KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

May 31 through June 6, 2021

There's not a lot of movement this week as we enter the month of June, so take some time to reflect and regenerate as the days unfold. Monday's Aquarius Moon will have us continuing the social chatter we started yesterday, encouraging us to connect with people we've lost track of or follow up on a recent conversation. The Moon travels through Pisces Tuesday through Thursday, slowing outer movement and calling for internal focus and simplified days. Venus will move into Cancer on Wednesday, another event that will turn our attention to emotions and our home lives. Loving ourselves more is a theme of Venus' travels through Cancer, so take some time out for a spa day or to catch up on movies or books that have been waiting for your attention. We'll come back to life Friday and Saturday as the Moon marches into assertive Aries, where we can attend unfinished business and restore balance to our worlds. Sunday's Taurus Moon adds power to our physical movements, inspiring a clearing out of closets, reviewing finances, or digging in the garden. Whatever we decide to spend Sunday doing, a hands-on approach will serve us well.

Kitchen Witchery: The Magick of Everyday Things, by Laurel Woodward

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

When I first came to magick and started walking a Pagan path, I was often paralyzed into non-action by trying to write the perfect ritual with a specific list of ingredients set to the energy of the moon, day, and hour. And while there is a time and a place for these big rituals, it wasn't until I embraced the magick of everyday things that my day-to-day life became truly magickal.

I came to understand that magick isn't found only in a moonlit ritual, but waits to be acknowledged in the everyday-moments of our lives. The secret to finding it is to be present. When I face the world awake and aware, magick happens. The small things I took for granted gained the power to fill me with joy and wonder: The spicy-sweet scent of a rose, the hummingbird dropping down mid-flight to buzz around me, the sunlight in my eyes warming my skin. A simple shift of attention turns brief exchanges into intense, expanding, magickal moments that allows me to find my place within the natural world, a place where I may commune and interact with the world around me, where I am not alone but part of a great thrumming web, and suddenly everything becomes so much more.

It is in these small but precious moments, as perception sharpens and swells, and we become fully engaged, that the mundane takes on an enchantment of its own. We become aware of the whispers and stirring around us and become a witness to the transformative power of everyday magick. When we turn off our electronic devices, quiet our minds, and greet the world with expectation it responds and begins to speak in a language of signs, symbols, and synchronicities that when recognized, stimulates our intuition creating radiant glimpses of insight and Divine inspiration. Messages come in the playing card you find on the walk, in the butterfly that lands on your wrist, in a repeating song or number. Intuition finds its voice and as we begin to listen to it our perception expands so that we become aware of this cosmic interaction. Each day becomes an adventure as curiosity blooms and everyday routines fill with mystery, magick, and wonder.

The Universe is sentient and it is brimming with energy; you only have to be present to witness it. Magickal energy is all around us. It is in the plants at our feet, the feather of the bluebird lying on the sidewalk, the shell on the beach, and it is also in every single ingredient in our kitchen cupboards. Each and every ingredient has a magickal correspondence that can be applied to work magick to charm, sweeten, heal, nurture, comfort, and even compel.

Through the application of intention, focus, action, and will, Kitchen Witchery turns the act of preparing food and serving it into alchemy. With thought we shape the energy. With our breath, our words, with emotions, with our voices, with our movements by mixing, stirring, kneading, and chopping we raise the energy as the focus of our will channels it to manifest the work. We can do this every time we create, no matter the medium. Each time we consciously create, fixing intention and linking our thoughts with the magnetic/vibrant energy of the earth, immersing our creation process in our thoughts, emotions, and actions, the results are a change in structure. This act of conscious creation is magick and can be applied to every aspect of our lives.

It is when we embrace mindfulness that magick happens. When we treat something as sacred, it becomes so. Our efforts go from half-hearted to conscious acts of creation. Bring mindfulness into the kitchen and our cooking takes on a whole new level of meaning. Garden favorites become a source of magickal energy waiting to be tapped into. Take for example the common pepper and tomato. Both hold energy to stimulate creativity and inspire affection—which means a spicy dish of salsa can be made to refresh thought, encourage creative inspiration, or arouse a lover's affections.

