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

Techniques
Tools of The Trade and Practice

The long list of spiritual healing methods passed down from our ancestors cannot be easily catalogued, in part because different regions and healers prefer to utilize or combine a variety of techniques. No wonder—we are talking about a living healing practice as opposed to a recorded one. The terminology can also be confusing. Terms vary and occasionally we find a discrepancy in terms applied to one and the same practice. This is important to keep in mind when dealing with the old techniques.

Good healers consider each patient as a unique individual. Even when they present with the same symptoms, healers will treat a forceful, dynamic person differently than they would a meditative or melancholy person.

We can only approximate the traditional healing methods in this book. In practice they are a thing of intuition and experience. In general, healing can never be learned from books, although they serve as good advisors that no experienced family of healers cares to do without. Spiritual healing is something that is constantly renewed and changing the moment the healer connects with the patient.

Blowing

Blowing means just that: the healer blows on the ailing part of the body, much like we still do with children today when they get hurt. Traditionally the blowing should be in the pattern of a cross three times. As a side note, we still use the German expression to “make three crosses” to express relief or gratitude when certain events do (or do not) happen—as in, I’ll make three crosses when this is over! These crosses, when blown on the body, do not necessarily symbolize the Christian religion, but were seen as signs of protection in the old folk beliefs. Some healers also use this blowing of cross patterns after a treatment to seal in the work and to help the patient hold on to the newly acquired strength.

Böten/Blessing/Praying Off

Several regional euphemisms exist for the German word böten. They all have the recitation of a phrase, saying, or blessing in common. These spells are part of the healing practice. They can be murmured, spoken in thought or written down and carried on the body. As with all healing techniques that include the spoken word, it is important how these spells are spoken. One cannot be hesitant, but must utter the spell as you would a deep truth that rests within you. It does not matter whether you do so in thought or out loud. It should in no way sound fearful or pleading; nor should it sound overly authoritative, which belies insecurity too, after all, or you wouldn’t have to start out so drastically. Speak your words calmly as though you were uttering an unwavering truth. I often picture a deep, dark blue mountain lake in my mind’s eye. Not necessarily the lake itself, but the feeling that such a lake and color evokes.

Find pictures like that for yourself. You do not need to see them, but can feel them or remember a certain smell or a sound. The method is not important as long you conjure up a strong “true” feeling. We will refer back to mental images in the later section on magical spells.

Drawing Through

As with wiping off, drawing through includes getting rid of an illness through motion. People used either old standing stones for this purpose, drawing the sick person through them, or split a tree and pulled the patient through the gap this created. The tree was later carefully tied together and sealed, so it could continue growing.

Drawing through is rarely practiced today, mainly because it is hard to find an arrangement of large stones that would offer a place for the practice. The method itself was widespread. It can be traced back deep into Eastern Europe.

Hoops present an alternative to the method. They are magically decorated and crafted and finally swept across the body and the person steps through them. Wooden hoops like the ones children use for hoop rolling and hula hooping are best used for this practice. They can also serve as the basis for an herbal wreath to be braided around the hoop before the person steps through it.

Egg Applications

Eggs play a preeminent role in folk medicine when it comes to absorbing illnesses and drawing them out of the body. Certain numbers held symbolic significance here (nine was a common number for eggs). The healer would use these eggs to roll across the body of the patient from head to toe, slowly and with deep concentration. Afterward the eggs were either buried or sunk in the river.

This method can be found in many regions in the world. It can also be used in self-care. This means that one rubs the egg across the affected body part, carries it out of the house and —as mentioned—buries it or throws it in the river.

Eggs are excellent tools in regard to spiritual cleansing as well. They are a symbol of life and hold the power to take on and neutralize extremely negative vibrations.

Exercise, Source of Strength, and Relaxation

As you may have noticed, I did not use the word sport, but exercise. The body wants to be exercised. This is twice as true for people whose occupations demand that they sit.

