KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

June 14 through June 20, 2021

Things unfold pretty calmly as the Sun spends its last week in Gemini, encouraging us to integrate all the new ideas and information we've learned over the past three weeks. A Leo Moon will hang in the heavens Monday and Tuesday, bringing out our generous and heart-based sides. Details and organization will be the themes on Wednesday and Thursday under a Virgo Moon, so save those sorts of tasks for mid-week. A loving Libra Moon will move us into the weekend Friday and Saturday, highlighting relationships and a return to fairness and balance. On Sunday Jupiter will turn retrograde, but we may not even notice, as we'll be drifting through the spiritual and intuitive tones of the Scorpio Moon. After a month of information overload and two eclipses, this weekend is best spent regrouping before we move into a new season and all the wonders that await us!

Tips for Making Everyday Moments Magickal, by Phoenix LeFae

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Every moment of life is magickal, but our awareness and ability to hold that awareness is the challenge. The mundane aspects of life might trick us into believing that regular tasks lack magick. This feeling increases when we have to do things we don't want to do. There are ways to make everyday moments magickal—it just takes a little shift in perspective. That shift comes through the form of ritual. Ritual is the deeply reverent practice of casting a circle, calling the corners, and performing magickal arte, but ritual is also done in the small places of everyday life.

Daily practice and rituals don't have to look like sitting in silence; long, quiet meditations; or a special drawn-out process. So, how do you add simple practical rituals into your everyday moments without the pomp and drama of a fully fledged ritual? Good news, it's totally easy.

Daily Ritual
There are parts of daily life that can be ritualized with just a simple shift in focus and attention. By shifting your energy when you engage in these tasks, you bring more of your spirit and power into them. We all have daily tasks that must be done; why not add magick into these moments?

Bathing
We all bathe. Bathing happens on the regular. Long ritual baths are delightful. Filling a bathtub with roses and salts, lighting candles, and playing soft music makes a lovely ritual. But it takes a lot of time, set up, and clean up. It's not really ideal for daily life or daily ritual.

Rather than worrying about setting the time aside to take a ritual bath, turn your regular bathing routine into a ritual with your intention.

• Keep salt scrubs in your showers and do a cleansing salt scrub every time you wash.
• Take a moment, literally just a moment, to connect with the water. Let yourself feel the water pouring over you. Feel grateful for the presence of water in your life.
• After washing, step fully into the stream of water and let it cleanse your spirit. Notice if there is anything stuck in your energy field that needs to be released and let the water shift it, letting it flow down the drain.

Food
Making and eating food is a daily practice we all need to survive and it is the perfect time to implement rituals. Cook with intention, even if that is just putting a frozen dinner into the microwave. Singing words of gratitude over your plate before eating it will charge it with your gratitude and bring more blessings your way. Gratitude begets things to be grateful for. Make cooking and eating a ritual. This doesn't mean you have to be serious and eat in silence. There is a lot of joy and silliness that can be part of ritual, too.

• Add ingredients with intention, understand what the magickal correspondences of herbs and spices are. Include things that are in alignment with the goals you want to achieve.
• Say prayers over your food as you prepare it and before you eat it.
• Take a moment to honor the food. Whatever you eat had to give of itself for you to eat it, honor that sacrifice with your gratitude. Be grateful for the hands that picked that food, the truck drivers that drove it to your store, the people that work at the shop that help you, and the hands that cooked it.
• Add herbs or essences into the water that you drink throughout the day. Make each cup of water you drink a ritual and a prayer. Chant words of empowering or blessings over your cup before you take your first sip.

Cleaning
We all have to clean up. We wash dishes, do laundry, clean the cat box, and even scrub toilets. Engaging your magickal self when doing these mundane activities helps you to bring ritual into the everyday. This is even more important when doing chores you don't like. For example: I really dislike washing the dishes. When I do the dishes, I use this as a time of meditation. I focus on my breath, I go within, and let myself be with myself. Washing the dishes has become a meditative practice in my daily life. It is a way to bring ritual into the mundane.

Magickal Moments
Try setting aside small moments in your life to work as triggers for magickal moments as you move through the day. Ritual doesn't have to take hours; it can literally be thirty seconds of awareness and focus. If you have a busy or highly scheduled life, you may need to insert these moments into your daily calendar. There are lots of apps both for spiritual work and for scheduling that can help you with this process. Technology can totally aid in your daily spiritual work.

Touchstones A touchstone is like a secret hint you put out into the world to help you remember important things. For example, whenever I put a key into a lock, I take a deep breath. The key and lock is a touchstone for me to intentionally breathe.

Touchstones can look like anything and they serve as reminders for whatever you need. You might pause and say a prayer every time you see the color pink. Perhaps you speak the name of a beloved ancestor any time you find a penny on the ground. Maybe you stop and feel deep gratitude whenever you hear a phone ring. Let your imagination run wild.

These touchstone moments are small rituals that pepper your day with magick. You never know when you will come across one of your touchstones. It creates an opportunity for you to pay attention to the magick that is happening in your world all the time.

Adventuring
A big part of connecting into daily magick and ritual comes from connecting into your part of the world. Get out into your neighborhood. Go into wild spaces near you. Take walks around your block and let yourself feel the buzz and thrum of your hometown. Learn where the spirits of the land dwell and connect with them. What are the cycles and seasons of your living place like?

