Sacral Chakra Wakeup

The sacral chakra is located just below the navel in humans. It is also known as the Dan Tien, and its color is pumpkin orange. The second chakra is the center of emotional, sensual and sexual consciousness and encompasses creative acts.governs our passion, creativity, sexuality, and play. This chakra also manages energy exchanges. Blockages of this chakra may make us feel disconnected from our creative urges. or cause unhealthy relationship patterns. 

According to Ayurvedic texts, fruits and vegetable juices for breakfast will balance the energy of the second chakra, In this tradition, this energy is called sadhaka pitta. Ayurvedic teachings go on to say that fruit in the morning is like gold because it is the optimum time to receive the nourishing physical and spiritual properties of fruit. 

The following recipe was created by Christie McClelland, the founder of Gayatri Healing.

1/2 mango
6 tangerines
5 strawberries

Juice together and welcome the day! This cleansing elixir is best taken 30 minutes before eating other breakfast foods.

Root Chakra Care

Whew!
Far too much time has passed since I last connected with this blog and shared myself.  Perhaps, though, just the right amount of time has passed.

As I gear up and allow my increased published writing desires to guide me, I have been drawn to boosting my creativity on multiple levels.  To do so clearly and with self-authenticity, I decided to begin thoughtful clearing and activating of my chakras. By utilizing a multi-modal approach, I am delighting in the results.  As with any self examination and healthy detox, the process is not always a smooth journey.  The experience has been rewarding and the results are worth any minor bump that may have been experienced.  My approach to this process has been the utilization of crystals, herbs, food, meditation, sound therapy, and Reiki.  The recipes I will share are ones that have worked for me along the way and may be something you can add to your own personal healthy living toolkit.

Root Chakra Fizz

2 cups spring, filtered or distilled water
3 slices ginger root 
1 teaspoon dried sassafras root
1 teaspoon dried orange peel
1/8 cup honey
1 cup seltzer water

Put the herbs and water into a stainless-steel saucepan. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat ans let sit for 20 minutes. Strain the herbs out, add honey, stir and let cool. Once the tea has cooled you can add seltzer water and ice.  This recipe easily triples and the tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to four days and add the seltzer water when you are ready to drink it. 

This blend is cleansing and grounding. Ginger root, in Ayurvedic tradition, is called "the Universal Medicine" due to its comprehensive healing properties. Sassafras is a root plant native to the United States known for its cleansing properties. Orange peel contains powerful citrus flavonoids, including hesperidin which has a beneficial effect on blood vessels and aids relief of health problems such as premenstrual syndrome, menopausal changes, varicose veins, high blood pressure and allergies.

A Tarot Spread for Lammas

This tarot spread works well with the spirit of Lammas, the celebration of the First Harvest.  The spread helps us to acknowledge and appreciate the abundance in our lives and gives us glimpses into what we can give, what we need to receive, and the particular skills needed to assure we reap the most from the seeds we have sown.

The layout:

Card positions:

1.  GLOWING What is the most nourishing talent/skill/offering to the world, that you carry right now?
2.  FIRST REAPING What are you harvesting?  What are the fruits of your labor?  This may include overcoming personal obstacles, completed projects, and abundance of all kinds.
3.  SCYTHE  What are the tools, at your disposal, that you use to gather your harvest?  Ideas of tools are your professional or personal skills, your spiritual practice, and your own determination and perseverance.
4.  RIPENING  What needs further time to mature?  What is already ripe?
5.  CHANGING  What is changing within you as the dark of the year waxes?
6.  GIVING  How and in what ways, will you share your abundance?
7.  RECEIVING  What are you most resistant to changing and accepting?  What do you need to receive more of in your life?
8.  DESCENDING  What do you need to focus on between now and the harvest at Mabon,  the Autumnal Equinox?

Of Insight and Feathers

   Today I had the honor of witnessing parent sparrows providing first flight lessons to their young.  I held my breath as the chick stretched its still somewhat fluffy wings and bravely let itself fall from the low maple branch, its parents singing and staying quite close.  Though a bit clumsy in air and having performed a bumpy landing in the tall lake grass, it seemed happy and the adult birds' song changed from songs of encouragement to notes of pride.  They both assisted the chick's ground level take off and the three were quickly back in the safe shelter of the giant leaf maple.  I've heard it said that, "magic is the art of bringing about wanted change".  This was an aspect of natural magic at one of its most potent life points.  

