Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

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unsolved mystery until years later when I learned that the astringents in Roses and Rose leaves help stop bleeding. That was 1973. In 1969, I had left my hometown of Chicago and a career in advertising to pursue my dream of living closer to the land. With my young son James, I moved first to San Francisco. Then, with friends, we left for Doña Rita’s remote village in the Sierra Madre of Guerrero, where we farmed alongside the Nahuatl. Since the closest government health clinic was an arduous fourteen-hour walk through steep hills and raging rivers, the Nahuatl relied on centuriesold formulas of herbal teas, baths, powders, and salves to meet their health needs. So when a family member became ill, the village elders—who possessed thousands of years of healing knowledge—were called in to administer household remedies that invariably worked. Doña Rita and several other respected elders took me under their wings and taught me the names and uses of many medicinal plants. It dawned on me slowly but inexorably that the study of plants and their relationship to human illness would be my life’s work. I had discovered that I had a gift for healing in my hands. I had no idea where this interest would eventually lead, but I had a sense that it would satisfy my yearning to be of service to God and humanity. In 1976 I left Mexico, and the next year my daughter Crystal Ray was born in Belize—the former British Honduras—where I worked as a caretaker of an organic farm. When Crystal was two, we returned to Chicago, where I enrolled in the Chicago National College of Naprapathy, a three-year program that taught therapeutic body treatments that are an offshoot of chiropractic medicine. There in cadaver class, I met Greg Shropshire, a handsome paramedic with beautiful, healing hands. We fell in love and were married shortly before graduation. Greg and I decided to return to Belize. I missed the tropical climate, the year-round growing season, and the artist’s palette of skin colors that paint the human landscape; the indigenous Maya and Spanish-speaking Central Americans, the Garifuna and Creole peoples with their roots in Africa, the East Indians who had come as indentured slaves, the Lebanese who came as chicle-bosses, and the postcolonial Mennonites, Europeans, and Americans. As alternative practitioners, we wanted to live in a country where medical freedom and traditional healing were still honored. Belize intrigued
us because it had a thriving, highly respected tradition of curanderos, healers and herbalists, and there was no “medical practice law” that made natural healing a crime. We wanted to bring up Crystal, not yet six, in a healthy environment, swim in a pure river, eat home-grown vegetables, and live close to the natural rhythms of life in the untamed bush. We decided to resettle in western Belize, buying thirty-five acres of uncleared jungle along the Macal River in the Cayo District, not far from the Guatemalan border. My dear friends Lucy and Mick Fleming, who had recently bought eighty-seven acres, called us when the land next to them went up for sale. We bought it sight unseen. So in 1981, when James was entering college, Greg, Crystal, and I set out for our new tropical homestead. There we worked to clear and plant the land while maintaining a small practice as natural healers in the town of San Ignacio, six miles downriver.
Page 4 and 5: DEDICATION Dedicated to Don Elijio
Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS DEDICATION EPIGRAPH ACKNOW
Page 8 and 9: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to tha
Page 10 and 11: The Whole Earth Review for assignin
Page 12 and 13: tenderness reserved for a favorite
Page 14 and 15: sometimes combining nutritional or
Page 16 and 17: MAP
Page 20 and 21: CHAPTER ONE Linden Flowers, Basswoo
Page 22 and 23: As soon as I heard his name, I almo
Page 24 and 25: The old man’s friend had come for
Page 26 and 27: the soil was impoverished, hardpan
Page 28 and 29: opposite bank. In Belizean fashion,
Page 30 and 31: of the village farms, finding an un
Page 32 and 33: “Are there no curanderos in your
Page 34 and 35: Hours later, he reappeared—showin
Page 36 and 37: CHAPTER THREE Wormseed Epasote Chen
Page 38 and 39: “It is too damp and muddy for me
Page 40 and 41: “This is Man Vine. This plant is
Page 42 and 43: man’s hand back and forth, causin
Page 44 and 45: CHAPTER FOUR Amaranth Amaranto Cala
Page 46 and 47: One day he stopped to trade and tal
Page 48 and 49: uins of the Maya city of Tikal. The
Page 50 and 51: would become seriously ill. This he
Page 52 and 53: CHAPTER FIVE Jackass Bitters Tres P
Page 54 and 55: that cure. I was sad when he left m
Page 56 and 57: three places, using the sharp end o
Page 58 and 59: myself to sleep in the dust. I had
Page 60 and 61: CHAPTER SIX Corn Maize Im Che Zea m
Page 62 and 63: “I’m willing to wait three year
Page 64 and 65: nothing about them. Please, I want
Page 66 and 67: strapping on plastic flour sacks, m
Page 68 and 69:
We’d been steadily trudging uphil
Page 70 and 71:
acks and the emerging midday heat.
