This is actually a follow-up post to an earlier Q & A posted this week.  In addition to being asked if one can work magick when sick, I’ve also been asked if one can work healing magick for themselves when sick and how this process would potentially work.  It’s a common enough question that I felt it should be addressed as well.

Healing when you are sick yourself can be a tricky process.  However, the plus side of this conversation is that healing magick has a high success rate.  After all, look at your body’s ability to heal — when you get a wound or an illness, your body’s tendency is to fight the illness, heal the wound.  In other words, your body’s protocol is to mend and restore.  There are conditions that fall outside this parameter, such as autoimmune disorders, but we’re going to stick to straightaway healing here.

The best way I can see to go about answering this question is to point out a standard technique/method and then to point out what could go wrong (where you might not want to use that method).  Then I’ll finish up with things that are (a) least taxing on you physically and (b) still allow you to do the working.

GETTING THE ENERGY TO HEAL.  All magick takes energy to work.  When you work a spell, you are grounded and centered and drawing on the limitless energy of the Universe (or at least, you’d better be or we need to have a talk).  When you are sick, grounding can be difficult.  The body’s way of dealing with illness is to sideline us, usually with fatigue, so that we back off and redirect all our energy to healing.  Grounding when tired can take more concentration than we have the patience to muster.  But for argument’s sake, let’s say you get grounded and you have access to that extra energy.  Alright, good.  Now your body has extra energy with which to work.

So what are you going to do with it now that you have it?  Energy in spellwork has to be directed.  Are you a doctor or well-versed in anatomy and physiology?  99% of us aren’t.  (I have a whole beef about people who claim to be healers but who can’t tell me where the femur is in a body or detail the process of digestion and its vital fluids and what organs make those fluids, etc.  I’ll save that rant for later.  For the record, I don’t count myself as a Healer-With-A-Capital-H.  I have the skills of an Emergency Field Medic, maybe more if you count my herbal work, but that’s it.)  I don’t like the idea of letting a whole lot of energy loose into a system and then just expecting it to do what it’s supposed to do.  That’s the difference between setting off a charge of dynamite to remove a specific chunk of rock versus just setting off a charge of dynamite on the side of a mountain and expecting it to just magickally not blow up anything else but what you want.  Not highly likely.

Then there’s also the problem of whether that extra energy is going to fix the problem or compound it, or if the cure is going to fix or compound it.  For example, comfrey is a wonderful component of a healing salve.  It causes cell reproduction which is vital for tissues mending.  However, let’s say you have cancer, which is a cellular growth.  Do you want THOSE cells growing and multiplying unchecked?  I’d say not.  So taking comfrey internally when you have a precancerous or cancerous situation isn’t what you’d call a “good cure”.  Likewise, that extra energy you’re pumping in is there for your whole system to use.  That means whatever is making you ill could equally draw on that energy.  Not a good situation.  Also, having that extra energy may amp you up, cause you to get up and do work or other physical tasks that tire you — this can set you back in your healing by tiring you out.  The minute you then let go of the energy, you crash hard and often cause a total relapse in your own natural healing that sets you farther back than you were before.

If you’re going to ground and bring in energy, you would be best off doing it through a filter of intent.  My favorite way is to select a Deity or Angelic presence that is known for Healing (I work with Sekhmet, personally, for Healing and Ma’at to restore Balance) and ask them to weave the energy for you as is necessary.  The Universal knowledge of what is wrong with you and how that energetic imbalance needs to be corrected is easily within Their understanding.  You can imagine them standing between you and your energy source, or you can utilize an amulet dedicated to them as a “filter”, charging it to allow only the energy you need to come through and that the energy goes DIRECTLY to what is needed to bring about your healing and no more.  This allows you to work around your own ignorance but still remain open to what can best be done for you.  Be sure to ask your spirit guides for help here or your own personal Guardian Angel.

MAGICKAL VERSUS ‘MUGGLICAL’.  So you’re a Witch and you think you should be able to do something about being sick… something more than a non-magickal person would be able to do.  Back up there, buddy!  Being a Witch doesn’t mean you are superhuman, entitled to the special Magickal Monopoly card that gets you out of Sickie Jail for free, or anything else.  Remember you are a human being with a physical form and that means you have to interface the mundane world — germs and all.

