Healing water…

Livia B., Toronto

I was anxiously pondering about the words to say to my naturopath one day. I had made the appointment to see her but wasn’t quite certain in the way to articulate the reason. It wasn’t due to a lack of trust or comfort. After attending one of her workshops on Homeopathy, I felt more comfortable in being open with her. However, I still briefly blurted out something about fatigue, and dismissed it by stating that as far as clinical issues are concerned, I had been prescribed Pantoprazole Magnesium from the physician due to some recent stomach aches.

My naturopath didn’t directly address the stomach ache. She bluntly reminded me to stay true to myself that day. Her intuitive gift in deciphering my spiritual state triggered an overwhelming reaction, in which I was self-healing through tears. Through tears, I voiced the cause which fatigued me the most…it wasn’t my daily work, relationships, illnesses, or mundane errands. It was an accumulation of years seeking a balanced state where I could accept my true self in a world of gross materialism in which Spirit is denied. How can I develop profound, meaningful relationships when I feel that in order to be accepted, I need to veil the most important part of the “I” (or “We”)? Why do I need to insult my Being or Life Force by fragmenting Her as a mechanical object during those “one-issue-at-a-time” doctor appointments? Why did I dismiss my spiritual state as though irrelevant when I wished to speak about my stomach ache?

I wished to be a healer as a young child. Prior to immigrating to Canada, I would express to my loved ones that I’d like to be an “herbs healer” in my mother tongue. Perhaps, this desire of healing and life was also reinforced from experiencing a state of civil war on a Mediterranean peninsula known by foreigners as “Albania” at the age of six. In Canada, I was given the opportunity to develop my interest in the sciences through mentorship or enrichment programs, and self-directed projects about topics ranging from the human body to astronomy. Up until my final year of high school, I was dedicated to all “advanced placement” life sciences. It was as though I had patiently and eagerly awaited throughout my school years to be taught the sciencesbeyond the five senses. To my dismay and frustration, I realized that the schooling system wasn’t

a process in which I needed to be ready to delve into such knowledge.

This is the reason I chose to leave aside my “childhood truth-seeking passions” in search for something greater that at least acknowledges other ways of seeing nature’s laws and life forms. I decided to study Philosophy as one of my majors in University. With deep gratitude to many of my supportive professors, the study of philosophy allowed me to expand my analytical skills, sustained by intuition (or Spirit). I began to feel accepted and more confident in voicing my thoughts through the study of metaphysics, philosophy of time, or the power of language through speech acts. Many of my small philosophy classes of usually 8-15 students became my

sanctuary. I understood more clearly the Matrix in which we live, where necessary and sufficient conditions are often confused in our world of multiple-causalities.  Causation and correlation

may also be mistaken. Circular or tautological arguments, such as a symptom being treated as the cause, are prevalent! Through various spiritual transformations, I felt as Alice in Wonderland, outraged at the illogical contradictions created in the depths of our arrogance solely for the purposes of denying Spirit. In mundane terms, common sense doesn’t seem so common.

Similar to the encounters of Alice with the foul-tempered “Off with their heads” monarch, I also decided to further explore the power dynamics of our society by majoring in the discipline of Political Science and Education. How valued our lives amid a militarized world and a ruthless destruction of our home planet? Why do we need the labels of “environmentalists” or caring for the environment” as though the environment is an entity that can be controlled and managed outside of us? Aren’t we “the environment”? Are our bodies still treated within a Newtonian, mechanical paradigm, despite ancient Indigenous sciences and advances in Quantum Mechanics? Why couldn’t I embrace the Self and the power of subjectivity by using “I- statements” in writing throughout my schooling? What role does biopolitics play in our daily lives? Simultaneously, I met my first homeopath, a wise elderly woman, at the age of eighteen through a family friend. To this day, I cherish our multifaceted discussions ranging from plants

to black holes at her kitchen table as she was activating the remedies to give to me. Amongst other things, she healed me of my allergies, for which I had taken daily Reactine pills for six years. She viewed illness as an imbalance or disturbance of one’s life force/bioelectric field, manifested through physical symptoms that the ordinary five senses may perceive. The symptoms are not the disease itself. Samuel Hahnemann (Organon of the Art of Healing, 1876) brilliantly argued that the cause can’t be material for disease since the least material substance is either forcefully expelled from the body or leads to death. I was astonished when my homeopath laughingly said that the remedy was “snake poison” and that water has memory of the energy through dilution. Little did I know that the Spirit of Water had been destined to be my teacher throughout my journey on Earth.

As with all beautiful truths, the idea of healing water through water is wrapped in its light of child-like simplicity and profoundness. The thought of “like treats like” becomes intuitive

once one is awakened to the dualistic nature of life and death that prevails amongst all forms in our world. As water’s dualism brings us life or death, so can disease have alterative healing qualities. At a significant point in my life, I let Water’s Spirit lead me once again…I remembered and felt Her presence as I did when I was a small child. Although I went against my plans of pursuing graduate studies in Philosophy, Water (in all its symbolic and physical forms) guided

me in another direction. Through that Spirit, I had the opportunity to find a channel within the Public Policy ‘machinery’ by collaborating with some Anishinaabeg Elders and traditional knowledge keepers who gifted me with their teachings about Water. One of the underlying teachings was that Water has memory and that She is humanity’s common ancestor. My Master research became a collaborative project with Indigenous exceptional women who were speaking for Life, and praying for healing through their water walks and ceremonies.