Articles on Medicine Garden Topics

Bleeding Heart: Stage 1 Proving

Posted on 07/15/2012 by storm

PROVER: PI–female:

Field proving, April 27, Meditation Garden, La Casa De Madre Tierra.
3:30pm, breezy, warm, beautiful, bird & river song, exquisite conditions.
Not on any homeopathic or drugs.

Synchronistic event: A tree had been dug up at our campsite that day, so we returned to find a hole near our tent. Unknown to us a new tree was going in the hole in a few days.

Hering’s Law – nothing noted.

I had a clairvoyant dream about an accident involving a bridge Sunday morning, and on this day, April 27, it happened, and we came across it shortly after on our way home. It seemed to represent an emotional disaster in the past, in which I felt qualities in my heart were destroyed. In the same dream an entity said to a male figure on my right (my inner male?) ìYouíre split!î The male then did a dance/martial arts display of his maleness, and how he missed his female. I now see/understand this as the male energy split off from myself, or outside of myself. When I told this dream to Eileen she knew what plant I needed. She understood that I had not integrated disappointments of the heart. When she told me that I was to go do the Bleeding Heart, I received a heart opening right then. I was also assisted in doing this essence proving (my first on my own) by a male student, Michael. There were two other women working on the same plant at the same time. I felt there was something similar in both of them, of this split, a lack of integration of male and female selves.

Emotions: I would say this essence has helped me feel emotionally stronger, less helpless, more like how I felt at 19yr. old.

Mental: Have not identified any mental thought pattern change yet.

Physical: Head area & chest relaxed, felt warmth in second chakra, front and back. Then the center of the chest itched, as if I had been bitten by an insect. There was a sensation as if a hand was massaging the heart center. There was a generalized gradual release of inner tensions, sensation of gas moving in intestines, then being passed.

Spiritual: My well-being is very much enriched from having met & interacted with this plant. I feel that the essence did some energy release, and integrated the male self within the heart center again. I felt like a little reconstruction had happened. I also wanted to thank our male assistant, it felt very necessary and symbolic, so I presented him with a thank you gift.
‘Bottom-line’ Grace. Heart healer. Sexual integration. Sexual healing.

Sphere of Influence – Emotional.

Secondary – Physical.

Breathing, Chest, Dreams, Emotions, Heart, Sexuality.

Bleeding Heart (BH)- Chest – relax
BH – Breath – relax
BH – Dreams – Integration,
BH – Emotions – Release
BH – Heart – healing
BH – Sexuality – Heals

I actually re-named this plant “Happy Pockets”. Because the plant looks like two little purses or pockets joined together with a handle (penis). The humor is that now my two halves feel joined, not split, by the integra-tion of my male energy. I am also expecting more prosperity, which I feel is linked to this plant, personally. Without a strong male energy working, I have not been able to prosper as I’d like to.

Patterns of Imbalance – Blocks to the heart chakra and second chakra, problems of integration of male energy in the female, emotional stuckness, emotional woundedness, closed heart chakra in the back, breathing problems, tension due to bound up emotions.

Positive healing pattern – Connection to the center.

The first experience connected to coming close to this plant was a DEJA-VU, as Eileen signaled to Mike to bring us on in to the Meditation Garden. I felt a sacred welcome, a sense of quiet safety, and a blessing in Eileen’s presence introducing us to this plant, where we were out of the wind and had actual chairs to sit on!

For BLEEDING HEART, I would like to add the message received that the heart is both male and female, expands and contracts, gives and receives. Also that the fortune cookie I got that same night in the Chinese restaurant said “A Merry Heart Doeth Good, Like a Medicine”.

Posted in Flower Essences, Natural Essences | Comments Off

Blanket Flower (Gillardia pulchella): Stage 2 Proving

Posted on 07/15/2012 by storm

THE HISTORY
A member of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae), Blanket Flower is known by many names: Firewheel, Gaillardia, Brown-Eyed Susan and Indian Blanket. Growing one to two feet tall, this hardy wildflower reminds one of the Fourth of July going off! The round, disk-shaped flowers are a brilliant red tipped in yellow. Many call them pinwheels. Blanket Flower is a tough plant that will grow in the driest of conditions. It also is very fertile and if no other wildflower seed comes up, Blanket Flower will! Such is its procreative ability.

The stems are branched, with more leaves at the base, and less as it moves up toward the flower itself. The leaves are usually three inches long, oblong shaped and the branches have lots of bristly scales among the flowers and hairy stems. They are found from Arizona through Texas and as far south as into Mexico. North to southeastern Colorado and Nebraska also have this brilliantly colored wildflower.

This is one of the easiest of the wildflowers to cultivate. It likes sandy plains and deserts and is often found along roadsides, waving gently in the wind. It is heat and drought tolerant. Some species of Blanket flower may be a maroon-reddish color and no yellow at all, or entirely yellow! It blooms from May through July. The seed pods look like puffy white Christmas bulbs–in reality, there may 20 to 50 seeds in that round globule! To try and pick it apart may cause some splinters to your fingers–so be careful.

THE STORY
Ever since I saw my first Blanket Flower, I’ve wanted them for La Casa de Madre Tierra (the House of Mother Earth). Last year, as Dave, my husband, created yet another huge red brick planter, the Sonoran Desert one, I planted the first seeds of Blanket Flowers in there. Well! Typical of their energy and wonderful, spontaneous nature, they just bloomed their heads off! Some of the plants got two feet high with fifty booms at one time. Needless to say, they are such lovely showoff’s in our Sonoran Desert Planter. They literally, sit in the center of the planter, their red and yellow heads waving and nodding in the breeze that comes up through Echo Canyon where we live.

When I made the Natural Essence, the plant that I used and placed the glass containing the water and blooms beneath, vibrated with such joy, that this essence has been ‘singing’ ever since. Every flower is created uniquely different and so, their energy and expression. Below are the provings on this happy little wildflower.

THE PROVING
Stage 2 proving. Date: 10-17-96, Sedona, AZ with Medical Astrology Seminar participants. They each took 4 drops under the tongue and sat quietly, eyes closed, for 5 minutes and then wrote down the sensations from taking the Natural Essence. These are written in their own words and descriptions. No changes have been made.

THE PROVERS:

MB–female:
1. Lifted up and out.
2. Heart chakra opening.
3. Very spacy–almost fell over–trying to keep my feet on the ground.
4. Pull back in.

DS–female:
1. Color: white.
2. Areas affected: tingles, left-sided, high energy boost, heart opening/joy, hearing and sense of smell heightened, heightened perceptions in general, lightness/bouancy, female energy, scalp felt tingles and itches.
3. Major emotional feeling: felt lifted.
4. Major physical sensation: Felt like I was sitting higher up than normal chair height.
5. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: awareness of sensory/outside, external events.
6. Major positive healing pattern: gets someone out of not being sensitive to their surroundings.
7. Other: smell of flowers!

DM–female:
1. Color: mauve then white then red.
2. Chakras influenced by the NE: brow, solar plexus and heart.
3. Areas affected: spiritual, calmness, peacefulness, heart opening/joy, in-the-body/anchoring, immediately wanted to remove eyeglasses and did. Saw fields of snow. Rocking from left to right.
4. Major emotional feeling: peacefulness.
5. Major physical sensation: calmness.
6. Major Pattern of imbalance it can address: Moved from brow to solar plexus to heart and up to brow.
7. Other: stillness of winter. Quietness.

JT–female:
1. Color: dark red.
2. Chakras influenced by the NE: brow chakra.
3. Areas affected: physical, spiritual, tingles, pressure in third eye, movement into the meditative state.
4. Major physical sensation: Pressure in third eye. Possible option for headache. However, crown chakra immediately pulsated and put me into a meditative state.
5. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: Imbalance of third eye. Possible use on kidneys? On schizophrenia?
6. Major positive healing pattern? Balancing out the brow chakra.

DG–female:
1. Chakras influenced by the NE: crown, heart and navel Chakras.
2. Areas affected: physical, left-sided, downer (as from being too hyperactive/tense) to calmness, peacefulness, sexual feeling, unexpected memory emerges, female energy and coyote symbol and Indian dancing/feathers visualization.
3. Major emotional feeling: barrenness and moved to balance (to be out of touch with our feelings, this NE puts us back in touch with them–a more balanced state of being than being disconnected from our rich emotional tapestry).
4. Major physical sensation: heaviness (moving back completely into our body).
5. Major pattern of imbalance it can address: Sterility in females.

CF–female:
1. Color: orange.
2. Chakras influenced by the NE: brow and heart chakra.
3. Areas affected: physical, spiritual, spinning (movie liked, clouds and churning), calmness, profoundness, heightened sense of taste, and taste was like milky and chalky over my tongue.
4. Major physical sensation: heart beating.
5. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: DNA imbalance/fungus/virus and bacteria.
6. Major positive healing pattern: change at cell level.

HV–female:
1. Color: yellow.
2. Chakras influenced by NE: brow chakra.
3. Areas affected: spiritual, rocking sensation left and right in the head, peacefulness, tiredness, lightness/bouancy, red and yellow sparkly waterfall amid red mist and three cleansing breaths to finish.
4. Major emotional feeling: release.
5. Major physical sensation: energy!

SS–female:
1. Color: purple-pink daisy.
2. Chakras influenced by NE: crown, throat and heart Chakras.
3. Areas affected: physical, emotional, hot, spinning, peacefulness, in-the-body/anchoring, soothing, comforting with heat extending from throat to heart, spinning counterclockwise in head. Deep breathing was experienced.
4. Major emotional feeling: calming and soothing.
5. Major physical sensation: heat.
6. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: heartburn?
7. Major positive healing pattern: breathing in Life.

LM–female:
1. Color: pinkish-orange.
2. Chakras influenced by NE: heart.
3. Areas affected: spiritual, tingles, both sides, calmness, peacefulness, heart opening/joy, seriousness, in-the-body/anchoring, lightness/bouancy, tingles moved down into feet as if to ground the energy, and itchy left cheek of face!
4. Major emotional feeling: calmness.
5. Major physical sensation: tingling.
6. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: opening one’s heart and grounding the energy (no more space-cadet or being spacy).
7. Major positive healing pattern: balance and grounding heart energy.
8. Attunement message received: creating the dreams of your heart and grounding them into manifestation.

RS–male:
1. Color: yellow.
2. Chakras influenced by the NE: throat, heart and solar plexus Chakras.
3. Areas affected: physical, warmth, tingles, heightened hearing sense.
4. Major emotional feeling: throat closing, restriction.
5. Major physical sensation: warmth in both hands and later on around upper neck, behind the ear. Twitching of calf muscle in right leg. Opening of the solar plexus (stomach). Warmth all over, later.

BJ–female:
1. Color: purple to red.
2. Areas affected: physical, left-sided, peacefulness, tiredness, pain immediately in, above left temple of head–subsided to an ache later. Eyes becoming very heavy. Restless colors.
3. Major physical sensation: Getting very tired and almost dropping into a sleep stage. Rubbing third finger of left hand. It hit throat and then through my back. Distasteful tasting. Before we finished, both hands were warm to hot.

KM–female:
1. Color: red then white flashes.
2. Chakras affected by the NE: throat.
3. Areas affected: physical, hot, left-sided (pain in left eye).
4. Major physical sensation: heat on back of my neck, hot red flash in the head. Tightness of the throat. White flashes while blinking. Pain in left eye.

MG–female:
1. Color: tourmaline blue and other muted colors faded in and out, but no specific ‘other’ color showing.
2. Chakras influenced by NE: heart chakra.
3. Areas affected: physical, emotional, warmth, calmness, heart opening, androgynous, and I took a few deep breaths of air.
4. Major emotional feeling: calming.
5. Major physical sensation: low buzzing feeling in chest.
6. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: emotions.
7. Major positive healing pattern: calming.
8. Other: My emotional state was agitated to begin with and wondered whether I should even try this proving.

PR–female:
1. Color: red.
2. Chakras affected by NE: throat and root Chakras.
3. Areas affected: tingles, calmness, peacefulness, in-the-body/anchoring, heavy lower body feeling.
4. Major emotional feeling: peace and relaxed.
5. Major physical sensation: nervous then very heavy and grounded feeling.
6. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: grounding highly nervous people.

GM–male:
1. Color: crimson, pink purple to turquoise green–vivid colors.
2. Chakras influenced by NE: brow chakra.
3. Areas affected: tingles, left-sided, calmness, peacefulness, high energy boost, hearing and smell accentuated, sinuses opening up, in-the-body/anchoring, warms hands and better on the left side.
4. Major emotional feeling: calmness, heightened awareness, borderline-pre-meditation state.
5. Major physical sensation: sinuses opening. Deeper breathing.
6. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: Being ungrounded.
7. Major positive healing pattern: More in the body and being aware of surroundings.

BM–female:
1. Color: smelled green?
2. Chakras influenced by the NE: heart chakra.
3. Areas affected: emotional, tingles, right-sided (sexual feeling), left-sided (eyes), calmness. right eye leaked again–not wearing mascara to your classes again! So did left eye.

RC–male:
1. Color: dark.
2. Chakras influenced by NE: brow chakra.
3. Areas affected; tingles, numbness, both sides, tiredness. Everything felt heavy, arms and legs heavy, shoulders burdened.
4. Major emotional feeling: heavy, burdened, and bogged down.
5. Major physical sensation: limbs heavy, shoulders tired, tingling/numbness in hands and feet.

SR–female:
1. Color: warm purple to red to golden yellow–outside and warmer.
2 Chakras influenced by NE: brow and heart Chakras.
3. Areas affected: physical, mental, warmth (sweating), both sides, upper (makes one happy), peacefulness, heart opening/joy, sense of touch accentuated, seriousness, in-the-body/anchoring, heightened perception, happiness, androgynous. Drawing in feeling–like wind blowing through opening at crown chakra/head center.
4. Major emotional feeling: steadiness and easy joy.
5. Major physical sensation: centering and grounding.
6. Major pattern of imbalance that it can address: being out-of-body.
7. Major positive healing pattern: grounding with ease, good for personal awareness and physicality.
8. Attunement message: good for those who are involved with their reflection off of others–codependency.

EN–female:
1. Energy up both legs–tingling of ankles and the front of my calves.
2. Reproductive?
3. Left-sided.
4. Energy curled into hip, pelvic region–internal trembling felt.
5. Energy moved into the trunk of the body–not hot or cold energy.
6. Circular energy moving counterclockwise into pelvic cavity. A lot of tingling.

Mercury Retrograde

Posted on 03/08/2012 by coyotegirl

By Eileen Nauman, DHM (UK).
Copyright ©1997-2012. All Rights Reserved.

What does retrograde mean?

What does “retrograde” mean? It means “backwards movement.” The Earth has an orbit around the Sun. So does Mercury (and Mercury’s orbit, because it is closest to the Sun, is shorter or smaller in circumference than Earth’s).

At certain times each year, usually three of them, Mercury, because it has a shorter orbit than Earth, goes whizzing by Earth. As it’s moving away from Earth, to an observer standing on Mercury, it looks like Earth is moving backward as this is happening. Mercury is surging ahead and Earth is left behind. This is retrograde motion.

