectable further therapy within mainstream medicine (1)
Dossey of course continues to expand on and develop this theme to this day although there is a long way to go in gaining wider acceptance of these views.
Weatherhead was not only a renowned preacher who regularly packed the church with up to 1000 people who came just to hear him. He was also a true visionary, with ideas ahead of his time, exploring as he did the mind/body aspects of healthcare within the spiritual paradigm. At the time those who supported such ideas must have felt like voices lost in the wilderness of the inexorable march of scientific progress and medical positivism. To an extent we still do!!

References:

(1) Dossey, Larry, Healing Words - The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine New York: Harper Collins Publishers 1993, p. xv Preface and p.44. This is one of his early books.

Healing and Curing: Eric Cassell and Leslie Weatherhead

A brief recap on posts to date may be a good idea here: I am fascinated by the movement to bring the treatment of the mind, soul and spirit back into mainstream Western medicine. I yearn for a wider recognition that technology and pharmacology cannot provide all the answers where wellbeing and healthcare are concerned. Over the last week or so and for the next few weeks in this blog I am tracing the history of Western medicine, showing where we lost sight of our souls in our treatments and then offering signs of hope all around us for those who are looking for healing for our dis-ease as well as cures for our illness.

I really don’t want to imply that during the 1900s there were no physicians who understood the importance in their work of a sympathetic interaction, a sensitivity of feeling between the doctor and the patient. One notable American physician, Eric J. Cassell, had a mission in the 1970s
to help physicians understand the difference between curing and healing in the relief of suffering.
Cassell wrote a great deal about the need to combine the practice of medicine as a science with the need to address the overall illness of the patient, the need for the patient to be made whole, the need to address all the other complex interrelated factors affecting the patient’s overall well being and the all important need, the ultimate purpose of all medicine, to relieve the patient’s suffering. He developed this theme in many books throughout his career and by the 1990s was still lamenting that in his view modern medicine was generally still failing to relieve suffering. Throughout his working life Cassell has emphasized that mind, body and soul or spirit are one and cannot be viewed in isolation.

Then there was the extremely popular, if sometimes controversial, English Methodist Minister and legendary preacher Leslie D. Weatherhead  in London in the 1950s, who wrote an important thesis on the links between psychology, religion and healing. This was a subject that had come to intrigue him immensely. In this thesis he wrote eloquently and in detail of
a perceived new era in medicine, when faith and soul would again be widely recognized as a vital part of the mainstream medical practice. 
He saw the limitations of the average medical doctor, in terms of time constraints and training, for healing more than the physiological body. In relation to patients for whom he thought the illness was rooted in the mind or the soul, he wrote:

‘the ordinary doctor is usually of little use in such cases. He tends to interpret physical symptoms only in terms of physical origins. He works on what I have described as the ‘garage level’. He is skilled to repair the machine. It is no disparagement of the general practitioner to say that he has not the time or, often, the skill, to interpret physical symptoms in terms of psychological, let alone spiritual, disharmony. If he had, in the latter case at least, he usually would not know what to do about it.’(1)

Seeing the potential for using the combined skills of the psychologist, doctor and pastor in the healing process, by 1935 Weatherhead had established the City Temple Psychological Clinic in the heart of London, where these principles were successfully put into practice (2). Weatherhead wrote extensively of the spiritual and religious aspects of medicine as foreseen in Jung’s work. Although certainly controversial in his preaching and healing, he was also widely regarded and respected for much of his work and insight. But he was of course trying to reintroduce the soul into mainline medical practice in the broadly secular climate of that time and his work failed to capture the combined and co-operative imaginations of the public, the pastor and the doctor. After his death in 1976 Weatherhead seemed to all but disappear from public awareness and his thesis of the integration of psychology, religion and healing was largely forgotten, or so it seemed, in the continuing inexorable march of scientific knowledge.... to be contd.

References:

(1) Weatherhead, Leslie D, Psychology Religion and Healing, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1951, reprinted with further revision 1955, p. 482. There is a new edition published by Stewart Press: 2008.

(2) Weatherhead led the City Temple church from 1936-1960. There is a Healing and Counseling Centre at St Marylebone Parish Church opened 1987 combining innovative health care through an NHS doctor’s surgery offering many complementary therapies

I love synchronicity

Don't you just love synchronicity?

