The Oil Gushing through a massive hole that we have drilled deep, deep down in the ocean floor hit an oil reserve so big and some say it blasted through with such force that it blew up the oil rig and turned it upside down over the hole. The dig itself was on the edge of what we could do technologically, and of course now we do not have the technology to close the hole.

It is gushing millions of gallons of oil into the ocean and threatens to destroy our world oceans if it is not taken care of quickly. This environmental, technological,  and patriarchal catastrophy is said to dwarf the Exon Valdez, which was massive in it’s affects upon the ecosystems of Alaska.

Please grieve with me, and rage with me, and pray with all your hearts that this thing gets plugged and fixed quickly by the little boys who again did not know what kind of dynamite they were playing with.

My young but wise priestess sister Anna writes a beautiful poem to our Mother Ocean:

“In late April 2010, a massive oil spill erupted in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s flow continues to be felt throughout the ocean ecosystem, impacting all the life forms connected to it. As people, we stand in witness of our choices and their consequences. Our society is in the throes of an addiction to oil that does not support life. Let us choose this moment to face the reality of our choices.  It is my sincerest hope that the devastation of this oil spill will be the wake-up call that many need, so that we may move forward in responsibility. That we may walk in beauty, once again.”

Ocean Swimmer

Blood of my body,
waves begin to speak.
Womb of life primordial,
journey to the deep.

Raped in the name of progress,
addicted to your pain,
shadow permeates the surface,
obliterates your name.

We find ourselves at the center,
in the toxic core of choice,
in the heartbeat of our disregard,
will we listen to your voice?

World transforming, dervish whirling,
what we’ve sown is reaped.
Cyclone dancer, chaos swirling,
people in the street.

Changing woman, rainbow woman,
finds perfection in the pattern.
From the arm of the starfish,
to death’s renewing matter.

I share my heart with the fishes,
dead sea turtles on the shore.
Schooled swimmers, now are scattered,
gasping breaths, are nevermore.

From the constellation of my soul,
I share these cleansing tears.
Luminous jewels lost in the ocean,
would, that we all, be made clear.

Ocean Swimmer © Copyright Anna Cariad-Barrett, 2010.
www.annacariadbarrett.com | Storytelling, Artwork & Guided Journeys for Personal and Planetary Wholeness

by Mary Lane
Author of Divine Nourishment: A Woman’s Sacred Journey with Food

Fall is a time nature separates the seeds from the chaff in the plant kingdom, embeds them in her body and has the grand cosmic lovemaking with spirit to consecrate her impregnation. You can see and feel it as the brilliantly colored leaves reveal the sacred merging. It is a time when life and death are merged as one. Nature is supported by the animals, wind and birds to spread her seeds, as she carpets her body with the decaying leaves to give them a warm safe bed for the winter. She protects the seeds of her next generation before she retreats and takes time for herself. She rebuilds her energy in the winter before giving birth in the spring. It is truly a magical time and an honor to witness.

Menopause is a passage into the autumn of our life. It prepares us to take a look at the harvest of our life, separate the wheat from the chaff and distill the wisdom from our journey. Once we have taken the time to go inward and do the work it takes to distill the wisdom it is time to come back out as a wise woman and plant the seeds of our wisdom for the next generation. This is quite a different scenario than we have witnessed in our culture for the last few generations. Women have just gotten old after a difficult menopausal passage and discarded by our society. Their usefulness has been hidden by our lack of awareness of the value of this phase of her life. They have been medicated and have had no idea what this passage is truly about. With so many women from the baby boomer generation going through this passage at this time we can not afford to have a vast amount of women just getting old. We can not afford to not honor and welcome our wise women into society to support the collective transformation we are going through. This generation of menopausal women need to take their rightful place in society. We need them!

Nature has been my teacher for many years. I spent 15 years living in the Hawaiian islands on Maui. It is the newest land on Earth. It energetically embodies the creative, orgasmic sexual energy erupting wave after wave. The fire goddess Pele rules in this part of the world. It was the place I focused on learning what this thing called sexual energy was really about, beyond what I was conditioned with from a culture that has definite issues about it. She taught me well. Just as Pele and the energy of those islands taught me about my sexuality as it is reflected by nature, the mountains of North Carolina are teaching me what it looks like to embrace and embody myself as an elder wise woman – integrated with my sexuality. These are the oldest mountains in the world with deep, wise feminine energy. I am a full time student of this phase of life with the best teacher there is.

What do the two have in common? How does one support the other? And what does it have to do with menopause and Divine Nourishment?

