Grandmother Julieta Casimiro
Mazatec
Oaxaca, Mexico

When Grandmother Julieta Casimiro addressed the Grandmothers' Council for the first time, she blessed herself, then offered a cup of water to the four directions. Grandmother Julieta said:

"All of us here want the same thing. We want to walk in peace, and we want no more war. We don't need war. All the suffering and pain that is going on in the world, especially of little children and elders, really hurts me inside. Our Mother Earth is hurting. They are destroying our Mother Earth. They are destroying our Mother. They need to have respect for Her. We need to walk with respect, especially during these times we are living in now.  I pray hard all this time for this to change."

     Grandmother Julieta Casimiro is a Mazatec elder, curandera, and healer from Oaxaca, Mexico. For more than 40 years, people around the world have come to Julieta for ceremony, healing, and life guidance.  She works with people who have AIDS, cancer, emotional diseases, and psychological imbalance.  "For the work to go well, I am always invoking God," she says.  "This way the people feel well and are also able to express what they are experiencing."

     Doña Julieta Casimiro was born in the city of Huautla de Jiménez in 1936.  At an early age Julieta began primary school where she learned how to read and write. Later on she left school to help her mother with kitchen duties and to help care for her eight brothers and sisters.   At the age of 15, Julieta met the man who would be her husband and two years later, she married Lucio Isaías Pineda Carrera. They eventually had 10 children.

     Grandmother Julieta began exploring her healing gifts when she was 17 years old. Her mother-in-law was a traditional Mazatec healer and taught Julieta about Tenocanacatl, the sacred mushrooms. "Because we don't have money for doctors, we heal ourselves with the mushrooms," Grandmother Julieta explains. "It is believed that God gave the mushrooms to the peasants and to those who could not read in order for them to be able to have a direct experience of Him."  The plant medicines helped Julieta gain wisdom and deepen her relationship with God.

     The sacred feminine presence is in the center of Mexico's religious life today. It's an anchor to all healing practices involving the use of sacred plants. Joining Juliet in her healings are the presences of  the Lady of the Moon, the Lady of the Sun, the Lady of the Stars, and the The Virgin of Guadalupe.  Julieta says her powerful relationship with the Virgin fuels her.

     "The Virgin of Guadalupe is the protector of all beings in Mexico, " Grandmother Julieta teaches. "The is the human physical embodiment of the ancient earth goddess, Coatlique, who was revered by the pre-Hispanic civilizations for thousands of years. Guadalupe's apparition in 1531 took place at Tepeyac, a hill outside Mexico City, which was Coatlique's place of worship."

     Grandmother Julieta begins her healing sessions with prayers and the lighting of 13 candles that symbolize the ancient Aztec 13 realms of consciousness. Her patients are then guided through their healing sessions which can take up to seven hours. Julieta ends their ceremony with a prayer and thanks Divine for bringing light into the people's lives during their journey. "The people are happy with the wisdom they gather," Grandmother says. "They gather this wisdom and elevate themselves to the Lord to reach the light of understanding."

Text adapted from
"Grandmothers Council the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision For Our Planet" by Carol Schaefer, Trumpeter Books, 2006;
 "Doña Julia Julieta Casimiro": http://www.bombsite.com/issues/98/articles/2880

Interviews, grandmother julieta
 

Council of the 13 Grandmothers  with Maria Teresa Valenzuela
Listen to an interview with Maria Teresa Valenzuela, the personal assistant and interpreter for Grandmother Julieta Casimiro
www.allonenow.org

Native Village Resources

Websites of interest

Amazon Rainforest Relaxation Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43yvlrNl3Xc&mode=related&search=

The  Day of the Dead
http://www.questconnect.org/

Curandera artwork: http://www.oniros.fr/MariaSabina.html
Background art: www.oaxacaoaxaca.com/images/embroidery3.gif
Coatlique artwork: http://www.freewebs.com/
Background by Tickie: http://www.tickie.net/Backgrounds/index.html

The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers  Native Village Home Page