Ancient April Celebrations and Holidays

Ancient April Celebrations and Holidays

by | Energetics, Psycho-Spiritual

The rites of Spring are rooted in the old ways of the world.  Through mythology and god/goddess stories, Spring was celebrated as a time of renewal, rebirth and passion.  The earth was now waking up from its winter slumber. Excitement and anticipation were tangible!

Here is a sampling of some of the ancient holidays celebrated in April, as taken from Zsuzsanna Budapest’s book, The Grandmother of Time.

April 1st  Veneralia (Roman)
This is the holiday of Venus  (Aphrodite to the Greeks), the Goddess of love and death, of orchards and sexuality, of the waters of the world. This holiday appears to be a practice for women, hoping for her help with good fortune, happy love, birth and joy in their lives. This goddess reminds us of love’s rule over logic. It was a time to ask your lovers to do senseless tasks and errands to prove their love and devotion.  This is where the idea of our April Fool’s Day pranks originated.

April 3rd and 4th   Megalisa  (Phrygian and Roman)
Megalisa is a celebration of Cybele as the Great Mother. Worship of Cybele was passionate and sexual.  Men who wanted to be her priests castrated themselves in her honour, to be more like the goddess. For women, this is another mother’s day, devoted to the Great Mother, Magra Mater, the creator of all things, gods and people.  This is the sexual mother whose urge called forth life.  She is celebrated with dance, games, rituals and feasts.

April 5th   Festival of Kwan Yin  (Chinese and Japanese)
The Goddess of Tolerance and Mercy, Kwan Yin, (known in Japan as Kwannon) is celebrated as the Great Mother of China with offerings of incense and visits to her shrines. Also known as, “The Lady Who Brings Children”, Kwan Yin embodies all that is female in the universe. She is the magnificent spirit that brings us the future, by means of happy, healthy children.

April 13th  Ceralia  (Roman)
The Goddess of the Crops was called Ceres. Her name is still in our breakfast cereal; she gave us the first foods, developed the acorn, and taught us the art of agriculture.  Ceralia was celebrated by the simple folk.  Farmers walked or danced around their fields with torches in honour of Ceres. An old custom of pagan men who blessed the fields of wheat by leaping around them was the inspiration for male ballet dancers who now do the “stag leap” across the stage.

April 22nd  Festival of Ishtar  (Babylonian)
Ishtar is the Babylonian great goddess, “The Star”, a derivation of Inanna – the Sumerian Goddess of Heaven.  She was a sexual deity whose very fecundity was the life of her people.  She appears in the Bible as Ashtoreth and Asherah.  She was the major divinity before any patriarchal gods appeared.  Ishtar was the soul of her people, the very essence of their power to live and love. It is interesting to note that we now celebrate Earth Day on this date.

April 27th  Floralia  (Central and Eastern European)
Floralia is the Goddess of Flowers and Flora.  The ancients prayed to her for fruits that come from blooms. It used to be a 6 day celebration when men bedecked themselves with flowers and women dressed extra gaily. Men’s clothes were embroidered with flowers, bouquets and other natural motifs while women’s clothing had roses, wheat and morning glories.  The woman’s headress was usually the parta, a crescent decorated with pearls and shiny beads, with long streaming red ribbons cascading down the back. Look to the current folk costumes of Eastern European folks for an idea of the fashions from ancient times.

April 30th  Beltane  (Celtic)
This festival of witches has a lot of tradition.  Known as Beltane or Beltain (Celtic), May Eve  (Central European) or Walpurgisnacht (Germany), this is a celebration of the power and sacredness of sexuality.  The followers of the Old Religion met on mountaintops and danced the spiral dance.  Men and women mated in the open fields – “enjoying” each other was expected!  Babies that resulted from these celebrations were called sons and daughters of Pan, or Cernunnos, since all men represented him.  The ancients believed that the Good Earth appreciated the sexual energy expended in her fields and that this stimulated the fertility of the crops and animals as well as the vitality of the community.

These holidays were but a few of the ways our ancestors explained and expressed their understanding and appreciation for the promises of Spring. This also helps to explain why our experience of “Spring Fever” can be so intense. Restless, excited and ready to take on the world.  It must be in our genes!

Meditation with Movement

Meditation with Movement

by | Uncategorized

More people are using meditation as a way of calming, centering and focusing their minds.  For most, getting to a place of peacefulness is easy.  The place of quiet mind is a retreat and a refueling station. For others, the mind is too busy, the body is too restless and it seems more frustrating than anything else when they try to “calm down”.  This often becomes their reason for not trying to do it at all.

