EarthLight Originals

כ"ח באב תש"ע
Lughnasadh 29

My mother and I are going into business together selling handcrafted original recipe ecofriendly natural perfumes, lotions, salves, and other personal care and alternative medicinal products (both my biochemistry degree and professional nursing experience will come in handy here to provide scientific support for any herbal remedies we may offer). We've agreed on a name for our joint business venture - EarthLight Originals.

We've ordered some supplies with which to handcraft small samples of our first two products (including a double boiler dedicated to our shoppe work) and established our etsy and email addresses. This week, in between sending out resumes, I'll be working on creating an artsy banner for our new joint shoppe. Mom will create package product labels from the banner we choose to go with.

We've repurposed a cute antique cabinet in the dining room to hold our initial supplies. We're both really excited about doing this. It's fun work! Everything we make with be handcrafted with love.

Aromatic First Aid Kit

Aromatic First Aid Kit ~ author unknown

2000 B.C. -- Here, eat this root.
1000 A.D. -- That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 A.D. -- That prayer is superstitious. Here, drink this potion.
1940 A.D. -- That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1985 A.D. -- That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
2000 A.D. -- That antibiotic is unnecessary. Here, eat this root.

~ Rainforest Medical Bulletin (vol. 6 no. 1)

HT Blue Moon Herbals

Imhotep & Kriat Yam Suf

י"א באלול תשס"ז

I dreamt.

My little group and I were fleeing pursuers set on destroying or enslaving us. We came to the sea. If we can just get past the creature of the sea, we thought, we will have safely escaped. Those pursuing us wouldn’t be able to get past the creature of the sea, and if they followed us into the sea, they would be slowed down, swallowed up by it, and drown.

We stood on the shore facing into the sea. The waters piled up and created a (paradoxically) distinct yet indistinct place for us to walk through. The creature of the sea was of the waters that piled up, making our walking place. One thing is indistinctly yet distinctly clear, the creature of the sea was neither a fish nor a creature “distinct” from the sea. In other words, the formless creature of the sea was formed of the piled up waters of the sea (another paradox), much in the same manner as Imhotep’s face was formed of the waters which tried to swallow up those in the flying machine in “The Mummy” (or “The Mummy Returns”) movie. The creature of the sea was a male essence, not a female essence like Lilith or Tiamat (as I have read in the midrash and various other mythologies).

We walked into the midst of the sea (guarded by the mouth of the creature of the sea), and emerged safely on the same side of the shore from which we had entered. Yet, we were not in the same place, even though we were in the same place. Another paradox. We were on a different level now and no longer in any real danger. In other words, we were immune to the danger that still existed at the lower level we had left behind and no longer occupied. It was as if our pursuers were now completely immaterial and no longer even existed for us. They were mere illusionary figments of disappearing vapor in a dream. And magic poof – they were gone, not one of them remaining.

I woke up.

James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep (whose name means "the one who comes in peace"): "In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation of wise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; this remarkable figure of Zoser's reign left so notable a reputation that his name was never forgotten. He was the patron spirit of the later scribes ..."

Interestingly, yesterday evening I chose the new Egyptian style solid silver finger stylus and solid bronze (like the Temple laver depicting the basin of the Yam Suf) dipping inkwell (a semi-sphere) I will use to scribe within the pages my Book of Shadows, Sefer Tzelem. Although an expense for me, I decided on sight that these scribal tools were an expense worthy of my Jewitchery, even though only today as I blog this entry am I discovering the symbolism inhered within the tools I chose.





And this is the (Temple pathways knotwork) vessel I chose to keep my small container of scribal ink within.



Related entry:
2-3 Berries From The Uppermost Bough

Heart Healthy Pomegranate Juice

כ" באדר תשס"ז

Along with organic flax seeds, I purchased some pomegranate juice today. It has several health benefits. From wiki:

In several human clinical trials, the juice of the pomegranate has been found effective in reducing several heart risk factors, including LDL oxidation, macrophage oxidative status, and foam cell formation, all of which are steps in atherosclerosis and heart disease. Tannins have been identified as the primary components responsible for the reduction of oxidative states which lead to these risk factors.[1] Pomegranate has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by inhibiting serum angiotension converting enzyme (ACE).[2]

One pomegranate delivers 40% of an adult's daily vitamin C requirement. It is also a rich source of folic acid and of antioxidants. Pomegranates are high in polyphenols. The most abundant polyphenols in pomegranate are hydrolysable tannins, particularly punicalagins, which have been shown in many peer-reviewed research publications to be the antioxidant responsible for the free-radical scavenging ability of pomegranate juice.

Interestingly, the Hebrew root of the word for pomegranate - רמון - is also an Egyptian root (wiki):

A separate, widespread root for "pomegranate" is the Egyptian and Semitic rmn. Attested in Ancient Egyptian, in Hebrew rimmôn, and in Arabic rummân, this root was brought by Arabic to a number of languages, including Portuguese (romã), and Kabyle rrumman.

Footnotes:

[1] Pomegranate Juice May Help With Coronary Heart Disease

[2] Aviram M, Dornfeld L. Pomegranate juice consumption inhibits serum angiotensin converting enzyme activity and reduces systolic blood pressure Atherosclerosis 2001 Sep;158(1):195-8

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Nourishing Perspectives, Naturally Detoxify

I've added a new link to my new resource blogroll Herbal & Alternative Remedies.

Nourishing Perspectives is a website dedicated to "harnassing the power of food and nutritional medicine to transform the body and spirit."

