Meeting the Spirit & Herbal Cleanses

As we all know, the earth is a creation from Yahweh; therefore this puts Healers, who work with nature and the spirits of this earth, very close to Yahweh. Everything that Yahweh created, from the beginning until now, is so natural, and will always stay natural. Water should always be included in the topics of healing, nature and creation. Herbs and natural food always have a connection to clean water, and just clean water alone can be a cure for so many problems we face in our bodies. Things which are not natural are all made by humans, who complicate and destroy natrural things to make their new creations. Animals still depend on nature and rely on nature. This is the type of life that healers are still researching. They can learn things from these natural animals, and use them to help humans. Animals who live on nature alone, will not be affected by the modern diseases and problems that face people who live in the modern scientific world. Even animals who live with humans are often ill and are taken to doctors, because they have been taken from their natural life.

Healers pray under trees, see spiritual visions, research herbs and work hard to develop their knowledge and experience of the natural world. In saying herbs, this includes natural foods, food in its natural and most healthy state and clean water. This makes them the angels of Yahweh, because they play with nature. Likewise when we think of the children of Yahweh we look at those who love nature, and being natural in their lives. There are also those who talk, read and also believe but at the same time their life is unatural, they maybe take a lot of scientific medicines, tablets, and eat bad food from modern industries, in front of the television every day, yet they also call on the name of Yahweh. Often those who are drawn into the scientific world can see cultural people who use natures way and herbs, and believe they are confused or practicing witch craft, 'juju', or simply fairytales. Many people who are simple and natural in heart have been accused of witch craft, yet they would never think of doing evil, especially killing another person. Its obvious to see that most killing in this world is done using weapons, guns, knives and worse. There are some poisonous trees and plants, but they are very rarely used as a weapon to kill someone. Our message is that we should be proud of people who are close to nature, as nature is what Yahweh created for our world. Although we live in a modern world, we prefer to research the ways of Yahweh through nature, which is very simple. Everything that our modern world creates requires money, complicated materials and processes, hurt, hard work, inequality. We all live in this scientific world, and its ok to be here and play with our new ways. But we should remember that Yahweh brought nature only, so we should always return to working with nature, to maintain our closeness to Yahweh the creator.

In traditional healing Wengara carries forward the culture that was left by our Shona ancestors in Zimbabwe. In his healing he doesn't call himself N'anga, but Svikiro. The same applies to other healers who heal under the name of Yahweh, he doesn't call them N'anga, but Svikiro. 'N'anga' is a horrible word used to describe healers; the actual word doesn't mean anything to Wengara. 'Svikiro' is a word which represents people who actually get possessed by ancestral spirits. When these people get possessed they talk in tongues, in old ancestral Shona, or even modern Shona. Some get possessed but don't speak in tongues; we call this type of possessing spirit 'Shave'. Shave spirits can be particularly connected to a skill such as hunting or music. A Svikiro can also be possessed by a Shave spirit. There are also Shave which come from water; there are many water spirits such as Njuzu or Tsungunu, Jukwa, Dona, Svovanapasi; some people refer to Njuzu and Dona water spirits as 'Mermaids'.

The way Wengara heals as a Svikiro to Zimbabwean clients is that first, clients will come to meet with his spirit. They will normally put £10 in his wooden plate and pray with snuff. When the spirit comes, they will share their problems with the spirit and be given advice. In Wengara's healing, the Svikiro only works with people who are looking to solve their problems under the guidance of Yahweh, the creator. In healing we don't get involved in anything negative. After meeting the spirit, clients will be asked whether they were satisfied by what they were told by the spirit. If they were to say no, we give them back their £10, we don't need it. If they say yes, then we keep the £10 because they have respected the advice given from the spirit and see benefit for their lives. Their payment also uplifts our work, and thus both parties are benefited for the good of their futures.

Ususally the advice from the spirit will include cleansing, using herbs, of which we have many for each requirement. The spirit will advise on what type of cleanse should be done. For us to take the person for a cleansing in the bush, the client has to be prepared to pay for the cleanse. These herbs come all the way from Zimbabwe, and the spirit that covers cleansing is different from the spirit that clients will consult with. We call this the herbalist spirit. If the client is happy to pay money for herbs and the whole process of cleansing, the herbalist spirit will also be happy to bless the persons cleanse.

