Sastun

A sastun is a tool of the Maya healer, a kind of supernatural "hot line" to the spirits that tells a healer if an illness is rooted in natural or spiritual forces. Sastun is the captivating story of American herbologist Rosita Arvigo's apprenticeship to Don Elijio Panti, one of the last surviving, and most respected, traditional healers of Belize. Set in the imperiled Belizean rainforest that serves as the pharmacy of ancient Mayan medicine, Arvigo's story is an unforgettable personal account as well as a vivid reminder of the need to preserve both the rainforest's irreplaceable plant life and its ancient healing traditions. When Arvigo met Panti, the legendary healer was eighty-seven years old. Slight and sinewy, with failing eyesight and rheumatism, he still ventured into the forest to gather plants and ministered to patients from near and far each day. Arvigo was determined to become Panti's apprentice so that she could learn more about the native plants of Belize. What she discovered instead was her life's work - the quest to sustain and study rainforest plants and bridge the gap between Panti's traditional wisdom and modern healing practices. Making regular, laborious treks to Panti's ramshackle home clinic, Arvigo slowly gains the confidence and respect of the cantankerous, compassionate, and deeply spiritual healer and of the community he serves. We follow the unlikely pair into the jungle to collect plants, listen as Panti teaches Arvigo about the physical and spiritual tools of the healer, and meet unforgettable characters - including the mysterious Carib named Jeronimo who taught Panti the art of healing, a little girl suffering from an intestinal disorder unfathomable to the many doctors her frantic parents have consulted, a woman "possessed" and near death because of exposure to the black arts that are the flipside of Panti's white art of healing, and the visiting film crew of a Hollywood movie with an integral part to play in Arvigo's initiation as a healer. Ultimately, Arvigo's efforts to preserve and explore Panti's healing wisdom attracted the attention of the prestigious New York Botanical Garden and the National Cancer Institute. Today, in their remarkable joint effort, rainforest plants are researched as potential treatments for HIV and cancer.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.