The heart of a curanderismo session begins with prayer and a plática. It is also a beautiful way to create and nurture mutually respectful relationships, both personally and professionally. On June 11th, I am bringing that heart-centered way of sharing to the United Kingdom.
Background on my pláticas:
I like to keep my pláticas open and fluid. Rather than a stodgy lecture, I prefer to first offer a little storytelling to give people a better idea of why I was compelled to follow the dream guidance of the ancestors; turning away from a well paying conventional career to a life of servant-leadership, service, and ongoing learning that, for me, is the path of Curanderismo. From there I go on to share a brief slide presentation on how different aspects of traditional wisdom survived the onslaught of Spanish colonization to transform into what today we know as Curanderismo. I also touch on the importance of respecting traditions that one is not born into and how to show appreciation and support without misappropriating knowledge and practices.
While it is a challenge to condense what is a vast wisdom tradition of cultural healing practices and practitioner specialties into a two-hour talk, I do my best to respectfully show through photographs and the sharing of personal anecdotes the powerful and complex spiritual strength and efficacy of Mexican traditional medicine.
In this interview with Clara Apollo of Chi Times UK, I didn't expand on my explanation (where I share about my childhood with my mother and tias), of how I, like many Mexican and Mexican-Indigenous people, are raised from childhood with our costumbres of herbal and spiritual remedies, yet do not recognize them as being "curanderismo" at that time because they are simply a part of our daily life: a tecito of manzanilla, a sobada with warm olive oil, the inevitable application of Vick's Vaporub, poultices of garlic, onions or tomatoes, ear limpia (candling) with a rolled up newspaper, an egg limpia, prayers and a kiss for your coco and a "sana, sana, colita de rana." No one says, 'this is a curanderismo ritual.' At the time we don't realize that we are in the process of learning our costumbres by experiencing the healing ritual and observing our grandmothers, mothers, and tias.
For the most part, the healing of more serious spiritual illnesses, such as the calling back of one's soul in the case of a car accident or suspected mal trabajo (harm directed at a person using coercive spiritual forces) was left to specially trained curanderas or curanderos.
I also offer pláticas/presentations on other topics. Among those that seem to be of most interest is how to reclaim ancestral connections to communities and healing traditions that our grandparents or parents left in order to make a different life for themselves.
In addition to Dia de Muertos workshops, I offer other cultural educational programs that give participants a deeper understanding of the roots of our healing and spiritual practices, indigenous etiquette and protocols, and overview of how to approach elders and teachers in a humble and respectful way so that you can begin to establish good relationships, as well as share how you can live your life in a way that fosters and supports our relations in nature.
So having given you a little background, I invite you to watch this brief interview.
For more information or to register for the plática, "Healing the Heart, Restoring the Spirit," on June 11, 2019 in England, please visit, Conscious Living events on Facebook.