Full Moon in Scorpio
April’s full moon in Scorpio signifies a time of extremes. Whether it is sorrow or joy, you’ll certainly notice an overall intensification of your feelings with this moon. Since Scorpio’s ruling planet Mars is also in retrograde right now, some aggressive, warrior-like energy could surface for us to deal with. This moon reminds us to embrace all our emotions, both the positive and the negative, and release them, for holding the darkness inside will only cause us pain. Death and rebirth energy is at an all time high with this moon, and sexual energy is also heightened. Embrace this duality, and use these forces to fuel your inner power. This is a time when you can really get in touch with your emotions at a deep level, and release the ones which aren’t serving your growth. Try not to get caught up in any manipulative or brooding tactics when you relate to others; instead, use this time to tap into your passion and desires, and explore the mysteries which reside in the depths of your unconscious.
APRIL COURSE PAGE: FLOWING INTO THE SWEETNESS OF OSHUN’S LOVE
April is often a month of rainfall, a time when Mother Earth fully gives into the cycles and quenches the land with the most vital element needed to sustain her life; water. Spring is in full bloom now; the trees are scattered with new green leaves and flowers are blooming all around us. This is a time of abundance and of possibility, fresh starts and new beginnings. This is also a time of channeling the necessary forces to fuel our own growth and development. Water element energy is abundant during this time, and we honor the Yoruba goddess Oshun, who blesses Earth with nurturing, loving, healing energies of Divine Motherhood and femininity to help us fully come into ourselves, and go with the flow of the Universe to let our Highest Good unfold.
A helpful mantra for the month of April is this simple repeated phrase:
“I give thanks,
I give thanks,
I give thanks for blessings already on their way.
It is done,
It is done,
It is done and So It Is.”
APRIL MUSICAL PLAYLIST: SWEET AUDIO MEDICINE FOR OUR JOURNEY
Listen to these songs on iTunes or YouTube to enjoy a synchronistic musical experience to accompany our work. When we listen to the same music, especially music of a high vibration, it aligns us across space and time. You don’t have to listen in the order below, but this is the order of them in my personal playlist.
~ Enjoy ~
- “Abwoon” by Lisa Gerrard
- “As It Fades” by VNV Nation
- “Chidananda” by Deva Premal
- “Maranatha” by Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy
- “Guru Rinpoche Mantra” by Deva Premal
- “Ra Ma Da Sa” by Mantra Girl (the version by Snatam Kaur is amazing too!)
- “The Moon Inside” by Jami Sieber
- “Samba Sadashiva” by Donna De Lory
- “Desire” by Deepak Chopra
- “Namaste (Sadhana Remix)” by Maneesh De Moor
APRIL COURSEWORK
We have harnessed our inner power and fired our bows with focused intention, and now we start gathering the resources needed to set our plans in motion and achieve our goals of the year. This can be an intense time of deeply personal and difficult work, and the most important thing to remember is to stay positive, and not entertain any fears or negative thoughts as they hinder our growth, which is in its full potential at this time. Oshun is our sweet relief, a comforting, jovial Divine Mother who helps us tap into our sensuality, which can be a very healing experience for many of us. Oshun’s water element energy helps remind us to release and let the Divine work on our behalf. Water energy represents subdued movement, subtle strength, and purification. It symbolizes the vast realm of potential. It is changeable, giving, and immensely powerful. April’s abundance of water element energy channels regeneration and rebirth. It is the energy that sustains all life as we know to exist.
THE GODDESS OSHUN
Oshun is the African Yoruba goddess of love, fresh waters, and fertility. She is a Divine Mother goddess, very connected to her own sensuality and sexuality. She is the most compassionate and loving of all the Yoruba goddesses, and she brings a gentle, healing, supportive, and loving energy. She helps us heal emotionally, physically, and spiritually, often utilizing sexual and sensual energy to facilitate this process of healing for us so we feel full and empowered to do our soul work this summer. Oshun is a healer as well as a nurturer, who cares for the sick, poor, and anyone in need of her kind and loving energy. She is closely connected with rivers, lakes, streams and other sources of freshwater, sensual love and romance, the colors amber and gold, pregnancy, magical rituals, mysticism, divination, healing, and weight loss.
