 The Use of Healing Talismans and Amulets, excerpted from Imagining the World Into Existence
by Normandi Ellis
Egyptian healing temples were part of every temple precinct. Priests trained in the power of heka, in the use of invocation were also adepts at creating healing magic and affirmations. One of the most amazing temples in terms of the hieroglyphic inscriptions that relate to the field of healing and magic would be that of Kom Ombo, which contains much information on the healing instruments of the ancient physician and midwife.
Outside the temple, the healer used many of the same healing techniques that a priest of Heka used inside the temple. This included the use of amulets and incantations—what modern people might think of these days as affirmations. Says the Ebers Papyrus, "Magic is effective together with medicine. Medicine is effective together with magic." This strongly suggests that true healing is a state of mind.
As Mary Baker Eddy, the mother of Christian Science religion, suggests, "All is infinite mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth…" Egyptologist Geraldine Pinch rightly surmised that magic gave the mind something concrete to attend to as one struggled with an illness. "Modern medicine is coming to realize that the mental and emotional state of the patient has much more effect on their physical condition than was originally allowed for the scientific model of disease. Egyptian medicine never neglected these aspects."
One reason that amulets work is that they are culturally agreed-upon symbols. They offer an aggregate of group thought that intensifies the power of the icon. While ancient Egyptians may have had more than three thousand years of common understanding of their particular symbolic images, most First World citizens in the modern era have two thousand years or more of understanding of Christian iconography. Historically, symbols are built upon symbols, taking on some of the cultural patina that preceded them.
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 Alchemical Healing Levels I and II Tele/Web/Skype Seminars with Nicki
Held on Monday and Thursday Evenings
Level I: April 29, May 2, 6, and 9
Level II: May 13, 16, 20, and 23
5:30 to 7:30pm Pacific time (8:30 to 10:00pm Eastern)
Study the potent healing form created by Nicki Scully, Alchemical Healing, with Nicki from a distance! Using a phone and Internet connection on Monday and Thursday evenings, from April 29 through May 23, 5:30 to 7:30 pm PST, you can participate in Levels I and/or Level II (Level I is prerequisite to Level II) from the comfort of your own home. Each session includes empowerments, demonstrations, and discussions. You will be able to practice, virtually, with Nicki and other participants both online during the calls, and with predetermined partners in between classes. Take advantage of this powerful and economical way to support your own study of Nicki's books. It is best if you already have my book, Alchemical Healing, A Guide to Spiritual, Physical, and Transformational Medicine, which is our main textbook. We will also be using Power Animal Meditations, Shamanic Journeys with your Spirit Allies. The third part of the Alchemical Healing trilogy is Planetary Healing, Spirit medicine for Global Transformation, co-written with my husband Mark Hallert. Students who order any three books published by Bear & Co. on our HathorsMirror.com site will get a 30% discount.
To learn more about Alchemical Healing and what you will learn in these classes, visit our classes page. Online registration here.You will also learn new techniques that were developed after the books were published. Visit Nicki's website for more details about Alchemical Healing and to register here:
 Free Planetary Healing Call to Action April 25, 6-7pm Pacific, 9-10pm Eastern
Right now I'm thinking about Women's Issues. I will have just returned from Egypt and Jordan, and I have a sense that there will be plenty for us to work on. Perhaps we can come up with a new journey to empower women and/or decrease misogyny. Your ideas are welcome. Please learn more about our bi-monthly Calls to Action at PlanetaryHealingBook.com. Register for the call here.
 Healing the Waters of the World
Planetary Healing Ritual by Ron Braithwaite
What is our intention today for this Call To Action?
Our intention is to help heal the waters of rivers around the world by sharing the Sacred Water we have created with our intent, our prayer, and our action.
Today we are going to use Sacred Water to spread healing to the rivers of the world. I am standing on a dock on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, while Raven is standing next to the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Perhaps you are standing next to your river or perhaps you are sitting at home. Where we are isn't as important as what we are doing.