Another way to explore this is: Most of you have probably ridden in a motor boat. When the engines are in forward position, you zoom around. When you want to back up the boat, you put the throttle in reverse position. Have you ever watched the surge and turbulence of water beneath the engine, at the rear of the boat when it’s put into reverse to back up? That’s ‘retrograde’ motion. All turbulence, frothing, bubbling and boiling as water, which is flowing nice and smooth one way, suddenly has this engine and motor come and stir it all up as it reverses motion!

Take Mercury and Earth in the same analogy: Mercury is the speedboat. Earth is the water in which it floats. As Mercury passes Earth due to its shorter orbit around the Sun, this turbulence energetically is created between the two planets for a brief (3 weeks) amount of time. And I know Earth is not in reverse motion–the concept I’m trying to visually give you is that when Mercury passes Earth as it zooms around on it’s shorter circumference orbit, invisible “waves” of energy are created. And this energy is translated into retrograde motion.

Another way to state this visually is: You’re in a boat on a lake. You zoom past another boat that is anchored and the gal is fishing in one spot. You watch the waves your boat makes impact that other boat. That other boat will bob and move around as the current of the lake water, set into motion by your speeding boat, strikes it. The waves pass, and the boat that is anchored, becomes still once more.

Even though we can’t see the energy and turbulence as the faster moving planet in orbit affects a slower moving planet in its orbit, the turbulence is still there. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there and isn’t happening–because it is.

Astrologers, from 5,000 years ago, noted that when a planet passed us–or we passed another slower moving planet (like Mars, outward–all their orbits are longer around the Sun than the Earth’s is), they noted that certain events seem to occur. Not to everyone, but to a part of their population. Today that is so, too.

Mercury, typically on a given year, passes Earth three times. This is because Mercury has a smaller orbit around the Sun because it is the closer to that star than Earth. The duration of these speedy passes past Earth is called retrograde. Usually, a retrograde Mercury influence lasts 3 weeks. As the turbulence subsides from this pass and the “water” is smooth again, Mercury is then said to be direct. Actually, it takes Mercury three weeks to approach earth in a parallel orbit (side by side like a team of horses) and as it nudges past earth with its planet body, and moves ahead, that is when it is said to be “direct” once again. When direct, all the Mercury Retrograde “things” stop happening to people around the globe. Many breathe a sigh of relief .

How does a retrograde Mercury affect me?

Mercury is the ruler of communication.

Here’s a list of some of the things you can expect from a Mercury Retrograde. Keep in mind that they won’t all happen to you! Just one or two, usually. However, if you have a natal Mercury in conjunction with the transiting (daily motion of a planet) Mercury, then your life is going to be strongly affected by that retrograde!! The only way you can find this out is to contact an astrologer and have them look at your transits to determine this.

Expect indecision on your part–or the part of others. People who usually are cut/dried, can make decisions quickly and cleanly, will muddle around, hesitate, won’t be sure. And, if they do make a decision during a Merc. R transit–whatever they decided to do will CHANGE. It will NOT remain as the person decided at all. You think men and women can’t communicate with each other now, wait until the Merc. R period hits. One is speaking Chinese and the other, French!! Partners have to really work at saying what they really mean because assumptions abound during this time and worse, what you say is heard differently than how you meant it!!!! Watch for big-time communications snafus–they will complicate your life on a personal and professional level. Nothing is immune from our foot-in-mouth disease when in a Merc. R period!!!
Don’t EVER sign a contract, agree to something, buy a car/boat/house/animal or start up a new project under a Merc. R!! THAT is a prescription for disaster! The contract won’t be honored. The car you bought will turn out to be a lemon!! The boat will have problems, structural or otherwise. The house you bought will be a “money pit” and the owner did not reveal all the problems the house had–but you inherited them!! The animal you bought (dog/cat/horse or whatever) will turn out to have some real ‘hidden’ problems that you could not see upon first perusal or inspection. They usually aren’t happy things you find out–for example, I bought a St. Bernard puppy under a Merc. R (and I knew better!) and I directly asked the breeder: Does this dog or his parents or anybody in his pedigree have hip dysplasia? The owner said no. Six months later, the puppy couldn’t move because his hip dysplasia was so severe! The breeder lied to me. (Projects begun during this time -baaaaadddd choice- will inevitably develop differently than agreed upon or expected. The only way you can avoid disappointment is to expect that the project will change!! And if you aren’t prepared for those little surprises,then don’t start something new at this time frame–just wait…..be patient…..)
Do NOT buy any mechanical things, appliances, computers, software or anything else like that during this period–they will not work right! You may have to get another to replace it (providing its under warranty–and IF you have to buy something like a refrigerator, stove, radio, etc., make SURE that warranty is in force because 9 times out of 10, you’re gonna be glad you have it because you’ll be using it…..). Hold off until Mercury goes ‘direct’ to buy anything new. (I might add that this a time when mechanical failures happen. DISK CRASHES are commonplace and I strongly recommend to Netters to back up the stuff on their hard disk BEFORE a Mercury R transit occurs–do it at least a week in advance. Believe me, you will thank me for this little piece of advice over and over again–because crashes are common. Another Net problem is that the Net will slow down, be sluggish, blocked or break down. There are more telephone lines cut and dug up during this transit than you have fingers and toes to count on! Telephones/telephone lines/cables/electrical cables are all affected badly by Mercury R. “SAVE” your stuff you’re working on every 5 minutes during a Mercury R or you’ll lose it–believe me .
Try not to travel long distance during a Mercury R because Mercury is the ruler of travel by any conveyance. There will be delays, equipment (like a plane or car) will break down during this period. Travel will try your patience during this period–so be smart and don’t travel– you will save yourself a lot of hectic, stressful times/moments. Equipment failure is at its peak during this transit. This means ANY type of equipment–not just computers. It can be that your trash compactor explodes on you. Your knife sharpener quits working. Your telephone goes on the fritz. Your fax dies on you and you need to replace it. You name the communications device or travel device (cars/planes/boats) and it will fail.
Mercury rules our thinking processes. Believe me, folks, we aren’t thinking clearly or as coherently as we’d like to think we are during a Merc. R!!!!! We become forgetful. Yesterday, we knew that person’s name, and today….well….pfffftttttt…. out the window it goes and you can’t recall that person’s name for love nor money! Or you get lost in traffic, lost in a shopping center, you can’t remember where you put something. Things get LOST and MISPLACED big time. You won’t find it until after Mercury goes direct or you won’t find it until the next Mercury retrograde period!!! Our orderly thinking dissolves. Our minds may race. Insomnia may affect a few.
Delays–on everything! You’re late for an appointment. Or, they lost your appointment! The company promised it would be there on a certain day–wrooonnnnggggg! Under a Merc. R, it can get lost (permanently or temporarily) and it will never arrive on time! No one shows up at the right time. So forget it, let the punctual schedule go and just sit back and relax. You’ll never be on time–there can be an unexpected delay on the freeway/turnpike, or the other person is delayed. The appointment will never occur on time during a Merc. R.
Your mind is somewhere else rather on the nuts and bolts of everyday life/demands/things you gotta do. Where it’s gone is still a mystery. We just know you aren’t functioning like you normally do . It requires a lot more energy and intense concentration to do your daily job right (and not lose or misplace things) than normal during this 3-week period. Pay attention! Don’t be driving and have your mind go ‘elsewhere’ because you’re an accident waiting to happen. About 5 days before Mercury goes retrograde–be especially watchful and more alert about your own driving–drive very defensively–because other drivers who aren’t in touch with what is happening in the heavens are already spacy and somewhere else and they are NOT paying full attention to their driving. The day that Mercury goes retrograde is the most dangerous of all for driving a car. PLEASE, pay attention!!! I usually opt NOT to be driving anywhere on that day–I stay home and clean up a bunch of unfinished projects instead.

Is there any good news about Mercury retrograde?

Yes, indeedee! Let’s look at this another way. We lead very stress-filled, super busy lives, right? Which one of us, voluntarily, is going to say: “Hey, I’m gonna have a ‘time-out’ for 3 weeks, kick back, relax, and just take it easy and let my poor mind and body rest up from the punishment I give it.” I don’t see any hands raised. That’s right, Mercury retrograde is our ‘time out’ from stress and the humdrum orderly life we lead. The phones quiet down, the email demands diminish, the faxes stop making your floor look like white rolls of paper. Your mind goes ‘elsewhere’ and you just want to daydream, or just stop thinking altogether. It feels good to ‘unplug’ and rest.

Yes, Mercury retrograde is our time out to rest. And if you won’t voluntarily do it–it will do it for us to some degree or another. Geminis (those born May 21-June 20) and Virgos (those born August 23 to September 22) folks are ruled by Mercury–so for them, they are usually strongly affected by these retrogrades–more so than any of the ten other zodiac signs. Life can turn to chaos or sh– (depending upon their attitude toward these ‘time-outs’ in their life) or it can mean exquisite relief from all the powerful mental/mind stuff they do constantly 25 hours a day, 8 days a week. Speaking only for myself, being a Gemini (May 24), I look FORWARD to Merc. R because my phone stops ringing, demands of email, faxes diminish to a huge extent and I get to ‘rest’! Boy, do I look forward to these time-outs!! And I get to ‘catch-up’ on all the stuff that hasn’t been attended to because of so many phone calls, faxes and email demands! . I love Mercury R!!! I get a 3-week ‘breather’ three times a year and with my mental schedule, if I didn’t have these, I’m sure I’d have permanent brain burn out!

Virgos tend to get more upset over Mercury R periods because they’re such picky perfectionists and they really do expect their lives to go like clockwork and God forbid they be late for an appointment–HORRORS!! For them, it’s a major crisis if that occurs. For them, Mercury R periods are discombobulating because they can’t be perfect or strive for that near perfection for 3 weeks, three times a year. If they can ‘get over’ this need to be perfect or always on time, then it’s not such a stressful period for them .

If, however, you want to finish up on something–Merc. R is a wonderful time to wrap up projects, attend to details, and yes, clean up your messy desk, reorganize things. The telephone stops ringing, email flow reduces, faxes are fewer, and generally there is a period of quiet so you can “catch up” on a bunch of projects you had started earlier, and finished them, too. This is a wonderful time to take hold of something you wanted to do–but just didn’t have the time to complete or finish up–and get it done.
If you have a project that has lain around a long time and you just never got around to it–now is the time to look at it more closely and decide if it’s worth your investment in time and energy–if it isn’t, during this time, you’ll more than likely drop it permanently–or get serious about resurrecting it or completing it–successfully!
Lies, deceit, cheating and sneaky actions by others or yourself, will come to light during a Mercury R period. It’s the the long arm of Karma unveiling such negative things. If you think you duped someone–wait–during this period is when it will come to light and boy, will you be caught ‘red-handed’!!! Or, if someone said something behind your back–it will get back to you during this time frame. Or, if you were in some way cheated, duped or lied to, you will find out about it now.
Your daily routine is no more–so “go with the flow” and don’t fight it. You’ll be more day-dreamy, more spacy, more….of ‘something’–so just go ‘there.’ This is a great time for “inny” not “outy” experiences. It’s wonderful for doing internal work–either with a therapist, or digging more deeply into your psyche via meditation or other spiritual experiences–and it will produce a lot of ‘aha-s’ during this time frame.
This is a great time to clean up anything you haven’t already completed! Wash the windows! Paint that cabinet! Finish off that project that has been there silently asking for completion. Dust that room! Take down the spider webs! You’ll have the time to do it now .

Posted in Astrology, Medical Astrology, Natal Astrology | Tagged Astrology, Mercury, Mercury retrograde, retrograde | Leave a comment

High Cortisol Symptons/PTSD and You, Part 4

Posted on 02/20/2011 by eileen.nauman

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)/High Cortisol and How To Heal From It
by Eileen Nauman, DHM (UK)
Copyright 2010 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved

Update on Cortisol treatment with Seriphos

In January of 2010, I called Dr. Maya Brownsberger and asked if I could take a second saliva test (Diagnos-Tech) to see where my cortisol levels were at from the first test I’d taken back in September 7, 2009.

Dr. Brownsberger is part of a new branch of medicine known as “Functional Medicine.” If you go to their website: http://www.functionalmedicine.org/findfmphysician/index.asp, you can not only learn more about this important new branch, but also to locate the nearest FM specialist near where you live.

I received the test results back on January 28, 2010. And, I wanted to share them with you. Also, to make a comparison to the first test I’d taken in September, 2009, I’m putting up both test results in this blog so you can compare them for yourself.

Maya told me that the second test showed wonderful improvement from before. Keeping in mind that I was on two months of Seriphos, an adaptogen. I was prescribed to take at the times of the day my first test indicated (the stress/elevated or low/depressed peaks). And here is that first test. You can see that that 3 out of the 4 test times, I was “out” of the normal cortisol levels. Maya prescribed one capsule of Seriphos for me at 11 am, 3 pm and at bedtime. This, I took for two months and then stopped taking it.

It took about two weeks of being off from it to see the results. I felt completely calm with no anxiety, no sense of danger or threat throughout the day. I was handling all kinds of situations that would normally spike me into the “danger/anger” that I’d felt all my life. But not now.

The only thing I felt hadn’t been addressed was my sleep–I was back to the same old stuff of waking two to three times a night, no dreams, and being chronically sleep deprived. Considering how bad my first test was and that Maya had rarely seen anyone as ‘bad’ as my test results, I felt pretty good about it. At least during the day I was a function, normal human being with no anxiety or feeling in danger or in a threatening situation. For me, that was like getting out of prison. An amazing and wonderful experience

When January 2010 rolled around, I felt I wanted to see the results of the two months of Seriphos in lab results. The first two examples are my results from September 2009.

Original table of results from September 7, 2009

Test results from Diagnos-Tech on September 7, 2009

Graph of Saliva Test in September 7, 2009

Test results from Diagnos-Tech on September 7, 2009

Let’s now look at the second test results. The first box are the values and then below it will be the lab box. Compare them to the first set above. Quite a change, but look for yourself and make that determination.

Test results from Diagnos-Tech on January, 2010

Test results from Diagnos-Tech on January, 2010

When I got the second lab test results back, I was wowed, to say the least. My 8 a.m. peak was brought down from a “8” depressed to a “5” depressed.

My 11:00 a.m. peak was 18 and elevated. I the second test, it was 4 depressed. This one was the greatest change of all and I could certainly feel the difference between them–like night and day. Whereas before I was tense and anxious, I was now mellow and calm.

My 4 pm in the first test was 4 normal. Now, in the second test it was 11 elevated. This one went from normal to high.

The 10 p.m. on the first test was 7 elevated. In the second test it was 2 normal.

On the first test, my “Cortisol Burden” (this test is an indicator of over all cortisol exposure, where high values favor a catabolic state, the low values are a sign of adrenal deterioration) was 37 and the “normal” were between 23 – 42.

Now, after taking the Seriphos the second test shows: 22 (with the reference values of 23-42) . So, the Seriphos has created a remarkable change in my cortisol output by my adrenal glands.

Maya emailed me and told me to go back on the Seriphos and take one capsule at 3 pm and the other at bedtime. I could certainly, within two days, feel the difference in my sleep pattern. I’m sleeping normally and even dreaming and remembering my dreams now. Plus, I’m waking up less (once instead of three times), and I’m only two weeks into a four week cycle of Seriphos.