In today’s world we often associate exercise with spending money. People are convinced that only the purchase of a fitness video, a gym membership, or special clothing will effectively lead to physical well-being.

This is not true, of course. Exercise has always been free. What matters is that you do something; it makes much more sense to spend ten minutes dancing around the house to loud music a few times a week than to purchase a yearlong gym membership and never go.

You should also forget all the overblown regulations and dogmas that surround health and fitness. We’re told that exercise only takes effect after thirty minutes and we have to completely exert ourselves.If you get the chance, talk to someone in the exercise sciences. I spoke to a professional and was told that studies exist that oppose pretty much any principle telling us how to “best” exercise. What matters is simply what works for the person who exercises. We are all unique individuals and this needs to be respected. After all, our goal is not to become professional athletes, so why all the pressure?

Isn’t it better to say that any form of exercise counts? That makes the whole enterprise motivating and fun. Don’t compare yourself to others, even though that is sometimes hard to do. There will always be someone who is fitter, more agile, or more light-footed than you. Then again, there are also those who can only dream about moving as gracefully as you can. I learned something in the three months I dealt with my knee problem and was forced to spend the majority of my time sitting down: exercise is precious. Being able to move is a gift. Sometimes you truly don’t know what you have until it is gone. I found myself bawling at times, because the uncertainty about what was going on with my leg and the inability to walk (in the most beautiful spring and summer seasons, no less) made me feel angry and helpless at the same time.

The body needs time to make changes. That means what we call laziness, in our tendency to have huge expectations, is much more reasonable in most cases than charging ahead with too much steam only to receive the payback in the end. Let others thrash about. That’s their problem. Find exercise routines that fit you personally: beautiful walks, dancing, swimming perhaps. Be gentle with yourself and take pleasure in it. If you can still enjoy it, you’re in a good space. By enjoyment I don’t mean the arrogant smile that some people use when boasting about their latest impressive feat at the gym, but a delicate flow, a good mood, and gentleness. It’s not a contest. Have the ability to recognize when enough is enough.

You will still need your body for a little while, so be good to it. We are talking about the golden medium: muscles and joints want to be in motion and exercise is important for the soul and spiritual equilibrium. Think movement and joy instead of overdoing it.

Be careful to choose something that is fun for you, because if you don’t, you will do it two or three times at the most or (even worse) you will go through with it, but get no enjoyment from it. Enjoyment ensures that you will do it on your own volition without the need to talk yourself into it with clever arguments. The weaker self the fitness industry tries to persuade us to believe in with its “holy-be-that-which-makes-you-firm” mentality does not exist. What does exist is the wrong form of exercise: that which is not enjoyable and causes you to deceive yourself. You will know when you have found the right method for you when you look forward to it as the highlight of your day instead of viewing it as a chore.

The positive effects of exercise cannot be measured, but must be experienced. One day I discovered that my persistent sleep troubles had disappeared. I suddenly found myself falling asleep at night without problems. It dawned on me: could this beneficial rest be a result of the fact that I started swimming? Was it really that simple? Can a body that is not physically challenged keep you awake because it retains too much energy? Even though I was mentally exhausted at the end of the day, maybe my body remained wide-awake because it was not challenged enough.

Exercise adds something positive to the entire organism, not just part of it. Everything is connected within the body. We can’t treat a problem in complete isolation. We have a choice to view this in two ways: “Oh, how horrible … my problem affects even the parts that were healthy” or “how wonderful that the parts of me that are healthy can contribute to balancing out the part that is not.”

Forget the popular image of the perfect human form that the world of fitness particularly likes to focus on. We are all crooked and off-kilter in one way or another. A completely “correct” human being does not exist. We would be praised with a “naturally grown” label if we were apples. We are a product of nature and as such are better compared to an apple than a Barbie doll.

Laying on of Hands

The laying on of hands requires that the hands be held above or directly on the body. Healing energy is then sent from the healer to the patient.