We will work together, praying into our water, pouring our Sacred Water into our river, and following our water out to the ocean and back to our river's headwaters. For those of us standing by our rivers, we will pray into our water and then pour it into our river together. For those of us at home, we will pray into our water and then pour it into a storm drain or onto the ground in a spot where it will find it's way to our river.
So now, let's take a moment to close our eyes, wherever we are, and look back into our hearts and see the balance of earth and sky energy, the balance of emotion and wisdom.
Let us open our eyes and pick up our bowls of water, holding them close to our face. Let us say our prayers for our rivers into the water, softly sharing our love for our rivers and shaping the water molecules, transforming them into a homeopathic remedy for our rivers.
Now let us hold our water bowls over our rivers and pour them in, saying our prayers and sending a measure of our heart fire with our water as it starts to spread its healing and heads downstream for the ocean.
Close your eyes and visualize yourself traveling downstream with your Sacred Water, healing as it goes, strengthening your river's immune system, protecting the native creatures and the native plants from the pollution and invasive species that threaten it.
It is beautiful in your river; although the surface above and the river bed below are hard to make out to your eyes through the silt in the water, your other senses reach out and you can feel the dock you are passing. You sense the Sacred Water starting to effect the creatures and plants attached to the dock; you can feel it healing and transforming everything in its path.
You pass under boats above and become aware of a boater throwing their slop overboard. Before you can feel anger or disgust, you realize the Sacred Water is strengthening everything around it to resist the waste and to stay healthy. Then you realize that the Sacred Water is even affecting the thoughtless boater and will cause them to next time hold their waste until they return to dock.
As you flow with your river, you lose track of time and your human concerns. Instead, you become aware of how the river is growing wider and more powerful as creeks and streams join it. Even though some of those streams are largely polluted, your Sacred Water defends your river and strengthens its resistance and its health.
You become aware of some turbulence ahead in your river. You are approaching tide bars at its entrance to the ocean! You have traveled so very far and now you are accompanying your Sacred Water as it joins the ocean's vastness.
Your senses expand and you become aware of the multitude of life around you. Your Sacred Water continues to expand and to transform the plants and creatures that it comes in contact with. You can feel that the ocean and its inhabitants are very sick, but the Sacred Water is helping it heal and strengthen.
Soon, you sense the presence of other beings on their shamanic journeys, accompanying their Sacred Water. You sense the Sacred Waters combining and increasing their healing effects on our oceans and their water.
You become aware of various migratory fishes, like the salmon, and you realize that you can tell where they come from, just as they themselves can. You sense the combined Sacred Waters attaching themselves to these migratory fish, with some of your Sacred Water joining with fish headed for their home rivers far away and other's Sacred Water joining with fish headed for your river. You decide to follow the migratory fish headed back to your river.
Your fish swim through the ocean, the combined Sacred Water touches everything, giving healing and strength. Soon, you feel the turbulence of the river bars of the entrance to your river. As you pass over the bars with your fish, you become aware of the damage done here by the industrialization of the river. But you are also aware of the healing being brought by the Sacred Waters. There IS hope.
As you head back upstream, you see some of the fish head up the creeks and streams, carrying the Sacred Water's healing with them. You are content knowing that your prayers are being heard by the plants and animals touched by your Sacred Waters, no matter how dilute they may be.
As you go back upstream, you see the boats above and debris on the riverbed, but you can sense the Sacred Water doing it's work, strengthening and healing everything it touches.
Even so, you realize that you want to do more. You want to work with others who share your love for your river; you want to find new ways to heal your river and to be part of the transformation being made by the Sacred Water.
It is then that you realize the Sacred Water is healing and strengthening you too. The complacency and the acceptance of what seems so inevitable falls away and you feel the Sacred Water strengthening your determination to protect your river.
As your heart fills with gratitude and love for your river, you realize you have returned to where you left your physical body.
