Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
The Art of True Healing
Raise an inner sense of vitality through breath and light-visualisation, then consciously direct that ‘light’ (with affirmation) toward a part of the body or a need — a self-vitalising, self-suggestion practice.
Art of True Healing: Rhythmic breath.
(1) Form a white sphere above the crown (vibrate Eheieh) — “quietly and easily.”
(2) Draw the light down the central column (Middle Pillar centres + names), building it.
(3) Let the breath + light build a felt vitality.
(4) Direct the light into the chosen region/need, with a positive affirmation of wholeness.
(5) Circulate, settle, ground. A complement to real care, never a substitute.
What it is
The Art of True Healing (1932) is Regardie’s short, accessible book that first presented his simplified Middle Pillar — and then took the extra step the pure Middle Pillar leaves implicit: once you have raised and circulated the inner “light,” you consciously direct it, with affirmation, toward a part of yourself that needs vitalising — a tired organ, a tense region, a flagging mood, a goal.
It is the applied, self-suggestion face of the Golden Dawn energy work: build the felt charge, then aim it. Where the Middle Pillar is a balanced daily integration and the Circulation balances the whole field, this is targeted self-vitalising — closest in spirit to New Thought healing-imagery and auto-suggestion (contrast Simonton’s medical imagery, and Wattles’ image of perfect health), but routed through Regardie’s Qabalistic light-and-breath frame.
The Method
Sit relaxed; begin with rhythmic breathing (the Fourfold Breath):
- Form the crown sphere. Imagine above the head “a ball or sphere of brilliant white light.” Don’t force it — “this should be done quietly and easily,” and when the mind wanders, “gently lead it back” while vibrating Eheieh. Dwell on it for some minutes until it feels vivid.
- Bring the light down through the centres. Draw the shaft of light down through the body’s central column, forming the spheres of the Middle Pillar (throat, heart, pelvis, feet), vibrating the divine name at each so it “produces a rapid vibration in the cells and molecules of the tissue in that region.” Coax the mind back with the vibration whenever it drifts.
- Build and feel the vitality. Let the lit column and the rhythmic breath build a clear felt sense of charged, warm aliveness — Regardie stresses that combining the breath with the willed descent of light “produces by far the best results.” This feeling is the operative force (The Inner Creates the Outer).
- Direct the light to the target — with affirmation. Now consciously will the gathered light to flow into the chosen region (or toward the chosen need), seeing it bathed, warmed, and vitalised, and pair it with a quiet positive affirmation of the wholeness/outcome you intend. This directed image-plus-statement is the self-suggestion that re-impresses the subconscious (The Inner Creates the Outer).
- Circulate, settle, ground. Circulate the remaining light around the body (the fountain), let it settle into the feet/earth, and rest a moment before opening your eyes. (Sourcing note: a faithful summary of The Art of True Healing (1932), including Regardie’s “quietly and easily” / “gently lead it back” guidance; short quotes are fair-use. Divine names follow the standard Middle Pillar attributions.)
Source & Lineage
Israel Regardie wrote The Art of True Healing in 1932, six years before the fuller Middle Pillar — it is the seed of his life’s work of making Golden Dawn energy practice simple, practical, and psychologically literate.
Regardie blended Qabalistic light-work with the era’s New Thought and auto-suggestion currents and with his own clinical training, presenting visualisation and affirmation as the engine. The book remains in print (later editions subtitled The Unlimited Power of Prayer and Visualization). → (Regardie node); kin.
Common refinements
Forcing the light. Regardie’s own warning — do it “quietly and easily”; strain collapses the relaxation that makes it work.
- Image without feeling, or feeling without affirmation. Both halves matter: build the felt vitality, then name the intended wholeness.
- Skipping the breath. The rhythmic breathing is what carries the descent of light; without it the image stays thin.
- No grounding / no circulation at the end. Leaves people “buzzy”; always circulate and settle the light into the feet.
- Treating it as medicine. The single biggest error — see Safety.