But meditations need not be done only in the quiet of a retreat setting.  Getting the body-mind-spirit to flow is possible with some of the most ordinary activities.  Ordinary activities done with a different attitude and perspective, that is!   Here are some suggestions from The Meditation Bible, by Madonna Gauding.

Weeding Meditation
Visualization has a powerful effect upon your mind. If you want to make positive changes in your life, visualization can turbo-charge the process.  In this meditation, you use weeds to symbolize any negative habits that you want to drop.

  • Benefits include:
    elevates gardening to a spiritual activity
    helps reduce negative emotions
    promotes positive growth (for you and the garden!)

1.  Sit quietly under a tree.  Bring to mind any negative habits you may have (eg. bad temper, procrastination, controlling). Think of as many as you like. Visualize the weeds in the garden patch as your negative habits.

2.  Get up from under the tree and approach the area you are planning to weed.  See that whole area as your mind. See the flowers and plants as your positive traits and the weeds as those negative traits that you would like to eliminate.

3.  As you begin to weed, try to stay very focused and mindful. When you pull out a weed by its roots, think that you are pulling out your own negative habit by the roots.  Continue this way until all the weeds are gone.

4.  Finish by cultivating, feeding and watering the plants and flowers.  Think of them as your positive traits that you would like to nurture.

5.  Give thanks to the weeds, flowers and plants for the opportunity to clear away negativity and promote positivity.

Clean Sweep
Transform when you sweep the floor into a moving meditation for clearing negative thinking, emotions and states of mind. Sweeping is one of the more satisfying house-cleaning activities, as it is physical and you can see results immediately.

  • Benefits include:
    transforms ordinary house-cleaning into spiritual practice
    provides powerful visualization for clearing negativity
    strengthens spiritual resolve

Think of any past negativity you would like to purify or any mental debris you would like to clear. Then proceed as follows:

1.  Pick up your broom and stand in the area you plan to sweep (inside or outside your home).

2.  Examine the floor for dust and dirt;  may be quite noticeable or quite subtle. See that dirt and dust as negativity residing in your own mind and heart.   The negativity could be in your thoughts, emotions, attitudes or behaviours. Imagine that as you sweep, the negativity will be swept away with the dirt.

3. Start sweeping.  Focus only on the dirt/dust, the broom and the floor.  As you sweep, see and feel your negativity leaving your mind and heart.  You can sweep away your potential to commit negative acts in the future and your fears and doubts in the present. Get creative and sweep away whatever is bothering you!

4.  End your meditation by sweeping the dirt into a bin and throwing it away.  See your negativity going with it.

Some people find they can do this “clean sweep” when they vacuum, polish, scrub the floors and bathroom.  Others find ironing, washing dishes or their vehicles is meditative. The idea is to be mindful while one is engaged in the activity.

Some other daily activities that can be used to help promote a meditative state of mind include: running, swimming, hiking, beach walking, dancing, listening to music, knitting, colouring, painting, soaking in a bath or hot tub (alone!), long-distance driving – in fact, practically anything that you do on your own, so that you can be completely focused on your activity, mind, body and spirit.

Another movement meditation that has proven itself over thousands of years is that of Walking the Labyrinth.  As you walk meditatively along the Labyrinth, the paths cross, curve and cut back and forth. Eventually, you arrive in the centre.  By walking the Labyrinth, you help connect your left and right brain hemispheres, which can encourage creative thought and problem solving. You may gain more insight into your life or a problem you are trying to solve.  Such is the gift of the Labyrinth.   If you can’t find a Labyrinth to walk, you can meditate by placing your finger on a printed labyrinth and mindfully tracing the pattern to the centre.

As you gain experience with moving meditations, you may find the confidence and calmness to try a sitting meditation.  You just might surprise yourself!

Goal Setting and Creativity

by | Uncategorized

As the New Year begins, it is common for folks to start setting new intentions and goals for themselves. New beginnings, new you, new life!  Most people make New Year’s Resolutions, then flounder or fail to follow through on them.  Perhaps taking a look at what makes goal setting work, might prove to be helpful and afford a chance for success.

In its most basic definition, a goal is a behavioural accomplishment that contributes to managing a problem or situation or some part of it.  Many people, even after they have clarified a problem situation, still don’t know what they can do to manage it. There are three phases to note.  Firstly, one must set one’s intention on wanting to do something to handle the problem.  This is the first step in committing to the whole process.  Then, one must begin talking of what he or she would like to do to handle the problem. Make the list long, so reasonable choices can be found. Once the list has been whittled down and a possible solution found, a person can move into the last phase of goal-setting.  This is where one define and refine the goals necessary to manage the problem situation.

