8/2/2019 Magic for Healing

1/6

MAGIC FOR HEALNG:A Shamanistic PersPectiveby Phil Hine

For magicians, whether they define themselves asworking from a 'shamanic perspective' or not,magical healing is something of an under-re-seaiched subject. Whilst researching this article, Ilooked for books which dealt with magical tech-niques for healing, and found that, whilst il oftengets a mention in terms of the use of amulets,talismans and so forth, most of the books writtenabout healing come from the New Age orSpiritualist camps, although it has to be said thatthere are some very sane treatments of the subjectin books on Witchcraft, too.Healing is an aspect of sorcery. It's about gettingan identifiable result, particularly where others areinvolved. If you come to gain the reputation ofbeing a good healer, then the world will beat a pathto your door.THE HEALING PERSONAThere is a memorable sequence in Wilson &Shea's llluminatusl trilogy where one of thecharacters slips into his 'doctor' role-he visual-izes himself in a white coat, with a stethoscoperound his neck. He focuses on being calm, andprojecting a quiet confidence and assurance. Thenecessity of doing this will be obvious to anyonewho has ever worked in a counselling/therapeuticdiscipline. Terms such as 'positive regard' and'empathy' have become somewhat clichdd, butthey are, nonetheless, important, particularly if youare working with other people. It all comes downto establishing mutual trust and respect, albeitretaining a core of objectivity about the situation. Ihave met many healers, particularly in the altema-tive sphere who, whilst harang no problem project-ing a Healer Persona, do seem to have difficultiesin disentangling themselves from it. It's equallyimportant that you can banish the Healer Personawhen you're not on dutY, as it were.LISTENINGBeing able to listen to others is one of the primaryskills of any healer. We often get so caught up with

what we want to say in a conversation that we missout on what others are actually saying. A goodexercise in this respect is to try listening to whatsomeone else is saying to you, whilst keeping yourmind blank of thoughts-thus stopping your repliesleaping out of your mouth before you've fullydigested what has been said. It takes practice tolisten with attention, and then yet more practice togive an appropriate answer. Some people are goodat this naturally, while for others some form offormal counselling training might well be appropri-ate.A great deal has been written about the shamanas healer by other people, so I'm not going to addmuch more to the weight of words in other books.Suffice to say that healing is more diffrcult that youmight think, and should always be approachedrealistically. By this I mean that if you try and takeon a problem which, deep down, you know youcan't do much about, then it is wiser to pass theperson concemed to someone more appropriate. Ifyou do take a problem on, then make sure that bothyou and your clients know what the score rs as tohow you're going to approach the problem, and forhow long your relationship with them will last.THE QUESTION OF CONTEXTBefore I tum to actual approaches to magicalhealing, I think I should deal with the idea thathealing is contextual-that it is a process, a seriesof events, rather than an on-off situation. Thisneeds to be particularly borne in mind when onelooks at a potential healing intervention, specificallywith regard to goal-setting: the "statement ofIntent", if you like. When I trained as anOccupational Therapist some years ago, I wastaught to examine situations in terms of short,medium, and long-term goals. I was also encour-aged to develop an intuition towards what can betermed as realistic expectations in a situation. Thisis as valid for magic ils an)'thing else, andparticularly in works of healing. Whilst one mightattempt to heal someone who is in the final stages

Nothing is True

8/2/2019 Magic for Healing

2/6

of a progressive, degenerative disease, self-castiga-tion if tie spell doesn't work is unrealistic' Thisalso raises questions of self-motivation (always animportant factor when one considers sorceryintervention) und personal ethics. Again, it comesdown to considering what is most appropriate forthe individual, rather than what you think is best'PSYCHIC HEALINGI'm using the above term in order to cover thosehealing p.o.es.es which are related to somethingorher-than the action of potions, lotions, pills, etc'Now I realise that this sounds vague, but I havefound that, when it comes to areas such as healing,I am wary of even attempting to sound toocut-and-dried about an aspect of magical workwhich, paradoxically, is apparently simple but alsohighly complex. But then again, this kind ofpu"ruio* is present in most aspects of shamanic-agic. It's ;ne thing to do it, but quite anotherthing to try and explain it to someone else'Hlaling-is an important aspect of shamanic work,but it's not something which can be easily put toone side and examined separately as a thing initself or a particular body of techniques' I think itwould be more accurate to say that there is anundercurrent of healing in a great deal of shamanicpractice. Having said that, of course, I'm nowgoing to discusJ some particular aspects of healingi"ott . Just bear in mind that life isn't so clear-cutas one might think from reading a book or two'My approach to Psychic Healing is one verymuch bom out of my own direct experience,together with what particular beliefs I hold about it'I don't have a complete explanation of what'sgoing on even for myself, let alone anyone else' If,uuJn.u., been taught in any logical manner howto perform this psychic examination , apatt from thevery useful advice from an elder who told me to'drop all preconceptions'-including -the precon-ception of what I might find, and even thatanything is going to happen at all' What, for me,,""-, to U.-ttt. most effective approach is to onlyattempt psychic healing when the moment seemsright, brt- *lttr zero expectation -of anythingpirticular happening "We'11just see what happens"is what t teil ihe oih.t p.tson (usually a friend oracquaintance), Whilst I have never gone out andsought opportunities to do this, I will occasionallyoffei to tty if r feel the moment is right' Over theyears I have come to understand that knowing

