Love For the Liminal

Do you ever think of yourself as a bridge?

This is a love letter to all of us who occupy the space between the things believed to be known, to the people who have to, and the people who prefer to, live with a foot in more than one reality at once.   Liminality is the space between.  Liminal, as a word, comes from the Latin root “limen,” which means “threshold.”   It is a dance across boundaries and borders.  It is the space in the ritual where one form of our identity begins to dissolve but the new skin we will soon wear has yet to be completely woven.  It is the rich territory of dreaming, rebellion, uncertainty, transmutation, growth, reclamation of all we have been and left behind, and the courageous openness to embrace change.  It is where magic can and often does happen, especially because our attachment to a fixed identity or a firm definition of reality has already been loosened.  It is the fertile darkness, where wishes are planted and new realities are born.

This loosening can be the intentional territory of spiritual disciplines from various cultures, which teach the mind to let go of what it thinks is real and permanent, in order to stretch into new horizons where delta brainwaves can be accessed while awake, and the part of us that dreams merges with the part of us that perceives what is around us in the light of day, co-creating in a lucid manner.  This kind of fluidity is an art, is the territory of the Arts, and is certainly at the heart of the Nahualismo dreaming tradition, and yet the state of liminality can come to us in many ways.  It takes many forms that we don’t always want to invite or embrace.  It can be thrust upon us by trauma, when the rug is pulled out from under the reality we have known.  It can happen with age and illness, when the physical reality is in decline, and makes room for something beyond it.  It can come with times of significant life changes that require our reconfiguration.  It can also be one’s orientation to life from birth, having been born outside of the accepted social definitions of race, gender, sexual orientation, and perhaps even beyond neuro-normative expressions and the commonly accepted limits of psychic sensing.

I like the phrase “liminal walkers,” (a term I encountered on the excellent website queernature.org) because it speaks to a sacred orientation that was acknowledged in the traditions of many Indigenous cultures, and is still evident in practice today, even without the language or sanctification of their roles.  There have always been liminal people walking ahead and leading the way towards the neuroplasticity needed to survive in changing times and to expand into larger potentials of what we can become.  It has been held as a sacred position, and it has been viewed as a threat to social and spiritual order.  There have been the Mad Seers, the Priestesses, the Two Spirits, the Quariwarmis, the Witches, the Healers, the Star Seeds, and perhaps even the borderless and the mixed race people who won’t be fully claimed by either or any of their lineages.  All of these people blur the lines, break the ego’s rigidity of identity, decolonize, and challenge by being other and both and all.  They step forward towards what is unknown and uncomfortable, breaking the old pathways and paving new ones so everyone can cross the threshold that stands before us.

There are a lot of people who live in the threshold, and perhaps, in a certain sense, we should see each other as one connected force.  It should never be underestimated how serious, and how nuanced, the challenges, attacks, and forms of oppression can be for each of these groups occupying liminal spaces, especially for those who can’t or won’t hide it, and for those who are especially feared.  The experience of each of these groups, in our times and historically, may be far from equal, but there is something shared between them as well.  They are the bridge makers, and it feels like they have been coming in strong in the last few decades.  They are deconstructing gender, race, lineage, and reality, both reclaiming ancient memory and creating new forms that challenge, demanding to be seen and met.  As the Earth shakes off the outworn skin of the Fifth Sun that brought oppression, colonization, persecution, displacement, forgetting, and the dominance of the Tonal (our belief in the external and ego driven aspects of reality over what is deeply intuitive, more spiritually subtle, and hidden), the souls bold enough to stand within the liminal and create are returning or waking up, or both.  The Earth loves the liminal.  Just like the dawn, the dusk, the shadowy phases of the moon, the eclipses, and the crossroads, it is where magic is revealed, the hidden ways open, and the imagined becomes possible.

There is a word in Nahuatl, the Indigenous language used by the Mexica (Aztecs), for liminal space.  It is Nepantla, and it means “between,” or more specifically “between times,” or more poetically “the land between lands.”  This is a very important concept, in general and for our era in particular.  The space between is the space of magic and dreaming, the bridge to a reality beyond the illusions of mind.  It is between deep sleep and waking, in the early hours of morning (for most of us) that the dreaming body is most active and the mind gives way to the soul’s desire to co-create, using the language of images.  If one reality is just next to another, then the passage between is where we can adapt ourselves in order to pass through the barrier and perceive what is outside of our mind’s rigid set of expectations.  Without the cultivation of our ability to perceive and withstand this between space, we can easily miss the full spectrum of our consciousness and the magic of our rich and complex world.  We need a relationship with the liminal in order to evolve.

And our evolution is at hand.  We have arrived at the time of the Sixth Sun, a time of reversal from what we have known.  The intuitive, subtle, internal, and dreaming forces are in the lead energetically and the gifts we have had to bury for our survival are perhaps the exact ones we need most to call in this new era, and to thrive within it.  We are standing at the threshold, in the years that are like the land between lands, and we are trying to land, to feel the change fully.  Before our world can reflect it to us, we need to heal enough to walk confidently on liminal ground, like the bravest among us.  We need to honor the people who are bridges.  We need to be the bridges.  We will need our bridges.  Those who are less attached to things as they are may also be able to see what others don’t notice, to dream into new possibilities, and perhaps to stand strong when change is at the door.  Bridges have a role to play.

From Gloria E. Anzaldua’s This Bridge We Call Home:

“Bridges are thresholds to other realities, archetypal, primal symbols of shifting consciousness.  They are passageways, conduits, and connectors that connote transitioning, crossing borders, and changing perspectives.  Bridges span liminal (threshold) spaces between worlds, spaces I call nepantla, a Nahuatl word meaning tierra enter medio.  Transformations occur in this in-between space, an unstable, unpredictable, precarious, always-in-transition space lacking clear boundaries.  Nepantla es tierra desconocida, and living in this liminal zone means being in a constant state of displacement–an uncomfortable, even alarming feeling.  Most of us dwell in nepantla so much of the times it’s become a sort of “home.”  Though this state links us to other ideas, people, and worlds, we feel threatened by these new connections and the change they engender.”

Nepantla is between the worlds, and what happens between the worlds changes all the worlds.

It will take courage to claim this threshold and the part within us that can bridge it.  It will take love to feed that courage.  We need to love our bridges, within and without.  We need to stare into the space between, the edges of our changing culture.  We can practice by noticing the mystery in the natural world, when we gaze at the edge of a leaf meeting the sky, or the space where two landscapes meet, or the world within the world of a sparkling stone.

If you are a liminal walker, and especially if the world is treating you harshly when you have caused no harm, hold on.  You are worthy of respect, and your courage to be yourself is admirable.  You may be just the medicine that we need at this major time of threshold.

Sending love, from our liminal walk to yours.  May you walk in safety and in beauty. 

May we walk together.

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  You can learn more about her work and healing practices at www.metzmecatl.com

Journeying Into Spring, an Equinox Meditation

Happy Spring Equinox!  And what a Winter it has been.  As we embrace the astrological and Earth based changes that are emerging and escalating around us, we also confront the inner lingering effects of this time of storms, cold, and inward dreaming.  I offer the following meditation as a suggestion that each of us take a moment to honor our rebirth into the season of Spring, and acknowledge the unseen movements within that are leading us towards rejuvenation.  Breathe in and breathe out.  Follow along with your imagination, if you will…

In the Winter months, Mother Gaia calls us to go within.  She purifies us with rain.  She quiets us, like children, with the dark.  And she brings the cold, to keep us still, inviting us to set aside our outward activities, in favor of dreaming.

You stand now on the threshold of Winter and Spring, and here the Mother calls to you again.  Feel your feet on the ground.  Visualize, beneath you, the soft mud and sparse new grasses that have come after the blessing of rain.  You feel your feet sink slightly, as the Earth receives your weight, and it is cool and fresh on your bare feet.  You become aware of a vibration, a movement deeper underground that rises into you, like a pulsing energy.  You recall that the March full moon is called the Worm Moon, and realize now that the vibration is a cleansing, a catalyst moving you towards the call of Spring.  Deep beneath your feet, the worms are making the soil fertile and rich.  They are consuming the decay and stagnation of the past months, and transforming it into the perfect conditions for new things to grow.

As the vibration of their movement enters you, you as well begin to move.  A path appears before you and you want to follow.  You walk, or you dance, or you crawl, but you keep moving.  Mother Gaia is calling you towards Spring.  She asks you to embrace the rains, which now gently fall again, as you travel on your path.  She asks you, “What have you cleansed within yourself this Winter?  Where were your personal floods, your excesses?  Where were your draughts, your lack and longing?…

What have you released?  And through this process, what part of you is now being renewed?”

You walk and you listen to the voice within you.  The Mother guides you on.  The rain subsides and the darkness comes.  The landscape around you changes.  The New Moon makes room for the twinkling of stars above you, and there is an air of magic in the forest.  You begin to dream.  Mother Gaia asks you “What dreams have come to you this Winter?…What seeds of hope and intention are you holding?”

You look to your hands and see that you are carrying a few small seeds of light.  What will these seeds flower in your life, if you nurture them?  What will they need in order to grow?  Will you plant them, when the time is right?

The air now gets cold and crisp.  It becomes harder to walk as the winds come, but ahead you see a light at the end of the path.  It is a small cabin, and it glows with warmth.  You keep moving towards it, until you arrive at the doorstep.  A garden of flowers surrounds you, and you catch the scent of rosemary as you step up to the door.  It opens, and the loving image of Mother Gaia stands before you, inviting you to come in from the cold.  She wraps you in a blanket of moss and wool and sits you down by a warm and crackling fire.  You feel nourished, as you drink the tea of warming herbs she’s prepared for you.  She asks you to thaw.  Where have you become frozen this Winter?  What inside you has become stagnant or stuck?  Will you let it melt away now?  Will you allow for new movement?

