What is Medicine?

Everything that activates our innate self healing capacities and affects our well-being, is what I call Medicine.

There are medicines for the body, the mind, soul, spirit and for the whole universe. Everything and Anything can be our Medicine. In fact… we are Medicine! For me personally, my own singing is a very important and supportive medicine. As well as being thankful for what is. And… I could go on a long time about my personal and very Sacred Medicines.

But apparently in our society, the pharmaceutical industry has the exclusive rights to use of the word ‘medicine’ for their prescription drugs… It is even against the law to imply that non-registered, natural medicines and our own inner medicines can cure us, and using some of the natural medicines that Mother Nature grows herself is even punishable. Drugs are called medicine and medicines are called drugs! For me, this is the upside down world.

In my personal case, pharmaceutical drugs helped me to suppress my severe symptoms, at a time that it was too difficult to deal with them in another way. To be honest: they saved my life! But eventually, the longterm use of chemical medication caused my body to be extremely out of its natural balance, which created other symptoms, that were in their turn treated by more chemical drugs on top. And so on. When this chain of symptoms-being-covered-by-new-symptoms got too long, and the side-effects of these chemicals were even bigger than the initial problem, taking more drugs to fight the symptoms wasn’t an option for me anymore. I searched for something that could help me restore the intelligence of my mind and natural balance of my body, medicines with true healing effects, as in supporting my health on every level on the long term.

I finally found my cure in healthy food (I even ate 100% raw food for a while, to heal and detox my body thoroughly) and medicinal plants*. As well as in other things that helped me to restore my natural inner balance, like yoga, dance and tantra, among other things.

There is medicine in everything that helps you become healthier. 
I believe that we all have our unique medicines to share with the world. – Yama 

Slowly by slowly I discovered my own medicines, the gifts that I have that support the healing processes in others. My gift is keeping our natural and ancestral memories alive and sing it back to all that lives. Tantra, Sacred Plants, Healing Sounds and Singing are the Sacred Medicines I may work with.

Sound Medicine
Sound healing is one of the oldest and most natural forms of healing known to man. It uses the power of sound to bring our mind, body and spirit into a state of balance.

When we consider organized patterning as a sign of health, healing becomes the process of disorder moving to order. We can begin to see how sound acts as a catalyst for transformation and organization. By allowing the body the opportunity for alignment with higher spiritual forces, healing occurs. – Jonathon Miller-Weisberger

Ancient shamans already understood the beneficial effects of music on their patients in a way which western studies are only now confirming in a modern clinical setting. Read more about Sound Healing here.

The word ‘medicine’ in our Western world refers mostly to pharmaceutical drugs against all kinds of illnesses and unwanted symptoms. But for me the word medicine refers to something completely different. The vibrations and resonances of sound and music have a strong impact on our consciousness and the didgeridoo has very powerful healing capacities, playing the instrument as well as listening and feeling. The didge has been a healing tool for me as long as I have been on the path with this instrument. It’s pure Medicine. – Zelday Karssen

Shamanic Tantra and Sound Healing
Yama and Zelday were initiated by a shaman and by the Plant Spirits themselves, to work as a Medicine couple, combining their gifts. Not only in ceremonies and rituals, but also in Shamanic Tantra and Sound Healing sessions, in which Zelday opens the body on cellular level with his sounds and vibrations, so Yama’s healing touch can reach even deeper into the body of the patient.

Didgeridoo sounds… hands that touch… body that moves… opens… feels… lets go… surrenders… breathes… meets… in me, myself… and being met in sound and touch … The vibration of the instruments provide safety, my energy field opens naturally so that I can feel more and more refined. A wonderful support for the massage and also doing their own work. – Caroline De Bruyn (client)

Plant Medicine
*) There is no such thing as ‘normal’ plants and ‘medicine plants’. All plants are Medicine in their own way.
Some plants and herbs are supportive for the body (feeding, building, cleansing and healing the physical body), some are for helpful for the mind (bringing peace of mind, clarity, waking us up or making us relax and sleep), some are for the emotional body (soothing, calming,  energizing, heart-opening) and there are plants that are allow us to go beyond the body. Those shamanic plants have been used for thousands of years in various cultures and traditions to travel forward and backwards in time and space and to view our lives from soul perspective.

Some people (or governments) call those plants ‘drugs’, because of their possible mind-altering properties. They are powerful plants, for sure. But there is a massive difference between drugs, and the healing and awakening properties of 100% natural mind- and heart opening plant medicines, given to us by Mother Nature.

I have great reverence for these plants, that indeed can alter the mind, to help us develop our consciousness, gain awareness about the way we live our lives and show us what we manifest with our deeds and thoughts. They also help us to activate the self healing capacities of our body. It is important to know that by far not all conditions can be ‘cured’ by plant medicine. The true healing they bring is about helping you to be fully alive, restoring your relationship with nature, finding your joy in the simple things coming from the earth, realizing that you are not alone, falling deeper in spaces of thankfulness, love… all kinds of things that upgrade your standard of living – from the inside out. Almost everyone who is touched by sacred plants experiences some taste of magic and union with nature.
In my view these plants help us elevate the consciousness of humanity. They can be extremely helpful in certain stages of our personal and spiritual development. But we shouldn’t enter into their realms too easily… Working with these plants requires a responsible and well-guided set and setting, and also a call upon yourself to take full responsibility of their effects, to integrate and embody all that is touched and opened.