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Susun Weed: Wise Woman’s Herbal Instructions
CHICKWEED IS A STAR
©2007 Susun S. Weed
Snowdrops and crocus flowers herald the spring. And if you look in between them, with luck, you'll see a bright green creeping plant low to the ground with little white starry flowers: chickweed, a good friend of mine.
I say she's a star, because her botanical name - Stellaria media - means little stars. And because she really stars at helping us when we need to gently dissolve something or to cool off inflamed tissues. Chickweed not only effects physical health, she is a psychic healer too. She opens us up to cosmic energies and gives us the inner strength we need to handle those energies.
Chickweed contains soapy substances, called saponins. Saponins, like soap, emulsify and increase the permeability of cellular membranes. When we consume chickweed those saponins increase our ability to absorb nutrients, especially minerals. They also dissolve and break down unwanted matter, including disease-causing bacteria, cysts, benign tumors, thickened mucus in the respiratory and digestive systems, and excess fat cells.
Yes, you heard me correctly, drinking chickweed infusion can eliminate fat cells. I put one ounce of dried herb (I weigh it) in a quart jar and fill it to the top with boiling water. I cap it tightly and wait for at least four hours, then strain and drink it, hot or cold, with honey or miso. What I don't consume right away, I store in the refrigerator. A quart a day is not too much to drink, but even two cups a day can help you shed those unwanted pounds. (Do remember though that subcutaneous fat, the kind you can pinch, is healthy for women, so don't get too thin.)
Chickweed's ability to break cells open helps it get rid of bacterial infections when applied as a poultice. It is every mother's favorite for dealing with children's eye infections (pink eye). I crush a small handful of the fresh herb until it is juicy, then apply it directly to the troubled eye or infected wound, covering the chickweed with a small towel to keep it in place. I leave the poultice until the chickweed heats up, which indicates to me that bacteria are dying. Then I remove the poultice and throw the plant material away. It is critically important to use fresh chickweed for each application so bacteria are not reintroduced. Generally symptoms will at least start to go away after the first application, but using several more chickweed poultices, once or twice a day for several more days, will insure full healing.
Our beautiful star is superb at dissolving cysts and benign tumors. She especially shines when it comes to getting rid of ovarian cysts. Since many doctors, frightened of ovarian cancer, are fast to suggest surgical remedies for ovarian cysts, having a safe and effective green ally can save us from major surgery. Using chickweed to dissolve a cyst or benign tumor is a slow process, and requires consistency. It also requires chickweed tincture made from fresh, not dried, plant material. You can buy the tincture already made. Or make you own: Fill any jar, large or small, with fresh chopped chickweed and 100 proof vodka. Wait six weeks and it's ready to use. A dropperful of the tincture taken 2-3 times a day for 2-16 months is the usual course.
I have seen chickweed dissolve ovarian cysts as large as an orange. One women used it to get rid of a dermoid cyst (which contains hair, bones, teeth, and fingernails); for that, she combined the chickweed with motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) and cronewort (Artemisia vulgaris) tinctures in equal parts. These three plants together are an ancient Chinese remedy for many "women's problems."
Chickweed loves the cool weather of spring and autumn; she hides when summer's sun is high. This gives her a great ability to cool things off for us when we are overheated. I believe that sub-clinical inflammations are responsible for many of the chronic problems we have, including joint pain, digestive upsets, blood vessel disease, memory problems, and even some cancers. Regular use of chickweed takes the heat out and allows optimum functioning.
Women with "hot" bladders - such as those interstitial cystitis, chronic cystitis, or a bladder irritated by childbirth or abdominal surgery - adore chickweed. She soothes and cools, removes bacteria, and strengthens the bladder wall. What a star!
But don't wait for a problem to get to know chickweed. She is delicious and ever so happy to jump into your salad bowl and share her star qualities with you.
Chickweed is loaded with nutrition, being high in chlorophyll, minerals - especially calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, iron, phosphorus, and potassium - vitamins - especially C, A (from carotenes), and B factors such as folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine.
No wonder old-time herbals recommend chickweed for "convalescents, weak children, the anemic, and the old". Chickweed infusion is also a blessing for those recovering from surgery. (Tinctures are not nutritious.)
I'm going to grab my scissors and my basket and go outside and pick a bunch of chickweed and make this yummy spring salad: 4 cups fresh chickweed, 2 cups fresh watercress or miner's lettuce, 1 cup fresh flowers, such as violets, and 2 tablespoons of finely-chopped wild chives. I dress it with olive oil, tamari, and whatever herbal vinegar strikes my fancy, or just plain apple cider vinegar.
NOW REMEMBER ROSEMARY
Mad Ophelia tells us: "There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance". In Shakespeare's day it was common knowledge that rosemary helped one remember. Today, as then, herbalists agree: "For weyknesse of ye brayne, sethe rosemaria in wyne and keep ye heed warme". The leaves of this tough, evergreen shrub, are valued for both medicinal and culinary uses. And, the powerful antioxidant vitamins found therein do help the brain work better.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is an especially aromatic member of the mint family. When grown in dry, poor soils in hot areas, a little protected, but touched by the winds, rosemary rewards us with minerals, vitamins, and antiseptic, antibacterial volatile oils which extract easily into water, vinegar, alcohol, and fat. While evergreen, and thus usable at any time of the year, rosemary is considered most medicinal when flowering. A large pinch of dried rosemary in food acts as a preservative. A strong brew of the fresh or dried leaves makes a particularly effective wound wash
Old herbals hint that rosemary exerts its influence magically as well as physically. Burned as an incense, twined into a wreath, or grown in a pot, rosemary protects the house and those who live in it, especially the women. Added to the wedding bouquet, it insures fidelity. Tied with silk ribbons and given to the wedding guests, it spreads loving kindness.
