I have received a message today, which I believe the author would like to be disseminated as widely as possible, as follows:

Phaedra Bonewits has put out a healing request for her husband, Isaac Bonewits (author of Real Magic). Isaac has been fighting colon cancer for quite some time now, and has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, he has progressed to the point where he is just not strong enourgh to survive another round of chemo. His doctor has told them that Isaac needs a miracle.

Therefore, Phaedra would like the magical community to kick in the magic and do a “rolling thunder” healing ritual on the night of the full moon, May 27th at 9pm.

A “rolling thunder” ritual, for those who are not ever participated in one, creates an effect like a rolling thunderstorm. The base principle of how to create the effect is well known to ceremonial magicians; quite simply, you do the ritual at 9 pm based on your local time zone. Therefore, the east coast does it at 9 o’clock Eastern; central does it at 9 Central; 9 for those in the Mountain time zone; and yes, 9 o’clock local time for those in the Pacific time zone. The energies roll from one time zone to another.

As for what healing and magical techniques are used, Phaedra does not care. Her only other request, outside of it being done at 9 pm local time is that you use the following chant to link the energies raised: “Isaac’s tumors fade away. Thirty more years with Phae.”

Morgan Drake Ekstein.

This got me thinking about compiling in one place all the magical healing techniques of the western mystery tradition.

The Middle Pillar / “Art of True Healing” Method

This method was described by Israel Regardie first in his book “The Art of True Healing” although a more detailed version is in his seminal work “The Middle Pillar.” As regards self-healing the process is as follows. One performs the Middle Pillar Ritual, first by focussing on Kether and chanting the divine name associated with it half-a-dozen times; then moving down to Daath, Tiphereth, Yesod and Malkuth. Each Sephira is imagined as a sphere of Light, linked by a column of light – i.e. the Middle Pillar. Once one has formulated Malkuthm, one imagines the Light circulating down the left-side and up the right-side half-a-dozen times; down the front and up the back in like manner; up the centre and fountaining up from the top; and winding upwards like a helix. Going through this visualisation / vibration / meditation process with full consciousness puts one in an altered state of consciousness – i.e. magical consciousness. To utilise it for the purpose of healing, one then visualises the Light thus imagined being directed to the part of the body in need of healing – or otherwise the whole body for the sake of general health.

To heal another the procedure is similar, except that one should go through the Middle Pillar Ritual with the patient. I do not recall Regardie describing distant healing via this method, although I have attempted to do so by visualising the patient as I performed the ritual.

Astral Healing – a method from Magick In Theory & Practice

Aleister Crowley briefly mentions a method of healing which requires considerable control of ones own astral body. Whilst out in the astral, one examines the aura of the person to be healed – a malady will show up as a dark or discoloured patch therein. The healer deliberately brightens the aura of the patient – which in turn will cause an influx of vitality for the patient. Although this requires one to be experienced in astral projection this would seem to be ideal for performing distant healing.

I once tried this and it seemed to work, although I cannot take all credit, as the patients in question also had a church-full of people praying for them at the time.

A Whare Ra Healing Ritual

Follow this link for a Ritual that was used by the Whare Ra temple of the Stella Matutina. I know of a modern Temple that adapted this for the purpose of sending out healing to one of its members who was in a bad way. This seemed appropriate because the ritual itself is well suited for carrrying out in the hall of the Neophytes. Unfortunately, the member in question in all modesty had not let on how bad it was until too late, so by the time the Temple met, it was turned into a ritual to send healing energy to that person’s immortal soul.

Ceremonial Magick (Z2)

According to 777, the miracle of Healing is the magical power associated with the path of Beth, which is associated with the planet Mercury. Thus if one were to construct a magick ceremony, either using the Golden Dawn’s Z2 formulae or otherwise, one would base it upon the qabalistic associations of Mercury, i.e. row 12 of 777. An example of this may be found here.