Category: Wise Woman

The Way Of The Wise Woman

For thousands of years, women have been healers in their homes and communities—passing down remedies and traditions through generations. Today, traditional women’s medicine is often overlooked in our masculine-dominated world. At The Sacred Science, we believe it’s imperative to maintain a harmonious balance between the masculine and feminine forces—both on an individual level, and as a planet.

Ancient wisdom traditions from around the world have honored the sacred feminine for thousands of years, from Hinduism to Traditional Chinese Medicine to the Mossi and Ba-Huana tribes of Africa, to name a few. Pachamama is known to the indigenous people of the Andes Mountains as the Earth Mother.

Many in South America and other traditional cultures warn that we must not take too much from nature, because of the imbalance it causes to Pachamama. Seen as a fertility goddess who ensures the bounty of planting and harvesting, it is believed that Pachamama both creates and sustains the life of the planet. Pachamama’s imbalance, they say, causes many of the problems we see on Earth today.

How is feminine energy different from masculine energy?

While the masculine way is protective, strong, and courageous, the feminine way is to nurture; the female body is designed to grow and feed life. We all have both of these energies within us, but often suppress one or the other because it doesn’t seem culturally or socially acceptable.

Carl Jung used the terms animus and anima to describe the masculine and feminine energies we each possess despite our gender. Bringing balance to these energies within ourselves, he said, would help bring balance to all areas of our lives. Many healers believe this balance is also critical to the well-being of our planet.

In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin and yang describes how opposite forces (such as masculine and feminine) cooperate to create balance. These energies are interconnected—one cannot exist without the other—just as light can’t exist without darkness. Honoring the Wise Woman is not about praising feminine energy as superior, but honoring the power of both the masculine and the feminine.

Women have been the primary healthcare providers for thousands of years.

For millennia, people have turned to mothers, grandmothers, and other women in their families and communities for healing. In ancient Europe, “wise women” were popular practitioners of folk medicine. These healers used herbal medicine from the local environment, often based on remedies learned from older generations of wise women.

Women’s wisdom, including the knowledge of childbirth, has been passed from woman to woman since the beginning of time. Today, however, modern, Western medical practices—which are predominantly male-dominated—are often perceived as superior. Despite this perception, according to the World Health Organization, 90% of health care in the world is provided by women, in their own homes.

Wise women heal with their love, their praise, their nutrients, and their focus on the person rather than the problem. This is the way of our grandmothers. Although these nourishing ways may have slipped into the background of our Western system of health and healing, they have not been forgotten.

Wisdom From The Women Of Standing Rock

Native American Woman Phyllis Young at Standing Rock South Dakota

I was sitting in a coffee shop in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the night it hit me: I had to go to Standing Rock to document all sides of the ongoing #NoDAPL fight. This has happened before, a film choosing me, rather than my choosing it. Also familiar was what happened just four days later, when I […]

Depression As Medicine

Woman Seated Holding her Head in Her Hand

If you live in the modern world, chances are you probably know someone who is depressed. It’s an epidemic of sorts that seems to have sky rocketed over the past few decades. To date, pharmaceutical companies have been controlling the entire conversation, convincing people that they are powerless and NEED their drugs to feel better. […]

Do These Two Forces Exist Within You?

Blue Left Hand and Red Right Hand Joined by Mudra Shape

The other day, I was reading in the living room when my 3-year-old son River paraded through the doorway wearing a dress with glittering sequins on it. “Daddy, look at my superhero outfit!!!” I hadn’t seen that piece of clothing since my wife was in her twenties. How and where he dug it up was […]

A Heart-Opening Technique For Deeper Intimacy

Masculine and Feminine Energy Beings Embracing with a Kiss and Heart Connection

As Valentine’s day approaches many of us are thinking about that special person in our lives and how we can show our love to them. Today, I want to share a simple practice that opens the heart center so that we can be truly present with ourselves and our partners. It’s easy to buy a hallmark card and […]

Elemental Balance: Earth and Air Within Us

Human Meditating in a Sphere of the Earth Elements

As I circle with my students in classes, a common theme is how intense things have been, with the recent full moon eclipse and then the mercury retrograde. In response, the spirits of the Earth whispered in my ear: We are here. We can receive it all. Lay your worries on the Earth. Ground and […]

Phase Shift: Synchronizing With The Moon (Part 2)

Hands Caressing a Glowing Moon

Last time, in Part I, we discussed different ways to bring the rhythms of the moon into your body and life, at any point during the month. This time, we’ll explore what we can do during certain phases to maximize her power. By inviting the moon into our bodies, we can become more aware of […]

Lunar Power: Harvesting the Moon’s Energy (Part 1)

Woman Meditating with Glowing Moon and Stars

As we journey through life, the rhythms of nature are echoed in our emotions, energy levels, dreams and aspirations. In the Spring, we feel ourselves awakening with new found joy & vitality, while in the Fall, we savor the fruit of our labor, appreciating our abundant harvests as we turn inward after an active summer. […]

Shamans Among Us

Mayan Midwife Miss Hortence Robinson

When I say the word “shaman”, what imagery immediately comes to mind? Is it a male or female? Old or young? What nationality? There is an interesting phenomenon that most experienced ethnobotanists and anthropologists are well aware of, and it’s this: most shamans don’t like to attract much attention to themselves. They tend to dress and act exactly […]

Wisdom Of The Woman’s Heart

Woman's Hands Holding Womb Area on Flowery Dress

I write this piece with a humble heart, knowing full well that we men only get an occasional glimpse into the enigmatic depths that comprise humanity’s better half. In one of the last interviews he ever did, legendary Lakota elder Russell Means once told our team, “We men go from diaper to diaper – it’s […]

An Ancient Heartache Remedy From The Depths

Art of Red Heart Balloon Flying Amongst Black and White Clouds and a Girl Swinging from a Tree

When my husband moved out, I found myself depressed, alone, and without a sense of purpose—unless you consider sleeping until noon and then going on 12-hour eating benders a higher calling. For six months, I spent teary nights alone, recreating the pasta sauce he’d made for me on our first date. The kitchen, once the […]

Medicine Woman Shares Her Remedy for Cancer and Other Ailments

Chazuta Medicine Woman with Medicine Bottle in South America

The clip was shot in the remote village of Chazuta, about 4 hours east of the remote town of Tarapoto in the high jungle of Peru. We had heard that there was a powerful female shaman in this region but as is commonly the case, true shamans (or curanderos), don’t always want to be found. […]