Ethical Considerations for
Healing Circles
s magickal practitioners, most of us have an interest and an involvement in one or more healing arts. Healing spells and candle magick, Reiki, meditation, and the recitation of mantra and prayers are just a few of the many methods magickal persons employ with the noble goal of imparting healing and blessings to others. In times of need we also like to band together as a community to send healing in circles and groups to community members and those dear to community members. Further, we often like to contribute healing energies to masses of people and places affected by world events. However, there are ethics to consider when doing any healing work. The healing circle should discuss and explore the scope of the work so as to properly assess what exactly is an ethical scope in which to send healing.
First, it should be mentioned that while there are certainly magickally minded people who are also in medical professions, that is not the type of healing we will address here. The healing methods, modalities, and ethics surrounding them that will be discussed in this piece are in the domain of spiritual healing modalities and not medical. The medical professions have their own ethical realms, protocols, practices, and governances. In fact, there is considerably more discussion and material available elsewhere to read on medical ethics than there is on the ethics for those engaged in spiritual healing. So, let’s begin our discussion regarding just a slice of the ethical questions for spiritual healing, the question of the scope of healing circles.
Most gatherings of healing practitioners have a distance-healing ceremony of some kind in which healing is sent on behalf of the collected group to those who are not present. Even gatherings that aren’t focused explicitly on healing will often perform one at some point toward the end of the proceedings, even if it’s a small component amid the proceedings. After all, historically if you have a group of Witches, Druids, and the like, you have a group with a natural inclination toward the healing arts at hand. It’s a powerful and fulfilling experience to be part of a community that sends healing into the ethers for others, including your loved ones. This is an admirable practice, but ethics must be followed and ground rules laid, or the effort can quickly slide into the darker shades of the magickal gray area.
Obtaining Permission
Permission is a paramount issue to discuss and make sure everyone understands. Much of the rest of the scope and ethics are decided from that juncture. Do you have express permission from the person to send them healing? This is a paramount ethical tenant in the ethos of many healing modalities. In spiritual healing it is well accepted that you cannot help those who do not want to be helped. Permission makes the intent of all involved parties clear.
The most ideal route for obtaining this permission is asking the person in need directly if they would be open to you and others performing healing for them with whatever method it is you plan to use. Often times people in need will be more than open to various healing modalities, but some people, due to their personal background, beliefs, or other reasons, may not wish to partake of certain methods. I find it is rare, but it does occur, and their wishes should be respected.
There is an oft-mentioned gray area that arises with this point, however. Many feel it is okay to ask, “May I pray for you?” and then proceed to do whatever form of healing it is they practice for the person. Those practitioners view their healing practice as their form of prayer. This is a semantics game and a definite gray area. What would I do? This depends on context and the specific case. I generally will not perform the healing and will not use a semantics guise if the person’s personal morals, ethics, or beliefs are against it. I must respect them. However, if it is simply that they may not understand what Reiki is if I used the term, for example, then I’ll go ahead and use the rephrasing of prayer, obtain permission, and proceed to do the Reiki. This is of course only in cases in which I know the person well enough to understand that they’d be open to it if I were in a position to fully explain it. Sometimes the moment of need is not the moment ripe for education of what a certain term means.
This leads to a common issue in group healing circles: permission is often overlooked. Facilitators fail to mention in the preface to performing the healing that any persons worked on or names placed in the healing circle need to be people that permission has been granted from. This is often an innocent omission by an experienced facilitator who knows it’s common sense to ask, and it slipped their mind to be explicit. Many people, especially “newbies,” might either not have been taught this important ethic, or some may be so caught up in the desire of wanting to help a loved one that they aren’t thinking clearly about if it’s proper to put their loved one forth in the ceremony. I’ve attended countless Reiki Shares with distance healing circles, and I coordinate a shamanic healing circle. I have had several participants who were asked if the person they are requesting work for has granted permission, and we arrived at an answer of . . . no. If you are a facilitator for an event with a distance healing component, please take the utmost care to remember to be explicit with the importance of permission. If you are an attendee and the facilitator does not preface with a word about permission, feel free to speak up and inquire. The reaction to this from an educated and ethical healing arts practitioner will be one of gratitude for reminding them to speak a few words on the matter.
The Gray Areas of Permission
What do we do regarding permission when we have a large tragedy? When there is a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other situation when entire groups or populations are in potential need of healing, how exactly do we tackle the obtaining of permission? This is an important question. The answer takes a certain amount of experience to determine. This is in large part due to gray areas and various variables. Surely, we cannot in this case obtain permission for every individual in a city affected by a tragedy, for example. Also, we certainly don’t want to dismiss the fact there are many people in need who are likely agreeable to receiving needed healing in such a dire time and also are not in a position to be able to grant us permission directly. So, the question is, how do we step into the gray area while doing our best not to compromise our ethics? There is a caveat that is employed by many healing arts practitioners to assist in these tricky cases. It has no universal name, but let’s dub it the “highest good clause.” This involves setting your intention in your opening prayer prior to doing the healing and inserting verbiage in your statement or prayer that the healing only be for the person’s “highest good” or state that the person’s “higher self may accept or reject as they see fit.” This is of course imperfect. However, so would be doing nothing when we can do something, in the eyes of many. In fact, many in the healing arts and helping professions find it unethical to not help in some way, even if small. In situations of mass suffering, these clauses and caveats may perhaps satisfy the gray area for you in many instances. Apply your own judgment. I find this an easier method to stomach in cases of groups so large or far away that we cannot obtain permission rather than with nearby individuals, which I will address shortly.
