How to Give Yourself a Treatment

Mr. Tambourine Man (Live at the Newport Folk Festival. 1964)

The Retreat

How to Give Yourself a Treatment

by James Clair Lewis

We stand on our feet, and the feet support the body. Thus the greatest stresses are placed on the feet, and in healing this is the place you should start. Tension in the feet travels up the legs, creating problems as it goes along. Pain will make the muscles go into spasm, and this will pull ligaments and the spine out of alignment, causing all sorts of problems.

Begin with the big toe of the left foot. There is a channel there that leads right up the leg. Grasping it from the nail & the bottom, squeeze it a few times. Then use the thumb & forefinger knuckles to squueeze it from the sides. Work inward toward where the big toe joins the foot. Wiggle the big toe sideways a few times. You might cause an adjustment doing this, resulting in a little "POP!", and a big release of tension. There is an important point between the big toe, and the one next to it. Make sure you work on that with the tip of your forefinger. Finish the big toe by gently tugging it away from the foot a few times.

Repeat this process with all of the other toes.

Now we can finish the toes by pulling them as a group upward toward the knee. It's a stretching exercise for a tiny group of muscles that tend to get cramped in the same position all the time.

The pad on the bottom of the foot near the toes comes next. Knead it from the toes down toward the heel, and from the center outward. Now work on the ball of the foot near the big toe. There is a point on its side that links to a channel running right up the leg.

The arch on the bottom of the foot has many points that are related to the internal organs. Begin massaging along the center, & gradually work outwards. Then grasp the outer edge of the foot, and progressively squeeze in in a rolling motion working toward the heel. Now work in the same way on the inside arch along the side. This area is connected to the spine & needs more attention ususally.

The heel generally takes quite a beating, although it is quite tough. Grasp it firmly & squeeze rhythmicly. Manipulate the heel from side to side, & around in several directions. Now work on the tendon in a similar manner, until you reach the ankle. With the top of the foot you begin in the ankle area & employ a spreading motion down toward the toes. Finish off the foot by grasping the body of it with both hands, and spread it outward several times. Manipulate it from side to side, and also gently bend & twist it.

Sometimes you will hear little adjustment POPs. hehehe Shake the accumulated negative energies vigorously into the floor from your hands, and you may need to pass some of your patient's magnetic current out of your left side. Take a break, before continuing with the next step in the treatment.

Grasp the back of the calf at the bottom & squeeze firmly. Gradually work up to the area behind the knee. The area just behind the knee needs special attention. Now work forward on the sides of the calf at the top. An often neglected area, lies on either side of the shin bone. Use a knuckle or the thumb, to dig in between the shinbone & the muscle on the outside, starting at the bottom & working toward the top. Repeat this process on the inside.

The knees take almost as much a beating as the feet, so they also need special attention. The two tendons underneath that lead up into the thigh, usually are quite stressed. Grasping from above with the thumbs pointed toward the knee, rhythmicly squeeze, while employing a circular motion with the thumbs on the top, & using the fingers to spread down below. Now move the fingers down below to work on the upper portion of the calf again.

Use the inside of the edges of the hand to work on the sides of the knees, then the tips of the fingers to dig in around the front of the knee, and then the thumbs to massage the area of muscles just above the top of the knee.

Now, grasping from above with the thumbs pointed toward the knee, rhythmicly squeeze, while employing a circular motion with the thumbs on the top, & using the fingers to spread down below, work up the thigh. Special attention should be given to the areas where the leg joins at the hips.

When working on the butt, and all large muscle groups in general, most people massage the body of the muscles. It is much more effective to work on the edges, the places where muscles connect to other muscles, ligaments & bones.

On the butt, begin at the bottom, where it connects to the thighs, and work around to the outer sides. Continue around to the top, and then work down each side of the center. Having massaged in order, the toes, the feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, & the butt, you will have relaxed the body enough, so that the spine will begin to go into alignment all by itself.

