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April 8 through April 14, 2024

The Aries new Moon/Solar Eclipse occurs on Monday, marking the start of a brand new six-month cycle of focus. The second of two eclipses this year, (the first occurred on March 25th under a full Moon) we'll be ready for some breakthroughs and advanced movement. Occurring in the sign of Aries, we'll feel renewed energy and determination. Keep in mind that Mercury will be retrograde for a few more weeks, so when inspired, adjust accordingly! The rest of the week unfolds without any major astrological events. A Taurus Moon will help us get our work done without interruption on Tuesday and Wednesday. That's a good thing, as Thursday, Friday, and Saturday's Gemini Moon will have us socializing, searching the web (going down the rabbit holes of Youtube and the like, haha), and networking with others. It will be time for a breather on Sunday, as the Cancer Moon encourages us to go inward and focus on our spiritual selves, as well as tending to self-care on a physical and mental level.

Six Ways Massage Improves Your Health, by Debra DeAngelo

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Many view massage as nothing more than frivolous pampering or an unnecessary luxury (and there's nothing wrong with luxurious pampering!), but massage is so much more than that. It's an extra boost that elevates your health to its optimum. It's the difference between feeling good and feeling great, and deserves its rightful spot in your regular health regime, right alongside nutritious food, good sleep, and regular exercise.

Massage isn't merely spreading warm oil over the skin and kneading tight muscles—even though that feels great and is reason enough to get one! Even the harshest of critics—those in the medical and science communities—are acknowledging that massage does much more than facilitate relaxation. Massage has been validated as a healing catalyst for a variety of physical and psychological conditions by some of the most respected institutions in the medical community, such as the Mayo Clinic and National Institute of Health.

Can you get by without massage? Sure. Should you? Heavens no. Massage is a cornucopia of healing for both body and mind. It's not a luxury—it's a necessity! We need to embrace a new health paradigm that includes massage as integral to our physical, emotional, and even spiritual health. The benefits of massage are many. Here are six ways massage and soothing human touch promote optimal overall health.

1. Touch Heals
The list of physical and psychological conditions that benefit from massage is extensive and varied. The medical community is finally acknowledging that therapeutic massage can alleviate, and sometimes eliminate, a whole host of conditions, including digestive disorders, fibromyalgia, headaches, back and neck pain, myofascial pain, nerve pain, tendonitis, soft tissue strains and injuries, sports injuries, joint pain, arthritis, inflammation, chronic pain, and high blood pressure.

Massage can facilitate recovery after an injury or surgery, can help patients cope with chemotherapy, and can be an important component to physical therapy or chiropractic treatment. It assists blood circulation and lymph drainage, and can also ease the discomforts of pregnancy and labor. It's even beneficial to newborns and infants for relieving colic and fussiness, and enriching the bonding process between parent and child.

And that's just the body! The psychological benefits of massage include relief for anxiety, Alzheimer's Disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder, sensory processing disorder, depression, dementia, grief, and insomnia. It's also highly beneficial for seniors, who often experience loneliness and isolation as they age.

Most of us will experience at least one of these physical or psychological conditions over the course of our lives. Why not head to the massage therapist's office rather than the pharmacy?

2. Touch is Preventative
Massage provides gentle, healing benefits from the moment we're born. Gentle, soothing, intentional touch is a proactive health practice that's beneficial from the moment of our first breath to the moment of our last. By improving circulation, flexibility, and muscle and tendon tone, and reducing blood pressure, anxiety, and inflammation, regular massage can help prevent the conditions and chronic pain that can arise from participating in sports or just doing our jobs. Whether it's sitting at a computer or standing at the cash register all day or loading heavy items onto shelves, repetitive motion creates wear and tear on our muscles, joints, and tendons. Just living in a body results in wear and tear if you do it long enough!

Massage also teaches us to relax, which comes in handy beyond the massage therapist's office. Learning to breathe deeply, slow your heartbeat, and release muscle tension can help us deal with the pressures, challenges, and frustrations of everyday life, from kids to co-workers to random rude strangers. Massage teaches us coping skills beyond yelling and shaking our fists. Learning—and choosing—to relax is a proactive practice for calming chronic anxiety, which itself can be the root of many health conditions like high blood pressure, headaches, and digestive disorders.

3. Touch Relieves Pain and Increases Pleasure
Whether the pain is physical or emotional, simple human touch can relieve it. Studies have shown that simply holding the hand of another person—even that of a stranger—can reduce a person's experience of pain. However, the pain relief is substantially more when the touch comes from a loved one or partner.