Today in church at our mid-week Eucharist we celebrated and remembered the Blessed Virgin Mary, called to be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And she accepted her role with humility and obedience. We were asked to reflect on what our own personal callings were, how we might ourselves make a difference in this world, shining the Gospel and the light of Christ around the world for the benefit of all.

It so happens that I have just completed and posted a review on Amazon of a fascinating book by Reiki Master Deborah Lloyd, Believe and it is True. The review speaks for itself, but what I found so interesting is her different approach to the idea that healing ourselves can heal our world, from that taken in my own first book, Healing This Wounded Earth. True we both had deep wounds that needed healing, true we both come from conventional Christian backgrounds (mine Anglican, hers Catholic), but there the similarities more or less end. Her wounds came with polio at the age of three, mine came much later in life through breakdown. And her physical healing seems much more miraculous than any of my own experiences. But we both found strength in our weakness, and we both were called to make a difference in the world, and whilst Deborah does not articulate the concept of the Wounded Healer as such, it is there between the lines of her later chapters.

I think we both understand our own calling. In our own different ways we hope we can make a difference in the world. With the help of God we will.

The doctor as shaman - a point of view

‘To be a good doctor you have to be a compassionate chameleon, a shape shifter, a shaman,’ wrote the late Cecil Helman, family doctor, medical anthropologist, poet, traveler and observer of health systems worldwide, in his book Suburban Shaman. From fascinating anecdotes of consultations with traditional South African shamans or Sangomas to the curative trance dances in the Brazilian favelas, he reflects on how western Doctors can learn much from the folk wisdom and shrewd knowledge of human nature as demonstrated by these indigenous Wounded Healers.In the midst of the poverty, illiteracy and appalling living conditions of the shanty - towns of Southern Brazil, a Brazilian doctor, Carlos Grossman, has developed an innovative Community Health Program. The ‘social doctors’ who work in such areas not only provide the primary health care for their patients but also devote as much as half of their time to community development, to health education, to campaigning for improved conditions and generally engaging with the underlying social conditions of those patients in their care. This, says Helman, is ‘real’ medicine.
The shantytown conditions of Brazil or the indigenous medicine man may seem far removed both culturally and geographically from our own Western experience. But the healing methods of indigenous tribes are found in the culture of the Native Americans, in the Ayurveda of native Indian, in Chinese Oriental medicine and in many other cultures worldwide. These traditions go back thousands of years. Nevertheless I would suggest that the importance of the personal, subjective and social elements of patient care are no less relevant in mainstream healthcare provision in the USA or the UK than they are in the favelas of Brazil.
The World Health Organization (WHO) first recognized the value of these traditional shamanic healers as long ago as 1978, but only as being really relevant in areas where there were few conventional doctors. The shamans, the WHO said, should be allies of conventional healthcare, not opponents, as they had the holistic advantage of ‘viewing man in his totality within a wide ecological spectrum, and of emphasizing …that ill health or disease is brought about by an imbalance…of man in his total ecological system…’ The shaman could work cooperatively alongside conventional physicians in helping to combat AIDs, to promote family planning, child health and mental illness for example, as ‘social workers.’
Unfortunately the genuine holistic healing skills of the true indigenous shaman are too often today confused with the fads and abuses introduced by some of those unscrupulous ‘medicine men’ and ‘faith healers’ in our twenty first century culture, who are driven more by monetary gain than by any altruistic motive. This insults true shamanism and its origins.

As I watched President Obama make his inaugural speech to the American nation early in 2009, I was concerned. ‘We will restore science to its rightful place,’ he said, ‘and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its costs.’
With the emphasis on technology there was no recognition of the need to support an integrated healthcare. Perhaps that was neither the appropriate time nor occasion to raise such issues. But it may be that Obama’s two aims for healthcare are incompatible. Ever more complex drug regimes and technological advances are alone unlikely to lower the costs of healthcare. Also hurling more money at the present healthcare system seems to me like handing out more pills to deal with the side effect of a prescribed drug, rather than looking for a more appropriate initial treatment without that unwanted reaction.
Let me stress, by contrast, that the healing power of the spirit is free and wholesome, with no unwanted side effects.
We know that the American president understands the compassion and empathy of the Wounded Healer. He also understands that government policies cannot work alone, but require changes in our own hearts and minds. I hope that healthcare professionals enlightened in the latest advances in integrated healthcare are involved in any discussions on reform and that Obama’s own empathic sentiments will spill over into America’s healthcare system as soon as possible.
What do readers think?