We use our hands all the time, but people seldom think to massage them. Like the feet, the hands have acupuncture meridians to all the other parts of the body, so doing the hands well reaches everything.

Like the toes, the fingers are a good place to start, & you can use the same relative spots on them. The major difference is that with fingers, you have more of an opportunity to work on the knuckles. One good thing to do is to take each finger at the place where it joins the hand, and work outward toward the tip. Squeeze & twist & pull firmsly, but gently, & much tension will be released.

Attention should also be given to the two large muscles of the palm of the hand, both the one connecting the thumb with the palm, and also the one opposite it on the other side. Remember that the edges need more attention than the body of the muscles.

Spend some time working on the wrists. Manipulate the tissues around them, & twist the wrist around in various directions. Now begin working up the arm toward the elbow. Pay attention to the arrangement of the muscles & ligiments. These connections are the places where you will want to concentrate your efforts. I want you to understand where to focus your efforts in massage, because most people simply go for the easy & the quick results, and skip over the not so obvious places, where long-term Healing can be effected.

The areas just above & below the elbow, need such attention, & also some time should be allocated toward grasping the point of the elbow itself. Areas that appear to be only bone, give good results to massage, because of the neural connections that nexus in them.

Now do the biceps, & work up over to the shoulder muscles toward the neck. Then switch over to the triceps, and continue around to the chest.

If you are working on yourself, put the elbows in front of you, & reach back with your hands on either side of your neck. If you are working on someone else, then grasp the same area, using your thumbs. Rythmicly dig in, working from the outside toward the neck. Then work downward on either side of the spine to the shoulder blades. Now go back to the neck, & repeatedly squeeze both sides.

There are acupuncture points in the ears which reach all over the body. Begin by grasping the lobes between the thumbs & forefingers, for a number of squeezes. Then work your way up around the back side of the ear on the rim, & forward down the front side of the rim. This is like a spiral, going slowly inward to the center.

Place your fingers on the sides of the cheeks, with the tips of the fingers up on the cheekbone. Use a circular motion working along the bone, then do the cheeks themselves. Finish this area by going from the back of the jawbone toward the front.

Now work upward across the mouth to the nose. Dig in just below the nose, before working up its sides. The bridge of the nose needs some attention before you work below the eyes, and around to the temples. From the temples, work over to the forehead, & then down to the eyebrows. Work the eyebrows from the inside, back over to the temples, and forward onto the forehead itself. Gradually work up the scalp, & then back down the head to spend some more time on the neck.

Not much work needs to be done on the front of the body, but it can use a little attention anyway. Starting at the crotch work upwards, using a gripping & squeezing motion in the stomach area. At the solar plexus, use the fingers along each of the ribs & work outwards. Along the sides, start a the hips, and work your way up to the armpits. Now work your way along underneath the collar bone to the center, and then along the top of the collar bone out ward to the sides of the neck, and spend some time again around to the back of the neck, working toward the base of the skull.

A useful technique for constipation, is to make a fist with the right hand, and roll it around from the right side of the gut, up & across the stomach to the left side, and then down & acoss again. Do this several times. This clockwise motion is the direction used in the bowels for elimination, & encourages things to get moving along.

There are a number of areas on the back that you will probably have difficulty reaching, nevertheless it is possible to work on the back anyway. Begin just above the hip bone & work inward, massaging both sides of the sacrum, & then up on either side of the spine, as far as you can go.

The sides are easy to reach, although you may want to use the right hand on the left side & the left hand on the right side, working up to the armpit. The areas between the ribs need as much attention as you can give them.

To work on the shoulders you will want to combine the use of opposite hands with using both hands together on their same sides. Work down from the neck massaging on either side of the vertibra. Also with both hands grasping the shoulders, you can use an alternating motion, pulling forward from the back to the front.

