MORGANITE: Fill Yourself: Breathe into your heart, Morganite advises. From this space, you can expand into unexplored parts of your being, connecting with the worlds both within and around you in new ways. With your heart open, you can dive deep into your relationships (both with the human world and the non-human world), finding facets that didn’t exist until Morganite helped you breathe them into life. Stretch your fullness, Morganite whispers. From this place, the things that are not you get slowly crowded out by the truths of your soul. This is not a quick process, Morganite knows. It’s the work of years, of lifetimes. But it’s work worth doing for the surety and peace of being wholly yourself.
Ritual – Commit: We live in a one-and-done culture. We do something once and we’re ready to move on. But one-and-done doesn’t lead to mastery. It doesn’t nourish the strength we find when we make a commitment. Repetition – and working with the boredom that it can induce – is a necessary part of deepening and growing.
Choose something to commit to for the next six months so you can realize change that only repetition can bring. You could watch the sunrise every day; go for a daily walk; put out seeds for the birds and tend the bird feeder; say a gratitude before each meal; find the moon in the sky every night.
The possibilities are limitless! Choose one thing so you can work with the feeling of commitment.
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LAPIS LAZULI: Step Up to Sovereignty: Sovereignty has always been about relationships. Lapis Lazuli reminded the pharaohs and empresses that they ruled in accord with the spiraling heavens and the turnings of time. Lapis will lengthen your spine and help you find your voice, and she expects your actions to match your regal bearing. Lapis reminds you that no matter who you are, you are a caretaker – yourself, of those around you, and of the earth. You are sovereign in connection with the realms of spirit. Lapis Lazuli will be your rod and mantle, but only you can find the inner fortitude to rise to the relationships she helps you embody.
Ritual: Choose Your Regalia: During the Renaissance, Lapis Lazuli was ground into a pigment called ultramarine. This rare and treasured power was used by painters and reserved for special occasions like depicting the blue of the Virgin Mary’s gown. The use of Lapis was a clue to the viewer that a figure in the painting was self-sovereign and royal, of the lineage of ancient kings and queens.
Putting on regalia, whether an ultramarine gown or a Lapis Lazuli armband, helps us remember our sovereignty. It’s a sign not only to the outer world but to ourselves of who we want to be. How can you remind yourself to be self-sovereign? Take a little time to choose your regalia: it might be a necklace or a wrap. Perhaps it’s a long linen duster or a motorcycle jacket, a pair of combat boots, or a shiny pair of high heels. Once you choose, create a special place to store this item. Let donning it become a ceremony of self-remembrance.
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ALMANDINE GARNET: Lessons in Blood: Almandine knows your storyline didn’t start the day you came kicking and screaming into this world. No, it started so long ago that the stars have since shifted their course in the sky and the dust of that day has hardened into stone. Your beginnings are carried in your blood, in the memory created by each DNA mutation and epigenetic tag. Blood is memory, not just your own but those who came before. You can ride your own blood back to these distant knowings. But more than that, Almandine will help you move and shift that memory, changing what gets carried forward. Sink into yourself, your past’s past. Almandine whispers, I have a tale to tell.
Ritual: The Flow of Your History: Use the waxing and waning energy of a moon cycle to explore your own lineage. If you need to build your relationship with your lineage, begin at the new moon. If you need to release toxic histories, start at the full moon. You will do both releasing and building no matter where you start in the moon’s cycle. Choose where you would like to begin, knowing this exercise will unfold in fullness.
Make an almandine garnet elixir by placing a glass jar in a bowl of filtered water. Place your almandine garnet in the glass jar and set the bowl in a place where it won’t be disturbed. Pour out a few ounces of water from the bowl to drink each day of the 28-day moon cycle. Refill the water in the bowl as needed. Pay attention to dreams, intuition, and body feelings, including illness. Keep a journey to track your results. (Why can’t you put the Almandine garnet directly into the water? Almandine garnet contains aluminum that your body doesn’t need. Also, this method allows you to use a garnet that is set in jewelry.)
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