© Eleanor Stoneham 2011

Our flawed economy - our flawed behaviour

The other day I wrote about why we need money, and said I would return to look at the flaws in our economy. But first we need to look at our own flawed behavior.

Some while ago a series of bank advertisements on the management of wealth appeared in the glossy weekend media. One of these featured a lone and pretty girl cantering away on a lovely white stallion into the beautiful and totally unblemished distance. ‘What...[is wealth]…to you?’ the headline asked. ‘It’s being able to tell the world to get lost.’
That's so awful!
How can any single one of us afford to turn our back on the world in this way in any sense. How can any of us ride away to an unblemished horizon while so many basic human rights are not available to so many? That surely diminishes us as human beings. But someone, indeed a team of people, wrote that advertisement.

In our materially rich Western society it is too easy to be wooed by the power of marketing and advertising. Psychological insights developed to help us understand the healing needs of our souls are instead cynically used for marketing purposes. The advertisers play on our feelings of guilt or fear and our need for love and comfort, which often reflect in some of the worst aspects of human behavior, our insecurity, envy and discontent. These traits fuel our over-consumption and greed for material possessions.

If we would only understand such faults in our nature and allow them to be healed rather than exploited, there may yet be hope for the plight of our global brothers and sisters who through accident of birth are far less privileged than ourselves. Then we can hope to build an economy that is globally just and contributes to a healing world.

Hope in healing - How understanding and healing trauma could solve the planetary crisis.

“…(O)ur first responsibility … to ourselves, our families and community, and to humanity, is to heal ourselves of whatever traumas we may be carrying…work to heal our relationships…treat every person…with respect, warmth and dignity…treat the Earth with the care our home deserves. If everyone did the same, humanity and the planet would be healed.”

This is taken from an absolutely fascinating book just out in the UK, (mid March in the USA), Hope for Humanity. The thesis behind this substantial book by Malcolm Hollick and Christine Connelly is that our present global crises are the result of unhealed traumas, both collective and individual. Traumas from the last 6000 or so years are embedded in our culture, inherent in our make up today, and these need healing on a grand scale. As far as modern sources of trauma go, it is clear that nurture of our offspring from “in utero” onwards has a profound effect on our development, on our level of traumatisation and how we develop as humans, with huge implications for the future of humankind. All these traumas, left unhealed, affect the ways we behave, creating more trauma, in a self perpetuating cycle. Trauma begets trauma. Preventing and healing trauma would go a long way towards resolving the crises of our civilisation. We could then start to heal our world and find hope for the future of humanity. Meanwhile the malaise of the human spirit is undermining our intelligence, creativity and mental health.

Read more about this on Malcolm's own blog.

Here we have one of a collection of books currently appearing that in their various ways, sometimes writing from differing perspectives but all with the same underlying message, call for more healing, compassion and empathy in healing the world. They are all essential reading for those who want to understand how they can do something practical towards saving mankind.

A wonderful message of hope.

A Tree Blessing

May you be like a tree whose roots quarry deep

Into the earth’s wisdom,

so that your mind is filled with vision and inspiration.

May you grow strong like a tree knowing your growth,

however slow and painful, is not just for yourself.

but for this lovely planet.

May you pause like the tree to feel the gentle winds of heaven upon you, 

    and the heart of the Creator warm and golden within you.

May you be wise as the tree who taps the centre of its

being for truth,

so that amidst every storm that shakes your roots

you will know that all is well.

Within your still centre may you know the magic

of love that opens all doors and heals all pain.

May you always be strong and firm and beautiful as a tree.

Stephanie Sorrell

I think that is so beautiful. It is in Stephanie's lovely new book, Nature as Mirror: an Ecology of Body, Mind and Soul.