First of all, nourishing ourselves according to the Earth’s wisdom, the embodiment of the fully integrated woman, balanced with her masculine, with no apologies about her oozing infinite creative sexual energy, and wise enough to recycle, is the first step in shifting our self rejection as women and open to our wisdom.

Many women naturally experience a rising of kundalini energy as they approach menopause. Their energy is shifting from being projected outward to attract procreation to inward and movement upward through the chakra system. Some experience this as hot flashes as the energy hits up against blocks. This energy is available to clear out the blockages through the entire chakra system that does not represent the fully authentic, integrated powerful feminine. It scours the system for all conditioning that is not compatible. It is a powerful serpentine energy that is the master of transformation. And it is there for us at this time. When we hang onto the old illusory ideas of who we are as a woman menopause can be a nightmare. When we work with this energy in a conscious way it is a journey into our authenticity which prepares for the phase in life that is intolerant of anything less. It prepares us to take our place with the wisdom that comes from the depths of our soul’s journey. It prepares us to be so grounded in it that we are unshakable. We are no longer under the influence of society’s conditioning. We have the strength and power to tell it like it is as we pass the baton to the next generation laced with deeply earned wisdom.

Is it no wonder that it was necessary to convince women that this passage was quite the opposite of its reality? Can you imagine a generation of women from the baby boomers coming into this phase of their life fully empowered? What an impact it would have on this collective transformation.

Honoring ourselves, shifting the self rejection, nourishing ourselves according the our wisdom reflected from nature and making friends with our sexual energy is important preparation for this most sacred passage.

When we are not grounded in our life, unable to nourish ourselves appropriately the kundalini rising through our bodies can become a dangerous vehicle that can carry us to realms we are not prepared for. It can shred and dismember us in such an unmerciful way we can’t integrate it. It is the most powerful energy in the Universe and should not be taken lightly. Opening to this energy in a way that supports the cleansing of the chakra system and prepares us for our role as wise women without getting blown out of the water is a tricky dance.

Nourishing ourselves according to nature’s wisdom grounds us on this wave of transformation season by season at a manageable voltage. We become acquainted with ourselves, transforming cycle by cycle. We are experienced riders by the time menopause arrives. We can then utilize this serpentine energy as it rises up our spine, seasoned with meeting ourselves and ride the wave through this sacred passage. We can then integrate this transformation, embody it and take our place as the elder with a baton that is worth passing on. There may have never been a time in history that is calling for this more than now. We can do this.

When we have been able to experience this sexual, creative serpent energy moving up through our entire being our relationship with this energy takes on quite a different flavor. It no longer is a localized experienced that ends quite quickly. It connects every cell in our body to the Divine. We can ride this wave, bathing ourselves with life giving energy that weaves together the physical and spiritual existence of our soul. We have been well trained by the wave that moves through the Earth’s body from living and eating seasonally. There is much more to this seasonal lifestyle than meets the eye.

Mary Lane is the author of the ebook “Divine Nourishment / A Woman’s Sacred Journey with Food.” She has many years and credentials as a chef and 5 Element Nutritionist, along with Plant Spirit Medicine. She has a strong background in inner alchemy according to ancient Taoist practices and teachings of Mary Magdelene. She lives a lifestyle that allows her to have a deep connection with the natural world, and considers herself a full time student. Mary weaves this all together offering tools in aligning and grounding ourselves in the wisdom of nature through the doorway of nourishment. She draws upon her life’s journey to offer support and wisdom for women who are reclaiming the Divine Feminine within. For more information, see divinenourishment.net.

Mary & Anyaa are offering a week-long event: The Crone, Kundalini & Creativity April 8th-15th, 2010 at Isis Cove Retreat Center in Western NC.  click here for a full flyer.

Mary & Anyaa will be offering a free women’s circle evening on Tuesday, 7 pm on March 16th and Tuesday, March 30th at The Women’s Health & Wellness Center, 24 Arlington St., Asheville, NC 28801.

Overview of the Evening:

We will gather together to learn from each other in sacred circle, as seasoned women of consciousness. Cronehood is ready to be re-visioned as a time of integration, making whole and birthing a new creativity in alignment with each woman’s own unique soul qualities. The time is ripe for the Crone to take her place on the wheel of life at the Turning of the Ages. We will move, share, journey and overview The Crone, Kundalini & Creativity, a week-long event taking place for the first time here in Western NC. Co-facilitators Anyaa McAndrew and Mary Lane will guide us through a magical evening dedicated to the menopausal woman!

(at the New Moon Solar Eclipse window 1-13-10), by Anyaa T. McAndrew

I’ve been immersed lately in the predictions for 2012, including documentary films, astrological predictions, and channelings.

