At the Intersection of Acupuncture & Spirit Work: an Interview with Tara Bianca Rado d'Oxala

Listen in on this conversation with Durham-based Chinese Medicine practitioner and Orisa Priestess

JEd: Welcome, Tara — so glad to have you on Seeds from the World Tree.

TR: Thanks for having me Jonathan, this is a great project!

JEd: We know each other through the Traditional East Asian Medicine community here in the NC Triangle and also through Orisa practices. You wear both hats, as an acupuncturist and a working Orisa priestess. Would you tell us a little about your path and how it came to involve these traditions?

TR: I grew up in a mostly Italian-American Catholic family but with hippie parents, a dad who did martial arts and told me about qi (and I saw what that strength looked like) and a mom had a guru in the 70’s and who took us to the ashram when I was a young child, including big festivals, meditations, and darshan. I also went to Catholic church with my grandmother and while there were conflicts around these differences, I also loved all of it, ritual and ceremony and connection to spirituality. This kind of alternative background led me to be interested in traditional East Asian medicine to study acupressure and massage in California when I was 20. A couple years later I developed tendonitis from that work, I found that acupuncture and Chinese nutrition was what healed my wrist, very quickly. At that time, I resolved to become an acupuncturist and practice traditional Chinese medicine. 

Both my background growing up around Eastern spirituality and Southern Italian Catholicism led me to Afro-Brazilian Candomblé as I had a strong sense of devotional practices in and with family and at heart, this is what you find in Candomblé. I was living in the Bay area in the mid 90’s and started dancing in afro diasporic dance classes and this led me to Bahia. During my first cowrie shell divination session in Salvador, and at ceremonies, Osala came and claimed me as his child and the rest is history!  

JEd: Let’s talk a little about your clinical work before we circle back to your work with the Orisas. So, what's a typical day in clinic like? Who comes into your office?

TR: I typically work 9-5, 5 days a week seeing one patient an hour. My office is in a Yoga studio in a beautiful old building on Broad Street in Durham around a lot of other providers, close to Whole Foods.

JEd: Do you have a clinical specialty? What kinds of patients seem to be drawn to you? What kind of conversations and work happen there? 

TR: My practice at this point is still somewhat general, mostly internal medicine, but I tend to work more with psycho-emotional pain and fertility, pregnancy and postpartum, especially using the Eight Extraordinary vessels [editor’s note: a particular set of acupuncutre channels used especially for deep psycho-emotional work], but I still do a fair amount of TCM as well, I went to TCM grad schools in California where there are a lot of Chinese instructors and CAM did get really drilled in there! I work a lot with women and the lgbtq community and people from early 20’s through menopause and a few trans patients and men, mostly husbands and partners of the women. I'd say the top issues I see are indicative of the times: anxiety, hormone health plus my special love: pre and perinatal care, then also digestive issues, allergies and some orthopedic work here and there. I tend to see patients also over the long haul, so I have many patients now who worked with me through multiple pregnancies and births, through grad programs and into launching careers and so forth. On the best weeks, I feel like a neighborhood/community doctor. 

Conversations often are around just learning how to be human and do the basic parts of life beautifully and with care. Eating well, creating connections and rhythms that put the patient between heaven and earth, on earth, connected to nature, experiencing themselves actually AS nature. This can range from teaching people how to eat to really get nourished and balance blood sugar (and hence hormones) to learning good sleep hygiene and connecting to their breath to encouraging people to rest more, develop great boundaries at work, find more time for play and creativity, the whole gamut! I tend to be a real talk, tough love kind of doc, I'm originally from the Philly area and that comes out and either works for people or not right away. 

JEd: Do you find there's much overlap between your healing work and priestly work? How compatible are the worldviews from which they spring?

TR: I think if you really understand and have deeply studied the metaphysics of Daoism (the basis of Chinese medicine) and of West African traditions, you find a lot of overlap and resonance. The expression and practices look different, but a lot of the deeper wisdom is actually parallel.  Same for work on the Red Road, I assist my mom in her ritual work in the inspired tradition of Joseph Rael, Beautiful Painted Arrow and pray in those ways as well.  The challenging piece for me is that we live inside a western, materialist, biomedical view, so I end up having to do a LOT of education, wrangling and cajoling into other views and ways of experiencing themselves, getting patients to monitor less and feel and notice more. This is true with whomever I'm working with in whatever context. 

I used to pull occasionally patients out of the acupuncture clinic because I got a hit they needed ritual work as well, but I'm doing that less lately because of all the cultural context that needs building, its a bit too much for me to ask people to see and understand me (and the work at hand) as an Olorisa and an Acupuncturist. Mostly in the clinic I try to work with intuition, dream work, pulling a card in the office or sending them home with an easy-to-do bath, because I do follow what Daoist teacher Jeffrey Yuen says "spirit is at the heart of all healing". I'm currently trying to build up my Daoist divination skills so I can stick to that in the clinic. 

