Medication and Magic: Can You Do Both? (Yes)

BY NICOLE LAU

One of the most damaging myths in spiritual communities is that taking psychiatric medication means you're not spiritual enough, not trying hard enough, or blocking your psychic gifts. This is not only false—it's dangerous.

You can take antidepressants and cast spells. You can be on mood stabilizers and read tarot. You can use anti-anxiety medication and work with crystals. Not only can you do both—sometimes you must do both to heal.

This article dismantles the false binary between Western medicine and spiritual practice, and offers a framework for integrating both.

The Toxic Myth: Medication Blocks Your Spiritual Power

This belief shows up everywhere in wellness spaces:

• "Antidepressants numb your intuition."
• "You can't do energy work on SSRIs."
• "Medication is just Big Pharma suppressing your awakening."
• "If you were truly aligned, you wouldn't need pills."

The truth: Medication treats biochemical imbalances. Spirituality addresses meaning, purpose, and connection. They operate on different levels and are not in conflict.

Saying medication blocks spiritual power is like saying insulin blocks your ability to meditate. It's a category error that causes real harm.

Why This Myth Is Dangerous

When spiritual teachers shame medication use, people:

• Stop taking prescribed medication without medical supervision (dangerous)
• Refuse treatment they desperately need
• Blame themselves for "not being spiritual enough" when they can't heal through practice alone
• Experience worsening mental health crises
• Sometimes die by suicide

Spiritual bypassing—using spiritual concepts to avoid dealing with psychological or medical issues—kills people. Full stop.

How Medication and Magic Work Together

Medication and spiritual practice are complementary, not contradictory. Here's how they support each other:

Medication Stabilizes the Foundation

When your brain chemistry is severely dysregulated, you can't meditate, ground, or do energy work effectively. Your nervous system is in survival mode. Medication brings you back to baseline so spiritual practices can actually work.

Analogy: You can't build a house on quicksand. Medication stabilizes the ground; spiritual practice builds the structure.

Spiritual Practice Provides Meaning

Medication can lift depression, but it doesn't tell you why you're here or what to do with your life. Spiritual practice addresses existential questions, connects you to purpose, and helps you integrate your experiences.

Analogy: Medication fixes the car's engine; spiritual practice decides where you're driving.

Energy Work Addresses What Medication Can't

Medication regulates neurotransmitters. Energy work releases trauma stored in the body, clears energetic blockages, and restores flow. Many people need both to fully heal.

Example: SSRIs can reduce anxiety symptoms, but if your solar plexus chakra is blocked from childhood trauma, you'll still feel powerless. Energy healing addresses the somatic layer.

Real Talk: How Medication Affects Your Practice

Let's be honest about what changes when you're on psychiatric medication:

What Might Change

• Emotional range: Some people report feeling less intense highs and lows (this is often the goal)
• Dream recall: Some medications affect REM sleep and dream vividness
• Energy sensitivity: A few practitioners report feeling slightly less energetically sensitive initially

What Doesn't Change

• Your intuition (you might access it more easily when you're stable)
• Your ability to do tarot, astrology, or divination
• Your connection to spirit guides or higher self
• Your magical power or manifestation ability
• Your spiritual worth or path

Most people find their spiritual practice improves on medication because they have the mental bandwidth to actually engage with it.

Practical Integration Guidelines

1. Never Stop Medication Without Medical Supervision

If you want to try coming off medication, work with your prescriber to taper safely. Sudden withdrawal can cause serious physical and psychological harm.

2. Tell Your Doctor About Supplements and Herbs

Some spiritual practices involve herbs (St. John's Wort, kava, etc.) that interact with medications. Always disclose what you're taking.

3. Use Spiritual Practice to Support Treatment

• Meditate to manage medication side effects
• Use crystals for grounding during dosage adjustments
• Do tarot check-ins to track your mental health journey
• Create rituals around taking your medication (make it sacred, not shameful)

4. Find Spiritually-Informed Mental Health Providers

Look for therapists or psychiatrists who respect your spiritual practice. They exist. You deserve care that honors all of you.

5. Challenge Medication Stigma in Spiritual Spaces

If a teacher shames medication use, that's a red flag. Ethical spiritual leaders support your whole health, including medical treatment.

When Medication Is Non-Negotiable

Some conditions require medication, period. Spiritual practice alone is not sufficient for:

• Bipolar disorder
• Schizophrenia or psychotic disorders
• Severe clinical depression with suicidal ideation
• Severe anxiety disorders or OCD

Trying to "manifest your way out" of these conditions is like trying to meditate away diabetes. It's not how biology works.

A New Paradigm: Integrated Healing

The future of healing isn't medication or magic—it's medication and magic, therapy and tarot, psychiatry and energy work.

Your brain is part of your body. Your body is part of your energy system. Your energy system is part of your soul. Healing one level supports all the others.

Taking medication doesn't make you less spiritual. It makes you someone who honors all dimensions of your being—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

You are not broken for needing help. You are wise for accepting it.

Next in this series: The Moon Card and Anxiety: Navigating Uncertainty