As CBD and cannabis continue to enchant the mainstream with glamour and healing galore, the popularity of energy healing isn’t so far behind. Now you can walk into your coffee shop and get your CBD latte as easily as you can hit up your local spa for a reiki healing. The witch is alive and well, as evidence of this column and the popularity of esoteric topics like astrology, tarot, and magick.
Yes, honey, we’re waking up. We are reclaiming ancient traditions and healing modalities. And as mystics and stoners alike, there’s an appreciation for the experience itself. You can’t truly judge cannabis or healing without having tried it. And now, in the Age of Aquarius, we’re being not only to try, but to see these two experiences as interconnected. Will you join me down the rabbit hole?
As I write this, we’re in the midst of Cancer Season, with Eclipse season and retrograde season in full swing as well. Just this Tuesday we experienced a Full Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse in Earth sign Capricorn. There have been tears. There have been feelings. There has been plenty of CBD and cannabis use. And there has also been plenty of healing. And what I’m particularly interested in right now is how we can use both plant medicine and energy healing in tandem, so we can not only survive periods of intensity, but thrive in them.
Since this question can be pondered endlessly, I talked to Maggie Wilson- Reiki Master, Metaphysical Mastermind, and Ultimate Energy Networker- to understand how we can use cannabis as a supplement to our healing practices. Maggie offers reiki healing sessions, attunements, teacher training, and continuing education courses for reiki. She’s an all-around bad witch with so much knowledge to share on the metaphysical. For this installment of the High Priestess, we talked about what reiki is, why energy is everything and how we can start working with reiki regardless if we’ve been attuned.
Even if you’ve never heard the word Reiki, you’re probably familiar with the concept. During a Reiki healing, a practitioner uses their palms to guide healing life energy through the body. Starting at the top of the head, the practitioner will place their palms above or on the body they’re healing. You have to be taught how to practice reiki through what are called attunements, which acclimate you to this energy. There are levels 1, 2, and 3 of reiki and when you reach level 3 of reiki attunements, you become a Reiki Master and can teach others.
“I like to refer to Reiki as the force like in Star Wars. It’s that undeniable energy that connects all and is limitlessly infinite,” Maggie says. “The only dark side to Reiki is our own shadow which isn’t always a bad thing. Rei means Spiritually guided life force and Ki is energy.
So Reiki is ‘All knowing energy guided by the force of life’ (the universe). We are all trying to heal the wounded Anakin in us so we don’t turn into Vader. Reiki encourages you to do that first before moving onto “healing others”.
Reiki was started in the late 19th or early 20th century by a Japanese monk named Mikao Usui, who drew on different techniques and styles of healing from different Asian traditions. The concept of Reiki is that disease (dis-ease) is actually caused by energetic imbalances in the body. Reiki healing uses a person as sort of channel for redirecting this energy to create balance and restore the energy body back to equilibrium.
Even if you can’t quite wrap your mind around this, it’s okay—reiki is still working! Just because you don’t understand how electricity happens doesn’t mean it doesn’t still turn on your lights. Maggie says some of her best clients have been skeptics who are open to new experiences. Regardless if you’re a skeptic or not attuned, you can still tap into reiki energy in your ritual practice or your next smoke session.
“Reiki is everywhere and can work through every one. There are symbols that call on the energy of Reiki just like a special prayer or item of devotion. I suggest calling in that you want to receive this energy and pay attention to how it comes up for you. It could come up in a Youtube video, a friend who knows a reiki facilitator, or even this article. There is no wrong way for Reiki to come into your life,” Maggie explains.
“Energy healing isn’t just someone waving their hands over you and saying you are healed. It is a detailed understanding that we are quantum vibrations and that we are affected by different frequencies in this world and throughout our lifetimes. Energy healing is using the field of quantum physics to change the way your particles are vibrating.”
Take a hit to that, and remember that there are many ways to shift your vibration. Meditation. Visualization. Sound Healing. We can even use psychedelics as a tool in shifting our perspective, or helping us reach deeper places in our healing. Just like CBD and Cancer season are a match made in the watery tears of heaven, it seems that reiki and plant medicine are an iconic duo; and being under the influence can actually further the experience.
“When I started doing Reiki for others I found that people who were on psychedelics or using plant medicine gained more from the experience of receiving Reiki,” Maggie says. ”It’s common for the ego to dissipate during psychedelic experiences and at those times people are more likely to accept energetic manifestations in and around their body.”
If being in an altered state can help us when being healed by someone else, then it must be able to help us in our own healing journeys as well. When I asked Maggie for a simple healing ritual we can practice this Eclipse and Retrograde season, whether we’re reiki-attuned or not, she suggested listening to drums and working with the element of water. Drums take us back to the first thing we ever heard; the heartbeat of our mothers in the womb. Water washes away, rejuvenates, cleanses and clears.
For a simple ritual, you’ll need some music and a body of water like a pool, bathtub, river or ocean. Put on some drum-heavy music (Maggie suggests the Thunder Drum) and either in the body of water or next to it find a comfortable position and find your breath, taking the time to come back into your body.
Consume your cannabis and meditate for 11 minutes on the sound of the drums. If you’re not in the water, you’ll get in it and then you’ll “take the plunge” by dunking your head under the water three times. As you emerge each time, you take a moment to connect and feel the energy of the water cleansing you and the earth below supporting you.
“This is clearing yourself with intention and an added bonus is when the plant’s spirit has already chosen to work with you. Like a personal baptism!” Maggie says.
You can also work with mala beads, or prayer beads, as a module for energy healing to help find some reprise in these cosmically trying times. Lately in my own meditation practice, I’ve been working with mala beads and mantras, usually dedicated to a Goddess or intention, before I smoke some flower, pull tarot cards and journal. Maggie’s own practice is similar.
“Energy healing wise, I have been doing a lot of meditations and mirror energy talk with my mala and saying declarations on each bead,” Maggie explains. “I am currently working with Strawberry Quartz, Rhodochrosite, and Purple Fluorite with a flower of life at the center. Super heart centered and meditative. She is my latest companion when things start to get flared up!”
You’re invited to join! Consume your cannabis, find a comfortable seat and then connect to your breath. Pass the mala through your hand, saying a declaration for each bead. You can do this with a rosary, or a pearl necklace, or you can just repeat your mantras to yourself 108 times (the sacred number in mala beads).
Some options for mantras: I am powerful. I am capable. I am abundant. Or you may wish to say I declare that I am powerful. I declare I am capable. I declare I am abundant. Do what feels right, listen to your intuition and give yourself permission to feel silly. Healing is serious but it’s also meant to be fun! Allow yourself to enjoy the ride, to follow the ever revolving door of restoration, whatever that means to you.
If you’re looking to incorporate energy healing into your life, invite it in. Look for the signs. Trust that the teacher, the healer, and the key is in you. The key IS you. You will simply call forth whatever you need in the moment. If you want some more guidance from Maggie, you can follow her on my favorite meditation app ever, Insight Timer, as Margaret Wilson. You can also find out about her many offerings including reiki retreats, one-on-one sessions, teacher training and more through her website. You can also follow her on Instagram here.
As we continue processing all the lessons this eclipse season is teaching us, remember to honor your own healing no matter how non-linear it is. Drink water. Press your feet into the earth. Call back your light and your power and remember you got this. And so it is!