The News of Winter

The News of Winter


9th Century Irish Poem

I have news for you
The stag bells, winter snows, summer has gone.
Wind high and cold, the sun low, short in its course.
The sea running high.
Deep red the bracken; its shape is lost.

The wild goose has raised its accustomed cry.

Cold has seized the birds wings;
Season of ice:   this is my news.  

Janet

Shamanic Egg Cleansing: a Gift from the Doñas

Tools for a Shamanic Egg Cleansing

       A few years ago I had a great opportunity to study with two traditional healers from northern Peru.  Given the name of the “Twins”, Doña Olinda and Doña Isabel were raised in the mountains and deserts near  Chiclayo, Peru; here they learned to work with the sacred lagoons of the Andes as well as the rich plant life in the desert along the sea coast.   They learned traditional healing from their indigenous heritage as well as some healing tools brought to Latin America by the Spaniards.  They blend all these things together in their medicine:  plants and prayers, energy healing, shamanic techniques.  They are curanderas and shamans.  

     As part of their teaching, I had the opportunity to participate in some of their healing work.  This is always part of the path of the healer: we learn by getting healing treatments and finding out what works for us.  We then take the best of what we have learned and use it with other people.

     I didn’t know it at the time but I really needed the work of Doña Isabel and Doña Olinda.  I had grown up not knowing how to take the best care of this body I had been given.  The idea of self-care was like a word in Swahili: a  foreign concept beyond my grasp.  I knew I needed to take much better care of myself, yet felt powerless about doing so.  There was low self-esteem at work:  I’m not worth the trouble.  There was a sense of futility:  what is the point when stuff is going to happen anyway?  In a weird way, it felt frivolous and self-indulgent to focus on self care when the world had so many other things at stake.  I had known for many years that I needed to take better care of myself, but I was stuck.  And so it went.

     It was in that weekend with the Doñas that this thinking started to shift.  In a shamanic journey around these questions, Spirit told me that my time on this planet is a journey of body as well as  mind and spirit.  It is a profound gift to have this human body and I have a responsibility to take good care of this gift I have been given.  I was also reminded that people who are dying often express great regret that they did not take better care of and enjoy their body more.  These ideas were very illuminating for me.  

     Perhaps the most transforming moment for me in that weekend came when the Twins did a shamanic egg cleansing (limpia) on me.  This is one of the most important healing tools they have:  they took a fresh (hen) egg, blew prayers into it and then moved the egg in circles all around my body, top to bottom.  As they did so, I could feel the power of their work, pulling out old stuck energy from me.  I started to cry and then could not stop.  For me it felt as if the egg was clearing old grief and pain that I had carried for 50 years.  Finally they finished by taking a branch of rosemary and sweeping down my energy field, in a process called a barrida.

     After they finished clearing my body, they broke the egg into a glass of clear water and did a reading.  From the photo here, you can see what this might look like: a  yolk sitting at the bottom of the glass, the egg white in a pattern above it and the water it sits in.  My egg was nowhere near so healthy:  the yolk was disintegrated and looked as if it had been in a blender.  If I hadn’t been crying before, I would have started then:  that egg was thrashed.  But the Twins sat with me and gently explained what they were seeing: old patterns from childhood, a near-death experience, my struggles with my parents.  They saw it all.  They helped me see it and understand my life and my choices in a powerful new way.

     And that work transformed me.  It was two weeks later that I woke up from a good night’s sleep and decided it was time to learn how to do better self-care.  I didn’t have a clue what that would look like, but I was no longer stuck in hopelessness.  I decided it was time to lose weight and in the process learned that it really does work (for me) to focus on calories and portion size.  After years of being sedentary, I started to exercise and found new pride in my increased mobility.  I learned Qi Gong and found great relief from the inflammatory arthritis I’ve had for 20 years.   I explored different stress management tools and found some that worked very well for me.  A nutritionist helped me realize that I have Celiac issues so I stopped eating wheat.

