Diné Medicine Perspective
Darryl Slim is a Navajo (Diné) Traditional Wellness Educator in the Phoenix, Arizona community with extensive experience with traditional Navajo (Diné) medicine, having learned from his grandparents' ancestral wisdom. In conversations with Darryl Slim, based on his traditional ceremonial experience (with and without sacred plant medicines), he notes that the three phases of practice can perhaps be further simplified.
Set and setting can be reduced to approaching the ceremony/session with love. The mindset of the participant as well as the practitioner should be guided by love. The setting should be prepared with love.
In traditional culture the session itself can be described as the "gift." In order to fully appreciate the "gift", the ceremony or session should be received humbly and in gratitude. Thus, the session itself, for practitioner and participant, is guided by humility and gratitude.
Integration then becomes the "responsibility of the gift." If afterwards we do not take responsibility for the "gift," we will not fully appreciate its benefits. Possibilities that the gift might open, if disregarded, might close once again.
Sacred Medicines
Yá’át’èèh shik’èí dóó shidine’è. Translated, hello, my relatives and family. I would like to begin with an introduction of myself in the manner I was taught by Diné (Navajo) elders. This introduction also serves as an example to help explain kinship and its role in our culture.
Shí éí Belinda Eriacho yíníshyé’. Honágháanii nishłį́. Naasht’ézhí ’éí bá shíshchíín. Dibé Łishiní ’éí dashicheii. Naasht’ézhí ’éí dashinálí. (Translation from Navajo to English) My name is Belinda Eriacho. My maternal clan is One-Who-Walks-Around-You. My clan, through my maternal grandfather, is Black Sheep. My paternal grandparents are the Zuni people. We are a matrilinear and matrilocal society. This is who I am as a Diné woman.
Our clans are critical to our self-identity and how we relate to one another in our society and to the natural world, including our plant relatives. The Diné (translated as the children of the Holy Ones) are indigenous to the Southwestern United States, in a place between the four sacred mountains called Dinétah (Wilson, 1991).
As a Diné and Ashwii (Zuni) woman, I have experienced the Western healthcare system, which focuses on treating symptoms, a reductionist view of health. Years ago, I went through a severe systemic lupus flare, and my body was shutting down. For allopathic medicine, there is an emphasis on physical healing; spiritual and emotional healing were not a part of patient care. Once I was well enough, I sought out traditional Diné and Chinese medicine, utilizing healing practices and herbs to restore balance.
In my Diné culture, the healing process requires a team of traditional diagnosticians, herbalists, chanters, sand painters, and medicine people to restore balance and harmony. One's well-being is determined by the balance and harmony of these four bodies, a concept we call hozho. When one of these bodies is out of balance, this can cause disease, illness, anxiety, etc. Traditional healers work to restore harmony and balance so that the person is whole again, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In my case, this came in the form of personal one-on-one visits with the healers and a nine-day traditional ceremony. These traditional ways helped to restore my physical and spiritual health.
The one component yet to be healed was my emotional body. Thus began my journey and healing with sacred plant medicines. Sacred plant medicines are natural plants (including Ayahuasca, peyote, iboga, mushrooms, etc.) and do not include synthetic medicines (like LSD, MDMA, or ketamine). I speak from my personal experience with traditional ceremonies and indigenous healing through Diné ceremonies, the Native American Church, and Ayahuasca ceremonies within a Peruvian Shipibo context. I have also participated in therapeutic work with MDMA and ketamine, completed training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and trained in MDMA-Assisted Therapy with MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies.
As a Native woman, a healer, and a health professional, I would like to share some of the ancestral wisdom I have gleaned along this journey. The origins of these ancient technologies come from cultures who have been guardians and stewards of these plants and who are steeped in ceremonial use. I believe we are at a time in which we need to bridge the ceremony with the science, honoring the perspectives, cultures, and traditions from which we each come. In her book, Braiding Sweet Grass, indigenous author and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer clarifies what ceremony is. She states, "ceremony is a vehicle for belonging — to family, to a people, and to the land" (Kimmerer, 2015).
The Psychedelic Renaissance has brought up many issues, among them, the cultural appropriation of indigenous practices involving sacred plant medicines, related policies, and much more. Indigenous perspectives and participation are crucial in addressing these issues. It is important that we ground this developing field in the wisdom of our ancestors and the traditional teaching of indigenous people. Why? One reason is that our experiences are lived and practical.
