Healing Metaphors A-Z - Leukemia

Leukemia
Leukemia is an uncontrollable growth of white blood cells and a failure in our bone marrow, which causes red blood cell production to decline. Leukemia reflects a strong need for self-defense. Something very painful has come up for healing and we feel that we have to guard against it instead of dealing with the pain. Our reaction against the fear can be so great that guarding against it becomes more important than life itself. Losing red blood cells reflects where we are losing the strength to cope. We’re not nurturing ourselves or allowing ourselves to be nurtured because we feel unworthy. Our frailty and sensitivity hides defensiveness. Buried beneath our sacrifice is self-attack, which we also use to attack others. This sacrifice is a compensation for grievances that we have about not being nurtured, loved or treated with specialness. This hides an even deeper level of guilt that comes from our belief that we didn’t give to our family what they needed to save them from their pain. All of this is meant to hide major gifts and our purpose because we feel inadequate to live our purpose or handle such major gifts.

Chuck Spezzano and Janie Ticehurst, Healing the Body Through Mind and Metaphor