Nature is a mirror, she explains, reflecting back at us the fractures and chasms within our own psyche. Because of this, nature can also be used as a powerful healing tool, and this book explains how to use nature’s own natural cycles and patterns to heal our own souls. Also, and importantly, until we develop an intimate sense of our union with nature, we will continue to work against the natural environment, with all that this implies in environmental destruction. If we do not heal our relationship with nature it will destroy us. Here are her links to Amazon, and do check out her poetry whilst you are there.

More on the Wounded Healer

It was the Jungian psychoanalysts who probably first started referring to the Wounded Healer archetype as a recognized tool in the healing process. But it was the Roman Catholic priest Henri Nouwen who really popularized the term within a wider spiritual and pastoral healing context when he wrote his own bestselling book The Wounded Healer in 1979. In it he identifies the loneliness that he himself so keenly felt as the most painful of our human wounds, leaving us craving for love and attention. Loneliness, he tells us, is recognized in words such as alienation, separation and isolation. (1) But Malcolm Langford identifies four other basic types of wound: those resulting from the evil of our own life experiences and of others with whom we are involved, those from our own broken personalities and motivations, from our personal prejudices and fears and those which reflect our emotional and spiritual poverty in such a materially wealthy world. (2) We can all relate to some if not all of these examples of woundedness. And there is plenty of need for healing in the world!

Ian McEwan reflected on the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11:

If the hijackers had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of the passengers, they would have been unable to proceed. It is hard to be cruel once you permit yourself to enter the mind of your victim. Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity [my italics]. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality…The hijackers used fanatical certainty, misplaced religious faith, and dehumanizing hatred to purge themselves of the human instinct for empathy. Among their crimes was a failure of the imagination. (3)

And as the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explains, when bad things do happen to us, we can use these experiences to sensitize us to the pain of others. Rather than allowing such wounds to make us victims of circumstance, let them turn us into potentially life changing agents of hope. (4)


1. Nouwen, Henri J. M. The Wounded Healer, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1994, p. 83
2. Malcolm Langford, draws much of his inspiration from Henri Nouwen. Langford, Malcolm, Waking the Wounded: Facing our own Poverty. This was on World Vision site at
http://www.worldvision.com.au/getinvolved/faithinaction/files/grid2000_wakingthewounded.pdf sourced 17 February 2009.
3. McEwan, Ian, The Guardian 15 September 2001, ‘Only love and then oblivion. Love was all they had to set against their murderers.’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/15/september11.politicsphilosophyandsociety2 sourced 19 February 2009.
4. Jonathan Sacks, The Times, 5 January 2008, Count your Blessings and Begin to Change your Life.

When Icicles hang by the wall - again

In these freezing conditions I caught sight of these icicles and William Shakespeare came to mind - I learnt this at school! Do kids still learn poetry at school? I do hope so! Poetry can be very healing - it can touch our souls and speak to the spirit within us and help to heal our wounds.

WHEN icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.



When all around the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw;
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl—
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

What does "keeling the pot" mean? Will someone let me know?

I put this poem on my blog a year ago but with new photos I thought it warranted a second airing.

A New Rennaisance; Transforming Science, Spirit and Society

E. F. Schumacher once said: “man is far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom.” And we now need that wisdom in large measure.

Someone said to me today: "the trouble is, (a phrase I dislike as much as "the problem is") there are so many books on this climate change stuff and other problems of our age, but nothing ever gets done."

That is simply not true, but there is always room to do more.

I went recently in London to a day conference at the University of London, the occasion being the launch of A New Renaissance; Transforming Science, Spirit and Society. This book was born out of a vision by the Scientific Medical Network of the urgent need for action to address the now deeply rooted and dangerous ecological, political and spiritual crisis in which we find ourselves.
Members of the Network were invited to submit essays on aspects of the crisis, which would discuss the causes of, and/or the paths beyond, the current crisis, to create an important repository of wisdom.

The predominant aim was to underpin a programme of action, to help the Network to “move boldly from theory to practice,” with progressive solutions, not only within the Network itself but by working with other like minded organisations and within the wider global community.

What we have now in this excellent volume is a compilation of 25 of the best essays, many of them from some of the world’s leading thinkers, bringing the latest scientific discoveries and philosophical ideas alongside ancient spiritual wisdoms.
The book is divided into four sections, under the headings; Worldviews in Transition, Consciousness and Mind in Science and Medicine, Spirituality and New Understandings of the Sacred, and finally Global and Local Transformation: Governance, Economics and Education (and also including, importantly, a chapter on the role of music and the arts in a possible future). This final part is most important, examining as it does some possible reforms in politics, economics and education, to help "bring forth a society that can sustain the flourishing of human beings in the twenty first century."