"As for Rosmarine, I let it runne all over my garden walls, not onlie because my bees love it, but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance, and, therefore, to friendship …" said Sir Thomas More several hundred years ago, with a smile.
Juliette de Bairacli Levy repeats an old, old story about rosemary: When Mary and Joseph were fleeing with the infant Jesus, Mary placed her damp blue cloak on the rosemary bush to dry it. The rosemary, thus blessed, forever more has had blue flowers, and the absolute power to protect against evil. A sprig of rosemary hung by the door banishes all thieves; a bush of rosemary growing by the door allows only love to enter.
Rosemary is a traditional Christmas decoration - partly because it smells good, and partly because pruning rosemary back mid-winter makes it stronger and healthier. So don't hesitate to cut bunches of it for beauty. If you take your decorative rosemary down before it gets too dry, it can be used for cooking or as a smudge.
The dense smoke (smudge) produced by burning dried rosemary is equally favored in religious, mystical, and medicinal settings. When frankincense and myrrh - expensive and foreign resins - are in short supply, rosemary stands in for them in the church's - or the pagans - censors. During the plague years, and thereafter in many hospitals, the burning of rosemary reliably cleared the air and countered airborne infections. By extension, rosemary was given to mourners to protect them from contagion. It was laid in the coffin to preserve the body. And it was cast into the grave at the end of the funeral.
In England, a branch of rosemary was placed in the dock of the courts of justice as a preventative against jail-fever. To ward off moths, lay it in your woolen chest.
European ladies, princesses, and even queens used rosemary in many ways to enhance their beauty. They tied it into a cloth to keep fleas away; they smelled it to "keep youngly”; they soaked it in wine and used it to wash their faces so they would be "light and lovely"; they added it to their bath water so they would "wax shiny and be merrie"; and they stopped bad dreams by placing rosemary under the bed.
Modern ladies praise rosemary's ability to make their scalp healthy and dander free, and their hair lush, thick, and dark. To make a rosemary hair rinse, brew a full ounce of dried rosemary in a quart of boiling water overnight. After you've washed your hair, pour the dark, sweet-smelling rosemary liquid over your head, rubbing well into the scalp. Leave it be; no need to rinse it out. If you have very bad dandruff, add a tablespoon of borax per half cup of rosemary hair rinse just before use. Lavaggio, a hair tonic made from an Italian folk recipe that is 99% rosemary, is available for sale for those who don't want to do it themselves.
Recent research has found that the heart has memory cells just like the brain. No wonder rosemary is renowned as a heart tonic, too! The oldest recipes call for soaking several handfuls of fresh rosemary in a large glass of white wine for several days, then sipping the wine to ease palpitations, strengthen weak hearts, and heal broken hearts. Rosemary in capsules, or rosemary tincture in large doses, can raise blood pressure however, so I stick to tea or external applications.
Rosemary infused oil or ointment (not the essential oil, which can cause poisoning) eases the pain of arthritis, improves flexibility of the joints, counters and sometimes cures eczema, and hastens wound healing. If you don't have the oil, rosemary tea can be used instead.
Rosemary tea has a beneficial effect on the lungs and breathing. If you have a cold, rosemary tea is happy to help you feel better. Too tired and sick to do anything? Just throw a big handful of rosemary in canned chicken soup and heat. For best effect, let steep for an hour, then eat it. Ahhh. When imbibing rosemary tea, feel free to add honey*, especially if your throat is scratchy and sore.
Rosemary, like all its mint sisters, is antispasmodic, mildly so as a tea, more strongly in vinegar, and powerfully as a tincture. Not only does it relieve nervous pains and headaches, rosemary eases all digestive woes, from gas to gall bladder problems. A tablespoon or two of the vinegar on salad is an easy way to take this remedy. Because of the danger of kidney damage, I use small (1-5 drop) doses of rosemary tincture, and only occasionally.
As a seasoning, rosemary feeds the brain and helps prevent cancer. As a medicine, rosemary restores memory and improves digestion.
No wonder boxes made of rosemary wood are considered magical. As rosemary is only happy when commanded by a woman, its magic is most suited to the needs of women. Perhaps Pandora's box was made of rosemary wood. For sure, your life will be more magical when you remember rosemary.
*Note: Do not give honey to babies under 12 months old.
Susun is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at www.susunweed.com
Books
Title: Alchemy of the Heart: Transforming Turmoil into Peace through Emotional Integration
Author: Michael Brown
ISBN: 978 1 897238 37 0
Namaste Publishing
Since publication of The Presence Process, Michael Brown has inevitable continued to refine and deepen his understanding and presentation, as evinced in his subsequent CD program A Walk Through the Presence Process and the periodic essays posted to his email subscribers and on his website, www.thepresenceportal.com.
Alchemy of the Heart consolidates these refinements and embellishments in book form, reorganizing the arc and emphasis of his insights somewhat, and presenting it in an incrementally digestible format. It sounds neither complimentary nor accurate enough to say it is “Michael Brown in sound-bites.” However, something of its structure definitely harkens to the daily meditation books that have proliferated in recent years, and perhaps more favorably, to the ACIM (A Course in Miracles) Workbook. Each essay picks up and advances the trail of the last. This encourages readers to pause and digest. It also cultivates a tendency for repetition, for better or worse.