She also put me on an adrenal supplement, ADHS by Biotics Research Corporation. I am to take 2 tablets at noon meal and 2 tablets at my dinner.

I was also on Bio-Glycozyme Forte by Biotics Research Corporation three times a day. This particular product is there to help lower blood sugar levels. Now, I’m taking one at noon and one in the evening, a reduction for three a day.

And, other things happened along the way. The amount of thyroid I was taking before the Seriphos has been REDUCED. Maya said that once the adrenals get back into balance, the other endocrine glands can also start more normal functioning too. Now, I’m no a lower dose of thyroid the last two months and doing fine on it.

My fasting insulin was >50 (Normal is 3-12 ulU/ml) and I was hyper insulin on the first test.

The second test my fasting insulin was >40 and had dropped! This is very good news indeed because the Adrenals play a part in the carbohydrate processes within the body.

Two other endocrine glands besides my adrenals, were showing positive progress as a result of lowering my cortisol levels.

It’s fascinating to me how the cortisol is responding to the Seriphos that’s designed to get it all into the normal daily values. Before, on the first test my highest abnormal peak was 11 am to noon. Now, after taking the Seriphos, the highest is my 4 pm with an 11 elevation.

I was on Hydro-zyme, two tablets with each major meal of the day. This is an HCL (hydrochloric acid) supplement. Why? Because as we get older, our stomach acid isn’t like it used to be. The results of weakened stomach acid is heart burn, esophageal ulcer, acute gastritis and full blown stomach ulcers. I had one bout of heartburn about six months ago and Maya felt that even one episode was a red flag. Since taking them, my swelling has reduced considerably and I can now really feel the difference if I forget to take them. I’ve had no bouts of heartburn after taking them.

I went to three tablets with each major meal and there is no more swelling after I eat and I’ve been at this level for about a month. Again, no swelling and no heartburn.

The bottom line since taking Seriphos the first time in September 2009 is: I felt calm and centered inside. I didn’t realize how anxious I was until it was GONE. Completely gone. I marveled at how quiet and balanced I felt. Even more astounding and heart rending was I was myself for the first time in my life. And it continues now (and I’m blogging on March 3, 2010 about this). There has no “slide” back to the way I used to be.

I felt intense peace, calmness, extra patience and no irritability. My fear was gone. I could think of things that would make me fearful, and I had no emotional reaction to them. It was simply amazing and life-changing for me. I am, once again, feeling happiness. The only feelings I felt were fear, anger and threat. I did not know what it felt like to feel joy and happiness until just now. And now, my heart stirs and swells with these wonderful ‘other’ emotions. The positive ones.

I also feel an incredible detachment from everything that I used to fear or have anxiety about. Now, my mind can clearly see what is going on without the ‘haze’ of the cortisol kicked up emotions to cloud my perspective. I haven’t felt one bit of fear, irritability or anger in the first month since being on the Seriphos. I have been living in a wonderfully centered, grounded, peaceful and quiet inner radiance that simply did not exist for me until now.

This is what one hormone can do to a person’s entire emotional systems. It’s tragic. And yet, it shows everyone how much of our emotions can be skewed and distorted by that high level of cortisol. I used to have what I termed a mental gray attitude toward life. Before Seriphos, I would see nothing but problems and possible outcomes and then never feel hope that something different could occur. My emotions were so on guard, so waiting for something bad to happen that hope had been erased from my life. Now, it’s back! I no longer look at a problematic situation and try to figure out all the ways it might occur. Now, I just shrug and understand I don’t have any need to waste precious energy and time on such things. I have hope that things will turn out just as they are meant to be without my mental meddling.

My memory is slowing improving too. Now, words that had hidden in the fog, are returning. And as a writer, this loss was terrible for me. Cortisol will steal your memory. Now, it’s coming back.

FINDING A FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PHYSICIAN

There are two places to go. First is the FM web page. You can find an FM specialist nearest you at: http://www.functionalmedicine.org/findfmphysician/index.asp

Secondly, Diagnos-Techs. Inc., the creator of saliva tests for hormones, has a directory at http://www.diagnostechs.com/gibby/PROVIDER_wrap.html

These providers utilize the all-important ASI, Adrenal Stress Index saliva test by Diagnos-Techs, Inc. See more below about this test.

SALIVA TEST FOR HIGH CORTISOL

Since 1987, saliva has been found to be a good indicator of a number of our hormone functions. Diagnos-Techs, Inc., led the way in this discovery. If you’d like to know more about how our saliva can be utilized, go to their website and read up on: Saliva is a Valuable Diagnostic Tool for Hormone Assessment, 9.19.2009. It can be found at: http://www.diagnostechs.com/gibby/index.html#EVENTS

Dr. Brownsberger likes the ASI (adrenal stress index) saliva test that is put out by Diagnos-Techs, Inc. http://www.diagnostechs.com/gibby/index.html. This test is $99.00 and opens up the world via saliva, on a number of hormones, among them cortisol. You cannot buy this test without a physician’s prescription. It may be sent in by a physician’s assistant, Naturopath, or other health care providers as well as MD’s. There are other test kits out there, but this is the BEST one.

My advice is if your physician (who may not be Functional Medicine oriented), ask them to call this company to order this particular kit: 1-800-878-3787.

Below is the info onThe Adrenal Stress Index (ASI).

The ASI Index evaluates several markers of stress on the body, which include:

4 Cortisol tests help assess stress response

2 Insulin tests help examine blood sugar control

DHEA – Helps determine stress adaptation Secretory IgA – Helps evaluate possibility of strain on immunity

17-OH Progesterone – Helps determine adrenal reserve

Gluten Antibodies – Help identify grain intolerance

Abnormal adrenal rhythm can influence:

Energy production

Bone health

Immune system health

Sleep quality

Skin regeneration

Thyroid function

Muscle and joint function With only four saliva samples, your health care provider can use the findings in this panel to recommend customized treatment and preventive measures that may include diet and lifestyle changes, hormones, botanicals and vitamins.

The advantages of the ASI are:

1. The test is non-invasive & can be performed wherever you are. Only four saliva samples are needed.

2. Saliva is collected under real life conditions. There are no stressful blood draws and no gallon-sized urine containers to carry around for 24 hours.

3. With typical blood and urine testing, a number of borderline adrenal conditions are missed due to lack of sensitivity. ASI samples are taken within one circadian cycle (24 hours) and are able to provide more definitive measurements of adrenal health.

4. The ASI is an in-depth test, such that options for treatment are expanded by 400-500% over serum and urine test results.

Note: The ASI was invented and introduced by Diagnos-Techs, Inc. in 1989. All other panels offered on the market today are reproductions.

Do you need the ASI Test?

Request a stress questionnaire from your physician to determine if the ASI is the appropriate test for assessing your health condition. The score can help your doctor determine a course of action. The ASI is typically ordered for individuals that suffer from:

Chronic stress and related health problems

Lack of vitality and energy

Muscle and joint pain

Hypoglycemia

Migraine headaches

Osteoporosis

Sleep disturbances

Poor memory

Alcohol intolerance

Stress maladaptation

Low sex drive

Low body temperature

SERIPHOS

Dr. Brownsberger likes Seriphos, which is manufactured by InterPlexus. In order to reduce high cortisol Seriphos is what is known as an ACTH-dampening Phosphorylated serine supplement. I am going to be on 2 bottles (there is 100 capsules in each) because of my extreme PTSD high cortisol test results. Seriphos will basically plug the cortisol receptors and not allow them to fire off and keep the cortisol high in my bloodstream. Instead, by taking it daily, based upon the lab test results, I take it at 11 am, 3 pm and 10 pm, when my cortisol is outside the ‘normal’ limits. Over time, the cortisol resides and comes back within normal boundaries. At the same time, the Pituitary gland, which is supposed to be the “brake” that stops cortisol from being poured into the bloodstream, wakes up and starts to take over this function once more. Seriphos, in other words, retrains the brain/Pituitary hormones, to get involved once more in monitoring the amount of cortisol in my bloodstream and when the ‘threatening’ event is over, orders the adrenal glands to stop pouring cortisol into my bloodstream. The result of this retraining is that the cortisol is controlled, as it once had been before the trauma experienced, and goes back to normal limits.

Seriphos should be administered by your health care provider after you’ve gotten the saliva ASI test. Why? Because where the points of your cortisol lab test our out of normal range, you take a capsule at that time. This shouldn’t be guessed at or assumed by you. If you use it at the wrong times, you’re actually messing up the cortisol process. That’s why it’s so important to enlist the help of a health care provider who knows when you need this product.

Seriphos can be ordered online at http://www.vitacost.com. Just put “seriphos” in the Search box and it will turn up.

There are many other products out there that are ACTH dampening like Seriphos, but I’m going with what I have been on because it worked for me. Your health care provider may have another brand label that does the same thing.

WHAT IF I CAN’T FIND A FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PHYSICIAN WHERE I LIVE?

After going to the FM website and you find that the closest physcian is hundreds of miles away from you, I would suggest you go to your primary care physician and discuss this ASI test with her or him. And give the health care provider the name/phone number of the nearest FM physician. In this way, they can talk with one another on your behalf and your primary care health provider will be guided on what to do, and how to do it for you.

Or, if your primary health care provider refuses to work in this way, call and make an appointment with the nearest FM phyiscian and drive there. To me, after experiencing the miraculous changes in myself, no amount of driving would be too much. Even if it’s 200-500 miles, it would be worth it, in my opinion. But, that is something you must decide for yourself.

Also, check with Naturopaths in your area–frequently they may be aware of the ASI test. That’s another lead.

NORTHERN ARIZONA REFERRALS

If you are lucky enough to live in Northern Arizona where I live, there are two people I recommend. First, my primary care physcian, Linda Haggard, PA. You can call her for an appointment at (928) 284-0166 at their Sedona Integrative Medical Clinic, Oak Creek, Arizona. She and her husband, Eric Haggard, PT, have a website at: www.celebrationsoflight.com. They take care of the entire Verde Valley area and will be your connection for further cortisol testing. Linda has been a PA for twenty years and knows about high cortisol and its deadly affects on a person.

Secondly, if you live in the Flagstaff, Az area, there is Dr. Maya Brownsberger, Functional Medicine specialist. Her office is at: 1 (928) 214-7005 and her website is: www.optimalhealthandaesthetics.com.

I hope you find this helpful. You can always email me privately at docbones224@earthlink.net, if you have questions. I’d like to see everyone with high cortisol get the benefits I’ve been given. No one realizes the change in their life until they’ve had their cortisol corrected and the brain retrained. I wish freedom for all of you who have this condition. Please pass this series of blogs on to your family and friends who you suspect may have the same condition. You can be giving them a gift that lasts a lifetime.

REFERENCES:

Schmookler, E., Ph.D., Trauma Treatment Manual, 1996, Revised 2001, http://www.trauma-pages.com/s/schmookler-manual.php

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, American Psychiatric Assn., Washington, D.C., January, 1995

The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 16th Edition, edited by Robert Berkow, MD, Merck Research Labs, Rahway,NJ, 1992.

Butler, K., The Biology of Fear, July/Aug., 1996, The Family Therapy Networker, Washington, D.C.

Diagnos-Techs, Inc., ASI test

http://www.diagnostechs.com/gibby/index.html

Posted in Health | Tagged cortisol, functional medicine, ptsd, trauma | Comments Off

High Cortisol Symptoms/PTSD and You, Part 3

Posted on 02/20/2011 by eileen.nauman

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)/High Cortisol and How To Heal From It
by Eileen Nauman, DHM (UK)
Copyright 2009 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved

How to Normalize Cortisol and Say Good-bye to PTSD Symptoms

My good friend, Rosemarie Brown, MSW, suggested I see Dr. Maya Brownsberger, MD, Functional Medicine specialist. She knew my violent dysfunctional family background and felt that this might be an important step in my healing process to take. I had my doubts, but I drove up to Flagstaff to see Dr. Brownsberger.

She spent an hour and a half with me and missed nothing. She was especially interested in my childhood, the dysfunction and gave me a thorough physical examination as well. She missed NOTHING. I was impressed with that alone. She then told me that I needed a saliva test to determine my cortisol levels. She gave me a box of goodies from Diagnos-Techs, Inc. from Tukwila, Washington. There were four vials with four pieces of rolled cotton in each one. According to the directions I was to place one under my tongue at a specific time of day for about ten minutes. Then, I was to place it back in the tube and mark the day/time it was collected. After I was done with that, I was to send it off over night, to the Washington lab.

I did that and had to leave for Europe for three weeks. I set a second appointment with her to see the results of my tests. In early October I got up to see Maya. In her office, she showed me the first of many pages of reports on me. My cortisol levels were so high and off the map, Maya wasn’t sure if her protocols to bring them back into normal alignment,would work or not.

I looked at the report and saw, yes indeed, my cortisol was literally, all over the place and nowhere near ‘normal.’ Maya said that she believed me when I told her I was hyper vigilant, but this test was so ‘bad’ (my word not hers), she really “got” how alert I really was. I laughed at that. I know I have eyes in the back of my head! Thanks to PTSD and high cortisol.

Maya explained that all my symptoms were the result of the high cortisol. It was no wonder I slept lightly at night; my cortisol was high. I never dreamed. Nor did I remember many dreams. And that was why, she said. And during the day I had told her at the intake session, that I was always anxious and super alert, my highest cortisol was at noon. And in the morning when it was supposed to be high, it was low. I woke up groggy and unable to ‘wake up’ like I should.

Of the four points, I had one barely inside ‘normal’–by one point. Everything else was like a yo-yo and nowhere near the normal flow of what cortisol should be like in one’s bloodstream.

I felt pretty vindicated as I looked at this test result. And given my dysfunctional family background that I survived (barely) for eighteen years, I realized the enormity of this test. I then asked Maya what could be done to bring the cortisol levels down to normal levels.

Here is part of my ASI saliva test to find out where my cortisol levels were at. As you can see, 3 out of 4 are ‘out of bounds’ of normal cortisol operating limits. Based upon these three times, Dr. Brownsberger authorized Seriphos, an adaptogen supplement, to be taken at 11 am, 3 pm and 10 pm by me. WHEN you take Seriphos is strictly based upon the results of this test. You don’t want to take it at times when your cortisol is in bounds and normal. That’s why the ASI saliva test is so important. More on this test down below in my blog.

She put me on Seriphos, an adaptogen that was to “plug” the cortisol receptors, thereby forcing the cortisol back down to within normal levels. It also would “wake up” and retrain the Pituitary gland and get it back online to do its job, which is to police how much cortisol should be in my bloodstream at any given time. So, there is a twofold action to Seriphos. And she had me take it at 11 am, 3 pm and when I went to bed. These times corresponded with my lab profile you see above:

This is the Seriphos bottle. It is the adaptogen that Dr. Brownsberger prefers, although there are other labels out there on the market.

I was also put on Hydro-zyme, two tablets with each major meal of the day. This is an HCL (hydrochloric acid) supplement. Why? Because as we get older, our stomach acid isn’t like it used to be. The results of weakened stomach acid is heart burn, esophageal ulcer, acute gastritis and full blown stomach ulcers. I had one bout of heartburn about six months ago and Maya felt that even one episode was a red flag. And so, I am on them, too.

