Species: Okanagana bella Davis "Mountain Cicada"
Secured: Summer of 2019 - Taos, New Mexico
Parts Used: Entire Female/Male Specimens, Molts, Larvae
Method of Extraction: Advanced Alchemical lab processes combining Plant and Mineral works to achieve the secretive Animal Alchemy
Correspondences: Solar, Lunar, Mercurial, Saturnian
Highlights: Metamorphosis, Death/Rebirth, Communicating Authenticity, Proper Timing, Longevity, Changes/Perspectives, Love/Romance, Partnerships, Illuminations, Renewal, Sexuality/Sensuality, Revealing/Exposure, Partnerships, Discernment, Intuition, Community
Their songs are part of our summer experience... mystical and alluring. Some have no idea what it is while others know but never seem to find the location of where they broadcast their enigmatic chants, elusive for sure. Cicadas have divine mythologies surrounding them, going back to ancient times, and have been used in magickal rites, divination, and natural medicine, specifically in Traditional Chinese Medicine even to this day. These beings have offered us many lessons throughout human history and continue to do so no matter how much the change, the lessons are timeless. We are in need of allies now, more than ever, as we go through this global metamorphosis.
Cicada Harvesting, Taos, N.M.
.: Biology :.
The Cicada belongs to the insect super-family Cicadoidea as True Bugs, in a suborder relating to the leafhopper. They have an incomplete 3 stage life cycle; egg, nymph (larvae), and finally an adult. Their nymph stage is one of the longest stages of life cycles in the animal kingdom, averaging 2 -6 years, and a couple of species that stay in the nymph stage for 17 years, a stage that is spent underground, latched to the roots of trees and shrubs, suckling on sap from the xylem tissue of those roots, waiting for the right moment to emerge all at once to mate. Their songs form the structure of their purpose to arise from the underworld, to communicate their solar resonance, make the connection, and multiply themselves and the divine through mating. After the female has copulated, she implants around 20 eggs into the plant with her ovipositor. This organ, which acts like a saw, is comprised of a unique mixture of metals making it possible to serrate into plants and even wood barks. After hatching, the small larvae drop to the ground and burrow, where they attach themselves onto roots, remaining pretty motionless until they are ready to surface, motivated by the light of the sun, and then molt into their final stage and sing their unusual lovemaking hymns.
Cicada Lifecycle
Diagram of male Cicada tymbal
.: Mythos :.
One of the most pronounced correspondences of the Cicada in mythology is that of its association with sound. Satisfaction, allure, beauty, enchantment, divine permanence of Self... all aspects of the human experience that get enunciated through vocality and song, something to articulate when one sees the parallels of physical experience vs something acting as an oracle from divinity, mere human speech vs the gospel, the corporeal vs the incorporeal beingness which then leads to the question; Is what I am witnessing related to the physical or the meta of this experience? This is what Cicadas were humans at one point when things were still being created in this world by the ancients. During this time, music was crafted and those humans who were bewitched by the sound found delight in singing along, completely forgetting to eat and sleep, leading to their deaths. The famed Muses immediately recognized these human's connection to sound, seeing their importance in the realm of arts/expression from divinity and turned them into Cicadas, a state in which they would no longer need sustenance or sleep, and when they died, the Cicadas would report to the Muses those humans who honored them through the arts, such as poetry, song, musical composition, and more. They now carry on antinomy of voice; temporal epistemology and yet transcendental, and this is where the divine spark we know as the Soul meets its tethering to the Body, I call this the middle path; between life and death, the above and the below, the inner and outer, resolution as the transmutation of perceptions occurs with oneself and we can finally accept what already is to proceed by allowing and dissolving into the phōnē.
Under the plantain tree, associated with Platos, Socrates tells the story of the Cicadas and Muses to Phaedrus of how philosophers should be inspired by the Cicadas; to become beside oneself to become ecstatic, somewhat manic. Love, what the Greeks called Eros, is madness, a compulsion... a necessity out of Love/God/Higher self/Divinity.
.: Mystique :.
In spirituality and magick, the Cicada is a symbol of reincarnation/resurrection after a cycle has come to a close in our lives, to be present with the in-between of our pasts and futures, how we saw our pasts and gifting us the opportunity to change that perspective into a new story, to break free and shed the old ways of thinking only to emerge into the world with new views, which lie right underneath our old skins, nowhere else to be realized but from within us. Their song teaches us how to better communicate and articulate with ourselves and developing these skills leads us to do the same with others, this is beautiful because once the crud of the perceived past is let go of, we can now tap into our heart centers where authentic and divine desires are located, this is the place of truth from within. As part of its wisdom with communication, Cicada teaches us to truly speak with conviction and full awareness, something that in no time will strengthen your throat center to express with power from Will, and this may be rejected by some because you're operating with a resonance that doesn't require you to please others by hiding yourself or for gratification from anyone, and you will be faced with individuals who haven't found this for themselves and will challenge what they honestly resonate with but do not know. When faced with the realizations and feelings of doubt, lack of communication with self and others, lack of confidence to move foreword, vulnerability, worthlessness, timidness, and so on, these are symptoms of the amnesia the Soul has experienced while being here in this world, when really, what you want is to BE, without reason or explanation to anyone.
.: Potion :.
Traditionally, Cicada, specifically the molted shell, has been used for various treatments of respiratory issues. In TCM, called Chan Tui, it is known to affect the Lung and Liver meridians where it dispels Wind-Heat, clearing the airways and sinuses, helps with swollen/sore throats, improves the eyes, and helps with superficial obstructions that cause red, soreness, itching, and nebulas. By eliminating Wind, it aids in fevers, to relieve spasms/convulsions and tetanus in infants. In the West, the molts are used for respiratory system issues, as antipyretics(fever relieving), for sinus and allergy issues, onset cold and flu symptoms, onset non-erupted measles, and coughing. The molt of Cicada is cooling and sedating, two qualities necessary for alleviating respiratory issues, and contain a host of constituents such as chitin, amino acids, lipids, organic acids, and minerals, all which are contained in this spagyric through careful attention to the calcination processes as well as special care during the numerous extraction methods applied to harness these valuable modules.
Cicada molts called Chuan Hua "Flower of the Cicada"
.: Culmination :.