In keeping with the theme of Mabon’s harvest celebration, instead of an herb this month we will take a close look at the nourishing medicine of Corn, and the joyfully potent energies of Lemon Quartz.
Corn
Corn is a primary sacred and staple food of the Americas, originating in South America, though cultivated worldwide. It is actually a form of grass seed, meaning that it grows abundantly and nutritionally speaking it is full of energy, in the form of sugar and fiber, as well as being rich in vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium and vitamin A. Blue and purple varieties are also rich in antioxidents. In Aztec and Mayan cultures, Corn is considered a sacred aspect of the Earth Mother, and the same is true in many Native American tribal cultures. The reasons for this are both practical and mythic, as Corn has provided the gift of reliable food cultivation as well as they symbolic representation of the abundance of the Goddess. The top of the Corn plant produces a flower that fertilizes the silk of the individual ears of corn, making it a perfect symbol of fertility. Goddesses Demeter, Isis, Chicomecoatl, and even the Virgin Mary and the zodiac sign of Virgo are all connected to the myth of the Corn Mother. Corn is one of the Three Sisters, along with climbing beans and winter squash, and the synergy between these three plants both teaches us about brilliance of companion planting and provides all that is needed to feed a household with very limited farming space. The cornstalk makes a trellis for the beans to climb, while the beans fix nitrogen in the soil and stabilize the cornstalks in times of wind. The squash is planted between and its wide leaves provide shade over the soil, keeping it moist and preventing weeds, while its prickly hairs deter pests. It is a beautiful example of a community working together from a place of individual strengths, accomplishing more together in synergy than each could alone, and providing abundance and nourishment.
Providing reliable nourishment and abundance is a common theme in the myths surrounding Corn. In the myth of the Corn Maiden, a story which has many variations among Native American cultures, the common thread is the generosity of this divine female in human like form, who secretly produces corn kernels from her own body, keeping people from starvation by giving of her own flesh. In these stories, she joins the tribe as a stranger, and with her comes a sudden abundance of corn. She warns them not to question how, but of course someone eventually sneaks a glimpse at her process and the people find it unsavory. Instead of gratitude, they offer violence, either running her out of town, only to find themselves starving and in need of making amends, or worse killing her out of fear. Even in that version, she returns to them in spirit and tells them to drag her body over the fields, allowing the corn to be planted, producing crops that return them to survival and abundance. In these stories, Corn is like the Mother Earth herself, giving of herself to nourish us, regardless of our abuse of her. This mirrors the cycle of death and rebirth, and the return of the harvest each year that is celebrated this season. As in the chant, stemming from European Pagan culture, “corn and grain, corn and grain, all that falls shall rise again.”
It’s likely not surprising, then, that corn and corn pollen are traditional sacreds for making offerings to the land, to divine forces, and as a show of respect and gratitude in return for that which we harvest. Corn pollen is one of the four sacred gifted to the Diné (Navaho) people, and they rely on it for food and medicine, as well as reversing it as a bringer of clear thoughts and spiritual knowledge. Blue corn pollen is especially potent for offerings, and is particularly sacred to the Zuni people, who credit the dance of the Corn Maidens with transforming their culture from war based to farming centered. In Meso-American traditions, Corn pollen is scattered as an offering or as a form of protection in the home, and tossed into the air as a means of potentizing a ritual call for rain.
Corn silk, the golden or white threads inside the husk, have important herbal applications as well, providing a medicine in the form of tea or tincture that will cleanse urinary tract issues, ward off bladder infections, support kidney health, and aid in controlling blood pressure, bloating, and even instances of enuresis or bed wetting. Fresh green corn silk can be collected from the cob and dried for these purposes. This medicine helps keeps the entire urinary tract clean. It is the high concentration of potassium in corn silk that makes it a good supplement for kidney problems, being the main mineral needed for healing the kidneys. In addition, potassium is an essential ingredient for controlling blood pressure and maintaining a healthy weight, and corn silk contains even more of it than bananas do. Corn silk is a good diuretic and mild stimulant, and also makes a good poultice for skin ulcers, swelling, and rheumatic pain when mixed with beeswax or lard. Cornmeal can also make a nutritious gruel when illness or convalescence makes eating solid foods more difficult.