Taking a last look around with your senses, you see your river. You see the surface and the bed, the plants and the animals, and you realize it is time to return now. Return to your life feeling strong and healthy, knowing you can return to your river when you need to, even if you are not physically close.
But for now, focus on your breath. Breath in. Breath out. Feel your body. You are back in this time and this space, whether it is alongside your river or in your home. Breath in. Breath out.
Open your eyes and see that you are here … now.
Kathryn Ravenwood's book How to Create Sacred Water can be purchased on Hathor's Mirror.
 The Seventh Annual Women's Visionary Congress
June 14 - 16, 2013 in Petaluma, CA
The seventh annual Women's Visionary Congress (WVC) will take place from June 14 - 16, 2013 at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) Earthrise Retreat Center, near Petaluma, California. The WVC is a gathering of visionary women healers, scholars, activists and artists who study consciousness and altered states. The gathering supports the transfer of knowledge among women who apply the insights of their research and spiritual path. The WVC welcomes interested women and men to join us as we talk, dance, eat and participate in a series of conversations with wise women. Presenters at the 2013 WVC include anthropologist Beatriz Labate, alchemical healer Nicki Scully, and philosopher and psychologist Ralph Metzner.
The WVC is a benefit for the V Fund that makes grants to support the work of visionary women. Tickets are $350 which includes delicious food, lodging and a $75 membership to the Women's Visionary Council, the 501(c)3 nonprofit which organizes the event. You can purchase tickets here.
For more information, contact Natalie Engber at info@visionarycongress.org.
Exploring the Great Work: An Egyptian Mysteries Retreat
Co-Created & Led by Normandi Ellis & Nicki Scully
June 20 - 24, 2013 in Eugene, Oregon
 Normandi Ellis (author of six books, including Awakening Osiris and Dreams of Isis) and Nicki Scully will be co-leading this intensive exploration of the ancient Egyptian teachings in a new, modern context. Under the guidance of Thoth, the lunar god of wisdom, we will learn how the ancients worked with natural laws that enhanced their abilities to create opportunities for magic to happen, and how that work can prepare us for the next stage of our evolutionary process.
Based on what we did on our last tour, we will be moving forward and deeper into the mysteries of Thoth and Isis. We will be bringing the energies expressed in the sacred sites and temples of Egypt home, so that wherever we stand, wherever we are, the power of these mysteries will be accessible to us.
Although the breadth of what we will cover is still a mystery, and details are rarely revealed until before and during the retreat, we know we will enter new portals into ancient teachings and learn how the ancients worked with natural laws that enhanced their abilities to create opportunities for magic to happen, and to further prepare us for the next stage of our evolutionary process.
This retreat is about how thoughts are things, about magic-making, and the study of natural law. We know about the laws of vibration and like-attracts-like—the laws of manifestation and abundance are commonly spoken about. Yet there are more subtle laws, especially as expressed within the Egyptian Mysteries. For example, the law of environment defines how we make and work with sacred space and how we relate to it as a thought form. When we are with a group of like-minded people, as in like-attracts-like, things can happen that wouldn't otherwise happen. There are lots of other hidden laws that we will explore in this retreat, within the context of a new body of work designed by Thoth.
This retreat will be held at the Lyceum of Shamanic Egypt, in the hills near Eugene, Oregon. The retreat begins with dinner on June 20 and finishes after lunch on June 24.
For more information/to register please visit Hathor's Mirror.
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Nine days and nights of beauty, serenity, and the magic of Egypt; we have been sailing down the Nile. Our group has been working on an alchemy for transforming ourselves and our communities, and revisioning the world with the help and support of the Egyptian neteru. Each monument has opened a new way of perceiving through our rites and rituals, and our one-hearted pod of intrepid travelers are filled almost to capacity…
As soon as I return home, I am diving into the next 
Lastly, for the moment, I wish to invite all my friends who love Egypt to join Normandi Ellis and me for our (mostly) yearly 