The Mother says:  “Warm and awaken, my dear child!  It is time to blossom.”  She places her hand over yours and you feel your seeds begin to stir.  Small shoots sprout and begin to grow.  You hold them tenderly and she guides you to the doorway, knowing you are ready to plant them.  She opens the door and light enters.  Blossoms fill the air, along with the gentle warmth of Spring.  The Mother takes your cloak and guides you forward.  You have her blessing.  Now it is up to you.

You follow the path back, now noticing the green of new life and Spring flowers.  Your seeds are eager to be planted, and they whisper to you what they will create, and what they will need in order to bloom.

You listen…

You trust yourself…

You emerge in the softness of Springtime.

You embrace the balance between inner nurturing and new growth.

You prepare to walk into this new season with intention. 

You walk your path home to yourself renewed.

You weave your intentions in to life’s greater rhythm, ever dancing with the magic of annual rebirth.

Ometetol.

May it be so, and may it be beautiful,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  You can learn more about her work and healing practices at www.metzmecatl.com

Considering Crystal Grids and Sacred Geometry

Many of us intuitively feel the subtle messages and innate consciousness of our crystal and plant relatives, even when we have never been taught anything directly about how to work with them.  The beings of the plant and mineral realms are elders to us and we feel drawn to them, though we may not understand the language that they speak.  If you’ve ever picked up a stone and felt a warm sensation in your hand, or seen a crystal call out to your awareness by sparkling brighter, then you’ve experienced this.  It’s a natural response to then take it home with you, based on feeling that you need what it has to offer.  Once in your space, the energy held within begins to emanate, but over time, if we forget to work directly with these allies, the threads between us can get a little thinner.

I recall sitting in a workshop with one of my primary energy medicine teachers from Mexico and hearing him tell the group not to have crystals in their homes and workspaces because it is their nature to absorb and then amplify energies they encounter.  He made the argument that if we are doing healings where people are releasing a lot, or if we are emanating heavy emotions ourselves, the crystals will absorb and then amplify these emotional winds and thoughts.  There was an audible gasp in the room and every hand went up.  Realizing that there was a love present that would not be dissuaded, he elaborated.  He said that if crystals are an important element of our lives and work, then to be sure to cleanse them and to program them.  This means that if you clear what was amplified before you began your relationship with a crystal ally, and then give it a specific and clear intention, it will no longer act as a general amplifier of energy.  It makes sense, especially when we are talking about quartz, which is quite open and programmable, but I think it’s a good practice with all of our nuanced crystals.  Each variety has its specialty and unique energy, but that doesn’t mean we should sit them down and forget about them.  They need clearing.  They work best when we touch them, communicate with them, send our intentions to them through visualization, meditation, and other methods of magical request and communion.  And it doesn’t hurt to consider learning to speak to them in their own language, to the best of our ability.

The natural world does have a language that is beyond words.  It is expressed in myriad variations of color, shape, movement, and sacred geometry.  Ancient cultures from many parts of the world were well aware of this, and our modern cultures are still infused with this language.  Systems of prayer, magic, and spiritual development are often based on mirroring the laws and geometries of the earth and the cosmos.  How many magical practices, healing techniques, dances, and meditative arts involve the spiral, for example?  The spiral is one of natures favorite forms, from the secret unfurling of the fern to the whirl of waters and the patterns of stars and darkness in the skies above, a spiral can take us to our center, call energies towards us, or emanate our intentions outward to merge with the dream of the world outside of us.  A crystal in the shape of a sphere can emanate its energetic medicine all around, while a circle of stones or intention can offer us a protective space to open on the psychic level, while we dream by gazing up at the glowing circular orb that is the moon.

A crystal grid is an artful way of asking your crystals to fulfill a specific task for you by mirroring the sacred geometric forms of the earth and the cosmos.  Choosing the stones most aligned with your purpose, and beginning with a central stone, you speak the language of shape, from the simple to the complex, creating circles, squares, triangles, spirals, and even the pattern of constellations, symbols such as the cosmic flower or the representation of angelic forces.  You can use research, observation, or intuition as you create your works of art and intention.  A study of the meaning of shapes is a good place to start, and the articles to follow in the coming months will explore their language in more depth.  However you can begin with a shape that has meaning to you personally and relates to what you hope to draw, influence, or release.  As we are in a month when love is in people’s conscious awareness quite a lot, maybe it’s a good time to make a crystal valentine for yourself.  Using Rose Quartz may be a sweet choice for increasing self caring, activating inner divinity, and increasing harmony.  Bring in a cleansing stone like Selenite or Black Tourmaline to add a tone of cleansing and healing past wounds, or some Carnelian to activate passion.  With action and artfulness, give your stones a personal activation towards a specific purpose in your life and see what comes.

Crystals are not the only elemental allies that respond to this way of relating.  Healers and magical practitioners have a long history of designing garden spaces to mirror the moon, the constellations, or shapes of meaning, such as a pentacle.  Sacred forms of prayer dance, from cultures of both East and West mirror the movements of the cosmos, earthly elements, animals, and even the patterns of constellations.  In Aztec Danza, for example, aligning with the cosmic forces, through making the significant effort to dance their patterns in reverence, comes first before calling on these forces for any request.

If you are looking for a book that will give you a place to begin, I recommend The Ultimate Guide To Crystal Grids, by Judy Hall.  But, remember that before their were books there was the astute and reverent observation of the world around us.  We are not separate from the natural world and its laws or language.  These can be observed, repeated, and used a sacred form of expression, supplication, and prayer.  What do you long for?  Call it in with beauty, and let it be a symbol in your everyday world of a sacred intention held by your soul and heart.  As it reaches out, it will reach your dreaming mind to.

With open hearts reaching out for beauty and calling beauty in,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  You can learn more about her work and healing practices at www.metzmecatl.com

Plant & Crystal Magic 28: Tumeric & Golden Healer

Tumeric

There is a lot written about the health benefits of Tumeric. It has long been held as a key medicinal within the system of Ayurveda, and as a tonic herb that easily mixes into medicinal and delicious recipes like curry. Though, this article won’t focus on explaining all of the potential health benefits, they are worth researching and vetting. In general, when considering the overall magical qualities of this important herb, it is fair to say that Tumeric has the energetic influence of bringing in light, and effects us on the levels of vitality and purification.

Physical vitality is a key component of mental and emotional health, as well as general wellness. Tumeric, a cousin of Ginger, has a strong warming effect, and gives support to the immune system. It is a natural antibiotic, anti viral, and anti fungal herb, and can strengthen digestion and healthy intestinal flora. It is considered helpful in improving the mobility of joints, as well as supporting those suffering from chronic illness, and is thus used to treat Vata type conditions, like Arthritis. The active compound called curcuminoids, or sometimes curcumin, is reputed to be a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. In relation to its use in cooking, it’s interesting to note that this compound is said to be more easily absorbed in our bloodstreams when combined with piperine, the component found in black pepper. Tumeric is known for supporting the body in fighting disease, as curcumin may act as an antioxidant fighting free radicals which create stress and damage, leading to many potential forms of disease. Our overall emotional and physical health truly begins with self care. It is an act of self love and magic to take a close look at how magical or intentional cooking can help us stay ahead of imbalance, before it becomes physical. Applied topically, as a paste or poultice, Tumeric has antiseptic properties as well. There is so much more, including applications for lowering problematic cholesterol and improving mental clarity as we age.

Though we live in a time when information in books and online is readily available, it is important to thoroughly research any herb you are considering taking internally for the treatment and prevention of disease. Consultation with a Clinical Herbalist or Ayurvedic Doctor should definitely be sought when looking to address any illness with herbal medicine. That being said, Tumeric has a very long history of being used as a tonic herb and culinary spice, for the purpose of restoring and maintaining vitality in general. One note, however, before you seek to add this golden spice to your diet, it is important to find good quality Tumeric, as it can contain high traces of lead. I personally go to the Mountain Rose Herbs website, for Tumeric and any other herbs where this is an issue, because they have a rigorous process for making sure there are no contaminants in their products.

One of the qualities that, for me, gives a clue to its spiritual influence is its reputation as a blood purifier. Tumeric is actually used in purification, protection, and abundance rituals in many cultures. The Yoga of Herbs states that “Tumeric gives the energy of the Divine Mother and grants prosperity. It is effective for cleansing the chakras (nadi-shodhana), purifying the channels of the subtle body.” In Ayurvedic Healing, it is also listed as an herb to support alcoholism recovery, for its cleansing and light bringing qualities. Tumeric is primarily associated with the Sun, making it a good choice for renewing the light within during the Winter Solstice season. It’s magical properties can be accessed in many creative ways, not only from ingestion. Below is a list of some of the rituals and traditions associated with Tumeric.

Suggestions for working with Tumeric:

Magical Ink for abundance spells. It will create a deep golden color, and a deep stain.

Magical dyes for ceremonial clothing. This was perhaps the first widespread use, as a deeply golden-yellow dye.

Wear dried Tumeric as a protection, health, or fertility charm.

Tumeric can be sprinkled to make a protective circle, or mixed with salt and water, as in Hawaiian traditions, to cleanse a ritual circle or sick room.

Tumeric powder mixed with Sandalwood powder makes a potent incense, and is a traditional mixture in Hindu rites honoring temple deities.

As a paste, Tumeric can be used to paint the body. This could have applications for purification rituals, but one should be aware that there is a strong cultural tradition of marking the cheeks or forehead to hairline area as part of the marriage ceremony in parts of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This both created a sense of glowing within the skin, and acted as a protection against bacteria (and perhaps other harmful energies). It is good to be aware of sacred forms and traditions before borrowing fragments of their use.

Tumeric is added to facial oils in Ayurvedic skincare, to enhance the inner glow.