Garlic - Eka Power & Spiritual Clarity

כ"ז בשבט תשס"ז

Garlic (שום) numbers among the many botanicals I have in my magickal herb drawer. Garlic is a masculine herb, bound to fire and Mars, and associated with the goddess Hekate, the goddess of eka power, the power of magickal speech and of unity.

Like a mezuzah is fixed on a doorpost, so too is the spirit of garlic fixed above and below the earth [1]. In other words, the protective spirit inhered within garlic surrounds the earth in its uber and mundane entirety, as above so below. The physical botanical is another link (creating the possibility of a circuit) into the Divine power inhered within it. So mote it be.

Garlic has also been used to guard against the plague, protect against shipwreck, repel thieves, and remove negative vibrations which might contaminate food. Importantly, garlic is also used to absorb disease and protect against hepatitis. [2]

Hepatitis is disease and inflammation of the liver. The liver is the primary organ of the body responsible for purifying and detoxifying the blood. Thus, garlic is an aid to ensure detoxified healthy blood - and by extention of blood's perfusion throughout body tissues - to health throughout the entire body. Blood is the physiological system corresponding to Binah (Understanding). Thus, garlic guards and maintains the purity of understanding, insight and mental-spiritual clarity.

Footnotes:

[1] שום is Hebrew for garlic. The root means "fixing a place", "arrange", "there", "toward a place", "setting a name", "heavens" and "space above and below earth". Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, R' Matityahu Clark, (p. 258)

[2] Encyclopedia Of Magickal Herbs, Scott Cunningham (p. 122-3)

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Techelet Portends Clarity

כ"ז בשבט תשס"ז

In my previous entry, I discussed copper and the diagnostic value of the deep blue color that can result from its reaction with ammonia, a constituent of healthy human urine. I further linked a deep blue diagnostic outcome to effectively clearing toxic waste from the body and to health.

Torah tells us to look at (investigate and seek to understand) the deep blue techelet thread and copper to remember and to be healed. Ok, we previously saw the connection of copper and deep blue to health, but what is the connection to memory and mental clarity?

One possibility - acute confusional states and delirium can be related to uremia. Uremia is a toxic condition caused by the buildup of nitrogen-bearing urinary waste products, including ammonia, in the blood. This occurs when the toxins cannot be cleared from the body and eliminated in the urine.

Thus, a deep blue color outcome of an ancient copper "medical assay" (suggesting adequate removal of urinary toxins) would portend mental clarity and remembrance. Likewise, absence of the deep blue color (suggesting inadequate removal of urinary toxins, and thus buildup in the blood) would portend confusion and forgetting.

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P'Til Techelet & The Copper Snake

כ"ז בשבט תשס"ז

In an entry on Craftwork Of A Jewitch, I mentioned that mugwort, the witch's herb, contains copper. So, let's look at copper and the deep blue color threading through it.

If one takes a lowly copper penny and puts it into common household ammonia, it will turn a deep blue. Why? From Answers.com:

This first article discusses the Copper-Amine complex that forms during a reaction of copper and ammonia.

“When ammonia is dissolved in water, the interaction of the ammonia molecules with the water molecules results in the production of ammonium ions and hydroxide ions. One possible reaction for the copper(II) ions is the combination with the hydroxide ions to form a slightly soluble copper (II) hydroxide, which can be identified by the formation of a cloudy, pale blue precipitate.

Another possible product of a reaction of the copper (II) ions, perhaps less easily recognized from the reactants in this system, is the formation of a copper (II) ion ammonia complex, usually identified by a characteristic deep blue color.”

http://dwb.unl.edu/Chemistry/MicroScale/MScale33.html

“Copper(II) hydroxide (chemical formula Cu(OH)2) is the hydroxide salt of the metal copper, with atomic mass approximately 97.561 atomic mass units. The typical color of copper hydroxide is blue.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper(II)_hydroxide

Interestingly, both techelet (deep blue) and copper are materials we are taught in Torah to look upon to remember and to be healed. In other words, there is a mystical thread of connection between the deep blue of techelet and copper which, if we deeply investigate the connection, will cause us to remember and to be healed.

Ammonia, involved in the reaction above which turns copper deep blue, is a toxic waste product of the body's metabolic/catabolic breakdown of amino acids and proteins. If our bodies cannot get rid of the ammonia, we are indeed very ill.

Thus, one possibility of the connection of copper to health - in ancient times, copper could have been used to diagnostically assay the urine for the presence of ammonia. If the copper in the "medical assay" turned sufficiently blue, the patient was clearing the waste products from the body in a healthy manner. If the copper failed to turn sufficiently blue, the person was not clearing ammonia and the toxin would remain to build up in the blood and tissues, eventually causing death.

Consequently, the deep blue was a good sign that the lethal toxins were exiting the body instead of remaining in it.

Kabbalah & The Copper Snake
P'til Techelet

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Use Herbs Responsibly!

As it may be not be a given for all people, I want to make it clear that I advocate responsible use of herbs and herbal preparations.

PLEASE, particularly if you are taking medications or are being treated for medical conditions, consult your physician or alternative medical practitioner regarding the use of herbs and herbal preparations. Some herbs can be dangerous or dangerous in certain medical conditions. Some herbs may negatively interact with prescription medications. Some herbs may cause allergic reactions of varying degrees. Some herbs require special handling to be safely used in rituals.

Here is a link to HerbMed. I'm creating a new blogroll for herbal and alternative remedies. HerbMed will be permanently located there, along with other resources.

HerbMed® - an interactive, electronic herbal database - provides hyperlinked access to the scientific data underlying the use of herbs for health. It is an impartial, evidence-based information resource provided by the nonprofit Alternative Medicine Foundation, Inc. This public site provides free access to 40 herbs.