In doing a herbal cleanse we carry out long prayers, both in the house and then again in the bush during the cleanse. We also take clients out into a quiet natural spot in the bush for the cleanse. After the bush cleanse, we will also take clients to the sea to perform a water cleanse, which doesn't use herbs but pure spring water. So all this take quite some time, and of course the process of obtaining high quality spiritual herbs from Zimbabwe is one which takes time and resources. It is therefore reasonable to be paying more for this type of work than for a consultation alone.

We advise clients to open their ears during prayers and cleansing. Its good to learn from Wengara and his spirits, ways of praying and respecting spirits, ancestors and culture. The spirits from Wengara and the spirits from the client will liase through dreams, until the time that the client becomes close to thier own spirits. We don't feel that this will happen through one cleanse only, it requires a person to have an open, humble and patient heart, to work and put energy into their spiritual life. These things require many cleanses and prayers. To make the best progress you can requires you to really devote your self.

There are many different types of cleanse that we perform in spiritual healing. Some people require cleanses because of sins that happened in their families in the past. When they cleanse they will find problems in thier lives lifted and the way opens out.Other bad spirits can affect you because of jealousy and bad feelings from others, such as family members. We fight these type of bad spirits. Some bad spirits are caused by clashes between parents, such as a father who refuses to pay lobola (cattle) for the marriage of the wife. This creates discord from the mother's tribe. For this type of problem, before we can cleanse, we have to dela with the problem, that is to acknowledge that the father should have been willing to pay the lobola with a happy heart. This type of situation can affect the children of these parents, even though they are also belonging to the mothers tribe.

Another type of cleanse is for people who are raised only by their mother's side of the family, without the invlovement of their father. In our culture we say that the father should pay a cattle to the mother's side, to say thankyou to them for bring up the children; this cattle is called 'mombe yechiredzwa'. If the father is not around, or doesn't want to pay, then it good for the kids to pay the 'mombe yechiredzwa'. It shows that regardless of the situation with their father, they are proud of the role their mother has played in their lives.

There are so many types of bad spirits and situations, we can list a few examples here, but obviously when we work with a client, we look into their specific needs. For example Ngozi, kutanda botso. If a person has sought help form another healer, yet have rejected or disrespected the help they were given, this will actually affect their lives. This is not witchcraft but the spirit of the healer making sure that the person learns correct respect and spiritual values. This is something we can look into and help to remedy.
We are not saying that all healers are good; if a healer is bad then they will also face this problem, of the good spirit teaching them a lesson by punishing them in certain ways, making them to mature and change their ways.

Another cleanse is nothing to do with bad spirits, but your body. If your body has become infected in some way this can hold back your spiritual life, block dreams and guidance. This often happens in the case of sexually related infections. Because in Shona culture, people will be very shy to talk about and discuss these problems, it creates a worried and distressed soul. This affects the spirit. If for example someone has a chest infection or a bad leg etc. they will share their problems with ease, and this makes healing much easier. We make it clear that we encourage and are comfortable to talk about these kind of problems and do healing for these situations.
In these cases we have to work carefully to heal the person from inside for their spiritual life to open up properly.

Another issue is with clients who have a heart for spiritual healing, but because they are used to the modern world they expect things to happen quickly, according to a time schedule. But we have to understand that we are working with ancestral spirits, who were not governed by watches and modern stresses. With ancestors, every prayer is heard, but the healing to happen may take time. Sometimes clients may argue too quickly with a healer, and then they look back at a later date, to find the things that they were praying for actually worked out well.

Also some clients may have experience of healers and spiritual life from their own backgrounds. Most will have respect for culture and the spiritual practices of other healers they encounter. Yet there may also be some who come to another healer with expectations and judgements which are not appropriate, this is wrong and we don't tolerate this attitude. To us, every client is valued the same, we are all under one church of Zimbabwean healing.

To most clients, we just help them with the problems they want to address and fix, but with those who have a deeper love for the spirit and work and pray with us for a long time, we also brew them ceremonies regarding the spirits form their own tribe. This helps them connect to their own reborn spirits which will possess them in their lifetime.