KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

January 16 through January 22, 2023

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit! This new year kicks off early, officially starting on Sunday. In the days coming up to it, we’ll have virtual musical chairs of planets shifting as we prepare once again to greet a new year. Monday’s Scorpio Moon will carry an intense vibration, enabling us to get a lot of things taken care of that have been on the back burner since last year. A lighter energy prevails on Tuesday and Wednesday as the Moon dances through Sagittarius, but we’ll have to watch for oversensitive people or emotional outbursts here and there. Part of the cause will be Mercury turning direct in Capricorn on Wednesday. This can cause miscommunication and technical glitches are sure to try our last nerves! The Sun will move into Aquarius on Friday and meet up with Pluto, giving us a sense of destiny and karma to guide our way forward. On Saturday the Aquarius new Moon will occur, which then dictates the beginning of the Chinese New Year on Sunday. To add to the melee, Uranus will turn direct after four months of backward motion and cement the idea that new beginnings are upon us! With the Sun moving into Aquarius, the new Moon in Aquarius, Aquarius’ ruling plant Uranus going direct (as well as Mercury), and the Chinese New Year all happening within a matter of days, the message is clear: Change is on the horizon!

Faeries and Love, by Cassandra Eason

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

The lore of the faery realm has, like the world of humans, traditionally focused on love—both tales of faery lovers and of fey beings who have fallen in love with mortals and sometimes tried to keep them forever in their faery kingdoms. These stories, whether perceived as pure lore or used as a way of explaining past mortal occurrences, tell the tales of true love, of faery temptresses, of lover's quarrels, and more.

Perhaps the most tragic fey love story is that of the Celtic Cliodna of the Golden Hair. The daughter of Manannan mac Lir, who ruled over the sea, Cliodna was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world in mortal form. She loved the young mortal Ciabhan so much she left faeryland to live with him. However, while Ciabhan was hunting, Cliodna's father sent a faery minstrel to enchant her; she was carried back to fairyland in a magical sleep. She is still seen on seashores, either as a huge wave or a seabird, seeking her lost love; she is said to help parted mortal lovers to be reunited.

Below are two methods of invoking Cliodna if you are longing to be reunited with a parted love.

• Name your lost love as you hold matching shells, found on the shore or by a lake, tied together with seaweed or dried grasses. Cast your shells on the ninth wave as it moves into shore. Call your lost love's name nine times.
• If you are landlocked, improvise with matching aquamarine crystals cast into any body of flowing water. Count nine before throwing the crystals into the water together. Call your lost love's name nine times.

Faery Marriages
Some tales of faery brides who married mortals seem to have earthly verification.

The Gwragedd Annwn are beautiful, Welsh, fair-haired faery women, the same size as humans, living in underwater palaces in lakes close to the Black Mountains. These lake maidens have, on occasion—according to folk lore of the area—taken human husbands, though they rarely stayed with them. Some local families still claim fey heritage.

One Lady of the Lake in Llyn y Fan Fach is, however, said to actually be the fairy ancestor of an unbroken line of Welsh healers and physicians. Even more unusual, this faery legend can be dated. Around 1230, records tell that a young farmer saw three beautiful women dancing on the shore. The most beautiful agreed to be his wife and her father, the king of the lake faeries, came from under the lake to bestow a dowry of fairy cattle. However, the faery king imposed a number of conditions on his daughter staying with her mortal husband. One condition was that she should never be touched with iron, another that she should not be made to go to church, and a third that if her husband struck her three times she and her dowry would return to the lake.

The couple had three sons, but the farmer broke his bargain by striking his faery wife three times (though according to less enlightened male folk tellers, the poor husband only tapped the faery lightly and for good reason). A faery bargain being a faery bargain, off went the cattle and faery maiden, though she did return to teach her sons knowledge of herbs and healing. They became the Physicians of Myddfai, healers to the Welsh kings. When they died, they left a medical treatise, copies of which exist today. I believe there is one in Cardiff Castle Museum.

Brides in Faeryland
Mortal women who married to or were abducted by faeries seem to have had an even less than happy fate.

A woman on her wedding day or night was, according to Celtic myth, considered a great prize by the faeries as she was still a virgin but at peak fertility. For this reason, until medieval times, a woman would be accompanied to the church by identically dressed bridesmaids, so that watching faeries could not identify the true bride.