I was very excited and hopeful about the Seriphos even though Maya had initial doubts because I was such an extreme cortisol case. Within three days, I began to note a huge difference in myself. At first, I couldn’t believe it. What happened was the cortisol went down to normal and I felt normal for the first time that I could ever remember in 63 years of living! I felt calm and centered inside. I didn’t realize how anxious I was until it was GONE. Completely gone. I marveled at how quiet and balanced I felt. Even more astounding and heart rending was I was myself for the first time in my life.

A person who has high cortisol is ALWAYS in a constant state of anxiety. It can fluctuate, but it’s always there. To have Seriphos stop this completely just shocked me. I had no idea how much anxiety I was feeling until that seminal moment. What was even better was usual situations that would trigger my adrenaline flooding through me, my heart beating hard and feeling frightened or angry, simply did not occur. My mind, which was trained for the situation saw it–but my emotions did NOT ENGAGE. And when my emotions, which were level and calm, did not jump to the scenario, the mind was left with a “huh?” kind of moment.

I found in the first month that I had relief from anxiety I’d had all my life. I felt intense peace, calmness, extra patience and no irritability. My fear was gone. I could think of things that would make me fearful, and I had no emotional reaction to them. It was simply amazing and life-changing for me. I found after a month, that I could, once again, feel happiness. The only feelings I felt were fear, anger and threat. I did not know what it felt like to feel joy and happiness until just now. And now, my heart stirs and swells with these wonderful ‘other’ emotions. The positive ones.

I have been living in a wonderfully centered, grounded, peaceful and quiet inner radiance that simply did not exist for me until now.

By the third day on Seriphos, my sleep changed. I slept deeply. I slept longer. I didn’t wake up three times a night. Now, after being on it nearly two months, I might wake up once, for about five minutes and then go back to sleep–a huge change.

Maya had mentioned that another sign of high cortisol in a woman was hot flashes–a lot of them, very intense and ongoing for much longer than they should. I had that symptom. Now, I have maybe three or four hot flashes in a day compared to the thirty or so I had before. What a relief. And my “night flashes” have pretty much gone away–at least ninety percent. And they were responsible for me waking up three times a night.

I can dream again! I’ve had several powerful, life-changing symbolic dreams and its so wonderful to remember them after I wake up. I remember dreaming when very young–in Technicolor and vivid and wonderful. Now, they are coming back.

My weight has slowly been lowering. I was at 183 and I’m at 164. But I stay on a 900 calorie a day diet with 2 miles of brutal uphill/downhill walking. I haven’t seen any change there, yet, but I’m hopeful. If I had high cortisol since I was so young I don’t remember that age, I’m sure it’s going to take more than two months to straighten out all the rest of my systems. I’m a patient person now (and with high cortisol, I was terribly impatient). I can wait. I know there’s a multitude of changes going on within me.

My memory is coming back too. It was awful. Now, words that had hidden in the fog, are returning. And as a writer, this loss was terrible for me. Cortisol will steal your memory. Now, it’s coming back.

FINDING A FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PHYSICIAN

There are two places to go. First is the FM web page. You can find an FM specialist nearest you at: http://www.functionalmedicine.org/findfmphysician/index.asp

Secondly, Diagnos-Techs. Inc., the creator of saliva tests for hormones, has a directory at http://www.diagnostechs.com/gibby/PROVIDER_wrap.html

These providers utilize the all-important ASI, Adrenal Stress Index saliva test by Diagnos-Techs, Inc. See more below about this test.

SALIVA TEST FOR HIGH CORTISOL

My advice is if your physician (who may not be Functional Medicine oriented), ask them to call this company to order this particular kit: 1-800-878-3787.

Here is the info on that test:

The Adrenal Stress Index (ASI)

The ASI Index evaluates several markers of stress on the body, which include:

4 Cortisol tests help assess stress response

2 Insulin tests help examine blood sugar control

DHEA – Helps determine stress adaptation Secretory IgA – Helps evaluate possibility of strain on immunity

17-OH Progesterone – Helps determine adrenal reserve

Gluten Antibodies – Help identify grain intolerance

Abnormal adrenal rhythm can influence:

Energy production

Bone health

Immune system health

Sleep quality

Skin regeneration

Thyroid function

Advantages of the ASI

1. The test is non-invasive & can be performed wherever you are. Only four saliva samples are needed.

2. Saliva is collected under real life conditions. There are no stressful blood draws and no gallon-sized urine containers to carry around for 24 hours.

4. The ASI is an in-depth test, such that options for treatment are expanded by 400-500% over serum and urine test results.

Note: The ASI was invented and introduced by Diagnos-Techs, Inc. in 1989. All other panels offered on the market today are reproductions.

Do you need the ASI Test?

Chronic stress and related health problems

Lack of vitality and energy

Muscle and joint pain

Hypoglycemia

Migraine headaches

Osteoporosis

Sleep disturbances

Poor memory

Alcohol intolerance

Stress maladaptation

Low sex drive

Low body temperature

SERIPHOS

Dr. Brownsberger likes Seriphos, which is manufactured by InterPlexus. In order to reduce high cortisol Seriphos is what is known as an ACTH-dampening Phosphorylated serine supplement. I am going to be on 2 bottles (there is 100 capsules in each) because of my extreme PTSD high cortisol test results. Seriphos will basically plug the cortisol receptors and not allow them to fire off and keep the cortisol high in my bloodstream. Instead, by taking it daily, based upon the lab test results, I take it at 11 am, 3 pm and 10 pm, when my cortisol is outside the ‘normal’ limits. Over time, the cortisol resides and comes back within normal boundaries. At the same time, the Pituitary gland, which is supposed to be the “brake” that stops cortisol from being poured into the bloodstream,wakes up and starts to take over this function once more. Seriphos, in other words, retrains the brain/Pituitary hormones, to get involved once more in monitoring the amount of cortisol in my bloodstream and when the ‘threatening’ event is over, orders the adrenal glands to stop pouring cortisol into my bloodstream. The result of this retraining is that the cortisol is controlled, as it once had been before the trauma experienced, and goes back to normal limits.

Seriphos can be ordered online at http://www.vitacost.com. Just put “seriphos” in the Search box and it will turn up.

WHAT IF I CAN’T FIND A FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PHYSICIAN WHERE I LIVE?

Also, check with Naturopaths in your area–frequently they may be aware of the ASI test. That’s another lead.

NORTHERN ARIZONA REFERRALS

REFERENCES:

Schmookler, E., Ph.D., Trauma Treatment Manual, 1996, Revised 2001, http://www.trauma-pages.com/s/schmookler-manual.php

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, American Psychiatric Assn., Washington, D.C., January, 1995

The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 16th Edition, edited by Robert Berkow, MD, Merck Research Labs, Rahway,NJ, 1992.

Butler, K., The Biology of Fear, July/Aug., 1996, The Family Therapy Networker, Washington, D.C.

Diagnos-Techs, Inc., ASI test

http://www.diagnostechs.com/gibby/index.html

Posted in Health | Tagged cortisol, functional medicine, ptsd, trauma | Comments Off

High Cortisol Sympoms/PTSD and You, Part 2

Posted on 02/20/2011 by eileen.nauman

PTSD and High Cortisol Level and How it Affects Us

PTSD — High Cortisol and How To Heal From It – PART 2
by Eileen Nauman, DHM (UK)
Copyright 2009 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved

HOW DO YOU GET PTSD?

1. It can be a sudden, unexpected stress. For example, you see or survive an automobile or a train wreck, you live through an earthquake, you see a plane crash (or you survive one), you live through a flood, or some other kind of natural disaster, such as a tornado or hurricane. An explosion can cause it. Being involved in a fire, or seeing one wreak havoc, can also trigger this cascade of symptoms. The attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Centers is ripe for PTSD symptoms, as was the destruction of the Twin Trade towers on 9.11– for not only those caught in this horrible holocaust, but those who viewed it on television or heard it on radio not only in the USA–but around the world. So, you don’t need to have been there to “get” PTSD symptoms. We are all vulnerable to such global trauma. The death of a loved one (parent, child, grandparent, uncle, aunt, good friend, ect) can also trigger PTSD.

2. Men or women who have ‘gone to war’–whether in armed combat, or the ‘war’ on the streets as a police person, firefighter, paramedic, ambulance attendant, gang-banging, or the war in a dysfunctional family, all qualify. The Gulf War vets, the Iraq and Afghanistan vets as well as the Vietnam vets, have earned their PTSD symptoms from encountering the gory, super-stressful, bloody horror of war–up front and close. Their lives may have been threatened. Maybe not. Just living in a war zone is enough to trigger PTSD in some people. Terrorist attacks can create it. Living in a ‘war-zone’ neighborhood, or the inner city, will trigger these symptoms. Places such as Yugoslavia, now carved up into fiefdom, is another good example–all people of that area have suffered some form and exposure to PTSD. Israel is under constant threat of attack and I’m sure many of them suffer from these symptoms.

3. If the person is exposed to inhumane treatment–and this includes verbal or physical abuse (spousal), incest or rape or actually being a POW, prisoner-of-war, PTSD symptoms will manifest. Torture comes in many forms. If one lives eighteen years in a dysfunctional family, that is a special hell and torture in its own right. One doesn’t need to be put in a cage somewhere in Vietnam to garner the same PTSD symptoms. The cage for the trapped child is just as real because their is no escape for eighteen years. Either environment will create them. If an individual views atrocity, that can trigger symptoms.

Again, it doesn’t have to be in a war zone or in combat–it can be at a train wreck, an airplane disaster, a terrorist attack. As an example, the Oklahoma City bombing has, quite literally, created a city of PTSD survivors. Many police and firefighters view human remains at accident sites all the time–and never received help for what they view. Some did, fortunately–but others did not. Human or animal atrocity affects all of us. The question is just how much. At some point, we all have an inner boundary where inhumane treatment, torture or atrocity, will affect all of us.

Now, the latest trauma, the terrorist attacks on our Pentagon and the destruction of the World Trade Centers in New York City have, once again, created a massive PTSD epidemic in the wake of these assaults on our collective, USA psyche. Bosnia has been traumatized. Right now, it is Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention, Iran and Pakistan. Violence against anyone breeds PTSD.

4. The psychological and constitutional elements of ourselves, which is known collectively to the homeopath as the “vital force” will create more or less susceptibility to PTSD symptoms. Ten people can view a plane crash. There will be ten different, varying levels of reaction to it. Those whose vital forces are more susceptible to this type of trauma, will be more profoundly affected and they will be the ones coming away with PTSD symptoms and high cortisol levels. Others may be less affected or not at all. Four children in an abusive household will have four different coping mechanisms and reactions to the war-zone environment and each vital force will respond a little differently to it–but they will all walk away wounded with PTSD. It’s just a question of how much damage has been done and where. Some people’s psyche/vital force, are more resilient than others. However, the more long-term the ‘war zone’ that is encountered, the more sure you are that they will all be effected. It’s just a question of how much, at that point.

5. Any of the above situations combined with physical abuse or bodily injury will cause PTSD. Injury, particularly to the head region, will guarantee it. Homes where children are slapped, beaten, thrown around, will have a high degree of PTSD symptoms unless they have a very tough, strong vital force. And even then, they will still be wounded; but perhaps not as deeply as some other individuals who are more susceptible to such a combative environment.

6. PTSD symptoms can worsen especially if there is no social net or fabric in which to seek help or protection from this warlike environment or warlike person. Without an abuse shelter being available, without the means to talk to someone who recognizes the bottom line of the problem, survivors, if left in such an environment, simply become worse over time. A military vet who cannot seek help, is left to suffer in his or her personal hell that only deepens and stains their entire life, year by year. PTSD symptoms, if not caught and reversed, only become worse with time. It ruins marriages, children, and stains the PTSD survivor irrevocably. In a sense a PTSD survivor is still in their POW cage–it just isn’t visible, but it’s there in the guise of high cortisol symptoms.

Here is an illustration of where our Adrenals sit on top of our kidneys. When everything is normal, there is ‘talk’ and communication hormonally between the adrenals and the pituitary. But when there is high cortisol, this connection is broken.

THE THYROID IMPLICATION

There is synergy between cortisol and thyroid hormones. Both have to be in our cells, bound to their respective receptors at normal levels in order to work efficiently. If cortisol levels are low, caused by Adrenal exhaustion, our thyroid is less efficient at doing its job of increasing our energy and metabolic activity. The person may end up with hypothyroid symptoms and unwanted weight gain.
When your cortisol is too high, it interferes with the thyroid hormone signal. In essence, it creates what is known as ‘thyroid resistance.’ This means the thyroid hormones levels can be ‘normal’ in a test, but our cell tissues fail to respond as efficiently to the thyroid signal. This too can be misdiagnosed as hypothyroidism. Throwing thyroid supplements at it won’t fix it, either. Why? Because the foundational problem is the high cortisol. You bring the cortisol within normal operation and the hypothyroid symptoms go away and your thyroid is able to function fully and normally once more.
Signs of hypothyroid symptoms are:
* Fatigue
* Weakness
* Weight gain or increased difficulty losing weight
* Coarse, dry hair
* Dry, rough pale skin
* Hair loss
* Cold intolerance (you can’t tolerate cold temperatures like those around you)
* Muscle cramps and frequent muscle aches
* Constipation
* Depression
* Irritability
* Memory loss
* Abnormal menstrual cycles
* Decreased libido, low or no sex drive

INSULIN RESISTANCE

High cortisol also causes insulin resistance as well. It takes more insulin to drive glucose into the cells when coritsol is high. And so you have a high coritsol and insulin and this creates the ‘insulin resistance.’ You are going to gain weight around the waist because our body stores fat there, rather than burning it off like it should. This is the “apple” body shape.

PERI-MENOPAUSE AND MENOPAUSE

When cortisol is high, our brain is less sensitive to estrogens. This can throw women into “early” menopause. It can also amp up hot flashes and night flashes….which are not only bothersome but at night, when we’re trying to sleep–we are constantly be awakened. The sleep deprivation from this one symptom alone will put any woman into a tailspin over time. In peri-menopausal women cortisol should drop at night. Progesterone plays an important role here because it actually competes with cortisol for the glucocorticoid receptors. It can counter the stimulating (wide awake vs sleeping) effects of cortisol at night when you need to be sleeping deeply and soundly. With high cortisol, the progesterone is shoved aside and loses out. The result is insomnia for the woman.

You can have post menopausal women with reasonable amounts of estrogen but when the cortisol rises, she will get hot flashes–which are seen by the medical establishment as an estrogen deficiency. In this case, it’s not a deficiency. It’s the cortisol interfering in the process. If the cortisol levels are brought down to normal, the hot flashes end once and for all. And if your doctor misdiagnosis your hot flash symptoms, he or she will give you other hormones to compensate–and they won’t work. Be sure, if you are past menopause, and continue to have hot flashes, to get your cortisol levels checked first (Part 3 will have information on who to contact and what tests to get) before taking any other hormones.

BONE LOSS

There’s real problems with bone loss (spinal shrinkage among them) when cortisol is high. It activates many of the biochemical pathways that are involved with bone resorption. It specifically inhibits osteoblast activity which is responsible for bone building. It suppresses production of androgens (male hormones) in the gonads and adrogens help build bone in men. It activates osteoclasts which causes bone to be resorbed faster than normal. It decreases mineral absorption in the gut (and that is why a good mineral supplement is vital). You won’t be able to absorb calcium and magnesium–both of which are needed to build bone and keep our bones strong. It also increases kidney spilling of calcium. So that’s another loss of calcium for us.

