Welcome the Ancestors

Today while the veils of energy are thin take a moment to converse with the ancestors. It would be an opportune time to celebrate and use a fire ritual. That might be as simple as lighting a votive candle and welcoming the wisdom of a forebear or it might involve a bonfire with an offering of a sacred bundle. Now, more than ever, we need to allow the wisdom of the ancestors to rise up in us and see us through the challenging times.

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Rosemary Lore

What did I do with the cut rosemary? I set it to dry in a cherished bowl my son made a few years back. I like the plant energy mingled with the co-creative forces in the clay pot. Long ago some earth teacher imparted to me the wisdom of rosemary. When used beneath the pillow this herb adds warmth to a dream and feelings of safety. Some folklore says it will keep away the bad dreams.

Rosemary Uses

My trimmed pot of rosemary. Some herbs have been brought inside and she is one of them. I like to cut back to the woody part and dry the tops. By mid-winter she will be filled out again and have a crown of lovely purple flowers while I'll have my bit of summer next to me in the house.


As for the herbal properties...rosemary is found to be analgesic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, astringent, and a cerebral stimulant. I've found it as an ingredient in all kinds of body care products and natural remedies. Make yourself a brew and use the liquid as a face wash or hair rinse. Used in the morning, it will add that extra lift in energy throughout the day.

Orphan Produce

Orphan pumpkins. That's right they were left behind in a community patch so I brought them in to see if they'd finish turning color. Maybe I'll have a Thanksgiving pumpkin to eat or use as trimming.

If you've ever wondered what big gardeners do with their orphan produce check out this site about people willing to collect the end of season harvest for free from an organic farm in Colorado.

Ancestor Candle

Ancestor candle. In gratitude.

Prayer in time of trauma

Ten days ago my son was victim in a hit and run collision. He was on his motorcycle when a speeding car hit him from behind and fled the area. My son was thrown clear of his bike and sustained serious injuries to his leg. Left in a ditch on a dark road, he managed to crawl out, retrieve his cellphone and call for help. His ability to delve deep inside himself to a place of love, saved his life.

While he was being transported to a trauma center near home, I was loading my car getting ready for the longest eight hour drive of my life. I was out-of-town when I received the call that he'd been in an accident. It is difficult to describe the multiple levels of emotion that sped through my body. However, my most pressing desire was to alert my spiritual community of my greatest need.

Prayers. Within minutes, prayers of light and love for me and my son as we both began a journey poured forth from all over the world. How can it be that while I cried, listened by phone, cried more and anguished, I never lost sight of my divine connection?

Perhaps on one level when all was stripped away from the situation it was the only part I could control. But there was more than that. Although I experienced the human emotions attached to the traumatic event, I allowed for all of me to be present. Hence, what I practice, live, and teach became second nature. I'm a co-creator and as such I never want for the eternal source of love that I am.

Gratitude for the rays of light joining with mine to strengthen me as my son makes his recovery.

Dagara Cosmology

The Dagara Cosmology has a base in numerology.

Those whose years of birth end with 2 or 7 are the fire keepers, the keepers of the fire, the link between the village and the ancestors’ world. His/Her role or task, what he/she does for the village has to do with something pertaining to helping people link up to something about ancestors, about Spirit, and so forth. Fire is the first element in the order. It is called the primal energy and is associated with the emotional self, the intuitive self, the dream self, and the instinct. Fire people walk on a thin line between the ancestors’ world and this world. They must pay careful attention to dreams and visions.

Birth years which end in 1 and 6 are about water. Water is the peacemaker and reconciler. Water is the second element, and water is essentially about reconciling within the self and with other individuals. It’s about making bridges—between two cultures for instance, or between two people. It’s about bringing out wisdom. It is also about focusing somebody so that they can see beyond their turmoil. For the sake of the community, water people need to be together and work together as one entity.

Born into a 0 or 5 are earth elements. They are the care-takers and the home providers. As the third element, earth is about nurturing, grounding, taking care of one another and unconditional love. It is also about empowerment, providing a sense of home and identity.

Years ending in 3 or 8 are Nature. In Dagara medicine they are referred to as the witches and wizards. Nature is about magic. It is about major changes—life, death, rebirth. It is about dropping the masks and coming into the true self. It is also about joy and laughter.