Like everyone else I've known who had this knowledge, I believed that massage was either something you did for other people, or which someone else did for you. When I began writing about these techniques, I had to do them on myself, in order to correctly be able to explain to other people how they were done. What I discovered, was that massage is almost as effective when you do it yourself. There are things that you will learn while working on yourself, that would take a long time to figure out, if you only worked on others.

Moreover, I have discovered that this technique is an ideal prelude to performing the higher works of contemplation, meditation, & magick...

In using these massage techniques on myself on a daily basis, I have a few notes to add. A daily 20 to 30 minute treatment will relieve a lot more than mere physical tension. Since each treatment will take care of more than a single day's accumulated tension, you will begin to find that your mind will start to relax, and that you will begin to see things from a much wider perspective. This will eliminate many of the causes of tension before they can arise.

There is an order of things to do when you give yourself a treatment, which helps address the issue of the fact that you are using some of the muscles that you want to relax, and that that will tend to tighten them up.

Begin with the toes of the left foot, and then do the toes of the right foot. Now work on the left foot from the ankle down to the toes. Then work on the right foot from the ankle down to the toes. Switch back to the left, and work from the knee & calf down again to the toes. Switch to the right, and work from the knee & calf down to the toes. Now on the left, start where the thigh joins the torso working down again, and then do the same on the right. Then work around the sacrum & the butt & lower back on the left side, before moving on down again. Then do the same for the right side. This repeated cascading action will work progressively to relax the body, and also allow you to find spots you missed, and places where tensions redevelop right after you've worked on them.

Now work around the base of the neck, and as far down the back by the spine, as you can reach on the left side. Then do this on the right side, too. Then with both hands massage just below the back of the neck, and work up to your head. Next work on the area around the back of the neck, moving over across to the left shoulder, and give it a good squeeze where the arm begins. Do the same on the right side. Repeat this again on the left, but work down to the elbow this time, and then do the same on the right side. Begin again with the left side of the neck, and work down to the left wrist, and afterwards, repeat on the right.

Reach down with both hands, and work on the butt from the center of the sacrum outwards. Then, work on the lower back from the spine outward to both sides. Gradually repeat this process up the back as far as you can comfortably go. The work from the left armpit down along the left side of the body to the left hip, and repeat the process on the right side. Now work with both hands from the belly gradually upwards arcoss the front of the body. At the Solar Plexus work outward with both hands along the rib cage, and gradually repeat this until both hands have done just below the collar bone.

Go to the left wrist, and work around it gradually across the palm, and then do the fingers. Repeat this on the right. Now use both hands around the upper back around the shoulders, working up to and around the neck. Use both hands together on the head, beginning with the front of the neck, then the jaw bone, the cheeks, the mouth, the nose, underneath the eyes, above the eyes, the forehead, up & around the scalp to the back of the head. And finally, you can finish the whole process by doing your ears.

This should only take between 20 to 30 minutes a day.

Additionally in my practice, I listen to soothing music while doing the massage. I have a very long piece of New Age music I composed about 10 years ago, and I find it ideal, but symphonic classical music or an Indian raga should do as well.

Now one major point that brings this all together, and makes it extremely effective, is this. While doing the massage, do not think about anything whatsoever, EXCEPT the doing of the massage. Your mind will probably drift off from time to time, but whenever you notice this, drop that train of thought, and go back to solely being aware of the massage process. The result of this is a state of consciousness of the deepest relaxation, which magnifies the effect of the physical process. Once you have achieved this state, you will be perfectly centered, and prepared for any Magickal work you choose to undertake.

Some of the thoughts that will run through your mind while doing the massage, may be of a negative nature. These will be bad memories of hurtful things that happened, and wounded your Spirit. You have carried them around with you long enough. The massage has brought them up to the surface, and now it is time to let them go...

These animated Moving Mandalas are very large files. Please click on the pic, and wait for it to load. The Contemplation will be very enabling, carrying your Mind beyond the mundane world

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