ancestral spirits. It is also possible to ‘inherit’ these spirits from another healer or family member. Having once been human themselves, the ancestors understand the pains and concerns of the living and, through their new status as enlightened beings, can offer direct healing or healing advice to the medsen fey.
DREAMS
Often, these spirits appear in dreams to advise the healer on the course of treatment to use with a particular client.
“If I am treating a sick person, very often I have a dream, and I see the leaves I should give that person”, says Loulou. “In these dreams, the lwa will come to me and tell me what to do, or I see that I am in the woods, and leaves are pushing up in front of me. Once I have this knowledge, I use my training as an herbalist to make tea or infusions in rum for the person who is suffering.
”Once I was treating a man who had body aches all the time, and diarrhoea and congestion. The man had no money to pay a doctor, so he came to me. That night, I had a dream where a lwa came to me with leaves in her hand. She said, ‘These leaves, boil them and give them to the sick man.’
“When I woke up, I went into the forest to look for those leaves and I found them straightaway. I boiled them as I had been shown and gave them to the sick man. Within a day, he was returned to full health.”
THE SPIRIT OF THE LEAVES
There are very few illnesses, it seems, that cannot be healed – or at least alleviated – with the plants of the rainforest. Loulou treats people with digestive disorders, sexual problems, fevers and colds, and has medicine to clean and purify the blood, and restore balance and order to the