Healing Racism
Healing in the context of the racism inherent in our society has been on my mind this week and, truly, for many years. What is my place in this part of the journey? Where can I best serve?
Many years ago, I found myself in a circle of Black healers, thanks to my primary Reiki Teacher, herself a woman of color. She took me into her world and showed me a side of reality I hadn’t been as aware of before that. For that I am grateful. I spent weeks and years learning from her and from an amazing group of healers who were healing more than I had ever imagined. Yes, my rape and trauma were awful, but they were not compounded by generations of racial terror, profiling and trauma.
In these holy Reiki circles, I learned that the most important thing I could do was to listen and love. It is often noted that white people take up a lot of space with their emotions and tears when racism is brought up. It can be hard to hear that you’re part of a group causing harm to others without realizing it. It’s ok to take a backseat to someone else’s pain, and it’s powerful to open your heart in that way. If you try, you might feel more love radiating in your heart than you thought possible.
I’m truly grateful for the time I had with my teacher. I’ve done my best to carry the lessons in healing forward and to truly unpack my own racial biases and to take action in the world. It’s a delicate balance to be a healer and see the bigger spiritual picture, where we are all truly light made manifest, and to see the human story that has suppressed Black and Brown people for centuries. It’s possible to carry both. We must each work to make sure each shard of light, that is to say each human being, is safe to live, breathe, heal, be healthy, earn a living, and stay safe. That can take a lot of work unpacking. It’s work we are up for.
Here’s a great blog post from a few years back about Spiritual Bypassing, what it is, how to notice it, and what to do about it: When Spiritual Bypassing Meets Racism Meets Gaslighting by Cammie Williams.
If you read this and find it to be painful or hard or intriguing, please message and reach out. We can do the work together. I’m still doing it too. All my love.
