Magical Healing: A Health Survival Guide for Occultists, Pagans, Healers and Tarot Readers

Introduction

When I wrote the book The Magic of the North Gate, I started to broach the subject of the relationship between the body and magic. I offered general advice to the magician, along with various methods and techniques for tending to the magician's body. Since that time, I have been swamped with letters, emails and requests for a more in-depth look at the issues surrounding a magician and his or her health-hence this book.

Throughout these chapters we will look at the relationship between magic and bodily health, and how the path of magic and the path of body awareness are inextricably linked. We will also look at specific healing modalities, magical impacts on health, consciousness of the body and techniques to maintain body strength. The techniques, ideas and suggestions presented in this book are designed to support you in your magical practice and also to compliment your regular health care provided by your doctor.

When I began to work more powerfully within the sphere of magic I became aware of my body and how it struggled against the strains I was inflicting upon it. I was also aware of how magic strengthened many things within me; a bittersweet relationship. That set me upon a road of deep discovery in terms of magic and the body, which eventually led me to realize that many prominent magicians in the past had also made this powerful connection between magic, body and health. Dion Fortune and her partner Dr Penry Evans were fascinated by this weave of power between body and magic, and Franz Bardon, the Czech adept, also understood the necessity for healing, magic and energetic body awareness to go hand in hand.

In today's world where everything is compartmentalized, this wisdom of the need for a wide breadth of knowledge in the magician is sadly falling by the wayside. Every magician who works with power will come up against a barrier of body and health issues at some point. Hopefully this book will help the magician make solid choices and become responsible for their own energy, health and wellbeing. It will also expose the harsh truth that magic can be a struggle for both body and soul. In today's bullshit world of the New Age movement where everything is always light, fluffy and glowing with health, a reality check is sorely needed.

It is also worth mentioning at this point that I am neither a doctor, nor a qualified health professional. A qualified doctor or health professional should always be your first port of call if you become sick.

The information provided in this book comes from direct experience gained from experimentation, informal study with health professionals, my own educational background, and years of learning, trial and error. I have struggled with a variety of health issues over the years; some are genetic or inherited illnesses, some are the direct result of magic (and my own stupidity), and some were matters of circumstance, accident and disease. Throughout all of these I have endeavoured to find my own solutions where I could, develop my own coping mechanisms, and to learn as much as I can.

This book is the result of my successes and failures. I write it for those coming up behind me on the magical ladder of learning as well as those alongside me who missed this rung. Truly, if I had this book in my hands when I was in my twenties and thirties, I would have avoided a lot of suffering and struggle. If I can help other magicians avoid that same struggle, even in the smallest way, then this book will have been time well spent.

Many young magicians never give their bodies a second thought. In their twenties they are full of vitality, health and vigour; health is something for the doctor to worry about as they scour the latest goatskin-bound grimoire looking for another obscure ritual to inflict upon the world. And for many, that total disconnect will continue throughout their adult lives until they hit their forties or fifties, at which point things begin to go badly wrong.

Some magicians become aware early on that the more powerful the magic the bigger the impact on the body, yet they will still ignore the warning signs that their body desperately sends out. A few will get the message and begin to look for ways to maintain their bodies, to lessen impacts, and to treat the body with more respect when it does succumb to illnesses or injuries.

This is not a medical or ‘health' guide book. Rather, it is a magical approach to health, disease and injury, and it exposes the many interconnected dynamics between the body, soul, energy and magic that we so often blithely ignore.

Our bodies and their reactions are truly unique. While some illnesses have specific symptomatic patterns, others do not and these continue to confound doctors. When you do magic, particularly visionary magic, the symptomatic picture that the body presents when ill often changes: the body shifts how it responds to invaders, imbalances and impacts. Magic does not make you sick per se, but not tending to your body and not approaching your magic wisely can eventually make you weak and ill.

So if you are intent on delving deeper and deeper into magic or you are already there up to your knees in power and sporting a really bad headache, it might be worth taking the time to learn more about the body's relationship with magic. To do that, you need to know your own body, how it functions and how it reacts. It is not necessary to learn full human biology, anatomy and physiology etc, but if you do have those under your belt then they will be useful. I learned these subjects in my late teens and early twenties as part of my training to become a ballet teacher. It served me well in ballet, but even better in magic!

