A delicious and delightful cup of Tea
Posted by msterilinn on Mar 5, 2008
The internet is a fabulous place to discover unusual items and unique gifts. It simply amazes me how much smaller the World seems, yet how much more is available than one could have ever imagined. I am definately one who looks for things that are extraordinary or different, and I do believe the Teaposy Tea Set most certainly falls into this category.
The Teaposy Blooming Tea Gift Set is a tea set where the tea is actually contained within dehydrated flowers. This flowering tea set also comes with six vacuum-sealed, handcrafted, natural herb flowers that are ready to blossom when immersed in hot water. The Teaposy Blooming Tea Gift Set is an artful fusing of aesthetics and some of the world’s finest white needle tea, rich in antioxidants, and infused with Jasmine. Take a few moments to view this video, and see if you agree that this blooming tea set is a gift to be remembered…
Fragrance and Essential Oils
Posted by msterilinn on Feb 13, 2008
Winter is a time when we enjoy the safe and warm comfort of staying inside our homes. It is the time of year when we may start to feel lethargic, depressed, or irritable. Even though winter brings special holidays that make us want to feel festive and optimistic and you can feel spring coming, we become affected by the lack of sunshine in our lives. To combat the winter blues, we love to surround ourselves with pleasant scents.
Essential oils may bring balance to our hearts and peace to our minds. They may help to cleanse, release, and balance our thoughts. Let the aromatherapy shine. Scent has a great effect on our emotions. Scientists are increasingly interested in the connection between fragrance and memory triggers in the limbic brain. They are also researching pheromones - fragrant substances that may influence physical attraction. Personal attraction or aversion is influenced by odor. Without the ability to smell, there would be very little attraction. Our body has special glands that produce a very personal perfume that changes according to our mood or state of health. Fragrance may create well-being or discomfort. If you have difficulty adapting to a new situation, or letting go of the past, a new fragrance may help create a fresh mood. It may help you change your attitude or find a new positive reaction. A pure essential oil will not create an aggressive feeling; rather it will have a positive, balancing effect.
We each have our own personal reaction to every scent. Smells, moods, and short and long term memories are all stored in the limbic part of our brain. Dangerous or negative odors set our subconscious in the awareness stage. Positive smells like our babies’ skin or our mothers’ fragrance will bring a pleasant reminder of a positive experience for decades.
Helping our body and psyche with scent has a history stretching back for many centuries. The very beginning of the practice of medicine has been connected with mythical rituals, magic, or religion. We may say that the history of scent began with incense burners and has continued through experience with aromas and essential oils up to the present day. The methods of treatment were based on philosophical ideas that looked at a direct connection between man and nature. In ancient civilizations, medicinal herbs were evaluated by their taste and smell. An interesting example from the history of essential oils is thyme. The name “Thyme” is derived from the Greek word Thymiama (incense) and means courage, health, or sacrifice. It was a sign of high respect in ancient Greece to say to someone that he “smells of thyme”. Roman soldiers often added thyme to their baths to give themselves strength, health, and courage.
Rosemary played an important part in the Roman tradition of eliminating evil spirits. In the Middle Ages, it was a part of Hungarian water, a distillate of rosemary, lavender, and turpentine. According to alchemistic understanding, this was the first water of life. Many preserving properties were attributed to Carmelite water, a distillate of lemon balm, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
The seductive power of scent has always been known. The sense of smell may help create love and desire. Smell influences us much more than we think. The natural scent of flowers, essential oils, and compositions in the form of perfume, are more than just a pleasant smell. They can promote relaxation, sensuality, or spiritual depth. According to research on flowers by P. Jellinek, “esters of phenylacetic acids, fatty aldehydes, and alcohols are responsible for the aphrodisiac effect of various flower scents (jasmine, neroli).”
Extensive studies by occupational psychologists have shown that lemon or rosemary scent may help with concentration, nutmeg may reduce stress, and lavender, interestingly, promotes a desire to buy things. Large Japanese companies are using scent throughout their employees’ workstations to help improve their performance - lemon in the morning for pick-me-up feelings, rose at lunch time for relaxation, and wood scents in the evening for stimulation and refreshment.
Another interesting discussion would focus on stress levels in our civilization. More and more studies are being done to prove that essential oils interact well with the receptors of the psychosomatic network and they may, in a soft and gentle way, restore harmony in our systems.
Aromatherapy is using the knowledge of the effect of scents on the body and mind. With the help of the purest essential oils we may influence our stage of mood or form of somatic anomalies. Compared with synthetic products, aromatherapy has a much higher risk-free profile.
Ancient Tradition of Herbs on Winter Solstice
Posted by msterilinn on Dec 22, 2007
The shortest sunlit day of the year, the Winter Solstice, is the day when the sun is farthest away and light is most remote. Celebrated the world over, and most profoundly in areas where the winter is very dark, and very long, the longest night and the shortest day of the year is when the sun who seems to be weakening and dying, is reborn, and begins to grow in radiance and renewal. Rebirth is the essence of this celebration.