REFERENCES:

Schmookler, E., Ph.D., Trauma Treatment Manual, 1996, Revised 2001, http://www.trauma-pages.com/s/schmookler-manual.php

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, American Psychiatric Assn., Washington, D.C., January, 1995

The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 16th Edition, edited by Robert Berkow, MD, Merck Research Labs, Rahway,NJ, 1992.

Butler, K., The Biology of Fear, July/Aug., 1996, The Family Therapy Networker, Washington, D.C.

Hypothyroid symptoms
http://www.endocrineweb.com/hypo1.html

High Cortisol, Thyroid, Bones, Menopause
HOW CORTISOL LEVELS AFFECT THYROID FUNCTION AND AGING
Interview with David Zava, Ph.D.
http://www.virginiahopkinstestkits.com/cortisolzava.html

Posted in Health | Tagged cortisol, functional medicine, ptsd, trauma | Comments Off

High Cortisol Sympoms/PTSD and You, Part 1

Posted on 02/19/2011 by eileen.nauman

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD )– High Cortisol and How To Heal From It
by Eileen Nauman, DHM (UK)
Copyright 2009 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved

SYMPTOMS OF HIGH CORTISOL

Do you have PTSD? Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. No? You don’t think so? Think again. You don’t have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan to get PTSD. You can get it in your childhood–from a trauma of any kind. And why should we care about high cortisol level in our bloodstream that is caused by PTSD? The adrenals manufacture adrenaline and cortisol. Anyone who has gone to war (where it was a family war for eighteen years or being in the military or coming from a ghetto neighborhood, or anything you define as unsafe or threatening….) the final outcome is the SAME: High cortisol levels.

Here is a good illustration of the adrenals, which sit atop our kidneys. The Cortisol and adrenaline are shot into our blood stream and once the threat is over, the Pituitary gland sends out other hormones to stop these adrenal hormones from being poured into our bloodstream. In normal people, this happens. But for those of us who have PTSD, we have high cortisol levels and they aren’t shut “off” by the Pituitary gland. The good news is: this can be fixed and I’ll blog on the ways in later parts of this series on High Cortisol.

With this ‘haze’ of hormone that is always high and active in your bloodstream (and you won’t know it until you test for it….), it creates a nightmare existence for you. It is an emotional haze, too. It’s not in your head, it’s zeroed in and targets our entire emotional structure. And unless the person is on top of this uncontrollable anxiety emotional state, they live a life in Hell. And so do the people who are associated with this person. Fortunately, it can be corrected and cured. That’s the good news.

Mars rules the Adrenal glands. It is our “fight or flight” glands that sit atop our kidneys. When we feel threatened and unsafe, our cortisol is the first thing to shoot into our blood stream. Then, if we feel violence is going to happen to us, here comes the adrenaline. When the threat or sense of unsafeness is no longer there, the adrenals stop putting these hormones out into our bloodstream and your sense of safety returns to normal. You now feel safe and unthreatened. You are at peace. The anxiety is gone.

That works for some of the population. But there are many of us “out there” where this does not occur. And before I go into all the reasons why this is so, I feel it’s more important to share the symptoms of high cortisol levels that does not recede and turn off after an incident/trauma that we experience.

WHAT IS CORTISOL?

Cortisol is a hormone that is supposed to help us meet the daily stress in our lives. It converts protein into energy. It releases glycogen (sugar) and counteracts inflammation. For a short time, Cortisol is our stress protector. BUT, if the cortisol does not subside and return to normal levels within us, then it throws us into a nightmare world where we may feel like there is this angry, anxious, threatened and feeling unsafe stranger living within us.

And all the while this emotional storm is going on inside us, we struggle mightily to maintain a societal face to the outside world that is acceptable. Quite literally, we lead two lives. The inner life is one of always feeling threatened in large and small ways, feeling unprotected, vulnerable, unable to defend ourselves, feeling anxious, tense and always ‘on guard.’

The outer ‘mask’ we wear is trying to react normally to people and our environment regardless of how we feel internally. This is a terrible way to live, but it is the inner life of a person is struggling with high cortisol levels. It’s a terrible curse that has fall out on every level of ourselves: mentally, emotionally and physically.

HIGH CORTISOL STAGES

Our first stage occurs when we feel threatened in some way (trauma, heat, cold, chemical irritation, infection, stress, violence, feeling unsafe, threatened, security (money, emotional) is not there, unprotected, ect. ) the endocrine system kicks in and cortisol is released. Our heart beats faster, our blood pressure arises and our pupils dilate. This is the reaction stage to threat.

Our second stage is Adaptation. This is the stage were we are living beneath CHRONIC, unrelieved stress. The stress trigger might be your job, your spouse, caregiving, or a hundred other stresses defined by you. The worst case scenario is that you had a dysfunctional childhood where this sense of no protection, feeling vulnerable and in danger, created the continuous high cortisol levels in your bloodstream. What happens is the adrenal glands have enlarged and released large quantities of adrenal cortical hormones, the symptoms MAY disappear and we feel okay. We have energy, and are able to function in the presence of the stress that we’re under. We may go years or decades in this stage. Eventually, our chronic stress catches up with us and then we “cascade” and go into the last stage.

The last stage is Exhaustion and this is where the ‘cascade effect’ of symptoms occur. The body’s reserves have been under attack for years or decades. There may be lost nutrition as a result. Our resilience to deal with this chronic stress depletes our minerals and nutrition. There may be physical collapse, you may suffer from an emotional breakdown, become dysfunctional and/or experience an organ or body system failure, such as a heart attack or stroke. The emotional nightmare world that the high cortisol person is trapped within can bring them to a psychiatrist and mood altering or controlling drugs are used to ‘fix it,’ which of course all it does is suppress the real problem and fixes nothing in the long term. This is not the answer. The good news is that all of this can be stopped. And we can return to being a ‘normal’ human being.

WHAT DOES HIGH CORTISOL DO TO US?

First of all chronic stress or one, sudden trauma, can create the high cortisol levels situation. What is high stress for me won’t be for you, so you can’t say that “this” or “that” will trigger the cortisol. Cortisol has a role in regulating blood sugar, energy production, inflammation, supporting the immune system and in healing. Every human responds to stress differently.

Let’s look at some triggers and see if you find yourself in here: lack of sleep, a demanding boss, threat of losing your job, lost your job, relationship strains, divorce, conflicts with neighbors, death or illness in your family, being a caregiver, yo-yo dieting, having to move from your home, losing your home, foreclosure worries, child worries, child illness, fighting for a parking space, caught in slow moving traffic, unable to make an appointment on time, are but a few examples. You should define what stresses you by writing down a list of them.

Add to this Pandora’s box of possibilities are people who come from a dysfunctional childhood. Women who are raped, men or women who are sexually incested as children, experiencing a violent event (being robbed, beaten, nearly dying from a violent act, going to war in a foreign country, reaction to 9/11, deep subconscious wound(s) from the past that are all unresolved wounds and it sends our cortisol into high levels and it never return to normal levels.

Lastly, don’t forget about the stress of our environment upon all of us: air pollution, heat/cold/noise, psychological stress (worry, fear, feeling threatened, feeling unsafe, feeling attacked, ect.), biochemical stress (nutritional deficiencies, sugar and salt consumption), all play a part in this too.

If we experience continuous high cortisol levels, then our healing ability is halted and slowed done. The immune system becomes suppressed. Glycogen (sugar) stores in the liver and muscle tissue are initiated and raise the blood sugar level (hypoglycemia or diabetes). Digestion and assimilation, then, are inhibited. The stomach lining becomes thin and ulcerated. Our Thymus gland and lymphatic tissue shrinks.

With all these cascade of symptoms due to high cortisol levels in our bloodstream that do not recede and return to normal, let’s look at the symptoms that it causes. Do you find yourself among these symptoms? If you do, in another blog I’ll tell you how to prove it by specific lab testing and then how to fix it to bring your cortisol levels down to normal function.

SYMPTOMS OF HIGH CORTISOL

ABDOMEN: people with high cortisol have weight gain and it bulges in the abdominal area. The abdominal fat is thickest and hardest to get rid of (nearly impossible) when you diet. This is the “apple” type of body. The fat goes first to the abdomen and is the last to be dieted off (if ever).

ADDICTIONS: Drugs (over-the-counter), recreational drugs, alcohol–anything to escape the monster inside yourself that keeps you anxious and edgy/tense. Drugs helps to nullify this sense of being threatened, anxious, unsafe or unprotected. Drugs dull these feelings but then you’re caught in a wheel of addiction.

ALLERGIES TO CERTAIN FOODS: food intolerance’s (allergies to certain food groups, such as wheat, et.) chronic gastrointestinal symptoms and other difficulties (for example, diarrhea after eating wheat products, ice cream, ect.).

ANXIETY: all the time. If you are from a dysfunctional home, you may have grown up with this emotional feeling and think this anxiousness is normal. It’s not. But you won’t know that until after you are diagnosed and on a regime to lower your cortisol level. Anxiety make people jumpy, nervous, it produces feelings of tension that never goes away. Tension can be felt in the neck, shoulders or anywhere else in our body where we ‘store it.’ Unable to relax, to feel calm, at peace and a deep sense of quiet inside ourselves, there is this sense of being ‘on edge’ is always in the background ‘noise’ of our lives. It never goes away.

BONE LOSS : If your adrenals are compromised, they make insufficient DHEA. This contributes to bone loss, shrinking of spinal column and loss of height.

BOWELS: constipation or diarrhea is a constant; especially under stress people either have a day of going to bathroom 5-10 times a day or they constipate for 2-3 days after the stress. Bowel movements only return to normal (3 BM’s a day), after stress is relieved from the person. If not, then they cascade into other diagnoses, such as irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis, divertisculosis or Crohn’s Disease.

CRITICAL: of yourself, blaming yourself for not doing the right thing all the time, critical of self for making mistakes, putting yourself down, never feeling good about yourself, feeling ashamed or not “good enough.” Low self-esteem. This little voice was started in early childhood when your parent(s) told you that you were not good enough, did not measure up or in some way, disappointed them. Bad on them.

DEPRESSION: comes and goes or is there all the time. When under stress, the depression will occur. When the stress is lightened or removed, the depression will lift somewhat or go away completely; depending upon the person and circumstance.

DIGESTION: impaired. Gut can’t absorb nutrition and we become nutritionally deficient in minerals and some vitamins. “Leaky gut” syndrome. Can be diagnosed as acute gastritis, heartburn, ulcers, ect. If you eat certain food groups (see Allergies, Food) there can be digestive upset, uneasiness or even nausea and in worst case scenario, vomiting. Get tested for food allergies. And, if having heartburn or ulcers, think about Biotics Research “Hydro-Zyme” with each meal.

DREAMING: You no longer dream. Or if you dream, you don’t remember them. Or, you dreamed at one time but don’t know. Often, we are cut off from our dream world, which is tragic. We lose this connection. High cortisol levels at night prevent our dreaming. Or if you dream, they are always dreams that contain anxiety, violence, a sense of vulnerability and being unable to protect yourself adequately.

ENERGY LAG: About 2 pm to 4 pm every day. Those who have this may use caffeine drinks (coffee, tea, soda) as a “pick-me-up”–all red flags.

EXTREME EXERCISING: In order to take the ‘edge’ we feel inwardly in the form of restlessness or anxiety, we turn to exercise as a way to ‘tame’ these feelings. We do it as an unconscious attempt to lower our anxiety (cortisol) levels. Anyone who must do five miles a day, or must jog “or else,” falls into this category. Exercise actually takes off the “edge” that we constantly feel when cortisol remains high. And we feel if we don’t exercise, something awful will happen to us. There’s an obsessive “drive” to exercise. Unconsciously, we’re lowering our cortisol levels for those few hours a day…to give ourselves internal and emotional relief from it.

FATIGUE: always feeling tired. Even if you got twelve hours of sleep, you still wake up feeling tired. You will “hit the wall” between 2 pm to 4 pm daily.

HEALING : Slowed down and slow regeneration or slow recuperation. If your cold or flu lasts longer and your recuperation time is abnormally slow, you are affected.

HYPERINSULISM: Plainly put, your insulin levels are too high. Chronic stress/high cortisol antagonizes insulin and will cause functional insulin resistance. And, the moment you eat a carbohydrate (pasta, bread, ect.) this causes hyperinsulism response. This is chronic insulin resistance and will lead, eventually, to pancreatic exhaustion. Further, the body makes FAT CELLS instantly out of ANY carbohydrate being consumed. You get FAT and the carbohydrate, which is really to be broken down and used for sugar and energy for the body, does not occur. All you get is fat cells and weight gain.

HYPOGLYCEMIA: Low blood sugar. You can experience it either during the night hours or during the day time. Try Biotics Research “Bio-Glycozyme Forte” with each meal.

IMMUNE SYSTEM: compromised a little or a lot. This can mean you catch a lot of colds or flu. Or, you don’t recover quickly from them…it takes weeks instead of days to rebound. It can mean arthritis, too. Or any other immune-compromising acute or chronic disease falls into this category as well.

IRRITABILITY: over things you shouldn’t get irate about in the first place — but you do. Irritability is always in the background with anxiety with high cortisol. You ‘trigger’ too fast with anger, rage or irritability to the situation. Your anger emotion clouds your judgment and mental ability to look beyond the moment. You find yourself wrestling with anger and irritability all the time. And when you fall victim to it, you will see it’s almost always the inappropriate emotion to have.

JOINTS: aching. As the cortisol cascade continues, our joints will take a hammering. Arthritis is usually the cascade outcome.

MENTAL: forgetful, and you may think you have Alzheimer’s, but you don’t. This gets worse with age. Other mental “voices” inside your head is the CRITIC.

METABOLISM: The adrenals and thyroid are directly affected. Only salvia testing and blood testing will confirm they are in a cascade due to high cortisol levels. Adrenals may be in one of the seven levels of exhaustion . The thyroid usually goes “hypo” and is slower than normal. This gives you an array of hypothryoid symptoms. The real culprit, however, is high cortisol. Get that fixed and your thyroid should usually return to normal function by itself.

MUSCLES: they will be destroyed over time. Loss of muscle mass. If you’re exercising, lifting weights and muscle mass is hard to create OR if you don’t exercise for 2-3 days, it is lost, then you have high cortisol levels.

NEGATIVE OUTLOOK ON LIFE: No matter what happens to you, even good things, you always fear something bad will happen next. You cannot take joy in your triumphs. You can’t absorb the confidence that comes with these triumphs. This leaves you with low self esteem. You are always looking for something bad to occur. There is little joy or happiness in your life. You see it as one slogging day after another. The only emotions you really feel are fear, anger and threat. You can’t feel joy or happiness or any of the other positive emotions others do. “The sky is falling,” was invented by a high cortisol level person. Depression. Hopelessness. Gray. Darkness. Loss of trust in people as well as yourself. Also, you tend to extrapolate what will happen in any event, with any person, place or thing. And you always will see the many possibilities and yet, at the same time, trying to protect yourself from the ‘worst case scenario’ that you believe will happen.

