At The Intersection of Chronic Illness & Ritual

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

Long before I knew I had a chronic, degenerative illness (Ankylosing Spondylitis, a disease that fuses your vertebrae and joints together), I lived with fatigue and widespread pain and chronic eye inflammation (which, of course, led to reduced vision on top of cataracts from steroid treatment).  

It took a decade (with on and off insurance) to convince doctors that I wasn't inventing an illness, that my eyes weren't red from "contact irritation," that my pain wasn't from getting older, that my tiredness wasn't from binge-drinking or staying out late dancing. (To be fair, I did all of those things, but the heaviness in my bones was its own strange animal, an animal that I lugged along with me while all of my friends bounced back after a night out). 

Many people with chronic illness (especially with autoimmune diseases) have ventured down the same winding path--medical neglect or disbelief, lack of resources, lack of knowledge in the medical community, lack of diagnoses, and a lack of support. 

If you are the only person you know with an autoimmune disease or a chronic illness (or, really, any type of lasting body trauma), you know how isolating and fear-inducing it can be. Do you really know your body if your body is betraying you? Do you have a handle on your own future? Are you somehow no longer the same? Can you get the help you need? 

My body was two people. A young girl, and a bag of blood, going on a bender, following no directions, attacking herself. I was lost to my selves.

When I finally convinced doctors to test me (for HLA-B27 antigen, plus an MRI to detect fusion), the diagnosis was an existential blow. I suspected the disease, of course--as my father has it--but knowing that I'd never, ever be cured felt like a sentence to me. For a year, I wallowed. I felt self-pity, I felt out of control, and I was on the edge of constant sadness. I felt lame. I felt silly. Here I was in my early thirties being told I might be fused together later on, my body a prison, my body no longer mine, but a shackle keeping some version of me tucked down deep inside. 

I had always turned to ritual throughout life, especially when times got rough. Ritual is there for these times. It establishes a sense of order, it makes space specifically for the self, and it encourages focus, intention, and growth. 

I used ritual to help me escape those constant thoughts of worry, anxiety, self-doubt, exhaustion, and fear. I used ritual to establish routine and self-care and self-empowerment. Through lighting candles each week night as a way to make rest time to decorating an altar in honor of myself and my body, I became an advocate for myself. There were many: bathing in lavender to intentionally create a sense of fluidity, journaling nightly through pain (using that painful energy to focus and transmit change and manifestation). If it all sounds woo-woo, consider this: anything you do for yourself is a ritual already. Anything you put your mind to is more likely to happen. Any time you carve out for yourself is sacred. It's an act of warfare against chaos and self-loss. It's a reclamation, a creation, a magical hour. 

Ritual helped me back to myself: I felt stronger, more determined to make time for myself, more connected to the simple things that made life fulfilling and beautiful (rest, a walk in nature, time to write, creativity). The disease no longer controlled me; instead, it was a part of me, as a sad friend in need of love and time and cooperation. I was a vessel for opportunity, not despair. 

A year after my diagnosis, I also went on to write a book, Light Magic for Dark Times--which is a collection of rituals and practices for hard times. I even included a portion on body and identity, and chronic illness. 

I will be leading a workshop on chronic illness and ritual at MNDFL Meditation in NYC on July 21. I hope you will come, as it will be an open, safe space. We will discuss chronic illness, meditate, and map strategies for self-care and self-empowerment. All are welcome!

You can RSVP here. 

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About the event

Welcome to Strong Women Project's first women's wellness workshop! 

We're connecting with MNDFL in the West Village to provide free workshops to focus on our wellness. Our first workshop is led by Lisa Marie Basile. Darley Stewart, SWP Founder and Curator, will also speak about chronic illness in the context of recent findings. We'll also do some light meditation and stretching to kick off the workshop.

Lisa Marie Basile will discuss what it means to establish ritual as a way of encountering one's chronic illness or other body-mind related traumas. Ritual might mean bookending one's day with someone positive and encouraging but it can also mean going deep and dark and peering into the abyss of self to confront the pain/shame/etc of chronic illness. You can expect to feel like you are part of a loving community and to come away with a set of tools that can help you when you feel overwhelmed or lost, or are just looking to transmorph your experience into art or inspiration. It's a balance of light and dark. Lisa Marie Basile is the author of "Light Magic for Dark Times," a modern guide of rituals and daily practices for inspired living. 

We also have a meet-up page! 

Light Magic for Dark Times: Practices for Magical Living, Resiliency, & Self-Care

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

Hello, Luna Luna readers—it's your long, lost editor-in-chief. This post is looooong overdue, but alas, summer languidness and a lack of time. So, I've got an announcement: I wrote a book, and it's called Light Magic for Dark Times! It is available for preorder now, and it's out in September.

