Mandrake! (New Two-Color Screen Print)

 


(for sale at Etsy)

October Art

Sub Rosa

 

For an herbal anthology from Copper Cauldron publishing.

Belladonna

Journaling

Have you ever tried journaling on a regular basis? It is one of the most amazing experiments I have ever done, and I still practice it when I can.

I first learned about daily journaling from the book The Artist's Way. Author Julia Cameron suggests writing three pages of stream-of-consciousness text every morning. A few years ago I tried her program, including the journaling, and the results were really amazing. I felt inspired to act on the ideas I wrote about, and I was able to work through some personal issues just by writing about them again and again. I felt less blocked, freer, and happier. Most surprisingly, I noticed a startling jump in synchronicity in my life. Things that I would write about again and again started to resolve themselves in ways that felt totally magical. That was the first real experience of synchronicity in my life, and an important milestone in my personal development and work.

Recently I've encountered the concept again. I'm taking an online course with Christopher Penczak, author of the Temple of Witchcraft books, and writing daily pages is one of the first magical exercises he suggests. Learning that he advocates this practice (which he says was also inspired by The Artist's Way, as well as the tradition of occultjournaling) really helped to convince me that I'm on the right path with this.

Personally, I haven't journaled regularly in years, although I do go back to it sometimes when I feel things I'm not fully facing up to start bumping around in the back of my head. Someone in my class suggested the website 750 words, and it's impressive enough that I just mightget started again. On this website, you can get a running word count and daily progress statistics as you write, but your words themselves are completely private and practically ephemeral. Since I type fast, it's also a little quicker than long-hand.

Interested in trying journaling yourself? I agree with most of Julia Cameron's recommendations: at least three pages or twenty minutes (or 750 words) per day, every day, for at least three months to see how profound the effects can really be.

It can be tempting to skip or skimp, but it's doing the practice regularly that helps get to anything you might be trying to avoid. Which sounds kind of terrible, when you put it that way...but I really recommend trying it for yourself.

Memetic Hexerei (aka Chain Letters)

I've been thinking about American magical traditions a lot recently. In witchcraft it's pretty hard to avoid a strong association with the British Isles (everything from Arthur and Avalon to traditional Wicca), and Germanic and Norse folk practices may well be the second most common source. 

European witchcraft traditions have been evolving in America for centuries, though...for example, the Pennsylvania Dutch magical system called hexerei or pow-wow. My background is British, German, and in particular Pennsylvannia Dutch (which, by the way, actually means German in this case. Also, here I am still in Pittsburgh), so this is all pretty relevant for me personally.

Anyway, I remembered learning something about hex signs as a kid, so I was looking into that a little more deeply when I came across this completely random thing: the picture above is called a "himmelsbrief", literally "heaven's letter". Apparently this is a centuries-old German and German-American tradition in which letters supposedly written by God are carried around as protective talismans. 

The really funny thing is the memetic structures these letters contain. Most of the text concerns the specific blessings bestowed upon the bearer of the letter, and encourages the reader to make their own copy. It's a chain letter from God! According to the chain letter evolution archive, modern chain letters descend circuitously from this practice.

Memetically, it's brilliant. Letters are easy to replicate, so when you give people the motivation to do so, you can end up with an exponential explosion of information (or postcards, or even money, as later innovators realized). Offer a superstitious carrot and stick, for example, and you're in business. When you think about throwing the super-speed copying and memetic sharing medium of the internet into the mix, the possibilities are staggering.

(Himmelsbriefe also remind me of this amazing piece of junk mail. God sure sends some weird letters.)

The Other Nine Best Things I've Learned

Erica took the bait in my last post and asked, "By the way, what ARE the best things you've learned?" Here are the additional top ten that come to mind, in no particular order (and I'll try to keep them quick). Looking over the list, most of it boils down to trusting myself, I think.

1. Well, yes, do follow synchronicity. When strange coincidences start to come into your life, particularly around certain topics, try to follow them and see where they lead. When you get interested in something new and the very next day you meet someone who can teach you more about it, take them up on that. And so on. Mostly, really amazing stuff seems to happen when I do this.

2. Journaling really helps. When the synchronicity and the creativity aren't flowing, especially, or when I'm feeling out of sorts. I learned this practice from the wonderful book The Artist's Way, and it is my absolute top self-help and/or mystical recommendation to pretty much anyone. The method suggested is to write stream-of-consciousness style about absolutely anything for twenty minutes every day. I am consistently blown away by how much less blocked I feel when I stick to this habit.

