An Iyeska (spiritual interpreter), Raining Deer has a unique perspective on healing through rites of passage. Here she recalls life-altering occurrences that prepared her for this time:
“The good ole’ days were back in the early 1990s when I first met and eventually married a Seminole Shaman who was placed in my path for a number of reasons — (1) as a “carrier of the Medicine” (a Native American expression), it was time for certain ceremonies to be performed for me and they had to be performed by a holy person; (2) the Old Ones (Ancestors) wanted me to learn to trust myself by trusting them. They showed me time and time again that I could. The rituals that I participated in with my husband, African Priests and later performed myself, coupled with the faith instilled in me as a childhood AME churchgoer and later a student of al-Islam and other world religions, prepared me for what was to come in 2003 — when breast cancer reared its ugly head.”