If people already have a cultural base for Orisa work, they get in touch with me out of the clinic for that. Brazilian Candomblé and a West African way of moving through the world can be challenging to build out for Americans, regardless of their background if they haven't had exposure. It took me going back and forth for many years and living in Brazil inside an Orisa house to develop a fully embodied understanding and traditional practices require a tremendous amount of labor, just ritually, so I only have so much capacity on my own, without my wider community near by. 

JEd: For people unfamiliar with Orisa traditions such as isese (from Yorubaland) and Candomblé (from Brazil), how would you describe your work as an Orisa priestess? 

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A note from the (J)editor: Currently about 2.5% of Seeds subscribers hold a paid subscription. I’m grateful, and the goal is to reach 5% within the next 6 months, on the road to making this project sustainble.

The conventional wisdom says to put up a paywall to incentivize support for the project. I may yet resort to paywalling posts on the regular—we’re economic beings after all, along with all the rest. But I’d MUCH prefer to try things another way. So here’s the deal.

I’m going to continue to pour my heart into this thing and deliver the juiciest, most nourishing material I know how. The coming months will see more interviews, more East Asian Medicine basics, meaty chunks of memoir / personal essay, and more. As for your part, if you’ve ever considered upgrading to a paid subscription at $5/month (the lowest level the platform offers), today would be a great time to pull the trigger.

Going against the cultural grain takes work; there’s nothing but headwinds from the powers that be. In terms of dreaming up and living into other realities, we’ve got each other. So, thank you for being here and for every bit of support. With your help, I’m excited to see how this project grows.

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TR: Orisa traditions are living ancestral wisdom traditions that assist people to become balanced full humans through integration with spirit and nature. They are specific to a location and a people and at the same time, are based on such a deep understanding of the world that they work universally; everyone has ancestors, parents, their own inner divinity and helpful, aligned spirits. The tradition works through creating and sustaining connection and family, in community. I'm an olorisa initiated for and to Osalufon, an ancient quality of Obatala, with Yemanja and Osun,  kind of on the right and left sides.  I have 27 years of involvement and 20 years of initiation in the asé of Casabranca, the nation of Ketu in Brazilian Candomble. My lineage elders in Benin and Nigeria were brought during the trans-Atlantic slave trade from Ketu and Oyo and became free shortly after arrival and founded the tradition in Salvador Bahia. My Afro Brazilian lineage elders are Iya Nitinha d' Osun who was the iyakekere of Casabranca in Bahia (in memoriam), Iya Marinete d' Sango and pai Anderson d' Osaguian. I have license and training to work at a certain level as I have one more obligation to do before full eldership (as Egbon or Iyalorisa). I also have 20 years as a medium in Umbanda, as my house and my direct elders in Brazil practice both traditions [ed. note: Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian spiritual tradition with an emphasis on spirit mediumship]. Initially, the work of someone with my initiation is to receive Orisa, as an elegun (someone who gets mounted with Orisa) and assist in all the things an Orisa house needs in the making of spiritual life; cooking, cleaning, sewing, beading, singing and dancing. Since I live far away from my communities, and the asé (spiritual force) that's born needs to move, I also have started to offer some erindilogun (16 cowrie shell) divination, ebo, baths and such. I have good relationships with my elders in California and Rio if I need to send anyone for further work. 

JEd: What's an example of a scenario of someone who would approach you for a merindiloggun (cowrie shell) reading? 

TR: Most people come because something in their lives feels like a problem. 

JEd: What would be an example? 

TR: This varies sooo widely, anywhere from not being able to get pregnant to not feeling themselves well and grounded in the world, not knowing their place, to some health or financial concern or family conflicts. Depression, a lot of confusing dreams, people seek out divination for all these reasons and more. 

JEd: Can anyone receive a cowrie reading? What kinds of commitments might be required? What should they know going in? 

TR: Yes, anyone can receive a cowrie shell divination, knowing that most of the time, ritual follow up work will be prescribed. All they need to know going in is that it's an exchange of energy so they should bring some money to pass along, wear light colors and come with an open heart!  

Tara laughing with her Iyalorisa, Marinete d' Sango, in Rio de Janeiro

JEd: It seems clear that ritual can be a form of medicine. But lately I've been thinking that maybe--just maybe-- it's really the other way around and ritual is the primary thing. That medicine as we know it is but a special case of ritual. If so, medicine follows a classic call and response formula: the call is some kind of divination process, which in medicine we call diagnosis. A CAT scan is a kind of divination process. The response is some kind of ritual, which in medicine we call treatment. Chemo or acupuncture: both rituals. I’m curious how does this framing might square with your experience and view of these things.

