Goddess of the week: IX CHEL SUGGESTED MANTRA: I AM WOMAN Mayan moon goddess Ix Chel is the mystery and joy of our female sexuality, mother of earth and all life, patroness of the healing arts, weaving, childbirth, and destiny. SUGGESTED AFFIRMATIONS: ~ I am joyful ~ My big hips are sexy! ~ I am healthy and happy ~ I am alive with sexuality ~ I adore my womanly shape ~ I feel absolutely supercharged ~ My life path reveals itself to me ~ I have abundant energy and vitality Related gemstones: Carnelian, coral, agate, brown jaspar (orange stones) Ix Chel, Mayan moon goddess, sometimes called "Lady Rainbow", is often pictured as a serpent crone wearing a skirt and crossbones. She carries an upside-down vessel in her hands which represents the nourishing gift of water, our most essential life giving element. She wears a serpent on her head representing her transformation from the winter to spring energy - shedding her winter skin in order to blossom anew into spring to a new and fresh stage in the life cycle. Ix Chel is a shape-shifter, consorting with the rabbit in spring (fertility and life giving abundance). She is at once a maiden (goddess of fertility and life, protector of women in childbirth), and a crone - the serpent reflects her status as a wise woman dispensing healing visions. She is the keeper of the life cycle, goddess of all new life and keeper of the bones and souls of the dead. HER MODERN ENERGY As fertility goddess, her power waxes and wanes with the phases of the moon, mirroring the fertility cycle in the bodies of women. At this time when the refreshing energy of spring coincides with a new moon, invoke Ix Chel's transformational fertile energy to shake off the winter slumber and launch into spring. Imagine being nurtured inside Ix Chel's life giving womb, or that you are wiping the tears of your own inner child's pain. Honour the burdens and pain, then release them. Prepare to laugh and leap your way into your new phase of joyful celebration that will come with your rebirth. DO THIS Now is the time to celebrate life and love. Renew and affirm your sensuality, kindle the fire of romance. Make love by the light of a bon fire, the glow of red candles, or just the full moon's radiance. Dance with your love in bare feet connecting to the earth. Make a list of three things that you are going to create or manifest between now and the next full moon. Let the items on your list be the seeds to help you germinate a new start for the new phase in this life cycle. Yours in love and light, ~Anita~ source