3. People in positions of authority aren't necessarily right. I've found there is a huge difference between knowing this in theory and knowing it in practice. It applies to doctors, academics, and politicians, among others. It also applies to other hyper-confident individuals with aggressive styles of communication, including particularly those who use "conventional wisdom" to back up their claims.

4. You can make art if you want to. I've really come to believe that intrinsic talent is overrated. Sure, it exists, but I'll take desire and practice over that stuff any day. If you really follow your own instincts creatively, you're not guaranteed any recognition, but you're fairly certain to impress yourself eventually.

5. Nobody will make sure you get what you deserve, but you still deserve to be happy. For me, struggling with sexism has been a real challenge in my life. I'm still a passionate feminist, and I think raising consciousness about various types of privilege is incredibly important. But, we can't wait until all that is fixed to be happy. And to be happy, we have to do the things we want to, regardless of how hard they are or how they are likely to be received. Nobody else can do this for us.

6. Freedom is an action, not a reaction. I've spent more time than I would like rebelling (subconsciously) against things I don't feel I should have to do. For example, I don't have to be employed, clean my house, or have a spiritual life just because society thinks I should. I'm glad that I really really know and believe that at this point. But I'm also glad that I've realized I can do these things for myself, and can appreciate the results of my effort.

7. Everybody just wants to be happy. This is an important principle of Mahayana Buddhism, and one I've spent a lot of time thinking about. Parenting has also really impressed me with the truth of this saying. No one sets out to be a bad or disliked person, some people just never learn how to deal with their problems constructively, or for whatever reason can't bring themselves to do so. This doesn't mean I let people "get away with" anything they want to do, but it does mean that I judge others a lot less than I used to. And when that attitude comes naturally to me, I tend to feel happier.

8. There are other ways to parent. Personally, I'm incredibly glad that I know about unschooling and unconditional parenting.

9. Just because it works for me, doesn't mean it works for everyone. I tried to keep these concepts pretty general, because more specific things are hardly universal. Just because I suddenly become obsessed with yoga, for example, doesn't mean that other people should do the same. Except for journaling, of course. Everybody should do that.

Happiness Is

Someone who'd read some of my online content recently looked me up and emailed to ask about my secrets of happiness. That was pretty cool, and besides being a great compliment, it really made me think. Having thus thunk, I figured I'd make a real post out of the stuff I came up with:

1. Happiness is my goal. According to Mahayana Buddhism, being happy is everybody's goal all the time, but some people seem to do a pretty good job of ignoring it. I like to do things that make me happy (even if they seem unconventional, silly, or hard), like traveling the world, making art, learning to do new things, and so on. I think it's great to be altruistic and help others, but only if it makes you happy. If I can't think of anything I really want to do, I try to do different stuff anyway, and eventually I come across something else I really enjoy.

2. I make a point of liking myself. This hasn't always come to me easily, but I think it's important. My best tip is to make an internal truce - you're stuck with yourself, so you might as well stop any negative internal dialogue as well as you can. For me, that was enough to really help over time.

3. I believe in authentic relationships. I really love my partner and kids. I wouldn't necessarily recommend these things to others who aren't deeply motivated in the same direction, but I do have a few important principles that really work for me in this area.

James and I are both deeply committed to our partnership. We also try to support each other unconditionally. We even have a rule that we automatically have to tell each other anything we feel uncomfortable sharing. It's nice to feel like someone really has your back no matter what. Of course, I did really luck out in the partner department, but I also went out of my way to make sure I could be a good partner, to meet interesting people, and to make sure we were really compatible in the early stages of our relationship.

As far as the kids go, I'm a firm believer in unconditional parenting and unschooling. For me, these principles have been amazing in developing a positive relationship with my kids. (Well, with my son, mostly. So far attachment parenting is pretty much doing it for my two-month-old daughter.)

In the friends department, I know I could stand to develop some more skills, but I do know that I like to have friends who are honest, adventurous, and not too easily phased. One habit that works wonders for me in almost any relationship is nonviolent communication (this is by far the most useful thing that I ever learned in school, and another way that I really lucked out).

4. I try to have healthy habits. Not always, of course, because I like to experiment and have fun, too. But I generally find that any ongoing moodiness, anxiety, or existential angst that occurs from time to time can be lessened dramatically with healthy eating, exercise, sufficient sleep and relaxation and a generous amount of time outdoors. I'm all for philosophical inquiry, but only if it's actually fun.