Even while his argument asserts the necessity for experiential exploration and application to finding one’s way out of the dead-end of cogitative paths to “enlightenment,” Alchemy of the Heart emphasizes Being over Doing. (It actually prescribes “Non-doing,” which is, admittedly, a paradoxical concept to serve to a mind, which is by nature oriented to doing!) Thus it de-emphasizes the centerpiece 10-week “process” and practices for which his first book was named.
That said, The Presence Process itself, is likely a very valuable step for many. Without it, the evolutionary support offered in both books can risk becoming just another mental exercise.
I believe that Brown himself has said that folks will find this work when they are ready to undertake it. Hopefully, the capacity of awareness and will required to adequately appreciate and apply Brown’s insights and devices would be accompanied in the reader by the inclination and integrity to do so -- responsibly, honestly and compassionately. Certainly, as one advances, processes and practices can swiftly become crutches, distractions and hindrances.
Moreover, be assured that the key principles have not been abandoned. We are concisely reacquainted with the Seven Year Cycle, the Pathway to Awareness so eloquently introduced in The Presence Process, as well as with Consciously Connected Breathing. In addition, the author increases his use of his device for unlocking hidden meanings by dissecting key familiar phrases and words phonetically. This will appeal to some more than others, but it is a helpful, sometimes uncanny, tool for alchemizing the patina on our “trance-fixed” perceptions.
Having read and valued both books, The Presence Process impressed me as a more graceful read. However, there is plenty to be appreciated in Alchemy of the Heart, both in its differences and its reprises from its antecedent. We have all evolved since the first book. Reading the second provides worthy testament to that, as well as to an elasticity it shares with the first; that is, the promise that the insights it reveals will deepen as we do, with each read. In this respect, its incremental format of shorter, distinct chapters may make Alchemy of the Heart a more accessible candidate for re-visitation.
TwoTitles:
The Transparent Tarot
Created by Emily Carding
ISBN: 978 0 7643 3003 2
and Pirate Tarot
Authors: Carrie and Lucas Amodio and Liz Galindor” Harper
ISBN; 978 0 7643 3182 4
A couple of Tarot decks arrived at the door within days of each other, striking quite a contrast to one another. Tarot isn’t my strong suit, if you’ll pardon the pun; but it is a powerful tool in the hands of a seasoned reader; and, if the deck is thoughfully assembled and infused, even an open novice can find herself in a profound meeting with the wise, deep Self.
First to arrive was the Transparent Tarot, an elegant and modern set, which includes an eloquent guide book, the cards themselves, and a cloth in which to store and display them. The cards themselves are ingeniously designed to add a whole new dimension to their divination potential. They are made of sturdy transparent plastic; and the illustrations are simple and understated, so that when the cards are stacked or overlapped, the features of each card interact in ways that evoke whole new layers of interpretation. It allows the themes or cards with generally stable meanings and inhabiting traditionally prescribed positions to more readily influence and illuminate one another. The experience is creative and absorbing; and the creators of the deck encourage experimentation, such as adding cards to traditional spreads, or simply allowing the cards to dictate their own unfolding story in an alchemy with the querent’s psyche.
The inclusion of the white cloth (on which to spread the cards) promotes the clarity of the images, and not only supports the simple elegance of the deck, but enhances the sacred and sensual dimension of the experience, and reflects the thoughtfulness invested in the entire deck by its creators. The set conveys a delicacy and sobriety, a reverence, but the attitude of the accompanying text, as well as the simple, almost stick-figure drawings, also convey a freedom and flexibilty.
In contrast, the Pirate Tarot has a considerably less substantial “sacred” feel, seeming to beg not to be taken seralmost discouraging sobriety, rather like a Halloween costume. This even though he cards were originally devised as wood engravings -- and a wooden set actually is available, I gather -- but the glossy card deck has a jaunty, comic-book quality. The illustrations have a definite charm and style, certainly; and the wood-themed appearance has appeal. Yet, here, any hallowed Tarot shares the stage with a pragmatic, irreverent and swaggering gypsy milieu, in which the cards are presented as much as a light diversion of this world as an esoteric and austere oracle of another. The game of Tarot is what is emphasized here, perhaps, rather than the Game of Life.
The instructions enclosed are rather poorly written and presented on a single sheet of glossy paper, folded in 12 panels; and include only the sketchiest insights into the meanings of the individual cards. As much space is devoted to the games that can be (and historically have been) played with the deck. I’d say that this might make a good, versatile starter deck for a youngster, except that this adult couldn’t makes sense of the instructions for the game!
Both decks are enjoyable to peruse and to see how the Major Arcana are represented with the very different themes and intentions. Observing one’s response to each illustration can alone make for a rich and heady reading.
Title: A Particle of God
Author: Teddy Bart
www.O-books.net
ISBN: 978 1 84694 172 6
Failure is as imaginary as fame.
---Johnny Carson (as apparition)
from A Particle of God
Teddy Bart is a veteran Radio and TV talk show host from Nashville. He grounds the wisdom he wishes to convey in his novel, A Particle of God, in the world he knows. It is this fondness and admiration for, as well as his intimacy with, the world and the luminaries of broadcasting, combined with the importance of his message, that keeps us engaged. Well, that and the poignant and credible portrait he paints of his main character, radio personality Joey Robin, even when the character’s experiences land him soundly in realms most would deem incredible.
As times change and ratings slide, Joey Robin loses his position as a Memphis broadcasting fixture when he won’t agree to the now-common slide of standards demanded to spike controversy and ratings. Without a professional outlet for his passion, long simmering insecurities about career, his purpose, his worth, understandably boil up and threaten to drown him in self-pity. Then the fun begins; and while he isn’t as intransigent as some protagonists, it takes him a while to enjoy it!
