Written by:  Maureen Delaney

Energy healing is something that many of us do every day.  We understand the basics, we understand where the energy is coming from, how to send the energy to the recipient and how to seal the energy.   As a member of several Healing Circles, I have come to realize that a lot of “newbies” do not understand the basics.  Many send their own energy and wear themselves

out.  Some just say words and don’t tap into any energy.  And many don’t send it on its way! I thought it might help to describe a bit of what goes on when healing energy is sent.  Where does it come from?  How does it go the recipient?  And perhaps a question that comes up frequently, are you sure I can do this? We all have the ability to heal.  Yes, even you!  Understand that this is not just the ability to heal others, but to heal ourselves as well.  The power and the intent of the mind can heal.

Everything, as we know it, contains energy.  From the rock that you see on the sidewalk to our own bodies, all contain pulsing, vibrating energy.  I shall not go into all of the forms of energy in this article.  If you simply must know, from a scientific point of view, all things regarding energy there are many web sites that will help you understand the scientific aspects.

As healers, we channel energy.  Think of yourself as a conduit, merely a tool or instrument that the energy passes through.  It is your mind, your intent, which directs the energy.  Does your own energy mingle with the channeled energy?  You bet!  However, you are channeling the energy of the universe, not just your own energy.  Energy is saturated with consciousness.  As energy passes through you, a bit of your consciousness is mingled with that of the cosmos.  As you draw energy through you, you are drawing the consciousness of energy from those that went before you and the energy of all that is today.  Powerful stuff!

As with any Magickal Ritual you should starting by Grounding and Centering.  Visualization is an important part of Healing also.  Visualize the energy entering you, as the channel, then leaving you to arrive at its destination, and healing. You must always obtain permission to heal.  Free will is involved with healing, and quite frankly, some may not wish to be healed.  Each person’s Higher Consciousness decides whether to accept the healing energy.  If you are sending distance healing and cannot obtain a person’s permission, or perhaps sending healing to a city or a country, send the energy into the universe, visualizing it hovering for each to accept.

It is important to understand that you are not the source of all healing energy, but the channel.  However, without the channel, the energy is not directed and sent!  As you draw in the collective consciousness you are working together to produce healing.  We are all one, ever connected, and in healing we act as one.  All parts of the energy and consciousness are directed toward a single goal.  You are working with Spirits and Guides, Sprites and Fairies, Earth, Air, Water, Fire and of course, YOU!  You are the focuser.  Your request has called The All.  Your energy must be the energy that reveals the destination.   Many new to healing ask the same question, “How do I do it”?  Perhaps Nike has the best answer, “Just Do It”!  I will, however, explain some of the basics for you. I will make the assumption that you know how to ground, center and visualize.  If you do not, then learn those first.  The technique that follows can be used for direct hands healing or for distance healing.   I would like to keep this simple, because it is simple in a way.

Always start by grounding and centering.  Prepare yourself for healing.  I like to breathe and focus myself inward.  I prefer to have a calm mind before healing and I try to clear my mind of all extraneous clutter.   Rub your hands together and place them palm to palm about two inches apart.  You can move them in and out if you want.  Rub them together again, visualizing holding a ball of energy between your palms.  Can you feel it?  Play with this energy ball for a minute, turning it over in your palms.  You have called the energy of the collective consciousness together.  It is now ready. I like to visualize energy entering me through my Crown Chakra.  I allow the energy to permeate my entire body first.  Energy, for me, is visualized as a white light.  It may be different for you.  There is no wrong way to visualize the energy.

As the energy of The All is infused within my body it is mingling with my energy.   I spend a moment with The All.  I explain the healing needs.  It may be a simple sentence, “Joe has appendicitis and needs our help with his recovery”.    I then call the energy within my body to a center point.  For me, this is a point that would be my throat.   My Crown Chakra (or the top of my head) is now open and receiving the energy of The All.  That energy is centralized in my Throat Chakra.  I have explained the healing needs to The All, and we are ready! I have a somewhat different method of sending the energy.  For most, the energy is directed from their hands.  I expel the energy in a constant steam through my mouth.