Hands have a special symbolic significance. Drawings of hands appear even in the earliest cave drawings of mankind. Amulets in the form of hands are said to repel negative energy and meant to protect the wearer from evil.

The laying on of hands carries a further significance, since a lot of people live their daily lives with little human touch, if we discount handshakes or gestures of that nature. They have nothing to do with deliberate and gentle touch, meaning healing touch. Touch can have a deep-reaching effect on one’s emotional life, as any physical therapist will tell you. Occasionally people can start crying in the middle of the healing session because the massage loosened knots in the tissue that retaining a certain emotion.

Most people experience a feeling of warmth or a subtle tingling sensation during the laying on of hands. It is an extremely personal form of healing and as such can have deep-reaching effects: literally hand-ling the patient in every sense of the word.

Again, it is important to pay close attention. If you are determined to consult an expert in this practice, be sure to go to a healer you trust; ask other clients about the healer, do some research to make sure you feel comfortable. More than one woman has told me that she experienced the “laying on of hands” as a sexual assault. These women then fled the situation in haste in the best-case scenario. If you can’t find a local healer you trust, there is certainly nothing wrong with experimenting on your own, with your partner or with close friends. It’s a thousand times better to do “amateur healing” yourself than to go to a “powerful” healer that is misusing his or her position.

Please always remember: Where there is light there is shadow and the desire to be healed should never override a healthy dose of common sense or lead to situations that are not good for you and potentially even dangerous. If you are unsure, consider bringing a person you trust to the healing session with you.

Light, Air, and Sun

In addition to magical remedies, our ancestors also considered light, air, and sun to be holy remedies in terms of driving away diseases. My old family doctor—she was well into her seventies even then—used to prescribe at least a half hour walk in the sunshine for any number of ailments. Her standard sentence was: “Go outside for half an hour every day—I don’t want to hear excuses. Sunlight has an effect even on cloudy days!”

Comfortable beings that we are, we often think, “If only that were so easy.” But it is so easy. Everything else simply has to do with our treasured comforts. If we consider how many hours people spend in front of the television when they claim to have no time, it becomes clear that in reality it is a matter of not wanting to do it instead of not being able to do it.

I remember well how my grandmother would drag me out into the fresh air on day three of a cold (at the latest), regardless of whether or not there was snow on the ground. No excuse was permitted. I was bundled up and off we went. “Child, you have to get out into fresh air or you won’t get well!” was Oma’s enduring pronouncement.

What can I say? She was right! Our walks never failed to give me new strength and I quickly became healthy again, even though I did not always feel like walking at that particular moment.

Moving in fresh air is one of the best fortifiers—and bonus: it’s free. If we believe the chrono-biologists and anyone in occupational medicine, we know that lack of light is a problem that leads to listlessness and lack of energy.

So many people spend all day in enclosed spaces and instinctively feel that this is not really good for them. In the winter we often hear this sentence: “I won’t see the sun all day now,” if the sun is not yet up on the drive to work and the ride home is again spent in darkness. I can only recommend what our ancestors already considered holy: Spend time in fresh air every day, even if it is only for five minutes. That is better than nothing, after all.

Pegging or Plugging

Pegging again utilizes trees as healing helpers. It is an ancient, tried-and-true healing method. It involves drilling a small hole into a tree and filling it with a piece of cloth that holds the disease symbolically. The hole is then sealed with a peg.

Most people would have a hard time boring into a tree in this fashion today. We have a different relationship with trees now. Nevertheless, I would still recommend this method as spiritual support in severe cases. After all, the motivation would not stem from disrespect, but true psychological strain. The hole does not have to be big or deep and if you should happen to find a knothole, you can use that as well.

