What I have explored in the process of making this book is the relationship between the feminine and healing. The movement into this domain was heralded by a visitation from Hygieia, the Greek goddess of healing. What is left unsaid in these musings is the rather incestuous nature of Hygieia's work with her father, Aesclepius. The story is an elusive one, an Eleusian one, as far as my readings into myth are concerned. For it appears to be that Hygieia either worked as a healing goddess in conjunction with her father, or with her father and mother. Some writers seem to believe that Hygieia was actually an incarnation of Athena and linked with ancient moon-cults. Others write that she actually assumed her own mother's, Epione's, position in her father's eyes. Nevertheless, the art of the Greeks and Romans often shows Hygieia with her father and mother engaged in healing as a Trimurti, a trinity of healers. Imaginally, I would venture to suggest that from Hygieia's perspective, this trinity of psychic physicians points to the necessity of rooting out the 'cause' or geneology of illness. My hunch is that a lot of sickness in the female being is connected with life-force/sexual energy of one's parents. This may hold true for men as well. The relationship of female sexuality and healing is to be the topic of my enquiry in future work. The question presented by James Hillman to me is provocative -- and that is, 'Just how dirty is Hygieia?'Basically, what I have come to understand about soul education is the necessity to make available information and to inspire to wisdom all sentient beings. And awaken in each of us our connection with the invisible or subtle body (the imaginal) that is so reflective of personal health. I am struck over and over again in my counselings and sharings with women the essences of their dramas with gynecologists. Through the veils of anger and blame a very important message shows itself. And that is just perhaps, when our sufferings become intolerable (eg. a virulent vaginal infection), we visit the doctor to bring about a healing in not only our bodies but our souls as well. And not only via ritualistic confessions but through active humiliation and shame. This is how I perceive this idea in operation-she has pain in her cunt, she can't help herself, she seeks the expert, he names it, she suffers from his lack of caring, she sees the mask of dis-ease reflected back upon her soul-and then it's not just her cunt that is in pain, but the realization comes that it is her soul that is hurting too. So my theory is that women patronize insensitive male gynecologists to bring about this union between the imaginal and the physical bodies, and it is a wedding of the most curious sort.Visiting a gynecologist is by nature a sexual experience with all the inherent possibilities our genitals symbolize. And the passion is best expressed by traditional gynecological practices such as cutting and burning of the female sexual organs. 'Passion shows us the seamy side of things. It shows us the imprint of cutting and healing.' B. Jager(from 'The Phenomenolgy of Passion').With Hygieia as an image alive with whom we relate during the healing process, there is the possibility of becoming one's own mother. The original imprint of cutting and healing is the severance from the mother via umbilical cord. The connection with power, the third chakra, the lower boiler, and our ability to move about in the world as an individual is implicated here. As is our sense of grounding through shame, helplessness and other Mother-related dependencies. The implications of this excite me no end. The place for the health advocate is within this concert. From one perspective, it is the mystery of the Eleusians-that the secret of immortality is expressed in the image of ?man giving birth to herself, the merging of the daughter and the mother. E. Esther Harding's statement of what is a virgin is relevent here also. She described her as 'woman complete unto herself.' There is a quality of virginal purity in women healing themselves, in my experience. And a quality of greatest compassion. With tenderly caring for one's own growing or evolving psychic-physical world, as every mother of young children knows, there comes the development of greater and deeper qualities of human-ness. We who are learning how to heal ourselves are also learning how to value all of life's experiences and our infinite capability to be responsive to (responsible for) whatever dilemma our souls may lead us.So I see this creative project, the book Hygieia: A WOMAN'S HERBAL, as an attempt to translate from the soul's point of view the phenomenon of holistic health as it relates to women, and many aspects of the feminine. The book is written for the mythical 'everywoman'-- in my fantasy she is a sometimes fertile, creative being and rarely a victim. That is why the idea of what could be seen solely as horrendous medical practices upon defenseless women patients needs re-visioning. For as great a motivator as anger and blame may be, it does mask the value of seeing our humiliations at the hands of gynecologists (or obstetricians) as important expressions and experiences of our soul. I know that I personally could not heal myself or evoke this ability in any of my sisters when my energy was psychically reacting against the patriarchy. For the underlying metaphor of healing is union. I took the Delphic oracle's words to Apollo seriously-The Wounder Heals-and by understanding my part in the medical drama, I was able to let go my grievances with the patriarchal style of healing. Up til then, all the knowledge I'd gathered about the workings of the body and health remained tied-up as information. When I could temper this study with the knowings of my soul, and allow the mind-stuff to be touched by my heart, the 'wicca' or wise woman healer was evoked. And my wise woman would accept imaginally the father as healer and understand that he, too, is doing the best that he can. As are we all.