Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing

by Kenneth Cohen

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New York: One World/ Ballantine 2003,  428 pp, 67 pp. Notes, Refs, Resources $26.95

Ken Cohen brings us an outstanding overview of Native American healing. Cohen, also known as “Bear Hawk,” is an adopted member of the Cree Nation, and has studied with many medicine persons over four decades. This clear and lucid summary explains the medicine traditions and approaches of many of the Native American nations.

  As an example, here is Cohen’s explanation of the Native American understanding of medicine:

“To an English speaker, a ‘medicine’ is something used to treat disease or enhance well-being.  Native Americans accept this definition, but in the context of traditional culture, the word medicine has much broader and richer meaning.  Medicine means the presence and power embodied in or demonstrated by a person, a place, an event, an object, or a natural phenomenon.  In some tribes, the word for medicine may connote spirit, power, energy, or mystic potency.  For example, in the Wyandot (Huron) language, the word arendi (sometimes spelled orenda) means ‘spiritual power’ or ‘medicine.’  The ‘medicine man’ is the arendiwane, a compound of arendi and wane, meaning ‘powerful’ or great.’  Thus, the ‘medicine man’ is someone whose spiritual power is great.  His medicine, whether a prayer or an herb, affects more than illness; it establishes or restores a state or harmony and positive thinking.

“A medicine may be something you have, a ‘medicine object’ that has the power to affect your or another’s well-being.  For example, I have a beautiful piece of granite with a small amethyst crystal embedded in it.  It was given to be by a dear friend, and whenever I look at it or hold it, I feel happy.  I discovered that when I allow and client to hold it, he or she also feels happy.  This is a kind of medicine.

“More important, if you live a life of integrity and kindness, then medicine (spiritual potency) will become part of you.  The elders teach that some medicine is inborn.  The Great Spirit gives each person a medicine, a unique spiritual gift or talent.  What a tragedy when people do not take the time to explore those gifts or do not have the confidence to express them!

“Medicine may be good or bad according to the intent with which we use it or how it affects people.  A kind word is good medicine, and an insulting or a discouraging word is bad medicine.  A natural herb received from a compassionate healer is good medicine.  The same herb, offered by an angry person, is bad medicine.  A stethoscope is good medicine when used by a caring and wise physician.  A stethoscope is an instrument of evil if the physician is demeaning to the patient.

“Your feelings, intuition, and culture may determine whether a medicine is good or bad.  For example, the owl is good medicine to some Northern Plains peoples, who often consider it a symbol of change and spiritual transformation.  Yet my Cherokee friends won’t allow an owl feather in their homes because they consider it to b an omen of death.  Tobacco is a powerful healing ally to Native Americans who use it in prayer.  However, to a white person who lost a loved one to emphysema or cancer, just the thought of tobacco may create feelings of anger and bitterness.  Dreams may also be good or bad medicine. Dreams of healing or helping advice or dreams that have beautiful images are good medicine.  Nightmares may also be good medicine if they are sources or personal insight or if they provide warnings that lead to positive change.  Native Americans believe, however, that some nightmares are bad medicine inflicted by malicious spirits, people, or sorcerers.

“Good medicine always gives you a sense of sacredness or sacred power.  God medicine is healing.”  (p. 27-28)

As Cohen explains, this book will not teach you to be a healer in this tradition because Native American healing is not learned from books. What it will do is to give you a breadth and depth of appreciation of the rich folklore that has much to offer those of us who are raised in the (relatively) sterile tradition of Western medicine which addresses the disease the person has, often ignoring the person who has the disease. The point is well made by Cohen that the person who is the healer, together with the person seeking the healing, shape and individualize the medicine that is needed for that specific healing.

Cohen writes with great wisdom and sensitivity, sharing his voluminous knowledge and many years of experience in studying and practicing Native American healing. He brings a lightness to this monumental work by sharing many personal stories of his encounters with the wise elders and healers of many Nations.

This is a must read for anyone interested in shamanic traditions.

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