Inner Peace: Out-Rage
c. 2011
Susun S Weed
mentor, Wise Woman University
I was conceived in the midst of a worldwide desire for peace. Literally, I was conceived by my parents during a time when everyone wanted peace, 
when all minds and all hearts were focused on peace, when we were all doing our best to conceive of peace.
In the forties, my dad enlisted in the army. He planned to be done with his service before the war expanded. He was a month away from his goal when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He spent nearly every day of World War II in Europe and Africa. As the years of war lengthened, how he longed for peace. As the days of their separation mounted, how my mother yearned for peace. Who living did not, at last, weary of war and want peace so much that the ultimate weapon was devised out of that desire?
It took horror bring about peace. The A-bombs were dropped. My father was discharged. Peace was in the air. He hurried home. I was conceived. A child of peace. The thought of peace made into a being. The heart of peace made real. The spirit of peace embodied.
I had an idyllic fifties childhood: head of the neighborhood "gang," riding my bike to school, catching fireflies in the summer, running away to the five-acre woods at the end of my block when I was upset or sad, and listening to the lions roar and the elephants trumpet in the nearby zoo.
And I had a sixties coming of age: I wore black clothes and lots of eyeliner as a beatnik, then found myself turned on, tuned in, and happier in tie dye, barefoot, bra-less, and certainly, certainly, not wearing make up!! But I didn’t drop out. I took to the streets. I demonstrated for equal rights for "colored" people. I demonstrated for equal rights for women. I demonstrated for equal rights for lesbians and gays. I demonstrated for equal rights to demonstrate. And I demonstrated against the war in Viet Nam. I demonstrated for peace. I tripped for peace. I worked for peace. I fought for peace. Huh?
Yes, I fought for peace until it occurred to me that fighting isn’t very peaceful. A comment by a "redneck" friend (a volunteer firefighter and unpaid paramedic) touched me deeply. He was saddened by the jeering comments of "peaceniks" who harassed the local Memorial Day Parade that he proudly marches in each year. These peaceful citizens light candles for peace, peacefully, on the village green every Sunday. "We don’t go and blow out their candles," he said. "We don’t heckle them."
I began to see that my desire for peace sprang from fear of my own anger. The peace I had envisioned was eviscerated and spineless, a giving up and giving in and giving over. My culture doesn’t encourage respect, so I didn’t really respect myself or anything or anyone else. The peace I dreamed of had no rough edges, no way to resolve wrongs, no discord, no discontent, and, I slowly realized, no real human beings.
I would have been furious if anyone had told me that I had chosen peace so I wouldn’t have to deal with rage, but it was true. I hid it very well from myself. I didn’t respect my fury so I projected it on others and felt justified in "destroying" them – death to the pigs! -- in the name of peace. It was okay to scream for peace. It was okay to be outraged, but not at anyone in my life -- only at "the man," "the establishment," "the system." Instead of getting mad at my husband, I demonstrated. Instead of using my anger to change my life, I ordered others to change theirs.
The path to personal truth, and thus to personal power, is a an amazing maze. One feels lost, as often as not. The goal recedes and approaches erratically. One can only follow the way. Trust the way. Be in the Tao. Be real. My journey to inner peace forced me to embrace anger.
My mentor, Elisabeth Kubler Ross, whose work on death and dying pioneered the field, was severe about emotions. We were never allowed blame, shame, or guilt. We were limited to the five primary emotions: love, fear (but only of loud noises and great heights), joy, grief, and anger.
Anger was the one she specialized in. 
I spent hours and hours watching and helping people contact their anger. . . mostly their anger about death . . . their own death . . . the death of a child . . . the death of a beloved. I saw so much denial of anger that I came to understand my own. So much opening of the heart when the anger was accessed, that I willingly put myself in the path of other’s anger, even to this day.
I saw, I see, so much peace flowing into women when they allow themselves to acknowledge their anger, then to express their anger, finally to appreciate their anger, and even to trust their anger.
Postmenopausal women! Let your rage out. One of the tasks of the older woman is to become outrageous. She is the Crone-Who-Puts-an-End-to-Things. She is the eldest of the Fates. She cuts the cord: birth/death. It is her rage which shows her what needs to give way for the new, what is finished, done, over.
My Tai Chi teacher, also a black belt in Aikido, says the most peaceful people he has ever met can throw you across the room with their little finger. That’s outrageous. That’s the anger – accessed well and utilized exquisitely – that leads to inner peace.
Study with Susun Weed via Correspondence Course
Green Witch focuses on personal and spiritual development. You'll create rituals, prepare an herbal first-aid kit, encounter your Goddess archetype, discover the magic of menstrual & menopausal changes, and develop wise woman ways of living and healing. Learn more ...
Green Allies explores herbal medicine through direct experiences with plants, plant spirits (fairies, devas), and plant medicines. For those who want to deepen, rather than broaden, their knowledge of plants: a year's worth of investigation and experimentation with one plant ally. Learn more ...
Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition focuses on understanding, internalizing, and using the Three Traditions of Healing (Wise Woman, Heroic, and Scientific) and the Six Steps of Healing. Health-care practitioners find this course exceptionally helpful, but anyone who cares for the health of others (even family members) will benefit. Learn more ...
ABC of Herbalism!! This is a special course for the aspiring herbalist who'd like to have me "by your side" teaching you how to harvest, prepare, and use 52 healing herbs. Your studies will be both experiential and intellectual and you will make and use herbal remedies as well as reading about them in a variety of sources.
Learn more ...
Susun Weed’s books: |
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Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year
Author: Susun S. Weed.
Simple, safe remedies for pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, and newborns. Includes herbs for fertility and birth control. Foreword by Jeannine Parvati Baker. 196 pages, index, illustrations.
Retails for $17.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Healing Wise
Author: Susun S. Weed.
Superb herbal in the feminine-intuitive mode. Complete instructions for using common plants for food, beauty, medicine, and longevity. Introduction by Jean Houston. 312 pages, index, illustrations.
Retails for $21.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com |
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NEW Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
Author: Susun S. Weed.
The best book on menopause is now better. Completely revised with 100 new pages. All the remedies women know and trust plus hundreds of new ones. New sections on thyroid health, fibromyalgia, hairy problems, male menopause, and herbs for women taking hormones. Recommended by Susan Love MD and Christiane Northrup MD. Introduction by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. 304 pages, index, illustrations.
Retails for $27.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
For excerpts visit: www.menopause-metamorphosis.com
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Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
Author: Susun S. Weed.
Foods, exercises, and attitudes to keep your breasts healthy. Supportive complimentary medicines to ease side-effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or tamoxifen. Foreword by Christiane Northrup, M.D. 380 pages, index, illustrations.
Retails for $21.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Down There: Sexual and Reproductive Health the Wise Woman Way
Publication date: June 21, 2011
Author: Susun S. Weed
Simple, successful, strategies cover the entire range of options -- from mainstream to radical -- to help you choose the best, and the safest, ways to optimize sexual and reproductive health.
Foreword: Aviva Romm, MD, midwife, 484 pages, Index, illustrations.
Retails for $29.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Abundantly Well - Seven Medicines
The Complementary Integrated Medical
Revolution
Publication date: December 2019
Author: Susun S. Weed
Seven Medicines build foundational health and guide you to the best health care when problems arise.
Includes case studies, recipes, exentsive references and resources. Introduction by Patch Adams illustrated by Durga Yael Bernhard 352 pages, index, illustrations
Retails for $24.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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