I also recently I had the pleasure of a week with my Beloved in Tulum, Mexico, where the Mayans left their legacy of the great settlements and their prophetic calendar. It’s clear that we are already well into what my astrology teacher Daniel Giamario has coined The Turning of the Ages. Our reality has accelerated to warp speed vibration while systems and structures are literally collapsing all around us. This morning I heard the news of the Haiti earthquake and fears that as many as 500,000 may have lost their lives. My partner Gary and I have been working with the mortgage banking system for the past 9 months to get a permanent mortgage on the round house we built as our forever home. One thing after another has happened including lost paperwork, lenders closing, and misunderstandings about the value of our home because of its’ unconventional roundness. We have sent out our own prayers, asked for prayers from friends and community, and are now in a surrender mode because there is nothing left to do. We cannot trust anyone or anything but Spirit, and we know we will be taken care of no matter what!

The message to set intention, take action (which means do whatever you can do) and then let go is a huge one for all of us. This upcoming New Moon in Capricorn (tomorrow Thursday Jan 14^th at 11:11 pm PST) is also the first new moon of the year and a solar eclipse. Solar eclipses mark the beginning and ending point of the past and the future. In Vedic astrology, it is the Vedic Winter Solstice and in India it is referred to as “Pongal”.  Spiritually this is the time to overhaul your current self and get ready for a higher self. This festival celebrates leaving behind the old way of doing things, be it relationship, money matters or health habits. This timing is potent for working with the energies of the Great Shift. If you have not set intention yet for the year, here is a ritual you can use that comes from Barbara Hand Clow’s channeling of the Moon in her book The Pleiadian Agenda:

1. Write down 7 things you want to bring into your reality. Think Conscious Abundance, calling in what your soul needs to live out your purpose and give your gifts, rather than what your ego wants to get to feel safe and comfortable.
2. Describe each one as specifically as you can.
3. Now work with each one and visualize 3 different scenarios of it coming to you.
4. In your visualization, leave out specific people as the source, as this can manipulate another’s reality.
5. Tap those scenarios into your medulla oblongata, the chakra at the back of your neck at the top of your spine…tap into that point a magical number of times…you chose!
6. Now put it all away on your altar and check your list every once in awhile to see what has manifested from your list….cross off and add others (to make 7) once you have manifested something!

Yesterday I received a call from a priestess who said her whole life is falling apart from the inside out. My dear friend Star Wolf is ready to launch a huge book tour to promote her book that urges us to wake up in these Shamanic Times and do the work we need to do to get as conscious as we can in the time we have left, however long that is (ShamanicBreathwork.org). Another friend is trusting that although she has no income, she is in the right place at the right time while she channels a book already accepted by a wonderful publisher. I have a small circle of priestesses who are struggling and resisting as they face their time of dying to the old and Emerging as priestesses.  In Cincinnati, 19 women (a lunar cycle number) are signed up for this coming weekend to explore with me the Shamanic Priestess Archetype and Women’s Mysteries. I feel the potency and the power all around me! As I connect every day with my own multi-dimensional selves, I ask to be taken to the next level, whatever that is! My final decree is always: I am willing, I am willing, I am willing, meaning I will use my will to fully participate in this next level, however it looks.

One of the questions I have been reflecting upon is What does it mean to be a priestess NOW? I have answered that question in the past in various ways, yet I find the answer starting to shift with the SHIFT! I realize now that it is no longer sufficient to be the priestess who is the conduit for bringing the Divine Feminine to Earth. It is now time to be the Goddess in all her glory and diversity and radiance. We can no longer assume the position of human woman humbly opening to the Goddess. WE ARE HER, she is HERE, and THERE IS NO MORE WAITING! As it is declared, We are the Ones we have been waiting for. What this means is that each and every woman who chooses to walk the priestess path is now ready to take her place on the wheel of the Great Goddess energy of these auspicious times, to assume her rightful personal and spiritual power in her own way in her own unique world. The diversity of the

Divine Feminine is wide, expansive and colorful. There is no doubt in my mind that every woman who walks in her life and acknowledges the sacred in everyday life has a place as a goddess. It’s now time for each of us to claim it and BE it. One of the ways to BE it, is to align with all of our selves in all dimensions and to realize that the collective of these selves is more than 3-dimensional.

Our planet is moving quickly into a great expansion of dimensions, some say 9-dimensions. We will be wise to acknowledge that our little 3-dimensional selves cannot hold it all!