     Now two years later, my life has been transformed, in what my spouse calls the “new & improved Janet”!  I am 50 pounds lighter.  Sleep apnea is gone and high blood pressure has resolved.  My blood sugar is now normal.  I go to the gym 3 times a week for a Silver Sneakers exercise class and walk one mile without difficulty.  My energy is much better and I get through a normal day without exhaustion.  I can even dance a little and do some hiking:  all these things were impossible 2 years ago.  The horizons of my life were shrinking as I aged, but now they are expanding and I am exploring all the new things I can do.

     This is the gift from Spirit, offered through the skilled and loving hands of the Doñas.  This is the beauty of shamanic egg cleansing:  a powerful healing tool that finds that which is broken in us and helps make us whole.  

     Now this is work I do on others, passing the gift and the healing forward.  I offer it to you.

Janet

Resources

•  Shamanic Egg Cleansing by Kalyn Bastion Raphael

•  Woman Who Glows in the Dark  by Elena Avila

•  The Twin Shamans web page:  http://www.twinshamans.com/about_us.html

•  You tube of one healer’s egg cleansing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akbK6jd-U8I

Herbal Amulets for Psychic Protection

Nine sacred herbs

     In my work as a shamanic healer, I often explore different ways in which we can keep ourselves well-protected from foreign energies.  This is what we call psychic protection.  I have written about several of my favorite tools in my ebook on A Shamanic Healer's Tools for  Psychic Protection;  you can find this book on Amazon.  But in the meantime, here is one tool from the book:

     Plants have spoken to me for many years, and carry powerful medicine for me.  So when I came across this idea for herbal amulets, I jumped on it.

      The word amulet was new to me so I looked it up.  An amulet is defined as a small object or charm worn to ward off illness, harm or evil.  It can also be used to bring good fortune.  In the Faery Doctoring traditions of Ireland, such charms are considered potent medicine.  This amulet/charm combines sacred herbs in blends of three or six or nine to provide its effects.  I learned about it from Mara Freeman’s book Kindling the Celtic Spirit. 

     

     Here are some of my favorite herbs.  In the Celtic world, multiples of three are considered very powerful, so choose 3 or 6 or 9 of these.  

•  Lavender has a powerful calming, relaxing effect.  It is a powerful protection herb as well.

•  Chamomile has a long use as an herb to banish all ills, and to promote well-being.

•  Comfrey is a powerful magic herb for all kinds of charm.  It provides energetic safety.

•  Sweet Woodruff is a powerful protection herb and helps us find strength in life’s battles.

•  Thyme helps us find our courage and strength when facing difficulties.  

•  Rue is commonly used in Latin America and is one of their first choice herbs for protection.

•  Rosemary is one of my first choices for protection.  I grow it right by my front door.

•  Mugwort is another top choice for protection.  I use it as an incense to cleanse my energy field

•  Plantain is used to bring protection to one’s home.  At my place, it grows in the front entrance area.

    Many of these herbs grow in the garden;  if you have these it is always best to use plants from your own land.   If you do not happen to have a well-stocked herb garden, you can visit a friend’s garden, a local nursery or farmer’s market.  Find these plants and give them a big sniff:  the ones that really attract you are the ones to choose.

    

     If the herbs are fresh, pick a few flowers or leaves and let dry.  I put my herbs on a window screen laid flat so the air can circulate above and below.  They are ready when they crumble to the touch.

    You can also buy these herbs dried:  again check your local herb stores. Or an excellent online source is Mountain Rose in Eugene, Oregon.

    Once the herbs are dried, take a pinch of each of the herbs you have chosen.  Hold it to your heart and say whatever prayers you wish to call in its protection.  Finish by blowing these prayers into that pinch of herbs, then placing them in the bag.  Continue until all the herbs you have chosen are in the bag.    

     Cinch the bag closed.  As an extra helpful step, you can wrap red thread or yarn around the bag:  this comes from the Irish tradition of thread magic and adds additional protection.

     Once your bag is complete, you can keep it in your pocket or wear it around your neck.  For women, you can tuck it into your bra, over your heart.  You could also hang it over the main door frame to your house, as a form of protection for the place you live.  

