SCNM students study Mayan healing in Belize

In February 2008, a group of 11 SCNM students traveled to Belize to learn Traditional Mayan Healing from Miss Waight. Belize is a tiny country on the Caribbean coast in the Yucatan Peninsula. Situated between Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, Belize has a rich tradition of natural healing. With the advent of modern medicine, much traditional knowledge is being lost all around the world. Belize, however, has come to the forefront in recent times as a stronghold of native practices and beliefs.

Miss Beatrice, as she likes to be referred to, is one of Belize’s most renowned native healers. A native Mayan, she learned Traditional Mayan healing from her grandfather and has been practicing in a little village in western Belize for over 30 years. Miss Beatrice heals people with a combination of herbs, massage, prayers, diet, and Mayan ceremonies. She is perhaps best known for a form of abdominal massage used to correct a mal-positioned uterus. Mayan uterine massage is used to treat a myriad of common women’s complaints including: painful periods, irregular periods, lower back pain, varicose veins, endometriosis, chronic yeast infections, and chronic constipation.

During the week-long stay, the students lived at Miss Beatrice’s house in guest rooms and rustic cottages and all meals were prepared by Miss Beatrice’s family. The Waight house turned out to be an idyllic location in which to learn, enclosed by rainforest jungle, there are numerous tropical fruits trees planted around the property along with hundreds of native medicine plants. Twice a day the students would meet in Miss Beatrice’s “healers hut”, a special thatch hut set away from the main house where all classes and treatments took place. The main focus of the classes was Mayan uterine massage, as well as the use of jungle herbs. The students were given an introduction to how the Maya diagnose and treat diseases of the spirit, an often neglected aspect of human suffering which western medicine rarely acknowledges.  

In between classes, the students could explore the surrounding area or take a dip in the large, slow-moving river behind the house. As an added bonus, there was one day of rest during the week in which the students were taken to visit Xunantunich, an ancient Mayan city on the border of Guatemala. The students also had the opportunity to visit an organic agro-forestry farm owned by Miss Beatrice’s brother. There the students got drank fresh coconut water, saw Taro and Cassava going in the wild, and saw and tasted organic chocolate straight from the pod.  

Before leaving the training, the students were invited to join a Mayan ceremony called a Primicia. In the Primicia, the Nine Mayan Spirits are given an offering of Atole (corn porridge) and called upon for blessings.  

Everyone who participated was thrilled with the experience and long to return to Belize.