Some of these faery abductions may have had a less ethereal explanation. In parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, the local lord of the manor was unofficially allowed the use of his serfs' brides on their wedding night. Rape by wealthy landowners and their sons was a real threat for country women even in Victorian times, especially among servants in big houses. It could be that the story of a traditional return of the abducted bride from the faeries after a year and a day bearing a babe several months old was an acceptable way for a peasant husband not to appear cuckolded by the squire, if the unfortunate bride became pregnant during this abduction. A despoiled bride might have been placed in a distant workhouse during the pregnancy, with the collusion of the husband or a father in the case of an unmarried girl.

A typical bride abduction story made into a ballad was of Colin, a Scot, whose wife was taken by the faeries. His wife, it was said, returned invisibly each day to milk to cows and do the chores; only her singing could be heard. In other versions she returns after a year and a day with a baby. Was Colin keeping his bride locked away because he discovered on the wedding night she was pregnant by someone else, albeit by rape? Or was she truly a bride of the faeries?

Some faery abductions had more serious consequences. A wife who consistently produced sickly boys who did not survive or female offspring for a man who desperately needed an heir, might suddenly disappear; the official and often unquestioned explanation of her disappearance was that she was spirited away forever by the faeries. There are still parts of the world where the value of a woman except as a bearer of sons is low; this is a reminder that it has not that long been otherwise in Westernized society also.

Bridget Cleary
Records from centuries past are obviously sparse, and faery abduction as an excuse for wife murder or beating may sound to be pure speculation. That said, we do know that in Tipperary in Ireland as recently as 1895 Bridget Cleary was tortured and burned to death by her husband Michael. He claimed that his wife had been stolen by the faeries and a changeling substituted. Michael insisted that by destroying the enchanted form of his wife, the true Bridget herself would return on a white horse at midnight. Seven of her neighbors and relatives, including Bridget's father and aunt, were involved and later convicted of the crime. A hundred years later, Angela Bourke, a professor at University College, Dublin and author of The Burning of Bridget Cleary, stated that the case demonstrated the clash between two different world views, two ways of dealing with troublesome people, two ways of accounting for the irrational, at a time of profound social, economic, and cultural change.

Bridget Cleary's crime was that she was economically and socially independent by her own efforts, rather than by birth. Presumably, had the case gone unpunished, her death would have been very profitable for her husband and family, who would have inherited her money.

Fairy Queen Temptresses
As the goddesses were downgraded into faeries, some acquired the role of temptresses and abductors of innocent males. In Scotland, myths tell of the Bean chaol a chot uaine's na gruaige buidhe, "The slender woman with green kirtle and yellow hair"—a fairy queen who had the ability to turn water into red wine and spin the threads of the spiders into tartan. The fairy temptress would, by playing her magical reed pipe, lure young men into her faery hill. Unless they left a piece of iron over the lintel of the entrance, they would be forced to dance and serve the pleasure of the faery queen until she tired of them and sent them home. It is said these young men would find that though it only seemed one night had passed in faeryland, decades might have gone by in the mortal world and the fresh-faced milkmaid sweetheart to whom he had sworn his eternal fidelity was now an aging grandmother.

The most famous young male abductee who seems to have actually gained from his visit to faeryland was Thomas the Rhymer, whose ballad is still performed in folk clubs with Celtic connections. The true Thomas was Thomas of Earlston (Erceldoune), a thirteenth century poet who claimed to have met the Queen of Elfland under a magical elder tree. In return for a kiss he tells how he was forced to go to faeryland with her, though other versions suggest Thomas was more than willing to be seduced. In a few accounts the Queen becomes an ugly hag and the ritual mating of youth with the ancient crone goddess occurred to maintain the cycle of the seasons and ensure the fertility of the land. Thomas remained in faeryland for seven years, though they were only three days in fairy time. He was rewarded with the gifts of poetry, prophecy, and a magical harp.

It has been argued in recent years that Thomas was in fact initiated into a local witch cult and that his visions of faeryland were shamanic.