If you want to flourish as an adept it is important to learn a good solid healing modality-and more than one if possible. Through learning a specific form of healing you will also learn about the body and the various ways of approaching its care and upkeep. Taking the time to study, experiment and practise a healing modality not only serves you as a magician, it also serves those around you.

Do not take the advice in this book as an alternative to seeking out medical help: often we need the care and expertise that the medical profession can offer us. Rather, approach this book as a resource that a magician can use to actively engage in their own healing alongside allopathic medical treatment.

It has become fashionable in magical circles to reject all that medicine has to offer: that is true folly. Mainstream medicine does not have all the answers and probably never will, but it does have some pretty awesome aspects and can come in very handy. There are times for mainstream medicine, times for alternative healing and times to use both. Without mainstream medicine, I would not be alive to write this book. In fact I would not have written any books: since my childhood a combination of surgery, medicines and medical care has kept me alive and on my feet. Without hospitals I would have died at the age of ten when my appendix ruptured.

Similarly when I contracted Scarlet Fever, without antibiotic treatment I would not have survived. Throughout my life I have struggled with many illnesses and accidents that have taken me close to death. Many of them were treated with mainstream medicine along with alternative treatments to patch me up afterwards.

On the other hand, magical techniques and alternative therapies have saved my ass when medicine could not. So the moral of the story, and the purpose of this book, is to give you a wider and more grounded understanding of how to navigate through your magical life in a flexible, intelligent and informed way. Magic in its full power changes the goal posts when it comes to our bodies, and a major skill in magic is to know how to react and adapt when your body is under strain.

Do not shun any healing possibility out of an ignorant following of current popular opinion. Nor is it wise to follow any ‘magic cure' out of faith, wishful thinking or new age glamour. Educate yourself. Learn how your own body works, and which energy dynamics in magic affect you and which do not. And most importantly of all, listen to your body, use your common sense and take responsibility for yourself.

Chapter 1

Knowing your body: part 1

1 What you need to know about engines

As a magician, your greatest and most precious tool is your own body. If this does not operate properly or is uncared for, then your magic has no foundation to rest upon. The more power you work with, the more important it is to respect your body and attend properly to its needs.

Studying detailed human biology is not necessary, but knowing how your body works in simple terms is very important. You need to know how it processes energy, how its structure is upheld, and how it regulates itself.

‘Power in,' ‘power maintained' and ‘power out'-those are the first basics of which you need a rudimentary understanding. ‘Power in' is the diet, all incoming energies, and all emotions. ‘Power maintained' is the job of the endocrine system, a delicate structure that is often disrupted by magic. ‘Power out' is what is expressed through the digestive system, skin, fluids and magical actions.

These are all directly affected for both good and bad by magic; hence it is important to understand them. But remember, the combination of an individual and a specific path of magic makes for a unique picture; there is no ‘one size fits all' or ‘one pill heals all' scenario.

The path of tending to a magical body is a major stream of magical learning all of itself, so do not neglect it or consider it to be something that is solved with a herbal pill each morning. The body and its reactions to magical work will teach you more about magical power than any fancy grimoire can.

So let's look at a few basic mechanics. We will start with ‘power in,' which is essentially anything that goes into your mouth, is put on your skin, or passes into your system via magic. The first ‘power in' on that list is the one that is most overlooked: what goes into your mouth. People will talk about magical alchemy in reverent whispers but never give much thought to what they put into their mouths.

When you practise magic, what you put into your body can often have a much more reactive effect than normal and the more powerful the magic, the more of a reaction you will potentially experience. Many magicians report this phenomenon when they achieve powerful levels of working, and yet few think sensibly about it. Many find they are forced to alter their diets or lifestyles, or to give up certain foods or substances, or to otherwise change their relationship with what they put in their mouths or on their bodies.

2 ‘Power in'

Food, drink, drugs, sex, magical contact and smelly perfumes

The ‘power in' list is one that triggers all sorts of arrogant posturing from soap boxes. There are people who get all evangelical about a diet, a drug, a secret contact or a magical oil. But wherever there is a wonder drug or a special magical substance to be had, there is usually also a price tag, often high, that someone wants you to pay. Whenever the loud posturing is about abstinence, there is often an ego or messiah complex lurking in the background.