The novel, a sweet and fast read, is flawed in many ways, but demonstrates an unseasoned (I assume) writer’s talent for observing and conveying human nature insightfully, and his potential, with experience, to craft a narrative with richer, more efficient prose, to match and demonstrate his depth of understanding for the subject matter. Mr. Bart has managed to make us care about a character quite morose when we meet him, partly because Robin’s predicament is one with which all too many of us is familiar.
To elaborate too much would deflate the value of reading the book. In brief, Bart’s quick, contemporary narrative conjures up a parable which examines potent cultural and existential themes: fulfilling one’s life purpose, what defines true success, and the distinction between true fulfillment and external recognition. These are crucial matters to make peace with amid the sometimes-crushing demands of our You are what you do (and how you appear) culture; and matters so many of us struggle with, even when we may “know” better! I dare say these themes are therapeutically exercised in the reader as s/he follows Joey Robin through his paces. Moreover, the light-hearted and high-powered help he gets will either may simultaneously spark in the reader envy and renewed faith.
So, even in spite of some patches of somewhat hackneyed prose, mixed metaphors, grammatical glitches, and some unclear plot passages -- especially during the last few muddled pages -- the spirit and wisdom of this little novel speak well for it, and speak well enough to the reader to sneak up and serve them a dose of valuable remembrance! Each of us is an essential Particle of God, but not every particle can or need be seen and recognized by every other particle. Enjoy the view from where you are…and wave (as I hear particles do).
Title: From the Bottom of the Pond
Author: Simon Small
ISBN: 978 1 84694 066 8
www.o-books.net
This book’s title, while poetically apt, may not entice as many readers who would appreciate the content, which, simple and profound, could be analogous with a Zen Pond. Even the full title, From the Bottom of the Pond: The forgotten art of experience God in the depths of the present moment, I believe, fails to convey the quiet clarity, authority and benefit of the book, whose message resonates beyond of the New-age-diluted words of its title.
Moving beyond that minor objection, I earnestly recommend gently diving below that surface matter into the still wisdom just beneath. The pond may be profound, but it is never over our heads. It seems to encourage wading in, savoring immersion, not strenuous aquanautics. Spiritual seekers can be prone to over exertion and analysis. The gift of this book is to call us back from that, like the sunlight calling the diver back to air.
This is actually book on contemplative prayer, written from the perspective of someone who has waded through the fizzy waters of the New Age and found home as an illumined Christian.
At only 77 pages, the book is an easy, satisfying contemplation of prayer itself, the gentle meditative form of prayer that connects to and cultivates all-pervasive Presence. It concisely synthesizes points you’ll find more elaborately dissected by countless others. Author Simon Small has clearly discovered or assimilated this wisdom organically, and has distilled it into an appreciable review, and an invitation to let the information and words go now, and live it, feel it, know it.
It is by stilling our own personal part of the pond that clarity spreads, and those around us find their footing on the bottom; and our hearts illuminate where earth and sky meet, and our minds witness report to (an from) Heaven.
Title: Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein
Author: Molly Dwyer
Lost Coast Press, 2008, www.cypresshouse.com
ISBN: 978-1-882897-93-3
At within shooting distance of 600 pages, this ambitious novel manages to be both meaty and ethereal. The plot is subordinate to, and supportive of, the themes, which are better perceived through soft focus, an intuitive osmosis, rather than the sharp teeth of intellectual comprehension. Fortunately, a weighty portion of the novel concerns personages who actually lived and whose lives are, albeit not quite so intimately and evocatively illuminated, documented elsewhere.
The story dreamily swims back and forth between present day character Anna and 19th century author Mary Shelley, whose distinct identities and times become blurred, to them as well as to us.
The exploration of the intimate relationships between Mary Shelley, her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the infamous Lord Byron anchor some of the more engrossing passages in the book. Although its portrayals don’t feel quiet as solid, the parallel journey of Anna-- on a mission both personal and scholarly, to discover why Shelley’s life and cohorts are literally haunting her -- can be equally compelling at times; and that story line helps to anchor Mary Shelley’s relevance in contemporary times. Her classic satire Frankenstein was a much misunderstood demonstration of the perils of imbalance between the feminine and masculine. It’s an urgent and cogent exhortation for our own era.
The ghosts haunting these pages will follow readers into their other daily activities, and will sing them like sirens back to the characters and the many consciousness-bending realities invoked within the book’s leisurely arc (toward what seems a rather rapid and tidy denouement).
Along the way, we are immersed in the passionate and intellectual milieu of the Shelleys, Byron, even Coleridge and Blake. Dwyer celebrates, animates and orchestrates an intimacy with these personages who were so ahead of the parameters of their time. We can’t help but join them in this defiance of time (both in the sense of their era and also the boundaries between past, present and future); it is thus meet ourSelves in the experience, out beyond time in the realm cosmic simultaneity, truth and the free-immortal human Spirit.
The journey is at once befuddling, thought-provoking, inspiring, and entertaining.
Our minds, endowed with a soaring, restless aspiration, can find no repose on earth, except in Love. -- Mary Shelley
Title: The Doubting Snake
Author: Bob Klein
ISBN: 978 1892198 08
Publisher: The Tai-Chi-Chuan School
www.movementsofmagic.org
In the “tradition” quickened by the Celestine Prophecy, Bob Klein offers us The Doubting Snake, a teaching fable in adventure format, which takes us to places at once far away, intimate, strange and familiar. He does so in a read so speedy that a reader could almost too easily consume it without digesting it adequately. One would hope, though, as with the snake who swallows his prey whole, the content will find its way to the inner spaces that most need its nourishment.
