“Perhaps our real work, whether offering or seeking care, is to recognize that the healing relationship–the field upon which patient and practitioner meet–is, to use the words of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, a ‘self-mirroring mystery’–the embodiment of a singular human activity that raises essential questions about self, other, and what it means to heal thy self.”

–Saki Santorelli

There is an old Celtic tale about 5 sons of the Irish King Eochaid.  The sons were out hunting and got lost. They became tired and thirsty and set out in search of water. Each went a different way but all ended up, at different times, to the site of the woman beside the well.

The tale tells that the woman guarding this well was hideous.  Blacker than coal was every inch of her. Her hair was a grey, wiry mass of substance that compared to a wild horse’s tail.   This hair appeared only attached at the top surface of her scalp.  Her nose was awry and held wide nostrils. Her eyes were red and smoke blurred.  Her center was a wrinkled and freckled belly that overtook warped, crooked shins, garnished with massive ankles and a pair of capacious shovels for feet and knotted knees.  Long livid nails escaped her hands.

The oldest son of the King found the well first.  Standing before the hideous woman he asked for some water.  She told him the only way to get some water was to kiss her.  He refused, vowing he would rather die than kiss her and he turned away.   Read more…