Golden Milk, the combination of Tumeric, Ashwaganda, Ginger, and milk (or coconut milk) is a delicious and soothing way to get the benefits of these three potent herbs. It can be sweetened with honey or maple syrup, and may also include cardamom, black pepper, and clove, for a spicier warm drink in Winter.

Golden Healer

Golden Healer is a form of quartz that glows with a hue reminiscent of golden light. It emanates with the golden ray that brings physical healing, protection, and spiritual expansion. Golden Healer quartz can be an aid in healing of all forms and is often sought by healing arts professionals to use in body layouts or to uplift the energy of a healing space. Yet, Golden Healer has another intention that relates to the expansion of consciousness, both for the individual and the collective. It emanates a vibration that acts as a gentle push towards developing the awareness of self as divine. This is what is referred to often as Christ consciousness, though in my culture we refer to it as Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent. Most people think of Quetzalcoatl as a god, and there is certainly much misinformation out there about the meanings of Aztec religion and culture. Quetzalcoatl, however, is more than a god or an energetic force. It refers to the clearing, opening, and empowering of all of our energetic centers, or Totonalcayos, which allows for the rising of our own vital energy upward through the body, ultimately awakening a consciousness that allows us to be more of what we have the potential to be. It is a concept very similar to Kundalini awakening. In this case, the serpent represents the flow of energy through our energy system and body, and the wings represent our expanded consciousness. We become the feathered serpent.

I bring this up because we are living now in the early years of the Sixth Sun, according to the ancient Mexican prophecy, and that comes with the portent that we will experience the return of the Quequetzalcoatl and the Mamalinalli. This means the rising of many people in their capacity for spiritual and energetic evolution to become more aware of the divinity within us, and our inseparable connection to it, and more able to co-create with the larger energetic forces around us. These terms describe two pathways. The Quequetzalcoatl pathway is similar to that of the yogi. It involves active learning and awakening of the energetic body through meditation, energy practices, and an awakening of the vital force within us, clearing its pathway, and helping it to rise. The Mamalinalli path is the road to a similar end, but it is a feminine journey, working with the alliance of the plant world, with magic, and with dreaming. Both paths also signify that what was once esoteric knowledge meant for the few who held power, or were recognized as having a specialized potential, is now meant to be democratically accessible for all. In other words, it is the time of Christ Consciousness activation for humanity. Both paths lead to a conscious embodiment of the divine within the physical, fulfilling the potential of what it is to be human.

When I encounter Golden Healer, I feel the activation of the Quequetzalcoatl path towards a higher evolution, the journey to meet our highest potential with the sun. I imagine that its predilection for healing is part of the overall push to expand. When we can resolve our issues, wounds, and patterns, we clear the path for knowledge and growth. Golden healer reaches out to activate us. It helps us to heal ourselves and to expand our awareness, and encourages us to be a vehicle for the healing and expansion of others. Where your wounds and limiting self beliefs are keeping you closed or and tightly held in pain or fear, allow this stone to help you release and open. Let it instruct your cells and mind with its gentle light. This is a good stone to place the body for self healing layouts and energetic healing sessions.

Suggestions for working with Tumeric and Golden Healer together:

In this season of deep Winter, between the Winter Solstice and Imbolc, it is especially important to acknowledge and activate the light within. Make a ritual to honor yours by brewing some golden milk to warm you and awaken your inner vitality. Create a spiral moving from outside to inside using small Golden Healer crystals to draw the golden light of consciousness towards you. Light a candle that represents the growth of light inside you, and consider making a pledge to increase light and awareness in the world outside of you, in a manner that is all your own.

May you shine with the light of vitality and awareness!

Ometeotl.

Renewing with the gradual return of the light,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez. For more information about her work and healing practices please visit www.metzmecatl.com

sources:

Ayurvedic Healing, A Comprehensive Guide, Dr.David Frawley

The Yoga Of Herbs, An Ayurvedic Guide To Herbal Medicine, Dr. David Frawley and Dr. Vasant Lad

Return of the Light

Happy Winter Solstice.  May you be surrounded by warmth, inside and out, on this longest night of the year.  This is the moment of turning, and though the darkness is strong, little by little it will begin to relinquish its power to the light.  This sentiment held a lot of power during times when Winter brought the question of whether one could survive to meet the Spring once more.  Perhaps today it still holds power, as we stand soon the threshold of a new era, looking through the gateway through myth, prophecy, and intuition, while still mired in the violence and struggle of the one we are said to be leaving.  Before we can experience change, perhaps we have to make it.  Maybe it is good to remember the rituals that ask us to look for light and to create it, when darkness holds its reign.  If we don’t shine more light within, how do we expect to find more of it without?

I have been thinking about a sentence I read recently in the book Brujas, The Magic and Power of Witches of Color, by Lorraine Monteagut.  She is speaking to a community that contains a complex mix of lineages, ancestral wounds, lineage gifts, instinctual magic, and creative resilience. Though not everyone reading this will be part of the Latinx heritage, I think that most Americans carry a good portion of those attributes, and similarly, often lack a clear sense of belonging.  She was talking about joy as resistance, making the case that when we create ecstasis, ritual, activism, and prayer in the ways that we can, holding the threads the way we are able to, we are raising the vibration and making repairs for everyone, even when we are wounded, confused, and in the creative process of reinventing.  She said, “The path of the spiritual warrior is to remain open to both the the dark and light in ourselves,” and I believe that to be true.  What startled me, though, was actually a reference to a quote from actress Evan Rachel Wood, from her 2021 testimony against Marilyn Manson, regarding the sexual and emotional abuse during their relationship.  I don’t follow media closely, so I hadn’t heard the words before.  She said, “Sometimes we are held down, not just by our attackers, but by what we know about our place in the world.”  Though she was talking about the freeze response that happens in victimization, and primarily referring to women, I think this is an accurate description of what darkness within us means.  Our own underworlds, our own self concepts, our own limiting beliefs, our fearful suspicions that there is nowhere else for us to go, or to grow into, that is our longest night.  That is the place where we need the ritual act of bringing light to the shadows to burn through the part of ourselves that feels the sun is not meant for us.

In the past few months, these blogs have explored the legacies we carry silently within us from our history, so I don’t have to say now how deep this kind of thinking goes, or how ingrained it can be within us.  But, what about the everyday reality that we meet reflected in language, media, stories, the mirrors of the people around us, the news of war, atrocities, illness, and fear that tell us safety is a privilege we can lose and power is always in the hands of someone else?  These are the shadows that hide in plain sight, because we are so used to them.  Shine a light.  What stories are you accidentally telling yourself, even now?

If we are standing on the threshold of a change of era, then we had better change too.  I think the best thing we can do is add the unique illumination of our own unfettered souls into the mix of dreaming that we create collectively.  We should do what we can to make our dreaming more conscious, and impassioned.  No one else will do it for us.  Illumination sounds so nice, but it means shifting many small decisions, actions, and self concepts that we might rather not see.  Are you willing?  Are you tired enough to light that candle in the dark?

I am grateful for gentle rituals that remind us that we have always needed to return consciously to the light within, in order to invite the light without to renew.  I have enjoyed sitting in vigil with the fire on the Winter Solstice, holding space for the Mother Earth in her labor to birth the Sun once more.  I have enjoyed watching my sweet son, named for the first light of dawn, walk a spiral in the darkness to light his candle in the center, adding his light to make the path of beauty more clear.  What does it all mean?  Our metaphors travel before us, perhaps so that we can meet them with more courage, hope and love.  That is faith.  Let’s have faith that, as we stand on the threshold, we do not truly know our place in the world.  We have absorbed many ideas about what it may be, and we have felt a pulse deep within that suggests what it could be.  Let’s untangle the knots, examine the threads, and wash them clean.  Let’s be ready and open to find out something different than what we have previously believed.  Let’s call for the return of the light, and invite it to ignite within us.  Maybe each of us can be more of who we are at this new birth of the Sun.  Maybe we can create the shift that lights a path of beauty.  I hope so.

What helps you see in the dark?  What lights your way forward?  How will you look within, with courage, to clear what is outdated and find what is far more true?  You are invited into the quiet reflection of Winter and the rebirth of the Solstice.  May your heart and your path be illuminated more and more each day.

In Love and Light,

the eleventh house

Plant & Crystal Magic 27: Ashwaganda & Garnet

The holiday season can be intense for many, though it can also be said that we’re living in a time when the demands on our attention and on our capacity to stay emotionally balanced and energetically grounded are consistently high.  When stress begins to overwhelm us, and we are tempted to float above our bodies and lives, these loving allies can be deeply of service, strengthening our capacity to be present with grace.

Ashwaganda

Ashwaganda, also known as Witharia Somnifera in Latin and Asgandhi in Sanskrit, is a powerhouse Ayurvedic herb that has become very popular here in the West, and for good reason.  Working as both an adaptogen and a tonic, Ashwaganda has many well researched applications for preserving one’s health and balancing the mind and emotions, while increasing vital energy.  Adaptogens are critical in our time because they help the body to adapt to stress with less damage to our nervous systems, allowing us to meet daily challenges inside and out with far more clarity and ease.  As many of us know, stress can not only lead to escalated anxiety and depression, but also many forms of physical illness as the production of cortisol rises.  Powerfully calming and equally potent in rejuvenating youthful vitality, Ashwaganda is considered a ‘rasayana’ herb.  From the root words rasa (essence) and ayana (path), this terms means attaining the path of essence, increasing lifespan and vitality, while improving mental clarity and deterring illness, through therapeutic techniques.

