I regularly encounter people where their malaise seems to have a spirit component. But the way our culture expresses this is to say that it is 'psychosomatic' ie in their minds, the suggestion being that they are malingering in some way. And so the ill person then becomes desperate to prove that their symptoms are real. And that is because we have reduced the word psyche - as in psychosomatic - to mean the mind. Whereas actually it means soul. A malaise of the soul - psyche - manifesting through the body - soma. So in this sense, all illnesses are pyschosomatic: they all have a spirit component.
But - and here's the rub - the person who is ill may be unable to address the existential cause of the malaise. Or it's a long, slow process. And so they struggle with the illness for years. In some cases, it can even become who they are, they see themselves as a victim, and they can become accomplished at getting people to do things for them. And it may send them to an early grave. Because
the Spirit, when it wants change, can be ruthless. Witness the traditional shaman who gets ill, and will die unless he gives his/her life to Spirit. In a way, we are fortunate if we get ill for this kind of existential reason, because it means there is something in us that wants a deeper, philosophical, spiritual, existential engagement with life.
I think it is generally something in ourselves that is already there that needs to be listened to. And then the healing can begin. And it can take courage, because it may upset many of our treasured ideas of who we are. And it may upset other people's ideas of who we are and what they expect of us. But this thing isn't essentially about being nice or amenable, it is about being real. No amount of Soul Retrieval or being healed by others can sort this for us: it is something only we can find ourselves, and a good teacher/healer will point us in that direction - if we can listen.
And it may be that we are wounded, that we have been traumatised at some points in our lives, and that is why we are ill, at least in part. And persuading those soul parts to come back, through coming into relationship with them, is part of the healing. And we can get a bit of help from others with this, though it is ourselves that has to decide to come into relationship with these parts. But it
also seems to be the case that this sort of wounding, these fissures in the psyche, are also the places where Spirit can come in, where the greater Self that wants to be born has a gateway: it uses these woundings. (In astrology, I think Chiron the wounded healer plays this sort of role.) And you can see the opposite of this in the way that some people don't seem to be bothered by their traumatised bits, they just 'happily' go on living in an unbalanced way, that's probably no good for them or for anyone around them, because there is no great call in them from Spirit to find that deeper alignment within themselves.
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I've had an auto-immune illness for about a year (triggered by food poisoning), causing symptoms of inflammation/arthritis, and a very painful frozen left shoulder. The average length of this sort of thing is 12 months, and indeed the tide seems to be turning. But I don't know what it is I've learned yet, if anything, or how it has changed me, if at all. The body turning on itself is a big old pain in the arse, and bloody-minded endurance is about as spiritual as i can get on the subject. I've had several of these illnesses in the past, usually pretty scary. It seems to be how, as i age, I process moving across thresholds. Rum business.
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