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Earth Rhythms: Reweaving the Lost Connections

winter mugIt is mid January, and the world is grey today, with a magical cold softness, held in the now-damp air. Fallen leaves lie still, hiding mysteries that wait for spring, to be revealed in warmth and rain. I have reveled for a month in the pause that starts just before winter solstice, when Earth creates a container for the energy of darkness and cold here. It is a time of reflection, deep roots, and transforming in silence. I depend on it for health in the rest of the year like I depend on sleep for health each day. It is a time to indulge with abandon in the pleasures of warm throws, quiet dark, hot teas, and soft fireside conversations that reach deep. This rhythm of darkness and cold is one of earth’s rhythms on the prairie, and in these latitudes around the world. It is known by our cells, and held in our ancestral memories as a time of regeneration and community. It is a critical rhythm in the wheel of the year, when we can feed our inner wellsprings; yet it is unknown, or unengaged with, by many, many people.

We cannot wholly be disconnected from all of earth’s rhythms, or we would wither away, bereft of the unseen information streams between people, plant, and earth. But we collectively live out of harmony with some of them, and without conscious awareness of others, as if walking with someone who was a friend once, that we no longer acknowledge is there. Our cells, nervous systems and spirits miss those flows. It is clear from the awakening calling people to herbalism, shamanism and other pathways that connect us to earth, that we long to come again into harmony with the planet that is our home, and the other beings who live here. Doing that can affect our ability to heal in profound ways. This post begins a series of explorations about the rhythms of life that coordinate many of our biological and inner responses to our world, and without which we simply cannot get well. In these I will share a profile of the rhythms, herbs and practices that I find helpful in the journey.

The Rhythm of Winter

tree in fog

Even in this suburban spot on the prairie whose seasons have warmed through at least forty years of climate change, the energy of deep winter holds sway for a little longer. Without snow, without ice, but slow and cold for a little while yet, nourishing resilience in body and spirit that will feed vitality through the activity of the year.  Now, in this last two weeks before the half-way place between Sunreturn and Equinox, there is still time to nurture the seeds of of the year’s work, before the time of quiet dark fades behind.

Deep Roots

One way to connect with the rhythm of winter is to — stop! Do nothing. Turn off the phone and feel the warmth of air on your skin and sense your heart beat. The heart is the organ of the 6th sense, long suppressed now; the seat of our clarity and intuition.  Accessing this space in yourself often can help you override messages from the outer world, and clarify what you truly need and want — the realm of your heart’s longings. This simple exercise brings heart, nervous system and spirit together:

Heart Connection

Let go of your thoughts, and breathe in and out through your heart while cultivating a feeling of love for someone in your life. It can be a person, a pet, or the beings around you.
♦   See your inner Divine as a spark within.
♦   Imagine a bridge of light from that spark to your heart .
♦   Radiate love to yourself and the world for a minute, then sit in stillness.

Your own greatest wisdom emerges from silence.

Nourish Deeply

As the cold days roll on, melancholy can set in, especially if the days remain grey for long.  That’s the time for nourishment with winter roots and broths.  The energy of roots flows downward and is oh, so grounding. As they anchor the living plant, so they help to anchor us. Root energy supports inner work and the pensive inner reflections that are often part of winter. They are filled with micronutrients, antioxidants and minerals.

Vegetable broths that include a wide variety of vegetables along with mushrooms and seaweed, or bone broths made from clean, organic bones along with local greens and herbs are both nutrient dense foods that can form a base for soups in winter. Don’t you love the rich, taste of a soup on a cold day?

Here is a simple recipe that uses both
broth and roots for a warming, semi-sweet soup:

1 each small:   golden beet,  parsnip,  burdock root.
1/2 cup onion, diced
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups vegetable stock
— or —
1 cup bone broth plus 2 cups chicken stock
A sprinkling of thyme, rosemary, sage, coriander and marjoram.
Sea salt and pepper to taste. 
1-2 Tbs chia seed
dash of nutmeg

Chop and lightly saute all the roots  in 1-2 Tbs olive oil. Add the broth / stock, salt and pepper.   Simmer until roots are softer but not yet tender.  Add the chia seed and herbs.

Cook until roots are tender and the soup has some body. Whole cream makes a nice addition to this in the bowl, if dairy is an option.

May you enjoy, and may the lingering days of winter offer you
time for wonder, and for regeneration.

Fireplace

If you would like to learn more about herbal lifestyles and reweaving your connections with earth rhythms, click here to visit Joan’s events page,
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Connecting with the Gifts of Winter

Part of the call to return to the way of herbs is, for most of us, an underlying longing to reconnect with the Earth, her cycles, and her life. One way we honor that call is to participate in the gifts each season beckons us to receive, as the wheel turns, each time. In our culture that has become so Yang, so overactive and doing, the gift of being often goes unseen.