Turning

Turning is a generic term for all practices that serve to bring an illness to its turning point: the moment at which the patient’s self-healing skills begin to gain the upper hand. How this was achieved was fairly ruthless at times. Traditional shamans still like to cause brief moments of shock when it comes to mobilizing their patients’ healing powers and to break through blockages. These are the proverbial healing shocks. In everyday life, for instance, we assume that scaring someone will cure hiccups. In fact, most of the time that does work.

Research has shown that the composition of our genes can be measurably influenced. Is it coincidence that shamans so often describe their work as the re-ordering of a new body and soul?

Of course, a strong stimulus to turn an illness can also be triggered in a positive way. A cold can be wonderfully turned in children by symbolically locking it into a bottle and throwing it away. By having fun with it you can not only re-strengthen their healing powers, but also restore a feeling of “I’m the boss around here.” Healing has a lot to do with self-confidence, as well as faith in both the strength of your own body and your ability to take good care of it.

Tying or Fastening

Traditionally, ailments were tied to a healthy, strong tree, preferably on a Thursday or Sunday, at sunset during a waning moon. While I am happy to share the specific timing preferred by our ancestors, this method can of course be individually adapted today. We do not live in the times of our ancestors and they do not live in ours. We cannot always adhere to the old traditions in their original form, although it would be a shame to see the old ways disappear entirely.

First, brush the sickened part of the body with a cloth or a ribbon or string, which is then tied to the tree. The tree, being the big, strong living organism that it is, is supposed to absorb and neutralize the illness.

We encounter exceptions here, too—occasionally people chose trees stricken in years, whose frailty and possible fall symbolized the passing of the illness. In this case use the healing magic with the old analogy “Just as this [tree] fades, so the illness shall fade.” In general, I would suggest the use of big, strong trees bursting with vitality.

Visualization

Our ancestors did not use big words like “visualization,” but many healers used mental images and their imagination in their work. They went inward to see things.

This way of thinking is hard for us today. We (too often) separate and sub-classify the holistic stream of perception in dream and daytime consciousness—both our inner perception and outer concepts. We make it way too hard for ourselves.

We will deal with healing spells in the following chapter. These spells repeatedly conjure up concrete images that relate to healing. Many healers speak of light or dark, and sometimes different colors that they perceive in their work. They purposely conjure up certain pictures throughout the healing process.

Wiping Off and Removing

During the practice of wiping off and removing, or brushing, or sweeping away, the ailing part of the body is symbolically wiped or brushed off (either a few centimeters above the skin or with skin contact). The illness is thereby wiped away as if sweeping the body to cleanse it.

The healer most often shakes his hands after each stroke or after the completed treatment to shed the negative energy. Some wash their hands in cold water afterward.

Strokes are performed away from the body and generally top to bottom or—a wide variety of possibilities exists here as well—radiating out from the heart.

The old healing formula of “wipe it off, heal it off” stems from this technique and can be thought or spoken aloud when performing the healing practice.

Today methods like this would be referred to as aura massage, aura brushing, or something similar. However, these methods were known in our area long before the hippie movement and the Indian influences that came with it.

Sometimes tools or aids were applied; in these cases, the sweeping was literal, and a person was swept off with a broom or a brush instead of hands (if a broom was used, the person was first covered with a sheet to protect the skin). This broom treatment also came into practice whenever an illness was traced back to the evil eye or a curse.

Sweeping can be wonderful as a preventative method. Brush massages with the appropriate visualization can be used to sweep everything negative or evil out of one’s personal energy field.

Writing Off

Magical healing phrases, blessing phrases, and occasional combinations of letters were written onto a small piece of paper. The piece of paper was then folded up and carried on the person or in clothing. Sometimes the paper was even swallowed like medicine. This is the process of writing off ailments and can still be used today with old phrases, affirmations, wishes, and symbolic lettering.

In the old days, people did not use just pieces of paper, they also utilized metal plates, stone, wood, or pastry. In some traditions healers used gingerbread in particular. A magical formula was carved into the gingerbread and it was then fed to the patient in small pieces until the entire gingerbread was consumed.