Category: Nature + Moon + Tea

What is Your Medicine?

The rain is falling gently as I write and the distant rumble of thunder sounds in the background. How these healing waters soothe me! They are like soft Goddess kisses falling from the grey sky, sent to fill my heart with joy. For the last few of days I’ve surrendered to my spirit’s urge to walk out into the garden in the midst of the late spring showers, wet grass beneath my feet. Just to feel the cool drops fall on me. Being washed with the cleansing tears of the Earth is such a sacred way to honour the light of a new day.

This morning, I set my meditation cushion out on the stoep (porch/veranda) to watch the rain. I spent a few moments mindfully drinking buchu tea and reading from Mary Oliver’s House of Light. Then I drew an oracle card and found myself dissolving into the peaceful essence of mystery as I called out to the Goddess, meditating on what guidance she had to offer. I drew the Medicine Woman card and when I listened intently for the wild whispers that came, a question surfaced – What is your medicine?

 In my stillness, a soft inner voice responded – The wild Earth is my medicine. The healing rain. The quiet trees. Steamy cups of warm tea. The smell of cinnamon, jasmine blossoms and the subtle scent of chamomile is medicine. The sound of the ocean. The gift of words – written and read. Heart soothing poetry. The love of the Divine is my medicine. And allowing my fragile feminine soul to space to exist, breathe, create and take in the beauty of the world.

These are the things that nourish my soul, the medicine that brings flow, peace and freedom to my inner landscapes. These are the gifts that I heal myself with. What I’ve also noticed is that some of these are also the things that I inevitably integrate into the medicine that my inner Medicine Woman offers as services to the world for the healing of others.

What is your medicine?

Discovering what your medicine is valuable because it nourishes your wild essence. It is the balm that pieces the fragmented pieces of your soul back to wholeness. And what I keep learning over and over again is that what heals and nourishes you brings you closer to your authentic path. It informs your life purpose. And what heals you also becomes soul medicine that you share with others to help them nourish themselves.

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Honour the Cycles of Life and Light

Happy Samhain to those celebrating in the North, and Beltane blessings to those in the South. Wherever you and whichever sacred day you are obsering, may it be a joyous celebration of the cycles of life and light.Samhain Beltane

Holiness in the Soil

There is holiness in the soil beneath our feet.

Do you feel it?

I do each time I plant my body down on the Earth to sit in easy pose for daily meditation. Or when I kneel to I gather herbs and work the garden. I feel the ground beneath me caress my flesh, its wild wisdom seeping into my bones. It pulls a part of my essence deep into the core of the Great Mother so that I know that I am held.

Did you know that warthogs kneel down when they graze the yellow stubble of grass? They must know of this holiness for them to come to their knees as if in honor and gratitude of the sacred meal that the wild Earth offers so freely. They remind me that there is no shame in being brought to your knees because being humbled releases our attachment to what doesn’t serve us. It brings us closer to our inner truth and reminds us of the sacred thread of Spirit woven through all life.

Somehow reflecting on idea of holiness in the earth makes me think of a recent blog post by Sophia Rose at La Abeja Herbs about gathering pine nuts that I stumbled upon. I found my heart inspired by her poetic writing and thinking of how the ordinary ways in which we interact with the Earth can become a meditation when we honor the sanctity of it all. Sophia wrote:

“Harvesting just about anything from nature falls into the category of the unspeakable pleasures of living on Earth. Harvesting tangled roots, windblown seed, fallen nuts…this is another thing entirely. To gather these things we must, first humble ourselves.  It is necessary to sit, to crouch, or best of all, to squat as our eyes and fingers search out nuts amongst the duff and aging needles.  Squatting constitutes a meditation all its own.  It is a stance so native to our human form–the position from which we birth, from which we tend fires, and I’m sure you can conjure a few more, quite obvious, examples on your own.” ~ Sophia Rosa, La Abeja Herbs

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