5. I have a lot of faith in the universe. Not that I won't get hit by a bus tomorrow, but that in general even when bad things happen they have a silver lining, and when certain opportunities disappear, others tend to open up. I do find that a spiritual practice helps to develop this type of faith over time. Personally I really enjoy Christopher Penczak's Temple of Witchcraft series of books on this topic, but, well, that's six dense books about traditional witchcraft, and I realize that's not everyone's cup of nightshade tea. For beginners who'd like to try out something down-to-earth, digestible, and non-dogmatic, I'd highly recommend the book The Four Agreements, or maybe Hardcore Zen if that sounds more up your alley.

Those five general principles do wonders for me in the happiness department. Of course, I'm also happy because my life is pretty awesome. What are your secrets to happiness?

Dreams, Visions, Art and Words

I'm thinking about getting some business cards printed for my illustration venture, and it's suggested that you put a few memorable words on them - an evocative business name or slogan, for example.

Also, I need a niche. My niche, as I regard it myself, could be loosely described as visionary or shamanic illustration. It's unclear whether this is most suitable for children's books, sci-fi, clip art, or what, but hey, a niche is a niche. I just need something to say about it. What I want is to describe this niche catchily without using the words above, since calling yourself a visionary artist can sound pretty pompous if you're not Alex Grey, and calling yourself a shamanic anything can fall somewhere on the goofy/offensive continuum if you don't work within a Siberian tradition (or, especially, any indigenous tradition at all). There are lots of people who do what I do, in a general sort of way, but there aren't any good words for it that I know (and of course, The Ink Witch is taken).

This tarot card is not my illustration; it's from the Druidcraft Tarot, which I love. I pulled this card today, and it seemed very apropos, from the seasonal holly and ivy (I'm still feeling fairly solsticey, especially in the throes of the current snow-fest) to the various interpretations. From the book:

Finding this card in your reading might suggest that you have heard the call of your vocation, your mission in life, the spiritual path you are seeking, or simply a new direction you need to take. It is a call to change and renewal - to rebirth into a life that is more fully your own and more fully at one with existence. Finding this card usually indicates that the process of change has already begun...

 I'll take that. There are a few major events in my life that this could apply to, and with any luck the changes will also involve thinking of a clever slogan.

The Four Principles of Highly Lucky People

I read a really interesting article about luck the other day, and unfortunately I can't find the exact article now, because I was hoping to reference it. Anyway, psychologist Richard Wiseman recently completed a study of people who described themselves as lucky or unlucky, with some interesting findings.

Apparently his study found that lucky people tend to do four things in particular. They're not too surprising, but it's interesting to see them laid out this simply:

1. Remain open to opportunity rather than focusing tightly on current goals. In an interesting bit of the study, "unlucky" participants asked to count photos in a newspaper completely failed to notice large messages telling them to quit the task and that they had won money...while "lucky" participants tended to do the opposite. Apparently, believing that you are a lucky person may actually contribute to this ability to notice unexpected opportunities.

2. Listen to your intuition or gut feelings. People who value their hunches even when they go against their rational interpretation of the facts tend to have "luckier" outcomes.

3. Deliberately expose yourself to new situations and information, even randomly, rather than sticking to a simple routine.

4. See the good side of whatever actually happens.

While there is an obvious potential for observational bias, the study also found that the "lucky" participants measured objectively differently in certain common goal areas such as relationships and careers. Luckily for all of us, these factors can apparently be learned and taught. I'm pretty happy to think about these four ideas for a while, but apparently this guy wrote a book and a website if you want to learn more.

The Teachings of Don Juan (Any Path With Heart)

I haven't read much Castaneda, but I came across this quote recently and haven't been able to get it out of my head:

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length.

 When I looked that up, I found this interesting extended passage:

Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.

This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.

 Really well put, I think. If I end up reading the book, I'll report back on the rest of it.