when to offer something is almost as important asactually doing it.The two people responsible for encouragmg meto become lnterested in healing were the womanwho initiated me into Witchcraft (and no, shewasn't my grandmother), and a Spiritualist Healerwith whom l became friends in my late teens'Whilst my Healer friend showed me the ropes ofthe practice of healing, it is only -in the last fewy.*, o, so that I have encountered the writings of"spiritualist Healers such as Harry Edwards, GayeItiuir, and Edgar Cayce, some of the ideas ofwhom a.e ,rery relevant to psychic healing as Iview it. Spiritualism is something which tends toget dismissed by hardcore esotericists, and equally,ih.r. are rnuny Spiritualists who want nothingwhatsoever to do with anyhing that smacks toomuch of occultism. In many ways, this is a pity, asthe two camps are not as distinct from each otheras they otherwise might think, and there is a greatdeal ihat each could leam from the other' Forinstance, Spiritualists say that healing is a voca-tion-they make a great deal of being in 'service'to their fellow -att. Th" notion that power lies inservice of one kind or another, is also, I feel,central to using shamanic techniques' You have tobe genuinely interested in helping other people, orthei surely isn't much point in attempting to takeon the roie of shaman.

Harry Edwards, author of a number of excellentbooks on 'spirit Healing', makes it clear that, inhis opinion, the fundamental realization which abeginner must come to is that he does not heal:wh-ich is to say, it is not, essentially, the healer whois responsible for whatever is taking place, but thathe is merely a channel for healing guides or thespirit operators who are actually responsible for the

.;;f;ifi;?,,pl.,;* '''iij\n. ll ,.,qr.ll" lr \+z

/i/''g*'P.Wl,bri t'u ')['

Ever.vthing i s Peruti tte d

8/2/2019 Magic for Healing

3/6

healing. He also writes, somewhat wryly, that-utty p"ople find this diffrcult to accept and that,* u *ntaquence, "all sorts of performance andritual have been added to the attempt to givehealing". Certainly my own experience of healingbears this out. Whilst it is all very gratifying to say"oh yes, it's my 'power' that's responsible for thiseffect", I must be honest and say that I leantowards the view that whilst I might orchestrate asituation-a context, if you like, where 'healing'may take place-I don't know what is the cause,indeed, it seems more likely to me that the urge tolocate a causal 'something' in this sort of situationis never going to be fulfilled. Harry Edwards, beinga Spiritualist, would say that the hidden agent inpryihic healing is, of course, the healing gui{9, anassertion with which shamans from many differentcultures would very likely concur. I am remindedhere of something which Aleister Crowley wrote,to the effect that a man of genius reduces himselfto a negative and allows his genius to play throughhim as it wills..., which is a useful description ofwhat I find to be the appropriate mind-state forhealing. As my friend Fra. Qodosh once quipped"the darkroom attitude; we'll just pop in and seewhat develops". According to Edwards, "receptionfrom the Spirit World takes place when theordinary mind is dormant". Edwards is very muchof the opinion that one cannot leam to be a healer,but thaf what those of us who are interested inhealing should do, is to leam to attune ourselves to

