A Healing Scene

Did my last installment from "No Barren Life", on the post called "Sharing No Barren Life" leave you wondering what happens next?

My bad.

Here is another little excerpt from the next chapter of my novel that I am trying to get published independently with the help of Pubslush.

Without further delay, here is the excerpt...enjoy it, and if you have it in your heart, contribute to this meaningful project today.

It is a short walk. First we passed by the turquoise Arafura and Timor Sea. We then headed inland, cutting through ghost gum trees and low growing ancient cycads. I took off my shoes to fit in and walked my tender feet through the underbrush.

“This is part of your dreaming. The ancestor beings residing here know and love you.  They’ve been watching and listening.” Nana tells me. 

I step into the billabong, letting the cool water caress my sore feet and aching calves.

            Betsy, one of the women in the group, strips off all of my clothing.  They provide a colorful contrast to the bluish-green water as they float.  Paula reaches for a large nautilus shell and pours water over my head, as the rest of the group chants softly to the sole accompaniment of the clap sticks.  For the first time in weeks I do not itch.  My skin radiates, soothed and cool.  Even if this is only temporary, it provides sweet relief.

Nana looks fierce and fearless. I wonder if she has dealt with this ailment in the past.  I imagine she has but can’t be sure. Before I can ponder for long, Paula pats me dry with a small cotton face cloth and collects my clothing from the water.  She then spreads what smells like a tea-tree and eucalyptus, lemony ointment over my body, and I do mean everywhere. I am too weak to be self-conscious. It burns.

The women are still singing what must be an age-old song to the ancestor and creator beings. Maybe they are conjuring my totem as well. They don’t miss a beat with those clap sticks.  The music from the sticks raises my energy, making my heartbeat quicken. We dance together; they in their dresses and I am greased up; naked for what seems like an eternity.

One of the women drops out of the action, lighting a bundle of herbs.  It is blown out and left to smolder.  She carries the fragrant bundle over to me. As the others sing and play the sticks at an increasing quick pace, she waves the smoldering herbal bundle over my entire body, lingering at each of my orifices.

Warm but not feverish I am energized by all of it.  But then things take a strange turn.  I am asked to insert a multi-leaved bush fruit into my vagina.  It reminds me of a tiny artichoke but as I insert it, it begins to unfold, probably from my body heat, reminding me of the thousand-leaved lotus Dhara spoke of in Sydney.

Nana had been making a potent brew.  She adds fermented kava kava to it; I recognize it because it is stored in a white sock that she squeezes into a bowl. I have seen the kava kava drinkers in the community.  They remind me of drug abusers, with their peeling, ashy skin and listless eyes. I don’t know what a trance-state feels like but it must be like this.  The women no longer look like themselves.  They shift back and forth between the beings everyone sees in day-to-day life, to lanky, luminous, hovering totemic beings that we usually only see in the bark paintings done in this area.  Under the influence of the brew I succumb to slumber.

Oblivious to what is going on around me I enter dream space.  While under the influence of Nana, the women and their bush medicine I have powerful dreams.  In them Nana tames my bear, rides her over to me, and we are reacquainted.  Immediately, I am filled with love and warmth.  How could I have forgotten her?  She was separated from me but her love was unmistakable.  I bath in her powerful, calm energy. I see what must have been my ancestors and they are brimming with love and concern too.  I have never seen them but I understand at my core who they are. 

I encounter Rainbow Snake.  Rainbow Snake has a special significance for many, including me. I had already been told of my affinity with Rainbow Snake. There was a parade of powerful spirits, orisha, ancestors and creator beings moving in harmony.

I felt a shift within.  The bush fruit unfolded further, filling me with its warming healing medicine.  It was also an anchor, rooting me to the earth and it served as a plug.  Mimi would not escape that way again. The unfolding sent a tingling sensation throughout my torso which spread down my legs.  On a gut level I understood, my temple was being restored.

Nana bent down over me and opens my mouth.   She blows a powerful breath into it. I feel my belly fill with her energy as she continues, filling me with healing breaths. Then each of the women sucks air from me as I exhale. I feel the upheaval you experience when about to vomit.  This time instead of vomiting the foul energy is expelled in a commanding breath I take with the aid of all the helpers at hand. Mimi, no worse for wear, is released; free to join its kind.

I hate to leave dream space, especially without knowing what she had done with the Mimi but that is what happened.  When I awaken the plug is gone and the smoldering herbal bundle was extinguished.  I was however, soaking wet with sweat. 

I no longer feel full or the foul presence of the misled spirit.  I am light, my heart soars and my soul is filled with gratitude. Rather than being filled with a mischievous spirit I am surrounded by loving guides. I know I am safe.