This is not a work crafted of intricate, poetic language; instead, a simple, expedient vernacular invokes poetic realities. The beauty is less in the style and more in lush regions, cultures and cosmologies it describes, and in the invisible realms it remarkably and simply illuminates. Hearing their nameless names intoned in this casual prose invites these realms to awaken where they are buried in the reader, under the concrete and ring tones of our dehydrated, superficial, inhumanly-paced modern existence.
The uncomplicated plot, engaging but not superlatively riveting, concerns a zoologist who stumbles into intrigue that finds him suddenly transplanted to the Panamanian jungle, caught between opposing realities and forces that purport to influence the very immediate fate of our technological civilization. Although the hero can seem a bit of a dolt sometimes, all perspectives are given insightful voice in the course of the book; and more appreciably, they leave room for the reader’s own convictions to coalesce or evolve.
The teachings are what make it worth reading; for those whose lives already run deep shamanic currents, it is good company. Accompanying the “hero,” as he learns to tune in to his own truths and tap the deep current connecting all phenomena, allows us to tune in as well. So, we’re in good company as we hear our own voice rise in the chorus.
The ending, while it struck me as anticlimactic, leaves the reader hanging -- and wide open for a sequel; this seems to parallel the impatience many experience in this time that feels like the imminent culmination of human life as we know it.
The warrior within each of us is invited to: Wake up; deeply see and listen; remember what reality is really made of; and honor, cultivate and harness our connectedness, consciousness, power, and history in order to reinvent our culture in a Golden Age. Not bad for a galloping little novel!
Title: From the Bottom of the Pond
Author: Simon Small
ISBN: 978 1 84694 066 8
www.o-books.net
This book’s title, while poetically apt, may not entice as many readers who would appreciate the content, which, simple and profound, could be analogous with a Zen Pond. Even the full title, From the Bottom of the Pond: The forgotten art of experience God in the depths of the present moment, I believe, fails to convey the quiet clarity, authority and benefit of the book, whose message resonates beyond of the New-age-diluted words of its title.
Moving beyond that minor objection, I earnestly recommend gently diving below that surface matter into the still wisdom just beneath. The pond may be profound, but it is never over our heads. It seems to encourage wading in, savoring immersion, not strenuous aquanautics. Spiritual seekers can be prone to over exertion and analysis. The gift of this book is to call us back from that, like the sunlight calling the diver back to air.
This is actually book on contemplative prayer, written from the perspective of someone who has waded through the fizzy waters of the New Age and found home as an illumined Christian.
At only 77 pages, the book is an easy, satisfying contemplation of prayer itself, the gentle meditative form of prayer that connects to and cultivates all-pervasive Presence. It concisely synthesizes points you’ll find more elaborately dissected by countless others. Author Simon Small has clearly discovered or assimilated this wisdom organically, and has distilled it into an appreciable review, and an invitation to let the information and words go now, and live it, feel it, know it.
It is by stilling our own personal part of the pond that clarity spreads, and those around us find their footing on the bottom; and our hearts illuminate where earth and sky meet, and our minds witness report to (an from) Heaven.
Title: Practicing Conscious Living and Dying: Stories of the Eternal Continuum of Consciousness
Author: Annamaria Hemingway
ISBN: 975 1 64694 077 4
www.nbnbooks.com (USA), www.o-books.net (UK), 2007,
The title Practicing Conscious Living and Dying might sound like the latest Americanization of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. However, Annamaria Hemingway’s book has blended first-person reportage of near death and out of body experiences, mediumship, and contact with and from the “dead,” to demonstrate how personal knowledge of an afterlife (a continuum of consciousness beyond embodiment) can cultivate more purposeful, peaceful life in the mortal world. True enough. There is much to inspire in these pages!
More and more people are having experiences that reveal or confirm life after death. However, for those who have yet to be blessed with first hand experience, this collection of accounts is poignant and compelling. Whether or not a reader is comfortable with the idea of a personality that survives the body in which it developed and expressed, the commonalities in the accounts are thought-provoking. The book gives us all the opportunity to relax and reassess what is most important to us, to realign with our hearts, if not some grand purpose, and realize that just showing up, being decent, appreciative and present in life, can have impact beyond our imagining.
This little volume is not just a collection of NDE case studies. Some are reports of near death experiences and what wisdom the subjects carry hence; others detail the events of a loved one’s life, death or communication from beyond and their profoundly tranformative impact on the narrator’s approach to life and influence on others.
The subject of each narrative has a distinct story, which illuminates a subtly different facet of the overall theme. However, the homogeneity of the voice in each first person narrative led me to inquire as to whether these were quoted reports or ghost written accounts. I believe that the accounts do reflect actually events, but that they may be paraphrased summaries composed by the Ms. Hemingway. (After all, some of the subjects are relatively visible people, among them, actor Larry Hagman.) I understand that a clarification on this point will appear in ensuing traditions. It would be a pity for credibility questions to undermine an otherwise inspiring read.
Title: Milton’s Secret
Author: Eckhardt Tolle and Robert S. Friedman
Namaste Publishing, 2008
ISBN: 978 1 57174-577 4
Ironic, isn’t it, that the essential wisdom eloquently conveyed in The Power of Now has been distilled into a package for children: the population, historically, most naturally connected to its truths and least in need of a primer? It’s regrettable that the anxieties of our culture could be encroaching upon the innocents so as to necessitate it; but it is hopeful that resources like this book continue to offer remembrance rather than ritalin and promote early and conscious application of that remembrance!
Milton (of the title) is a boy who is happy enough until accosted by a bully, after which time he is haunted by the spectres of “When” (past injury) and “Then” (future encounter). He is helped, by a wise adult and his wisdom of dreams, to learn how to return to the safe haven of the Now, by escorting his attention to first the “outside of the Now”, then the “inside of the Now.” Milton learns about presence and compassion; and importantly, with guidance, he comes to these realizations himself.