    My experience opened a flood of thoughts regarding my knowledge of birds, feathers, their accompanying metaphysical properties and my relationship with them.  Birds are messengers who grant us amazing gifts.  Insight, warnings, visions and memories that guide, support and protect us can be learned when we stop and listen to these feathered wisdom keepers.  

    After nesting season birds will begin molting their old feathers.  This is the opportune time to be on the lookout for and gather fallen feathers.  While the specific properties of a feather are a combination of the bird it came from and its color, and because the world of birds contains a vast number of species,  I will concentrate on the properties of a feather's color.

Brown - offers stability and respect - when barred with black (like a pheasant) the feather brings balance between your spiritual and physical lives

Yellow - brings cheerfulness, mental alertness and prosperity

Green - brings health, growth and prosperity

Blue - brings protection and increases mental ability, when from a bluebird it brings peace

Red - offers physical vitality, courage, good fortune and protection

Orange - brings energy, new ideas, thwarts loneliness and increases will power

White -  offers hope, protection, peace, and blessings from the moon

Gray - brings relief to doubt, supports neutrality, and promotes anonymity 

Black - represents spiritual initiation, mystical insight, balance and repels negative energy

    Water color artist, Dee McDonald, specializes in the painting of birds.  As she works, she opens herself to the subject bird and requests its knowledge.    In her self-published and illustrated book, "In the Garden of Delight", Dee, through the Great Blue Heron, invites us to, 

"Dialogue with the birds...infuse your Light into their Light".  

    So mote it be! 

Samples of Dee's artwork may be viewed on her website www.deemcdonald.org and via her artist page on facebook at Wings of Art.

    

    

Earth Day Blessings to All and Gratitude to Our Mother Earth

Among the precious life gems Nana shared with me are, 

"Let the moon's growing light draw above ground foods toward it" 

and 

"The moon's darkening time helps
 root foods mature". 

So was planted, in me, the seeds of gardening in harmony with the moon's cycles.  Though the exact time I was taught this, eludes my memory, knowing Nana (the wise woman that she was), she undoubtedly imparted her knowledge to me during the dark of a New Moon phase. 

For those of you who enjoy, and are curious about, gardening according to the moon, here are some key action dates for the duration of 2012.  

 plant above-ground crops

April 22nd 

May 5th, 23rd, and 24th 

June 1st, 2nd, 29th, and 30th

July 26th and 27th

August 22nd, 23rd, and 31st

September 18th, 19th, and 27th

October 16th, 17th, 24th, and 25th

November 21st and 22nd

December 18th and 19th

plant below-ground crops 
May 13th and 14th
June 10th and 11th
July 17th and 18th
August 3rd, 4th, and 13th
September 1st, 10th, and 11th
October 7th and 8th
November 3rd, 4th, and 30th
December 1st, 2nd, 10th, and 11th


harvest above-ground crops
April 22nd
May 1st, 2nd, 28th, and 29th
June 24th and 25th
July 22nd and 23rd
August 18th and 19th
September 23rd and 24th
October 20th and 21st
November 25th and 26th
December 23rd and 24th


harvest below-ground crops
May 18th and 19th
June 15th and 16th
July 12th and 13th
August 8th and 9th
September 5th and 6th
October 2nd, 3rd, and 12th
November 8th and 9th
December 5th and 6th

Mother Earth,

May we learn from your being 

to persevere with faith, 

to balance with grace

to embrace with love

and give of your bounty.

by Meenakshi Suri
(USA)

Wolf Moon - Full Moon of February 18, 2011

This Full Moon as in all purifying fire moons, is the energy of letting go of what no long is vital in your space and within your emotional body that causes you stress or pain and needs purification. When we chose to let drama go, we fill ourself with our pure creative within and express this part of ourself in healthy and beautiful ways, using our energy to fulfill rather than create struggle...