Grandmother's Healing Rituals from the Levant
The Healers of Hands and Hearts
I don't remember my mother or grandmother ever offering me anything other than medicine when I was sick, but after I gave birth to my two children, I started seeing another side of my mother. She would whisper prayers and wave her hands in a circular motion over their heads or bellies when they weren't feeling well. She would tell me this is what her grandmother used to do when she was sick. I hadn't heard these stories about my great‑grandmother before.
I was a bit surprised but didn't fully register the significance until a year ago, when she spoke about her grandmother, Asma, again in a more yearning way, missing her love and her healing. In early 2026, when I began talking to my mother more openly about the healing work I was doing and the transformations people were experiencing, a few more stories emerged.
When my mother was home from school for a few months with Hepatitis as a child, she spent more time with her grandmother. Her grandmother would light a fire in a small stove, burn mint and other herbs, and instruct my young mother to step over the stove back and forth. When we met up with my mother's cousin, he said, "Oh yes, I remember that too, she said it would scare away the devil!"
A week later, my mother shared more about her grandmother's healing, something she would do often with pita bread. Her grandmother would hold a single pita bread loaf and whisper prayers and intentions while waving her hand over the circular bread. The pita would then be donated to a less privileged person, like the gardener or the trashman. This reminded me of a Reiki energy practice, where the practitioner imagines a body of energy in front of them that represents either a single person or a group of people.
The Sensory
The Kitchen
Healing in the Levant is often tied to herbs including naa'na (mint), melissa (lemon balm), shumar (fennel) or maramia (sage), and warm scents of orange blossom water, or warm olive oil. Scents are the fastest way to connect to deep-seated memories.
The Ritual of Touch
The Hands
The physical techniques of healing with physical touch and specific energetic targeting. Some grandmothers "draw out" the pain, which mirrors our drawing process of transforming memories.
The Language of the Heart
The Spirit
This gets to the heart and the spiritual basis of our grandmothers' practice. It captures the deep knowing of the power of the healing methods by the grandmother and the people she sat with and healed. There is also the oral tradition passed through the words, whispers, or prayers our grandmothers used to talk to the sickness.
The Connection to the Land
The Source
The land has always been a source of healing in our lineage, and grandmothers stand at the center of that relationship, carrying the knowledge that connects the body to the earth's medicine.
The Stories
Capturing the stories from many hearts and hands is an important and meaningful endeavor. Please join me in sharing and learning how our ancestors expressed their love and healed their communities and families.
We are focused on gathering stories of grandmothers from the Levant in four groupings: The Kitchen, the Hands, the Spirit, and The Land. My roots and lineage are documented from the lands of what is now Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine since at least the year 1500.
If you have stories from other regions, please share those as well, we don't want to miss out on anything.
Share Your Grandmother's Story
We invite you to reflect on these four questions as a gentle way to access and preserve your grandmother's healing wisdom. We will save your stories and share on our website and Social Media. We may contact you for additional permissions.