At the time of the solstice on or near December 2lst seasonal plants are brought into the home to assure the woodland Spirits that they will find safe refuge during this period of darkness and cold. In many parts of the world this celebration included lighting giant bonfires to lure the sun back to earth keeping the fires burning through the night or through the dark times. Considered a sacred rite, the Yule Log is still burned in fireplaces today honoring the spirit of rebirth and regeneration.
To honor the ancient tradition in your own home try placing holly, ivy, rosemary, evergreen boughs and pine cones in areas where socializing takes place. Hang a sprig of mistletoe above a major threshold as a charm for good luck.
An ancient magical herb known for it’s life-giving powers the Mistletoe grew from the sky on the limbs of sacred oaks. Known as all-heal to the Druids, its green leaves represented the fertility of the Mother Goddess and its white berries symbolize the seed of the Forest God.
Historically Druids harvested mistletoe with golden scythes. Maidens would gather beneath the trees with bolts of white linen stretched out between them. The cloth prevented the falling mistletoe from falling to the ground. If by chance the mistletoe should touch the earth all sacred energy from the plant would pour back into the ground.
The symbolism of holly and ivy together represents the struggle for balance between the waning and the waxing Sun. Often thought a representation of the Holly King reverence for the Holly tree is much older. It was not lost on early societies that to enjoy the beauty of the lush red berries one needs both a male and female tree, only the female yields the lush fruit. The tree itself became associated with the Mother Goddess and with fertility rites.
Wreaths of holly and ivy were originally used during Yuletide - Saxon geol, meaning wheel, their circular shape symbolizing the Wheel of the Year with its completion and continuity. Holly was regarded as the resting place for elves and fairies who would lodge within the leaves and keep the house goblins from doing mischief. In a similar way, planting holly outside the home brought protection for the inhabitants. Ivy in turn was especially used for the protection of flocks and domestic animals. Wreaths or magic hoops of ivy with rowan and woodbine, were woven and placed near milk containers to protect the contents from invading sprits. Rosemary was spread on floors at Christmas as people walked over the herb releasing the fragrant scent filling the home with blessings and protection. The name rosemary is associated with the Virgin Mary, as is the Rose.
Evergreens were known for their supernatural powers as they remained green and alive during the dead of winter. Pine was used in abundance during the solstice season, and still is. The pine cone represents the continuation of life in its spiraling form, the basis for the divine mean, the essential matrix for all Life and assurance of rebirth and regeneration.
This holiday season take some time to remember the ancient traditions as you collect your seasonal plants from nature. Remember too, when you cut a live plant you are transmuting its life force. Do this with reverence. Whenever possible offer something in return by sprinkling tabacco, cornmeal, sage, or sweetgrass as an offering of your gratitude.
A very cool site about Winter Solstice.. School of the Seasons
The Sea is rising.. Nature claims her own
Posted by msterilinn on Nov 14, 2007
I believe that global warming is a natural state of affair. The earth is always changing, and evolving, and throughout history we can see how many ancient species did not evolve and adapt as well as others. While it is certain man is causing this evolution of change in global proportions by depleting the planets defenses against such a rapid occurance, this change is ultimately innevitable, and a part of the natural balance. I found an article which relates directly to the results of natures evolution.
Nature and the Atlantic coast: ‘We are losing land to water’
The effects of global warming are devouring the coastline of New Brunswick and threatening its delicate ecosystems, natural beauty and native heritage.
Rising sea levels are already swamping plants natives use to make medicine and in religious ceremonies on the Elsipogtog First Nation. And at the Irving Eco-Centre in nearby Bouctouche, there is fear that the 12-kilometre stretch of sand dunes that date to the Ice Age and attract thousands of visitors each summer will eventually be washed away. Already, the tourism attraction’s boardwalk has been moved inland.
“You can delay things a little bit, but you can’t completely stop them from happening,” Kelly Honeyman, a naturalist at the Irving Eco-centre and the Irving Nature Park in Saint John, said. “I hate to be a pessimist, but even if you put in large rocks and pilings to preserve the dunes, like they are doing in the Carolinas, you are usually only safe for five to seven years.
“Water is almost lapping up against our dunes right now.”
Environment Canada predicts that the sea level along the Northumberland Strait will rise by nearly four feet by the year 2050. If that happens, the extraordinarily beautiful dunes would be destroyed and rare plants that are native to the area, such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence aster and seaside pinweed, would be wiped out.
Scientists and researchers from J.D. Irving, Limited, have been working with other groups and agencies to help preserve the aster, a threatened species, since 2004. In addition, the company has helped preserve a population of endangered piping plovers, shorebirds which use the dunes for nesting.