The highest good clause, while useful when applied with a bit of judgement, can lead to a slippery slope if not judiciously used. For example, I find that when it is applied, perhaps rightfully so, in a healing circle where names are being spoken aloud into the circle, the situation can quickly devolve to people passionately and mindlessly including the name of every large group they can think of, for which permission might be grayer even under the clause. This is especially true when it comes to statements that roll out of mouths: we aim to address “all those running in the election,” which moves to “our entire government,” which moves to “everyone in our country,” and then “everyone in the entire world!” It can be a runaway train with absolutely no discernment. Surely, the ethics of asking for healing for every person in a governmental body or country is not the best application of such a clause.
Perhaps we can use some judgment and better apply it to a group affected by a tragedy, under duress, for which no possible way to grant permission is possible. I understand there are some pretty dire situations around the world, but I hardly think we can blanket permission-slip the entire human population. We need to use discernment and apply a bit more of a thought process when it comes to permission and when to default to a highest good clause and when to hold off. I’m not opposed to its use, but people use it with merry abandon as an excuse rather than as a pragmatic tool in applicable situations. Many of the large groups of people that it gets hastily applied to have members who would not accept such efforts. Healing should have focus and benefits from it. There is power in focus, and the less focus we have by blanketing too large a group, in which many may not be in need of the work or wouldn’t wish to grant permission, dilutes the collective effort. Finding an appropriate scope for such a situation can feel tricky. We’d ideally like to find the intersection of helping the most people we can ethically send healing to while keeping the group a manageable scope for focusing power.
While we are discussing the concept of the highest good clause, it is important to also examine it in the context of a single individual. Sometimes a person is unable to consciously and expressly grant permission themselves. Perhaps the person in question is a young child and cannot really make these decisions for themselves yet. Perhaps the person is incapacitated due to level of injury, or they may be in a coma. There are numerous other scenarios that could be posited. In any situation in which you cannot obtain direct permission from the person, you might have it granted by a close loved one, caretaker, spouse, adult child, or similar. Keep in mind this works best if the person responds to your permission request according to what the wishes and the views of the person in question would be.
Sometimes, we don’t have an easily accessible route to permission. At that point, the highest good clause may be something to consider. It is suggested in these situations that you try to connect with the spirit of the person, their higher self, and ask permission. If you are genuinely doing this, you’ll soon find that the answer is not always a clear yes. Sometimes it will be an affirmative; other times they’ll decline, or there’ll be a bit of discussion of sorts. Then of course once permission is obtained, a line should be included in your intention or prayer at the outset, such as “for their higher self to accept or reject as they see fit.”
When Permission Isn’t Granted
After all we’ve discussed, what if we’ve not obtained permission and cannot ethically engage in the healing work? This may leave you feeling helpless, unable to assist, and as though your hands are tied. It shouldn’t leave you feeling this way, though having pangs of such emotions is understandable. Remember, it is honorable to act from an ethical place. It may feel as though we are unable to help, but even when somebody outright declines healing work, you may have provided the person something very valuable. People who end up in situations in which they are institutionalized, whether that be in a hospital, a nursing home, a mental health facility, or far more simply, temporarily bedridden with an illness, have often had the ability to make simple choices and decisions stripped from them. By approaching the person for permission, giving them a choice, and then honoring their decision, you serve to restore a bit of that power and autonomy back to them.
However, you aren’t completely left in a place of inaction. In situations when permission is unclear, not provided, or simply too broad to obtain, an acceptable alternative course of action is to do a simple prayer for peace. To pray for a person or even a large group of people to be at peace simply means to experience compassion and express the desire that, whatever their situation, they may reach a state of calm, balance, and understanding. This isn’t forcing healing upon a person who wishes not to have such intervention. Perhaps not having the intervention will allow them to be at peace. This action isn’t trying to metaphysically sway an entire political body to make policy in a very specific direction to our individual desires but rather encourages that their decisions bring peace to all. It is not inaction toward a terminally ill person; it is wishing them peace and compassion with their situation and decisions and giving them respect. To be at peace is to be free of strife. To be at peace is to have mutual harmony. Everyone’s best interests are met when peace is achieved.
An Ethical Conclusion
The discussion of what constitutes an ethical scope for healing circles and what the nuances are of having permission granted could well fill an entire lengthy volume of its own. However, hopefully this short piece has given you the contemplation points in order to navigate these waters yourself. I have offered a few of my personal opinions on what I may do; however, they are not applicable to every situation and may change depending on individual circumstances of specific situations. In the end you will have to arrive upon your own responses and develop your own moral compass in healing work.
An exploration of even moderate depth into the ethics of almost any topic will quickly lead into gray areas that will need navigation. Many have come before you with varying opinions to give you reference along the path, but when it comes to a real-life situation . . . it is you who will have to apply your moral compass, knowledge, and experience to the questions in front of you. Hopefully, what you’ve read here will assist you in that. I wish you and those you come in contact with peace, compassion, and good health!