the Spirit World, in order to become better"instruments" for the healing spirits to workthrough. There is a kind of passivity implied herewhich a good many westem magicians-limited bytheir belief that the magician 'must remain incontrol'-would doubtless have difficulty with, buton the whole, I feel this attitude of "it's not methat's responsible, it's the spirits", is a good one tohold. For a start, as I discussed elsewhere, it'soften difficult for Westemers to acknowledgespirits as having any kind of causal role (exceptwhen it suits us) in a situation. Moreover, it is alsoan effective barrier to becoming puffed up withone's own 'power', and above all, a reminder ofthe inherent weirdness of life.THE "HANDS-ON" APPROACHThe type of psychic healing which I am mostfamiliar with is 'direct healing' that is, with theclient present.I often use light touch in order to try and pick upcues about the client's problem; in fact, I oftenbegin (if appropriate) with a massage. Not onlydois this help relax the client, but I have found Ican pick up u lot of cues from massaging areas ofthe 6ody. I often augment touch./massage with aseries of hand passes over the client's body:weaving pattems which evolve without consciouseffort. -This, I find, helps me fall into theappropriate state for picking up cues' Cues cancome in many forms (wounds, scars, knots, lumpsetc.), all of which have a psychic/psychological/emotional/somatic existence. Sometimes I get theimpression that an 'intrusion' (to use MichaelHamer's term, though 'extrusion' is sometimesequally valid), will require several sessions in orderto get all the badness out, and that like a zit, if the'w6und' isn't treated properly, it'll fill up again'An elder magician once told me that intrusivespirits often Jttach themselves to a person roundthe neck and shoulders, which makes sense, as it isa vulnerable part of the body. I have 'seen' psychicscar tissue in this area, and a common image thatcrops up with people who have a lingeringattachment to someone/something, is ropes andcords hooked into the person's back' Now, were Ito be taking the standard approach to discussingpsychic healing, it would be time to start talkingab-out chakras, auras, subtle energies, etc' Theseare fine as metaphors, but taking them too literallycan be a mistake; nor is it necessary to adhere to

MAGAZIN DER MAGISCHEN KUNSTE

Articles by leading German-speakirg authors as well"" muny pieceJ by lnternational writers, on allaspects'oi a magician's craft, with many originalillustrations.

tTime to learn Germtntl-Single issue: 12,- german Marks in Europe(14,- german Marks in other countries)bubJription (4 issuesl: 42,- german Marks inEurope (46,- german Marks in other countries)ANUBIS, Postfach 41 07 28, D-12117 Berlin

Nothing is True

8/2/2019 Magic for Healing

4/6

these particular models in order to practice psychichealing.A colleague who, as well as being a magician, isa Spiritualist Healer, recently informed me thatthere is a great tendency to rely on the standard'seven chakra' system in healing circles. This isjust one unfortunate aspect of taking a metaphortoo literally, as there are a great many chakrasystems in Indian magic, only one of which hasbecome popular in the West. But as I say, youdon't need to have studied any of the esotericsubtle body maps in order to be an effective healer.It's more a question of attitude, rather than formalleaming in the accepted sense.DO YOU SPIT OR SWALLOW?One of the more obviously 'shamanic' approachesto direct healing is that which is known as 'suckingspirit intrusions'. This particular approach to directhealing has been observed in a wide range ofshamanic societies, and, given that the practice ofsucking out illness is often accompanied by theshaman spitting out an object (such as a lump offlesh or a worm) as part of the process, has led toaccusations that shamanic healing rests on trickeryor deceit. There are those who argue that theshaman needs to exhibit such objects as 'proof ofhis power to his patients, whilst other commenta-tors also argue that such 'benevolent deception' issometimes a necessary part of any healer's work.A related technique to sucking, which is perhapsmore controversial, is the psychic surgery whichequally carries the scent of quackery.I have used the sucking spirits approach on a fewoccasions, to some good effect. It certainly has avery primal feel to it and I find that the act itself,together with preparation, creates a very intensestate for all present. In The Way of the Shaman,Michael Hamer gives the basics of the 'sucking'technique. After locating the place on the client'sbody where the intrusive spirit is, the practitionerproceeds to physically suck the skin (pulling openclothing at that spot), pulling out the spirit, beingcareful to dry-vomit after each bout of sucking.Hamer recommends that one should dry-vomit theintrusive spirit into a container of some kind, forlater disposal. It should be obvious even from thiscursory description that this is a very physicalprocess, and should be used carefully and selec-tively. In order to illustrate my own approach tothis technique, I will recount an incident of its use,

combined with other healing methods:A few years ago I was doing some protractedhealing work with a friend, who suffered fromswollen glands in the neck. During a trance-investigation of her psychic body, I 'saw' thepsychic root of the problem as a toad that hadbloated itself up so that it was lodged in her neck. Iwas informed, by a familiar spirit, that the onlything that would dislodge this toad was an evenbigger toad, and following meditation and divina-tion, decided to invoke Tsathoggua (A LemurianToad-God) upon myself following due preparation.Taking on the aspect ol and drawing upon thepower of Tsathoggua would, I reasoned at thetime, enable me to command the sickness-spirittoad to depart from the place wherein it hadlodged.