Like any magickal ritual it begins with an intention and a recipe.

Taqueria-Style Salsa with Chili de Arbol
The heat of this creamy delicious salsa can be reduced or amped up by decreasing or increasing the number of chili peppers and the amount of pepper seeds. You may want to wear food handler's gloves when handling the peppers, as chili oil can cause skin irritation.

You will need:

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 small to medium onion
• 2 or 3 chili de arbol
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil
• a blender or food processor
• salt

While half the magick comes from the ingredients, the other half comes from you. Tell each ingredient what you want it to do. Voice your intention or simply hold it in your mind as you cut each tomato and onion into four sections and peel the garlic. Take each pepper and cut off the stem. Remove the seeds and discard.

In a sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Put the tomato and onion pieces into the pan and cook for 5 minutes turning the slices so each side browns. Add the garlic and roast for 2 minutes. And lastly add the chilies. Cook only until they begin to brown. This happens quickly. Be careful not to burn or the flavor will become bitter. Spoon the cooked ingredients into a food processor and whiz. Pause and add two more tablespoons of oil and whiz until creamy. Season with salt and serve warm or cold. This salsa thickens as it cools. It will stay fresh for several days in the fridge.

Serve with tacos to spice up the meal. Serve with chips at a meeting to inspire a flow of fresh ideas. Serve at a friendly lunch to loosen tongues and encourage conversation. Serve to a date to rouse affection.

Five Tips to Empower Your Food Magick

1. If you are trying out a recipe you haven't made before, read it through completely before you begin. Then gather and prep all of the ingredients. One factor that brings together a successful recipe is timing, so if the recipe calls for an ingredient to be chopped, grated, peeled, etc. do this before you begin.
2. Be mindful of the foods you choose to eat. Your body is the vehicle you live in until the day you die. And just like an expensive sports car, your magick skeleton needs to be fueled with quality fuel for optimal performance. When you choose to eat whole foods your body is supplied with the nutrients it needs and food prep becomes a vehicle to restore wellness.
3. Eat foods that are in-season. Seasonal foods are at the height of their flavor and peak nutrition. If we put our energy into eating seasonal foods, the awareness becomes a bridge to sync our rhythms to the turning of the seasons.
4. Try to buy local. Food produced locally does not travel long distances to get to your table. It doesn't spend time in cold storage. Locally produced foods are fresh. There is amazing energy in fresh fruits and vegetables that come right from the field or garden. Buying locally grown produce also supports your local economy. For inspiration check out a Farmer's Market.
5. Lastly, be grateful. Gratitude goes a long way in magick practices. It is important that we remember to be thankful for the food we eat. You can thank your personal deity, your ancestors, the spirit of your home, the spirit of the land, or even the plants that grew the food you are about to eat. Offer the first portion to the spirit you are thanking. When we feed our household spirits and give them our attention, we strengthen our relationship and give them power. Hold gratitude in your heart as you eat.

If you are interested in learning more about the art of food magick, pick up my book, Kitchen Witchery, a cookbook filled with recipes, and the history, lore, magickal correspondences, and suggested uses for each culinary ingredient.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2021. All rights reserved.

I have been working for a while to integrate some of the darker aspects of my psyche and become a more balanced person. Recent developments have added more urgency to this. I do a lot of remote energy healing for close friends who have asked for my assistance. I do most of this work out on my deck at night. It seems to help to be near nature, and the quiet of the night allows me to let down and relax. When I facilitate a healing, itís like a form of astral projection. I go where I'm needed and assess and address any problem areas while maintaining contact with whichever archangel chooses to guide me. (This is how I ensure my actions are in the best interests of the client.) Sometimes when I venture forth in this manner, my energy is different. I am super confident and many voices travel with me. I get the sense that they are all part of me somehow and I am not afraid of them. During these times, I am very powerful and my healings are particularly effective, however, I have to be extra diligent and verify each step with my guides as I am less scrupulous. I am guessing that this wild energy is a darker aspect of myself and am eager to safely integrate this to become a more balanced person. I would also like to prevent any wild cards from popping up during my energy work that might adversely affect a client. I would appreciate any input or suggestions you might have. Thank you!