Goals, themselves, need to be refined and focused so that they have these characteristics:
clear and specific

  • measurable or verifiable
  • realistic in terms of the person’s resources, environmental conditions, ability to control and cost
  • adequate – they contribute in some substantial way to managing the problem
  • in keeping with the person’s values
  • are set in a reasonable time frame

It has been shown that to get the best solutions and outcomes, one needs to be creative in approaching problems and setting appropriate goals.  But when in trouble or faced with problematic situations, most people often lose or fail to use whatever creative resources they have.  The time they need their creativity most, is when they can’t access it!

What are some of the characteristics of a creative person?

According to psychology researchers, Robertshaw, Mecca and Rerick, a creative person has the following characteristics:

  • optimism and confidence
  • acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty
  • a wide range of interests
  • flexibility 
  • tolerance of complexity 
  • verbal fluency
  • curiosity
  • drive and persistence
  • independence
  • nonconformity or reasonable risk-taking

Utilizing one’s creativity leads to innovative ideas for handling situations.  The more possibilities one can come up with, the less overwhelming and more empowering it can be.  With a long list of possible solutions, there are bound to be some that can really help improve the situation!  And that can lead to successful goal-setting.

But what hinders creativity?  What is it that blocks the creative flow so that we can’t find our own answers or set our own goals?  There are many possibilities, but these are the most common blocks:

  • fear and anxiety;  frozen in the moment
  • fixed habits such as self-defeating habits or behaviours
  • dependence on others, especially authorities, for the “right answers”;  not trusting your own wisdom
  • perfectionism;  if it isn’t 100% correct, then I won’t try

There are times when life and its problems are overwhelming, even for the most creative person. Having someone or some way to help get back on track is extremely important. It’s okay to ask for help when you need to find “your way home”.  Some helpful suggestions include:

  • Turn down the inner critic – don’t be critical of your ideas. Make a list of as many possible suggestions as you can without saying, “yes/but” to any of them; have fun exploring possible solutions.
  • Reduce anxiety and fear – how can you be free to dream up infinite possibilities and solutions when you are stuck in your emotions? Use healthy stress reduction techniques daily.
  • Replace the self-defeating with self-appreciating habits – if you don’t give yourself credit and allow good things into your life, then how are the good things in life supposed to find their way to help you?  Refuse to be a victim.
  • And tell the Perfectionist that it is okay not get something right on the first or third or tenth time!  Hold off on Judgements. Practice makes better, not perfect!  And that is enough! And so are you!  Celebrate this every day!

Here’s to setting your personal New Year’s intentions, goals and actions for more of what you really want in your life.  Keep your focus on the goal – and don’t give up!  You are truly worth the effort.

Gemstones and Their Stories

Gemstones and Their Stories

by | Energetics

At this time of year, people often give and receive gemstone jewelry pieces as gifts. Most people are familiar with the names of precious and semi-precious stones. But what about the legends, folklore and special significances that have been attributed to them over time?  Thanks to Judy Hall’s book, 101 Power Crystals  here are some of the stories you may not be familiar with.

Diamonds – Yes Ms. Munroe, they are still called “a girl’s best friend”, but they are so much more!  Diamonds are the hardest substance presently known;  only Diamond will cut Diamond. It has long been regarded as a symbol of invincibility. In India, Diamonds were belived to be remnants of a pair of cosmic dragons who engaged in a magical sky battle. Diamonds symbolize purity and eternity and traditionally have been used to enhance and amplify the powers of other stones.  A Diamond is dull until it is faceted and polished – it has a high ability to bend light (refraction) and disperse light into its component colours.  Considered a Crown Chakra crystal and connected to Archangel Metatron.

Emeralds – In the 17th century, Shakespeare referred to Emerald’s power to soothe the eyes.  Ivan the Terrible believed that Emerald was an enemy of uncleanliness. Hebrew tradition says serpents that looked on it went blind. It symbolizes immortality and rebirth. It has long been believed to ensure a happy marriage – as long as it doesn’t fade! The Incas prized Emerald as it represented the green Earth to them. The last Inca king wore a crown set with 453 Emeralds, weighing 1523 karats (~ 10 ounces). Considered a Heart and Third Eye Chakra crystal and connected to Archangels Raphael and Ophaniel.

Sapphire – The word means “Beloved of Saturn” in Sanskrit and the stone is one of the great metaphysical healing gems of Vedic astrology.  According to Hindu legend, Saturn was the first planet to appear out of the void, and Star Sapphire symbolizes the emergence of light out of darkness. Ivan the Terrible loved Sapphire because it, “preserveth and increaseth courage, joys, the heart, is pleasing to all vital senses…”. It is said to signify innocence, constancy, truth and virtue. Sapphire is considered a crystal of endurance and wisdom. It was said to be one of the gemstones in the Breastplate of the Jewish High Priest of Jerusalem. Considered a Third Eye and Crown Chakra crystal and connected to Archangels Metatron and Zadkiel.