US Out of Pittsburgh

I wasn't planning on going to any G20 protests. It's not that I approve of the G20, but protests generally end up being mostly symbolic regardless of the intention, and often I'm not even convinced that the symbol is an effective one. Actually, I read some kind of surprising comments on the subject in the Huffington Post today:

President Obama, in an interview with the Toledo Blade, cautions would-be protesters of the upcoming G20 Summit that while such protests are "are a sign of a healthy democracy," they're not likely to have much of a net impact:

"I was always a big believer in - when I was doing organizing before I went to law school - that focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people's lives is what really makes a difference and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, is not really going to make much of a difference."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/21/obama-calls-g-20-protests_n_293620.html

Much as I hate to admit it, that's pretty much how I've been feeling too, and the sentiment that I've been getting from many of my friends. Actually, it reminds me of something I was told in the context of Navajo sweat lodge ceremony once: that praying for things like world peace is too vague to make much of a difference, and it's better to pray for, say, someone you know who's struggling somehow. (It would be nice if Obama would maybe follow his own advice a bit more, but that's sort of a different subject.) As an idea, it makes a lot of sense to me. Sometimes it doesn't seem like enough, but it's pretty much all I can do at the moment.

Anyway, I wasn't planning on going to anything until I found out about the anarcha-feminist hula hooping event shown in the photo above. That meme collision was too much for me to resist, and besides it was billed as a safe, non-confrontational demonstration, which is pretty much all I can get into these days, being all unarrestable 'n'at... Unfortunately it was only about ten hoopers (almost all from out of town) who actually did seem pretty confrontational, but they get lots of points for effort and creativity from me.

Overall I feel kind of jaded about the whole process, but I was happy that I got out at least once to support people who are making an effort (and in many cases, taking significant personal risks) to stand up for the things that they (and I) believe in. And I got a chance to hoop a little, which is kind of hard in our apartment.

Endless Amusement on the Internet

A couple of days after I went on my internet diet, I discovered The Daily Grail (Science, Magic, Myth and History). Boy, was that bad timing. Almost every day they post a truly amazing number of links to bizarre and fascinating stories. For example, today you can read about yeti, UFOs, the hubble telescope, wind turbines, the worst places in the world and much more. The links are always pretty high quality, and the range of subjects is awesome. Well, if you're me anyway. Actually, it was kind of like someone was reading the internet for me.

I've also been really into podcasts, especially since I can listen to them when I'm hanging out alone at home with River. Did you know that you can download any episode ever of This American Life? Free Culinary School is pretty interesting, too, if you want to brush up your cooking skills. I'd love to find some more interesting podcasts if anybody has any suggestions.

Mama-Centric

A few months ago, when I was still writing a lot, I stumbled onto some interesting marketing exercises on the web. (Really, since I've been writing professionally, I've learned that content writing and online marketing are far more closely intertwined than I ever realized in my previous life, and at this point I know an amount about marketing that might shock some of my more delicate readers.)

Anyway, there's this major concept in online marketing in particular that it's very important for your "brand" to have a personality. If possible, this personality should appear to be warm, interesting, competent, hip, and extremely approachable, but most importantly it should strike people as "real". Of course, the easiest way around this challenge for most people is to use their own personality, brush it up a little for the internet spotlight, and use it to popularize and put a face on whatever they are selling (or, in some cases, "selling".)

More specifically, this personality-based brand forms the core of your business plan, and eventually gets surrounded by diverse products or services. So, if you're into ecology, you start a blog and develop a web presence about how much you love nature, complete with endearing personal quirks, multi-media and lots of interactive elements, and then once you get lots of fans you can write an e-book, sell advertising on your blog, host nature walks in your area, or whatever. You want to simplify your core message, then diversify your product line.

Which all sounds horribly cynical, but might or might not be depending on how you approach it. Yes, sure, if your goal is just to fool people into giving you as much money as possible, it's not that great. Interestingly, though, it's such a high-level meta-process that it overlaps with real life in several interesting ways. For example, you don't have to pretend that you're perfect. On the contrary, readers tend to identify best with people who seem open and honest about their personal peccadilloes. Also interestingly, the writer of the blog I was reading suggested that anyone could benefit from considering and refining their "brand" image, regardless of whether they were trying to sell anything, as a way to consider how they might be perceived by others.

It's got its strengths and weaknesses as a self-help technique, but a few months ago James and I decided to try it, with interesting results. We spent most of a day in the park, sketching on big paper and talking about how our different life goals fit together and where they connected. On this particular day, James decided that his goals connected through the concept of "art," and I felt that mine came together around the idea of "magic".