I prepared for this working with sleep deprivationand fasting, combined with energetic dancing (todrumming) at a stage event the previous evening.The Rite took place at my friend's house. I drewaround us a circle using drum, rattle, bells andfree-form chants. I covered my face with whiteface-paint, ash, and blood. I used a meticulously-knotted series of cords with which to bind myfriend, whispering spells of binding into the knotsas I twisted them.The Invocation: I began by visualising Tsathog-gua squatting in semi-darkness upon its throne, andthen oozing through near-black tunnels and hop-ping lumberingly between the pillars of a ruinedcity I began to move about the ritual space,'feeling' my body outlines as though I were ahuge, blundering toad-being; shifting my centre ofbalance and muttering identifications with Tsathog-gua which became increasingly guttural and gluti-nous. I began to experience those peculiar shifts inconsciousness which herald the onset of partialpossession; I found that I salivated copiously; that Icould feel my tongue swelling to fill my mouth;that my legs refused to bear me upright, and that Icould no longer oppose my thumbs, nor could I seeclearly through the blur of black and white hazethat swam before my eyes. I was, for briefmoments, submerged in toad-ness, and then re-tumed, mixing nausea and agony with a thrillingexultation. As I ceased to struggle against thepossession, I experienced a curious disengagement.It was as though part of me was standing at oneside, observing the entire spectacle, and directingthe body that stumbled about the room, moving

Every'th ing i s Penn i tte d

8/2/2019 Magic for Healing

5/6

clumsily to the signals pulsing from the reptilianbackbrain.In this bifurcation of awareness, I saw the bigtoad and the little toad, crouching in the boundbody on the floor. Then I was fully in my ownbody again, and dragged it over to my friend.Clumsily opening her mouth, I mentally projectedmy/Tsathoggua's tongue sliding down her throat,engulfing the lesser entity lodged there, retuming,and ... gulp! The sickness-spirit was swallowed inmy own belly. This act broke the spell. A wave ofnausea washed over me and I collapsed, sheddingthe Toad-skin and metamorphosing from beast-selfto human-self, using one of my magical masks as afocus for my efforts. After centring myself Ireleased my friend, banished the area, and contin-ued with a less extreme form of trance work.

Following the working, I slept for a straight l0hours or so, only to awaken with severe stomachcramps which soon progressed to vomiting. Evi-dently the poisons of the toad-spirit did not agreewith me! The nausea lasted about three days beforedisappearing, and indeed this sort of after-effectfrom ingesting sicknesss-spirits is not unusual, inmy experience.Now granted, this is a rather extreme example of'shamanic' healing but it is necessary, occasionally,to "pull out all the stops", providing, of course,you, and more importantly your clients, areconfident of your ability Mutual trust, empathy,and regard go a long way, a:rd are possibly thecrucial factors in contributing to the success of ahealing event.I tend to augment the sucking process by usingemphasised mouth movements: imagine yourselfattempting to stop a lively wad of spaghetti fromsplattering your chest (without using your hands)and you'll get the idea. This isn't so much aboutputting on a show for your client's sake, but ofdeepening the intensity of one's own experiencethrough self-induced feedback. Doubtless HarryEdwards would say that all this performance isn'tnecessary in order to be an ef ctive healer, and, byand large, he's right. You don't need fancy stuffmost of the time, but as I say, occasionally it seemshke a good idea. The dry-vomiting which Hamermentions is important. A similar approach is todraw illness out using the hands, and then shakingthem as though one were shaking off water. Theidea being in either case that it is possible that, indrawing the illness out of a client, the practitioner

can unwittingly become a harbour for it himself.Now this idea crops up in a wide variety ofcontexts, and the necessity of cleaning oneself aspart of the direct healing process is an article offaith amongst many altemative healers. Behind allthe theoretical justifications for this, there seems tobe a grain of common sense.Another element in the above example is that, inthis particular case, I did swallow the intrusiveentity, rather than gobbing it out into a bucket orcrystal. This seems contrary to what I have justsaid about cleansing oneself from association withthe client's illness. However, since my body wasbeing used at the time by Tsathoggua, it was 'him'who ate the bulk of the toad-spirit. From theshamanic perspective, my own suffering was anecessary component of the process, as was theperiod of fasting and sleep deprivation whichpreceded the actual healing event-which wasitself part of a protracted wider process. I wouldn'tswallow a client's sickness-spirit lightly, but thennor do I usually tie clients up and becomepossessed by toad-gods, either! In some quarters,swallowing is frowned upon, but I have also heardit argued that if you wish to gain an intimateknowledge of a spirit, you must be prepared toexperience it directly. This is rather like coming togrips with your own addiction spirits by letting oneof them get a hook in you. Whatever you believe,it's up to you to develop a sense for what you doin a particular situation. As Harry Edwards says,there are no rules that govem healing, and whatapplies to one person or instance may not apply toanother.DISTANT HEALINGDistant healing is basically the application ofhealing intention to someone who's not actually inthe same room as you. In some ways, it's thespookiest form of healing since, at least if one ispresent with a client, one can always come up withexplanations (auto-suggestion, astral vibratory at-tunement, endorphin stimulation etc., etc.), but ifthe patient is absent, and might not even know thatthe healing is being directed at him-but stillsomehow improves-that's really stretching the oldlogic-box, isn't it? This, in itself, seems like a goodreason to attempt it. There are a wide varieff ofapproaches to Distant healing, but I'll confinemyself to those which I use most in my ownpractice.