I confess that at first I was disappointed, wishing Milton’s Secret had carried a certain charm and contagion of other children’s books I knew. Despite the book’s expressive illustrations, what seemed to be a bland narrative failed to open up a rich world to get lost in. However, upon reflecting and summarizing this book for review, a simple brilliance in its teaching came into focus. This is an invitation to redirect our cultural dependence on alternate “once upon a time” realities and learn to abide richly, fluidly in the generously enchanting “Now.”
Ultimately, I recommend the book: a solid gift for kids on your list (as well as their parents). Since we don’t know which of the seeds we scatter in the impressionable soil of young hearts and minds will germinate, it is better to offer sane and nourishing seed. While my own expectations allowed me to be underwhelmed at first, the book’s gentle rain seeps quietly in.
The idea behind Milton’s Secret has rich potential; and so because a richer reading experience tends to promote the more enduring the impact, and thus, more deeply root its seeds of wisdom, my hope is that Milton’s Secret becomes the first in a series of books, which together synergize their full potential as engaging, enduring children’s literature that demonstrates the practical and pervasive and accessibility of the Now.
Title: Waiting for Autumn
Author: Scott Blum
Spring 2009, Hay House
www.hayhouse.com
Waiting for Autumn is a sweet, simple novel in purpose and in prose, yet endearing for any of us who have swam the moody river of spiritual unfolding, with its mind-bending and heart-melting twists and trajectory. Like so many contemporary narrative offerings with inspirational focus, it forgoes the structural and linguistic sophistication and flourish of classic literary craft for more streamlined conversational reportage that lets the wisdom conveyed ignite the reader’s recognition and engagement.
It may not be high literature, but it’s much better written than more than one blockbuster new age novel I could name. Moreover, its purpose and content do effectively illuminate truths about the human condition of spirits remembering that they chose to accept this mission, and, upon remembering, are compelled to affirm that choice (and even redouble their commitment).
Professedly semi-autobiographical, Waiting for Autumn is a modern narrative about one man’s waking up and the invitation we all receive to say “Yes!” It takes place in Ashland, Oregon, which serves as a benevolent character in the story and a nostalgic reunion for those of us who know and love the city as much as the protagonist, Scott (a recently transplant from L.A.). Scott has a lot of support, which fleshes out the multi-dimensional cast of characters; and with each experience of Scott’s that reminds us of our own, we are cajoled into acknowledging that in not being as alone as he thought he is not alone! That is, none of us are as alone as we once thought.
By the end of the book, I was interested enough in the characters and their story to be heartened that there is a prequel (Summer’s Path) available on the Hay House website, and that we may expect sequels to Waiting for Autumn, either on line or in print.
CDs, DVDs, Videos and Tapes
Title: Flow
Director: Irena Salina
2008 Oscilloscope Laboratories
www.flowthefilm.com
Title: Water
Directors: Anastasiya Popova
and Julia Perkul
2008 Intention Media/Voice Entertainment
www.waterthemovie.com
Two documentaries have been released this year about H2O, the medium of Life as we know it. Each film, with it’s own thematic focus and tone plunges us into remembrance that the phrase Holy Water is tautology.
Flow takes a macro view, focusing on keeping planetary water pure and free as a resource, whereas Water starts from the micro view, examining the barely fathomable nature and property of the substance itself, and expanding into the spiritual and environmental phenomena that grow from that.
Flow, with its more political tone, carries the ache and urgency of activist appeal without ever spilling irretrievably into shrillness. It focuses on the worldwide trend to treat Water, the planet’s own life blood, as a commodity, as well as the grassroots movements to counter this. As each viewer watches from within a sensory soup that is 70-90% water, we are all infused with a new appreciation for water: for its perennial role in our salvation, for human potential, and for its role in the salvation of water. These are indistinguishable. Where there is Water there is life, they say. Where there is life there is hope. Hope Springs Eternal.
Water focuses on the substance itself, purporting to be a scientific exploration of this pervasive molecule with miraculous memory. An international array of scientists and philosophers discuss and extrapolate the ramifications of water’s capacity to register, to remember, all with which it interacts, for better and for worse.
While it seemed a little light on cohesiveness, and while some of the terms used and “facts” and discoveries reference begged for meatier definition, explanation, and citation of origin, the power of the message, the treasure buried in the subject itself, redeems it. It a little clumsily, it points to a universal truth in every beating heart. This film, too, is a call to action and responsibility.
Both films inevitably steep us in profoundly spiritual realizations. What we do to and with water, we do to ourselves and everything else. However miraculous and endangered water is, so are we. Each with information that may be new to some, old to others, the two films are thought-provoking and inspiring, ultimately: A cool splash awake from complacency or demoralization, to mindful stewardship and to the interconnectedness of all Life, intelligence, and innocence, for which Water is a universal conductor.
DVD Title: Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes
in 30 Days
Producers: Aiyana Elliot and Leda Maliga
Circle 3 Media
www.Rawfor30.com
In this well-produced and absorbing documentary, we follow six diabetics (mostly Type II) through a month-long experimental retreat at The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, where the cuisine is entirely raw or live and vegan. The objective is to reduce or eliminate their dependency on insulin and bring their blood sugar and other vital statistics into normal range. Proceedings are closely monitored by medical and support staff (directed by Dr. Gabriel Cousens).
