Placebo

I see the doctor try and heal a broken soul. He’s struggling; his connection to me is weak. If only he knew how to draw strength from me, how to pour my healing force into the broken soul.

His forefathers used to know how. He doesn’t. He thinks he still does but he doesn’t. The healers of this modern world have all completely forgotten. At least most of them. The ones in charge.

I see him decide there is nothing his modern medicine can do. This is when he reaches for our connection. It is always at the moment his medicine fails that he seeks me. When he tries to form a healing connection with the souls beyond his ability to heal.

He calls me placebo. That’s what they’ve reduced me to. All my glorious might, my magnificent all healing touch. Placebo.

He looks at the broken soul and takes out a conduit, a means of forming a connection with his patient. Two sugar tablets, a poor replacement for the anchors healers of old would use to form our sacred bond. He says to the broken soul “Take these twice a day. There’s a small chance it could fix everything.”

The broken soul swallows a sugar tablet and immediately a bond is formed. The soul is in pain. I feel her draw from my warmth and our connection becomes stronger. Her name is Diana. She still remembers my old names.

The healer looks at the broken soul with pity in his eyes and smiles. He thinks to himself the placebo is already working. But he understands less about me than the broken soul.

Diana sits up and smiles. She can feel my presence. She invites me deeper into her soul and I comply. She says “thank you” to the healer while urging me to stay. I agree. I finger through the chapters of her life and identify her darkness. I know what she needs. I nudge her in the right direction, and she says to the healer “I think I’ll go for a walk in the woods this afternoon.” He smiles back at her because he knows being outside will do her good. He says, “The medicine must already be working”.

Time passes as I ponder her darkness.

Diana reaches for me as she stands in the midst of nature, surrounded by the towering oak trees with sturdy branches reaching skyward. The warmth of the sun filters through the leaves and caresses her face. She closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath of the fresh, clean air. The soft earth beneath her bare feet, rich with life, anchors her to the present moment, reminding her that she is alive and connected to the world around her.

Energy beneath and all around surges through me and into her. This is a much better conduit than the healer’s sugar tablets. I wrap Diana’s soul with warmth and she giggles.

She feels the weight of her fears and worries slip away as she’s immersed in the stillness of the forest. The soil, teeming with life sparks an endless potential for change. She realises that she is not bound by the limitations she had placed on herself.

With each step Diana takes, her worries and insecurities fade away. She’s realising the fear she has been carrying with her is unfounded. She’s beginning to see that it doesn’t matter if is there's anything inherently wrong with her – what matters is that she thinks there is. Her resistance to how things are will only cause her more suffering. Her acceptance of who she is and how she feels will be her first step on a journey towards peace. She must simply stop resisting.

I feel her begin to understand the only way to overcome her suffering is to embrace it. And when she does, she knows she can always call on me.

Diana believes. She will call me when she needs me next.