Coronation, or the Act of Crowning, with Mullein

When I was dealing with Corona in my lungs a couple months ago, I utilized Mullein in my formula.  I had some already harvested and dried at that time, but decided that I should also harvest some more to have on hand with this respiratory virus going around.  Mullein is heavy this year, as plants seem often want to do when they are needed, showing their perfect timing and immersion in the flow.

While harvesting I began to sing to Mullein about what was going on and why I was harvesting her leaves and then to sing to the virus that was meshing with my body. 

I'm not singer, but I am a long-time student of breath as a mindfulness practice, and the virus had made me short of breath, just doing simple activities like picking Mullein.  This shortness of breath for no real reason* (I wasn't running up a hill - nor did I have a knee on my neck) was a new experience for me (having never had asthma or pneumonia or anything like it) and I felt it important that I try to deep breathe and stay in touch with my lungs.  I think this is why the singing happened, this undeniable connection to breath.  I felt compelled and I obliged. 

The vibrations from singing with what little breath I could take felt healing for my body, just as I feel the cat's healing medicine when they lean against my chest and purr.  I am thankful for the ~sound.~  I sang to the virus as yet another way to connect to this other part of life that was finding its terrain in my body - lyrics of a willingness to hear its song too.  A mutual expression of meeting, of life, of relationship, of learning.

And here, this weekend, Mullein comes to me again in the most majestic form.  Truly a crowning.  <3

Corona is teaching us to look at what we are giving birth to; various things are coming to term that have long been in the works, but we still have choices to make as to have they are received and what we do with what is born unto us.

Also, I wanted to share my formulary for those who know the herbs well enough by sight.  I do not want to simply share a list of the herbs I utilized to get through the acute stages as they may not be the right ones for you.  There is not a one size fits all answer in Herbalism as the body that a pathogen engages plays a role in how the pathogen manifests - and even if it manifests at all.  This means that herbs are utilized for the specific body that has symptoms and what those symptoms are; Herbalism is not a 'take this for that' modality.  So my formula for Corona may not be your formula for Corona and you do not want to make yourself worse; so please consult with a qualified practitioner if you are wanting to utilize herbs for Corona.  But for those who know the herbs and understand differential diagnosis, I will share pictures for you to see what I utilized, and feel free to talk to me privately.

Mullein, Raspberry Leaf, and Boneset were infused with the decoction below.

Many of you will recognize fresh sliced Ginger root and dried Citrus peel; these support digestion among other things.  This is the formula I used at the peak of acuity with Corona when I felt I was going toward cytokine storm territory.  Severe lung pain that had began at the bottom and worked its way up to feel it was encompassing them, wracking "bone" pain, could hardly take a breath, headache, strange heartbeat, severe fatigue, runny nose, sore throat, neck pain.  I noticed immediate results from the formula.  I had been on a different formula leading up to this point, and after peaking and feeling "better" I moved to formulas more nourishing and recovery oriented. 
I am still doing this now, but seem to have been left with a strange, but not severe, "achiness" in my whole body and strange pains I am not used to along with hands or fingers going to sleep for no reason.  I am working to alleviate this, focusing on Blood.  I no longer have the list of symptoms I had before, all that is cleared up except I still have fatigue, though it's nowhere near what it was.

Black Cats, Super Novas, and Flux

The Road before me
tree-lined, meadow-flanked
and upheld by blue mountains
that shift and fade
to blue sky.

My Mind before me
expansive as sky
clouds roll by
I watch
Truth beheld intermingling,

twinkling like pinpoints
of starlight exposed.
Sky goes dark
then one can see 
what could not be seen in daylight.

It alludes, best seen
when not looking directly
simply being
shows it all,
gives it all.

Like the mountain I sit, though moving.

The Universe casts her spell 
upon me
Knows Herself through me
holds opposites at one time.

The convoluted truth touches our skin
but briefly 
and is gone.
Transfigured.
A black cat in the night
eyes twinkling.

Gail Force: The Irrefutable Invitation

The call
The caw
It issued forth
          from the Crow's mouth
          but it was prayer
               on my lips.
It pierced the morning
          separating night from day.
I clung to its echoes
     the way a bird clings
     to a ferocious wind
          no choice
     as it cleaves its space from the air. 
          Slicing the indivisible
               the way a moment
               slices future from past
     yet changes in each instant
     always different, always the same.

I knew the day'd be bright
     whether or not the sun shone
for I'd spent my ~time~
     in the blackness of that night. 

 

Nature's Stunning Abstracts - Masterpiece "Paintings"

 

"Each man’s necessary path, though as obscure and apparently uneventful as that of a beetle in the grass, is the way to the deepest joys he is susceptible of; though he converses only with moles and fungi and disgraces his relatives, it is no matter if he knows what is steel to his flint."