NEGATIVE VOICE: this emotional sense of failure is always with you. It tells you that you’re worthless, you should be ashamed of yourself, that you’re no good, that you’ll amount to nothing is always there whispering 24/7 in your ear. I call this the INNER CRITIC. This is associated with low self esteem.

NOISE: Can’t tolerate loud noises of any kind. This sets the person into irritability or anger. Sometimes, uncontrolled rage at the worst and irritability at the best.

ODORS: As an example, perfume will send you into orbit. You can’t stand strong smells of any kind and will avoid a perfume counter at all cost. Many can’t go into a hospital because of the sanitizing odors. Or at the as pump, the gas smell creates a terrific headache within minutes of inhaling the odor. Headaches are a common response to any odor that emotionally upsets you. Every day household supplies also create the same response. Migraines.

SELF-EDITING: Because you feel threatened, unsafe and potentially in danger at every turn, this is how you feel inside due to high level of cortisol in your bloodstream 24/7. Those who are conscious and doing inner work on themselves, they realize their inner self isn’t appropriate to live in Society, wear a ‘mask’ of a different personality in order to protect others from how they REALLY feel inside. This self-editing is a constant 24/7. Your first emotional response is to want to knee jerk and become irritable, scream and get angry, but you know that’s not the right response, so you self-edit yourself. WIth the mask in place, you speak calmly and work through the haze of your powerful emotions that want to do the opposite and act in a way that is societally acceptable. This is a tremendous struggle. It takes energy, time and some days you will feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. There is a tiredness (emotional) that can set in because of the energy expenditure you must keep in place.

For people who are not conscious of the inner/outer personality due to high cortisol levels, they will ACT OUT how they feel inside in the OUTSIDE world, and it is completely inappropriate in every way, but they can’t help themselves at this stage. These people are the rage-o-holics, the ‘going postal’ types, the road-ragers, the ones who kill people or attack them verbally or physically. They are the addicts with a drug problem. They are the abusers on every level: mental, emotional and physical.

SEX DRIVE: decreased to nonexistent.

WEIGHT GAIN: Always. Hard to lose it. Craving for comfort foods. Craving for sugar and salt. And, you gain weight even as you diet! It’s nearly impossible to lose your weight no matter how much exercise and diet you throw into the mix. Unless you go on a severe 600 calorie a day diet (women), you can lose the weight but as soon as you try to eat more than that, the weight comes right back on. No matter the diet, you cannot ever lose weight and keep it off. Obesity is the result unless you have the iron fist strength to maintain a 600 to 900 calorie a day diet for the rest of your life. It’s a miserable way to live. Pasta and bread products are your biggest weight gain choices. Usually an allergy to wheat is present. See: Hyperinsulism. Allergies, Food.

RELATED DIAGNOSIS: If you have Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Arthritis, Premature Menopause, these can all be tied into high cortisol levels and/or adrenal exhaustion.

REFERENCES:

Schmookler, E., Ph.D., Trauma Treatment Manual, 1996, Revised 2001, http://www.trauma-pages.com/s/schmookler-manual.php

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, American Psychiatric Assn., Washington, D.C., January, 1995

The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 16th Edition, edited by Robert Berkow, MD, Merck Research Labs, Rahway,NJ, 1992.

Butler, K., The Biology of Fear, July/Aug., 1996, The Family Therapy Networker, Washington, D.C.

Posted in Health | Tagged cortisol, functional medicine, ptsd, trauma | Comments Off

Free astrology forecasts for 2011

Posted on 12/20/2010 by eileen.nauman

FREE: January 2011 Forecast

First of all, Happy NEW year! We survived December. Maybe not without dents, injuries or hobbling around…but we’re still HERE! It was a

shakeout month of huge proportions. But there’s more shaking to do yet.

Preparing For The Global Shift: Moving to the Light from the Dark-How To Do It

Posted on 06/01/2006 by coyotegirl

by Eileen Nauman
Copyright 2006-2011. All Rights Reserved.

Permission to share with friends globally.
Permission must be gotten from me to post on any website. I can be contacted at docbones@gotsky.com.

Changes are happening. And there are more changes coming. If you think the Earth is in dire straits now–wait. For many, this seems to be a crazy, chaotic, senseless time where we span the length and breadth from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Globally, we can see that religions are at each others throats again with terrorists popping up on both sides and both are extremist in nature. How they go about their extreme beliefs and actions may be base and savage or more thoughtful, using group energy and the media instead. Either way, the extremes are here and activated. Extremes can only survive and thrive on FEAR. They are fear-based and this is an important concept to grasp.

Mother Earth is hurting from us humans who have fouled her air, water and soil. We need to take responsibility for this and our choices we’ve made. There’s an old saying that a dog never shits in his own back yard (even the animals are smarter than we are….so much for human intelligence) and we have shit in our own back yard–the Earth we live on. So, we have collectively poisoned our planet on our every level. We have made it toxic. It is a reflection of us at our most base- selfish, narcissistic and uncaring.

With Pluto, the planet of ultimate transformation conjunct the Galactic Center of our spiral arm galaxy where we live, there is good news. Add to this potent mix is Hades, the planet of ‘dust to dust’ where we have an opportunity to ‘come clean’ and wash all the dirtiness (our wounds, our negative, selfish way of living presently) and turn it in for something new. This is going on RIGHT NOW as of February/March/April 2006 for the first time in over 265 years. Then, beginning in December, 2006, we start the next stage/test/expansion and work to move into our heart and this goes into early 2007. During this first pass of Pluto conjunct the Galactic Center of our spiral armed place we live, is our chance, our Grace, to make another choice and clean up our own act. Understand that we cannot make others do what we want.

THE IMPORTANCE OF YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL

Ultimately, the only person we can ‘fix’ or change is our self. But if anyone reading this article decides to work with the information provided herein, you can begin to make powerful, positive changes within yourself that will turn you from a Dark person into a Warrior for the Light. We are all light bulbs. Did you know that? If you could see a person’s aura, it shines. The more we are of the Light, the brighter it becomes. The more we are of the Dark and caught up in our own web of selfishness and lack of sensitivity or awareness of other or our planet, the dimmer our light in our aura.

Quite literally, we are all light bulbs. Wouldn’t you like to stop hiding your light, your heart (which IS your light) under a bushel basket and shine like a beacon to the world to change it to the LIGHT? To the positive? To the Cosmos? To help bring Mother Earth and all her relations back into a beautiful, peaceful, coexisting harmony with one another?

Of course you would! And I’m going to share with you how you can begin to clean out your own closets of wounds, negative attitudes on the mental/emotional and spiritual level. We are at the precipice of a time like no other in Earth’s history and you can choose to be a dimwit or a beacon. And either choice is just fine. There is no judgment on this. Only where your heart and spirit is calling for you to go. So, as always, choice is in your hands.

EARTH IS ABOUT TO EMERGE FROM DARKNESS…

We are coming out of eons of darkness and shortly, Earth will transit into the light once more. The changes for this started with the Harmonic Convergence in 1988. Did you notice that every summer after that, for 9 more years, usually between June and July that there was a release of MORE high frequency energy sprinkled around our planet and us? Sensitive people felt it keenly. Every year, the energy of Mother Earth’s aura, the place where we live, was heightened, increased and moved at a faster speed. She was preparing for this coming out of darkness to move into the dawn of new light, hope, and peace upon her wounded, ravaged body. And the good news is that we, as travelers upon her body, have the same opportunities and choices as she does.

There is no question Mother Earth has prepared herself for this ‘light leap’ or ‘quantum leap’ or “Cosmic shift’ as I refer to it, into the higher realms of energy, which is nothing but pure love and compassion. She WANTS to go there. She’s suffered grievously for eons with humans upon her in wasting wars and, now, pollution at every level. She has gone through her ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ and because she has held the vision for peace and coexistence upon her body, she is now going to receive a cosmic reward for her holding the vision and bar to the positive and to the Light.

She is going to transit, make a quantum leap up to another entirely new level as her gift, reward and Grace for hanging in there even though we were doing major damage to her on every level. We were, in essence, her Dark teachers who wounded her. She had a choice as to what to do with us and what we were doing to her. She has loved us instead of destroying us. She has been tolerant with us instead of turning to us in rage and loosing a storm of epidemics that could wipe out the human species in one, fell swoop. She had been patient with us instead of shaking us so hard that we would fall through the cracks of her own skin and be destroyed. She persevered. She held the faith that goodness would win over the Darkness and the deeds of destruction that are sown from us. She held the compassion that we are her children and she loves us, despite the savage damage we have done to her. She has loved us, despite our childish, irresponsible, selfish actions toward her.

Mom Earth deserves this coming Grace. So do we fight peaceful battles to try and keep her clean and unpolluted? Even though we have not been good stewards to her, we can still aspire to the Grace because we CHOOSE to do so. The coming energy that Mom Earth is going to move through is available to anyone else here who lives on her, without judgment. What does it take to want it? Simple. Free will choice. A desire to choose peace over war. A desire to choose tolerance over hatred and prejudice. A desire to see all living things coexist in harmony amongst one another instead of killing or destroying them with wars of any kind. If you find yourself desiring these things, then you’re ready for a leap of consciousness that is coming shortly! To say that we live in an ‘interesting’ time, according to the Chinese proverb, is true. But more to the point, we live in a very exciting time where there are boundless, positive qualities and gifts open to anyone who CHOOSES to partake of them.

GETTING ‘THERE’ FROM HERE

I know many people are probably scratching their heads and saying, “Yes, I want peace on Earth, not war.” And, they agree that the pollution must stop. But how do you lift a world consciousness with all our relations in tow? You don’t. What you do is lift your OWN consciousness. We can never affect anyone else but ourselves. And if we focus on cleaning up the ‘dirt’ in our own self, then the world is one drop closer to peace instead of ongoing wars and terrorist of all kinds. God/Great Spirit/Buddha/Islam/Hinduism and all the other great religions of the world–and whom you privately believe in–are within us. The truth is, we were never separated but that is what you were all led to believe. With God within, there is no duality, no separation. So, the first awareness we must make is that God is within us–not outside of us as we were taught. Although, God is there, too. God is inside, outside and all around each of us all the time–nonstop, 24/7/365.

Focusing on yourself is the first tenant of changing world consciousness: one person at a time. This may seem futile, but if you put a bucket under a faucet that drips, over time, that bucket is overflowing with water. The moral of this story is that EVERY person counts. You are ALL important to the process for the quantum leap in consciousness that is coming by 2013. It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, famous or unknown, have an IQ over 200 or of 50. Everyone counts. Why? Because everyone has a heart and this journey, this race for the dawn and the light of emerging consciousness is a heart-centered marathon.

THE Vesica Piscis SYMBOL AND ITS MANY MEANINGS OVER THE AGES…

There is an old symbol, much older than anyone can remember, beyond Christianity, beyond Rome, Greece and Mesopotamia. It is known as the Vesica Piscis symbol. Latin translation calls it the fish bladder. But don’t be detoured by this name. Looking like two circles overlapping one another, it has been called the symbol of the ‘fish’ (because it is shaped like one where the circles overlap) or ‘the eye of God,’ because it looks like the shape of an eye, as well. I call it The Eye. Eye of Horus, for example. There are many ‘eye’ motifs and myths/legends around the world.

The Vesica Piscis is easily one of the most profound geometrical images of ancient and modern times. It is, for example, considered to be an integral part of the Ark of the Covenant, as described and shown figuratively by ka-gold’s version of the Vesica Piscis. The latter article, in fact, ties in rather nicely with the so-called Hourglass Nebula described at the end of this Alexandrian webpage.

Essentially the intersection of two, overlapping spheres, the Vesica Piscis (including the interior portion of it, and/or the more common two dimensional version) represents, among other things:

The joining of God and Goddess to create an offspring.
A symbol for Jesus Christ.
In art, a pointed oval used as an aureole in medieval sculpture and painting.
The uterus of the female goddess (or Mother Mary’s womb).
The basic motif in the Flower of Life.
An overlay of the Tree of Life.
The formative power of polygons in mathematics.
A geometrical description of square roots and harmonic proportions.
A source of immense power and energy.
As such, it is also a doorway or portal between worlds, and symbolizes the intersection between the heaven and the material plane. The shape of arches in Gothic architecture is based on the Vesica.
The shape of the Vesica Piscis is derived from the intersection of two circles, the Pythagorean ‘measure of the fish’ that was a mystical symbol of the intersection of the world of the divine with the world of matter and the beginning of creation. To the Pythagoreans, the whole of creation was based on number, and by studying the properties of number, they believed one could achieve spiritual liberation. The Vesica Piscis is used in a wide range of symbolism. The Vesica Piscis was the symbol of the first manifestation, the dyad that gives birth to the entire manifest universe. Within the Vesica can be found the triangle, the tetrad, the square, the pentacle, and many more polygons, making the Vesica a true symbolic womb.
The Latin term Vesica Piscis, meaning ‘Vessel of the Fish,’ is the most basic and important construction in Sacred Geometry. A Vesica is formed when the circumference of two identical circles each pass through the center of the other. When a Vesica Piscis is viewed horizontally, it looks like a vagina or a womb which is why the Christ child was often pictured inside of one. When the Vesica Piscis is viewed vertically it looks like the shape of a fish. Amazingly, the above two Vesica Piscis each have a horizontal axis equal in length to the gematria value of the Greek word for ‘fishes.’
The Vesica Piscis is an ancient symbol used in Pagan culture, Christian symbolism and sacred geometry, as well as various other belief systems. This enduring symbol is so old that I would suggest it was ‘born’ during the age of Lemuria, the first world upon Earth, eons ago.
The two overlapping circles represent the physical world on one side and the causal or spiritual world on the other. The section where they intersect is the akashic or etheric level and is the ‘bridge between heaven and earth.’

In the earliest traditions, the supreme being was represented by a sphere, the symbol of a being with no beginning and no end, continually existing, perfectly formed and profoundly symmetrical. The addition of a second sphere represented the expansion of unity into the duality of male and female, god and goddess. By overlapping, the two spheres, the god and goddess created a divine offspring. It also shows the integration of the male/female that Carl Jung has talked about and that is the path to the Individuation process. The Vesica Piscis motif (and its derivatives- the Flower of Life, Tree of Life, and fundamentals of geometry) has a history of thousands of years and easily predates virtually all major religions of the current era.

The son or daughter of the god and goddess is associated with the overlapping of the spheres — the resulting three-dimensional figure somewhat like an American football. In the case of Jesus Christ, the two dimensional figure has also served as a symbol for the miracle of the fishes. (The ‘tail’ also served to more easily identify the source of the plane figure.) There is also conveyed the spiritual power originating from the interior of this symbol.

Virtually every medieval church in Europe uses, as a standard motif, the Vesica Piscis in two dimensions. The fact that many of these churches were dedicated to the Virgin Mary or to Mary Madagalene (aka the goddess) is simply part of the understanding. Several of the churches in northern France are even located in such a manner that their points of light recreate the ‘lights’ of the constellation Virgo. In Glastonbury, England, the site normally attributed to Avalon (the island of the Goddess), is also where the Chapel of St. Mary is located– the latter which is apparently patterned with the use of the Vesica Piscis.