Janet

Making Medicine: Elderberries from the Kootenai river

The Kootenai River in northern Idaho

     Last week my spouse Glen and I were traveling in northern Idaho, visiting the donation land claim of my great-grandparents in Jewel Lake in Bonner County.  While this was a very rewarding family history journey, we also made a side trip to the Kootenai Wildlife Refuge, where we were treated to a gloriously sunny day.  Here you can see the Kootenai river in all its autumn glory.

     Though we were mostly tourists, it was still the third week in October and the herbalist in me had a keen eye out both for the changing weather, and also the opportunity to harvest medicinal plants, maybe for the last time for the season.

     When you go to the refuge, you take a five mile dike road in along the Kootenai river.  As we drove this road, the sun was shining beautifully on the still waters of the river, creating gorgeous reflections of the cottonwood trees leaning from the banks.  We were admiring the scenery when suddenly we started to see bushes and bushes full of elderberries, gleaming bluely in the strong sunlight.  Many of these shrubs were perched precariously down very steep dike banks and only Glen was courageous enough to try to reach them  (I cowered in the car and hoped he didn’t end up in the river).  But then we found a Blue Elderberry shrub in a nearby field and managed to collect several cups of fat, succulent elderberries.  This really warmed the cockles of this herbalist’s heart.

    I’d been thinking a lot about elderberries lately.  There’s been a lot of hoopla about the Ebola virus; while Ebola is a serious tragedy in Africa, I believe it is far less of a risk to the world population than a possible pandemic respiratory flu virus.  I have doing a great deal of study about what we as herbalists could do if a high mortality flu virus arrived;  I believe we have some good tools.  

     In my life before I was an herbalist,  I worked in two different Public Health Departments and have had a lifelong interest in community health issues, especially infectious diseases.  My great-grandfather HW Partlow was a general practice doctor and was in the middle of the pandemic flu epidemic of 1918.  He used medicinal herbs extensively in his practice;  he never caught the flu despite intense exposure and to me, that is a testament to his great herbal skills.  So following HW’s footsteps, I have been looking at herbs that might be helpful in fighting the flu virus.  This is especially important because from my experience in modern medicine, I simply do not believe that we have enough tools to manage these viruses.  Herbs may well provide a lifesaving alternative.

Blue elderberries steeping in honey

     Elderberry is one of these herbs, particularly in early stages.  Stephen Buhner in his excellent book Herbal Antivirals talks about how elderberries stop viruses from replication.  A key aspect to this is to use a syrup or tea to coat the mouth/throat in the early stages, which is where the virus gets a foothold.  If you can stop replication there, you can stop the problem entirely.  Should the virus succeed in entering the body,  elder can also actually kill viruses, can keep viruses from maturation, can bind them up so they are unable to infect human cells and in general make it difficult for the virus to prosper.  Our European ancestors knew that elderberry worked:  there is a long tradition in Celtic countries of making elderberry syrup in the fall and then taking one tablespoon daily in hot water throughout fall and winter as a preventative.  

Tinctures of Lomatium, Cordyceps and Astragalas

     There are other herbs as well.  Today I am making large amounts of tinctures of Lomatium, Cordyceps mushroom, Astragalas, Houttynia (Yu Zing Cao), Baical Skullcap (Huang qin), Isatis and Licorice.  These are all herbs that Stephen Buhner recommends, but also I have used many of them to good effect.  My plan is to have quart jars of these tinctured herbs put aside, in case the big one ever arrives.  I’m using tinctures because these have a very long shelf life.  But also, if someone is sick, tinctures are very easily absorbed.

     We may never need these herbs.  But I feel more comfortable in having them on hand, just in case.  

     Here is the recipe for elderberry syrup:

=2 cups of black or blue elderberries.  If fresh, dry out a few days by spreading over a screen in a dry, well-aerated area.

=Put in a double boiler pan and cover with your favorite honey to above 1 inch above the berries.  (Some recipes call for cane sugar, but this seems ridiculous to me as sugar is known to reduce an immune response).  Cover the pan, bring to a simmer and let the berries steep in the honey for several hours.  Periodically take the lid off and mop out any liquid that has collected on the underside of the lid (this reduces the risk of mold later on).  

