Magical Healing: Folk Healing Techniques from the Old World - Hexe Claire 2018

Preface: The Old Arts of Healing

Gesundheit!

When it comes to magic, most people today think of love spells and money magic, but the magic of our forbearers was most often magic of healing.

The health and well-being of all inhabitants of a farm or house were the foundation for everything else. Times may change, but people’s essential needs always stay the same.

Then as well as now our health is the most precious thing we possess, and often we become aware of it only when we lose what once seemed so natural.

I come from a family with an almost hereditary interest in all things of heaven and earth, so in my childhood it was normal to cure with herbs, magical words, and sometimes magical actions, but no one thought of them as “magical.” It was just the way one did things in order to fix them quickly.

Later, in school and at college, I realized not everybody knew which tea to drink to get rid of certain ailments or that there are words that can do something beyond merely communicate.

I learned this when the others were astonished about my suggestions to use this tea or that herbal salve to cure something. Because this knowledge obviously appeared strange to some, I became more reticent about talking about those things (well, in your teen years you definitely don’t want to look like an herb hag! ).

When I came out of the spiritual closet with my work and began reading cards, writing esoteric books, and teaching courses, I still hid my interest in healing, as if my early experiences had stopped me from talking about that topic. But as time went on I recognized that times have changed.

Today many prejudices that were very common in my childhood are vanishing. Some hospitals are embracing traditional Chinese medicine, and no one is seen as an “esoteric weirdo” for getting acupuncture anymore.

I don’t work as an herbal healer (and in Germany this is very strictly regulated when it comes to practitioners who are not medical doctors), but the needs of people made me search even more for the old knowledge, so I started remembering and compiling everything I could.

My approach is the happy medium: spirituality cares for the soul and the spirit, while common medicine cares for the body. Of course, in real life they merge. A spiritual or magical cure can increase our own self-healing powers, so that no pills are needed. Likewise, a much-needed surgery can balance not only the body, but also bring the soul and spirit of a patient back into harmony. Neither method is automatically better than the other; it always depends on the individual situation.

This book is also meant to express my deep respect for the last shamans of my own German culture, the wise women and men who still know how to “talk off” illnesses (which we’ll explore later) and cure with the laying on of hands. They are often overlooked in the colorful circus of modern esotericism. They don’t create new trends. They don’t seek new methods all the time. They simply refer to the time-proven methods and tried and true knowledge that can sometimes be traced back for centuries and even millennia through historical findings.

But I want to do more than just to bring old traditions and healing knowledge to light. I also want to encourage you in your own abilities to heal. Often we tend to think that only others can help us: the doctor, the famous healer, or whoever. It is true that we humans need each other; the care and compassion of other people often helps to boost self-healing effects. But we also need to trust in ourselves and to take our personal responsibility seriously, especially when it comes to healing, because there is never just one way that suits everybody. When it comes to healing, knowledge is not only power, but the opportunity to make the best decisions for your own concerns.