Sedona, a local metaphysical store that I absolutely love and spend way too much money in, offers various classes and workshops. They were offering “Make and Take Mala Monday” classes that I was really drawn to take, but each time I tried to make a reservation, they’d sell out. Then came a different course, the “Knotted Mala Class.” I asked my sister, Marisa, to take it with me for my birthday which was in February.

It was amazing, not necessarily because of what they taught me, but because I knew that making this mala was so important to my learning.

For those of you who don’t know, mala is a bead or a set of beads — often as a necklace or bracelet — that serves as a prayer, mantra or chant counter for Hindus and Buddhists. Others might call them Buddhist prayer beads or Buddhist rosary.

As I made the mala, painstakingly tying a know between each bead, I chanted throughout the entire 4-hour process, save for the moments that some of the other attendees asked me questions. I’m always weirded out when people ask me questions about my spiritual practices. I’ve always assumed they do so because there’s something about my vibration of energy that makes them want to know… something from me. 

Also, at some point, a little girl came to sit next to me. A real little girl, not a spirit girl. And in hindsight, she was there to deliver a message to me from some other being. The messages she delivered were essentially that I had made the correct choices in stones and gems and that the mala I was creating was powerful and beautiful. Thanks, little girl.

After I finished my mala, one of the other attendees — LaLaLinzy, someone I know from social media, and an Intuitive Healer, came over to check it out. The mala she created was beautiful, airy, watery, open, light feeling. She reached out for my mala as she moved closer, and immediately withdrew her hand. She stared at it and said, whoa, that’s powerful. She wouldn’t touch it.

This is what it looked like.

 

 

My sister also made a gorgeous mala that night. See the picture below with the necklace in a heart shape. By the end of the evening, I realized that going to this class was as much about her as me. Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t book the original class I was looking at — the one I had intended to go to by myself.

 

 

Marisa has always seen me as the magic one, but I always tell her that she’s our mother’s daughter. None of my mother’s children are without magic — my sister just needs to trust in her own specialness. Creating her mala while she chanted, however, changed her. In the days and weeks following the mala creation, she has come into her own magic and has begun trusting in it. She now knows that she is, indeed, our mother’s daughter. Powerful in her own right.

I think the timing of her coming into her spirituality and power is important. I just don’t know why, yet.

I also think that making mala is a part of something I need to start doing. I just need to begin doing it for others — and figure out the best way to make my stone and gem choices when bringing together energy that is for someone other than myself. Definitely an important lesson to learn — how to do energy work for others.

Originally written on June 15, 2017.