An Escape from the Faeries
Not all captives were as willing as Thomas, nor the faery queen as willing to part with her mortal lover. One of the most famous tales, recorded by the Scottish poet Robert Burns as well as several other poets, is that of Tam Lin, a Scottish knight who fell from his horse and was captured by the Queen of the Faeries. She bound him with magic and posted him to guard one of the entrances to the world of humans at the well of Carteraugh, close to the borders of Scotland.

Young maidens were warned not to drink at the well, for every time they did and picked one of the roses that overhung it, Tam Lin would appear and demand that either the girl gave him a green mantle or offered up her virginity.

One bold young woman, Janet, decided to see whether the myth was true, and plucked a rose from the well. She and Tam Lin fell in love, and he wanted to escape from the Faery Kingdom to wed Janet.

The next night was Halloween, and Tam Lin explained that there was an opportunity that only occurred every seven years for him to escape. The Faery Ride would take place, when then the faeries moved to their winter quarters (in some versions seen as hell). The faery troop had to ride on horseback along the road. Tam Lin told Janet to wait for him at the crossroads at midnight and to hold on to him, whatever form he took.

As Tam Lin rode by in the faery procession, Janet pulled him from his horse and held tight. Just as he had warned Janet, the Faery Queen turned Tam Lin first into a newt, then a snake, a tiger, a bear, and finally into red hot metal. Janet held fast, and as he became molten metal, she plunged him into the magical well.

The spell was broken. Tam Lin emerged from the water in human form, and he and Janet were soon married.

Faery Marital Quarrels
Faery marriages were frequently as turbulent as earthly ones.

Titania is most famous in literature as the wife of Oberon, King of the faeries, in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In this play she is depicted as petulant, willing to let the seasons go to rack and ruin while she pursues her vendetta against Oberon, who retaliated by making her fall in love with a peasant with a donkey's head.

Titania was, before she was Christianized and downgraded (like many Pagan goddesses) to faery status, known as Themis the Ancient Greek Titan Goddess of Justice and Order, and the mother of the Fates and the Seasons.

Finvarra or Fin Bheara, who ruled the faeries of the west Of Ireland, was the apparently devoted husband of Queen Oonagh. Oonagh has been described in true Victorian style by Lady Wilde, who collected accounts of faery folk lore in Ireland, as having golden hair sweeping to the ground, clad in silver gossamer glittering as if with diamonds, which were actually dew drops.

In spite of his wife's ethereal beauty, Finvarra was obsessed with mortal women who, overpowered by the music of faeryland, were spirited away to live there with him forever. He was also said to have a second Queen, Nuala. Oonagh was unsurprisingly not welcoming to mortal maidens to the fairy court.

Other maidens seduced by Finvarra's music danced all night with him and in the morning, found themselves on a faery hill, possessing knowledge of love potions and of magic—and sometimes a faery pregnancy.

A Fairy Love Wishes Spell

1. Find a faery tree: a hawthorn, elder, ash, willow, or oak, or in the southern hemisphere, a eucalyptus, tea tree, golden wattle, or the bushy manuka.
2. Sit beneath or close to its branches on a bright moonlit night during the week of the full moon.
3. Best of all is the night of the full moon. Look upwards at the moon and feel the positive energies of the cosmos and the moon mother, associated with faithful love and fertility, flowing into you.
4. Watch the moonlight filter through the leaves and make patterns, and you may be aware of living, moving energies within the branches and leaves.
5. Touch the trunk of the tree with your hands, and let the life force of the tree spirit flow into you, so that you can feel the pulsating energies of its essence like mild electricity.
6. Standing and still touching the tree, press your feet down towards the roots, allowing the Earth mother to offer you her fertility and the power so you will find or live with the right mate forever.
7. Now extend your arms upwards, and draw inwards strength and healing from the moon-dappled leaves.
8. Move away from the tree and, keeping the moon in view, spiral the tree nine times clockwise (widdershins) in ever decreasing circles, letting your feet guide you. The nine circles of power are an ancient magical device, and if you now stand within the innermost ring, reaching out with just your fingertips to the trunk, you may momentarily make contact with the spirit of the tree.
9. Ask the essence within the tree, the earth, and the moon mother to bless your love or to bring to you the person who will make you happy. You can also ask for fertility if you are trying to conceive a child.
10. Spend a little longer watching the moonlight filter through the leaves and amplifying the tree energies.
11. Bury a silver earring or nine silver-colored coins, the metal of the moon mother, beneath the roots as a token of thanks; whisper your love's name or call out on the air the one who will make you happy to find you.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2013. All rights reserved.