She is sacred to many African, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, and African-American women. She is called upon by those wishing to start a family, and is very connected to notions of feminine power. She is called upon in times of strife and drought. With the African diaspora, Oshun’s legends and magic traveled with the Yoruba people to North and South America, where she is known as Oxum in Brazil and Ochún in Cuba. She journeyed across the waters with the people captured and transported in the Transatlantic slave trade, and brought comfort to them. She was channeled in dances rituals which developed out of the African diaspora, such as the Brazilian samba.
Here is the invocation I wrote to honor Oshun at this month’s full moon. You can read it to summon her energy all month long:
Oshun, mother, healer, lover
you release us from any sorrow and suffering
that hinders our highest good.
Your domain overflows with sweet river waters
that sustain all life,
and renew the world’s oceans.
You use your power to bring life to the land,
healing the plants, animals, and humankind.
Your comforting love holds us in a sweet embrace
and liberates us from our sorrows.
I draw upon your sacred sensuality
to heal the most sacred place in me
so I may feel safe and free.
Bless us with your divine love and mystic knowing,
and lead us to our liberation
so we feel supported and strong,
yet gentle and tender,
able to release our fears and embrace love.
Oshun, show us the cleansing and nurturing energies
of your fresh, sweet waters,
and help us surrender with grace and mindfulness,
so we can experience true healing.
Bless us with your maternal love and beautiful movement,
your knowledge of relationships and sensuality
so we may learn and grow in bonds with our lovers
and experience the true joy of liberation.
~ Amen, aho, so it is ~
OSHUN’S ORIGIN
Oshun’s father was Obatala, the god of purity and humility. She loved her father very much, and was the last orisha born on Earth. The orishas of Yoruba tradition are spirits that reflect a manifestation of God, similar to angels, and were sent by Olodumare, the supreme Yoruba deity, to populate the Earth. Oshun was the only female orisha out of the seventeen sent. The other orisha were all male, and were not able to populate the Earth on their own. When the male orisha asked for her help, Oshun agreed, and used her power over the waters on Earth to bring all life to the land; humanity, plant, and animal. If she would not have beseeched the orisha, there would be no life on Earth.
Oshun is the love goddess of the Yoruba pantheon, and had many lovers. Her main lover was Shango, the orisha associated with thunder, lightning, justice, dance, and fire. She is a beautiful goddess who is very connected to her own sexual and sensual power. She was the lover of Oggun, patron of metals, Ochosi, the divine hunter, and Shango.
SISTER ENERGIES
Oshun is most closely related to Aphrodite in the Greek pantheon, Freyja in Norse Tradition, Lakshmi in Hindu religion, and Isis of ancient Egypt. Her Catholic counterpart is Our Lady del Caridad del Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba. The peacock, vulture, butterfly, and bumblebee are some animals connected to her energy, and she loves and resonates with the energy of the number 5. Offerings are often made to her with honey or other sweets, flowers such as sunflowers, and foods such as pumpkins or oranges.