The scene is set in the first chapter (by Ervin Laszlo) by diagnosing the world’s own health problems –unsustainable living, irrational behaviours and obsolete beliefs and aspirations. But crisis brings opportunities for transformation, in enlightened politics, a more socially aware business ethic, and personal responsibility. And underlying all of this is the need for a greater spiritual awareness, a shift of our dominant consciousness towards a connectedness with each other and with the natural world, a new understanding of humans as psychic beings. This is a theme that occurs again and again in many of the essays; that rediscovery of our souls, or the spirit in matter, or a sense of the sacred, or changes in human consciousness in some way, will be essential for finding a more meaningful and spirit filled world and for healing our planet. And this new understanding of reality must acknowledge the inadequacy of reductionist materialism and the mechanistic scientific worldview.

Readers will not agree with everything here. Boundaries are being pushed to limits of thought and understanding, but there are common threads of purpose, and urgency. There are practical ideas in plenty, and there are messages of hope from some authors, whilst others seem more doubtful that we still have time for change or indeed about the nature of the crisis itself.

I enjoyed reading all these essays immensely. Some are more technical than others, some the reader will find controversial. But all have their own profoundly important message from the authors’ own hearts. They combine a rich pattern of diverse thinking, knowledge, wisdom and proposed solutions and together they form a valuable resource for healing this wounded earth.

However, all this effort will have been in vain unless the book promotes positive healing actions. As humans we have freedom of choice and the benefits of hindsight and foresight and if we want to we can put this to a healing purpose. And this, we are reminded, will variously require courage, confidence and determination to move ideas forward, changes in education, changes in mindset, hearts and minds, and a sense of personal responsibility. Some believe that change must start from small groups, within community, a bottoms- up approach, and that we have to change our beliefs and attitudes before we can change our values and behaviour. Others stress the need for careful and respectful dialogue to establish a shared wisdom, for a unifying vision of our purpose on this planet and a call for global unity in diversity.
I could go on – there is so much wisdom in these pages. But to go into detail on any specific chapter would surely offend, albeit unintentionally, those I have left out.

As humans we yearn to be happy, at peace, part of a global family. This book is an important step in that direction if we heed its wisdom and advice.

(This article, with a few small changes, repeats the review I have posted on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).

The Healing Power of Creativity

Through Art we can see deep truths that are otherwise invisible. In great works of art we feel the deepest yearnings of our Heart and glimpse the shimmering revelations of our Spirit.
- Dana Lynne Andersen

Creativity in its many forms is an integral part of our lives. We cannot escape its impact. But our creativity can be used for good or evil. There is nothing neutral about creative force. We can use it as a source of inspiration and healing for ourselves and for those around us. Or our creativity has the power to hurt or corrupt, to disturb or destroy.

We therefore have government and industry guidelines that protect us from ourselves! We have rules and regulations that prohibit or restrict certain creative practices. But of course it is difficult if not impossible to restrict what goes on within the confines of our own homes, and the bar of acceptability seems to be continually and subtly lowered. Yesterday’s restrictions often seem to have been diluted to the extent that they become today’s standard! Does it matter?

Yes it does! Because it is our own behaviour, not government intervention, which in the end will influence our future, the future of this planet, and the future for our children. I have no doubt that creativity in all its forms can be used either to help our spiritual regeneration, or to destroy our sensitivities. With its power to hurt or heal, creativity is at the very heart of all our lives, in boardroom or kitchen, hospital or garden, at work or at leisure. And so we all have a personal choice: We can be responsible and spread healing and beauty and a sense of the soul and the spiritual throughout our lives, or we can perpetuate evil and hurt. Those who spread images of violence and ugliness to their fellow human beings are reflecting their own wounded-ness and infecting others in the process.

We therefore all need to reflect on how our own creativity may be a mirror of our own wounds and the effect this may be having on those around us. We have a profound responsibility to change our own behaviour – to heal ourselves and be creative for the forces for good rather than for evil.

