Temple de la Luna | Priestess Shoshana
In modern medicine, few environments demand more than the Intensive Care Unit. Behind the fluorescent lights, sterile tools, and blinking monitors lies a domain few truly understand. It is a place where nurses don’t just tend to bodies—they witness the soul’s final questions. They hold the line between life and death. They witness miracles, and they witness the agony of loss. They do it with courage. But too often, they do it alone.
This article is a sacred exploration of what it means to nurse within the soul-field of the ICU, where the spiritual toll of trauma, death, and unprocessed emotion hangs thick. We will explore how unseen forces—what we call in Vodou Spiritism “trauma spirits” or spirits of the departed—attach themselves to the living. We’ll share the healing methods we use at Temple de la Luna to clear these energies, help nurses protect themselves spiritually, and reawaken the divine call that first brought them to service.
The ICU is Not Just a Ward. It is a Portal.
Whether you call it by its clinical title or understand it as sacred ground, the ICU is a transitional space. It is a place of initiation—for patients and caregivers alike. Day after day, nurses walk into rooms where life is exiting or struggling to stay. The hospital is a temple of science, but the ICU is a threshold between the seen and unseen worlds.
And yet, this aspect of the job is rarely acknowledged.
No one warns nurses that they will absorb energy from the dying. That patients who die in pain can leave behind an emotional residue that clings to their caregivers. That some spirits don’t want to leave, and may reach out to the nearest living body—especially the nurse who stayed at their side the longest.
We have seen it. We have cleared it. We have helped nurses reclaim their own spirit from the heaviness of others.
What Science Is Now Proving: The Cost of Caring
Recent studies show that ICU nurses experience levels of chronic stress, trauma fatigue, and moral injury far beyond those of other departments. A 2022 study published in Critical Care Medicine revealed:
- Over 68% of ICU nurses reported moderate to high levels of burnout.
- 53% showed signs of secondary traumatic stress (the psychological residue from helping those in trauma).
- And nearly 1 in 4 had considered leaving the field because of emotional and energetic overload.
These are not just psychological statistics. They are spiritual. Many of these symptoms mirror what traditional spiritual systems would describe as spiritual dissonance, soul fatigue, or entity attachment. These are the ancient words for what we now diagnose as burnout, depression, or compassion fatigue.
But long before studies, we already knew the truth: Healing work is soul work. And soul work has consequences if you don’t cleanse.
What Are Trauma Spirits?
In Vodou Spiritism, we recognize the existence of non-integrated energies that linger in places of suffering or confusion. A trauma spirit is not necessarily evil. It is unresolved energy from a soul that has passed but not yet fully transitioned.
There are two common ways trauma spirits interact with nurses and healers:
- Attachment through empathy: The nurse who sits by the dying patient may unconsciously open themselves to the emotional release of that patient. If no ritual of closure is performed, the energy can remain in the aura.
- Imprinting through repetition: Repeated exposure to death, resuscitation, and human suffering creates what I call a “spiritual groove”—a rut where spirits can slip in and replay the trauma through the caregiver’s dreams, moods, or even physical symptoms.
We’ve seen this result in sudden emotional outbursts, unexplained fatigue, visions, migraines, or even strange behaviors—symptoms not of illness, but of spiritual imbalance.
Nursing and Spirituality: The Unseen Practices Nurses Already Do
What surprised me most when working with ICU nurses is how many of them already have rituals of release, even if they don’t name them as such.
- One nurse told me she sits in silence in her car for 20 minutes before driving home. “I’m just decompressing,” she said. But what she was really doing was energetically purging.
- Another lights a candle and whispers the names of the patients she lost that day. This is ancestor work in its rawest form.
- Some nurses wash their hands longer than necessary, letting the water run up to their elbows. This is not just hygiene—it is ritual cleansing.
- Others shower the moment they get home, often visualizing the stress going down the drain. This is a form of auric clearing.
Nurses are intuitively powerful. But intuition without training is like having a flame without direction.
My Story: From Surviving to Thriving
A few years ago, a young ICU nurse named Elena came to Temple de la Luna. She had served seven years in trauma and post-op critical care. She loved her patients, but she was burnt out, emotionally numb, and couldn’t sleep without waking in tears. Her supervisors thought she needed rest. Her doctor suggested antidepressants. But she said, “It feels deeper. I feel like I’m haunted.”
She was right.
During her first visit, I performed a spiritual scan using techniques from my medical intuitive training. We uncovered multiple trauma attachments—fragments of past patients, as well as unresolved grief from her own childhood loss. Her energy field was thin and full of holes, which explained her chronic fatigue and emotional dissociation.