Though there are many potent herbs in the Indian system of wellness and medicine known as Ayurveda, Ashwaganda stands apart as particularly relevant to our time and place. Even in the U.S., scientific studies suggest that it’s potential range of beneficial influence include providing relief for anxiety and depression, promoting restful sleep, reducing cortisol production and inflammation, fighting alzheimer’s and some forms of cancer, balancing hormones and increasing estrogen production, increasing libido and combating sexual dysfunction, improving immunity by increasing white blood cell production, improving thyroid health, improving memory, destruction of free radicals, reducing blood sugar levels while improving insulin sensitivity and secretion to prevent or treat diabetes, and countering even the commonplace effects of aging, such as hair loss and greying.  Of course, when seeking the physical effects of herbs to treat illness and imbalance dosage matters, as does the complex puzzle of matching one’s particular constitution and nuance of symptoms with the exact appropriate medicine.  This is why an herbalist should always be consulted when specific healing and preventative measures are needed.  For general wellness and maintaining emotional and physical resilience in the face of stress, however, Ashwaganda can be a fantastic daily ally when taken as a powder mixed with some form of milk, or as a decoction in milk, ghee, and oil, or in the form of a pill.  It is one of the primary ingredients of golden milk, along with turmeric and honey.  It is also a nourishing food and a natural remedy for anemia.  For this purpose, a milk decoction can be added to basmati rice, along with raw sugar, honey, and pippali.  In these forms it slows the effects of aging and catalyzes the body’s anabolic processes.  Ashwaganda, as a food, it is said to offer support to pregnant women experiencing weakness to help stabilize the fetus, but herbs and pregnancy can be a tricky combination and a doctor or clinical herbalist should definitely be consulted.  Beyond internal uses, it can be applied topically for wounds and sores.

When it comes to spiritual benefits, the themes of vitality and resilience follow suit.  Ashwaganda can be taken as a flower essence as well, and is particularly helpful when facing stress and adrenal fatigue.  The root words ‘Ashwa’ (or Ashva in Sanskrit), meaning horse, and ‘ghanda’, meaning smell, refer to the musky, horse like smell of the root, yet words often reveal deeper associations.  Horses are powerful models of stamina, resilience, virility and deep intuition.  They maintain a strong and grounded physical presence, while gently perceiving and communication on emotional and psychic levels of awareness.  They are sensitives who know how to live within their bodies, as well as how to modulate their strength on both levels.  They are fascinating teachers, and are coming to be understood as such with the rise of Equine Therapy.  On the energetic levels, Ashwaganda may provide similar teachings and support, helping us to heal the root chakra in order to feel both grounded and in better balance.  When our health is flowing in vitality, we are stronger energetically as well.  If we can remain rooted within our physical bodies, and connected with the earth, while we access intuitive states of consciousness and expanded awareness, then what we are able to interpret and integrate from those experiences, and what we are capable of accomplishing, greatly improves.  Glimpses of magic and divine connection are beautiful food for the soul, but they don’t serve us to the fullest effect unless we can ground them into ourselves, allowing for true growth.  Ashwaganda can support us in the clearing of both the third eye and the root chakras, while helping us to maintain balance in our everyday lives.  This is a combination that can help create more ideal conditions for increasing psychic receptivity, joy, and personal power.   

Suggestions for working with Ashwaganda:

Whether you are looking for physical healing, emotional balance, energetic potency, or all of the above, it is always beneficial to approach herbs with the proper respect, and when appropriate to consider the cultural traditions of supplication associated with them.  The following is a Vedic Hymn used in the making of Ayurvedic plant medicines:

Vedic Hymn To The Plants

Plants, which as receptacles of light were born three ages before the gods, I honor your myriad colors and your seven hundred natures.

A hundred, oh Mothers, are your natures and a thousand are your growths.  May you of a hundred powers make whole what has been hurt.

Plants, as Mothers and Goddesses, I address you.  May I gain energy, light, and sustenance, your soul, you who are a conscious being.

Where the herbs are gathered together like kings in an assembly, there the doctor is called a sage, who destroys evil, and averts disease.

As they fell from Heaven, the plants said, “The living soul we pervade, that man will suffer no harm.

The herbs that are in the kingdom of the Moon, manifold with a hundred eyes, I take this plant as the best of them, for the fulfillment of wishes, as peace to the heart.

Plants that are queens of the Soma, spread over all the Earth, generated by the Lord of Prayer, may your energy combine within this herb.

Rig Veda X.97

Garnet

When we consider how maintaining the ability to be grounded in the earthly realm, while reaching for the expanded awareness of the spiritual, makes us more powerful, we also need to acknowledge that this is not always easy or intuitive.  We tend to have an affinity for one side or the other within this spectrum, and the goal of many spiritual traditions is to merge these aspects within us, so that we can reach greater levels of evolution as humans.  In a sense, it is what is uniquely beautiful about humans, the interplay of duality within us that allows us the ability to be conscious of the fact that we are a manifestation of Divinity, while remaining sensually alive in our animal nature as well.  Perhaps this is why we can dance the essence of a waterfall, sing the song of the rain, write the poetry of fire, and drum the heartbeat of a stone.  We can also bring these elements together to weave a spell that co-creates with the larger consciousness that surrounds us and call that communion.  But to do this, we need to remain awake to all of ourselves.  If we commune by leaving our bodies, and we never learn how to bring that medicine home into our everyday realities, we will remain unbalanced and our creations will be limited.  When I was young, before I knew the tenets of my own cultural traditions, I fell in love with Goddess Spirituality because it helped me to learn one thing very deeply:  Divinity is not outside of us, and we don’t need to transcend our physical bodies or the Earth in order to reach it.  We are it.  We are the bridge between the Divine and the physical.  We can awaken and enliven it within ourselves.  We can perceive it everywhere if we look for it.  We draw it into ourselves from above and below us, and we are in connection with the larger dance always, even when we forget.

Sometimes, however, we need help in remembering.  We need the experiences that deepen us and awaken us to our own power.  We need to learn not to run away from our bodies, leaving them vulnerable.  It takes work to fully embody what we have the capacity to be, and our evolution is still in progress.  In the tradition of Nahualismo, we have names in the Nahuatl language for the dual aspects of ourselves.  We call them the Tonal and Nahual.  The Tonal is the waking part of us, who we think we are in the light of day, similar to the ego.  The Nahual, is who we really are, the part of us that dreams.  It is said that we tend to have a natural propensity for identifying with and accessing the skills of one or the other, yet it is when both are strong and working in union that we have the capacity to dream our lives more intentionally, with heightened awareness and potent manifestation.  For those of us who lean towards the Nahual, and have trouble remaining present in the physical body, or with manifesting dreams, creativity, and other inspirations all the way to the physical plane, Garnet may be the sparkling nourishment that is needed.

I think of Persephone often, and have always been obsessed with that myth.  There is a lot within it.  She begins as a child, the daughter of a Goddess.  Through curiosity and then trauma, she enters the Underworld and finds herself lost in fear.  She runs in circles, as most of us do, when shock and challenge take us to unknown landscapes, but she does not remain lost or victimized.  When she finds the pomegranate tree, the one living thing in a barren land, when Hades appears and offers her its seeds, was she tricked?  How do our initiations come to us?  When she eats the seeds, she is changed, not only because she must remain there one month for each seed, but because when next she opens her eyes she sees beauty and wealth surrounding her that she was not able to perceive before.  The world of the Sun and her mother the Earth will fight for her, but the land of night, dreams, and death has balanced her, Nahual and Tonal, and she becomes a Goddess in her own right.  I bring this up because, again, there is power in names, and Garnet comes from the Latin word granatum, which meant pomegranate.  Perhaps this is only because the stone we visualize is a deep red, and has a similar appearance, but perhaps not.  Garnets can actually form in varying shades of red, orange, green, or black, and there are variations to their properties, yet they share a common theme.  Garnets are strong allies for grounding one’s dreams, creative visions, inspirations, and desires into the physical realm.  They increase the manifestation of wealth on all levels, including our ability to enjoy the worldly experience and our own embodiment.

In my experience, Garnets awaken the energy of the first and second chakras (or tontonalcayos), so that they support the dreaming side of our nature by allowing us to root ourselves deeply with the power of the Earth and its unseen layers, and from there work in co-creation, using our sexual energy to manifest.  This allows us to create more beauty, harmony, security, and magic in our lives, because when we lose connection with those first two centers, our entire energetic system will suffer.  We cannot rise to the higher levels of dreaming in a manner that we can contain if we do not have this base in order.  Fear, trauma, sexual harm, addiction, and ancestral wounds are among the forces that compromise these first and very important energy centers.  Garnet can help to heal, clear and reactivate this foundation within us.  When we are healthy in this way, and grounded, we can reach further heights.  Sensuality is more than sexual exchange.  It is also the ecstatic relationship we are able to have with life, with magic, and with the Earth.  Garnet enlivens us, drawing us back down into the body, where our true center of power lies.

As with all stones, the color influences the attributes, and each variety is worth specific investigation.  The green varieties, Grossular Garnet and Uvarovite Garnet will have influence on abundance in an earthly sense.  The more orange stone, Spessartine Garnet will activate the law of attraction and creativity, harmonizing with the sexual chakra.  The black Andradite Garnet brings protection, grounding, and a deepening into the mysterious layers of life and within the collective unconscious.  The rose red stones, Rhodolite Garnet, connect the first chakras to the heart and crown chakras, bringing emotional healing and increasing the ability to receive love.  The deepest red stone is Almandine Garnet, and the one that has most association with ancient cultures and their legacies within us.  It helps us connect with the vital Earth energies, grounding us, enlivening the joy we are capable of, and clearing the Old Winds of ancestral and karmic patterns, so our vital energies can rise, taking us to our flowering.

Suggestions for working with Ashwaganda and Garnet together:

These two allies are nourishing and can bring a thread of comforting self care and nurturing to us on a daily basis, even as they activate powerful healing within us.  Garnet is often found in jewelry, and a helpful stone to wear with intention.  Ashwaganda, for all its potency, can be made into a delicious, frothy drink.  Since both of these allies activate the sensuous within us, enjoy your relationship with them.  Allow them to make you feel nurtured, grounded, warm, and beautiful.  The cold part of Winter, is the perfect time to invite this kind of inner warmth.