Touch stimulates our "Pacinian corpuscles," which are located throughout the body in the deep layers of the skin. They respond to pressure, and stimulate the vagus nerve. When the vagus nerve detects gentle, safe pressure, it triggers a calming response, which in turn lowers blood pressure and heart rate. When that gentle pressure (touch) is provided by a trusted loved one, the vagus nerve prompts the brain to release the hormone oxytocin, which promotes relaxation, trust, and bonding. Nicknamed the "love hormone" and the "cuddle chemical," oxytocin is also released when we're in love, sexually aroused, or bonding with our infants. Soothing touch also stimulates the orbital frontal cortex in the brain, which responds to rewarding stimuli like sweets and pleasant scents.

All these physiological responses can be prompted by simple touch, such as holding a hand or rubbing the back. Consider how magnified these responses are when the Pacinian corpuscles are being stimulated all over the body for an hour. No wonder massage feels so heavenly! In addition to our skin and muscles being soothed, our cerebral pleasure centers are also being caressed and our brains are being bathed in lovely, relaxing oxytocin. Truly, massage is more than just skin deep. It's neurologically and biochemically transformative.

4. Touch Communicates
Touch is the most basic form of communication, not only for humans, but animals, too. Music is called the "universal language," but touch easily surpasses it. While music is part of human culture worldwide, touch has one up on music: It's spoken within, and across, species. Anyone who has a pet knows this. You stroke your cat, and she stretches and purrs with pleasure. Sensing distress, your dog licks your face or hand, and you immediately feel comforted. Animals have entire conversations through touch, without ever uttering a word. They cuddle, groom, lick, nudge, and nip. Many newborn mammals begin their lives with a warm, loving tongue massage from their mothers.

We've learned the importance of immediate physical contact between mother and infant from our animal siblings. Fresh, wet, squalling newborns are placed directly onto their mother's bare chest, and instantly calm down when they feel the warm comfort of Mama's skin and the safety of her loving arms. Even when we're far beyond infancy, the soothing touch of a trusted loved one is calming and reassuring. Sometimes what our partners, children, parents, or friends really need is a quiet hug or an arm around them—not more words. Touch can communicate, "Everything will be okay," or, "It's okay, you're safe," or, "I love you so very much," or simply, "I'm here for you." In our current society, we've become quite touch-phobic and suspicious of touch. Unwanted or unsafe touch is never okay, but we need to differentiate unwelcome touch from soothing, safe human touch, and reacquaint ourselves with physical contact again. We are hard-wired to crave touch. It's in our DNA.

5. Touch Is Life-Sustaining
Touch is vital to our very survival. A study done years ago in a Romanian orphanage revealed that infants given all the necessities for survival—food, water, clean clothing, and a crib—languished and ultimately lost their will to survive if one particular need wasn't met: human touch. They died not from physical hunger, but "skin hunger." Without safe, comforting, loving human touch, they "starved," and slowly slipped away.

Most of us are not, and were not, infants crying in an orphanage, but that powerful innate need for human touch is present nonetheless, even if we ignore, repress, or redirect it. We're hopefully able to get our skin hunger satiated in our close relationships, but if not, that gnawing desire gets pushed into the subconscious, and reemerges as a substitute "hunger." Because we aren't helpless infants in a crib, we find alternate ways to satisfy those hunger pangs: food, alcohol, shopping, and drugs, for example. But those things don't satisfy for long, and soon, the hunger pangs flare up again and demand attention, and once again, we attempt to squelch them with everything except what would actually satisfy: touch.

6. Touch Is Magic
If you talk to any magical practitioner, you'll usually discover that there are basically three components to magic: intention (what you want), implementation (what you do to achieve it), and manifestation (receiving the desired results). This is essentially what a massage therapist does: Decides what will be accomplished in that session (intention), performs the necessary techniques to achieve it (implementation), and concludes with their client in a state of blissful relaxation, the pathways wide open for receiving that intention (manifestation).

I discovered massage and the Pagan community simultaneously, and immediately recognized that the process of performing a magical ritual mirrors the process of doing a massage, and decided to blend them by structuring a massage as a magical ritual. Infusing a massage with magical energy and conducting it as a ritual takes massage next-level. It's the difference between a plain old cupcake and one with rainbow candy sprinkles. It's just yummier! Magic and massage, quite literally, go hand in hand.

Massage For All
With all the obvious health benefits of massage, it seems like everyone should be getting regular bodywork. But everyone isn't, and a major reason is the cost. On the average, a one-hour massage costs $100 in the US.

Massage for health maintenance isn't "one and done." You need regular massage (at least weekly) to really experience the health benefits. However, a $400 monthly massage bill puts it out of reach for many people. That's why I wrote Sacred Massage: The Magic and Ritual of Soothing Touch." We can learn to provide massage ourselves. You don't have to become a professional, you just need to learn some basic skills and have someone to practice with. You and a friend or partner can learn to provide the life-sustaining magic of soothing human touch for each other.

