So, late last week, while I was riding high on German darkwave and fire energy, I went and finally got my ears pierced. It’s always been something I wanted, but I never had the money to pay for it, the balls to go through with it, or the gut to handle the potential pain. Well, so much for that. I got an industrial piercing in my right ear and a combination lobe and transverse lobe in the left all at once; not bad for a first time, and the lobe + transverse lobe isn’t something commonly seen. The pain was surprisingly minimal, even for the industrial, which might’ve been described more as “crunchy”.
Of course, this begins the whole process of dealing with the pain, healing, and potential infections that could arise from having several new holes punched into my head. Although the lobe will only need a month or two to heal, the transverse lobe and industrial may need upwards of six to twelve months. That’s a nontrivial time to keep the wounds clean and free from infection, and although there are some ways to speed up the healing process, it’s largely a matter of my own body playing nice. I’m taking extra zinc and vitamin C supplements in addition to my normal vitamins to help out the immune system and healing process, and using warm saline compresses twice a day to keep the wounds clean. Still, isn’t there something else I can do?
I’m a magician. I make shit work. There is something else I can do. Q.E.Duh.
I’m adopting a multifaceted approach to helping these wounds heal up ASAP. Having gotten them done just before the start of Aquarius this year, I’d like them to finish up healing by around the start of Leo (approximately six months afterward). That’s my big intent and stated goal for this, so let’s see what I might be doing.
- Like I mentioned, I’m using warm saline compresses to clean the piercings. Well, it turns out that the holy water I make is nothing more than saline, and I already use the appropriate kind of salt for the saline solution as I do for holy water (uniodized sea salt). Plus, I make holy water using a variation on the instructions in the Clavicula Solomonis, which involves making it in the day and hour of Mercury. Mercury’s angel is Raphael, who has traditionally been associated with the healing arts (cf. the Book of Tobit). When I make my own batch of saline solution next time, I’ll conjure Raphael in a day and hour of Mercury and ask him to consecrate the salt, water, and resulting saline to aid in the speedy healing process of all wounds and to keep them free from infection and disease. This will be specifically healing water that I’ll be making, to be kept separate from the holy water (I use different amounts of salt for each), and I’ll undergo further Mercurial consecration on the saline just for the added benefit. Dunno how I’ll fit a gallon jug on my altar, but I’ll make it work.
- In addition, these are specifically ear piercings I have. Ears are for communication and observation, which are also Mercurial in nature. Things that pertain to them would also tend to pertain to Mercury, although Saturn and Mars rule the ears specifically, the art of hearing and perception is more under Raphael’s jurisdiction. I’ll ask Raphael, next I conjure him (both the Raphael of Mercury and the Raphael of Air) and ask him to keep the piercing jewelry themselves clean and free of infection. In addition, I’ll ask him to straight-up bless them to aid in healing and perception and hearing, since I’m going to enchant them anyway once I can take them out safely (not for a while). May as well get a head start on that. Plus, I’ll ask him for any other advice he might have for healing or keeping them clean.
- In a magical working group I’m involved with, I was suggested to begin basic energy work, a field of magic that I’m woefully inexperienced at. I know that at least one of my friends has experience with healing using energy, and I’ve been told before that I’ve got a natural temperament and talent for healing. I may as well pick up some skills with this and see where it gets me, and if it works, I get speedier healing as well as more mad skillz. Practice with this can take up some of the extra time on my non-conjuration nights, so at least twice a week or more depending on how much I drink or go out with friends.
Those are a few ideas that I came up with, besides stuff like incorporating prayers into my daily practice. In the meantime, I’ll check out my copy of the PGM, Munich Manual, and other occult texts I have for any rituals or workings to aid the healing process (though it might get me mixed results to adapt rituals intended for bite wounds from black dogs to being pierced). What about you? Do you know any healing techniques, spells, or rituals, or are there any specific deities or spirits you work with for healing? If you’re willing to share, please do in the comments. The world needs more healing, as much physical as spiritual.
The Digital Ambler 
Very interesting. I got one of my nipple rings re-done over the winter break, but I haven’t been doing anything so targeted to encourage the healing. Instead, I’ve just been counting on my escalating practice, my yoga, and and various forms of energy work to do their usual thing, which for me has always included any “wounds” healing much faster than they should. True to form, I have been healing much faster than I did the first time–at a time in my life where I was attending a lot of pagan social events, but not actually doing so much in the way of real magic.
If your friend is talking about the sort of energy-work it sounds like (people use lots of different words in these areas to mean the same things … and lots of the same words to mean different things), you’ll probably find that the practice of that alone will help not just with your piercing healing, but with other health issues as well. From what I’ve read (because the practice itself is, of course, still very new to me) conjuring spirits doesn’t move power through your body the same way that more free-form energy work does. I know Wiccan Circle-magic doesn’t, despite how good it feels.
My own experiences with healing magic in any formal sense has been limited to very amateur sortsenergy work. I do healing along with my massages, and have made a couple attempts at “laying of hands” sort of deals. My most spectacular results were at a festival: a friend of mine had done sign language interpreting for the band all night without a break, and by the end her arms were about to fall off. I pulled the pain out of her arms and back and into me–a variant of the shamanic healing Michael Harner talks about in /Way of the Shaman/–and did a good enough job that another friend was able to massage her until she found the fun back. Unfortunately, I didn’t ground it out right and I felt like someone had taken a ballbat to my knees (out of which the pain had flowed into the earth).
Thank you for the tips. The energy work he mentioned is the one at http://www.astraldynamics.com/home/new-energy-ways/using-new-full-tutorial.html which he suggests as a decent guide. I have some recommendations from another friend I need to check out as well, but those are actual books and not sites I can just browse on my downtime.
I didn’t mean to imply that the actual act of conjuration would change my energies around, save for inundating me with the energies and forces of Mercury as Raphael was present. Instead, I meant to conjure him and get his aid and advice on how to heal faster, whether it be through changing events and ideas as they come down through the heavenly spheres into manifestation or through direct application of different Mercurial forces in my life. Still, chillaxing in the sphere of another planet with its ruling angel is pretty awesome. I highly suggest it.
I have to say, it does sound pretty awesome. I’m just not quite there yet in terms of my ritual/ceremonial practice. Emphasis on the “yet” :D.
Glancing at the link, it does look like other programs I’ve seen. It looks like a good one. My own training was much more haphazard, initially–which was fun, though it caused me problems in other ways.
Good luck, and don’t forget to have fun with it. (That sort of skill can add new and interesting dimensions to a game of tag.)