by Erica Sittler

I certainly wasn’t expecting to stumble onto holy ground… where a doctor’s standard examination room suddenly became a lesson in auric fields and communication with an illness. But here we were, two thousand miles from home and my husband with an open surgical wound smelling putrid. 

Auras have been a recent lesson in class and so I turned my mind’s eye to the wound’s auric field as I sat to the side while my husband and surgeon discussed the situation. Slowing down my breathing and gently closing my eyes while keeping one ear on the conversation, I heard the surgeon sit down and speak to the wound itself. He asked it pointedly and openly as he gazed at it, “What do you want me to do?” He then studied the hot puss-filled mess intently. I felt him with his thoughts say to the wound, “Guide my hands” and he began to work. 

I focused on the harsh red, painful light of the throbbing wound, with its black rotted edges and exposed bone. It smelled of acrid heat. Soft blue violet light emanated from the surgeon and his knife, much like a small wand, as it slowly changed the light around the wound to pale green. The surgeon was like a borealis of greens, blues, violets that glowed brighter as the work went on. Tendrils that spread from him and his tool. Up and around the walls, filling in all the spaces of the room, cooling the air and sweetening it. Golden, calming light emanated around my husband and the surgeon. “Ah ha!” I thought. “I see the shield he has put up around the two of them.” Peaceful. Muted. The cosmos condensed to just that room and our quiet voices as we spoke and listened.

Three realizations came to me in the space and time that followed: 

• First, I was witnessing a true healer, aligned and fully in tune with his craft. 
• Second, I was aware that he was aware that I was observing him with my psyche and that he was allowing me to be there in that realm and watch him work. 
• Third, as we left he looked at me and said, “You are doing a good job”. I intuited that he was not simply referring to caring for my husband’s physical wound. He was also referring to my craft.

It was then with crashing realization I understood that he had allowed my psychic presence inside his shield as an observer and instantly understood why. He was also watching me. Not with judgement, but as a healer who could see beyond the realm of flesh and blood. In our earlier conversation, this surgeon made clear to point out that there were no “wrong” or “right” schools of thought regarding the best methods of healing. Only different ones that each performed in various ways and effected sometimes similar, sometimes vastly different results.

I found his statement mesmerizing and comforting. As witches, mages, sorcerers, wizards, or whatever terms we use to describe our magickal practices, we are taught to suspend judgment both of ourselves and of others as well. Apparently, this is not a novel approach in other fields of science as well. This surgeon, for example, was taking his many years of technical and practical training and layering it with his understanding of traditional medicine, and to that was adding a further, higher layer of asking the actual wound itself what it felt that it needed to heal properly. His healing modality was ever evolving. By letting me observe his process, he was, in fact, showing me an additional, alchemical skill that can be used when confronting stubborn wounds. To layer this concept of healing and introspection to the disciplines we learn in the Temple of Witchcraft’s Mystery School.

For the physical wound that my husband is recovering from, cancer is the root cause. Yet there were also other underlying things that affected this particular situation as well. Similarly, we each have our own particulars to our own specific, individual internal wounds. These wounds/traumas may also show some generalities as well. As such, like traditional medicine, they can have a protocol for healing. A “start here” suggestion. 

Witnessing this holistic view: combining the best known scientific practices with ancient traditional medicine’s school of thought, alongside input from the trauma itself was a paradigm shifting experience. On a psychic level, this surgeon had seen my own deep internal wounds and given me an insight of some additional work that I could do with those wounds… in partnership together… to effect a deeper healing experience.

To me the phrase, “Physician, heal yourself” was always a bit harsh. Today, I learned one of the ways that is done.

Blessed be.

It should be fully noted that this article is not suggesting avoidance of professional medical care or traditional therapy with trained doctors. No such advice is intended or implied.

Erica Sittler is a Witch practicing her craft in Mississippi where she is a local, active member of the Temple of Witchcraft. Her magick is in the mundane and in bringing honor and attention to those small things that build a sustainable and adventurous life. She is a Witchcraft I Mystery School student under the instruction of High Priestess Sellena Dear.