GEMWISE
Ocean Jasper:
- Emotional healing
- Water-element energy
- Happiness energies, living in the moment
Amber:
- Connecting to the warm energy of the sun
- Psychic protection
- Physical healing
HERBWISE
Lemongrass:
- Fosters cleansing and open conditions for magical work
- Increasing, clarifying, and sweetening communication
- Brings good luck, love, and prosperity
Cinnamon:
- Stimulates psychic powers and produces protective vibrations
- Aids in healing and drawing in money
- When burned, raises spiritual vibrations
Damiana
- Attraction of lust and love, invokes sexual desire and passion
- Invites relaxation and ability to go with the flow
- Relieves excess mental activity and nervous anxiety
April Crafting: Honey Jars for Oshun
I’m so excited to gather with you on April 19 to craft our honey jars in honor of the goddess Oshun. Honey jar rituals are designed to help bring sweetness into your life. If you haven’t had a chance yet to see the listing for our tools for this activity, head over here to check them out. You can also use ingredients and items you already have for this activity. You will need honey (preferable to use local and organic honey if possible,) a piece of paper to write your intention for sweetness, herbs and flowers that align to your intention, and sugar crystals or sugar cubes as an offering to Oshun. When your jar is complete, we will seal them together, and you can burn a candle on top of yours to complete the ritual. I hope you are as excited as I am to get crafting.
A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR EXPLORATION THIS YEAR: THE LEARNING WHEEL
Watch the video at the top of the page to learn more about this wheel and how it fits into our coursework for the rest of the year.
432 Hz – The sound of sacred geometry
When the musical note A is equal to 432 Hz, it aligns mathematically with the vibrations of the universe. Mathematical formulas of different sacred geometrical shapes often produce this magical and deeply curious number. Music based on this tuning actually transmits healing energy, because of its pure tone. I recently experienced a sound bath here at the SG Headquarters where crystal bowls tuned to this frequency were played, and it was a life-changing journey, as powerful and visceral as any medicinal journey I have taken.
According to some researchers, the standard pitch the A note is tuned to equaling 440 Hz does not synchronize with the vibrations of the universe. Mozart and Verdi wrote their music in the pulsation of 432, and when you listen to music played in this frequency, you can definitely hear the difference. It is so much more pleasing and promoting of positive energy than music heard through any other frequency. It’s truly astounding and powerful what the implications are.
Within the metaphysical community, knowledge is spreading about this mathematically consistent tuning which vibrates at the frequency of the universe. This resonance works within the Heart Chakra to influence our emotions, inducing a deeply relaxed, peaceful, loving state of consciousness. I believe that by activating this frequency, we can collectively raise our consciousness to higher levels.
Newly discovered ancient Egyptian instruments have been found to be tuned to this frequency. We also know that ancient Greeks tuned their instruments to this frequency. Orpheus, the god of music, had his instruments tuned to reflect this universally harmonious tone. 432 as a sacred number is related to the mathematical formulas used to build multiple ancient historical sites, such as the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
Pyramids and sound
The Egyptian pyramids were built by sound. This sounds magical, and it is, but it is actually based in physics and science. According to some newer theories which have come out, which strongly resonate with me, the ancient Egyptians had a vast understanding of the universe, physics, math, and astronomy. Their consciousness was attuned to the vibrations and pulsations of the Earth, which has its own resonance in space, much like a “heartbeat.” Our planet vibrates with its own frequency, and the pyramids were built in order to harness these vibrations via a water pump system that used the power of the Nile river. This water pulsation in turn generated healing sound vibrations, which were projected out through the uppermost chamber of the Great pyramid. Sound was used to build the pyramids by a manipulation of metal rods and beams tuned to specific frequencies, which allowed the huge stone blocks to be levitated and moved. Tibetan monks in the 1930s also used sound frequencies to levitate and move large boulders.
The exact purposes of the king’s chamber are a mystery, but some think it was used as a room where sound was used to create harmonious consciousness, to mimic the sound of an infant’s heartbeat. It could also have been a room to use to help the spirit travel to other dimensions after death, or to synchronize the pineal, hypothalamus, and pituitary glands with the human heartbeat to create a sense of universal oneness, health, harmony, and happiness.
The frequencies created by the water system within the pyramid would have matched the vibrations of the Earth. This was very sacred to the Egyptians, because their creation myth speaks of the importance of sound. The creator’s arrival to Earth was accompanied by a great noise. Perhaps the Egyptians were using their pyramids as giant sound amplifiers to communicate with their gods, and celebrate the moment of creation.