Which of course are big, loaded words, especially "magic". I'll admit to a fair bit of dabbling in the occult, an interest that seems to wax and wane mysteriously over time, and that's definitely related to my interest. But really, centrally, what I meant is much simpler than that. I didn't get around to writing a concise mission statement, but if I had there would have been something in there about reminding people that there are almost always more options than we see, that experts don't have all the answers, that positive or negative expectations often amount to self-fulfilling prophecies, and that there are so many possible sources of wonder in the world that no one person could ever exhaust them all. Magic.

So that made a lot of sense a few months ago, and I was going with that for a while. It was an interesting way to think about life, and it got me out of a slightly dreary rut. But then one day it struck me -- what about parenting? It's not that I ever forget about being a mom, but sometimes I forget, somehow, how fundamentally the experience has transformed my life. On a day to day basis, mama-centric considerations certainly take up a great deal of my time. And then, there are the bigger things. Very little in my life has been as fundamentally perspective changing, joyful, and yes, magical, as my experience of parenting so far. In fact, the only things that really compare at all have been falling in love and to some extent, other experiences of relationship.

It hurts parts of my brain to realize that parenting has, just possibly, become so central to my personal identity. Especially in recent months, while James has been working more and I've been working less, I've had to rethink a lot. I'm certainly not complaining. James seems to be enjoying his current success as a DJ and even the things he is learning in his construction work (which will come in handy if we get around to building a house some day) while I've struggled more and more with the realities of writing a lot of stuff that basically amounts to ad copy, while simultaneously wishing that people would stop consuming so much. On the other hand, I've been having a great time with River (so far two isn't terrible at all), and as James pointed out it will certainly be hard for me to work for a while after the baby is born, since if it takes after River at all I'll be spending most of my time nursing. So, I'm mostly a SAHM again.

I guess I'm lucky in that I don't feel this is an anti-feminist position to be in, and so far I haven't gotten much criticism for it (I've certainly heard about plenty of women who do). I feel that raising children is a great use of one's time, energy and talents, and that it is certainly hard work. I also feel that it's incredibly rewarding and fun, and for the most part, way more interesting than going to most types of work I can imagine. I actually know a lot of feminist moms who are in similar situations and agree with me, and while I'm glad that we didn't wait to have River until we could afford to work less, I'm glad that we can afford to now.

What surprises me a little, though, is that I don't know many families with stay at home dads. I wonder, do men just tend to like their careers more than women do? Or do they still feel more pressure to support their families? If educated women can feel lucky to stay home with their kids, why don't more men want to do it? If both parents want to stay home, why is it almost always the woman who ends up doing so? This is a real conundrum for me. If our baby is a girl, I certainly want her to grow up realizing that she has many possible adult roles other than becoming a SAHM. But on the other hand, I certainly don't want River to learn that if he wants to be a father some day, it will have to mean leaving his kids for someone else to care for while he works long hours to support them.

Of course, in our case, our employment situation is as fluid as ever. I'm still really interested in becoming an illustrator or possibly going into holistic health care eventually, but both of those projects would require a lot of initial investment in time and money that we just don't have right now. And James is doing the work that he does in part because it pays well and allows us all to spend plenty of time together too.

(I guess that was a little disjointed and inconclusive, but these things have been bumping around in my head recently.)

Hello

Hi again, to anybody who still checks up on me here!

It seems like the summer is flying by. River turned two in July (with relatively little fanfare, a moderate amount of ice cream, and lots of gleeful jumping around). James has continued to have a lot of work success, with his new contracting business and his DJing, and I've mostly still been hanging out with River and trying to stay alive. I've definitely been exhausted and kind of sick a lot, which I'm hoping will improve over the next couple of weeks. I really intend to appreciate the relative ease of the second trimester more than I did the first time around.

Following a huge wave of synchronicity and inspiration this spring, the summer has felt a little stagnant to me, like it's hard to get excited about much. I'm chalking this up partly to exhaustion, and partly just to some sort of mysterious natural rhythms. This has happened to me enough times that I'm now pretty certain that one day the clouds will just part and inspiration will strike again, and in the meantime I'm not worrying about it too much and am just trying to appreciate where I am right now.

Speaking of where I am, there have been some interesting developments on the relocation front. Basically, we're becoming increasingly certain that we'd like to stay in the general Pittsburgh area, but in a more natural setting. We're looking into an area called Millvale at the moment, which is relatively close to our current location, relatively cheap and safe, and completely surrounded by forest. In the longer term, we've learned of a property of about 300 acres, an hour outside the city for a really reasonable price, which some friends are already looking into purchasing as a group. This is a legally and logistically complicated option, but one we might be very excited about in a few years.

