The May- It’s all about Sex

It is that time a year again the cross quarter mid spring holiday of the solar year called Beltane. I remember back as a child my excitement at making May baskets in school by weaving colored papers together, taking them home with instructions to collect flowers to fill them and then we were to give them to loved ones. I had so much fun with my mother collecting all sorts of spring tulips, hyacinths and daffodils from our garden to fill those tiny baskets and then leaving these bright fragrant surprises on people’s doorsteps anonymously. Boy have times changed, now we are more likely to see children and adults spending more time with their heads buried in technological devices then buried in flowers smelling the fragrance of spring or noticing the perfection of natures beauty. Other May celebrations included a Maypole ceremony which symbolized the male and female energies wedded in copulation through a pole garlanded with flowers planted in the earth. We kids didn’t know we were participating in some ancient fertility rite by weaving ribbons in opposite directions girls going one way and boys the other not stopping until the pole was covered in  all the ribbons. This ancient ritual also symbolized the world tree or tree of life with roots into the earth and branches into heaven and the balancing of earth and sky. However you choose to celebrate the May now is the time to use natures natural fecundity energies to seed your creativity, dreams, and plant physical or metaphoric gardens.

Those Powerful Yet Subtle Flower Essences

 

After 22 years of using essences, 17 years since making my first essences and 13 years as a professional essence producer; flower essences still continue to amaze me by their powerful yet subtle effects on humans and animals going through emotional processes. I know it may sound weird and contradictory that essences are both subtle and powerful but I assure you it is true. Some of the most powerful things in the universe operate this way such as a small creek slowly carving out a canyon or how a person who is quietly wise who need not say a thing but resonates a  calm and steady energy can affect the mood of those around them. Powerful things can be so subtle that we hardly notice them and instead our attentions gravitate toward the big bright larger than life kind of power that our media and culture is so obsessed with and which many fortunes so depend upon. Plants too can be subtle like the grass in our lawns that we hardly notice as we walk apon it daily or a plant can catch your attention and demand respect such as poison oak or nettles.

 Essences are plant spirit helpers who open channels into yourself, they will take you to the core of an issue and then gently nudge your healing process but you must be a dedicated partner in your own process of healing -there is no magic pill.

2012 Herbal Medicine Apprenticeship

Herbventure 2012 Herbal Medicine Apprenticeship 

Starts Sunday April 29th 

Meets two Sundays a month 10 am - 4 pm ongoing

Cost:$ 60 per class includes medicine making materials. No one turned away for lack of funds as I am open to work-trade or other forms of reciprocity. Call to discuss what we might do.

Come join resident Sequim herbalist Victoria Reddick on a wondrously useful exploration of the living world of plants. Learn  about our pacific northwest bioregion and the medicinal plants, nourishing weeds, and common herbs that live here. Learn hands on medicine making attuned to the seasons and the elements.

Some topics we will cover:  Identification, harvesting,  storage, preparing medicines, field study and harvest, growing your own medicine gardens,  and much more.  Come together to learn with others about enhancing both you and your families health. Herbal medicine is the people’s medicine and the oldest form of healing.

 Victoria is an herbalist that weaves together strands from the wise woman, western, & both north and south american herbal traditions. Owner and operator of Green Lynx Flower Essences and Green Lynx herbal apothecary since 1999 from her 10 acre farm in Sequim WA.  She is an avid horsewoman, healer, full mesa carrier in a shamanic lineage, medicine maker, ethical wildcrafter, plant spirit communicator and storyteller. She loves to share what she has learned with others as well as being a lifelong student that is always learning more.

For more info call (360)477-5985

email greenlynxs@tfon.com

March Dreaming of Fish

 

 

It’s March and we are in the full swing of Pisces with all that Neptunian imaginative dreaming going on now is a good time to balance the energies with a good dose of grounding so we see more clearly and do not move too far in the direction of illusion and fantasy. The negative aspect may play itself out as overindulging in any delightfully addictive substance like alcohol, food, tv, Facebook, etc. Directed in the positive is tapping into the collective creativity that is always available and creating something physical in this world be it a child, art, music, poetry, or crafts.   

There are two fish in the symbol of Pisces swimming in opposite directions and to me that means balancing two forces that move in opposition to each other and in so creating a powerful dynamic tension whereby there is always opportunity for being creative.

Essences for March

Hopi Sacred Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica). Perfect for helping to correct addictive tendencies and return to a balanced, self knowing, and centeredness.

 Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicada). I call this tree essence “boundaries in a bottle”. The Pacific Northwest tree of life that provided shelter, clothing, tools, canoes, and just about everything for the early people of these regions. It is also a warrior tree with strong protective properties against human boundary invaders or even from the non physical entities. Makes you clear about the difference between self and other.

Herbalicious Sexy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!!

February has gotten away from me somehow and here it is Valentines day the scourge of some the delight of others with great expectations to be met or dashed it can be a hard day if you’re not in that “special relationship”. All relationships start with the one to yourself so it is a great day to start there and do self-care and pampering. Take a long bath after work with some aromatic herbs, sea salts,  and essential oils of choice, great music, glass of wine always great by yourself or with another to share.