My hands are often noticeably hot. You can actually feel the heat radiating from them. This happens probably more than twice a day (I only notice it if it's really strong). Is this possibly a spiritual thing? It seems to have only started in the past few years. The heat can be felt by anyone, and is not related to my body temperature. The rest of my body (including the tops of my hands) can be cool or warm, but the palms of my hands will be very, very hot, actually radiating heat to the point that if I put my hands an inch or so above someone else's, they can they feel it. Is there a spiritual connection here? Thanks!

Tamica (Virgo)

Dreamchaser:

Tamica, I am constantly reminded via this column that we humans are often completely blind when it comes to our own lives. I wonder what you might say if a friend asked you this question about HER hands. I think you would say, "GIRL, you are a healer!"

There is SUCH a spiritual aspect to hot hands. Every healer I know has very warm hands. When they want to use them to heal, their hands become even hotter. To test this theory, the next time something hurts on you, put your hands on that part of your body and concentrate on fixing it. You will feel your hands start to heat up, and I bet the pain is reduced.

You said it only started in the last few years, and I know that you hit some evolutionary level (spiritually speaking) at that time. It naturally happens to women somewhere in our thirties. We can ignore it or deny it, but it is still there. It is an awakening of sorts. At that time, our gifts will really start to show themselves, if we have not seen them clearly already. That is basically what happened to you a few years back, Tamica. You had an "awakening."

I suggest you read books on the practice of Reiki. Start to research all types of healing. Learn all you can about your "newfound" gift. There is a reason why we receive our gifts, and why they start to manifest. You need to find out why you have "hot hands." I used to a date a man that had "hot hands." He rarely used them. When I had an ache or a pain, I would ask him to heal me, and he would put his hands on me. Unless he was asked, however, he would never use the gift. I was on the receiving end of his power, and I know how much he had. I always thought it was a shame that he did not become more familiar with this gift of his. I think we all should be exploring ways to put our gifts to use.

At the risk of sounding very "New Age," we are entering into new spiritual dimensions, which is influencing human behavior. In the future, I fully expect to see a shift AWAY from modern medicine as we know it, back to the "old ways." You will fall into that category and become a "doctor" of sorts, but you have to accept the job. Do the research. Learn what you have to learn.

I wish you even MORE power from within.

*****

Astrea:

The uses of magic differ with each individual person. Heat has always meant Healing to me. I think you're lucky to be able to feel it come from your Spirit through your hands, and you will, too. Harness this power for good, and you'll live in a better world.

Your Guides are showing you that you need to be healing people, both physically and spiritually. These Guides are giving you Signs that you have an especially strong gift in that area. Unfortunately, your Guides aren't showing you what TECHNIQUE you should be using to make this work for you and others in the most efficient way. Guides are like that, often giving us half (or less) of the information we actually need as piddly human beings so that we end up having to figure things out for ourselves. (GROAN!)

There is no Shortcut Method To Enlightened Use of Healing Power, Virgo, so you're out of luck, there. Good thing you Virgos are so PATIENT. 🙂

You will find a way to use your powerful healing talent for The Light. This doesn't mean you have to rush out and become a Medical Doctor; there are several other legitimate avenues you can explore to learn how to use your gift. To control ANY gift takes lots of practice. First you have to pay attention to all aspects of the signs you're being shown.

Pay closer attention to details such as when, where, how, with whom, and WHY this happens to you the way that it does. Get a little memo book that will fit in your pocket or purse, and write those questions with a space between them on each page of the book. Every time this heat manifests, answer those questions and go to the next page. Keep enough ahead in the question pages so that you don't have to fill in the questions on the spot, and can just write down the answers quickly. Keep this notebook for a month, preferably from one Full Moon to the next Full Moon. Don't go back over what you have written for an additional month, but meditate and pray for enlightenment during the next 28 days.

On the following night of the WANING FULL MOON, read over the month you kept your records. ALL will be revealed to you in that reading, and you'll know where your Healing Path lies. You can then choose from the forms available to you to study, find a mentor, or develop skills to use this for yourself in your own way. Start with the next full Moon to begin to process your miraculous gift.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.