Saturday, October 22, 2005

We Shouldn't Have Burnt The Witches: Philosophy And Cancer Treatment

We Shouldn't Have Burnt The Witches: Philosophy And Cancer Treatment: "We Shouldn't Have Burnt The Witches: Philosophy And Cancer Treatment




1000 years ago in Europe pre-Christian tribes originally had a Goddess culture - a matriarchy where the earth and nature and their cycles and secrets were revered. In pre-industrial societies illness was not seen as a 'random assault from outside' but as a deeply significant life event integral to the sufferer's whole being - spiritual, moral, physical and life course - past, present and future. Dis-ease was interpreted as packed with moral, spiritual and religious messages as one of the many ways through which 'God revealed his will to mankind'. Other philosophies of medicine such as Ayurvedic or Tibetan think similarly, in these, dis-ease has a karmic aspect.

Around the tenth century in Europe - after the so called 'Dark Ages' - women, the original stewards of the land (men did �animal husbandry�), were dispossessed of it by the new patriarchies of the Church and State. This male hierarchy hid the things they were most afraid of, namely the fact that it is women who hold the key to the processes and powers of life. They took them as their own, decreeing laws about how we should behave to impose control and inventing 'original sin'. Allied to this there came a prolonged persecution of women, especially any of those involved in healing. Some sources estimate about 5 - 9 million women were destroyed across Europe during this persecution. Essentially the role of women as healers and midwives was discouraged and �home-making� and its many associated skills is still regarded as a �worthless� career according to our primarily fiscal values based on GDP.

When a patriarchy takes over a matriarchy as a fundamental paradigm "

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