Last of the elements are those born with 4 or 9. They are mineral. Mineral is about communicating, the ability to translate things, the ability to converse. It has a lot to do with social connections. In the indigenous world they are the storytellers, the great communicators. They remind individuals of all the memory stored in the bones and the importance of minerals to the human body. Mineral people are also recognized as stone people—not that they are stone but because the stone is seen as the one that stores information.

Spiritual Point of Entry

Indigenous medicine helps humans relate to the spirit world by using a point of entry into time. This point of entry maintains the spiritual connection to source. One point of entry used by indigenous communities is the medicine wheel. A medicine wheel is a sacred space which simultaneously references the physical and spiritual realm. A wheel connects to an energy grid which connects to everything, everywhere concurrently.

Medicine wheels support the practice of both metaphysics and Akashic record divination. Below are brief explanations of Akashic records and an African medicine wheel followed by ideas for their ritual application.

“The Akashic Records are the individual records of a soul from the time it leaves its point of origin until its return. At the time we make the decision to experience life as an independent entity, there is a field of energy created to record every thought, word, emotion, and action generated by that experience. That field of energy is the Akashic Records. Akashic, because it is composed of Akasha (the energetic substance from which all life is formed) and Records, because its objective is to record all life experience. The information in the Akashic Records helps us bring our past and our future, present in the “now”. By accessing the Akashic records, we can identify and release anything that we have created, that has become a block to our present realization of our oneness with God/source.”

(For more information: http://arc-akashicrecords.org/)

A diviner of the records can open someone’s records and channel his/her information. As these are his/her records, he/she can engage the energy at will. There is no right or wrong question as long as the question belongs to his/her energy alone. For example a wife cannot ask about her husband’s healing work, instead she must ask about her own and perhaps how she can best support someone else.

The Dagara Medicine Wheel, from Burkina Faso, West Africa is used to understand certain shamanic practices. Like many medicine wheels around the world, the Dagara wheel is divided into five elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Mineral, and Nature. Each element on the wheel is assigned attributes. The element you are born into indicates the role you will have in the present life of the community. Each role provides support to an individual to enable him/her to fulfill contracts made prior to birth.

The dominate element is based on a person’s birth. The system uses the last number of an individual’s birth year. For example, if someone were born in 1957, he/she would look at the element that connects to seven.

Earth year ends in 0 or 5
Water year ends in 1 or 6
Fire year ends in 2 or 7
Nature year ends in 3 or 8
Mineral year ends in 4 or 9

Here is a brief explanation of the meaning of each element. (For more detail visit the following site.
www.schoolofwisdom.com/Malidoma/africanwheel.html)

Calendula Ointment Recipe

This plant has spirit enough for everyone--from babies to elderly. Safe internal and external. The yellow-gold flower reminds me of the energy of the sun and the sticky resin reminds me of the healing properties of honey.

Calendula Ointment

Ingredients:
2 oz calendula infused oil (olive oil or coconut oil base)
2 oz extra virgin coconut oil
½ oz beeswax
1 tsp. lanolin

Combine the above ingredients in a Pyrex measuring cup. Place cup in a shallow pan of water and gently heat. When ingredients have assimilated, pour into a 4 oz container with a tight lid. Long shelf life if kept away from heat and light.

Lip Balm Recipe

Now that all the herbs have been preserved through oil extraction or drying, it's time to make the yearly supply of body care products. Below is my recipe for lip balm. If you didn't prepare your own herbs you can always go to a health food store and purchase the supplies.

Lip Balm

Ingredients:

2 oz of beeswax (real chunks or refined pellets okay)
6 oz of coconut oil
8 ml of calendula flower oil (olive oil base)
6 ml of St John’s Wort Flowering Top oil (olive oil base) optional
10 drops of vitamin E (oil)
¼ tsp of raw honey
8 drops of tangerine oil (optional)

Directions:

In a two cup glass measuring container add the first two ingredients. Set the glass container inside a shallow pan of water and melt the oil and beeswax together. When liquefied, stir in the remaining ingredients. Immediately dispense into appropriate containers.

