Mentorship and Maya healing: NLJ's interview with Rosita Arvigo: herbalists Maria Muscarella and Nikki Solomon interview the renowned practitioner about learning from lineage and passing on those lessons

New Life Journal, August, 2008 by Rosita Arvigo

Rosita Arvigo is a recognized authority on Maya healing techniques and medicinal plants and has been teaching these techniques in the United States and Europe for over 10 years. She has spent the last several decades in Central America, where she's studied with dozens of traditional healers and midwives, the most notable of whom was Don Elijio Panti, the renowned Maya shaman of Belize. She is the founder and director of Ix Chel Tropical Research Foundation in San Ignacio, Belize, an organization dedicated to the preservation and study of medicinal rainforest plants. Additionally, she is founder and president of the Traditional Healers' Foundation in Belize, which works to support traditional healers. Herbalists Nikki Solomon and Maria Muscarella spoke with Rosita on behalf of New Life Journal about learning and teaching on her trip to Asheville this past spring.

NLJ: Can you tell us a little about your profession?

RA: I am a Doctor of Naprapathy, an offshoot of chiropractic medicine from 1907. Like many other healers, my practice is eclectic. My mixture is made up of Maya medicine, Naprapathy, herbology, spiritual healing, and Reichean armor-busting techniques.*

NLJ: You've lived and practiced in Belize for many years. What drew you to that area?

RA: I went to live in Belize in 1976 in search of medical freedom, a year-round growing season and racial harmony.

NLJ: When you were in Belize, you met your mentor, Don Elijio Panti. Tell us a little about him and how you met. Had you been looking for a mentor?

RA: Once in Belize, I needed to find a mentor who could teach me about medicinal plants, because herbal therapies were and still are a large part of my practice in helping people to achieve health. One day, an elderly Maya man came to my little clinic in San Ignacio because he heard there was an American herbalist in town. He wanted to meet me, but he was also in search of a specific herb: linden flower, known to him in Spanish as Flor deTilo. It happened that I had some of that herb in a glass jar. He said that he and his deceased wife always used it to help them sleep and now that she was gone, sleep was even harder for him. I poured out some of the dried tea for him and commented on how diliicult I was finding it to keep the herbs from molding in the damp, tropical environment. He shrugged and said, "Well, you can't store herbs in glass jars here. They need to be in paper or cloth bags and then put out into the sun regularly to keep them dry." A simple enough statement, but it solved a huge problem for me. When he told me that he was Don Elijio Panti of San Antonio, I nearly dropped my glass jar of linden flowers, as he was the very man I had been searching for.

He was the most famous Maya healer in Belize, and he had no apprentice at the age of 90. So, I started visiting him in his village once a week to help out, to chat and exchange life stories, and after a year he agreed to take me on as his student. That relationship lasted for nearly 13 years until he passed into spirit in 1996.

NLJ: Can you tell us about one of the special gifts/ teachings that Don Elijio passed on to you?

RA: I would have to name two gifts: his abdominal massage and spiritual healing through baths, prayer and incense.

NLJ: What was one of the hardest lessons taught to you by Don Elijio?

RA: To not pass judgment on what I did not understand.

NLJ: How did he keep humor in his teachings?

RA: Don Elijio was a true doctor-clown who always used humor in his teachings and with his patients. He was a great storyteller with a quick wit and a pristine intelligence. Since he never learned to read or write, his stories came from the belly of the earth mother passed on from generation to generation of Maya people. He would act out his stories and deliver a punch line that was worthy of the stage.

NLJ: What are you doing today to keep his memories and teachings alive?

RA: Don Elijio passed away on February 4, 1996, at 6:10 am. At 6:15 am, I had a dream in which he said to me, "Take the children as though they were your own. Train them and teach them to help each other." Two years later, I founded the Children's Summer Bush Medicine Camp that is now in its tenth year. This year, camp will host 24 children from ages 8-12, all in the name of Don Elijio Panti. Children learn about medicinal plants and how to use them at home for headache poultices, baby baths for diaper rash, herbal baths for skin conditions, and how to give baths for spiritual healing. In October 2008, we will open the doors of Kids for Conservation, an after-school program to give neighborhood kids a safe place to play, finish homework assignments and learn about medicinal plants and conservation of our natural resources.

Furthermore, in my work with Maya abdominal massage (MAM), about 500 practitioners have been trained in these marvelous and effective techniques. In the name of Don Elijio, the techniques have helped thousands of people with fertility issues, painful periods and a list of 32 symptoms related to abdominal congestion.