In a way, this book is the official Luna Luna collection of rituals and practices for grief, resiliency, shadow work, sex magic, writing magic, body and identity appreciation, regeneration, love, trauma, creativity, and glamour. I'm so out of my mind excited!

In the fall of last year, I was approached by a publishing house, Quarto Books (the leading global publisher of illustrated nonfiction!)—whose editor had been reading Luna Luna (and one of my posts about grief rituals). They asked me if I'd be interested in writing a longer book of what they'd seen—so we went back and forth on some ideas. As a poet and essayist, this felt like a beautiful challenge, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't difficult. I had been practicing magic for so long—and in a really intimate, quiet, chaotic, eclectic and solitary way (more on that here), so I wanted to make sure that my work was accessible and inclusive to be understood and used by anyone, including people who also had their own set ways of practicing. Magic is something we all have within us, and I believe removing barriers to that personal power is so important—especially in times when we feel we've lost our autonomy or sense of joy. 

As a former foster care youth, a trauma survivor, and someone with a chronic illness, feelings of out-of-control-ness have been no stranger to me. Those feelings can impact your self-esteem and your creativity, your resiliency, your hope, your desire, and the way you engage with the world around you. I wanted to share some of my personal practices and rituals that helped me through all of that. And I brought my experiences as a poet, empath, community builder, and writer to the book, too (so, yes it's even got a poetry section).

It was important to me that the book be a collection of practices that could both honor and manage our shadow selves and our light. They're one in the same, I think; they just move along on a spectrum, sometimes hand in hand, sometimes separately. 

Oh, and the foreword is written by Kristen J. Sollee, the amazing, inimitable, wonderful author of Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring The Sex Positive. 

Would you like to preorder the book?! You can do just that anywhere you can get books (Amazon, your local indie book store, B&N, and more). It can be preordered in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada here. It can even be preordered at Target and Walmart (wild, right?).

Oh, and here are some photos from the writing & editing process:

Having a mini flip out, witches! The black font on the cover and the crystal-like design on the back will be foiled (so, *shiny*). The inside covers will be pearlescent. Excuse me as I do a hundred cartwheels down the street. Also, preorder link is in the bio BUT message me if you want links to alternate ordering methods or if you’re in Canada, NZ, Aus, or the UK! 🖤

A post shared by Lisa Marie Basile (@lisamariebasile) on Jun 12, 2018 at 10:37am PDT

I am soooo excited to share one of the GORGEOUS images from the intro to Light Magic for Dark Times 💛The talented @adagracee captured me (wearing my actual crown from @sthedwigatelier) so beautifully. I cannot wait for you to see the rest of the book. I’m so in love with the small touches of color, like magic, that sweep in and out of the book. They’re quiet but deliberate. They’re intentional. I’m so excited. You can preorder the book by visiting the link in my bio! 💛

A post shared by Lisa Marie Basile (@lisamariebasile) on May 10, 2018 at 12:09pm PDT

🖤 I’m really fascinated by how we use ritual in our everyday lives—and how it intersects with wellness and healing and creativity. So I started a new blog, lightmagicdarktimes.com—please check out my new column #RitualTalk, which is an interview series that encounters ritual from varied points of view. To kick things off I spoke with some of the most magical people I know: @mythsofcreation + @tristamarieedwards + @lezacantoral + @darleystewart. Visit: lightmagicdarktimes.com 🖤

A post shared by Lisa Marie Basile (@lisamariebasile) on May 7, 2018 at 10:53am PDT

💎I got a beautiful surprise from my publisher in the mail today! My book, laid out, with all of its glorious art—illustrations by @adagracee—ready to mark up. I canNOT wait to share more info and the preorder link with you all. My heart is bursting with joy.💎 . . Writing this book was a very intense and very emotional experience (and time in my life), but it was fun and pulsing and changing. I wrote it for all of us dreamers and creators and darklings and light seekers..so that we can find a path through heaviness and murk and emerge more resilient. I feel so grateful. 💎

A post shared by Lisa Marie Basile (@lisamariebasile) on Apr 18, 2018 at 3:20pm PDT

Just 10,000 more words (and then the editing phase) and I’ll have completed Light Magic for Dark Times. I’m so excited to show you all this book! For now, we’re working on illustrations (I’ll share soon!) and my publishing company and I are sending ivory & taupe organza sachets of dried rose and lavender with little spell scrolls to a sales conference. I can’t believe this is my life.🖤 The most beautiful thing about writing this book as a secular person is the opportunity to explore the very real magic in everyday things—in care and kindness, rituals of routine, in creativity, in self-love, in looking into the abyss. 🌸 #LightMagicforDarkTimes #poet #witch #picoftheday #nyc #magic #book #flowercrown