Garnet – In the Talmud, it is said that Noah’s ark was illuminated by a Garnet.  Snakes were believed to be guided by a Garnet in their foreheads. Crusaders wore Garnet as amulets against accidents. To dream of a Garnet was considered fortunate as it indicated the accumulation of riches, but at the same time it was believed to protect against overindulgence; it ensured a balanced life. As a crystal of constancy, it was worn by Victorian widows to signify their undying fidelity to their departed spouses;  centuries earlier, Garnets were buried with the dead. Garnets are said to indicate loyalty, unchanging affection, grace and bring victory to their wearers.  Considered a Root, Sacral and Heart Chakra crystal and connected to Archangels Michael, Zadkiel and Atrugiel.

Amethyst – The word means “sincerity” and “freedom from harm.” It symbolizes wisdom, deep love, devotion and peace of mind.  HIstorically, Amethyst was worn by royalty to signify power. Its legendary power protected against drunkeness. It is one of the stones in the Breastplate of the Jewish High Priest. Amethyst is worn in the Christian church to signify high rank, victory over worldly passion and spiritual power.  Considered a Third Eye, Crown and Higher Chakras crystal and connected to Archangels Raphael and Jeremiel

Jade –  The Chinese considered Jade to be the most precious gem as it held five great virtues – wisdom, justice, modesty, courage and purity – plus five happinesses – wealth, old age, health, natural death and love of virtue.  In New Zealand, the Maori wore “greenstone” talismans to ensure long life and fertility.  The Aztecs prized Jade for its healing properties and connection to their gods. It has been considered a stone of weather magic, able to call up wind, rain, snow or mist, and to have power over the Earth’s elements. The stone signifies wisdom gathered in tranquility, therefore good for meditation and stress release. Its chakra consideration is based upon the colour of jade.

Whatever your experience with gemstones, find time to explore their stories more completely. They have been around for thousands of years. They have many more stories to tell – if you are interested.

Cypress Oil For Grief and Moving On

Cypress Oil For Grief and Moving On

by | Aromatics, Psycho-Spiritual

Cypress is a tree associated with graveyards, grief and eternity.  In Aroma Genera, the therapeutic system developed by British aromatherapist Valerie Ann Worwood, there is strength found in its fragrance. She describes its characteristics to include wisdom, strength, protective, righteous and direct. “It is a symbol of eternity – directing itself to the heavens and answering to no one but the Great Spirit.”  Not surprising, it is a fragrance that can assist with grief, sorrow, losses, fear, regrets and emotional tiredness.

In her book, The Fragrant Heavens,  Valerie Ann Worwood continues with the psycho-spiritual description of Cypress.
“Cypress is often associated with the passing of a soul into the deity’s presence, bringing comfort to those left behind, who will continue to hold their loved ones in their hearts.  Cypress has frequencies that are in transition between the physical and the spiritual.  …  Cypress empathizes with suffering … it offers strength and energetic protection to those whar are feeling vulnerable and insecure or who have lost their purpose. Cypress can be used to move on.”

Loss of any kind can trigger a sense of great sorrow.  When this sorrow becomes so entrenched that daily life is disrupted and one cannot shake out of this sorrow, it is said to be “pathological”.  In the broadest sense, this means that our emotional state is causing significant health and relationship issues and if not corrected, we are endangering our life; hence the term “pathological”. In mind-body-spirit philosophy, we understand that if one part of the triad is in turmoil, the rest of the triad suffers, too. What can we do to move through the sorrow and return to a healthy, happy, balanced life?

Aromatics have been used for thousands of years to help resolve and release emotional trauma. The plants were burned to help send prayers and requests for healing to the heavens. Ointments and elixers were used to help soothe the mind, body and spirit during times of great distress. Walks in the forests and gardens were prescribed for relief of a “heavy heart”. Temples and churches used aroma in the form of incense to help calm and focus the mind so one could come to understand and accept the meaning of life, death and rebirth.

How can we use aromas today?  When mindfully used on the body and as inhalations, they help us acknowledge and handle the painful emotions we are experiencing.  The person, situation or memory causing us distress can’t be changed – it’s now history. But our attitude and approach to handling the distress we feel can be changed.  Moving from a feeling of helplessness or hopelessness to a sense of empowerment is one of the gifts of aroma. Anchoring the new shift in our attitude and approach is another gift of aroma. And moving onward with life is yet one more gift.

As the saying goes, “We can’t change our past, only our reactions and responses to it”.  By using Cypress essential oil, you can find your way back from grief and sorrow and move on to living and fulfilling your life. It is what the world needs you to do.

It is what you need for yourself, too.