Heritage of Healing
This podcast episode delves into the traditional practice of curanderismo, focusing on the relationship between an apprentice and her master healer, La Maestra Michelle. Michelle explains the various types of curanderos and their specialties, which include massage, midwifery, herbalism, and spiritual healing. The episode also discusses the interchangeable use of terms like curandera, shaman, and medicine person, as well as the cultural roots and misconceptions surrounding these practices.
Listeners are cautioned that the podcast is for entertainment and not medical advice. The episode highlights the importance of lineage and the apprenticeship process in becoming a curandera, emphasizing the long-term dedication required to master the healing arts.
Heritage of Healing
Bridging Worlds Through Dia de los Muertos
Unlock the secrets of Dia de los Muertos with Michelle and Liz, as we celebrate a tradition that beautifully intertwines ancient customs. Discover how this vibrant festival offers a joyful occasion for families to remember and honor their deceased loved ones, keeping their spirits alive through the setting of ofrendas. These altars, adorned with photos, cherished objects, and favorite foods, serve as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds.
Join us as we explore how to infuse our lives with intention and spiritual connection, not just during Dia de los Muertos, but every day. Through personal stories, like Michelle's touching conversation with her grandson, we offer guidance on approaching the topic of death with young ones. We express deep gratitude to our audience for their continued support and invite them to connect with us on Instagram @curanderapodcast for more insights and updates. Let's continue this journey of exploration and connection together.
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Are you ready for a family reunion with the dead? As Dia de los Muertos approaches, that is precisely what many people will be preparing for. Normalizing death, the soul's progression through life and beyond, and invoking your ancestors to aid you through your life's journey are all topics that La Maestra will be breaking down for us. Are you ready? Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, encompasses a variety of cultural traditions. It blends the ancient Aztec customs of honoring ancestors with All Souls Day, a Spanish holiday brought to Mexico in the early 1500s. Day of the Dead is a joyful time when people remember their family members that have passed away. Candlelit altars are set up to help spirits find their way back to their earthly families. These altars are adorned with photos of the deceased, their favorite foods and objects that they cherished while they were alive. These are bright and beautiful offerings or ofrendas set out by families and friends. Those who celebrate the holiday then will visit the graveyards where their deceased are buried, and it's a happy occasion. Food is offered, graves are cleaned, songs are sung and families speak to their dead.
Speaker 1:Around this time of year, you'll see brightly painted or clothed skeleton figures, skull-shaped candies and other skeleton forms marking the holiday. It's a way to normalize death as a part of life. Showing these items to my own small child actually helped make this time of year less scary to him. When elements of the so-called quote-unquote spooky season started showing up around our neighborhood, my little boy was scared of quite a few of them, and with good reason, as some are far more gruesome than I personally find appropriate, but nonetheless the images and figures startled him.
Speaker 1:We sat down together and watched a beautiful movie created by Disney, called Coco, which illustrates many of the important traditions of Dia de los Muertos. You'll hear Michelle and I reference the movie in today's show because I sought La Maestra's guidance in weaving spiritual education into my little boy's experience of this time of year, and using Coco as one of the tools for this was an idea we both loved. Our conversation became so multifaceted that we wanted to share it with you, so let's get to it and have La Maestra begin by explaining Dia de los Muertos.
Speaker 2:Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, right, that of course comes. Dia de los Muertos, those exact words and that particular celebration comes from Mexico, from the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The Day of the Dead, All Souls Day, is also celebrated through other traditions, through Catholic traditions, and our Pueblo people celebrate it also opening up and feeding for the dead. And so those celebrations and I'm sure they're everywhere across the globe really coming in to honor your dad and recognizing that the veil opens up and there's an easier access to those realms and to our ancestors and our ones and so those celebrations are so beautiful, right, they're so beautiful.
Speaker 2:The movie Coco does a wonderful job in connecting one to their dead. I often think about that movie and think about what I was taught in reference to the remembrance of our dead. Our dead go through three deaths actually, and the first one is the physical death, and then there's the spiritual death and then there's the death where they're no longer remembered. And so in our customs and in our traditions we create those altars and we create those ways so that we pass those stories on to our children and their children, and they continue to pass it on so that there's a memory of grandpa so-and-so or grandma so-and-so or auntie so-and-so, or whomever it is that has passed on, and so that's so wonderful, it's such a tear-jerking movie.