Magick is not a short-cut for getting well by replacing common sense with woo-nderful cures.  If you’re sick, check off your To-Do List of Muggle Mending:  plenty of fluids, plenty of rest, healthy food, more rest, more fluids, take prescriptions as ordered, know when you need to go to the doctor, wash your hands and avoid cross-contamination, peace and quiet, more rest.  And once you’re well, don’t tax yourself too hard too fast.  Respect your body and its limits, give it a hand with every common sense thing you can think of.  This is the solid foundation upon which your magick can rest.  If you don’t do these things, all your magickal handiwork will very likely unravel.

GET A HEALTHY HEALER — YOU! Who says you have to work a healing spell when you’re sick?  Why don’t you be a clever Witch and prepare healing spells when you’re healthy!  You’ll be at peak energy, not in the throes of illness, and able to concentrate.  Here are some ideas to get you started for pre-illness magickal work:

• Healing Candle. Ok, obvious!  Make yourself a candle with healing herbs that focus on relaxation, rejuvenation and healing.  Color it a healing color.  carve the names of Healer Deities or healing symbols (make sure you know how they’re used first, please).  Once the candle is ready, anoint and bless it and wrap it up in parchment paper.  Label it and seal it.  If you have a special prayer, even better!  Write it on the parchment and say it when you light the candle.

• Do Double Duty. When you’re making that candle and you get to the point of charging and anointing the candle, go ahead and charge a healing crystal with the same energy that you can hold while you’re ill.  Some stones will draw out illness (Hematite, Lodestone).  Some stones strengthen the immune system (Malachite, Amethyst).  Others, like  Turquoise, are good all around healers.  If you have a recurrent problem, be proactive and find a stone that works well for that specific thing.  IMPORTANT:  Once you have to use the stone you charged, you  need to cleanse it before re-empowering it.  This can be easily done by placing the stone in salt for a few days in the hard wane of the moon, or placing it in running water, etc.

• Charge That Powdery Drink Stuff. Ok, this is totally not an ancient technique (at least, it’s not in that the ancients didn’t have Crystal Light), but it serves double purpose — it holds the spell and it gets you to drink those darn fluids.  Open up a container of powdered drink mix — I’m not even sure flavor matters since everything tastes wonky when you’re sick.  Pour the contents out into a cleansed bowl.  Bless the powder, charge it with healing energy, draw sigils with glowing light (in a healing color) into the surface of the powder and visualize the energy dispersing through the individual grains of drink mix.  Call upon your Deities to bless your mixture.  Store it away in a special glass bottle — get fancy and write words of healing on the outside of the glass container AND on the glass you’ll be drinking from — and when you get sick, VOILA!  Instant healing tonic!  Tastes better than water and packs a real healing punch!

• Make A Healing Blankie. Get yourself a patchwork quilt.  If you make it, so much the better, but a bought one will work nicely.  Make sure it’s colors that represent health to you.  Things that you, when you look at it, you feel an energy lift (but not too much… you don’t want to be overstimulated, just warmed).  Don’t make it too complicated a quilt.  Simple square blocks work the best.  If you can’t find that, then go for a solid pale color on which you can write/draw things (I’m all about White for this project… here’s why).  Now go get yourself a huge pack of those multi-colored Sharpie permanent markers.  Sit down with your blankie spread out on the table and start drawing pictures and symbols that represent health to you.  Have your friends and family sit down and write blessings and prayers for your health — Get Well Soon, Feel Better, Here’s To Your Good Health, etc. — all over that blanket.  Do NOT be a critic here… it’s about the energy going in.  Once it’s all done, bless it, ask your Gods to bless it for the purpose of healing, that whomever that blanket is wrapped around will be surrounded in the care of the Gods and the healing energy will overflow.  Never underestimate the power of a blankie!  Kids have it right!

If you’re doing magick for someone else when you are sick yourself, you can adapt the techniques above to help them, but I really recommend waiting until you are well.  When doing magick for someone else, you run the risk of bleedover from you to them, exacerbating their condition and weakening yourself.  There is also the tricky work of filtering between you and the sick person to prevent from picking up THEIR illness — this can be quite dangerous depending on what you’re trying to heal.  But feel free to make a few candles, drink mixes, charge some stones in order to have them on hand for someone else.

And since someone is bound to ask, the shelf-life for the powder, stones, and candles are a year and a day.  You won’t need to necessarily throw them out, but you will want to renew the spell.  Be sure to save your spell so you can repeat it exactly to “re-charge” it.  The blanket will just take a smudge, and reconsecration prayer.  Because the words are written and writing takes so much Will, the effects linger longer.  To renew the blanket, just read all the words aloud as part of the reconsecration and remember the power of those who helped you make the blanket.

Here’s To Your Health!

Photo by Eddi 07 (via Flickr).