Any restriction or issue with a ‘power in' substance should be about your individual body and its relationship to a specific magical form-it is about what the body needs and what it does not need. Morals, status or beliefs should have nothing to do with it. Magic does not need a soap box; it needs a tool box, and one that works well.

Sometimes a restriction or an altered body response is directly connected to a deity or a particular line of magical work; in such cases it is wise to take things a step at a time and be willing to be flexible. Often this sort of ‘power in' issue is specific to a particular frequency of magical power and once that work is finished then the issue fades away. There will be times when a deity asks you not to eat, drink or partake of certain substances. Again this is not to do with morality; it is most often connected to how their power works in relation to human bodies. Let us look into the background of some of these issues, and how it is best to approach them in order to uphold the magical body.

3 In the beginning

The societal changes in the Western world that have happened over the last hundred or so years have also brought with them subsequent health issues, and many of those issues trace back to diet. Food has moved from being a necessary fuel to being a pastime, a drug, and a substance of indulgence. This is not a new thing for humanity, but it has become far more widespread and normalized since the industrial revolution, before which it was a preserve only of the rich and powerful. Add to that the way food has been chemically and genetically modified over the last few decades, and we have a potential health time-bomb waiting to go off.

Most babies these days are bottle-fed from birth. They are given weaning foods very early on, and are introduced to chemicals and foods long before their bodies are ready to cope with them. As a net result, babies who are sensitive or have inherited a tendency to develop autoimmune issues are being groomed for a life of ill health from birth. Dairy and grains are both major triggers for intestinal imbalances in vulnerable babies, as is the modern lack of bacterial exposure during birth which would normally prime the infant's immune system and digestion in a balanced way. What has this got to do with magic? Everything.

When a magician begins to work with inner or ritual power, the body will make use of that inflow of power to address its own problems. That is the first issue. The second issue is that when power and beings flow from the inner worlds to the outer worlds and pass through or around the magician, the immune system will see them as potential invaders, and this often sets off a small immune reaction.

If the magician has any underlying problems with their immune system these will be triggered, and that will create a series of reactions in the body. Stillness/void meditation and yoga are two things that will help to lessen this reaction and allow the body to get used to such power without reacting as if it is under attack.

But if the magician was exposed as a baby to foods that affected their intestinal bacteria and immune responses, then that pattern of reaction will already be deeply embedded in their body. The result will be an ‘inflammatory flare' within the magician. The older the magician, the more likely such a flare will occur.

This very early exposure to dairy and grains is important to keep in mind when looking for healing and stabilizing modalities as a magical tool. The more potential for magic a person is born with, the more there is potential for their body to be sensitive and reactive.

Some of the most useful healing and health support modalities that a magician can use (for example Chinese medicine, homeopathy and herbs) work from the premise that their patient was breast-fed, and usually exclusively for at least the first year of their life. That is often no longer the case. We are living in a world where a new baby is immediately exposed to substances, chemicals, vaccines and foods that its little body was not designed to cope with. This deep shift is changing how our immune systems operate; in turn we must adapt how we treat our bodies.

So if you are a practitioner of acupuncture, herbs, homeopathy etc, it is helpful to understand that what would have easily rebalanced someone one hundred years ago will not work in quite the same way today. You do not need to abandon the healing modality, but it is wise to understand that some people's systems have been damaged from birth and their immune systems have adapted around that. To compensate, the treatments also need to adapt. You may not always be able to arrive at a still point of health, but you can help the altered body to be the best that it possibly can be within the circumstances.

The first step in supporting a modern body is to pay attention to its unique nutritional needs. There are many books, blogs and courses that teach fad diets or have general food advice. The one fall-down is that no two bodies are exactly alike, and this is particularly true of magical bodies. The more you work with magic, the more unique your body's needs become. The key is learning to listen to your body, to observe, to pay attention and to use your common sense. But there are some general snippets of information regarding magic and food that can be useful. The following section is based upon my own personal experiences (which may be very different to yours) and from treating other magicians over long periods of time.

4 Food and drink

The first thing to be aware of is that the body is constantly changing and renewing itself. A person's immune system shifts and changes over the years, and for a magician that will be all the more apparent. So what will be fine for you in your twenties will not be fine in your late thirties or forties. Things that were not good for your body in your thirties become fine in your fifties... And so on. The key to working with fluctuating patterns like these is the same valuable key we find everywhere in magic: pay attention. Nothing stays the same: the body and mind are immensely dynamic and you truly have to be on the ball to keep up with them. And remember, the more you are involved in magic, the more dynamic the changes become. Let's look first at the foods that create the most reactions, for both good and bad.