Nolhing is True

8/2/2019 Magic for Healing

6/6

THE HEALING MINUTEThe "Healing Minute" is very popular amongstSpiritualistsA.lew Agers and, if you care to look,you will find advertisements in Psychic Nelps forvarious groups which are co-ordinating "HealingMinutes" every week. Basically, this approach issimilar to the mass 'energy-raising' rituals popular-ised by groups such as Paganlink in the late1980s. Through meditation, prayer, etc, you areadding your own individual will and desire to(presumably) those of many other people. Addingyour drop of consciousness to a stream. Again,there is an element of self-negation here (in thesense of being the main causative agent in theprocess).It's not really that different to using a spirit or,for that matter, propitiating a god-form. The key,as in all forms of sorcery, is that once will anddesire-form has been projected, it is'forgotten:"that's that out of the way, I can now tum myattention to something else."HEALING SERVITORSA servitor is basically a thought-form, a spirit givenname, identity, and purpose by a magician, andthen dispatched to do his bidding There are severalways of doing this, some of which are discussed inmy book Condensed Chaos (New Falcon Publica-tions). I have found it very useful to link the actionof servitors whose task is to accelerate healing ofsome kind or another with an essential oil, used asa perfume or a massage oil. The idea here, is thatevery time the client uses the perfume or oil, theyare reinforcing the action of the servitor. The betterthe client feels, the better the performance of theservitor. And I often find that it's good to let therecipient of your attentions become actively part ofthe magical process. Again, the confidence of theclient in the magic efficacy, is in itself a significantfactor, as has often been found to be the case withplacebo drugs conforming to the expectations ofnot only those who administer them, but those whoare prescribed them.ASTRAL SIMULACRAThere follows a simple technique which is quiteuseful in distant healing. Whilst it is fairly commonfor magicians to visualize the person beingenchanted, I have found that building up an "AstralSimulacra' of the subject enhances a working. Todo this, one recalls memories of the subject, and

project into a specified space (triangle, crystal etc)the emotions that those memories trigger. One doesthis by verbalising the memories in the form of aninvocation:"I remember (name) laughing at a partyI remember the scent of her favourite perfumeI remember her graceful movementsI remember (name) in the ecstasy of an orgitsmI remember how (name) would complain about therainI remember how (name) sounded on the tel-ephone."By recalling memories and projecting them forlh,energized by the appropriate emotions, the simu-lacra may be used as the carrier for a healing orempowerment servitor, which could, for example,be placed at an appropriate location within thebody of the simulacra. The simulacra can bedespatched, visualizing it as merging with the bodyofthe target subject.This technique can be very effective when agroup of participants build a simulacra of a targetfrom the gestalt-projection of the memories ofthose present.This technique can also be used in works ofself-healing, where one might, for example, bestruggling to achieve closure with an estrangedpartner or relative. By creating a simulacra out ofmemories and emotions, one might address thesimulacra as though it was the person himself,which can be a ritualised opportunity to tell theperson things that one needs to, to move on fromthat life experience.SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONSPsychic Healing is an area of shamanic work whereit pays one to be cautious. For a start, it issomething of a contentious issue for many people.Over the years, I have met some excellent healers,who to my mind have some power. Equally, I havemet healers whose claims to be able to cureterminal diseases, genetic disorders, etc, seem tobe dodgy in the extreme.There are people who make all kinds ofextravagant claims about the power of PsychicHealing and who decry the medical establishment's'blindness', and there are those who are obses-sively sceptical about anything which isn't ortho-dox allopathic medicine. In the shamanic perspec-tive, it isn't a question of who's right, but that ofgetting the job done.

Et,er.vth i ng i s Penni tted