Speaker 1:As a mother and a mentor, and even as a teacher. I wanted to know how Michelle recommended talking about death and the afterlife to young children.
Speaker 2:I think we have to normalize death. Death is a part of life and life is a part of death. Right, those are the reciprocal doors that are opening and closing for us continuously, and so we have to normalize death and we bring the understanding whatever that spiritual understanding of death is that you carry, regardless of what your religious beliefs are, your traditions are that you normalize it. We come here to experience and we return home where we came from, and so I think that normalizes it so a child can understand. I remember my grandson, mason. He was really cute. He was asking about death and I said, mason, we are here on this earth on vacation and we're live. The color of our skin, our culture where we go to school, our friends, all of those are part of our vacation and we're learning and we're experiencing. Some parts of our vacation may suck, other parts are fabulous, and this is our vacation and one day we'll return home. We go back to our home when we leave, our body and our essence and our soul goes back home into a different body, into a different way of being meaning, our light body. And I told him that and he said Shishi, wait a minute. You mean I've been on vacation for nine years I didn't know it. So you normalized death.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we know we don't want to have fear about dying. We know that we grieve, we know the loss connected to it, but as children you just want to normalize it. And even for ourselves, we know that death is a part of our experience. So what happens when we die? We leave our physical body and we go into the light body and we carry with us memory, we carry the intellect of the heart and we carry the things that we need to continue learning and growing from.
Speaker 2:And when you look at the movie Coco and that the ancestors have left and they're living in another realm. And Coco is an interesting thing because to me Coco shows like the lower astral level, which is the next level outside of here, and it shows how you still have some idea and connection to the ways in which you expressed and experience yourself as a human. So it has the clothes that you wore and maybe the music that you played a guitar, those kinds of things. But then there's other levels where you continue to go to and evolve to, and those other levels aren't so connected to the earth realm.
Speaker 1:Let's dig into how we might be interacting with the various levels and realms a little more, because earlier on Michelle mentioned that the veil between the living and the dead is believed to be thinner this time of year In the context of this podcast. So far that has been a positive and intentional time to connect with the dead. But what happens if you feel a connection with a spiritual presence that is not intentional?
Speaker 2:The first thing that I would say to that person is I would ask them did you feel a negative presence or a positive presence? Because people are specialists of their own lives. They have that understanding. I felt something very bad white fire limpia. You would call, do an invocation and you would begin a process of cleansing and closing any areas that are open that are allowing that, in whatever vehicle they're getting into your space or whatever that was.
Speaker 2:If it's something positive, let's say, I remember my grandchildren. One time they were little two and four or something like that and we were throwing a ball in my living room and I'm very lenient, so we were throwing the ball back and forth and we were jumping around and I think it was my little grandson and he says who's that man standing next to you? I turn and I saw the silhouette of my father. And I saw the silhouette of my father. Oh, I said that's Grandpa Mike, that's my daddy, who's in heaven, who died. I said he's here with us. I could see him. I could see him and I said throw the ball at him. And so we played with it. We played with it, we normalized it. It wasn't like what parents say oh my God, you didn't see that. Or sometimes other adults say that to adults. You did not see that.
Speaker 2:It's all in your imagination and you just learn. You learn to recognize that we have other levels of sight and vision that most people aren't in touch with. We have capacities in our brain that we're not using. We don't see or sense not even a quarter of what's around us. But yeah, there's things that people see that other people don't see or sense, not even a quarter of what's around us. But yeah, there's things that people see that other people don't see, and it doesn't mean it's not real. We have to normalize so many things, including death. But yeah, the ancestors are around and it's a wonderful thing, it's a wonderful capacity. If you have that knowledge and you have those experiences, it makes the world a little bit different when you see through those eyes.
Speaker 1:If we feel like we are ready to experience a more connected way of living alongside our ancestors and spirit friends, how can we properly call upon them and interact with them?
Speaker 2:You can call out loud. You can say Dad, I need you right now, Come help me. Call out loud. You can say dad, I need you right now, Come help me. As simple as that. Or you can do more elaborate things. You can put out a picture. If you happen to have a picture of your ancestor, you can light a candle, create a small altar to them, you can bring their favorite food or their favorite item and really hold a reverence to them and light that candle and invoke them, and you can do it over and over again to celebrate them and to ask them for favor.