In the meantime, we've got lots of stuff on the horizon. James and I are both participating in the Visionary Arts Festival in early August, for which I feel horrendously unprepared. I've been looking back slightly to how energized and excited I felt about throwing together an art show when River was a few months old, and wondering wasn't I more tired and more busy then than I am now? Of course I was, but right now I just mostly feel uninspired. Oh well. I've got a couple of huge geometrical drawings in the works, and I'm planning to finish them both this week. The show will go however it goes, and at least I'll be there with my work, such as it is. Then, we'll be traveling and visiting family for a few weeks.

In September, the G20 conference will be taking place in Pittsburgh, which is a huge quagmire that probably deserves its own post. After that, who knows? I've got about four free months to fill with interesting activities, so hopefully I can schedule my next epiphany to strike around then.

other potential future blog posts in the works (possibly soon):
river's tooth fiasco (don't worry, it's under control)
unschooling/free school
more on inspiration and art
blog changes
birth stuff
food posts
photos

Ayurveda Addendum - Vedic Hymn to Plants

Also, I just thought this Veda excerpt was pretty awesome:

Plants, which as receptacles of light were born three ages before the gods, I honor your myriad colors and your seven hundred natures.

A hundred, oh mothers, are your natures, and a thousand are your growths. May you of a hundred powers make whole that which has been hurt.

Plants, as mothers and goddesses, I address you. May I gain energy, light, and sustenance, you who are a conscious being...

If I were looking for something to chant in Sanskrit, this would be highly satisfactory.

AYURVEDA

Ayurveda - it's interesting.

It's a complicated system of holistic healing described in the Vedas (the holy books of Hinduism) at least 3500 years ago, and at the same time it's a living system which is very popular in modern India, and increasingly popular in other parts of the world.

At first I found all the rules and correspondences off-putting. There are certainly a lot of facts, from complicated systems for classifying the patient's fundamental type, specific ailment, and situation, to treatments that vary according to everything from the individual to the season, and even the astrological situation.

I'm not, as I've mentioned, a big fan of astrology (hey, you have to draw the wonk line somewhere), so this last in particular is hard for me to swallow. Plus, a casual overview of the system might suggest that it's more about annoying rules than anything else (my first encounter with Ayurveda was in a yoga instruction book, which told all yogis to eat a vegetarian diet consisting mostly of beans and rice with no garlic, onions, or spices. I certainly wasn't feeling it at the time, and am still pretty unexcited about the prospect).

And yet, there's something about the system that's so fundamentally appealing to me. A new book that I'm reading on the subject (it's a very good book, so far), helped me pin it down:

Today Ayurveda, in yet another stage of development, is reaching out to the Western world and addressing modern conditions. Ayurveda is part of a new movement towards a global medicine that includes the best in the medicines of all lands. A new natural planetary medicine is emerging, largely through an examination of traditional medicines of native peoples throughout the world.

Ayurveda is probably the best place of synthesis for such a global medicine. It contains perhaps the broadest number of healing modalities. It retains much of the language of alchemy, which was a global medical and spiritual tradition in ancient times. The medicine of India has much in common with older Chinese and European traditions, and can serve as a point of integration between them. The medicine necessary to heal the planet and usher in a new age of world unity is already contained in this, perhaps the oldest of all healing systems.

Well, that's definitely a lot of it, anyway. The Ayurvedic system is a vast storehouse of knowledge and techniques. For example, according to another interesting book on alternative medicine, Ayurvedic practitioners have been aware of the concept of germs and antibiotics for centuries, but do not believe that fighting germs without restoring balance in the system is sustainable, a viewpoint that conventional medicine is just starting to come around to. The range of therapies used within Ayurveda is also incredibly broad, including diet, yoga poses, meditation, lifestyle changes, breathing exercises, spiritual counseling, chanting, ritual, herbal medicines, homeopathy, aromatherapy, massage, sweating, fasting, and in the past, even accupuncture, accupressure, surgery and bloodletting. This wealth of knowledge really excites me because it seems that the more methods of treatment we understand and have at our disposal, the more appropriate choices we have in any given situation. Even better, these treatments tend to be appropriate technologies, unlike most conventional medicines. (I should mention, as a sort of side-note, that Chinese medicine and certain Central American traditions also seem to be extremely deep, ancient, and effective, but neither is currently as accessible to an American audience, i.e. me).