TR: I guess I tend to think of all of it as medicine: rituals, song, prayer, dance, herbs, needles, massage, meditation, and movement that restores balance to the micro (us humans) and the macro (all the forces of nature). But I can totally see your metaphor and I like it, food for thought!

JEd: It seems to me that many people are hungry for more meaning and magic in their lives. They're curious about things like acupuncture or divination but they're skeptical, too. Afraid of being taken for a ride. Advice for the curious but skeptical? 

TR: As they should be! Hungry for meaning, I mean, we live in such a weird time, devoid of a lot of real connections or views that resonate and make sense, that touch the deep true parts of us. We've replaced tradition and religion and community life with liberalism, hyper-individualism  and consumerism, we have binary reactionary politics all around, a lot of faux radicalism, unconcerned with the material needs of the most dispossessed. We have an economic system and the culture that arises from it, disconnected from the Earth, that relies on objectification, exploitation, a lack of solidarity and at every turn. We have the shit show that is social media, self branding, car and shopping based cities and towns, stagnant wages and boring jobs, we're just splatted by capitalism and the ideologies that separate us and prop that system up.  Ack! It’s a lot to navigate and sort through to feel and know what's real! 

Regarding magic, I guess I should give the caveat,  I don't really believe in magic, or like witches in the current popular social media sense with people who are trying to be special and manipulate things or harness some kind of (usually ego based) personal power. I believe in metaphysics ~in initiatory traditional systems, indigenous earth based systems that teach us how to live to be integrated, resonant and restore balance. I believe in the Dao, heaven and earth, yin and yang, in the wholeness and reciprocal nature of Olodumare, of Orun and Aiye, the Bantu Cosmogram, mother earth, father sky, the four directions and the Red Road.

So, skepticism makes sense too, we mostly don't really learn in a western context during childhood how to assess the quality of traditional medicine people or ritualists, the view is materialist so its only what comes from Western science and a particular kind of research, that's deemed legit, but often, that's not really healing. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad bio science based medicine exists, but we need more. 

 My biggest piece of advice when choosing to work with someone, is to study the life of the person. Are they healthy and bright eyed, can you see their heart and spirit shine through? Do they have a life that you respect and would emulate or could learn from, do they have good relations with their family, community, their elders and teachers? Are their children well? Did they spend time learning their tradition, to gain forms of fluency, ie did they pay their dues? 

In the case of Chinese medicine and acupuncture there is easy standardization and it tracks with Western medicine much more, we can check research and degrees, what they may have specialized in and what their patients say about them on Google (haha). With ritual-based traditions it's much trickier but again, proof is in the pudding, do people that work with the person do well, heal? I've been with Candomble since 1998, my particular house since 2001 and initiated since 2005, longevity and consistency mean that you will see evidence of commitment, an ability to work out problems in community and continue to grow and develop a view. 

In the words of Daoist teacher Liu Ming "if you want the fruition, you have to directly experience the view, learning practices forever and not adopting the view, you just become a practice collector." 

This is not to say you can't or shouldn't study many views, Liu Ming certainly did, but there has to be time spent living at least one of them, beyond a western one, doing the practices enough to transform in your body and whole life. 

JEd: Ase! Amen. This has been such a pleasure, Tara. Where can folks learn more about your work?

TR: You can find my Chinese medicine work at the non profit I founded, Durham Integrative Health and Acupuncture Center, www.durhamacupuncture.org. For Orisa work, I offer that during the months where the herbs are growing on my land, and you can email me about that, tarabiancarado@gmail.com. 

JEd: Would it be okay to ask for a blessing for anyone reading this?

TR: Ha, of course! May my father Osalufon bless and cover you all, keep your heads cool and give you reason to laugh. Epa Baba!

Here is a praise poem translated from the Yoruba:

He is patient.
He is silent.
Without anger he pronounces his judgement.
He is distant,
but his eye rests on the town.
He kills the initiate
and rouses him to new life.
He is playful like death
he carries the child away.
He rides the hunchback,
he spreads out his arms
the right and the left.
He stands by his children,
he lets them succeed.
He makes them laugh -
and they laugh.
You, father of laughter,
your eye is laughing.
Immense granary of the sky.
Old man with the strength of youth,
you rest in the sky like a swarm of bees.
The rich owe their riches to you.
The poor owe their poverty to you.
You take from the rich and give to the poor.
Take then from the rich and give to me.
Obatala:
you turn blood into children
come and create the child in my own belly.
I own but a single cloth to dye with indigo.
I own but a single head-tie to dye with camwood.
But I know: you have twenty or thirty children waiting for me,
whom I shall bear!

-from Yoruba Poetry (Cambridge University Press, 1970)
compiled and edited by Ulli Beier

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