Witch Bodies: Magic for Maladies

Disclosures

What follows are NOT evidence-based methods for dealing with any form of illness, but instead are complementary ideas for home-based magic and rituals, offered as ways to boost your response, resilience, feelings of empowerment, and mood during conventional, evidence-based medical treatments.

ALWAYS seek the advice and care of qualified medical professionals as frontline treatment for your condition(s).

Mindfulness, affirmations, hypnosis, and other types of healing modalities have wider acceptance when viewed in the context of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM). For an information overview plus research on modalities and herbs, see the National Institute for Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).

Many of these CAM modalities can also be used as elements in home-based magic and ritual.

This webpage and related posts will NOT discuss herbs for oral intake, only as they are used as non-ingested materia for spellwork.

Why magic and ritual?

Well, the first answer is why not? Especially in a “can’t hurt-could help,” complementary context. But as with any magical or ritual practice designed to achieve a certain result, your discernment and common sense are key. For example, you’d want to avoid doing anything that would contradict your doctor’s advice or an evidence-based medical regimen. We know doctors are not always perfect, but if you are dealing with a serious malady, this is NOT the time to decide that the Demon Whatsitsname knows better than a human specialist whose advice and treatment plan for you is aligned with peer-reviewed, scientific literature. (If you have doubts about your provider’s competency, get a second opinion from a similar provider, if you can.)

This isn’t to say you can’t bring in some “woo” along the way. For example, if you want to seek a second opinion, you are perfectly welcome to swing a pendulum in front of a webpage offering bios of several providers, to see which one clicks. But don’t make that appointment until you’ve checked out your divination-chosen provider’s qualifications and reviews! That pendulum might have swung in a positive direction because you subconsciously consider the doctor attractive!

Now, let’s get back to the value of magic and ritual to complement treatment for health challenges. We’ve all heard of the placebo effect. Here’s how the NCCIH describes it:

“The placebo effect is a beneficial health outcome resulting from a person’s anticipation that an intervention will help. How a health care provider interacts with a patient also may bring about a positive response that’s independent of any specific treatment.”

The nineteenth century psychologist, pharmacist, and hypnotist, Émile Coué, is generally credited for discovering the placebo effect when he reassured his clients/patients with affirmations about prescribed medications. These clients/patients generally got better results from their prescriptions than those who did not receive extra reassurance.  

Coué is also known for the famous autosuggestion: “Every day in every way, I am getting better and better.” He did not claim to be a healer, instead he focused on helping people to access their own healing powers, using their imagination to influence the unconscious. (And when you realize that most bodily functions are unconscious, you begin to see the logic of this!)

Spells and rituals capture the imagination, and imagination fuels belief in healing

One could do worse than to take Coué’s autosuggestion as a foundation for any health-oriented spellwork (or prayer!). As for the power of imagination, that is where magic and ritual comes in! And if you can attach the power of your imagination to a placebo-like conviction in the efficacy of your standard medical treatment, well, you’ve quite possibly boosted your chances of a good outcome. There are no guarantees, certainly, but if nothing else, you’ll feel more proactive and empowered while going through medical and surgical procedures and adhering to health regimens.

With regard to health and illness, you could also use spells and rituals to:

  • Enchant and charm medicines, imagining boosted efficacy;
  • Open the way for healing and good outcomes;
  • Bless medical and surgical environments and technology;
  • Create thoughtforms to find resources and money for treatment;
  • Enchant a “Go Fund Me;”
  • Expedite treatments and cut through insurance red tape;
  • Create many “micro-enchantments” to support the macro-spell of getting better;
  • Restore self-empowerment and equanimity;
  • Ask for support from spirit allies, deities, and ancestors;
  • Create a magical diary of life after illness;
  • Create sigils for healing and other aspects of treatment;
  • Turn affirmations into magic;
  • And more.

Thousands of books, websites, and videos now exist that contain various kinds of magical information and instruction (in Western occult traditions). Not everything is good advice, of course, but quite a lot of spells and methods can be adapted to healing, dealing with illness, and restoring a greater degree of health and wellbeing.

Healing and dealing

Keep in mind though that over-emphasis on “healing” can become twisted into toxic positivity. If you are using magic to boost your health, but don’t become fully (miraculously?) healed of a complex or chronic condition, this doesn’t mean you’re an inept witch or didn’t do or pray enough. No, it simply means that life (or fate) has harsh lessons for us all, and often it’s the journey, not the destination, that’s important. Let magic (and medicine!) support you in your journey, and let the destination emerge as it will.

A few favorite resources

I’ll be using periodic posts to add to resources and ideas, but for now, these people are my most frequent “go to” sources for inspiration. I am sure you have many of your own.

Obviously there is much, much more to be said on this topic, so please do look for more posts in the near future. I will also add links to those “Witch Body” posts to this page, so they will be found easier.

As the Missing Witches people put it, “Blessed F’ing Be!”

☽☆☾