The Chelsea Chop, bird scarers and companion planting

It's the Chelsea Flower Show again in the UK and so I have finished my "Chelsea Chop" on all my sedums. So named because it should be done around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show in May, it entails cutting off each flower head, and whilst it delays flowering for a few weeks, it prevents that horrible splaying out of the plants later in the year, that leaves an ugly gap in the middle. It also improves the quantity of the floral display. The photos show a plant before and after this "chop."

I cannot believe a whole year has gone by. We now know who has won the medals and we have marveled at the originality of the show gardens and the immense beauty and extravagance of the floral exhibits. But what really excites me is the increasing attention being paid to the healing power of gardening and of plants. One gentleman on the radio recently told of how getting involved in this way had healed him from drug addiction and a perpetual cycle of crime. At Chelsea The Places of Change was the largest plot the show has ever seen, at 590 square metres. It was the result of a collaboration between the Eden Project, Homeless Link, the Homes and Communities Agency and the Communities and Local Government department and full details can be found at  http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/care-and-support/homelessness-garden-wins-chelsea-silver-medal/6509943.article 

At our allotments we have dreadful trouble with pigeons stripping brassica plants and young beans. We prevent this damage by variously using netting, (the most foolproof), CDs strung across the plot, highly coloured childrens windmills, scarecrows and mock birds of prey strung up on poles! I use a tape that can be bought commercially in garden centres but is akin to the black tape in old music cassettes.When stretched taut across the plot or down from the top of bean poles, the wind makes a noise through them which seems to keep the birds away. But someone has warned me that he has seen these tapes trap and kill owls that have swooped down into them presumably to catch mice and small birds. Has any one else experienced this? I have also found a dead sparrow hawk that was caught up in netting, so tape is not the only culprit.

The photo shows my runner bean poles with tape strung from the top and secured by tent pegs in the ground.

Note the flowers on the plot. I just like to have a pretty plot but companion planting is a well known organic technique to control pests without recourse to nasty chemicals. For example lavender planted close to roses is said to control greenfly. It can also be of  benefit for an increased crop - sweet peas trained up bean poles can encourage more bees to pollinate the bean flowers, essential for a good crop of beans.  

What is Wilderness

What does wilderness mean to you?

Somewhere harsh and unforgiving, where survival could be a struggle, where we feel remote and in danger, frightened, alone?

Or a place however harsh and unforgiving where in our isolation we can find nourishment for our soul, solace, healing?

I have written in a previous post of Belden Lane's The Solace of Fierce Landscapes - Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality. For me the harshest of landscapes, where I battle against the elements, can be a very healing process, reaching my wounds and giving me that solace that I so thirst for sometimes - and rush hour crowds can make me feel very alone and far from being in touch with my soul or with any spiritual experience.  And busy motorways I find positively evil and playing no part whatsoever in God's plans for the human race.

In our Lent group we have been exploring wilderness in the context of Isaiah chapter 40, and we don't seem to agree on the fundamental definition! I think both can be right, depending on where we are in our spiritual journey.

And I find it very difficult to be confronted with those who profess to be so sure and sound in their faith that in any sort of mental distress they would find all the support and healing they need from the support and love of Jesus. Would that it were so easy. Wounded Healers do not come from that certainty. They gain their healing strength from vulnerability and pain. 

Perhaps my faith is weak. One thing I know for sure - I need professional medical help (albeit from those with a spiritual persuasion and understanding) in addition to my faith in my search for "that peace that the world cannot give." 

When icicles hang by the wall

In these freezing conditions I caught sight of these icicles and William Shakespeare came to mind - I learnt this at school! Do kids still learn poetry at school? I do hope so! Poetry can be very healing - it can touch our souls and speak to the spirit within us and help to heal our wounds.

WHEN icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.


When all around the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw;
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl—
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

What does "keeling the pot" mean?

Wounded Healer

I have returned to the blogging scene after a few months away - so watch this space - I will be talking about my book that will hopefully be appearing in 2010 - how getting in touch with our compassion and empathy will be needed to heal this fractured earth - and the Wounded Healer is such a potent symbol to use.

And of course the greatest Wounded Healer of all was Jesus Christ. This is a picture of the nativity set up at our local church last Christmas - the manger empty waiting for the birth of the Christ Child.