A post shared by Lisa Marie Basile (@lisamariebasile) on Jan 10, 2018 at 7:51am PST

🌕🌓🌑 FRIENDS. I've been sitting on a biggggg announcement for some time now: I will be publishing a nonfiction book next fall with Fair Winds Press/Quarto Knows, who is the leading global illustrated non-fiction book publisher (they've got 48 imprints, and they sell books across 50 countries and in 39 languages!). In other words: frightening! But I do think my life has led up to this point. 🌙 The book centers on DIY practices, mostly inspired by witchcraft, to get us through dark & hard times. It’s called Light Magick for Dark Times, and it's for everyone--from people specifically interested in or beginners practicing witchcraft, to people who just want to ritualize their intentions and expressions during dark, trying or hard moments. 🌓 I have had the darkest year of my life so far this year (god, haven't we all?), so when this opportunity fell into my lap (because the editor is, amazingly, a fan of @lunalunamag and reached out) it felt kismet to take it. I put a lot of thought into whether I should or not, but ultimately I decided yes. Because light wins and because I hope to be able to make tangible my compassion and love. A few of you here, my close friends, have inspired and pushed me to take this project on. 🌖 Combining my background in writing about trauma and healing and self-care, the nerdy amount of research I’ve done, and my love of ritual and witchcraft, this is *the* best book I could think to offer the world at this point in time. I'm super crazy grateful and extremely honored. 🌙 #lightmagicdarktimes

A post shared by Lisa Marie Basile (@lisamariebasile) on Nov 22, 2017 at 9:42am PST

Via @lisamariebasile: When I was writing Light Magic for Dark Times, it was important to me to make space for the reader's intuition and natural inclinations. You know what feels right for your body, your lifestyle, your beliefs. For example, spending tons of money on tools and doing elaborate rituals for self-care doesn't exactly feel right to me, so sometimes I go with my gut: wearing a color might bring me energy one day, inscribing a symbol into my palm may give me strength, and listening to "that FEELING" I'm feeling — above ALL else — might mean the difference between regret and joy. We all have magic inside of us, truly. So trust your intuition, always, and know that magic is different and personal to us all.

A post shared by Ravishly (@ravishly) on Jun 29, 2018 at 11:53am PDT

Via @lisamariebasile: As a poet and writer, I have always felt that language—the sound of a word, the shape of a letter, the idea conveyed, the musicality of the phrase spoken—is a sort of incantation. When we write, we conjure. We declare. We promise. From my book, I wanted to share a small idea—that writing is magic. If you're ever feeling down or powerless or exhausted, take a moment to write out a small incantation or declaration, to or for yourself. Use your language specifically, and write it in the present. Your power is tangible. I hope you'll check out my book, Light Magic for Dark Times for more on "Word Magic!"—@lisamariebasile 🌬🔮✨

A post shared by Ravishly (@ravishly) on Jun 29, 2018 at 6:12pm PDT

The Luna Luna Grimoire is now available for preorder! . . LIGHT MAGIC FOR DARK TIMES by editor in chief @lisamariebasile is a fully illustrated hard cover (illustrations done by the wonderful @adagracee!), full of rituals and practices, for anyone interested in modern and intentional personal power & magic. 🖤 The foreword was written by the inimitable @kristenkorvette (author of ‘Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive’ & editor of @slutist ). 🖤 . . It is definitely inspired by Luna Luna’s exploration of light and dark and her longtime experience with poetry, trauma recovery, chronic illness, death, foster care, and, of course....regeneration and creativity and autonomy and healing. There may even be an Anaïs Nin-inspired ritual—who knows? ;-)🖤 . . While the title might suggest a sort of ra-ra-positivity, the book is truly about finding a way through darkness while also honoring it and immersing yourself in it. It is accessible, the tools mentioned within are inexpensive and the rituals are flexible & autonomous to YOU—meaning everything in the book can be adapted. 🖤 . . @kristenkorvette writes, “Light Magic For Dark Times is a book I wish I had by my bedside and in my heart during my most challenging moments. It holds space for healing and exploring and awakening the parts of ourselves that we or the outside world might label dark, and offers rejuvenating rites of lightness and illumination. Basile’s spellcraft radiates love and sex-positivity, but it is certainly not hex-negative. She elevates shadow work and emphasizes the importance of delving into the dark and facing pain head on to heal. There is no trauma too deep or desire too superficial for the spells, incantations, and rituals contained in this grimoire." 🖤 . . It’s available in the US, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada—and the link to pre-order is in our bio.

A post shared by Luna Luna Magazine (@lunalunamag) on May 2, 2018 at 9:35am PDT