  -Thoreau journal entry; excerpted in Thoreau and the Art of Life

 

 

"The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention."
 - Julia Margaret Cameron

 

 

“The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, 

for I have seen the shadow on the moon, 

and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church”

- Ferdinand Magellan

 

"Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand." 

-Thoreau journal entry; excerpted in Thoreau and the Art of Life

  

 

"Life is much too important to be taken seriously."

 - Oscar Wilde

  

"Between the banks of pain and pleasure the river of life flows."

 - Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - 

the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science"

 - Albert Einstein from Living Philosophies

 

 

"One is never so strong as when one is broken."

 - Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

 

 

"Hand over the controls to the universe and go along for the ride. 

When you're a passenger, 

you can appreciate all the beautiful scenery that you might otherwise miss."

Author unknown

Spring Splendor - A Photo Journal of Beltane's Delight

Helleborus

Wild and feral edibles picked for an omelette, clockwise spiral to center starting from white flower:  Garlic Mustard,  Dandelion, Plantain, Arugula, Sarsaparilla, Violets, Cleavers, Japanese Knotweed, Mustard flowers, Monarda, Trout Lily, Quince flower, Purple Dead Nettle, Clover.

 

True Superfoods - local and fresh!

  

Corvid with a new batch of bees in orientation flight.

 Coming in for a landing:

Pollen-laden

The bees have been loving this Arugula that over-winterd in a cold frame and burst into bloom some weeks ago.  In the background is L'Atelier, the art studio, and where Mathieu makes guitars, overseen by two of my hives:  Stella and Ariadne.  To the right is a Fig in a pot that gets brought in over winter, and a Grape on trellis.  THIS has my Heart.  <3

 

The Mason bees have been very active; I love watching them, so docile and yet judicious.

At work:  Mathieu and I with the fragrant native Woodland Phlox at a landscape client's.

And Luck of Luck!  Found some tasty dinner when I wasn't even purposefully hunting!  My friend Abby and I were just taking a jaunt in the woods...and lo and behold.

Then we lay in the grass in the sun for a different type of nourishment.

 Make a wish!

 

 

 Yesterday's and Today's on the forest floor

 Can you say Dazzle?

Morning Majesty

One of my favorite creatures, seen on my morning walk. 

Vultures sun themselves in the morning to dry the dew off their wings so they lose the weight of water for better flying, and what they do so well, gliding. Their gliding gives us a vision of the wind as they ride the thermals. Majestic!  

Plus they make life from death! - the mushrooms of the animal world.  And they keep the place clean and the cycle going.  <3

"Wisdom tells me I am nothing,

love tells me I am everything,

between the two my life flows."

- Nisargadatta

'Cheshire Kaleidoscope' - a new bio pic / meta-collage!

I wanted to create an avatar pic that represents lots of the things I am into; I managed to incorporate art, gardening, belly dance, herbalism, and beekeeping (and maybe even spirit!) in this meta-collage...

'Cheshire Kaleidoscope'

...and while we're at it, some stimulating reading material (one can never have too much of that!) and lastly, a video that is the Yang to this winter's Yin....

“If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death
Perhaps the world can teach us
as when everything seems dead
but later proves to be alive.”
- Pablo Neruda

 

“He who has rejected his demons badgers us to death with his angels”
  -Henri Michaux

 

"When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego
and when we escape like squirrels turning in the cages of our personality
and get into the forests again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright
but things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves.
Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power.
We shall stamp our feet with new power and old things will fall down,
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper."
  - D.H.Lawrence

 

 “Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” 

 -​ ​Louise Erdrich, '​The Painted Drum​'​

This video was taken at the height of summer's growth and watching it now in the depth of winter's rest really showcases...
"...when everything seems dead
but later proves to be alive.” 

Iacinct

~



In the Wilderness of my Solitude

    I knew everything I needed to know        without knowing anything
                                            this knowing pervades my moment:


    spiderwebs of time beat upon my shores with their embryonic embrace
   
    sinews of edification breed                                 hope and despair dance


    I bow to the Earth and her straightaway brimstone, tacit as a Dandelion

    behooved to catapult
        this numinous inkling
            of meta-oblation fractalling
                                                      touch the truth

Standing in the sun,     willing to burn away,         while others bask in frivolity
Wit clamors to take precedent,
    all the while words struggle to make it back from their pilgrimage
                                     heavy with the weight of the unspeakable firmament

The mountains are walking, but most two-leggeds are apathetic about their ignorance,
wingless,
                                                                                           driven by the machine…
                                                      the truth touches you

                            do you see?

"There's no sauce in the world like hunger." - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra


~