Meditative Healing
“If you desire healing, let yourself fall ill.”
-Rumi
Contrary to the Western ideal of avoiding sickness, and just powering through, in ancient traditions, wholeness sometimes requires descent before ascent. If you chose to deny and ignore all of the signs of illness, whether physical, emotional, or existential, the cumulative damage will be much more difficult to repair.
Hustle culture desensitized our brain / body connection. Powering through the obvious ailments is no longer acceptable. We must sit with the pain. Get to know it intimately. Not just the pain points, but the triggers that lead to friction and tension. What can we adjust in our daily lives, in our routines and behavoirs that releases pain, not causes it.
In Sufi mysticism, illness is a surrender and a teacher. If we allow the ego to dissolve, healing is on the horizon. This descent is not weakness; it is the first step toward transformation.
The Underworld
In old Norse tradition, healing was not just herbal medicine - it was deeply woven into magic, fate, and acceptance of life’s cycles. Illness as a battle between unseen forces — and healing involved ritual, chanting, and talismans. A healer might use seiðr to enter trance, speak with spirits, and trace the roots of illness. Even the gods understood the necessity of falling before rising. Odin wounded himself and hung for nine nights on the World Tree, Yggdrasil, in exchange for wisdom. He entered the underworld of his own being and emerged with knowledge of healing.
Listening
In Haitian Vodou, illness is rarely seen as random. It may be the result of a broken spiritual agreement, ancestral unrest, or a blockage in the soul’s energy. The healer doesn’t simply “fight” the illness; they ask it to speak.
A cleansing bath might be prepared with herbs, Florida water, rum, and songs to the lwa — spirits who bridge the material and spiritual realms. In the sacred act of lave tèt (“washing of the head”), the healer invites clarity and release, allowing the mind and spirit to realign.
An old Vodou saying goes: “Maladi pale anvan li ale” — Illness must speak before it goes. Only when its message is heard can true healing happen.
Meditative Healing
In stillness, we can meet discomfort without trying to banish it. We can breathe into pain, listen to it, and let it teach us what it knows.
In this space, Rumi’s challenge becomes clear: to be healed, we must stop running from the wound. Like Odin, we may need to hang between worlds for a time. Like the Vodou healer, we must let the illness speak.
Illness in this deeper sense is an invitation — a descent into the dark hall where our ancestors’ wisdom still lingers. As Rumi, Odin, and the lwa all remind us, the path to healing sometimes begins with bowing to the wound and connecting deeply to the spirit.
Healing is not only the absence of pain. It is the integration of the wisdom pain brings.