Into Darkness

Winter reaches out to us with gifts of quiet, darkness, stillness, and the chance for introspection. Just as the seed rests in the dark womb of Earth in winter, our own creativity is nourished in the heart of our stillness.  Freed for a moment from planting, preparing, and harvesting, the ebb cycle of earth-life offers us a chance to to conserve our energy, and tend deeply to our non-physical being. At Winter Solstice I find myself reflecting on these gifts. There is a safety in withdrawing from busyness, and seeking our own center for renewal and regeneration.  It is a place I always long for after the high activity of autumn.

A Winter Ally

As we enter our inner world, herbs can serve as allies to open the gateways of our spirits. These need not be exotic herbs. Some of our most powerful allies are well known plants that we have partnered with for millennia.  One such ally is Rosemary, Rosemarinus officinalis, now named Salvia rosemarinus, a tender perennial evergreen where I live. Her warming, blood moving energy allows the peripheral parts of the body, out to the skin, to be vitalized and protected, as we sit in stillness. She is steadfast,  with heart opening qualities that can help allay melancholy that sometimes arises during the inner work of clearing out the debris of an old year, to make room for the new. Her evergreen scent opens and clears our spaces, making room for new and brighter energies, calming the mind and emotions at the same time it lifts the spirits. Rosemary’s gift for aiding memory is real. It was known from ancient times as an herb to strengthen the mind, and now science has validated what healers of 2000 years ago knew. Moderate amounts used long term work well to support cerebral circulation and nourish the brain. It is a wonderful warming helper in the dark months, when the shorter days sometimes foster an inner gloom.

And Rosemary supports the heart. The heart has an abundance of neurons governing many tasks in the body, and it is clear from the work of the HeartMath Institute and others that the heart has an intelligence of its own1. It processes external and internal information, and plays a role in intuition. I first learned of Rosemary’s gift for helping to heal the emotional and physical heart after a loss, when I sat with this plant friend for hours. It came clearly to my mind that I should take the leaves to help me ease my grief — and they did. It was not until months later, while researching, that I learned that Rosemary is indeed an herb that is considered healing to the heart in multiple dimensions.

The first and best way to use Rosemary is in food. If you are fortunate enough to have this herb in your garden, take snippets to use often in salads, soups, beans, and savory dishes with meat or fish. (Harvest with care in winter, as the plant is stressed from cold, and probably thirsty. Water is a good gift to return to it, in our dry winters.) Or perhaps you have dried rosemary, that you gathered when leaves were at their plumpest, when they drank in the summer summer sun. In addition to using on your food, try it dried as incense to clear the air of microorganisms and stale energies, or as a tea with a little honey before meals as a bitter.

Aligning with the Gifts

Now in winter, this evergreen friend calls to me. It is time to stop the clock, as even the sun seems to pause in it’s journey. Time to sip my tea and follow my breath, allowing my senses to quiet, as I sit in silence, to just be. Dark has come here, and I will settle in by my fire, embracing the gifts of winter; reaching out with my inner senses to my plants and garden in this season. And reaching inward to let my heart ponder what matters: What I will choose not to carry forward, and what to nourish in the light of the returning sun. Connecting to Earth and the season of Winter, the sharp evergreen scent of Rosemary reminds that though all may appear barren outside, life awaits beneath the surface, if we nurture what we wish to see grow.

1. https://www.heartmath.org/resources/videos/science-of-the-heart/

A Short Meditation

It is best to read these instruction through then set them aside. You will be sitting in the dark for a time. And of course you can adapt this any way that serves you.

You will need:
A form of Rosemary: dried, tea, tincture, oil or fresh leaf. Just a small amount is fine.
A candle and matches.
A comfortable place to sit where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes.

1. Arrange the Rosemary, candle and matches where you can place your hands on them from your chair. Dim or turn off the lights, and sit comfortably.
Take a few deep breaths, allowing your thoughts and heart to slow.
Sip or nibble a bit of your Rosemary, connecting with the plant in your thoughts.
Notice the taste, the quality of any energy you can sense, and where you feel it in your body.
Breathe with that for a few minutes.

Now ask for her gifts of remembrance and heart support, and visualize your mind and heart receiving them.

2. Turning your attention to the darkness, sense it around you.
Notice how you feel about being in the dark, in stillness.
Is there anxiety? Restlessness? Peace? Ease? Calm? Or….?
Just observe without judgment, or trying to change anything, for a few minutes.

Let come into your mind something in your life or about yourself that you would like to release. It need not be from the recent year. Any unwanted emotion, habit, or concern — let it surface in the stillness.

Name it, saying, “[what you’re releasing] is lost to the night!”  Repeat this three times with intention, feeling  it release.  See it gone, dissolving into the impartial darkness. Again, sip or nibble your rosemary, sensing her wholesome, evergreen scent, and energy of clearing.

3. Now light your candle, a symbol of light returning.
Sit for several minutes in silence, allowing thoughts to surface as they will.
In just allowing, you are sowing the seeds of creativity that your subconscious will integrate as gifts to you in the future.

If anything stands out that you want to take forward, write it down. If not, that’s okay too. There will be time to revisit this meditation throughout the winter if you choose, and as the light grows, you may find a growing connection with your herbal ally.

Connect with Joan at Events and Workshops

https://www.brightcircleherbcraft.com/events/