Speaker 2:If that's what you're doing, or just to celebrate them, you don't always have to ask the ancestors for things. The ancestors know what you need and they're here with you. But there's a knowing, a cosmic knowing, a cosmic law that when you want something from one of the spirits, you need to ask. You need to ask, Think of them as your mom or your dad. And when you're a little kid and you're like I want that ice cream, Mama, I want an ice cream, so you're communicating with them and you're asking. And so the ask is important in this work. When you're connecting with the ancestors, with your ones who are on the other side, and so it can be as elaborate or as simple as you desire it to be.
Speaker 2:I love to do. I think ritual brings a lot of power to spirit work and so clearly it does. And so when you make a little altar, when you have a photo and you do the candle and you have the four directions represented on your altar in a small energy grid, some stone like quartz, a quartz crystal or pink quartz or an amethyst or something of that nature, and you put it on there, you can bring water, the element of water, and you light them and you do your prayer in your way. You ask them to come, you do that invocation. They come, they will come.
Speaker 2:They will come and then it's our job to pay attention. I often see on social media these things where it's like spirit guide, give me a sign. And then you get the sign and you're like, oh shoot, I didn't like that sign Spirit guide spirit guide, give me a sign, listen to what's there, what they're conveying to you, and pay attention.
Speaker 1:I love hearing the generosity and reverence in the ways that Michelle teaches to connect with the spiritual guides in our lives, in the ways that Michelle teaches to connect with the spiritual guides in our lives. But one has to wonder is this absolutely transactional, is a sort of payment due via offerings, or is there more to the interaction than that I think it's a sacred reciprocity.
Speaker 2:So let me say this the ones on the other side usually they don't need anything from you. If they do, they need prayers to transition from one realm to another, that type of thing. But in this type of exchange, jesus doesn't need anything from you. They don't need anything from you. But it's a sacred reciprocity. It's like when I go to you for something, I need to hold that space of gratitude to you and give something in exchange. You can't just be a taker or you can't just be a giver. You want that reciprocity to go back and forth. So when you celebrate them you can make an offering, let's say, with.
Speaker 2:My dad liked to drink Glen Levitt scotch occasionally. He wasn't an alcoholic or anything like that, but he liked to have his scotch once in a while. And I'll go up to the cemetery and take him a little shot glass and put the Glen Levitt in there and I'll pour it over the grave and I can just hear him saying what the hell are you doing? Why are you doing that? You're wasting money because that was his way. But it's also my way of saying thank you. I know what you have offered me or given to me and I appreciate it. It's an appreciation. Yeah, it's the cosmic law. We have to reciprocate when somebody gifts us with something and it's a beautiful thing to do. It's the cosmic law. We have to reciprocate when somebody gifts us with something.
Speaker 1:And it's a beautiful thing to do. It's a beautiful-. What's the closing thought? You'd like to leave the conversation with Michelle.
Speaker 2:I think, as we're coming upon this season, for people to experiment a little bit, to play with it, to open up their eyes to what is around us and to recognize that there's thousands and thousands of ancestors who are around us and who are there to share our experiences of existence. And so I think that's a very beautiful thing. Bring your altar up, but don't bastardize it in the sense of like it being so commercialized. Do it in a way with reverence, respect, as we say in our ways, that you understand this is a culture, this is an understanding, this is a beauty, this is a wisdom way.
Speaker 2:These are the keepers of wisdom that understand from all traditions, in so many ways, what is there with us, and pick some of those traditions that are yours, or maybe somebody else's, and honor it with reverence and see what happens, play with it Always and I'll say this a million times invoke your ones for protection and charge the work that you're doing with intention Beautiful intention, as you say with love and light, and graciousness, beautiful conversation.
Speaker 1:Thank you, la Maestra. That is all for this week. Please remember, if you'd like to show us some gratitude, we are trying to grow this show. Please consider sharing it with anyone you might think would like it. Subscribing to the show, leaving a rating and review and sharing it with others are all ways that you can help, and we deeply appreciate it. Find us on Instagram at Kudandera Podcast, to get more weekly wisdom from us both. Hope to find you here next week.