When considering magic and folklore applications, Corn has a reputation as a bringer of abundance, a teacher of the principle of creation, a protector against negative energies, and an attractor of luck, love, and insight. As a tall and golden plant, reaching for the sun while representing the beauty and generosity of the earth, it makes sense that Corn should be associated with taking us towards our highest destiny and support in manifestation. Below is a list of folkloric and magical associations for the use of Corn:
Suggestions for working with Corn from folklore:
As a protector of children. Small children are psychically open and vulnerable to negative influence. There is an old tradition of placing an ear of corn in or under your child’s bed to protect from negative forces. Though the folklore suggests placing an ear of corn in a baby’s cradle, that is one to adapt rather than take literally, as it could be a choking hazard. Another interesting ritual that comes from the Mountain regions of the U.S. suggests that if a birth was proving difficult, red corncobs were once burned on the doorstep of the cabin, or even under the bed, to quicken the process.
As a bringer of abundance. It is traditional to eat yellow corn during the summer solstice to call financial prosperity. If making popcorn, you can shout your financial wishes to the corn kernels just before they pop, infusing each with a command, a fun ritual for harvest time and Halloween. Cooking with corn and cornmeal at the harvest season is always appropriate. Make sure to give an offering of your cornmeal or a portion of your cooking creations. Offer a pinch of cornmeal when harvesting anything, to show your respect and project your faith in the principle of abundance.
As a purification and blessing for your home. Consider scattering blue corn around your property for protection and to bless the land and leave it there until it is naturalized in the earth or eaten by the animals. For more effective results, try to leave the blue corn in place for as long as possible. Hanging dried corn in your home with the husks folded back protects the home from negativity and attracts good luck and abundance. Making a Corn Dolly to hand over the door or place on an altar is another good way to bring blessing and protection energy to your home, while honoring the spirit of the harvest through the winter months.
As an attractor of luck. If you’re hoping to change your luck, try hanging dried corn stalks above all the mirrors in your home. Work with your intention whenever you look into the mirrors by closing your eyes first and visualizing the outcome you are hoping for. Repetition over time will make this a potent manifestation ritual, especially because working with your mirror image is a strong way of accessing your unconscious levels to plant a seed of creation.
As an ingredient in love and fertility spells. Corn silk has a history as a potent ingredient within love spells. It’s alternate folk names, such as Giver of life, Sacred Mother, and Seed of Seeds also illustrate it’s relationship to fertility in general. The generosity and prolific nature of Corn production make it a logical fertility charm. It is listed as a plant of Venus and of the Goddess.
As a plea for rain. Corn has been used traditionally to call to the rain, and it certainly can’t hurt to try during this unprecedented time of drought. Meso-American tribes have historically used corn in rain summoning rituals, tossing corn pollen in the air to increase their potency.
As a method of divine and ancestral guidance. It is said that consuming white corn can promote inner sight and spiritual wisdom. Placing cornmeal and tobacco on your altar is a good way to invite communication from your ancestors and divine allies.
Lemon Quartz
Everyone, for the most part, is familiar with the expression “you reap what you sow.” However, perhaps it is less common to consider this principle in regards to thoughts and emotions than it is to think about it in terms of our actions. Thoughts and emotions precede actions, and influence both what we create and what we draw towards ourselves on the subtle levels. This is why it is so important to work consciously with our thought patterns, self talk, and emotional states, as well as with their origins, in order to cleanse ourselves of negative influence internally and externally. For example, when we are anxious, we are hyper focused on what we fear. In repeating these worries to ourselves, we may accidentally reinforce limiting, fearful beliefs, crafting a personal story and a worldview that tunes our awareness towards that which we least want to experience. What we focus on, we tend to invoke, and this is how the power of our dreaming minds can accidentally work against us. There are many methods for overcoming these challenging thought patterns, each of them requiring discipline and vigilance, but, as all of us know, knowing about them is far easier than implementing them consistently. When we are tangled up in our emotions, and so familiar with negative moods and patterns of thought that we think of them as our authentic inner voice, then perhaps we need outside help, in addition to tools of inner warrior ship.
In the harvest season, we feel and see abundance around us more palpably. We celebrate the riches we do have, and share them with ease. Culturally, we have made a space for that, and for trusting in the flow of life, death, and renewal represented within the holidays of the Fall. We need to be tuned to that rhythm, reminded to notice it and to express gratitude for it, so we can replenish our inner joy and hopefulness. Lemon Quartz can help us to stay attuned to this energy, accessing more joy, more positive thinking, and more concentrated focus when it comes to our most intentional path of manifestation. In this way, Lemon Quartz acts as a salve for anxiety and depressive states, a tool for positive manifestation and the clarity of mind and will that feeds it. It is a stone that promotes happiness, trust, abundance, and protection from negative influence. Like attracts like, so tuning into the positive helps us draw more helpful frequencies and situations to ourselves. This makes Lemon Quartz a good stone for deepening our relationship with the spirit of harvest, for attracting financial support, and for cultivating success and satisfaction throughout the seasons of our lives.
