Join us in the Spiritualitea chatroom for another rousing chat! Read on to find out what you missed…
Continue reading “Chat With Us, Wednesday March 4 at 6 pm Pacific”
A metaphysical community
Join us in the Spiritualitea chatroom for another rousing chat! Read on to find out what you missed…
Continue reading “Chat With Us, Wednesday March 4 at 6 pm Pacific”
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For every post in our discussion forum you do between now (February 23) and March 1, 2009 at midnight Pacific Time, you’ll get one entry in our drawing for a $10 Starbucks Gift Card.
My parents have a plentiful yard. When they first moved into this house, the back yard was oak trees and grass. Now it’s landscaped with an abundance of flora that seems to change subtlyover the years. There are at least a dozen hibiscus, a camphor tree, azalea bushes, and quite a few other plants that I can’t identify. Pathos, one of the easiest houseplants to grow, has taken over one oak tree and its leaves have reached terrifying proportions. Perhaps your pathos is more than a houseplant gone wild, but self-pity that has taken hold of your confidence and personal power.
Upkeep of our spiritual gardens is something most of us acknowledge as a necessity but put off — ridding the intentional plants of the unintentional weeds and volunteers is daunting. As in Florida where I currently reside, the climate of your life may nurture weeds that grow rapidly and tenaciously. Rake your fingers just under the mulch and you’ll snag a web of thick strands that have enmeshed themselves steathily under the decaying leaves to spring up and braid their vines along the branches of a soul that should blossom like azalea or hibiscus.
I find great great spiritual comfort in the pulling of physical weeds. My son loves to pull weeds with my mom but even he gets a little weary of all the tugging that will often yield a handful of vine and leaves but no roots. One such persistent invader is walking iris. It looks like gigantic tufts of grass blades. Out of these blade-like leaves, one will shoot out and spawn a small new plant at the end of the tendril that will sprout roots before it even works its way into the ground. These tendrils allow the plant to “walk” its way out to grow wherever it likes. It’s not unattractive, as “filler” plants go. But it does tend to walk its way into places you may not intend. My parents planted one or two very small patches of it and it now has taken over several quadrants of the yard.
Occasionally I have felt moved to do work in the yard. Last time I did a major amount of work, I attempted to rake up all the oak leaves that had fallen since the summer. Live oak leaves are pretty small and the grass I’m raking over isn’t actually real grass, so raking can be tedious and somewhat unsatisfying. You never really get all the leaves and sometimes all that’s left is dirt. Nevertheless, I felt like I’d really done something that day. Today was a day for weeding.
I started off weeding while wearing my daughter in her sling, but she’s grown cumbersome for doing actual physicalwork, even when she’s asleep. After a time, I was able to have my mother hang out with her while I got down to doing some serious weeding. I’d found that, while walking iris seemed to be everywhere, they weren’t difficult to pull out. A firm grasp at the base of a fan of leaves and the earth would release the roots with a satisfying series of pops and deep snaps. Mom showed me what she wanted taken out and I got to it. Her main objective was the clear away the iris from the Aztec grass they’d intentionally planted along the stone path. Iris leaves are narrow, but thick and plentiful enough to overshadow more delicate Aztec grass. As I pulled, I realized my son had gone inside, as had my mom with my daughter. At the same time I realized that this work could become more meaningful than just horticultural. I grounded and connected my center and my psyche with the land I was working.
I pulled up iris. This weed was the boys in junior high who tormented me at my locker and in class. I named the weed aloud and said, “this weed will not grow in my garden.” One handful of leaves would often yield one or two shoots and new, smaller tufts of leaves. This weed was all the issues of Elle and Vogue that taught me to be ever disappointed in my body and my lifestyle. This weed will not grow in my garden. Fans of dark green iris came away to reveal forlorn, underdeveloped blades of Aztec grass — hidden and stunted, but surely able to come back. I filled a garbage bag, hauled it to side of the house and started another. This weed was a boyfriend with whom Ialways felt inadequate. This weed will not grow in my garden. I tackled what seemed to be an enormous single clot of iris. But it came easily away as I pulled a little at a time. This weed was the middle school girls who chased me home one afternoon, taunting me. This weed was the cliques ofpopularkidswho distracted me from truer friends. These weeds will not grow in my garden. Handful after handful Inamed them and gently but firmly pulled their roots from where they were no longer welcome.
Most people tend to distinguish between weeds and desirable plants, but theyre all part of the same system really. Everything we experience in life has equal potential to shape us for good or for ill, but weeds are very much like those experiences in our life that can overrun our thoughts and actions rapidly and insidiously and break down our more productive nature. If left unattended, the weeds of our insecurity and pain can creep up and strangle those parts of us that flower beautifully. Like weeds, these experiences are usually deposited by something other than ourselves, are invasive, and often lay hidden to spread farthest. We are the keepers of our own souls garden. With careful tending, identifying and removing on a regular basis those elements that rob us of energy and nourishment, we can enjoy an inner landscape that reflects ourselves at our strongest and healthiest.
Thank you for the days,
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.
I’m thinking of the days,
I won’t forget a single day, believe me.
–Ray Davies, the Kinks
The most important thing to understand about the eight Witchcraft
Sabbats is that they are not man-made. By this, I mean that they are
not holidays in the same way that Independence Day is a holiday, i.e. a
calendar anniversary of some date that has a special importance in
history. Indeed, the Sabbats of Witchcraft do not commemorate any
historical event and are, as we shall see, almost antithetical to the
concept of history. Nor are they randomly chosen holidays to observe
some social institution, such as Mother’s Day. No, the eight Sabbats of
Witchcraft were not man-made because they existed long before man was
made. Or woman. Or the dinosaurs. Or life on this planet. Indeed, these
eight holidays might be said to be as old as the Earth itself. They
might not have been called “sabbats” then, but they were there just the
same.
A typical steak dinner may take your body up to a week to digest.
Youre digestive system has to work hard to break down the components
of the meal. Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, usually take 1-2
hours to digest. Why?
The answer is enzymes. To understand why certain foods are digested
more easily than others, knowledge of how enzymes work is essential.
Enzymes are basically active proteins that act as catalysts for
biological chemical reactions. In the body, digestive enzymes are
responsible for breaking down molecules as part of the digestive
process.
Continue reading “The Power of Enzymes: Best Detox Foods for Digestive Wellness”
The media is abuzz lately with stories about detox. Oprah, Beyonce,
Gwenth Paltrow, and other celebs are drawing the attention of the
medical community, the press, and the public as the detox phenomenon
quickly picks up speed. Doctors are frantically scurrying to annihilate detox out of the
sphere of influence, making claims that invalidate and attack internal
cleansing methods, labeling them dangerous, and ineffective. The
scare tactics being employed by M.D.s, however, can be demystified
with a little common sense. Allow me to explain why the medical
industry wants to boot detox off the radar screen by addressing the
three biggest myths told by doctors and spun by journalists:
Continue reading “Detox Myths Shattered: the Truth About Internal Cleansing”
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Meditation is an
invaluable and proven science to optimize health and elevate the
quality of one’s life. It not only promotes physical health, but also
markedly improves emotional balance and psychological wellbeing. There
are many types of meditation and in this article we will explore the
popular and powerful Concentration Meditation Technique.
Continue reading “The Power of Concentration Meditation Technique”