The small round tins are nice, although I have filled individual tubes also. The recipe makes about sixteen small round tins or twenty-plus tubes. Since I no longer sell these, what I do is I fill a few containers, and then let the rest solidify in the glass container and refill the same tins later in the season. In a shallow pan of water, you can gently reheat the glass container with the leftover product. I purchased a Pyrex cup just for making lip balm, so that I could save my extra in the same container. Kept away from heat and light, this has a really long shelf life.

Winter Garden

The fresh herbs are gone. Now I'll be back to using dried and frozen herbs. The 2009 growing cycle is complete. I have a few greens, kale, mustard, and chard that survived the early snow.

My cooking will shift to stews and soups. For wonderful winter reading and cooking pleasure, check out the Weston A. Price site and consider getting a copy of Nourishing Traditions.

Waves of Lake Michigan

While doing spiritual coaching with a group of women this past week, I took time to walk along Lake Michigan. The waves released a long ago song and I was reminded of this Inuit prayer.

And I thought over again
My small adventures
As with a shore-wind I drifted out
In my kayak
And thought I was in danger,

My fears,
Those small ones
That I thought so big
For all the vital things
I had to get and to reach.

And yet, there is only
One great thing,
The only thing:
To live to see in huts and on journeys
The great day that dawns,
And the light that fills the world.

~INUIT SONG

Seagull Wisdom

Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that gull's life is so short and with these gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.

Cold Cabbage

Beneath this snow cover are my cabbages. I'd harvested about half to make sauerkraut and left the other half to work with later in the month. I wonder if they'll survive the thaw. Perhaps I'll have additional chicken food!

Snow Surprise!

You see this correctly. At the beginning of the week, we had a five inch snow cover. Not even a first frost warning. Just snow. My autumn garden will be short. The stillness in the air made me pause. I believe my space of love wants to influence my inner self. So, it is time to get quiet and listen to the small still voice inside.

Celebrate the Readers

I want to celebrate the 500+ readers today who have downloaded and read my pdf. book, Portal to Peace.
I am blessed with support.
Gratitude.

Runes

Runes are an Oracle. As an Oracle, runes point toward hidden fears and motivations that left unchecked, will shape the future. Runes remind us that the future forms based on the present.

When a person asks me to look into the Akashic Realm and tell him/her the future, I remind them that the future is dependent on the present course of action. Change the action, change the future. What guides the action? Choices. What motivates the choices? Dreams. Dream big and vivid as these fuel the human potential to co-create.

Dagara Definition of Ritual

"You don't do a ritual just for the sake of doing a ritual. Every ritual must have a very specific purpose, a clearly stated intention. It must have something to resolve...What is a ritual? A ritual is a ceremony in which we call in spirit to come and be the driver, the overseer of our activities. The elements of ritual allow us to connect with the self, the community, and the natural forces around us. In ritual we call in spirit to show us obstacles that we cannot see because of the limitations of human beings. Rituals help us to remove blocks standing between us and our true spirit and other spirits." ~~Sobonfu Some, from The Spirit of Intimacy.

I ponder a radical ritual for our country. What would such a ritual look like? Or perhaps a ritual for all the people making decisions for our country, and for all the citizens living out those decisions. I open to the teachings of our wisdom keepers. I direct my ray of light at them that others might do likewise. In this action, I expand my own vision. In this action, I experience hope.

Meadow in the Hills

I subscribe to positive imagery and thought which is why I'm such an advocate of The Ringing Cedar Series. In my work, I'm sometimes asked about the tools I use to support my higher Self. Although the answer is simple, I find I respond with complex explanations. Strip away the rhetoric, and quite simply put, the tools I use are singular. I pray.

Prayer is a common word understood by all people everywhere. If the word conjures dis-ease, then I say examine the cause. Prayer has only positive imagery. Prayer connects to Source alone. That Source is self-defined. I don't mind praying with others. I connect to all the "Sources" humans implore and embody in the image of goodness, light and love.

Most mornings I listen to a five minute segment by Marianne Williamson and The Course in Miracles. Each segment speaks right to my heart and moves me into a higher vibration. The prayers spoken in each segment shift my ego focus.

Below is a sample of her prayer. This prayer is filled with positive imagery to counter the negative image of recession and lack.

Dear God, may the infinite gifts that you have already given me come together now in such a way that rises above all impulses of limitations and despair.