Lemon Quartz is somewhat rare, especially in its natural state. It is easily mistaken for Citrine, which is often more orange but can appear pale yellow as well. True Lemon Quartz should be a transparent yellow hue that is consistent throughout, as opposed to the white or clear base with golden or orange hues on top that is typical of Citrine. If there is a variation of color, it may not be actual Lemon Quartz. When the right trace minerals are present, some Quartz stones are able to be transformed into Lemon Quartz with Gamma Rays and heat, and often it is hard to tell the purely natural from the heat treated. Luckily, whether natural or heat treated, these are potent stones and their effects can be felt as they brighten moods and enhance clarity, helping us overcome negative thoughts, anger, depression, and anxiety, in favor of enhancing our sense of well being and personal power. When we are in a happier and more empowered state of mind things flow better in our lives, and for this reason Lemon Quartz is said to enhance luck. Wearing it can be helpful when we have important opportunities before us, such as job interviews, tests, new business ventures, new relationships, and big passages in our lives. Because it activates our more positive emotions, it can also help us to increase our loving bonds in relationships, even if the dynamics of love and family have been challenging. When we feel at peace inside ourselves, and within our environments, then we are able to see the best in others as well.
Lemon Quartz can be helpful in cleansing the aura and clearing what stands in the way of our more psychic abilities. It encourages higher thinking, perception, intuition, and receptivity to the realm of spirit guides, and can be used to enhance channelling and deep meditative states. In Toltec teachings regarding dreaming arts and psychic seeing, it is said that we must be light as a feather for dreaming. This includes dreaming awake. This is one of those deep esoteric principles hidden in plain sight. When we are bogged down by heavy emotions and anxious thoughts, we have no space to notice or interact with the magic around us. We are only able to see what is directly in front of us, and perhaps our own imaginings. To be truly receptive, to see beyond the veil, and to dream with intention means to be capable of being an empty vessel, while holding a level of focus that lets us zero in on that which is normally beneath conscious perception. Lemon Quartz can serve as a mystic stone by helping us to live more consistently in this lighter vibration. It can offer us aid in emotional healing, in clearing, in serendipitous manifestation, and in cultivating the kind of mind and energy body that is needed for advanced psychic arts. This pretty and unassuming stone is more powerful than it seems, and another example of the generous bounty of our Mother Earth. Wearing it is a good way to help yourself stay in a balanced state of mind, able to move lightly and gracefully towards what you truly intend to receive and create.
Suggestions for working with Corn and Lemon Quartz together:
It’s a good time to turn attention towards what you have to be joyful for, to celebrate your successes, your luck, and this year’s harvest. Wear and/or meditate with your Lemon Quartz crystal to help you enter this state of mind. Bring home some fresh ears of Corn, with the husks still on. If you can find some multi colored corn kernels, perhaps it would be a nice gesture to use them to create a beautiful offering of gratitude, using the kernels to make a pattern or shape or word on your altar. Ask for help from the Earth Mother or Corn Mother in protecting you from negative influence or scarcity, hanging Corn husks, Corn Dollies, or an ear of corn with the husk pulled back. Then create some nourishing and delicious food for a celebration feast, while asking for support in manifesting the dreams you most want to create in everyday life. This could be Corn cakes, tamales from Corn masa, Corn on the cob, blue Corn porridge, the fun popcorn spell described above, or anything you like, but make it something fun and appealing that you will enjoy. Laugh, sing, dance, or chant while you do this. Believe that calling what you want and need can sometimes be this easy and fun. Celebrate abundance and ease, inviting them into your life.
May you be light as a feather and ever growing towards the sun, with your feet rooted in the nourishing earth.
In joyful celebration of Fall,
the eleventh house
-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez. For more information about her work and healing practices please visit www.metzmecatl.com
sources:
Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham
thepracticalherbalist.com/CornSilkPocketHerbal
awesomeon20.com
www.rejectedprincesses.com/CornMaided
The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Magical Plants by Susan Gregg
trulyexperiences.com/LemonQuartzMeaningHealingProperties,anduses
naturesmagic.com.au/(OuroVerdequartz)
healthynatured.com/lemonquartz