Again, there is no right way, or wrong way to send healing energy.  It is what works for you.  You will know what feels right for you.   I visualize the energy entering my Crown as a steady stream of white light.  That light energy is expelled through my breath out my mouth.  I watch it leave me as The All carries it to its destination.  I see it reaching its recipient.  The recipient is surrounded in the white light energy.  I keep up a steady flow.  Energy is entering my Crown and expelled through my mouth.  (Again, hands are the usual expulsion point)!  The Guides and Spirits let me know when to stop.  It is usually one to two minutes when I am working distance healing.  However it could be more (or less).  As you get more comfortable with healing you will know.

You will feel the energy start to ebb.   As the energy begins to wane, I call the energy back to me.  I see the stream of white light returning to my Throat Chakra.  I allow the energy to again permeate my body, replenishing my own energy that was used.  I send the energy through my Crown Chakra back into the universe.  I sit quietly for a moment.  I thank my Guides and Spirits, and come quietly back to my ordinary consciousness.  Remember to ground after healing.  You have channeled great amounts of energy!  I belong to a Healing Guild that meets and heals every Tuesday.  We use a wonderful waterfall to ground.

After healing we visualize sitting under a great waterfall and the water cascades over us and washes the excess energy from us and sends it back to Mother Earth.  It is so invigorating!   Each one of us has the ability to heal.  Healing may be worked for a person, a pet, a tree, a city, a country, or a planet.   I believe it is our responsibility to channel healing.   As I have said, there is no right way or wrong way to heal.  There are so many different forms of healing.  Each technique uses the energy of The All.   You may want to research different forms of energy healing.  Do you need specialized training and a degree?  No!  However, as with anything else, training will help you excel.  We are all called to be healers.  Are you answering the call? Blessed Be!

LESSON ONE

The focus of these classes is to introduce you to healing.  I remember when I first started healing and wondering, "what the heck am I supposed to be doing?  I can't heal; I don't have "the gift"."

Ha!  Every one of us can heal.  Every one of us has the power within ourselves to heal.  If every one of us took five minutes out of our own lives to send healing energy, oh my, imagine what the world would be like!

Can't spare five minutes to help your fellow man, the world, your pet, and the planet-then forget healing, because this isn't about you? Sure you will want to do self healing, you are important also.  But this is about using the gift of healing to help all.  If you are taking this class, then you care, and if you care, you will find those five minutes!

I think the best way to start to learn healing is to first start with prayer.  Not the "now I lay me down to sleep" type prayer, but what I like to call "snippets".

Start with snippets of conversation with the Deity.

"Bridget, Lady of Healing, Mary is in great pain following her surgery.  Please join with my prayer for Mary to have relief from this pain".

Now, quietly allow your mind to focus on Mary and her pain and the relief she will begin to feel with your focus and the Goddess Bridget's focus.

You are not sending energy; you are just having snippets with the Deity.  Explaining the needs and where the focus needs to be, joining with the Deity in this focus.

I use snippets every day, several times a day.  Even though I work energy healing every day, snippets are a mainstay of my day.  I always start my day with snippets (prayer) when I am getting ready in the morning.  You could snippet when you are putting on your clothes in the morning-30 seconds of your thoughts devoted to another's need in quiet partnership with the Deity.  (Or your own needs on occasion)!

Do you take an afternoon break at work?  Maybe two o'clock every day could be your snippet time.  At two o'clock allow your thought to merge with the Deity and focus on someone's needs.

Do you prepare an evening meal for your family, or put in a load of laundry every night?  Snippet time!  Allow your thought to quiet and focus on merging with the Deity.  Then have a snippet conversation.

"Lord and Lady, Guides and Spirits, my Dad needs our focus" or "our neighbor needs our focus".  You get the picture - focus your thoughts in quiet prayer.

That is all you need to do this week.  Practice snippets (prayer) every day.  Practice merging your thoughts with the Deity in snippets!

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LESSON TWO

How are your snippets coming along?  Have you noticed an added benefit of prayer?  You feel better, don't you?  A bit more calm and relaxed?  A bit more able to face situations without being frazzled?

Ah, the power of snippets at work in your own life also, even as you touch other lives!  Amazing, isn't it?

As we progress with each lesson we will add to your healing knowledge, but always snippet every day.  It should be a part of your day; nothing planned that takes twenty minutes out of your busyness, just snippets of quiet focus.

