In Here There be Soul-Eaters, a fascinating, deep dive into the interviews of 11 nurse healers from Australia and other ountries, Dr Martin Hemsley explores the "awesomeness, brokenness and ordinary joy" of their mysterious inner and outer journeys of becoming and living as healers. What is revealed is, "a spiritual path, over the edge of ordinary reality ... living in multiple worlds, hard against the edge of madness".
Read, in these first-hand accounts, as women and men come to be a healer or shaman how they drop their personal history and trust the gifted empowerment. For some it is connected to the ancient shamanism of the Earth, nature and spirits and the deep transformation booms and resonates down the inner chambers and corridors of their lives. Their role, too, is to accept the imperative to not only serve and treat with the powers and the gods, but to enter various worlds. Therein, they will command the ghosts and dream figures, spirit creatures, entities, diseases, thought forms and even demons who come forward to teach, challenge, bedevil, and to serve healers and shamans. All this is needed, in many cases, to participate in the healing process as healer, therapist or shaman.
"If you are excited by these stories," says Dr Hemsley, "this could be something that helps to open you to your nature as a healer or a shaman. This cannot be ruled out, although it has not been my goal. It may well be one of the secondary processes of this work, perhaps more interesting, frightening and generative than its conscious intent. I don't know for sure."
In the pages of Here There be Soul-Eaters you will have the chance to deepen your understandings of self, and, indeed, of the mystery of healing in many forms.
Dr Martin Hemsley is a process worker, therapist and mental health nurse and offers here his rigorous exploration of the topic with his extensive knowledge and direct experience.
The beautiful illustrations are by Edan Chapman, an artist living in Melbourne, Australia. He is a prominent member and spokesperson of the Australian deaf and deafblind community.