May you enjoy your embodiment and reclaim vitality, as you deepen in your journey!

In Joyful Perseverance,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  For more information about her work and healing practices please visit www.metzmecatl.com

sources:

Ayurvedic Healing, A Comprehensive Guide, Dr.David Frawley

The Yoga Of Herbs, An Ayurvedic Guide To Herbal Medicine, Dr. David Frawley and Dr. Vasant Lad

www.mekosha.com blog

With insights from Dr. Arinn Testa of Route Five Medicinals

The Book of Stones, Who They Are & What They Teach, Robert Simmons & Naisha Ahsian

crystal channeling with Almandine Garnet

Calling Lineage Gifts Home

This month’s article follows the thread of our previous exploration of Ancestral healing, and the potential origins of what we call curses.  The subject of lineage gifts is something that is perhaps easily overlooked in the great work of understanding, untangling, and releasing the heavy inheritance of generational trauma.  It takes a lot of awareness and effort to heal the burdens of the past, particularly when we consider the dual influence of individual stories of tragedy, destructive patterns, and limiting beliefs alongside the larger cultural tides of oppression, persecution, displacement, and terror in its many historic guises.  Yet, there is another equally important side to this coin, if we are to truly heal and restore our capacity to flourish on a soul level.  Through all the times that our Ancestors survived by difficult means, by hiding, by moving to an unknown place, by keeping their heads down, by adapting and accommodating, by burying their trauma for future generations to reconcile, even by becoming ruthless themselves, through all of these wounds and changes of self and worldview, what was left behind?  What was forgotten?  What was lost?    

We may be different from our families in significant ways, but often if we look closely we find that at least within one side of our lineage we find reflections of ourselves, not only in terms of our issues, but also when it comes to our gifts.  This can take many forms, from artistic talent to physical and mental skills, from a compassionate nature that reaches out to others to innate psychic ability.  If we look more deeply, we might find that some of these talents are well celebrated and encouraged and some are not discussed, or perhaps not understood consciously.  Is there such a thing as family medicine, a theme of abilities and soul work that repeats in a family, gathering knowledge and refinement over time?  For most of us, at least in the United States, the history of migration and assimilation, and all the reasons that made it necessary, has made this an obscure notion, rather than something passed on with nurturing, teaching, and intention.  Recovering ourselves from past wounds and the tides of suppression that swept over many cultures, mystery traditions, and intuitive forms of knowledge, also means looking within to rescue the threads of our lineage gifts that were worn thin through the ages.  In my personal experience, finding what came before the time of necessary adapting and forgetting made sense of many of the intuitive impulses, dreams, and psychic experiences that I experienced with curiosity as an adult and fear as a child.  That inquiry led me to empowerment and an integration of the strong Ancestral forces that were farther back than the family stories I knew.  What within your history and bloodlines might be waiting for the embrace of your conscious awareness?  What would our world look like if many of us were to rescue the knowledge and gifts that have been obscured by trauma?

And, even beyond the lineages of blood ancestry, there exists the history of the soul and its journey through time and incarnation.  What might we have known, lost, or agreed to forget on a soul level?  Where might you have suppressed your own gifts and inclinations in the name of survival?  Certainly the astrology of this season has been pushing us to bring these questions to the surface, and even to consider what structures and relationships in our lives are helping us to stay in a limited mindset, even as the change of epoch that is happening now invites us to remember our truest nature.  This layer of information may be buried even more deeply within the psyche, and yet our passions, longings, and dreams will ultimately reveal what’s hidden, if we learn to listen with trust.  Intentional delving into the Akashic records through meditation, journeying, and divination methods can also be illuminating.  Much of what is needed to bring what is buried to the surface comes down to allowing ourselves to listen to the inner voice over the outside input that tells us what we and our reality are allowed to be.

We are exiting an era when for generations it was dangerous to embrace the intuitive, the mysterious, the feminine, and the natural magic of the earth.  And, even as the times of danger subsided in many places in our world, these aspects of inner life and the more hidden elements of our reality became something distrusted, lowered to the realm of fantasy, or ridiculed.  Knowledge that survived was kept secret for good reason.  Secrecy also creates wounds and gaps in understanding over time, but when knowledge is brought to the light again those wounds can transform to empowerment.  We should be grateful for all the ways in which esoteric knowledge was preserved, through sacrifice, through hiding, through surviving, and through remembering in even the quietest of ways.  The prophecies of our time say that we are at the start of looking within again, recovering and expanding the gifts of the intuitive, the feminine, the earth, and the soul territories.  We can make this true, and we can honor the people of the past who brought us this far, by picking up the frayed threads, reclaiming our lineage gifts in the light of day, and making them stronger by using and sharing them again.  What a beautiful act of reverence and revolution.

May you find more of who you truly are and become the Ancestor of the future, who paves the way of remembering.

In Remembrance and Reclamation,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  You can learn more about her work and healing practices at www.metzmecatl.com

Plant & Crystal Magic 26: Sinicuichi & Crystal Skulls

The veils are thin as we stand at the threshold of the dreaming season.  These late Fall and early Winter months invite us to look deeply within our own hidden layers, and into the mysteries that live just beyond our conscious awareness.  These plant and crystal allies can offer us a glimpse or even an initiation into the dreaming arts and the subtle knowledge of the past.

Sinicuichi

There is not a lot written about this mystical plant medicine in books, as compared to others, but the oral tradition suggests it has a strong history as a bringer of visions and dreams.  This is particularly true in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the American Southwest, and other parts of Latin and South America.  Sinicuichi was sacred in the Aztec culture, where it was referred to as The Elixir of the Sun, and consumed as a fermented tea, particularly for its gifts of prophetic speech, divination, and enhancing lucid dreaming and visioning, though also for more medicinal applications.  The Aztec culture had extensive knowledge of herbal medicines but tended towards the gradual work of spiritual discipline and training when it came to cultivating visions and dreaming abilities, so I am curious about the qualities of any dreaming plant they valued.  Modern inquiry is now shining a light on this perhaps neglected plant medicine, and interest in its nature and applications is rising.  The current renaissance of dreaming herbs means you can find a lot of information online, as well as many sites where it can be ordered.  Remember, however, that there were protocols and ceremonies designed to create a sacred container for working with powerful plant medicines.  Though we may not know these now, an effort should be made.  When sacred plants are used for recreation, outside of traditional forms of offering respect, they may choose to give us the other sides of their natures, which could include serious consequences for our health.  (Thinking of tobacco and hallucinogenic mushrooms will provide two different contexts in this area.)

I became aware of Sinicuichi when working with Atava Garcia Swiecicki of Ancestral Apothecary, and for the past 7 years I have been growing it in my garden.  Since 7 is the number of the moon, the feminine force that rules dreaming, this year feels like a good time to write about it and to increase my own inquiry as well.  This is one of the few herbs that I have experienced as powerful enough to open a visual portal, and provide direct teachings, even when only holding it while entering into the trance like state before sleep.  My first experience of this was when first asking it to teach me about its medicine.  As I became relaxed, and with almost no lead in time, I saw a distinctly round portal open before my closed eyes, like a window.  I entered it and suddenly was flying over a field of yellow light, floating over bright yellow flowers.  A clear voice spoke to me, teaching me to use the flowers to open my psychic sense and additionally to clear away past wounding in order to remove obstacles to a more open consciousness.  At the time I was aware that Sinicuichi was a dreaming herb, but I knew little about its nature and preparations.  It was only later that I found some written information about this plant, and I was surprised to find many specific elements of my experience noted.

Sinicuichi’s scientific name is Heimia Salicifolia.  It is a deciduous flowering shrub with small yellow flowers that prefers sunny, or even tropical areas, and yet grows with ease here in Northern California without much care needed. Heimia Salicifolia has many folk names, including Sun Opener, Sini, Shrubby Yellowcrest, Sun Opener, Willow-leaf Heimia, and its ancient name in Nahuatl, Sinicuichi. Its leaves are relatively narrow and its flowers are small with 6 petals, and bloom from late Spring through the Fall.  In the Winter it appears dead, but each Spring it makes its beautiful and robust return.  It appreciates the full sun of Summer and doesn’t seem to need much water.  I mention this because if you are going to make relationship with a psychoactive plant, it is a good idea to grow it and get to know it well.  This plant is easy enough for a beginning gardener, and potent enough that communion with it through care and plant meditation is respectful.  Sinicuichi is said to give auditory and visual medicine journeys, in particular creating a yellow tinted vision or featuring vivid yellow colors while enhancing the auditory sense, at times offering a clear voice, as I experienced in even my early meditations with this mystical ally.

World Herbals offers this interesting reference to Aztec cosmology:

“Gordon Wasson (an ethnomycologist) linked Sinicuichi to the Aztec god of spring and desire, Xochipilli. Gordon suggested that the naturalistic flower elements that appear on the Aztec statue of Xochipilli are the flora of Sinicuichi. Wasson’s hypothesis connecting Sinicuichi to Xochipilli has never been substantiated.

The modern and most verifiable account of Sinicuichi use can be traced back to the 1800s. Many indigenous tribes throughout Mexico used the herb for various medicinal and spiritual purposes either by preparing it into a fermented tea or healing salves.

The primary use of Sinicuichi in Mexican folk medicine is for fertility. Infertile women soak in a bath prepared with Sinicuichi leaves among other herbs and essential oils. Sinicuichi is also an ingredient in the tea used to promote conception. Sometimes the herb is burned before bedtime to aid in dream work.”