We began a six-month journey together using:
- Herbal cleansing from Caribbean and Taíno traditions
- Guided trauma-release meditations
- Ritual offerings for the souls of her patients
- Spiritual hygiene routines including breathwork, salt baths, and energy boundary training
- And most importantly, the reconnection of her spirit to her purpose
By the end, Elena returned not just stronger—but spiritually grounded. She now mentors other nurses and teaches workshops on “spiritual self-care in clinical environments.” Her transformation is proof that burnout is not the end. It’s the alarm clock of the soul.
The Role of the Medical Intuitive
My work is deeply informed by a two-year apprenticeship with a Medical Intuitive who held a masters in Nursing and was the head director at the children’s psych-ward. Her training was not casual—it was rigorous. I learned how to:
- Read the subtle body systems with accuracy
- Identify energetic lesions caused by grief, guilt, or trauma
- Map spiritual injury to physical dysfunction
- Work with guides, ancestors, and divine forces to intervene gently but effectively
- Create long-term energetic protection for those in caregiving professions
Under her watchful mentorship, I combined these teachings with my spiritual path as a Vodou High Priestess, giving me a unique lens that honors both intuitive diagnostics and ancestral healing.
This is the work I now offer to those on the frontlines of medicine—nurses, CNAs, trauma doctors, palliative care providers, and more.
Nursing Burnout: How to Protect Your Spirit: Tools for ICU Nurses
If you are a nurse, especially in critical care, here are spiritual protocols you can begin now.
1. The Daily Clearing Ritual
Upon returning home:
- Stand in the shower.
- Close your eyes.
- Visualize a waterfall of white or golden light pouring over you.
- Say aloud: “I release all that is not mine. I keep only what serves my highest calling.”
- Use sea salt scrub if possible. Rinse thoroughly.
2. The Candle of Release
Each week, light a small white candle for the patients you lost. Say their names or say, “To those I helped pass, I honor your journey. I release your pain. I am not your home. Go in peace.”
This is an offering. It brings closure. And it protects you from lingering spirits.
3. Sacred Boundaries Prayer
Before entering the hospital or shift, say silently:
“I serve through grace. My body is my temple. What is not mine cannot stay. I am a bridge of compassion, not a sponge of pain.”
This reinforces your spiritual wall.
4. Herbal Protection
Use Florida Water, Rue, or Guinea Hen Weed in a bath or spritz to break attachments. These are traditional Caribbean herbs used in Vodou Spiritism for clearing and fortification.
Helping Others Cross Over: Holding Sacred Space
Many nurses have told me they “feel” when a patient is about to pass. That they “know” when the room changes, when the silence becomes too deep.
This is not imagination. It is sacred sensitivity.
When you learn how to properly guide that moment, you become more than a nurse. You become a midwife of the soul. At Temple de la Luna, we train our practitioners in the art of transition support, using prayers, sacred words, songs, or even the laying of hands to assist in final crossing. You do not need to be a priestess to hold sacred space—but you must be clean, intentional, and humble.
From Servicing to Thriving
The difference between surviving your job and thriving in your calling is spiritual alignment.
- Are you doing this work because your soul said yes?
- Are you replenishing your own well?
- Do you know how to release what isn’t yours?
- Are you spiritually equipped to walk through shadows without being consumed?
These are the questions I ask nurses who come to me. And those who learn to answer them find their power returns.
Why We Must Speak on This
We cannot allow our caregivers to become martyrs.
Hospitals teach protocol and procedure—but not spiritual sustainability. That’s where we step in. At Temple de la Luna, we recognize that medicine and mysticism are not opposites. They are partners. And for those who walk in between—like ICU nurses—we offer the bridge.
Final Thoughts: You Are Not Alone
To every nurse who has held a dying hand…
To every caregiver who has felt the shift of a soul leaving the room…
To every healer who cries in their car, wondering how to go back tomorrow…
You are not broken. You are not weak.
You are gifted. But you must learn to protect that gift.
Let us show you how.
Join Us:
If you are a nurse, doctor, CNA, or healthcare worker looking for spiritual training, cleansing, or personalized medical intuitive support, visit us at www.templedelaluna.com. You can book a one-on-one session, take our spiritual hygiene course, or join our Inner Circle for ongoing support.
Your spirit deserves as much care as the lives you save.
—
Priestess Shoshana
Founder of Temple de la Luna
Medical Intuitive | High Priestess | Healer of Healers