Element of Water

Water flows over these hands.
May I use them skillfully
to preserve our precious planet.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Chippewa Song

Sometimes I go about pitying myself
While I am carried by
The wind Across the sky.
~Chippewa Song

Rose Quartz

Although the first thing that pops into the forefront from this photo is the word, the real message is the stone which is a lovely piece of rose quartz. I believe each individual on this sweet earth needs to hold a piece of rose quartz. This beautiful mineral removes negativity, calms emotions, restores harmony after chaos and crisis and provides spiritual attunement to the energy of love.

Selenite Wand

I just discovered that selenite is a form of crystallized gypsum. Gypsum has been a saving addition to the clay soil found in my garden allowing the earth to be pliable. I've always liked to use this wand to sweep down my spine.

Through a bit of research this week, I discovered that this mineral is best used on the spine to remove energy blockages and promote flexibility in the muscular structure. Without really knowing anything about the properties I'd used the wand as intended. The metaphysical properties are fascinating,too.

Perhaps this is a good month to work with this mineral. It allows the holder to see the deep inner workings of a situation or physical condition. Seems like a good start to preparing for the reflective time of winter. If you'd like more information on the metaphysical properties of minerals the best book I've ever encountered is Love Is In The Earth: A Kaleidoscope of Crystals by Melody.

Lacto-Fermentation

I am an advocate of slow-cooking and often send people to the Weston A. Price site for quality information and education. This organization is a grassroots movement that supports small farms and the consumer right to obtain REAL food.

Today, I cleaned out plants from my garden that are finished for the season. Afterward, I picked a few of my cabbages and made several quarts of lacto-fermented sauerkraut. I highly recommend the process. You can find the recipe in Sally Fallon's cookbook, Nourishing Traditions as well as on the Weston A. Price website.

Harvest Moon

As I was busy with a harvest festival this weekend the skies cleared and the moon shone bright. You can see the light it cast on the tree as I pointed my camera upward. In the moment, I tried to recall a single moon song and after a few seconds they started popping into my memory. There are probably hundreds out there. I could at least do the first line of these few. I wonder how many people can recall the lyrics to these. Some day, perhaps in the cold long winter months, I might have to Google a few and check the rest of the lyrics.

Shine on, shine on harvest moon up in the sky...

Oh, I'm being followed by a moon shadow, moon shadow, moon shadow...

Blue moon, you saw me standing alone without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own...

Moon river wider than a mile, I'm crossin you in style someday...

I see the moon and the moon sees me...

Dancin in the moonlight everybody feelin warm and right, it's such a fine and natural delight...

We are sailin along on moon light bay...

Pumpkin Sale

This is the big weekend. Months of planting, nurturing, and then harvesting so that we can sell the produce. All the proceeds from this community project are going to the local food bank. In the photo are some of the pumpkins lined up and ready for sale. Although clouds and cool temps are forecast, it looks like the rain will pass us by. Thank you to the weather divas!

Violet Beauty

Not long ago a woman gave me a violet plant--the plant in the photo actually. This violet is an offspring of a violet her mother had received. When the woman's mother died twenty years ago, she made a commitment to propagate her mother's beauty through the plant. Her mother's vision remains alive all over the U.S. as many women share parts of the original.

Violets are such a metaphor for life and the interconnected web of all being. They like the east light from whence comes spirit. They take root from one leaf and stem stuck into earth. They eat and drink sparingly and give an abundance of love inspired flowers.

Today a friend of mine experienced the death of her mother. I send her the healing light and abundant love held in the mystery of the violet.

Wish

An Irish Friendship Wish

May there always be work for your hands to do;

May your purse always hold a coin or two;

May the sun always shine on your windowpane;

May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;

May the hand of a friend always be near you;

May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

Oh, Beautiful for Spacious Skies

Ken Burns has done it again. Fabulous. Inspiring. Awesome. Magical. Our National Parks. See the PBS documentary. I had the words to "Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies", running in my mind.

The series started on Sunday, September 27th. After watching the first episode, I had to dig out a four year old picture and go back to my travel log to relive the extraordinary trip to Yellowstone National Park.

I watch very little film media, but this one is worth the time just for all the wonderful photography and quotes from people like John Muir.

Will our National Parks survive for future generations?