5 Carbohydrates

Carbs are your fuel. When you have finished a round of heavy magic, the first thing the body screams for is fuel. A wise magician neither fully indulges the body nor starves it after a magical working: either response will prime the body for problems. The fuel intake needs to be enough to ground the magician and replenish their body's stores of energy without overfeeding it.

In truth, the body is screaming for inner as well as outer energy, so you must attend to both rather than giving it only one fuel source. Inner regeneration comes from sleep, meditation, and from cutting all inner contact. That is easily achieved by doing something which has no inner interaction: something that is passive like watching TV or reading a trashy (non-magical) novel or best of all going for a walk in nature or simply lying in the garden.

The outer fuel should be a light intake of carbohydrate. This is where the first hurdle of immune response should be addressed. Certain carbohydrates will trigger an immune response in a body that has been primed from youth to react to them. The biggest culprit, for those who are sensitive, is grains. If you are not sensitive, then any good quality organic grain will suffice. If you are unfortunate enough to be grain- or gluten-sensitive, then look to root carbs like potatoes. And I mean real potatoes, not the reconstituted mush reshaped into fries and sold in frozen packs or at fast food outlets.

How do you know if you are sensitive to grains? Do you have digestion problems? IBS? Do you have low or high abdominal pain a couple of hours after eating? Do you get brain fog after eating? An easy way to check (and I use the word ‘easy' in the loosest possible sense) is to stop eating all grains for a couple of months. If your symptoms settle down, then grains or gluten were at the root of the issue. Reintroducing non-gluten grains first will either confirm or rule out gluten sensitivity. Grains and derivative substances are used to thicken everything from yogurt to stock cubes, so if you are grain-sensitive, you will need to read the labels.

The key is to pay attention, listen to your body and have enough self-discipline to be able to stop eating or drinking something that is ultimately poisonous to your specific body. Discipline is all part of the magical path.

Sugar is a substance that also gets lumped in under the heading of carbohydrates, but it is processed in a slightly different way by the body. It has become the evil aunt of the food groups, but ordinary sugar (the best is unrefined molasses sugar) is of no real harm unless you are well on your way to becoming diabetic, or you also eat a lot of carbs. The body needs a chunk of sugar each day to keep the brain ticking over, most of which it gains from the eating of grains, roots, fruits, and veggies. Sugar in sensible amounts is not evil, and there have been times when my body has really needed it after a heavy round of magic. Like all these things, you have to listen to your body and use your common sense, as everyone is slightly different.

6 Proteins

The way we gain our protein is an issue that is heavily entwined with religious and magical thinking. Some paths and religions demand we eat no animal flesh; others have particular meats that are taboo. These restrictions are often connected either with the worship of a specific deity or philosophy, or to the genetic health issues of a particular group of people.

If you choose to be vegetarian for ethical or health reasons, then it is important to be aware that certain types of magical work will be much harder on your body, and also that certain streams of magic will be far more accessible to you. Depending on how your individual body copes with a meat-free diet, it would be wise to pay very close attention to which areas of magical practice impact you the most, and either avoid them or work around them.

Similarly if you are not willing to go without meat for certain lengths of time, other areas of magic will be limited for you or may be difficult or dangerous to practise. To operate in a wide spectrum of magic requires mutability and a willingness to adapt-that is the first and most important key to staying in one piece over many years of working in the magical inner worlds.

I have been vegan, vegetarian and carnivore, and each switch in my diet was due to my magical practice and health. It also seemed to have a strong correlation to the land power of the specific area where I was living at the time.

The first thing you should do around the protein issue is to step back from all the philosophies and taboos and look at it from your perspective as a magician. The questions you need to ask yourself are: What does your body need (rather than want)? What demands do magical acts put on your particular body? What land are you living on and what are the land spirits like? What deity are you working with? And finally, what specific inner realms are you working with magically? Let's look at these questions one at a time.

Some bodies do not do well with meat. Some do not do well without meat. And there is a whole range of in-betweens. It is important to know your own body, and how it reacts to things. Those reactions will come from a variety of sources: your genetic make