The Modern
Balm Woman

Here, history meets personal reflection. We explore Jamaican spiritual traditions, botanical knowledge, remarkable women, ancestral memory, faith, cultural identity and the experience of finding one's roots in the diaspora.

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Just find a likkle leaf and bring some belief.

From the Journal

Some stories are drawn from historical research. Others emerge through oral testimony, family memories, lived experience and contemplation.

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Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.

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Tune into conversations that nourish the spirit.
We believe in the power of stories to illuminate the
soul and connect us to the divine in our daily lives

All Episodes

I wasn't dreaming...inHERit and inhabit

Ep. 01 (28 min)

After God spared my life three times, I must now live my truth and stop living in fear. I am a living legacy. Sound The Abeng

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“The Woman at the Bush Stall.”

Ep. 02 (32 min)

I was in Mandeville Market buying bush medicine when a woman I had never met began scolding me. Why wasn't I covering my head? Why was I not dressing more modestly, in a long skirt?
I asked her why.
She answered as though the matter were perfectly obvious: “Because you are a Prophetess, Seer and Healer like me. You must cover yourself.”
I was stunned. But I was also happy. She could see me.

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The Blessed Mother, Grandmothers , Mummas & Maddas!

Ep. 03 (45 min)

A Modern Balm Woman is a Jamaican-rooted keeper and contemporary interpreter of the balmyard tradition: a woman who tends to the whole person through plants, prayer, listening, ritual, beauty, practical care and spiritual discernment.

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The Modern Balm Woman