• Track the Cycles: Keep a ledger or journal of the cycles and seasons where you live. Watch what plants grow and when. Notice the changes in weather. See how the moon phases change how things feel or look where you live.
• Sit Spot: Pick a time to connect with the land around you every day. Maybe it's the early morning or late night. It could be after work or mid-day. The time doesn't matter, it's the commitment that does. Go outside, or look outside your window, every day at the same time. Just notice what is going on out there is in the world.

Ritual and magick are a part of our everyday lives, we just have to be willing to see how they are intwined with everything we do. Yes, we have mundane things to do, clean toilets, pay bills, put gas in our cars. These things may not feel like rituals or magick, but they truly are, if we allow them to be.

We can easily bring more magick into our daily lives through the ritual of living. The big rituals are profound and moving, but it is truly the art of finding ritual and magick in our day to day that brings us into connection with all of the mystery that life holds.

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

I live alone. Between 12 and 48 seconds after turning off my bedroom light for sleep, I feel a cat-like scratching at the foot of my bed. This is immediately followed by what feels like a light-weight spirit stepping upon the bed. After eight months, I began to feel two small, light-weight spirits on my bed: one at my feet and one at shoulder level. Four months later, there were three. This went on for three months. I was scared at first but now I'd miss them if they left! I have lupus and should be sick often but I am not and the doctor can't figure out why. I haven't had even a cold in over ten years. I am wondering if perhaps these spirits are guardians or are helping me in some way. Since the spirits have been in my life, I have been happier, calmer, and more relaxed. I sleep like a rock at night. These spirits do not talk to me and I have never seen them - thank God! I hang out at a New Age book store a lot. I don't drink or do drugs. Whatever is on my bed feels kind of like a cat, but it doesn't walk as a cat would. The spirits have never gotten cuddly or frisky with me either. Have you ever heard of spirits like this before? Thank you so much.

Cameron

Susyn:

Your experience is very intriguing. I wanted to know more, so I employed my psychic senses to see just what type of creatures these might be. When I envisioned these spirits, I saw something that looked more like a rabbit than a cat. Rabbit spirits often embody the energy of healing and peace; their gentle natures can remind us to move through life in peaceful, loving ways.

I feel that you are sensing some animal spirit guides who have adopted you and work nightly to help you heal. We all have special guides. Some come in the form of people, and some in the form of animals. They have a way of appearing just when we need them. Though your rabbit spirit guides appear in an unusual way, the sensations you experience as they walk on your bed or scratch are simply them letting you know they are near.

Though rabbit spirits are sometimes associated with fear, I believe that they help us to face and conquer our fears, and encourage us to summon spiritual intervention with our problems. Rabbits are quiet creatures that live a simple life with trust that they will be taken care of. As such, they encourage us to look within for healing and to align with well-being by living peacefully in the now.

I think these are the perfect spirit guides for someone who suffers from lupus, for they generate a calming of the nervous system, which naturally helps you to heal. They are protecting and strengthening your immune system and allowing you to live a happier, calmer and more relaxed existence these days.

Though we tend to think of rabbits as animals that hop rather than walk, they can move in ways similar to a cat. They also have claws that they use to scratch - not in an aggressive way, but to get our attention. They are known for their high reproductive rate, hence your experience that one became two and then three.

There is no reason to fear these spirit guides; in fact, you will want to embrace them and thank them for their presence. At the New Age book store you frequent, you can learn more about the special energy and gifts they have to offer you.

These fluffy little spirit guides act as your sentries by surrounding you with spiritual protection both day and night. To honor and thank them for their healing presence, you may want to start collecting rabbit icons like rabbit statues and pictures.

*****

Oceania:

Lupus is a systemic disease wherein an overactive autoimmune system mistakenly attacks the body, resulting in inflammation and a variety of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. As my mother has lupus, Iím very familiar with the most common symptoms: fatigue, joint pain, shortness of breath, mouth sores, dry eyes, cold fingers and toes, easy bruising, memory loss, anxiety and depression. Not only do you not suffer from these, you havenít had a cold in a decade. That is really unusual!

Spirit helpers come in many forms. I think it's wonderful that you are open to yours and appreciative of their quiet service. That you first noticed them when you moved to your new apartment suggests that moving into this particular home launched a life chapter of extraordinary solitude and serenity for you.

You seem to be in something of an energetic cocoon at this time in your life. This combined with your high sensitivity made it possible for you to notice these subtle presences. During your waking hours, you don't sense these gentle sentinels. Because they show up at bedtime, they do seem to be keepers of your rest, renewal and healing.

You are physically healthy and experience emotional well-being. You describe yourself as happy, calm, and relaxed, and I do sense a profound peace about you. I think we can attribute this primarily to your efforts to take good care of yourself.

You are clear in that you do not use or abuse substances. In hanging out at the New Age bookstore, you are no doubt absorbing ideas related to self-awareness, personal evolution, empowerment, compassion, holistic health, care for the environment and other earthlings, sustainability, community and the pursuit of meaning.

Are these tiny nocturnal spirits basking in your wellspring of energy, are they there to protect you, or are they simply loving companions? I do sense mutual enjoyment much like I feel with MY feline friends, who also settle softly on my bed at night.

Is it possible these are spirits of cats or pets you knew in the past? Some animal spirits choose to hang out in familiar places after theyíve passed or with their former human companions. While it's great to bask in the blanket of their benevolence, donít let their comforting presence keep you from seeking human companionship when the time is right.

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.