The six participants vary in ethnicity, age and home state; what they share is a debilitating disease and this chance of a lifetime. We witness them discover friendships, wisdom, confidence, resources and a state of health and freedom of which their cultural and medical environments gave them no conception. All this from a wholesome, earth-friendly diet, a pastoral setting, fresh air and peer support. If it sounds idyllic and ideal, it is.
The results are, of course, astounding and compelling; and the journey we take with them is poignant and inspiring. The health benefits completely vindicate the experiment, even though viewers, the subjects and their mentors all know that grim challenges lie ahead, when these retreatants return to the formidable influences of family, work, media and convenience and comfort food.
The documentary succeeds as an honest and revealing portrait of human potential. It thus offers inspiration to anyone seeking to introduce changes in their lifestyle, diet, and planetary impact. The journey these folks go through isn’t “sugar-coated;” each is amply challenged, and one drops out.
More crucially, the film provokes a lot of deeper questions, which are left for other documentarians. Such questions might include:
How can such a regimen be actualized and sustained in daily life, without the sequesterment these individuals enjoyed?
How will the medical establishment respond, and how can that system embrace and implement this opportunity to correct its deathly course?
How can the economic and biochemical dependence on (nutritionally deficient or disruptive) fast food be overcome?
How can the cultural, biological, and psycho-emotional conditioning – all of which have phenomenal momentum – be reversed, reframed, or redeemed?
It would seem the world wakes up one heart, one pancreas, one palate at a time. Here we see a handful more realize: “Yes, we can.”
DVD Title: Jesus in India
Director: Paul Davids
Yellow Hat / Felicity Films, 2008
www.jesus-in-india-the-movie.com
It is better to aim at a Lion and miss than to aim at a Jackal and kill it.
--a proverb quoted my Edward T. Martin in Jesus in India
The subject matter is intriguing no matter what your position. There has been enough suggestion of it trickling into the West over the past century or so that more and more people think it plausible, even if unprovable, that during those lost years not chronicled in the New Testament, Jesus followed his divine calling all the way to the Far East, for both study and refuge.
The film is a chronicle of Edward T. Martin’s dogged (and blessed) quest to track down indisputable proof of this. Fair to say that it succeeds and doesn’t succeed. It is a very successful chronicle of a less successful quest. Many fascinating facts and tantalizing testimonies draw us down all sorts of alleys, grottos and promising tangents, bathing us in the many cultures and points of view concerned, even as conclusive resolution eludes us. Here too, the Divine will not show all its cards. And who can blame her; the claims and protestations of each person involved or interviewed reveal far more about human limitations than Divine Truth!
The tedium of all the questors’ apparent “dead-ends” parallels the challenges of each person’s spiritual journey, which, even as it lures us along with doses of Grace and revelation, seems to teach us that it’s all less about facts (understanding, power, control) than about Truth. All realized beings and true saints, in their way, have known and demonstrated that the way to God (or the way of God) is an intangible universal imposed on infinite roads.
As speakers on both sides of this argument cogently ask, “What does it matter whether he did or he didn’t?” Does this change your faith? Raising these arguably more important and enduring questions is what makes this film as success.
That, yes, and other attributes that recommen mend the film: It is intelligent, earnest (without losing humor), and tries to offer a balance of pro and con arguments. The production values are solid; it is a visually beautiful and satisfying tour through the rich spiritual images and cultures of the Silk Road, many of which are, ironically and ceaselessly, ravaged by ancient religious animosities.
The message of the film seems to be that whether Jesus traveled or even died in the Far East is far less relevant than the message he espoused. However, if evidence surfaced that could actually prove his presence in these places and his respect for these cultures, it might strengthen his message of Peace, tolerance, universal divinity, personal responsibility, and the awesome glory of creation’s simultaneous diversity and unity.
2007 www.Acacialifestyle.com
Check out on their website Acacia Lifestyles’ range of recent DVD releases dedicated to Yoga and other body awareness practices. Each will have appeal and value to overlapping sections of a growing, awakening audience. We review three of them below.
The production quality and care to aesthetics in each of the several programs we’ve watched is admirably lush. However, I often took issue with a lamentable, even disruptive production style: editing and music choices quite often at odds with the original focusing or grounding intention of the practices presented.
It is a pity that even in presentations where the ostensible goal is integration of the being and attenuation of unhealthily busy mental dominion, the style chosen evokes not equanimity and simplicity, but the dizzy, conventional, ADHD world from which it might better provide respite. This, to me, constitutes unnecessary, faddish pandering on the part of Acacia (as, I confess, is using the term “workout” for the practice sequences demonstrated).
While lamentable; it does not entirely counteract the beneficial potential of the programs (nor obscure the poise and expertise of their presenters). They still serve quite adequately, over all, as introductions or refreshers for the hip audience they appear to target.
Title: Transform yourself with Jivamukti Yoga
Artists: David Life and Sharon Gannon
American yoga luminaries and founders of Jivamukti yoga, David Life and Sharon Gannon offer a 60-minute Ashtanga-based “workout.” The presentation is atmospheric and fluid, featuring accompaniment by an ensemble of Indian instruments.
The program features a choice of audio instruction tracks by either David or Sharon (individually), which guide the home participant through a series of postures of a skill level and pace not really appropriate for a beginner.
It’s a moderately rigorous flow, with interludes of helpful information during moments of rest, in which the voice over introduces the next category of poses and their primary benefits.
While attention was given to the aesthetic of the visual presentation, which enhances the rhythmic, perpetual, river-like flow of the practice, the audio voiceover supports any moderately seasoned practitioner in focusing on his/her own, inward practice, without constantly breaking that thread of attention to consult and synchronize the action on screen.