Another insight I had is that in order to claim this collective multi-dimensional Goddess Self fully, we as women are going to need to step up our personal self-care to the next level. There is no way we can stand in the intensity of vibration that is around and within us if we are not in our bodies fully receiving. Our 3-dimensional physical self is the conscious zone from which we operate, acknowledge and access all the other levels. I have been working with my own self-care issues since I abruptly entered menopause after a uterine hysterectomy 3 years ago. I noticed I did not have the energy to care for myself in the same way as I continued at the same frantic pace of work life and travel. I eventually crashed, and am slowly climbing out of a deep dark hole of fatigue and overwhelm. I am now feeling a renewal of aliveness that has been the result of lots of good boundaries, quiet time, research and new applications of information tailored for a rejuvenating, more centered way of life as a seasoned woman of consciousness.

I am also realizing that I can no longer whine, complain, or play the blame game in my life if I am claiming my multi-dimensional Goddess Self.  I must take responsibility (finally!) for everything I create, and do it in style, with a smile! We no longer have the time or self-indulgent luxury to play the game of blaming each other, gossiping, walking away from commitments because we are afraid, or being intolerant of another person’s perspective on reality. It’s time to clean up our messes, apologize when appropriate, make amends to those we have offended, and finish what we have started so we can move on in expanded consciousness. It’s a time when if we don’t do what we say and say what we will do, and follow through, our lessons come to us many times harder the next time around.

I have found in my own life that I can be critical of the man in my life, and I have recently come to a crossroads with that behavior, understanding that I have an obligation to be loving and kind all the time, not just when I feel like it!

The Initiated Woman is one who walks her talk, has a strong inner masculine who is grounded and accountable and on purpose, and a feminine who is open, loving and radiant.  She is not afraid of looking at her own shadow or claiming her gifts to the world.  She knows she needs sisters to walk with her, and she relies on her sisters to call her out, to gently tell her their truth when necessary,

love her through the inevitable times of pain, struggle and loss. As the Goddess, She honors and speaks her gratitude to all Her blessings, to all living things as we all go through the birth canal of the Great Shift of the Ages together.

Blessed Be and So It Is…….

Love,

Anyaa

From the WInter Solstice Newsletter of Red Moon Herbs by Corinna Wood, Director, Red Moon Herbs & Southeast Wise Women

 Our lives are so full of activities and stimulation of all kinds. It can be hard to focus on the healing and rest we need; yet nothing contributes to health more than nourishing food and SLEEP. I’ve heard it said that 90% of our healing happens during sleep. This is also the place of the dreamtime, where we renew our spirits and create new visions for the future.

Winter Solstice is a time of long nights – deep, dark, and rich for healing. Millennia of our ancestors would be in darkness for 14 hours a night or more. Here are some suggestions for self care during this time:

Excel at the Art of Sleep – Try darkening your bedroom to coincide with the long nights and see how often you can let yourself get 8, 10, or more hours of sleep during this time. You may be surprised how much your body will take if you let it sleep as much as it wants and how restored you will feel as a result.

Reduce Light – Try burning candles at night instead of using electric lights. At the beginning of each winter season, I buy an big box of beeswax candles to burn during dinner and before bed. Beeswax produces negative ions, as do waterfalls and falling rain, which help to relax us. Go a little further, if you’re adventurous, and try nights without computers, videos, or other light producing machines, as it will give your system a break.

Take Baths – Nourish and renew yourself by stepping into a hot steamy bath on a cold winter night! This is one of my favorite healing rituals. Many cultures would never consider a bath without herbs steeping. Put some fresh potherbs directly in the bath – anything like rosemary, thyme, or lavender that might be growing on your windowsill or still alive outside your front door. You can also add dried herbs by putting them in a clean sock and letting them soak in the water. An herbal infusion if you will.

 Retreat – If there’s any way during the holiday busy-ness to create some alone time for reflection and contemplation, take it. Quiet time counteracts the over stimulation of our lives. This has become an annual ritual for me, usually between Christmas and New Year’s. I look forward to this time both to catch up on less vital tasks that have slipped off the radar all year as well as to connect with myself more deeply.

Living on the Blue Ridge of the Southern Appalachian Mountains is a blessing.  Multiply that by the abundance of medicinal herbs that also live here, and what you have is a rich haven for herbalists.  Having survived the advance and retreat of glaciers during the last ice age, the Appalachians, which are some of the oldest mountains in the world, became a botanical treasure.  It is here that I am blessed to study, gather, prepare, and practice herbal medicine.