In this lesson we will learn the importance of visualization.  I believe that visualization solidifies the intent.  It is not just a snippet now; it has form with the focus.

As you learned in my introduction, my visualization in healing is on the energy of The All entering my crown chakra.

There is no right way or wrong way for your visualization.  Your focus is tapping into the energy of The All.  You work this during Sabbat Ritual, you work this during Esbat Ritual, you work this in Magickal Ritual and you work this in Healing.

Author Scott Cunningham had a wonderful visualization tool to learn.  I warn you, it is not easy to learn!  (I ask Mr. Cunningham's forgiveness in my paraphrasing his technique)!

Close your eyes and visualize a silly little thing.  Something you have made up; a purple dragon?  Your interpretation of what The Morrigan looks like?  A field of wildflowers with a temple in the middle?  What rooms are in the temple and how are they decorated?  You decide where your focus in this lesson is going.

With your eyes closed, let your third eye wander.  If, for instance, you are visualizing a purple dragon, what shad of purple; lilac, deep purple, shades of purple, violet?  Can you see his flanks rise and fall with his breath?  Can you see a change in his expression before he ejects his fire breathing routine?

Now for the hard part - practice this same visualization with your eyes open!  That is correct, no blank screen of darkness behind the eyes.  Keep them open and visualize the colors, the rise and fall of the flanks, the expression on the dragon's face.

You will find you are not able to do this for very long at the beginning, but as with anything, with practice you will master it.

In healing you will be using visualization to direct the energy to it's destination.  You will focus the intent.  Without you, the energy is just there.  With you, the energy becomes a powerful healing tool, ready to depart on it's journey to the desired location.  You will start by visualization this energy.  You will feel this energy.  You will harness this energy, merge it with your energy and that of the Deity and send it on it's healing mission!

You can do it.  We all can.  It just takes a bit of practice.

This week practice Scott Cunningham's visualization method with your eyes open!

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LESSON THREE

There are teachers much more learned than I, who can teach you about energy.  There are classes on energy and learning to raise energy.

Just as we all visualize differently, we all harness energy a bit differently.  Again, there is no right way or wrong way.  Use the method that works for you.

Energy is something we have learned to work since we took our first steps on The Path.  It is essential in all our workings and is essential in healing.

In Healing Guild we first relax with a ground and center visualization.  We are empowered with the energy of the Elementals and the Lord and Lady, all of whom are invited to our circle.

So, nothing much different from any magickal ritual.  The only difference is we send the energy raised to a particular destination for healing purposes.

As the energy of The All is raised, we absorb this energy and add our own energy.  The energy of The Elements, Elementals and the Lord and Lady is already present as is the energy of all of the Healing Guild members.

In healing, you do not use only your own energy.  Why would you?  You have powerful energy to merge with yours teaming all around you.

The energy raised in Healing Ritual is so powerful.  It is fairly bursting to be sent to its intended mission.  You can feel the quiver of it, feel the pulse of it.  You can feel the energy of your brothers and sisters in healing as well.

Do not spend time using only your own energy.  Fill up with the energy of The All.  Your energy can never be depleted this way.

In one Healing Guild I belong to a Healing Mirror is used for visualization.  We see the intended recipient in the wonderful mirror.  We begin to stream energy to the recipient, all working together, and all tapping into the same energy.  Extremely powerful.

Let me take a moment to explain streaming energy.  As you draw in the energy of The All, you are visualizing the energy entering your body.  You may visualize this as a bright white light, or a purple haze.  Whatever visualization works for you, that is what you should use.  Now this energy is swirling within you, around you and needs to be sent.  Visualize this energy sent in streams out from you into the image in the Magickal Healing Mirror.  Steady streams of energy, reaching its intended recipient.  Just continue to stream for a minute.

One of the reasons Scott Cunningham's "eyes open" visualization is important to learn, is the fact that often we heal online.  We need to be able to watch the screen for the facilitator's direction.  The facilitator tells us who we are healing, why and when to start streaming.  The facilitator also tells us when to stop and go on to the next recipient.

When our healings are complete, we draw the energy back into ourselves, replenishing any of our own energy that was used.

After releasing and thanking the Lord and Lady and the Quarters, it is imperative healers ground.  There is much energy left.  There are many ways to ground.  Use the grounding that works for you!

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