Day 11 of walking from Villafranca de Bierzo into Vega de Valcarce. The class got started at various times and met up a few times along the way, as usual. This is the day we met many new friends who were also walking the Camino: Madeline and her eleven year old son, William, from Australia, Toseph from Bangladesh, Ben from Germany the guitalele player, and a touring shaman group from Canada.
Angela and Yushi (the author) beginning a day’s hike
Naturally, I found Erin (our professor) speaking with the tour guide of the group. As I caught up to the duo, Erin introduced me to Ariana, a woman of about 67 sporting a bright teal shirt and a red bandana. Ariana told us openly about losing her husband to an illness and losing her job all before the age of 60. In the wake of his loss, she noticed a supernatural happening: a contact lens case on her bathroom counter that had been flipped upside down. “I knew it was my husband,” she told us. This led her to believe in something more than what the eye could see.
As we kept walking, Ariana told us about developing her healing powers. She said they were different from Reiki and promised to do a healing on me later. “I do not have the power to heal,” she told us, “I am only a channel for the spirits.” She gestured to the sky. We eventually split ways, as I met and talked with other members of Ariana’s tour group, Jana and Greg.
Fieldwork begins by walking and sharing stories
An hour or so later, I met Erin and Ariana at our designated hostel in Valcarce. Here, Ariana kept her promise to perform a healing on me. She generously allowed the entire class to watch. We sat on a patio behind the hostel on the rushing river. I sat facing the class, eyes partially closed, and Ariana stood behind me, making gestures like she was sweeping the air around my body and throwing it away behind me. Her hand then hovered a few inches from my stomach and moved up and down, never making contact.
This meditative experience continued in silence for about ten minutes until Ariana withdrew her hands and placed them in a cradling motion, rocking her arms back and forth. She then began to sing, slowly and melodically, in a language no one understood. Lastly, she kissed the back of my head and ended the healing.
Healing Work
“I sensed you hold sadness in your heart,” she told me, “and I rocked the childhood version of you; I sensed it needed nurturing.” The song she sang was one channeled from the spirits, one that did not belong to any language. She also informed me that she cut off the strings connecting my energy to energies that had found their way unto mine. The class asked some questions, and we thanked her for her time. With that, we parted ways with Ariana the healer.