Limpia: One part of the Truth

As part of our retreat on Silence and Indigenous Spirituality, we also participated in a Limpia, a tradition which we learned about from an indigenous man named Ignacio, or Nacho.
Literally, the word, Limpia, means cleaning or cleansing.  In this experience, a limpia was a spiritual cleansing.  Even with my intuitive ways, I was skeptical of this practice.  The more I learn, the more I realize the grounding power of logic in connection with a free and open intuition.   My logic tells me that there was value in this experience, that it was indeed, a health creating practice, in the way that I experienced it.  Using an uncracked raw egg, some herbs, and a pinch of intuition, Nacho cleansed each YAGM volunteer's spiritual aura, and then explained what issues we might be having in our lives by cracking the egg into water and "reading" the yoke's pattern.  Its important to be a little skeptical when encountering practices like this in Mexico, or anywhere, because there are lots of people who want to take advantage of gringos' fascination with indigenous spirituality to do scams.  Yet, there is also a rooted tradition of healing using herbs, rituals, and faith to cure.  This contrasts western medicine, where it seems that everything must be scientifically proven by professional studies to be valid.  I believe that both western knowledge and indigenous and ancient practices - even while handed down through centuries - have value, and that we need both.  In Mexico, the indigenous traditions of healing, combined with less economic resources, and less access to state of the art health care, creates more openness to more grounded and more spiritual ways of healing.  The Limpia that Nacho did was a ritualized set of movements, passing the egg over the head, shoulders, arms, solar plexus, lower calf, and feet, pressing the egg into our skin at certain points.  After Nacho "read the egg", he asked us questions, that invited us to reflect on our lives, for example: "Have you ever been to a place that you haven't asked (or given yourself) permission to be in?" If we had, he suggested putting flowers out as an offering of humility to ask forgiveness.
He explained how some of us absorb sadness and anger from those around us, but that we can help ourselves heal through seeing the big picture of the suns' rise and set, and trying to let emotions flow instead of holding on to them. He asked us to reflect on people that may be trying to harm us or people we are trying to harm, and to make peace with those around us.   He encouraged us to pay attention to our dreams, waking and sleeping ones. These reflections are a way to be more aware and awake to life, cleansing our spirits and growing in health.