Beyond trading sessions with a massage buddy, there may be another reason for learning some massage basics: there may be someone in your life who desperately needs massage—a partner, parent, child, or friend—and who currently isn't able to get it. Sometimes the obstacle isn't even the cost. Some people have physical issues or limitations that make it difficult to get to a massage office; they may even be confined to bed or hospitalized. Sometimes there just isn't a good local massage therapist available. Some people simply aren't comfortable allowing a stranger to touch them. Whatever the obstacle, there's a solution: you.

Whether it's to learn to give and receive a soothing massage with a friend or loved one or to learn basic massage techniques to ease a friend or loved one's health condition, you can learn to provide it. You really can! If you have the desire to help and heal, you already have a healer's heart. You also already have the tools: your hands. You just need to learn to use them. I'll show you how.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2023. All rights reserved.

I've been developing my psychic abilities for some time now, and I often hear voices in my head that sound like a radio. This has been happening for the last two years, but it has gotten louder and louder. I'm not sure if these are my thoughts, input from Spirit, or maybe even actual radio signals. Is this natural? What do you think it is?

- B.

Dreamchaser:

It took me a lot of research to answer this question. I'm not a doctor and do not do medical readings of any kind. I don't want your local doctor giving you a psychic reading for me, and in return, I won't make medical diagnoses for your doctor. I think this stands to reason, especially since I prefer to use the Old Ways instead of relying on modern medicine when that's possible.

That said, I strongly recommend you visit your local ear doctor and get a hearing check done. There are a few medical conditions that could cause you to hear radio sounds in your head. The fact that you wrote that it has gotten "louder and louder" over a two-year period is what triggered me to start doing some medical research.

Everyone is different in the way they experience Spirit speaking to them. I know that my biological mother has a sense of smell that I just cannot explain. She will be able to describe or explain someone's behavior by the way that they smell. When I talk to her about people, she will say things like, "Does he smell like wet moss?" or "Does she smell like bleach?"

A great example I've shared here before involves her going into the same place of business over and over. She would ALWAYS smell vinegar when she was there. After months, she finally asked the owner why she could always smell vinegar so strongly. He said he had no idea. Later when she was there, he came up to her to tell her that there had once been a vinegar plant on the land, but it had been gone for years.

My son can see people in the room that no one else can see. They give him pictures of the past and present. My daughter can feel people's emotions and thoughts as if they were her own. I know when I'm "channeling" for a reading or just receiving information for myself, I have these "random" (and we all know they are not REALLY random) thoughts that jump into my head. They don't sound like voices, however - they "sound" like my own thoughts.

It also is just a "knowing." I just know things to be true, and what is what. So as you can see, everyone has their own way Spirit manifests for them. I don't think that anything can be deemed "normal" or "abnormal" in this regard.

If a medical/ hearing problem is ruled out, then you need to ask Spirit to show you why you are hearing these "radio sounds" in your head. Also, try to find a cheap EMF meter somewhere, and check to see if you have electrical spikes where you experience this phenomenon most frequently. I've heard that people living near power lines often "hear" things like this.

I wish you peace and QUIET - if that is what you really want.

*****

Astrea:

I thought EVERYONE experienced occasional buzzing noises and voices in their heads, for I've heard those sounds for as long as I can remember. I was so wrong!

When I got your question, I sought input from other people about their noises, and I discovered that not everyone is like you and me! Most people DO NOT have that buzzing, those voices, that radio noise playing from time to time in their heads. Feeling more unique and distanced from others than ever, I did some further research.

Most people who experience such things feel those voices come from Departed Ones as they are conversing with one another along the same electrical frequency on which some psychic people have brain waves. Because of the way these voices are garbled or scrambled, it comes in rather like the "chatter" that the government is always talking about.

Some people seem to gain great insights from what they perceive these voices saying. One person told me that when she can tune in well enough, the voices begin speaking in one UNISON voice, and she gets messages from outer space. A priest told me that he hears them in unison at times too, and that he feels it is a chorus of some kind of Messenger Angels. He gets information for his sermons that way.

Personally, I've always thought mine were conversations left in my head sometime between childhood and the present - things my brain throws around with a semi-conscious attempt at communication. Some of mine are newscasts, mostly about different wars. Some seem to be from prior incarnations with people who are strangers to me now. Some are television shows I never paid any conscious attention to - or that's what they sound like to me. Sometimes I think they are conversations I've had in dreams.

They come when I'm tired, and more often in some places than others. I noticed yesterday that the place my parents moved into doesn't have any voices. Their new apartment is absolutely SILENT inside. The place they were before was, well -HAUNTED! It was a very noisy place!

These sounds always seem electrical, like the static and soft sounds that come from a radio - that's exactly right. They also always seem garbled to me. I can pick up a word here and there, but I never even thought of trying to UNIFY them into one voice until the other people who hear them (and we seem to be few and far between, at least around here!) mentioned that idea to me.

Go to the place you find you hear them most, and try to pull them into one unison voice through meditation. If we can do that, we may just hear messages from Spirit! I'm going to try it. Good luck to you!

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.