=After about 4-6 hours, strain out the berries and save the honey.  Label and date; I  usually store it in the refrigerator though this may not be necessary.  

Janet

Resources

• Herbal Antivirals  by Stephen Buhner

• Herbalist’s Guide to Preventing the Flu  by Janet Partlow (check Amazon)

• Ist Chinese Herbs:  http://www.1stchineseherbs.com/   A good source for many of these herbs.

• Mountain Rose:  www.mountainroseherbs.com/   Another great source for these herbs.

Indian Summer

 It is now early September.  In my part of the world (Pacific Northwest), the mornings are cool, almost to the point of frost.  Thin wisps of fog filter through the trees and a heavy blanket of dew coats the browned grasses and leaves.  Innumerable webs full of FAT spiders are etched in dewdrops against a gray sky.  By midday, the fog will clear:  intensely deep blue skies and a warm sun make it necessary to shuck the jackets, switch over to shorts and bask in the last days of the season.

     This is Indian summer.  In this time the green grasses of July have turned golden, their seed heads desiccated and their tiny seeds dispersed to the winds.  The leaves of early emerging spring willows are now bronze-colored and getting ready to drop. There was a heavy rain two weeks ago and now mushrooms are rising, fruiting from their mycelia underpinnings.  Last month chanterelles were scarce and expensive in the market:  $24 a pound!   But two weeks after that soaking rain, the mycelia throb and hum underground and produce an astonishing surge of life, in the form of mushrooms.  The price of chanterelles drops to $9 a pound.

   
This is a time of pulling together our stores, to prepare for the cold times ahead.  My sister Nancy gathered in her summer’s harvest of tomatoes.  She had the idea to stuff them into a cornucopia and take a picture. I saw the end result and knew immediately that she had captured the essence of Indian summer:  the woven basket full of the late summer fruits of the year, glowing like jewels in the slanting light of late summer.

   We are also canning peaches and freezing berries for jam.  Some years we go to the Farmer’s Market to buy pounds and pounds of cucumbers to make bread & butter pickles.  We harvest mushrooms out of our Garden Giant bed;  they get sautéed and then frozen to use in the winter months ahead.  Some years we buy a whole king salmon, fresh out of Puget Sound.  We fillet it, ice and freeze it and feed from its beautiful red flesh for months to come.

    From my world as a healer, this is also a time of gathering in our own personal reserves.  I go to bed a little earlier and rejoice in the relief of cool sheets, even needing a warmer blanket to get through the night  (I never thought I’d be cold again!) The night falls much more quickly and as I turn out the light to sleep, I feel the blessed darkness wrap me up in its own blanket of safety and care, lulling me deep into the dreamtime.

     In Five Element Chinese medicine, we look at how the seasons change, and how we as humans adjust to these changes.  Many of us have difficulty in resetting our internal clocks to these seasonal changes;  however in Chinese medicine they have come up with great ways to help us do this.
     They have a series of acupoints that are called the Horary Points.  There are 2 points for each season;  by accessing these points we can help ourselves make these seasonal adjustments.
     The points for Indian Summer are Stomach 36, followed by Spleen 3.  You can google diagram acupoint  followed by the name of the point and find a good photo and description of these points.  Once you have found them, you can apply acupressure in the form of your fingers, first holding Stomach 36 on both legs, then Spleen 3 on both feet.  Do this on a daily basis until you feel as if you have come back into alignment with nature’s rhythms.  If your region has daylight savings time, you will need to repeat this after the clock shifts.

     Soon the wheel of the year will turn again.  The cold mornings will turn to killing frost;  the leaves will drop and begin to mold.   In my land, the rains will begin and will not cease for weeks to come.  This is Fall.  All too soon it will be upon us.

    But for me, now in this place,  I am living in the beautiful days that come at the end of summer, reveling in fog and sun alike.  Until the season turns again…

Janet Partlow
Resources:  all photos by Nancy Partlow