A great mud mask can do wonders for invigorating dry winter skin.

Try this recipe

tsp bentonite or pink kaolin clay

2 tsp plain yogurt

tsp raw honey

Mix with a wooden spoon or chopstick and slather on clean face and neck and let dry. This recipe is a great moisturizer and will plump dry skin.

Confidence is the best kind of sexy so take care of yourself. 

Flower Essences for Confidence

Garry Oak is a great one that draws up strength and inner wisdom.

Petunia is great to help be at ease in your body and with others, helps make decisions that will foster confidence and self-esteem, helps those with past sexual issues or trauma to heal. 

Pitcher Plant- “Help my plant eats meat”. These plants are the felines of the plant kingdom, beautiful rare and exuding all things confident and sexy. Essences made from these can be helpful to bring out play in sexuality, bring a spark back to your desire nature and put a skip in your step.

Have Fun!

January 2012 New Years Fairy Blessings

Blessings for the new year and may you be inspired by the  green plants, the nature spirits all around you, and may you hear their voices in your heart.  This little fairy house reminds me of something straight out of Lord of the Rings, it is just up the road from my house and built by my friend Burch back in the 1970s. I going to be looking into a possible lease for my shamanic healing/ herbal apothecary/ flower essence studio.

I think it speaks for itself and my inner child is tantalized and delighted by the thought of being in that space and creatively working in there.  A place to finish my first book and blossom into new creative endeavours. I could walk there, ride my bike or horse or…maybe fly… 

Western Woodland Amanita - The essence made of this brown earthy colored Amanita mushroom is a safe way to enjoy it’s energy medicine which is that of play, creativity and inspiration on many levels. Draws out ones inner child with sweet abandon and grounds it in the world. Shamans of Siberia ingest these toxic hallucinogenic mushrooms highly prized by their reindeer by letting the reindeer eat it first to process out some of the toxic alkaloids and then catching their pee in cups and drinking-yumm! This is how we got stories of flying reindeer. (Do not eat amanitas as they are highly toxic to the liver).

“Let me create my dearest dreams in the world.”  

December

Winter solstice is just a few short weeks away and so another year and season will end and a new begin. The celebration of the longest night and the sun’s return was incredibly important to our ancestors and was celebrated with fires. Bon fires built on every hill, the yule log which was decorated had to be large enough to burn all night long. It was a time of feasting, merrymaking with family, friends, and community, where well wishing prayers were offered and small hand crafted gifts given. Storytelling was also an incredibly important part of the winter season and was much more than just entertainment. The old stories held incredible gifts of insight and depth into the human condition that weaved together much magic and spiritual medicine. A good storyteller was worth his weight in gold and if he could sing or play music then all the better. How are you going to celebrate this turning of the wheel? I plan to have a bonfire in my horse pasture, invite a few friends and celebrate. First though I will attend to my cleaning out the closets and cupboards of my home and let anything go that I have not used or worn in a while. I always get a live holiday tree, a tradition started by my grandmother many decades ago that I have carried forth, my land  now covered by these trees. Lastly I will make intentional lists of what I no longer want to carry forward such as bad habits, outworn goals, things with expiration dates past thrown out, etc.. this list I will feed to the bon fire and another list of things I want to manifest in the coming year. Doing these things helps me create a strong and beautiful container for my future success; this one I will keep, then feast, a few handmade gifts, wellwishing and maybe a story or two…  

Essences and herbs for December 

Blue Elderberry (Sambucus species)-Make medicine as tincture or syrup from the dried berries by filling a pint jar with berries and pouring 100 proof vodka over and to the top, cap and infuse for 2 weeks then strain off the plant material, put back into your jar and label. It will last for a year on a cool dark shelf out of direct sunlight. To make syrup just add honey to the tincture. Makes a wonderful antiviral remedy for colds and flu or any viral flare ups of the herpes type I or II variety, those nasty cold sores, shingles or herpes-this tincture is for you and will keep what bugs you at bay. Buy it or make it yourself by harvesting the berries in summer on the east side of the Cascade mountains here in Washington or buy from a reputable herbal source like Mountain Rose Herbs. Our red elderberry of the west side of the mountains is not suitable as it contains a toxic constituent in its seeds.

Rose Hip Flower Essence- I make this essence from our wild rose hips of which we have at least 3 different varieties on our property, it is made by boiling water infusion method. This essence is made from the collected rose hips after the first hard frost which sweetens the hips, and is useful in helping us to go deep by grounding us in our deepest ”self” so we may choose what is right for us without societal or parental imprinting getting in the way.  Ask yourself what are my core values? Am I living from my core values inside and in the world or those that I unconsciously picked up or adopted? Rose Hip essence helps us uncover this mystery and to be reminded of choice. Choice to let the old imprinting fall away like an old crusty shell and to bring forth our truth in a new sense of self in regard to values. Key words- “I am aligned with my deepest core values.” Nameste…