Native American Womens’ Healing Circles
Final Paper-Multicultural Studies of Healing
Karina Lepeley
The world of healing is a vast one. As long as there is pain and
suffering there is a need for healing, it’s quite the yin and yang
dance. As more and more people find western healing approaches
unsatisfactory many new doors open for them in the world of
alternative medicine. In this class, we’ve explored the many national
and international healing approaches, learning that the most important
link to healing may have more to do with the story or belief system of
a patient than the actual healing procedure. Still, there is much to
be said for effective therapies that trigger the healer within,
creating permanent healing.
One vital method, to any healing procedure, is that of community:
family, friends, or simply a group coming together with intention.
Native American womens’ healing circles hold significance in this
process, as traditionally, they are a new phenomenon: albeit, an
important one. The one exception to this was the traditional moon
lodge, held for women on their moon time (or menses). These women
were considered so powerful that they would have their own area at a
gathering or sweat lodge where they could honor their creative
powers. People would serve them food or bring them what they needed
as they wrote in journals and prayed, because the women on their moon
time are so powerful that they can easily influence anything simply
with their touch or thought. It is a time of planting the seeds of
further dreams and wishes: a time to take it easy. What a wonderful
way to honor the power of women! How sad that that has been lost for
the frustration and disappointment that menses brings for many women,
as it may “get in the way” or “slow them down”. I think that’s the
whole point, slow down to notice what is happening within you.
Much of this information is from Rosemary Wereley, an elder and
organizer of a circle for women in Craftsbury, VT. I’ve been studying
with Rosemary since April of 2008 and was pleased to hear she was
starting a circle. Thus, I chose to interview her and learn more
about the significance of the circles. I’ve been a part of many
womens’ groups that were healing, but never with that specific
intention.
Wellness seems to be directly connected to learning. Rosemary finds
healing to be a process of constant learning and so this arising of
womens’ circles. They were not needed before because there was such a
strong and balanced sense of community. It was just a given that
women were a powerful resource, consulted by chiefs, without needing
to be the boss or in the limelight. Although things were never
perfect, each person had a place in the community that supported their
various gifts. In turn, the gifts supported the community. That is
not the case currently and Rosemary argues that what we need is not to
go back in time to how things were done before, but to honorably take
what we’ve learned and make something new. Still, we need to come
back to each other, and it seems that path can begin with women.
Rosemary spoke of a Mik’maq elder, part of the Algonquins, named
Jeorgina LaRoque who lives in Cocagne, New Brunswick. Jeorgina is a
teacher, medicine woman, herbalist and pipe carrier. Jeorgina is very
supportive of Rosemary’s circles, stating, “What’s important now is
the cohesiveness of women.” In a time where the tendency of popular
culture is to see women as competing for power and attention, this
cohesion makes sense. The baseline for this cohesion is that women
are accepting of one another. Jeorgina goes on to explain that,
“Women are connected by water, blood and their hearts.” In these
connections and this acceptance, so much work can be done
effortlessly. Rosemary attributes this to the innate nurturing
tendencies of women; which some may argue is not innate. Rosemary
says that nurturing was lost with the loss of community and those
without sufficient role models lost out.
Bringing back the womens’ ways will have a ripple effect of healing:
men, women, children and even past and future generations. There is
so much powerful healing to be recovered and the womens’ circles seem
to be the way. In honoring the mother earth, skirts are worn. They
remind us that we are constantly surrounded by her, constantly
grounding to her. Each woman is smudged before entering the circle
and most have drums for playing and singing. There may or may not be
an organized structure to the evening, but the most important question
put forth is “What is wrong with your life?” This not meant in a
negative sense, but in the sense of “What can we do together to fix
it?” And thus, women come together to support and help one another.
So much can get done in a fun way that is nourishing to all of those
involved. Problems become opportunities to support each other and
support ourselves. Rosemary brings up an important point with this
last statement. “So many new mothers consider themselves failures
because they cannot juggle work, home and a new child. They think,
‘Women have been doing this for generations. What’s wrong with me?’
The answer to that question is that there has been a community there
to support them. We need to bring that community back.”
When Rosemary joined her first circle, it was lead by an Abenaki
elder. The Elder was a phenomenal speaker and activist for the
blind. She had become blind after being struck by lightening, which
Rosemary said always leaves you with a gift, and so after left her
high-powered job. The circle was very selective due to a large amount
of negativity endured by the elder. With much discrimination and
genocide still alive in these times, many medicine women have take to
being more reserved in sharing their skills, more intuitive in their
presentation. After six months of consideration, Rosemary was invited
to join and they ran in a similar fashion to how she runs them
currently.
Rosemary remembers them as being incredibly powerful experiences.
They began with socializing and when the elder was ready they would
follow her into the living room. Drums in hand, they take a seat and
someone sets the intention for the healing. It could be personal or
global, in regards to a war or tragedy somewhere. The elder sets a
steady beat and others join in at whatever tempo they find
appropriate. There are no rules to the circle other than the intent
and for a moment they are a solid force, a pod of healing, wrapped up
in the drumming. The drumming stops when the last person stops, and
that is at each person’s discretion. Then a quiet covers the room as
time is given to integrate what just happened. Soon conversation
erupts over what was seen, heard, felt and when that is over it begins
again. Some, when choosing healings for themselves, well rest in the
middle of the circle with the drumming surrounding, enveloping them.
Rosemary called it “a living work” and “amazingly powerful”.
Rosemary would say women have a natural tendency towards gathering
together. The parents association she is a part of is all women.
This female acceptance that Rosemary speaks of is a beautiful one.
When we come together to support each other, we will heal each other
naturally. We need to get back to those ways, and recognize that,
ultimately; we are here to help each other.
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