Xochipilli, referenced here, like many of the Aztec energetic essences is often only partially understood.  Within the statue are more dreaming plants and the expression on the face of the god suggests dilated pupils and ecstasis.  Xochipilli is the deity ruling flowers, pleasure, sexuality, homosexuality, intoxication, poetry, song and dance, so this expression of intoxication is appropriate, but it also goes deeper.  Wasson suggested that this indicated the god being absorbed in temicxoch, and suggested a translation of this word as ‘dream flowers.’  However, the meaning of the word is far more rich than this indicates.  Temicxoch means ‘flower dreaming.’  This isn’t ecstasis by way of plant medicines, but something more significant to the cultivation of the soul and the evolution of ones awareness.  To flower dream is to dream awake.  It is the art of becoming lucid within dreaming, then working within the various levels of dreaming taught within the ancient tradition, in order to flower in one’s life.  Becoming lucid is the beginning point, allowing one to consciously apply knowledge within the unconscious realms to change, heal, evolve, learn, and co-create what we will later live by being intentional within the realm of dreaming.  The concept of flowering is the full expression of one’s spiritual and earthly potential as a human, when the conscious and unconscious are joined and mastery is gained through discipline.  This is congruent with going in the direction of the Sun, meaning moving towards one’s highest destiny and possibility, so it is no accident that this plant is called Sun Opener.

This is why it is best to talk to the plants (and crystals) directly, lest we miss important details, basing knowledge only on what is written through the lens of other people’s interpretations.  Plants are our elders and they are willing to help us relearn.  Before I read about the association with Xochipilli and Temicxoch, I asked Sinicuichi what it would like me to know and share about its medicine.  This is what it told me:  “I open the vision of the inner eye with the power of the Sun.  This means my visions lead towards your highest destiny.  Don’t just use me to dream.  Use me to dream plant, to command the dream.”

When we truly learn to dream with intention, to command our dreams, planting the dream language symbols for healing and positive creations, the changes we make are deeper and faster than anything we can do in the waking state.  This ally has powerful healing purposes in mind, and along the way may bring us visions, teachings, and a glimpse of the euphoric states that can be reached as we open to the path of the Sun.

Suggestions for working with Sinicuichi:

Though some sights online suggest smoking the dried leaves, the more traditional preparation was in making a sun tea. Fresh leaves are gathered and left to wilt and dry.  The dried leaves were then placed in a jar or box of water and left in the sun for 24 hours, in order to steep and ferment.  Following this method allow for the energy and knowledge of the Sun to be absorbed into the tea.  For this reason, the brew was referred to as the Elixir of the Sun.

A general guide is to use 10 grams of Sinicuichi with 3 cups of water to make a tea. If you are making it indoors, make sure that the water is hot but not boiling when you add the herbs.  Let it simmer 30 minutes at least.  How much you consume will correspond to how strong the effects are, but be gradual.  Remember that even meditating and sleeping with the herb will begin to have an effect on your consciousness.  Making a flower essence is another option for connecting with the spiritual medicine of the plant.  When imbibing the tea, the physical effects of relaxation, potential euphoria, yellow tinted vision, and enhanced auditory perceptions will potentially be stronger, especially in higher amounts.  Every person will need to be aware of their own body’s tolerance for these effects and the possible fatigue, muscle pain, and tension that could follow the next day.  Long term regular use can have negative effects of memory, and while Sinicuichi has applications for increasing fertility, it is of course not safe to consume while pregnant.

Crystal Skulls

Crystal Skulls hold a lot of fascination for us.  Perhaps it is because we recognize ourselves in them, and yet they suggest to us the hidden knowledge of the ancestral past, of the realms of death and dreaming, and of the untapped potential within us.  There are many stories that have circulated about the origin of Crystal Skulls in Mexico, suggesting 13 sacred specimens that may have alien origin and special powers.  If you mention this to practitioners of ancient mysticism in Mexico, they will likely smile politely and tell you these are myths created by colonizing forces.  While these stories aren’t necessarily taken seriously, and I couldn’t say whether or not there is any truth within them, they feel like an attempt to understand something that is actually quite mysterious and potent about Crystal Skulls, their relationship to spiritual evolution.  Actually, the mystical practices from ancient Mexico involving Crystal Skulls needs no embellishment to be fascinating.

In the time of the Mexica culture, the human skull was respected and revered as the keeper of knowledge, talent, and special gifts belonging to the person to whom it had belonged.  Every home had an altar of actual ancestral skulls, and/or Crystal Skulls.  This was called a Momoztli.  By keeping the actual skulls present, they kept their ancestors present, seeking to learn from their wisdom and to absorb their gifts so that the family medicine could continue to grow and to flower.  The Crystal Skulls represented not the family, but the sacred essences we generally refer to as gods.  The In the main city center of Tenochtitlan there would have been a similar altar for the entire city, made of up rows of human skulls.  This was called a Tzonpantli, and the skulls that were placed on it were not sacrifices, as was assumed by the invading Spanish, but the skulls of the best healers, dreamers, warriors, and people of power and talent in all areas of knowledge.  The Tzonpantli was a place that anyone could visit to kneel and exchange knowledge with the ancestors, to invite the best qualities of those whose skulls had been saved in order to preserve their exceptional wisdom for future generations.  Knowledge was believed to be recorded in bone and in stone, and this is the base from which we can begin to understand the power of the Crystal Skull as a tool.
Before the Mexican Revolution, all the sacred sites were buried and the lands were split.  Because of this, there are in fact artifacts, including Crystal Skulls, that have been emerging as farmers work the land and find ancient treasures.  Often these are sold on the black market, and following a dream that told him exactly where to go to encounter something important, my teacher Sergio Magaña found a Crystal Skull with a serpent wrapped around it, an artifact that had been buried and recently uncovered.  On the Summer Solstice, he and a good friend attempted to meditate with it to try to understand what it was and why he had been guided to find it.  Through experimentation and intuitive listening, he received the instruction to spin around it, and the two of them ran around the skull in circles.  Suddenly feeling as though he’d been hit in the navel, Sergio sat down and began to vision, and the same experience took place for his friend, though the images they saw were different.  Sergio describes seeing a serpent who ate him whole and then offered to bring him knowledge, showing him many scenes of ancient ceremonies, pyramids, serpents, women performing healings and more.  Soon after, through the seller of the skull that he had been led to in the dream, he met the Indigenous keeper of knowledge that taught him how to use the obsidian mirror and who taught him about the skulls.  He was taught that the legend of the 13 skulls is not actually a Mexican legend, but that the Crystal Skulls of antiquity were a recording of a Nahuatl practitioner’s dreams.  He also said that the skull is what is meant to spin, not the person.  And he made another correction.  A Crystal Skull does not belong to the person who finds it or buys it.  If you have one, it’s not your skull.  You are its person.

What does this mean for us, when we are drawn to a Crystal Skull or are looking for ways to work with those we have brought into our altars and varying spiritual and magical practices?  It means that there is far more to our own capacities than we currently know, or perhaps more accurately more than we currently remember.  A Crystal Skull can be a vehicle for accessing the ancestral realms, for honoring or working with the shadowy sides of our life and death cycles, and for pondering the value of living, as Hamlet does, but it can also be more.  The skull is the seat of our knowledge, even of our Pineal gland, the organ which lets in light and darkness, regulating our circadian rhythms and perhaps forming a bridge between our conscious perception and the unknown territories within and without.  The pineal gland is the organ referred to as the third eye, and many mystic traditions believe it to function as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds.  Perhaps the Crystal Skull is the perfect tool for us to make that connection between realms, allowing us to receive lost knowledge, and to direct our knowledge towards the physical world where we live.  There are practices for visioning and practices for manifestation with Crystal Skulls, though they require more thorough explanation and study than can be provided in this brief article.  Perhaps, though, they are also an invitation, drawing us with both the familiar and the mysterious towards our own journeys of remembering what we come from, who we are, and what we have the capacity to be.  Perhaps it is best to begin with listening, to see what may be intentionally encoded within, and to ask how best to engage it.  Crystal Skulls can move energy, and have the capacity for transmitting it, storing it, and directing it.  It is a powerful tool that combines reverence for knowledge with the alchemy implied by the image of death, that of complete change and ultimately, spiritual evolution.

Suggestions for working with Sinicuichi and Crystal Skulls together:

These two couldn’t be better partners.  Sinicuichi is an opener of visions that intends to align you with the sun, a symbol of your highest destiny.  If you have been drawn to a Crystal Skull, perhaps this plant can help you to access and absorb the knowledge that it holds.  Place them together on an altar.  Consider making a tea, as described above.  Then gaze into the eyes of your crystal skull.  Try spinning it to the left to activate it, while holding it with your left hand.  Gaze again.  If it begins to sparkle, place it on your third eye and listen.  See if visions come.  Ask it how you can best work with it, and how to make sacred relationship with all it represents.

May you find the magic and potential of who you are, seeing into what has been, and dreaming yourself towards your best possibility. Ometotl.

Honoring the mystery within and without,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  For more information about her work and healing practices please visit www.metzmecatl.com

sources:

Oral Tradition shared by Sergio Magaña and Victor Nahui

Teachings from Atava Garcia Swiecicki

www.worldherbals.com

atlasobscura.com Xochipilli, National Museum of Anthropology

www.wakingherbs.com

Curse Breaking and Ancestral Healing

I am approached often with questions and requests that have to do with the notion of curse breaking.  It’s a hard topic for many people to bring up, and my heart goes out to those who feel the need to ask, because I know it means they are feeling trapped in a repetitive destructive cycle or limitation that has harmed or thwarted them enough that they are willing to consider whether someone means them harm.  Furthermore, it takes some courage to say this out loud, because it’s not something we want to believe in and our current cultural perception leads most of us to feel a little crazy or self indulgent even considering it.  The subject of curses is complex.  It falls beneath the realm of our conscious awareness and it’s often hard to be certain of the origins of our heaviest and  seemingly most immovable problems.  Based on what I have learned in traditional training, and what I’ve experienced in addressing these matters for myself and others, I believe that there are a multiplicity of origins possible when we perceive an energy or circumstance we identify as a curse.  Below are a few ideas to consider about how to understand and address heavy issues that you suspect are more than misfortune.

