A Story and a Technique for Healing

Today’s drawing of Mary Magdalene (Finished)

During the beginning of my path in learning about Mary Magdalene, I read a book that has stayed with me. It was the narrative of her own story by a psychiatrist (it think, but it may have been a psychologist) who developed a method to help people heal mentally, and in all ways as a result.

As a young woman, she went to apprentice with a healer. It was in Israel, I believe, or it may have been Morocco. The healer was a person who inherited the wisdom of the Sephardic Jews from Spain, who had to leave during the Inquisition.

When she met the healer, and became her apprentice, the first task she was assigned was cleaning. She had to clean the entire house, each little corner and space.

The apprentice did not understand why, if she was there to learn ancient wisdom, she had to clean the healer’s house.

As she cleaned, which took a very long time, she began to understand. It was an exercise in presence and humility, a metaphor of the work of the healer.

In her book, the author teaches the method she developed, based on what she learned through her experiences with the healer.

She teaches a technique for healing that I tried at the time and found very powerful. If you have read any of my other writing, you will recognize that I don’t use the word powerful. I reserve it for things that truly deserve this adjective.

The exercise was simple. You let your mind rest and let the images come. Go with the thoughts wherever they take you. Simply follow where your mind goes, and let what might seem like a fantasy develop. Allow your mind to receive anything that comes in.

As I was doing this exercise, I met the woman that I have mentioned before. She showed me extremely unexpected things from my past. At the end of this meditation, I understood that I needed the healing that I had just received. And I understood that all was well after that.

The experience was a little scary in its power and I never practiced it again. The healing I received was enough for a lifetime and I was grateful.

Now, as I was thinking of what to write about tonight that might be of value to someone, this is what appeared in my mind.

When I go back to Puerto Rico, where the book is, I will update this post with the title of the book and a better recounting of the story of the healer. This is a memory from 2006, so it’s been a long time and I remember only the essence of the teaching.