I have been coming to these Smoky Mountains of North Carolina for as long as I can remember, and living here full time for the last twelve years.  Like me, lots of folks are finding their way to the mountians in search of a saner, healthier lifestyle, and communities in which to raise families and grow old. Unfortunately, more people also means more scars upon the land.  While it is my belief that there is enough for everyone, I also believe that we have a responsibility to future generations to be good stewards of the land that feeds, sustains, and heals us.  For this reason I would like to share my latest harvesting expedition.

Wild Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens,) an attractive shrub, but nowhere near as flamboyant as her cultivar cousins has recently come to my attention as an excellent remedy for inflamed or enlarged prostate.  As a result of this discovery I have been recommending it frequently for men who are experiencing prostate problems. With Wild Hydrangea being native to the Southern Appalachians I was in a perfect position to get to know it more intimately.  Having never harvested Hydrangea before I wasn’t fully confident in my ability to identify it, especially if the flower clusters were no longer present on this shrub that grows between four to six feet tall.  Preferring a personal introduction to this Native plant, which Patricia Kyristi Howell writes about in her book, Medicinal Herbs of the Southern Appalachians, I asked her if she would be willing to take me harvesting, and she obliged.  With summer coming to its close this would be the perfect time to go digging for Hydrangea’s roots.  So on the Full Harvest Moon, my friend and mentor, Patricia, and I, carried a basket and a canvas bag into the North Georgia woods.

Lo and behold, the flower clusters, now somewhat brown and faded, were still clinging to the plant and identifying her was easy.  But she was growing high up the side of an embankment that made getting to her difficult.  Following Patricia’s lead I clamored up the bank, digging my heels into the soft deciduous dirt and began to dig.  This was no easy root to free from its tenacious hold.  I sweated, dug, pulled and cut until I held the most amazing rhizome and wildly branching roots in my hand.  I filled the gaping hole that remained with as much dirt and leaf litter as I could manage and clamored back down.

Looking up at the embankment where I had just been perched it looked like a bear had been digging up there.  I had taken one three Hydrangeas that grew in that spot, knowing the importance of leaving enough to ensure continued propagation.  Then we decided to climb up to the ridge above the embankment to continue our search, and to see if it might be easier to dig from above rather that climbing up from below.  Not far from where I had dug the first Hydrangea I saw another small grouping.  In the end I would dig three roots, but not before I climbed down over the edge of the bank I had previously climbed up.  While hanging off the side I lost my footing with nothing to hold me but my body pressed against the loose, humus rich soil and one hand clinging to this small, but very deep root.  I looked down and realized the slide and tumble to the bottom would not be a fun one.  I turned back to the root that was holding me up and was determined that if I was going down, she was going with me.  So I dug my heels in deeper, freed the root from its tenacious hold, and managed to grab a vine and pull myself up just enough to get one foot in the hole left by the root.  I propelled myself up over the top of the bank and was very grateful that I didn’t crash and burn.

This gave me a deeper appreciation for the roots of plants that hold and support the soil and its microorganisms on steep mountain slopes. My clamoring had left the mountainside unmistakably vulnerable to erosion even though I had done my best to fill in the holes.  We should never underestimate the impact that we have on natural systems when we impose our needs, but always do our best to keep that impact to a minimum and never take it for granted.  I thanked the rich soil beneath my feet and Hydrangea for her medicine root.  Even if I hadn’t been totally spent by this point I knew that three roots was plenty.  It was all I needed.  And this is one of the keys to ethical harvesting; not taking more than we need.

The week prior to this I bought some dried and sifted Hydrangea root from a wholesale distributor so that I could connect with the plant and have enough on hand for making medicine.  But I also know that preparing wild crafted medicines from the area where a person lives is 1000 times more potent energetically than commercially prepared medicines.  These roots that we had gathered would become fresh root tincture, started on the full moon and decanted on the new or dark moon — dark like the earth in which she grew.  The roots would more readily release their medicine and active constituents during this phase of the waning moon.

“So that’s all you need?”  Patricia inquired.  And my response was, “Yes, it is enough.”  I had accomplished what I had come for: to feel, smell and connect with the medicine plant that was serving my clients.  Sometimes healing takes a certain kind of aggressiveness, a willingness to go that extra mile, or climb that mountain as the case may be.  Then Patricia made a very, thoughtful suggestion, “Add a little of the fresh wild root tincture to the commercial dried root tincture.  It will remind her who she is.”  And that this is where she came from.

Thea Summer Deer is a practicing herbalist in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.  Visit her on the web at www.theaskitchen.com or at the Southeast Women’s Herbal Medicine Conference Vendor’s Booth.