Title: Yoga to the Rescue: Feel Good from Head to Toe
Artist: Desiree Rumbaugh
Yoga to the Rescue is especially suitable for the beginner, and not just yoga novices, but anyone requiring a fresh approach to common physical complaints and to common poses, so as to reawaken simplicity and responsibility in his/her practice. The instruction is dense in a way that will enable viewers to hear new information with repeated viewings. This information is practical and valuable.
The music, true to fashion, is upbeat, but not particularly conducive to dropping in and gently listening to the body. Alas, while one has the option of playing the “workout” with or without the instruction track, one does not have the option to hear the instruction without the music track -- Too bad.
The editing is also plagued by the vogue technique of cutting back and forth between the direct address of the speaker and a side view of her addressing the unseen camera frame-right. This is off-putting, subtly reinforcing a sense of separation, rather than Union – the definition and purpose of yoga practice.
There is plenty of benefit to be had from the program; I would simply recommend the content more than the form.
Title: QI GONG:Fire and Water
Artist: Matthew Cohen
Matthew Cohen has assembled two graceful practice routines, each to emphasize or evoke a contrasting elemental energy: Fire and Water. They are both very effective and offer much for a practitioner to grow into.
Cohen (and a lovely companion who provides a feminine and Asian countenance to the program), perform the practices upon desert rock formations with dramatic 360 degree vistas that invoke the balancing elements of Earth and Air. (The landscape makes no attempt to resemble the landscapes from which the various martial arts tapped here originate.)
Viewers attempting to join him in practice will appreciate that Cohen’s presentation is relatively uncluttered, and he provides no more than necessary instruction, with a few points about each move’s particular intention or benefit sprinkled sensitively throughout.
I can only take marks off, again, for editing choices (unrelated to the content itself) and certain music choices, which combined with the editing, can be more than a little jarring to anyone for whom the preceding content has had desired effect!
DVD Title: Soul Masters: Dr. Guo
and Dr. Sha
Director: Sandra Deir
www.soulmastersmovie.com <http://www.soulmastersmovie.com/> , www.drsha.com <http://www.drsha.com/>
Dr. Zhi Gang Sha has been steadily gaining visibility in the past couple of years, attracting a devoted following of talented students and healers. Others, who have not resonated with his approach, vocabulary or public presentation, are encouraged to give a second look in the form of this refreshingly affecting documentary on Dr. Sha and his own Master, Dr. Zhi Chen Guo.
The program follows students of Master Sha to the clinic of his renowned teacher, Master Guo, who was recognized for his critical contribution to containing the SARS epidemic. After watching him and some of his grateful patients, anyone with chronic illness may be galvanized to find their way to his doors.
In addition to their commonalities, the film also demonstrates the distinctions of emphasis in the work of the two doctors, who are both Qi Gong masters and accomplished Medical Doctors.
While the film touches on what some might find quite esoteric stuff, it is presented to be accessible, even intriguing, to the relatively uninitiated, and it is a film made to be shared.
DVD: Secrets of the Soul
2007AliveMind Media
www.secretsofthesoul.net
Everybody talks about the soul. But what is it? And when we own to not knowing with absolute certainty exactly what it is, do we not still have a sense or belief about it, a personal definition? And even, or especially, when that opinion is just borrowed (intellectually or through cultural osmosis), do we consider that our operational definition is likely somewhat unique to each of us – that the assumptions of others are equally and importantly distinct?
Secrets of the Soul begins to address these questions. The DVD features a pair of hour-long documentary-style programs, edited for television broadcast, which look at man’s investigation through two lenses: the mystical in The Searchers and the scientific in the Investigators. Each program can only scratch the surface, and The Searchers achieves more satisfying traction, in my opinion. However, both programs are interesting and not without merit. Each question begets more questions, which invites the viewer to clarify his own sometimes-invisible assumptions. What’s more I found the segments comparing and clarifying the distinction between and within major cosmologies to be particularly well stated and valuable.
The piece would be good for a local spiritual film circle or fellowship discussion group, or perhaps more poignantly, a means of lubricating understanding among family or community members alienated by differing beliefs. At the least, Secrets of the Soul is a couple of informative hours positively spent. At best, it is an audio-visual olive branch.
Title: Archangel Miracle
Artist: Patrick Bernard
Devi Communications, Inc.
www.patrickbernard.com
Those familiar with Patrick Bernard’s work, both musical and written will no doubt avidly welcome his newest opus: Archangel Miracle.
The song cycle is structured like a formal Oratorio, with words in Hebrew and Latin. While I confess that the melodies did not at first move me personally as much as some his previous releases, the supersensory affects proved much deeper, keenly validating the statement on the back cover:
This music helps the listener to make the conditions of reception ready for the assistance and intervention of the Shining Ones, Angels and Archangels, who direct healing, enlightening and renewing frequencies of God-Light to the World.
It may be that the best praise I can offer is: Amen.
The instrumentation and arrangements share much with the rich (synthetically generated) choral and symphonic sounds of his early, epic offerings (like in Atlantis Angeles and Solaris Universalis). The frequencies invoked, however, are unique to this work.
Even if the music does not win the ear at first, the listener is encouraged to let it play through for some repetitions. What draws one is more spiritual than emotional. One may notice a mysterious greater beneficence in one’s life and being well before one finds oneself chanting along (and perhaps eventually leaving Mr. Bernard in the car while inviting the company of Angels of whom you may not even have heard into the melee of the market or office!) It is when we carry these seed sounds (on our tongue or in our hearts) out of our private sonic cathedrals into our secular pursuits that the sacred harvest is sewn…and reaped.
I believe Archangel Miracle is just that, and it is a labor of great love and service for which I thank the artists as well as that which works through them.
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