It is no secret that the West, particularly the United States, has had a historically poor relationship with women. So much so that it prompted several emancipatory acts, including women’s suffrage, and feminism. But, how does a society arrive at this point? Where did it all begin? And, why does the United States seem desperate to maintain this status-quo? Well, no one can say for certain where something like this began, but history always leaves breadcrumbs. The oppression of women within the United States largely ties to religion, and the egregious interpretations that come from western minds trying to conceive eastern spiritual practices and concepts. However, many may be shocked to learn that the oppression of women ties to healthcare as well. Be that as it may, a revisitation of the Salem witch trials is necessary, as it is ripe with these two elements.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I do not believe that the Salem witch trials were some sort of grand conspiracy facilitated by a group of powerful people. No. Like most things in this world, there is no boogeyman lurking in the shadows, but rather a conglomerate of people who wholeheartedly believe in what they’re doing, even if it looks utterly evil and sadistic. Nevertheless, the Salem crisis is more than a cautionary tale, it was a ritual that helped to usher in big pharma.

You see, an invention can be so massive that it triggers a chain of events prior to its arrival. This is fate’s way of laying a proper foundation for the invention to rest upon. Does this suggest that women were fated for oppression? Not necessarily. It was fated for big pharma to become the United States’ primary healthcare system. Yet, women had stood in the way of that outcome because healthcare originally flowed through matriarchs. Think about it. They mothers deliver children, and the responsibilities of rearing them typically fell on them. Then, as these women grew older, many of them became mid-wives to help younger mothers do the same. This caused women to not only be the caretakers of children, but entire families, communities, and generations.

Today,big pharma is so thoroughly entrenched as the primary healthcare system that it has become a defacto mid-wife, as most Americans are now born in hospital beds surrounded by strange men in white coats and surgical equipment. This sets the average westerner on an unnatural path—not only away from the age old nurturing and loving traditions of their foremothers, but nature itself—as women are the personification thereof. Whose to say that these things are not contributing to the influx of chronic diseases and disorders that seem specific to the western world? Nevertheless, herbal remedies and natural cures are the answer to such, non-emergency, ailments. But these methods are peculiar in this world because it is at odds with nature.