"I wanted a doll that would remind him of who he really is, and oh my goodnes, I could not have orchestrated it more perfectly myself! When Lachlan saw his doll he was beside himself with excitement. He then started connecting with the doll and looked at me and said... "Hey Mum, this doll is ME. It is a wizard, just like me. It has a dinosaur tooth, and I love dinosaurs. It has nature, and I like nature. It has green, and green is my favourite colour, and it was made in Sherbrooke forest, and we love Sherbrooke forest!"Wizard medicine doll made for Lachlan's 9th birthday
Over the weekend I received this beautiful message and it couldn't have come at a better time. To know that a doll has made a child feel this way is all the confirmation and praise I need. Thank you so much Lachlan and Nat - these words make my heart explode with happiness!
At the moment I am writing about the magic of the medicine doll to help me to prepare for Spirit Weavers Gathering in 2 weeks. It's a hard one to put into words. People often ask me how to 'use' a medicine doll and I have come to understand that a doll is always personal, there are no rules. They are holders and vessels for love, for healing and for your intentions. They can be powerful links to ancestors, especially when adorned with sacred family treasures. A medicine doll can help you to access the child within, help you face your deepest fears and when placed beside your bed they can have a strong presence in your dreaming.
And the medicine doll can become a mirror or a bridge to a powerful part of yourself that you might not always be able to express or feel - but you're getting there! Essentially I feel like a medicine doll is a friend and the more time you spend with this friend the more you love them. Perhaps you begin to tell the doll the secrets that you hold in your heart and cannot share with others. Here is a doll that helped me overcome my own fear. The doll lives with you daily - through good times and bad - the doll is always accepting. And then a funny thing happens - you realise that this friend is also a part of you, perhaps the most deepest and honest part of yourself. And this little vessel has become a being that knows you so well and accepts you completely. Then, that love that you have for this little doll begins to flow back to yourself. You see that you are also a beautiful, magical and creative being. You heal yourself.
Thank you Nadia Turner for this drawing of Fox and I dreaming in a doll together - I think it captures perfectly the essence of enchantment around a medicine doll.
I feel like I am at the very beginning of a long apprenticeship in the craft of dollmaker. I'm grateful to the lineage of ancestral doll makers of the past and for the opportunities to pass this craft on to future dollmakers. And while I am still trying to find the words to describe the ancient connection that humans have always felt for the doll, I have been looking at vintage photographs of children and their beloved dolls on Pinterest. It might just be me, but I am starting to see that all dolls are medicine.