Phil

Susyn:

How wonderful that you have advanced to this level of spiritual healing work. Your ability to assess and address problems and astral project your energy to help others is a rare gift, so it's understandable that you would want to be sure you are performing at the highest level possible.

While you refer to the wild energy as a darker aspect of yourself, my sense is that your greatest challenge is to identify when ego tries to interfere with your spiritual aims. Spiritual work often produces euphoric energy. This naturally creates the desire to experience that euphoria again and again, so what you describe is a common struggle.

You mention that you are diligent in remembering to verify each step of your healing process with your guides. This is the key to making sure your work is of the highest caliber; it will also allow you to monitor what's happening and separate out any aspects of your self that might interfere with your healing work.

As for how to integrate these darker aspects of yourself, in my experience, it's not so much about integrating all aspects of ourselves, both dark and light, but more about setting up boundaries so all parts of ourselves can remain whole but also be accessed separately as needed. Just as we refrain from bringing our personal lives into the work place or mixing certain foods together, we can enjoy all aspects of ourselves without combining them. Sometimes, it isn't even wise to integrate them all because doing so may do more harm than good.

Awareness is half the battle; the more cognizant we are of what we are doing and on what level we are performing, the more powerful our efforts become. Willingness is the other half of the battle. If we come across darker energy or realize that our egos are displacing spirit, we have to be willing to face that truth so we can change our approach and redirect our focus.

My sense is that the wild energy you are experiencing is necessary to the work you do and not harmful to you or your clients. I would only be concerned if you were to stop checking in with your guides or begin to operate under the delusion that you are doing the healing yourself instead of acting as a channel for Spirit.

As you continue to evolve in your healing work, areas of your personality you consider dark will begin to transform naturally. It is important to have a healthy ego and confidence in order to do your work. The only time it becomes dark is when it is out of balance with other parts of yourself. I feel that you are on the right path and needn't worry about working against yourself as long as you continue to bring your guides with you when you perform your healing work.

*****

Oceania:

Good for you for being committed to ongoing self-examination; it is critical for healers to do what you're doing so that personal issues donít interfere with their clients' welfare.

We all have many aspects of Self, which are like facets on a crystal. Integration means our parts work together as a team, like an inner United Nations. If some part of us was unacceptable to the family we grew up in (for example, our creative part), we may disown it. Our job as adults is to reclaim any lost parts.

An extreme example of internal separation is found in Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder), where parts have little to no awareness of each other. In isolation, parts can develop into full-blown personalities known as alters. The goal of treatment is to introduce them to each other and unify them.

For most of us, personality parts are separated by chain link fences, not walls, and they communicate through inner dialogue. When the impulsive child craves brownies, the critical parent may scold and lecture about junk food while the rational peacemaker may settle the matter by choosing ONE brownie instead of a dozen. However, if our impulsive child is ignored or shunned, it may sometimes take over and go on a binge!

While you sense that these emerging voices may be helping you in your work, since you don't know them very well, you naturally feel a need to vigilantly oversee them. The fact that you feel less scrupulous when you allow them to participate indicates that you are struggling to meet your own highest standards for integrity.

You refer to your newly discovered parts as wild and dark. Shadow parts are those we reject or remain unaware of. Left to their own devices, they can be destructive, but when working in tandem with other parts (such as your own sense of integrity), they can bring special gifts to the table. For example, on its own, our anger can be destructive, but when cooperating with positive, patient and goal-oriented parts, our anger can be transmuted into strength, self-preservation and wise choices.

While you are getting more familiar with the newest members of your inner team, I think you'd be wise to keep them on the sidelines. A therapist trained in Voice Dialogue may be particularly helpful to you at this time. Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone developed this technique, which enables sub-personalities to meet, greet and work together. You can learn more about this approach online.

With continued personal work, you will have a more unified, qualified group of selves, at which point you will more power as a healer and greater inner peace.

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.