The goddess of any and all religions which recognize her power and significance invariably uses the Vesica Piscis to identify her. From the overlapping pools of water and the chalice well cover in the goddess’s garden in Glastonbury (aka Avalon) to any number of representations of the Tree of Life, the goddess and her ability to create and birth life are celebrated.

Robert Lawlor, in one of the best books available on Sacred Geometry [Thames and Hudson, 1982], notes that the Ö3 contained within the Vesica Piscis is “the formative power giving rise to the polygonal ‘world’.”

In Mark Percy’s Appendix to the unique book, Two Thirds, [Aulis Publishers, London, 1993] he references the Vesica Piscis, which is the square root of 2, 3, and 5 (three of the first digits in the Fibonacci Numbers) can be geometrically calculated.

In 1996, a Crop Circle in the shape of the Vesica Piscis appeared in England. Anyone stepping into the inner portion of the two circles’ intersection could feel a sudden rush of energy. A dramatic photo of the Hourglass Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope http://hubblesite.org shows in the center a dramatic, colorful object, which supposedly represents the remnants of a dying star (one about the size of our Sun). The green spot, in fact, is larger than the size of our solar system! The photograph is so dramatic that it has appeared on the cover of April 1997 issue of National Geographic. The fact that it is out in space, in our spiral armed galaxy, makes this a symbol of the Universe, not just on our Earth.

Now that you have a better idea of the definitions of Vesica Piscis, we need to explore why we want to utilize this symbol to help us leap into the New World or be prepared to transcend into peace rather than war, peace rather than chaos, peace rather than hatred and all the lower human emotions.

USING SOME STRING…

Sometimes, people like to make things complex when simple will do. And this is basic and simple and anyone can do it. All you need is a ball of red yarn (or your favorite color). Or, just plain string. I prefer yarn because it is easier to handle and has some weight to it. But, if you’re on a tight budget, some plain old white string from any store will do. You need to cut two sixteen feet (16′) lengths of yarn/string. The reason is that each string is going to make one circle large enough for you to stand within. And you need two strings to make two circles that will overlap one another.

I know you probably think this sounds crazy but before you make a judgment, test it out. Science was built upon trying something and then repeating the experiment. And if you want to prove this doesn’t work, you need to try it to do that.

MAKING TWO INTERLOCKING CIRCLES OUT OF STRING

I would try this inside a house or structure rather than out in Nature (although if you don’t have enough room inside, go out to your lawn instead). Take one piece of red yarn and create a circle out of it, making sure the ends are touching and connecting.

Next, take the second string and create a second circle. But this time, make sure that half (or less) of the second circle overlaps the first circle. There should be a ‘fish’ or ‘eye’ that is created as this yarn intersects one another. Congratulations! You have just created the Vesica Piscis symbol!

TESTING THE Vesica Piscis

There are some rules to the road in utilizing the Vesica Piscis (VP). First, step into one of the outer circles (either side) of the double circle, but not into the ‘fish’ or ‘eye’ area. When you get into the single circle area, ground yourself (see silver tree roots gently twining around your ankles and the tip of the root going down through each of your feet and several hundred feed down into Mother Earth), close your eyes and bend your knees slightly (we call this ‘soft knees’). Take two or three deep breaths down into your abdomen and out your mouth. Stand there for a minute or two and see what happens.

Next, open your eyes and step OUT of the single circle. Go to either end of the ‘lens/eye/fish’ and step into it. Close your eyes, soften your knees, take a couple of nice, deep breaths. Then, see what happens.

Many people experience many sensations in the eye . You can suddenly be pulled forward until you feel like you’re going to tip over your toes and fall. Or, you can feel pulled backward to the point where you think you’re going to fall over. Or, you may feel a strong pull from your left or right shoulder. It may seem that you’re doing what I call, ‘adjusting’ by moving one way or another. This adjustment is about getting your aura or energy field, back into balance and harmony. Once that is accomplished in the eye, you then can experience an incredible amount of things.

Some people see a color or two. Others see a person, sometimes, their Master or spirit guide or a loved one that has passed over. Or, some will hear music, or their hearing will be sharpened and accentuated. Words, sentences or instructions may be given. Other times, places, incarnations or your home planet may be shown to you. No two people will ever have the same experience because they are uniquely different.

What is the point of working in the eye of the VP? This is a way to access our own integration process, clean out our dirty laundry within us (our wounds/negative emotions, etc.), and heal yourself. When you sit and meditate in the eye, this is one of the most profound experiences you can have.

The VP is about healing. And opening up. Don’t be surprised if your heart chakra flies open and you feel tremendous love pouring down through you. As you are filled up with this love from the Universe, you, in turn, can give to others. It is a win-win situation.

The VP can put you in touch with a special teacher in Spirit. You can receive positive and reinforcing guidance as well. Past lifetimes may unroll like film on a movie screen to you, too. The VP, in the finest sense of the word, is a DOORWAY. To where? Well, you must sit in there and find out. The VP is not only a doorway, but it is catalytic as well. You cannot sit in the VP and not change for the better. It will accentuate your true, authentic self and bring you to full bloom if you allow it to work with you.

Reports of going through a worm hole, a ‘star gate,’ flying through the galaxy or through the Universe have also been experienced. Even more profound, going ‘home’ to your home place where your soul was birthed (and we all have such a place where we have come from and return to between incarnations) has also been experienced.

The VP is a mystical opening into the other dimensions, a gate, a door or whatever you want to call it. When you sit or lie down in the VP (make sure your entire body is within the eye or lens/fish, no part of it outside it), something will happen. First, your aura will be adjusted and harmonized. Once you are in harmony, then your healing begins.

I would suggest a twenty minute meditation daily in the eye of the VP. Be sure to keep a journal or diary of what you feel, hear, see or experience. Over time, you will see that each journey is like a piece to a greater motif that is you.

OTHER HEALING USES OF THE Vesica Piscis

Feeling stressed out? Go sit or lie down in the The Eye of the symbol. If you are upset, angry or losing patience, go sit in the eye for about five to ten minutes. Amazingly, all the anger or impatience or feeling out of sorts, will simply dissolve away and you’ll feel strong, steady and in your ‘core’ being, where there is a sense of solidness and peacefulness.

Worried? Anxious? Panic attack? Want to get rid of these awful feelings? Go sit or lie down in the lens/eye for ten to twenty minutes and feel all this unwanted energy dissipate and dissolve. You’ll come out of there feeling like a new person.

Sick? Have a headache? Experiencing arthritis? Go sit or lay down in the lens/eye for ten to twenty minutes and see what happens. You’ll be feeling a lot better when you leave the VP.

You see, the VP is our very own, private doorway to the Universe in every possible and conceivable way. You can turn negative into positive. Separation or duality into Oneness. Pain into no pain. Sharp, hurtful emotions move into a feeling of peace and harmony.

WARRIORS FOR THE LIGHT: Are You One?

So many of you are Warriors for the Light and you don’t know it, at least on a conscious level. But on a subconscious level, you definitely are one! You see, there is such a thing as a ‘peaceful warrior.’ It does not mean you are out killing people or beings, are violent, or are extreme in any way. Nope, just the opposite. Let’s look to see if you qualify to be a Warrior for the light:

You desire peace over war.
Believe that we can all live in coexistence on this planet with everyone and everything without violence/fighting/killing.
Try not to pollute this planet in myriad ways from large to small.
Believe everyone is allowed to believe what they want and respect them for their right to do this.
Do not allow FEAR to run/rule you. Understands that FEAR holds us a prisoner not only of ourselves, but others as a group. FEAR keeps the Dark in control.
Know on some intuitive level that LOVE and compassion is the only way out and up from this mess we’ve created on Earth.
Works daily to do at least one good thing for others.
Has healthy boundaries (or is working to have them) in place so that you are not giving away your life energy to others beyond that line in the sand.
Not a ‘victim’ mentality and know that you are responsible to do the hard work yourself (instead of whining that you’re not getting a handout from someone else).
Do not blame others for the choices you are making daily, rather, you take responsibility for all of them.
Understand that change can only come through you and changing yourself. You can change this world and its vibration to a higher frequency and move it into the Light.
Practice, on a regular basis, meditation, yoga or some other form of ancient tools because it puts you in touch with the Cosmic love and energy that is always there for us.
Understand that harmony and balance must first occur within you. And once you are there, you can turn around and help others find this same exquisite peace. This is a world-changing knowing.
Do not attach into powerful emotional dramas; your own or others because it is emotional drama that keeps us trapped. You know to detach and work at this daily, but you are still connected–from a compassionate level, instead. And even if you aren’t there yet, you are TRYING and that is all that is asked.
Do not practice pity or sympathy. Rather, you are learning to practice compassion–daily–in large and small ways.
Visualize daily, a world at peace, with people happy to be working with one another toward a common, shared goal of harmony. To see poverty, starvation and elitism dissolve. This is done through meditation, quiet moments, prayer work or any way that you connect with this desire. To see an Earth that is no longer polluted, that all our relations work in tandem with us, not against us, is part of this visualization. That we do not see ‘Man’ as the top of the pecking order- rather, a part of of it.
Practice humility and understand that we are part of a much greater fabric of Being, and that humans are not the center of any Universe. We are all part of a greater cog and wheel and we’re a mere part of this incredible, miraculous and ongoing process.
That our best teachers are inside ourselves, not outside of us. Outside teachers are necessary, but we SIFT or SIEVE through what they tell us and keep what feels right and releases the rest. Teachers outside of us, well intended that they may be, are flawed and human. We are not attracted to Gurus or one leader who knows all (they don’t). Rather, we honor our own knowing. The guides within you are perfect and will never lie to you. Listen to your own inner voice/heart/intuition is your best resource and guide to the Light.
Respect for all life, no matter if human, animal, reptile, organic or inorganic; everything has a spirit within it and energy around it. Treat all life as if it was your relative. Treat all life as equal to your own.
Respect for all people, regardless of religion, race, nationality, skin color or gender. You understand that if we don’t share this respect that we do not respect ourselves either. What is reflected outside of us is a reflection of who we are inside ourselves. Embrace the community of the Earth for we are part and parcel of it, never disconnected from it and that what is reflected is us. And that if we don’t like the reflection we can change it–within ourselves first–and then it will affect change globally.
Realize that all things are made up of energy. This energy can be changed but never destroyed. Understand that energy can be moved from Dark to Light by simply being in your heart and desiring it to be so, can make it so.
Know that Dark is as necessary as Light and that we, as a planet, have gone through 13,000 years of Dark but that our DAWN and first LIGHT are going to arrive shortly by 2013. And you want to prepare for this incredible Grace and energy distribution that is free to all who desire it.
Do not practice elitism – that one group, gender or person is better than another. We all have a heart, a mind and share the same red blood in our veins, which makes us equal. Let go of separatist attitudes.
Stand up and are counted on when the Dark descends upon you. It may mean standing quietly in your core for small or large challenges that may arrive in your life/career/family. You know the difference in when to fight, when to retreat and to choose your battles wisely.
Understand the use of anger but use/transform it into a pro-active energy and action to catapult Light, instead of sinking into the rage which puts us into the firm clutches of the Darkness. Anger is a useful tool, but never used to harm others. Ever.
Do not envy anyone, are not jealous of anyone and are learning to respect one’s own inner qualities, skills and who and what you are.
Do not lie; will always tell the Truth.
Do not tell half lies or half truths or some part of truth you feel you want another to know–but not the WHOLE truth. Truth will win out and you know that. You are willing to tell the truth even if it does not get you what you want, even if it humiliates you or shows you to be terribly human. Truth is one of the core qualities of a Warrior for the Light.
Recognize and absorb and radiate the beauty that is all around you; large and small. Acknowledge the beauty in others, in yourself, and in ‘all your relations’ that live with you on our planet.
Have FAITH when the darkness falls upon you. When you go through the ‘gauntlet’ or the Dark Night of the Soul, as all of us must and do, to know that God or whomever you believe in, is there to hold and support you through this transformation.
Surrender over to a higher power only. You do not surrender to anyone else, for that is giving your power away. Understand that by surrender, you are placing yourself in the hands of a compassionate energy (be it God or whomever you believe in) who loves you and will take care of you no matter how rough Life gets for you.
Understand that “this too, shall pass,” and that whatever harsh Life lessons you are learning now and in the future, that the cycle will stop and complete itself. You must just persevere, surrender to a higher power and have faith and do the best you can with your test. That is all that is required of you.
Realize that you are a unique being here on this planet and that who you are, what you are, is needed and necessary for the Light to dissolve the Dark. Belief in yourself, respect of yourself, is essential as never before. Each person is like a beautiful wildflower–different and yet beautiful in your uniqueness.
Honor your skills, your experiences in life that have shaped and formed you. What you know is unique and only you have this knowing. These are tools you have developed that can be utilized not only by yourself, but shared with others on a positive level.
Treat your body as a temple and as a partner. Give it nourishing food, healthy food and care for it as a mother does her baby- this comes instinctively. Addictive foods, smoking, and alcohol may be your challenge but you actively work to halt these and make your body an abode that resonates with harmony.
Realize that we are all here on this fragile planet called Earth and that if we do not take care of it–or ourselves–we will have nothing in the future. The desire to create a planet as a haven and a new Garden of Eden is a quiet driving force within your heart and spirit.

Some additional articles you may want to read are “Crack in the Cosmic Egg” and “Initiation.”

Posted in Metaphysics | Tagged global shift, meditation, Metaphysics, Vesica Piscis | Leave a comment

Medicine Wheel Protocol

Posted on 06/01/2005 by coyotegirl

By Ai Gvhdi Waya
Copyright 2005-2011. All Rights Reserved.

NOTE: Hello Everyone,

Because of WHAT is coming up (See my article: Crack in the Cosmic Egg), I wanted to share with you some of my training in hopes it would help you. If this article and the information in it appeals to your spirit, try it. If you find it worthwhile, then you are ready for more training along your spiritual path with this particular type of training. There are many, many paths that lead to spiritual development and this is simply one of them. But it is mine and it works daily for me. It may, also, for you, if you are wanting to reconnect with Mother Earth.

I would urge you to try it. Why? Because, as we enter the gauntlet on the next two years, we need to be in the best state of balance and harmony we can become. THIS protocol will aid you in doing just that. If you ‘sit the medicine wheel’ daily for only twenty minutes, it CAN change your life on every level if you allow it.

If you have questions, please post them to athena@topica.com. If you are not a member of athena, you can join by going to http://medicinegarden.com/about/list.html and read the
instructions on how to join.

I do invite your questions and I’ll try to answer them. I’m in hopes that many of my students, who have been taught this very protocol, will jump in here on athena and share how it has helped them in their life.

And so, this is a gift from my heart to each of your hearts. May you use this sacred information in a good way for all our relations…

THE MEDICINE WHEEL

I thought I’d share some of my knowledge with you in hopes that it will help you to maintain your balance and try to stay in harmony during these trying times. I am part Eastern Cherokee and I’m going to talk about the medicine wheel. All protocol information comes from my teacher, Richard Graves, Western Cherokee Medicine Man. The assignments of the animal in the wheel are the assignments he’s given me that I have practiced with for twenty years now. The rest of the information below are my experiences with the medicine wheel.