Page 72 and 73:
Where were we now? How far was it y
Page 74 and 75:
we had our share of arguments. The
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the northern strain—I bathed them
Page 78 and 79:
CHAPTER NINE Anal Psychotria acumin
Page 80 and 81:
“Claudia, at your service. Maybe
Page 82 and 83:
CHAPTER TEN Wild Yam Cocolmeca Dios
Page 84 and 85:
He also believed in the Nine Malevo
Page 86 and 87:
I had to admire Don Elijio’s simp
Page 88 and 89:
stone tools, spinning whorls, shard
Page 90 and 91:
four-star hotel. Panti put down his
Page 92 and 93:
Spirits. All of our crystals came o
Page 94 and 95:
“I leave these jícaras with you
Page 96 and 97:
Crystal was sleeping on her bed und
Page 98 and 99:
The aroma of moist, rotting humus w
Page 100 and 101:
There was no evidence and no case,
Page 102 and 103:
We opened the door wide to let the
Page 104 and 105:
make them tired and dizzy. We must
Page 106 and 107:
When I returned with the three-part
Page 108 and 109:
Doña Juana held the lantern overhe
Page 110 and 111:
ailing women came from all over Cen
Page 112 and 113:
He instructed her to boil a handful
Page 114 and 115:
weakness in the legs, and constipat
Page 116 and 117:
Not too confidently, I began to exa
Page 118 and 119:
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Balsam Tree Balsamo
Page 120 and 121:
Later in the day, one of the crew,
Page 122 and 123:
Panti wanted to consult his sastun
Page 124 and 125:
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Allspice Pimienta G
Page 126 and 127:
He was both excited and bewildered,
Page 128 and 129:
I also knew what he meant when he p
Page 130 and 131:
able to treat the mind, body, and s
Page 132 and 133:
that once belonged to a child’s e
Page 134 and 135:
Viento de descuido means Wind of Ca
Page 136 and 137:
worthy of her. She comes out of the
Page 138 and 139:
loodcurdling cry, followed by the s
Page 140 and 141:
Panti spoke quietly to her as she g
Page 142 and 143:
had first seen the book in the 1950
Page 144 and 145:
CHAPTER NINETEEN Duck Flower Contri
Page 146 and 147:
“They don’t understand,” he s
Page 148 and 149:
Doña Rosa spent the night and we h
Page 150 and 151:
men who had asked him to give up hi
Page 152 and 153:
to offer. As we left, one suggested
Page 154 and 155:
Che Xiv, the chief herb formula tha
Page 156 and 157:
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Billy Webb Tree
Page 158 and 159:
whispering, kissing and whispering
Page 160 and 161:
“I lost my daughter. I lost my wi
Page 162 and 163:
Antonio who shared his respect for
Page 164 and 165:
I was unable to refuse his request.
Page 166 and 167:
By the time I had finished, Antonio
Page 168 and 169:
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Cross Vine Cru
Page 170 and 171:
I followed him in, and he sat down
Page 172 and 173:
I saw that he was crying and bent o
Page 174 and 175:
and met Saint Peter. He looked at m
Page 176 and 177:
A few weeks later, on February 4, 1
Page 178 and 179:
pamphlet. On the back, we printed a
Page 180 and 181:
esembles a basement. There is a cla
Page 182 and 183:
PICTURE SECTION
Page 184 and 185:
Rosita with Don Elijio on the trail
Page 186 and 187:
Don Elijio with patients
Page 188 and 189:
Jackass Bitters
Page 190 and 191:
Contribo (photos by Michael Balick)
Page 192 and 193:
Polly Red Head
Page 194 and 195:
Don Elijio gathering herbs on trail
Page 196 and 197:
Rosita with Don Elijio chopping med
Page 198 and 199:
GLOSSARY OF MAYAN WORDS c’ox ca
Page 200 and 201:
Castor Bean Tree, Oil Nut Ricino, I
Page 202 and 203:
Palo Verde Eupatorium (Critonia) mo
Page 204 and 205:
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Rosita Arvigo Now
Page 206 and 207:
COPYRIGHT HarperSanFrancisco and th
Page 208:
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Australia Harpe
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Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

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