Dr. Liette Vasseur, a professor at Laurentian University, told researchers and academics at a conference in Ottawa last week that many of the things New Brunswickers hold dear and rely on will be lost unless people change their behaviour to curtail and adapt to climate change.
A former instructor at the Université de Moncton, Vasseur conducted studies on the effects of global warming and climate change on coastal communities in Atlantic Canada, including Bouctouche and Elsipogtog. She said her recent assessment of the First Nation shows that traditional sites for harvesting sweetgrass and other natural medicinal plants are already being threatened by erosion and flooding.
Josephine Augustine, an herbal healer who practices traditional medicine at Elsipogtog, said Tuesday that she is having more and more difficulty finding the plants she picks and uses to make remedies for allergies, arthritis, headaches, psoriasis and ulcers, among other ailments.
“It is getting and harder,” Augustine said from her office in the health centre at the First Nation, which is near Rexton. “We are losing land to water, and we are losing medicines here.
“People need to be educated about the environment, and they have to let Mother Nature take its course. We have to let people know the ramifications of what they are doing, make them understand that these plants have a purpose.”
A teacher in Moncton from 2001 to 2004, Vasseur said areas like Bouctouche will be hurt economically unless people adapt to environmental conditions such as the rising sea level. She said they need to build farther inland, and they need to leave natural barriers to coastal erosion, including trees and shrubs, in place.
“People like to have a nice, manicured lawn running all the way down to the water, but when they remove all the trees they increase the vulnerability to the impact of a storm. All in all, we need to reduce our footprint on the environment, and everybody can play a role in that.
“I’m optimistic that people could be very good at adapting to these changes if they got together, but they have to first understand what is causing the changes.”
Honeyman, the naturalist, has spent countless hours walking the boardwalk at the Irving Eco-centre. Tuesday he lamented the threat to one of his favourite places.
“Once you get 200 meters past our interpretive centre, you have a wonderful feeling of solitude and are buffeted by beautiful breezes off the Northumberland Strait. It is really a special spot.”
Note - Credit for this article goes to…
Marty Klinkenberg
Telegraph-Journal
Published Wednesday October 31st, 2007
Appeared on page A1
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Herbs and Plants of the Zodiac
Posted by msterilinn on Sep 26, 2007
I recently went questing in search of the herbs and plants relating to my sign in the Zodiac. I truly believe there is a direct connection between our bodies, our health in general, and the plants and herbs associated with our birth sign. This is a belief of many scholars throughout time. I have always been passionate about natural health, and have tried to follow a dietary regimen according to my belief and trust in Nature. After getting seriously ill about a year ago, my journey to find a way to healing my body through natural means brought many new insights.
Health and healing is a realm best approached as naturally as possible, and this can only be accomplished by studying healing plants and herbs which have been tested throughout time. We have lost so much knowledge which once we learned as a natural part of life. Once upon a time, my great-great grandmother could have probably offered advice concerning my health problems before they became so serious. My great-great grandfather may have been able to help prevent much suffering, by showing me which herbs would strengthen my immune system and bring my blood pressure back down to a safe level, or perhaps taught me which herbs should be taken to maintain good health from the beginning.
It is not suprising I have had such a hard time digesting my food properly, considering the poor quality of most food on the market today. We are hard pressed to find truly natural and highly nutritious food, which at one time we took for granted. Luckily, there are herbs which can help us digest our food, yet one truly wonders how much nutrition our bodies are actually digesting and converting into natural energy and nutrients essential for optimum health. It would be ideal if we could all grow our own gardens, and maintain an essential amount of herbs for adding to the preparation our meals, as well as maintaing health and vitality. In a perfect World…
Well then, I will mention that I no longer have high blood pressure. And I was pretty scared when I realized that my blood pressure was EXTREMELY high for at least a year. I finally admitted to defeat in curing this on my own, and went seeking the advice of my friend who is a Naturapathic. Through prayers and the natural herbs administered by my friend, I found my way back to good health. My energy level has increased dramatically, and I can still play tag with the kids! I thank the stars for the gifts in Nature abundant in Mother Earths storehouse of natural remedies. And I hope more people wake up soon and discover just how precious these herbs truly are to living a long and healthy life; which, by the way, some folks consider weeds and indiscriminately destroy each and every day.
So… if you are anything like me, and wish to discover for yourself which plants and herbs are related to your birth sign of the Zodiac, I would be happy to direct you to a few sites I found interesting. You can decide for yourself how you feel about this information, and do some research on your own. I would love to hear any comments or suggestions on this subject, and sincerely look forward to any feedback you have to offer.
Honor Mother Earth, and the bodies we dwell in, with good health and an abundance of Life!
Herbs of the Zodiac by Astrogardener
Herbs ruled by Zodiac Signs and the Nine Planets
Birth Flowers at SunFlower.com