Also, the more I've learned about Ayurveda, the more it has actually seemed like a very compassionate system. Sure, there are lots of rules and guidelines, but I get the impression that a lot of it comes down in the end to the intuition of the practitioner, just like any other system. The actual teachers of Ayurveda that I've encountered have been some of the most compassionate Hindu teachers I've come accross, advocating, for example, the values of love and sensual enjoyment within a healthy life (unlike our yoga teacher training leader, who tried to tell us that loving somebody means you hate somebody else!). It also seems that there are some great living masters doing good Ayurvedic work in the Western world today, for example Maya Tiwari's Mother Om Mission, which works to bring Ayurvedic healing to disenfranchised communities.

Still, the Indian context is my biggest ongoing qualm with my own involvement in Ayurveda. I'm deeply fascinated by world religions, but I've generally found the Hindu gods, stories, and symbols too alien to my own context to have much emotional and, I suspect, spiritual impact for me. Plus, the tastes and smells of the plants are unfamiliar, and they're not native to my environment. Ideally I would love to work in a system as deep and rich as Ayurveda, but one where I could chant to Freya and work with garden weeds if I want (I'm curious about this book, which seems to include Western herbs from an Ayurvedic perspective) instead of trying to wrap my brain further around Saraswati, Ashwaganda, and so on. I'm not sure if this is possible, but I'm definitely curious enough to learn more.

Imbolc/Candlemas Photos

It's nice to think that the winter is half over and the light is starting to come back already, because I've been feeling a bit stir-crazy recently. I found this old Candlemas rhyme that says "If Candlemas day be fair and bright, winter will have another flight; If on Candlemas day be shower and rain, winter is gone and will not come again." Kinda like the groundhog... Unfortunately, it was a beautiful day.

Anway, we had fun hiking in the snow, making candles, cutting paper, and eating a lot. I especially liked doing the dip candles, which I'd never done before -- they went surprisingly quickly and were no trouble at all. James made a delicious dinner, with turkey bacon-wrapped chicken breasts, sheep cheese, asparagus and mushrooms, and an apple white chocolate streusel cake. Yumm, holidays.

New Anima Websites

The Anima center recently unveiled an amazing new website.

This is the place where I am studying (by correspondence course) something that could roughly be described as shamanic herbalism.

I was a bit skeptical at first about what a general correspondence course in healing could offer me, since I've been a pretty serious independent student of these subjects for a while, but those concerns were quickly put to rest.

The Anima center is a wilderness preserve, retreat, and ancient ceremonial site of the Mogollon people, in rural New Mexico. The folks there are extremely dedicated, helpful, and knowledgeable, and I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to pursue alternative healing studies from an intuitive and nature-based perspective.

The fact that they offer correspondence courses and a sliding scale, which made it possible for me to actually study there, were kind of just icing on the cake. And as for the new web sites, they're great, with tons of information on their teachings. The sites are The Medicine Woman Tradition and Anima, which focuses on similar teachings from a slightly different angle.

I Need a Miracle

It's been a hell of a week. First I knocked a glass of water onto James' laptop, possibly destroying his precious files (not to mention the computer), while playing kickball with River. Then, our van battery gave up the ghost for good. Will a new battery fix the problem, or is it the alternator? Only the shadow knows for sure.

Also, could this be part of our Saturn return? James and I are both between the ages of 28 and 30 (and were born with Saturn in Virgo), so the timing is right.

Anyway, things looked up a bit today when I got a note from Concha the Curious Curandera containing this milagro charm. According to Concha, the horse can represent working hard, good luck, or traveling. Well, I could definitely use all of those things, so this one is great for me. Thanks, Concha!

In other wonky news, I just found this synopsis of The Secret in 100 short notes. If you're not familiar with The Secret, it's a pop new-age phenomenon that promotes the law of attraction, and for a while you could hardly turn around without bumping into a reference to it. While I'm not completely opposed to this philosophy, I am extremely concerned about the sloppy interpretation that suggests that bad things happen to some people because they're less deserving than others (and thus, if you're fortunate, you're better than others), but if you're curious about the concept at least now you don't have to watch (or buy) the original.

Anway, having tough things happen just reminds me, when I'm in the right state of mind, of how good I really have it. My loved ones are delightful, well and mostly happy, we have good food and roofs over our heads, and that alone is plenty to be thankful for.