[Liminal Letters] Finding holstic thriving with ancient gods of healing
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Not into weekly newsletters? You can opt-out of the weekly newsletter without removing yourself from other updates HERE! Hey, Reader! Health is a contentious topic these days. For-profit healthcare is out of reach for many and it often doesn’t meet the needs of those who can access it. A quarter of American are disabled. The ongoing pandemic and the neglect of it by those in power jeopardizes public health. In times like these, what’s a chronically ill witch to do? Something I have been doing, that has brought an immense amount of comfort and healing, is turning to a few deities of health, healing and thriving. Recently, I was sick. Sick in a way that made me worried. As a chronically ill person, I have experienced first hand how something that seems like “just” a cold or “just” fatigue can spiral into a months- or even year-long illness. I’m familiar with what I need to do when I feel a cold coming on. I have protocols for rest and for herbal remedies to help stave off a illness. And often the combination of listening to my body, rest, and strategic herbal allies does the trick and I’m able to bounce back quickly. But this time it wasn’t happening. I could feel it slowly getting worse. I was worried it might be Covid. I was worried that I might be too sick to work for a long period of time. And so I prayed to Asclepius, Apollo, and Hygeia. I prayed that I would get no sicker than I was right then, that from that moment I would start to get better, and that the illness would pass without any lingering effects. In exchange, I told them I would write for my newsletter and blog about why disabled and chronically ill folks should be working with them. That is exactly what happened, and so here I am, writing to you about Asclepius, Apollo, and Hygeia. What is health?First things first, let’s talk about this idea of health. A quick check of Merriam-Webster gives health as: The idea of health probably brings to mind for you something alone the lines of “being healthy”, by which you might mean “being free from disease” or “not displaying clinical signs of disease or infection” (Merriam-Webster, again). These ideas of health are quite clinical, which is to say they are medical. They are rooted in a materialist and allopathic understanding of health and how we achieve it - through physical, mechanistic means, by apply the right remedy to the treat observable, measurable symptoms. I’m not here to bash modern medicine. I am a supporter of it and someone who benefits from it every single day. Access to conventional modern medicine has been life-saving for me. But it has not on it’s own been wholly sufficient. That’s where Asclepius, Hygeia, and Apollo come in. These deities - both in the ancient world and in my own experience - take a more holistic approach to health that includes conventional medicine, herbal remedies, and energetic approaches. Digging a bit more into the language side of things, our word health comes from a Old English hælþ "wholeness, a being whole, sound or well,” which stretches back into a Proto-Indo-European root which means "whole, uninjured, of good omen”(Etymonline). The word relates to the words heal, holy, and whole. Our health, our healing, and healing in general, are about wholeness. It is holistic and it is holy. An excellent mantra that I love to use for health, healing, centering, and grounding that I learned from Ren Zatopek is “whole, hale, holy”. When it comes to these deities, our health and healing is about our “whole, hale, holy”-ness. Your healing is a process that involves the mind, the body, and the spirit. More than simply as a means to achieve health in a conventional sense through conventional means, working with these deities is about achieving a holistic thriving. That includes conventional approaches, of course, but also energetic approaches. Who Are Asclepius, Hygeia, & Apollo?ApolloFrom this list, Apollo may be the most familiar name to you. Apollo was the god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease. He is a solar deity and the famous Delphic Oracles delivered prophecy under his auspices. If you’ve read The Iliad, you know it was Apollo who rained arrows of plague down on the Greeks to aid the Trojans. But Apollo’s ability to bring disease is linked with the ability to heal. The knowledge of bringing on illness and affliction was viewed as inherently linked to the ability to heal that affliction. While Apollo is absolutely a god of healing, he is also a solar god. In my experience, this means that the healing he bring can be more active, more energetic, more active. He’s also (again, in my experience) a fan of ceremony and formality. Both of these can make him a more challenging god to work with for healing from a disabled and chronically ill perspective. But, Apollo is also the father of Asclepius, which brings us to… AsclepiusAsclepius is the son of Apollo and a mortal woman, Koronis. He was born via c-section (after Apollo killed his mother, the story is one deeply influenced patriarchal values of the ancient Greeks) and raised by the centaur Chiron, who was known for being a skilled healer. He inherited Apollo’s skill at healing and eventually became a healer skilled enough to bring the dead back to life. For this offense, Zeus killed the mortal Asclepius, who was placed in the stars as Ophiuchus which also brought about his elevation to god-hood. In my experience, Asclepius is much easier to connect to and work with and works in a more gentle manner than Apollo does. HygeiaMost accounts online will list Hygeia as the daughter of Asclepius. This is - again - that same patriarchal influence. The Orphic Hymns, which are the basis of my work with these deities, state very clearly that Hygeia is the wife of Asclepius and he learns much from her, not the other way around. And, honestly, this makes sense - Hygeia is Good Health and it would seem logical that the idea of Good Health would precede the one who restores health. She was also sometimes seen as a restorer of mental health, as well as physical health. How were they worshiped?In the ancient world, Asclepius’ cult included temples dedicated to him called Asclepieia (Asclepieion in the singular). These were temples of healing, where physical remedies were applied alongside spiritual ones. The means of spiritual healing was through dreaming. This practice was known as incubatio. The patient would go to sleep within the temple, in the hopes of dreaming of Asclepius or one of his children or partners in healing. Priests were present upon waking to help interpret the message of the dream and to prescribe a cure. While this approach may sound rather naive to the modern worldview, Asclepieia were highly successful in creating positive results for those who sought treatment. Hygeia was also worshiped in Asclepieia alongside Asclepius. In the main temple of Asclepius’ cult at Epidaurus, Asclepius was worshiped alongside both Apollo and Hygeia. (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 27. 6) Working With These DeitiesOne of the reasons I had so much trouble getting around to actually writing this essay is because my devotional practice with these deities are probably my practices most rooted in personal gnosis. They are practices shored up by very little factual information. I often encourage my clients to move beyond needing facts and proof in their personal practices. Historical fact can be a vital supplement to our spiritual practice, but they should not be mistaken for the practice itself. This is something I believe deeply and put into practice in my own practice. However, when it comes to what I share publicly, I am, too, as persuaded of the necessity of facts to justify my intuitive practices. In a society where cold hard facts and data are all that matter, it is easy to slip into this mindset in our own lives and practices, as well as in the way we present these practices to the world. But truly the only measure of your practice is DID IT WORK? And the work I do with these deities of health and healing definitely works. More than works, it has become an essential supplement to the mundane medical & herbal approaches I use as a disabled and chronically ill person, helping me find more healing, health, and thriving than I thought was possible a few years ago. An in-depth guide to devotional practice would be way too much for this essay. One of these days, I will get around to writing my own guide to building spirit relationships, but in the mean time, I do love this guide to planetary prayer from Diana Rose Harper! In this case, Asclepius - the son of Apollo - would be a solar deity and so you can follow recommendations for the Sun. A few ways I have worked with these deities:
Other ways I may work with these deities in the future:
Building a practice for healthThere so much more that could be said. I haven’t even gotten into the fascinating symbolism of snakes and dogs in the cult of Asclepius, nor really any details of dreaming practice, nor the litmus I use to discern if I need “solar” or “lunar” healing & care, or so many other fascinating things about working with Asclepius, Hygeia, and Apollo. However, I think I’ve given you enough of a primer on why you might want to work with these deities and how to get started. The most important this is getting into a practice. So I’ll leave it here and say that I hope this essay has been helpful and inspiring to you! May your work with these deities bring you health, vitality, and flourishing. Please feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions! In Case You Missed It:
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