For the most part, a true curse, in present time, is something rare.  There are few people with that knowledge at at their disposal, and with the level of energy required to direct ill will in that way.  Finding a dark spell in a book or online doesn’t necessarily translate into the power to do significant harm.  Yet, people with this knowledge and disposition do exist, and there are cultural lineages wherein this practice has been preserved and passed down.  If you have been unlucky enough to come across someone who carries both the capacity to harm and a grudge against you, strong practices for cleansing, protection, and energetic containment are in order.  It may be worth trying to make peace or amends, if needed and if it’s safe to do so, or to seek outside support on your behalf.  Don’t forget to reach out to the larger forces of guidance and divinity as well, and don’t lose hope.  Free will and focused intervention can resolve and transform many issues, when we choose not to give into fear.

However, there are many more instances when what you are feeling has an alternate origin that requires healing on the unconscious levels of mind and soul.  Thought forms, stemming from our own self limiting beliefs or from other people’s ideas and feelings about us, may not be an intentional harm directed at us, but they can affect us in a similar way if they become strong enough.  Negative influence can come from within or without, and has many subtle forms.  Yet problems, obstacles, traumas, and destructive behaviors that repeat in our lives may more often be a form of soul memory and ancestral patterns surfacing themselves again and again, in an unconscious attempt at healing and integration.    

Could what seems to be a curse actually be an expression of ancestral patterns or generational trauma?  Here is where things get very layered.  We carry the shadow of the past within us, even when we do not know the specific stories involved, and even when we don’t feel a special connection to our family line.  The actions, experiences, and limitations of our ancestors pave the road on which we travel, and the more an experience has been repeated within our lineage, the harder it is to forge a new path.  It feels as though that which was too difficult for one generation to process or heal is sent forward in the line for another to attempt to resolve, for the benefit of the whole family.  This can be a tremendously painful process, as many of us attempt to consciously choose ways of living, working, and loving that are more healthy than those we have witnessed in our families, only to find that familial themes of illness, trauma, abuse, addiction, scarcity, or any number of issues, tend to emerge in some fashion, despite best efforts.  Alternately, we may find that though the full pattern did not play out in our lives, we have a condition that serves as a remnant or somatic expression of the trauma that was endured or engendered in the past.

Remember that however you feel about your ancestors, we do owe them our gratitude.  They did the work of survival, and perhaps sacrifice, that brought us this far.  If we have inherited something less than desirable from one of them, it may be that we have a particular resonance with that ancestor, and it also means that we have a special opportunity to bring awareness, forgiveness and healing to a situation that has been harmful and continues to affect us.  When we offer ourselves in this way, addressing these issues directly in a healing process that reaches deep into the hidden levels of the unconscious, we can free both those who came before us from carrying this pain further, and those that come after us from inheriting the compulsion to repeat it.  For example, if someone is terribly afraid of the water, and knows stories of drowning within the family, and/or has issues within the lungs, a picture begins to develop.  It may not be enough to just avoid water.  By engaging in a deep ancestral healing process, with help, or through work in trance states or lucid dreaming perhaps, it is possible to engage the ancestor with whom this pattern began, as well as those who were caught within it, and to offer oneself as a stand in to process and release the fear, pain, rage, shock, or whatever else needs to be moved.  This can bring completion and resolution to the initial trauma, so that it can finally be put to rest.  In fact, when we have issues in need of healing, it is very helpful for our process to include the ancestral levels which may be involved, so that the pattern can be unlocked and uprooted at its origin, lessoning the likelihood of it resurfacing again.         

Sometimes all it takes is looking at an old situation with new eyes.  Often limitations within us are established by fear, shame, guilt, and anger.  These are powerful emotions that leave an imprint on the psyche long after the details of the situation that evoked them have faded from memory.  It is part of our story of natural selection and evolution that we are wired to have negative bias.  This means that we remember our negative experiences far more viscerally and for much longer than the positive ones.  This helps us to pass on the knowledge of what is unsafe or harmful, even across generations, so that our genetic lineage can adapt, as needed, and continue.  It might help us know basic and important things like which plants we should not try to eat, but it goes further than that.  Think of your ancestors that lived through hardship and abuse from those that they were meant to trust.  What did they pass down to you about how to or whether to love?  Think of your ancestors that fled war, genocide, poverty, and oppression, and left behind all they knew in order to survive, what themes did they pass on about loss, identity, and safety?  Think of your ancestors who faced persecution and death, hunted because they believed in the magic of the earth and cosmos, because they were healers or seers  or devotees of the Divine Feminine.  What did they pass on about the need to hide who you are, or what it is safe to see and to say?  Couldn’t many of our perceived curses have begun within these levels of ancestral and soul history?  We retain the resilience and adaptability, but the shadows also remain.  In the Mexican tradition we call all of these patterns and influences from the past The Old Winds.  They blow through us and shape our lives and attitudes without us seeing their influence directly or knowing their origins.  It is said that we don’t really need to know their stories in order to clear them, but sometimes bearing witness to our ancestors’ stories is exactly what’s needed.  At least, it is one possible road into the journey of healing the past and freeing ourselves and them from carrying the burden.  With new eyes and much distance from the source of the pain, we can reevaluate the circumstances and constraints that led to the actions which planted shame within the family, and offer forgiveness and compassion to dissipate its power.  We can grieve for the losses that they could not, because it may have broken them to do anything but keep moving.  We can identify that the true dangers of the past don’t necessarily compare with the discouragements of today, and decide that this is the moment to reclaim the gifts and purposes that were hidden, in order to survive.  We can keep the resilience that they gave us, and step out of the shadows to right the wrongs, speak the unspoken, and be seen fully.  We can regard them with love while we revisit the wounds of the past, in order to sweep clear the path ahead.

This is the time of year when the ancestors are near, but in truth they are always within us.  What Old Winds are you carrying like a curse?  Perhaps it’s time to turn towards them instead of running.  If you ask their origin, and listen deeply, there may be things you don’t enjoy hearing, but there may also be relief, and even treasures hidden beneath.

May you walk unimpeded towards your best possibility, free of harm from within, free of harm from without.

In Reverence and Remembrance,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  You can learn more about her work and healing practices at www.metzmecatl.com

Plant & Crystal Magic 25: Corn & Lemon Quartz

In keeping with the theme of Mabon’s harvest celebration, instead of an herb this month we will take a close look at the nourishing medicine of Corn, and the joyfully potent energies of Lemon Quartz.

Corn

Corn is a primary sacred and staple food of the Americas, originating in South America, though cultivated worldwide.  It is actually a form of grass seed, meaning that it grows abundantly and nutritionally speaking it is full of energy, in the form of sugar and fiber, as well as being rich in vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium and vitamin A.  Blue and purple varieties are also rich in antioxidents.  In Aztec and Mayan cultures, Corn is considered a sacred aspect of the Earth Mother, and the same is true in many Native American tribal cultures.  The reasons for this are both practical and mythic, as Corn has provided the gift of reliable food cultivation as well as they symbolic representation of the abundance of the Goddess.  The top of the Corn plant produces a flower that fertilizes the silk of the individual ears of corn, making it a perfect symbol of fertility.  Goddesses Demeter, Isis, Chicomecoatl, and even the Virgin Mary and the zodiac sign of Virgo are all connected to the myth of the Corn Mother. Corn is one of the Three Sisters, along with climbing beans and winter squash, and the synergy between these three plants both teaches us about brilliance of companion planting and provides all that is needed to feed a household with very limited farming space.  The cornstalk makes a trellis for the beans to climb, while the beans fix nitrogen in the soil and stabilize the cornstalks in times of wind.  The squash is planted between and its wide leaves provide shade over the soil, keeping it moist and preventing weeds, while its prickly hairs deter pests.  It is a beautiful example of a community working together from a place of individual strengths, accomplishing more together in synergy than each could alone, and providing abundance and nourishment.

Providing reliable nourishment and abundance is a common theme in the myths surrounding Corn.  In the myth of the Corn Maiden, a story which has many variations among Native American cultures, the common thread is the generosity of this divine female in human like form, who secretly produces corn kernels from her own body, keeping people from starvation by giving of her own flesh.  In these stories, she joins the tribe as a stranger, and with her comes a sudden abundance of corn.  She warns them not to question how, but of course someone eventually sneaks a glimpse at her process and the people find it unsavory.  Instead of gratitude, they offer violence, either running her out of town, only to find themselves starving and in need of making amends, or worse killing her out of fear.  Even in that version, she returns to them in spirit and tells them to drag her body over the fields, allowing the corn to be planted, producing crops that return them to survival and abundance.  In these stories, Corn is like the Mother Earth herself, giving of herself to nourish us, regardless of our abuse of her.  This mirrors the cycle of death and rebirth, and the return of the harvest each year that is celebrated this season.  As in the chant, stemming from European Pagan culture, “corn and grain, corn and grain, all that falls shall rise again.”   

It’s likely not surprising, then, that corn and corn pollen are traditional sacreds for making offerings to the land, to divine forces, and as a show of respect and gratitude in return for that which we harvest.  Corn pollen is one of the four sacred gifted to the Diné (Navaho) people, and they rely on it for food and medicine, as well as reversing it as a bringer of clear thoughts and spiritual knowledge.  Blue corn pollen is especially potent for offerings, and is particularly sacred to the Zuni people, who credit the dance of the Corn Maidens with transforming their culture from war based to farming centered.  In Meso-American traditions, Corn pollen is scattered as an offering or as a form of protection in the home, and tossed into the air as a means of potentizing a ritual call for rain.

