Ancient Mayan Medicine and Chinese Medicine are connected!

You may be wondering how Ancient Mayan Medicine and Chinese medicine are connected, I am here to share this fascinating connection with you! I began this journey that lead me to make this connection, with a book called Sastun by Rosita Arvigo. https://rositaarvigo.com/product/sastun-book/

And as these rabbit holes tend to go, I found myself transported to the jungles of Belize and somehow finding my way back to our ancient roots of human healing and connectedness. And although these systems may seem worlds away, are deeply connected to our shared humanity on the earth.

The book, Sastun, is an incredible journey. And like many of my favorite books tend to be, the story starts with a young woman in medicine, in this case a Naprapath, who moved to Belize. What, you’ve never heard of a Naprapath?! Me either- heres a little about this under appreciated medical profession that focuses on the facia) https://sunm.edu/fascia-naprapathy-connective-tissues/

Rosita buys land- sight unseen, and attempts to build a life far from her connection to the western world. This is where the journey turns cosmic. I don’t want to share too much, because I highly recommend that you read this book yourself, but she meets an elderly Mayan healer who shares his lifes’ work with her, and takes her on as his apprentice until the ripe old age of 103. This healer’s name is Don Elijio, and he is a marvel.

This true story shares his thoughts and his lineage as a Mayan healer from Guatemala who moved to Belize, but really the names of the country are irrelevant because the location of this story is right in the center of many Mayan Temples, including the famous Ix Chel Temple. https://yucatanmagazine.com/the-wondrous-isle-of-women-and-its-mysterious-rainbow-goddess/

Ix Chel is the Mayan goddess of medicine, child birth, weaving, the moon and queen of all goddesses. She watches over birth, newborns, healers, and the plants, is the guardian of the forest and queen of the forest spirits. Later in the story, Rosita names her herbal farm after this goddess, and its a place that you can visit and take classes! https://rositaarvigo.com/

So, this connection to Chinese Medicine started showing up in the way Don Elijio’s described his patients symptoms to Rosita and how he listened to his patients stories of how they became ill.

One of the most obvious connections came to me when he described the story of how one of his patients become ill. He said that an evil wind came down from the temples and because his patient had been working in the fields, had been sweating, and the patient developed a stiff neck, cold symptoms and started coughing. This is the exact same description as a “wind cold invasion” in Traditional Chinese medicine. For a very detailed and deep explanation of the concept of Wind in Chinese medicine here is a link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5234349/

This is not the only similarity; Don Elijio diagnosis patients with a very similar style to my TCM and Japanese Medicine training: asking questions, palpation of the abdomen( touching) and most impressively- pulse diagnosis. According to Rosita Arivago, Don Elijio can diagnose 42 different conditions and discern 28 distinct pulse types. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18316054/ Once I started seeing these connections, I wondered if I was the first one to notice this- well, nope. There is an entire text book written about the connection between the two systems. Not only diagnosis, but treatments! https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/wind-in-the-blood/

There are even needling treatments using the spine of fish bones, sterilized with raw garlic, placed in very similarly located energy points to bring harmony to the bodies energy!

I have been captivated by this connection ever since, and no doubt understanding more about Mayan Healing, will deepen my abilities to support you in your healing.

One main point that the authors make in the book, Wind in the Blood, is that the history and lineage of Traditional Mayan Healers have mostly been wiped out because during the Spanish Invasion and colonization of Latin America most if this medicine and people were, forced underground, lost or erased. Chinese Medicine has been able to hold on to its lineages and that is why it is more prominent and accessible to us today.

There is more for me to explore about how this connection came to be, one theory is that the Chinese traveled by boat many years before Columbus, sharing and learning from others around the world. But another idea is that many systems of healing are based on observing the ways of nature. And when we allow ourselves to observe, we find many connections with how the human body and nature interact.

So, as you cozy up to a fire, share time with family and friends, please bring the connection of shared humanity to everyone you encounter. As you go about your shopping and conversations, may this season bring you more connection than separateness.

Many Blessings on your Holiday Season,

Deirdre