The Healing Craft: Healing Practices for Witches and Pagans [Paperback]

Stewart Farrar (Author), Janet Farrar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999

The Healing Craft is the first work of it's kind aimed toward the Pagan market. Although directed at those seeking to use the healing arts from a purely Pagan perspective, it will be useful to any who are interested in complementary therapies. Written with this in mind, The Healing Craft is both academic and practical, combining chapters on the necessary information required to be a healer (e.g. chapters on the physical and spiritual body) with several chapters designed to increase the reader's skills in several different healing techniques. All the chapters bring together both the orthodox medical viewpoint with that of the complementary therapist.Included within the book are chapters on Spiritual Healing, Massage and Aromatherapy, Shamanistic and Magical Practices, Counselling (with Tarot and Past Life Regression) plus a chapter on Last Rites. Obviously it is impossible to do justice to many of these subjects in a single chapter, so they have been written to!guide the reader to what they will need to learno heal others effectively, while offering basic practical skills. This makes The Healing Craft an invaluable guide to those seeking to practice healing from a holistic pagan viewpoint.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Janet and Stewart Farrar have authored eight books on witchcraft and have traveled globally giving workshops and seminars. Gavin Bone is a researcher who has been associated with the Farrars since 1993.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Publishing (WA) (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0919345182
• ISBN-13: 978-0919345188
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,052,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid overview of healing from a Craft perspective, May 30, 2000

By 

Vincent M. Silenzio "progressive.doc" (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Healing Craft: Healing Practices for Witches and Pagans (Paperback)

While implicitly touched upon in many works, few books are available that explicitly explore the world of health and healing in detail from a pagan or wiccan perspective. This unfortunate oversight has at long last been addressed. While it should come as no surprise that a medical ethnographer such as myself, who is looking at Craft healers and interested in ethnomedical systems, would find this book useful, I think the average reader with even a passing interest in healing from a Craft perspective would find the Farrar's and Bone's book a worthwhile introduction.

The authors strike a good balance between the ardently materialist conceptions of modern medicine and nursing, and the additional understanding of the non-materialist dimensions of health from the vantage point of modern pagans, wiccans, and others. For example, the brief chapter on Jung is excellent. It is not a thorough or complete dissertation, by any means, but it gives the reader a clear and concise treatment of the topic and it's specifically occult connections.

Although not a perfect book, this will nonetheless be a useful edition for anyone with an interest in health and healing and how this relates to the Craft at the dawn of the new millennium.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best On The Subject, December 23, 2001

By 

Boudica (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Healing Craft: Healing Practices for Witches and Pagans (Paperback)

This book took me a while to read, as the content was more than usually offered in this type of book. This is a massive undertaking by The Farrar's and Gavin Bone on the subject and is very professional and well written covering of the subject.

This book tackles the huge expanse of the Healing Arts as practiced by Witches and Pagans. It covers the origins of Healing in history and its association with Paganism. This book discusses various dedications, medical associations,ethics (rarely ever addressed in books on this subject) and various medical practices and techniques.

This is a text book on the subject, covering its chosen topics in depth, and is probably the best I've read. The section on Ethics of Healing, Code of Ethics and Conduct is worth having the book for that alone.

Though I am not a professional in the Healing Arts, I did find the book to be a fountain of information. Healing Rituals, self dedication rituals, information on herbs, chakras, spiritual healing, poppet work, auras; the list of topics goes on and on and is probably more information than I will ever use.

You can see the influence of Gavin Bone here, his 15 years in the medical profession shines as his input on medical and medicine related subjects. Though easy to follow, it is not a simple book by any means. It is geared toward the person who has chosen the Healing Arts as their calling and contains everything from rituals for the healer to what chakra rules what part of the body, discussion on herbs and their healing properties, counseling techniques, Shamanism and even a Last Rites Ritual.

The histories of medicine and spiritual healing are also priceless, as a collection of this information all in one book is rare. All these elements combined make the necessity of this book being in the library of anyone seriously interested in the healing arts.

The Farrar's and Gavin Bone have written a powerful book that fills the need to examine the healing arts and all its aspects deeply, professionally and with the respect it deserves.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent start, January 24, 2007

By 

Wiliam Anderson (Alsfeld, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Healing Craft: Healing Practices for Witches and Pagans (Paperback)

This is a very informative and in depth book on healing from a Pagan perspective. The information is at times hard to work through but it is worth it. Of course, one book can not a healer make but it is an excellent start.

Gavin, Stuart and Janet took a brave step in coming out and contradicting the teachings of the theosophists. It was however time. Just because their teachings were "accepted by most reputable occultists" in no way changes the fact that the theosophists were wrong. There are I suppose however individuals that still believe the world is flat. It seems that the good old theosophists never really asked the people who knew anything about the Chakra system. They had in fact though- due to their Victorianish problem with SEX - the second chakra far to the left and not centered.