Corn silk, the golden or white threads inside the husk, have important herbal applications as well, providing a medicine in the form of tea or tincture that will cleanse urinary tract issues, ward off bladder infections, support kidney health, and aid in controlling blood pressure, bloating, and even instances of enuresis or bed wetting.  Fresh green corn silk can be collected from the cob and dried for these purposes. This medicine helps keeps the entire urinary tract clean.  It is the high concentration of potassium in corn silk that makes it a good supplement for kidney problems, being the main mineral needed for healing the kidneys.  In addition, potassium is an essential ingredient for controlling blood pressure and maintaining a healthy weight, and corn silk contains even more of it than bananas do.  Corn silk is a good diuretic and mild stimulant, and also makes a good poultice for skin ulcers, swelling, and rheumatic pain when mixed with beeswax or lard.  Cornmeal can also make a nutritious gruel when illness or convalescence makes eating solid foods more difficult.

When considering magic and folklore applications, Corn has a reputation as a bringer of abundance, a teacher of the principle of creation, a protector against negative energies, and an attractor of luck, love, and insight.  As a tall and golden plant, reaching for the sun while representing the beauty and generosity of the earth, it makes sense that Corn should be associated with taking us towards our highest destiny and support in manifestation.  Below is a list of folkloric and magical associations for the use of Corn:

Suggestions for working with Corn from folklore:

• As a protector of children. Small children are psychically open and vulnerable to negative influence. There is an old tradition of placing an ear of corn in or under your child’s bed to protect from negative forces. Though the folklore suggests placing an ear of corn in a baby’s cradle, that is one to adapt rather than take literally, as it could be a choking hazard. Another interesting ritual that comes from the Mountain regions of the U.S. suggests that if a birth was proving difficult, red corncobs were once burned on the doorstep of the cabin, or even under the bed, to quicken the process.

• As a bringer of abundance. It is traditional to eat yellow corn during the summer solstice to call financial prosperity. If making popcorn, you can shout your financial wishes to the corn kernels just before they pop, infusing each with a command, a fun ritual for harvest time and Halloween. Cooking with corn and cornmeal at the harvest season is always appropriate. Make sure to give an offering of your cornmeal or a portion of your cooking creations. Offer a pinch of cornmeal when harvesting anything, to show your respect and project your faith in the principle of abundance.

• As a purification and blessing for your home. Consider scattering blue corn around your property for protection and to bless the land and leave it there until it is naturalized in the earth or eaten by the animals. For more effective results, try to leave the blue corn in place for as long as possible. Hanging dried corn in your home with the husks folded back protects the home from negativity and attracts good luck and abundance. Making a Corn Dolly to hand over the door or place on an altar is another good way to bring blessing and protection energy to your home, while honoring the spirit of the harvest through the winter months.

• As an attractor of luck. If you’re hoping to change your luck, try hanging dried corn stalks above all the mirrors in your home. Work with your intention whenever you look into the mirrors by closing your eyes first and visualizing the outcome you are hoping for. Repetition over time will make this a potent manifestation ritual, especially because working with your mirror image is a strong way of accessing your unconscious levels to plant a seed of creation.

• As an ingredient in love and fertility spells. Corn silk has a history as a potent ingredient within love spells. It’s alternate folk names, such as Giver of life, Sacred Mother, and Seed of Seeds also illustrate it’s relationship to fertility in general. The generosity and prolific nature of Corn production make it a logical fertility charm. It is listed as a plant of Venus and of the Goddess.

• As a plea for rain. Corn has been used traditionally to call to the rain, and it certainly can’t hurt to try during this unprecedented time of drought. Meso-American tribes have historically used corn in rain summoning rituals, tossing corn pollen in the air to increase their potency.

• As a method of divine and ancestral guidance. It is said that consuming white corn can promote inner sight and spiritual wisdom. Placing cornmeal and tobacco on your altar is a good way to invite communication from your ancestors and divine allies.

Lemon Quartz

Everyone, for the most part, is familiar with the expression “you reap what you sow.”  However, perhaps it is less common to consider this principle in regards to thoughts and emotions than it is to think about it in terms of our actions.  Thoughts and emotions precede actions, and influence both what we create and what we draw towards ourselves on the subtle levels.  This is why it is so important to work consciously with our thought patterns, self talk, and emotional states, as well as with their origins, in order to cleanse ourselves of negative influence internally and externally.  For example, when we are anxious, we are hyper focused on what we fear.  In repeating these worries to ourselves, we may accidentally reinforce limiting, fearful beliefs, crafting a personal story and a worldview that tunes our awareness towards that which we least want to experience.  What we focus on, we tend to invoke, and this is how the power of our dreaming minds can accidentally work against us.  There are many methods for overcoming these challenging thought patterns, each of them requiring discipline and vigilance, but, as all of us know, knowing about them is far easier than implementing them consistently.  When we are tangled up in our emotions, and so familiar with negative moods and patterns of thought that we think of them as our authentic inner voice, then perhaps we need outside help, in addition to tools of inner warrior ship.

In the harvest season, we feel and see abundance around us more palpably.  We celebrate the riches we do have, and share them with ease.  Culturally, we have made a space for that, and for trusting in the flow of life, death, and renewal represented within the holidays of the Fall.  We need to be tuned to that rhythm, reminded to notice it and to express gratitude for it, so we can replenish our inner joy and hopefulness.  Lemon Quartz can help us to stay attuned to this energy, accessing more joy, more positive thinking, and more concentrated focus when it comes to our most intentional path of manifestation.  In this way, Lemon Quartz acts as a salve for anxiety and depressive states, a tool for positive manifestation and the clarity of mind and will that feeds it.  It is a stone that promotes happiness, trust, abundance, and protection from negative influence.  Like attracts like, so tuning into the positive helps us draw more helpful frequencies and situations to ourselves.  This makes Lemon Quartz a good stone for deepening our relationship with the spirit of harvest, for attracting financial support, and for cultivating success and satisfaction throughout the seasons of our lives.

Lemon Quartz is somewhat rare, especially in its natural state.  It is easily mistaken for Citrine, which is often more orange but can appear pale yellow as well.  True Lemon Quartz should be a transparent yellow hue that is consistent throughout, as opposed to the white or clear base with golden or orange hues on top that is typical of Citrine.  If there is a variation of color, it may not be actual Lemon Quartz.  When the right trace minerals are present, some Quartz stones are able to be transformed into Lemon Quartz with Gamma Rays and heat, and often it is hard to tell the purely natural from the heat treated.  Luckily, whether natural or heat treated, these are potent stones and their effects can be felt as they brighten moods and enhance clarity, helping us overcome negative thoughts, anger, depression, and anxiety, in favor of enhancing our sense of well being and personal power.  When we are in a happier and more empowered state of mind things flow better in our lives, and for this reason Lemon Quartz is said to enhance luck.  Wearing it can be helpful when we have important opportunities before us, such as job interviews, tests, new business ventures, new relationships, and big passages in our lives.  Because it activates our more positive emotions, it can also help us to increase our loving bonds in relationships, even if the dynamics of love and family have been challenging.  When we feel at peace inside ourselves, and within our environments, then we are able to see the best in others as well.

Lemon Quartz can be helpful in cleansing the aura and clearing what stands in the way of our more psychic abilities.  It encourages higher thinking, perception, intuition, and receptivity to the realm of spirit guides, and can be used to enhance channelling and deep meditative states.  In Toltec teachings regarding dreaming arts and psychic seeing, it is said that we must be light as a feather for dreaming.  This includes dreaming awake.  This is one of those deep esoteric principles hidden in plain sight.  When we are bogged down by heavy emotions and anxious thoughts, we have no space to notice or interact with the magic around us.  We are only able to see what is directly in front of us, and perhaps our own imaginings.  To be truly receptive, to see beyond the veil, and to dream with intention means to be capable of being an empty vessel, while holding a level of focus that lets us zero in on that which is normally beneath conscious perception.  Lemon Quartz can serve as a mystic stone by helping us to live more consistently in this lighter vibration.  It can offer us aid in emotional healing, in clearing, in serendipitous manifestation, and in cultivating the kind of mind and energy body that is needed for advanced psychic arts.  This pretty and unassuming stone is more powerful than it seems, and another example of the generous bounty of our Mother Earth.  Wearing it is a good way to help yourself stay in a balanced state of mind, able to move lightly and gracefully towards what you truly intend to receive and create.

Suggestions for working with Corn and Lemon Quartz together:

It’s a good time to turn attention towards what you have to be joyful for, to celebrate your successes, your luck, and this year’s harvest.  Wear and/or meditate with your Lemon Quartz crystal to help you enter this state of mind.  Bring home some fresh ears of Corn, with the husks still on.  If you can find some multi colored corn kernels, perhaps it would be a nice gesture to use them to create a beautiful offering of gratitude, using the kernels to make a pattern or shape or word on your altar.  Ask for help from the Earth Mother or Corn Mother in protecting you from negative influence or scarcity, hanging Corn husks, Corn Dollies, or an ear of corn with the husk pulled back.  Then create some nourishing and delicious food for a celebration feast, while asking for support in manifesting the dreams you most want to create in everyday life.  This could be Corn cakes, tamales from Corn masa, Corn on the cob, blue Corn porridge, the fun popcorn spell described above, or anything you like, but make it something fun and appealing that you will enjoy.  Laugh, sing, dance, or chant while you do this.  Believe that calling what you want and need can sometimes be this easy and fun.  Celebrate abundance and ease, inviting them into your life.

May you be light as a feather and ever growing towards the sun, with your feet rooted in the nourishing earth.

In joyful celebration of Fall,

the eleventh house

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez.  For more information about her work and healing practices please visit www.metzmecatl.com

sources:

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham

thepracticalherbalist.com/CornSilkPocketHerbal

awesomeon20.com

www.rejectedprincesses.com/CornMaided

The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Magical Plants by Susan Gregg

trulyexperiences.com/LemonQuartzMeaningHealingProperties,anduses

naturesmagic.com.au/(OuroVerdequartz)

healthynatured.com/lemonquartz