KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

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 would like to know if there is a common thread among psychics in terms of how they experience or "know" things. For example, on Psychic Chat - which is electronic and somewhat impersonal or indirect - the psychics have been incredibly "right on" about certain people, events, etc. How do they "know?" How does the information come to them, and is it the same from psychic to psychic? Also, it's been my experience that psychics are much more accurate about what is true NOW than in the future. The things I can confirm about the reality of my life and the people in it are right on the money! However, when it comes to the future, things are fuzzier or more hit and miss, and there appears to be less accuracy. Why does it seem more challenging for a psychic to be as accurate about future events as they are with current circumstances?

- Terri

Dreamchaser:

I'm really glad you asked these questions, for I've wanted a chance to speak on these very subjects.

No two psychics (or any other term for someone who is blessed with the "gift of sight") see/know/feel things in the same way. In my case, I know things because they come to me in the form of my own thoughts. I just think it and "know" it as fact.

For example, when you look at the color red, you just know that the color is red. It comes in thought form to you that it is red and you know it to be a fact. My "gift" comes in much the same way. I just know what is true.

My birth mother, on the other hand, smells things. She will smell someone and know from their smell what they are about. I can't understand her way, and she can't understand my way, but we both come to same bottom line using our own methods. If you ask the psychic you are working with, they will gladly explain how they receive psychic impressions, even if it makes no "logical" sense.

As far as the "indirect" nature of Psychic Chat, you have to remember that energy travels. We do not need to be physically close to someone to FEEL them and LOVE them. When a child goes away to college, they can still feel the love of their family from far away.

In the same vein, I do not need to be close to someone physically to read them. I can sense and feel their energy from wherever they are. I read the energy, not the person. I think the internet has really opened up the world to knowing that energy does travel. So many fall in love or form friendships with people they have never even met via the internet. That proves to SO many people that energy transcends physical space and time.

As far as reading the future, so many people fail to realize that free will plays a HUGE part in determining what will happen. For example, I could tell you that you are going to get a great new job in two weeks time, but if you do not go on any interviews, will you still get that job?

I am usually asked this question when it comes to love. How many people have you dated that changed their mind, got scared, or for some reason just ran away? How many times have you changed your mind and walked away from someone else? Usually fear is the cause behind someone changing their mind and backing away from a love relationship. Fear is never easy to see clearly because its roots are so complicated, and each person's reactions to it are so unique.

No one - not even God - can predict free will. If you change your mind after the time of the reading, it will change the outcome foreseen. So please remember that free will directly influences the future.

I wish you great readings.

*****

Astrea:

Terri, the only common thread I've ever found among all psychics is that we all want you to be happy and fulfilled. Because we all receive information DIFFERENTLY, I can't make generalizations about anyone but me. My formula for getting answers is to have someone ask me a specific question about something that is happening in their lives. First I'll have a FEELING, then I'll use astrology and tarot to explore what will most likely happen.

To me, Psychic Chat is a very direct, personal experience. I'm typing, you're typing - we both have our hands on the keys. You're at home (or work - shame on you!) so you're in your own environment, and I'm in my office, where I'm comfortable and happy. We're CONNECTED in a way that for me is much better than sitting in a room with someone who is nervous to be there.

I usually see what's going on before I even touch my cards or look up a chart. Most of the time, I'm accurate. I predict outcomes with as much certainty as I can, but here is where that pesky free will comes in! Even if two people have wonderful potential for happiness in love, for example, that doesn't mean they're going to choose to make the most of it.

It's also so frustrating when someone comes back and quotes me as saying things I never said. Here's a biggie: "YOU said I should CALL him!" Most psychics I know don't do "should." We're not your parents! Maybe I said it would be okay to try calling him. When we go out on a limb or experiment with various situations to see what happens, things happen that NO psychic could predict. Sometimes people hear what they want to hear, and no matter what anyone else says, they're going to do what they want to do and blame us for any disasters that ensue.

I can't tell you why the psychics you're chatting with know more about the PRESENT than the FUTURE, because I am the world's worst at reading the present. I can see things MUCH better when they're about two to four weeks away. Because the present is changing moment by moment with the free will of all involved, I prefer to look for long-term outcomes.

The person who says, "Will he call me today?" is getting my best GUESS at that time. The person who says, "Has he read my email?" isn't going to get much from me, because MY ability doesn't work that way. What I do is much more important than determining whether someone has read an email or is going to pick up the phone. I want to see you HAPPY, and one email or phone call doesn't make up the beautiful tapestry of your life.

You control your own life and your own destiny. All any psychic can do is give you what CAN be, which is not necessarily what WILL be.

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.