If you could imagine a circle with North, East, South and West on the respective, correct sides of it, you have a medicine wheel. In the center, it is GREEN to represent Mother Earth and our grounding with Her.

The importance of the wheel cannot be underestimated. As Dick once told me, ”We all have a personal medicine wheel of energy surrounding each of us.”

The circle symbolizes the continuity and connection to all living things–we are part of, not separate from, all of them. ‘All my relations’ means just that. It is an acknowledgment that two-leggeds are no better, no higher, and not smarter or better than any of of our
other relations.

Relations are all living things that walk, crawl, swim or fly. They are the insects, the reptiles, the amphibians, the birds and animals. Even protozoa, bacteria and viruses are acknowledged as being part of the great Hoop of Life and are never excluded. Relations also include us- all two-leggeds known as human beings.

The Medicine Wheel is our foundation. We are aware of it in so many different ways.

Each Nation has their own, unique assignments of plant, animal and stone for the major directions. My advice is stick to one Nation’s medicine wheel assignments and do not ‘mix and match’ different nations with the wheel. The reason the wheel works in the first
place is that thousands of years of energy with those particular assignments to the directions and what is ruled beneath it, has created a powerful thought form that can be tapped into when we step into a Medicine Wheel, and we can consciously work with that energy. The below information is what I was taught and what I work with. I never change or swap out anything that has to do with these directions.

MEDICINE WHEEL PROTOCOL

There are rules to the Medicine Wheel (and please note, depending upon the Nation, these may vary, but this is what was passed on to me).

You always enter through the East Gate.
You always walk CLOCKWISE in a wheel; never counter clockwise.
You always exit out the East Gate. You never break through the circle at any point nor leave the circle in any direction other than the East Gate.
You enter with humility, humbleness, and open heart and an understanding that as you come to the East Gate, you are there to work WITH the energies present within the wheel.
You come to the East Gate, stop, give cornmeal or tobacco to that Spirit who rules that direction, the Spotted Eagle (Golden Eagle), and silently or verbally ask permission to ENTER into the wheel. You NEVER assume you can go in. By coming to the East Gate you are acknowledging oneness with all relations and by stopping, giving a gift and asking permission is no different than if you went to a neighbor’s house and knocked on their door asking permission to go into it.
Once in the Medicine Wheel, I gift a gift of cornmeal–female energy symbol (or you can use tobacco–male energy symbol). I then go in a clockwise direction to the South, to Grandfather Coyote, and thank him for allowing me to be in the wheel while gifting him with the cornmeal. I resume my slow walk (there is NEVER any talking or chatting in a Medicine Wheel!!) to the West and gift Grandmother Medicine Bear. Next, I walk quietly to the North and gift the Great White Buffalo. I continue my walk to the East Gate where I will stop and then face the center of the wheel, where Mother Earth resides.

DIRECTIONS AND THEIR MEANINGS

NORTH:

Earth — NORTH

Attribute-Wisdom/practicality/logic/rational/left brain/feminine

Animal World-Buffalo, white (cow)

Mineral World-Jasper, Agate, Obsidian Quartz crystal, any black stone Plant World-Sacred sage (to burn), to cleanse one’s spirit and set intentions

Gender: female

Human World-Physical manifestation, making things into reality, understanding daily symbols/endurance/common sense/stability/calmness/groundedness/determination/ your word is your bond /working hard in a step-by-step manner to create and manifest
your dream or goal/success/high standing in the community/respect by peer group/master of some area of expertise/archeology/loves the past and history/paleontology/always a serious demeanor/does not know how to ‘play’/always the adult/always the responsible one/leader/corporate head/owns their own company or cottage industry/team player/team cheerleader/manager/boss/owner/ slow-but-sure/deep thinker/looks at all the details before making a decision/holds their own counsel/able to keep a secret or a confidence/loyal/longtime friends for decades/few friends but good ones/placid/hard to get angered but once there like a ‘bull in a china shop’/peacekeeper/counselor/diplomat/bringing sides together to resolve/arbitrator/real estate/loves the land/Mother Earth oriented/ecology oriented/gardner/greenhouse/ green plants in home/mountains/ living in mountains/living alone without feeling lonely/back to Nature/living close to Nature/hermit/escape to the mountains

EAST:

Air — EAST

Attribute-Creativity

Animal World-Spotted Eagle (Golden Eagle)

Mineral World-Fluorite, Rutilated Quartz, any yellow stone Plant World-Cedar (to burn); activates Crown Chakra and opens it

Gender: male

Human World- Zen meditation, brainstorming, writing, speaking, teaching/communicating/writers /screen writing /songs/left brain–our every day working world/the mind/all mental activities/air travel/may fly an airplane/wants to be in the sky/loves the wind and weather related to wind/restless in the mind/insomnia/mind doesn’t shut down/curiosity/inquiring/asks a lot of questions/why?/scientists/doctors/ pilots/academia post/moves often/cannot stay still in mind or body/expert in some field requiring higher learning/lifelong learner in higher education/college degree/Ph.D. paper chase/alert/misses nothing/observes all the details/has a grasp of the microcosm AND macrocosm/a person of vision/ignores emotions and feelings/uses their mind only/cut off from the neck down–out of touch with senses/feelings/emotions/uncomfortable around emotional people or crying/always trying to keep their world in logical and rational only

SOUTH:

Fire — SOUTH

Attribute-Faith, Protection, Anger, Pro-active

Animal World-Grandfather Coyote

Mineral World-Ruby, Red Jasper or any other red stone

Plant World-Juniper incense to honor all our relations during ritual
or ceremony

Gender: male

Human World- physical exercise/body awareness/passion in our work/sexuality and a passion for life in general/desire/procreation/vigor/vitality/appreciating our physical
body/athletic/spontaneity/playfulness/being childlike (but not immature or childish) about being alive/awe of life/loving life/appreciating all five senses/sense of humor/laughter/seeing the comical side of things/lightness/dancing/glad to be alive/the will to live is powerful/quickness/impatient/in a hurry/walks fast/talks fast/hand-arm movements/restless/unable to sit still/ADHD/jokester/plays jokes on others/remembers a lot of jokes to share with others/would rather play than work/late maturity/may be
childish even at 30 years old/late marriage (30 to 40 years old)/sales people/truck drivers/rocking chairs/love of railroad travel/travel by horse/hiking/rock climbing/adventurous, risk taker/gambler/eco-traveler/romanticist/idealist/no common sense/no rationale/no logic

WEST:

Water — WEST

Gender: female

Attribute- Inner knowing/emotions/intuition/right brain/feminine

Animal World-Grandmother Medicine Bear

Mineral World-Pearl, Coral, shells, any blue stone

Plant World-Sweet grass to draw the elemental (wee folks, gnomes/fairies) to work with you in ritual and ceremony

Human World- Dream work/Vision quests/our emotions/being centered only in our emotions/knowing/feeling/sensing/our right brain/clairvoyance/knowing without knowing why you know something/deep faith no matter the adversities thrown at you/depth of feelings/emotional intelligence/sensitivity /situational awareness/super sensitive to everything/strong love of water, especially the ocean/healing through water/swimming/living near water/love of storms/thunderstorms/rain/weather–all kinds/love of storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, wind/boats/canoes/sailboats/love of ship travel/has a spa/has a swimming pool

HOW TO FIND YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES IN THE MEDICINE WHEEL

Ideally, you need a friend who can help you do this. He/she can have a clip board with a piece of paper and pen. On the paper draw a circle and put N for North, E for east, S for south and W for west on the wheel.

What you want to do is go to the CENTER of the Medicine Wheel.

Next, you GROUND yourself. You always ground yourself before working with ANY kind of energy, but especially within the Medicine Wheel because it is a place of raw power. If you do not ground yourself beforehand, you can feel very disjointed, spacey and fragmented after being in there. So, always remember this part of the protocol. Ground before you work.

HOW TO GROUND YOURSELF

Imagine silver tree roots twining gently around your ankles with the tip of the root going down through the center of your foot and at least a hundred feet into Mother Earth. You are now grounded. You can open your eyes and begin.

STANDING THE DIRECTIONS

I assess a person’s strength and weaknesses by asking them to stand in the CENTER of the medicine wheel. I ask them to face North after grounding and close their eyes. I ask them to ‘feel’ that direction.

There are three responses a person can give to their friend who is standing outside the wheel with the clipboard:

Comfortable: In other words, there is a ‘nice’ sensation to standing in a particular direction. Some people feel it as warmth, others as coolness or even cold. Others feel a tingle. Whatever you feel, it is correct. The one sensation that MUST be with it, however, is you
feel comfortable with this energy direction.

Uncomfortable: The sensation in this direction may make you feel restless, wanting to move away from it to downright not liking it at all. Again, you may feel a heat or cold or tingling with it as well. The one sensation that MUST be with it, however, is you feel highly
uncomfortable standing and facing that energy and direction.

Neutral: There is no sensation. It feels like a ‘dead zone’ or numbing. There is no sensation of comfort or discomfort. It’s as if there is NOTHING there interacting with you. This is what we refer to as a ‘neutral’ sensation.

When you ‘feel’ an energy you want to visualize or imagine your Heart Chakra opening up–wide open–and you perceive, imagine or visualize the energy from the North (or whatever the direction), coming into your heart. Wait 1-2 minutes to ‘adjust’ to the direction energy and then, whatever your feeling to the North: comfortable, uncomfortable or neutral, speak up and share it with your friend. He/she will then write on the North direction one of your three responses. Then, open your eyes.

Your next direction (remember: we always move in a clockwise direction in a wheel) is EAST direction. Close your eyes repeat the same as you did with the North direction. Respond to your friend if you feel comfortable, uncomfortable or neutral with this direction. Then, open your eyes.

Your next direction (remember: we always move in a clockwise direction in a wheel) is SOUTH direction. Close your eyes repeat the same as you did with the North direction. Respond to your friend if you feel comfortable, uncomfortable or neutral with this direction. Then, open your eyes.

Your next direction (remember: we always move in a clockwise direction in a wheel) is the WEST direction. Close your eyes repeat the same as you did with the North direction. Respond to your friend if you feel comfortable, uncomfortable or neutral with this
direction. Then, open your eyes.

Turn clockwise and return to the NORTH position. Then, turn to the EAST and walk out the East Gate. Sit down with your friend to assess what he or she has written on the diagram.

DISCOVERING YOUR STRENGTH

Your STRENGTH is where you felt COMFORTABLE. It means you have integrated the tools and knowledge of that direction into your being and you use them all the time without even thinking about it. Usually, most people under 40 years of age have one direction where they feel really good. When you’re over 40, you may have two, three
or even all four directions feeling comfortable.

Whatever direction it is, write it down. Then, look up the definition above and see that you and that direction’s energy and spirit are working well together. For example, let’s say you feel comfortable in the NORTH direction. If you look at the adjectives and information for it, compare it to your life and you. Are you organized? Are you grounded? Practical? Common sensed? Are you slow but sure? Do you have tremendous endurance and staying power when others fall behind? Do you have lots of patience? Are you slow to make a decision? Think things through a lot before giving an answer? If you say yes to all of these questions, then you can see that you are resonating comfortably with the North direction, spirit and energy. This is a considered a strength because you’ve learned the lessons of that direction and have mastered them, integrated them and have become a North energy person.

If you have a second comfortable direction, then read up on it and see if you agree or not with what it rules. Often, we have a very strong direction and a secondary one that is not as strong; perhaps 50% less, but still comfortable or semi-comfortable. That means on
your second direction that you’re still working with the tools, to assimilate the teachings of this direction and you’re well on your way to learning how to be like that direction–but you’re not quite there yet. But you will be in time.

Whatever your strength, this is an area where you have learned, integrated and become an emissary of the direction, that animal symbol and energy expression. For example, if you were strong in the North energy, you can ask yourself: “Am I like a buffalo?” If you don’t know anything about buffalo, their habitant, their environment and social order, go google it online and find out. Ask yourself how you are like the buffalo (or not). Write down your similarities as well as where you are not like them. Where you are not like them,
these are areas for you to learn and integrate as you live life.

A good book by Ted Andrews, called Animal-Speak, will give you fantastic information and I highly recommend this book to be added to your library. The information in there will aid you a lot. But you can still find out a lot of free information on the Net if you
search a little. And, if you’re a North energy/strength, you will scour the Net to find every detail!

WHERE ARE YOUR WEAKNESSES?

Where you felt UNCOMFORTABLE in the wheel/direction, is where you have yet to integrate the learning and teachings of that area into your life. For example, if you were uncomfortable in the East direction, look at the definition above and see if you agree with it
or not. People uncomfortable in the East tend to be very emotional and think secondarily, not first. They run on their feelings, not their head. And they tend to make emotional decisions without utilizing logic or rationale in the finale end. While emotions are good, you need to use your mind, too. Frequently, these people have had trouble learning in school, dropped out of high school or gotten poor grades. It is not that they are stupid or dumb; far from it. Usually, they come from a family where the mind/learning is not seen as important. When you lack family support for education, then you tend to live an emotion-filled life, instead (West energy).

If you are uncomfortable with East energy, it means you probably don’t like ‘book learning’ but you can learn to use your mind in different and unique ways and would do well in a vocational school rather than a high school where book learning is stressed over equally important ‘hands on’ learning.

Everyone has at least one weak direction, perhaps more. This is where your work is at. This is where you struggle and are not comfortable but, over time, you will learn from this direction and integrate it, too.

As we integrate our uncomfortable direction(s), we become a more well-rounded, harmonious and balanced human being. Knowing where your weaknesses are at is a plus in deciding to make them a strength consciously instead of always blindly being led into
situations to get you used to working with them.

NEUTRAL MEANS WE AREN’T WORKING THERE YET

Neutral means that you have not yet started to work on that direction or the energies symbolic to it. This is not bad or good, right or wrong. It is what it is. Often, I see people under 40 years of age with a neutral but rarely with someone over 40 years old. It simply means the time has not yet come for you to open that door to begin learning new tools, awareness and abilities associated with that direction. All things in good time.

YOUR PORTABLE MEDICINE WHEEL

A long time ago I created my own portable Medicine Wheel by carrying five stones in a small cloth bag with me. I had:

North: Obsidian

East: Citrine

South: Red Jasper

West: Sodalite or Lapis Lazuli

Center: Green Quartz

I would lay these out on the floor starting with the NORTH stone and going clockwise and laying down the Citrine (East), then around the imaginary circle to the Red Jasper (South), then to the Sodalite or Lapis Lazuli (West) and then back up to the North position. I would then walk to the East Gate (Citrine) and go straight into the center of the circle and place the Green Quartz symbolizing Mother Earth.

I would then sit down (you can lie down with your head in the direction you are wanting to connect with), or bring a chair in and sit on it if my legs weren’t up to being folded, and FACE the direction I wanted to work with. Ideally, on good days we should sit an uncomfortable direction so we can work with integration. On a day when I wasn’t feeling particularly great, I would sit a comfortable direction and ask for a healing if that is what I needed.

Or, as an example, if I was tussling with a decision I had to make, I would sit NORTH and ask Grandmother White Buffalo for help in solving the problem or what decision I should make.

If I was feeling sick, had a cold or flu, I would first try to figure out what CAUSED these symptoms to come on. Let’s say I had a terrible fight with my husband–that is emotions. And the direction for emotions is WEST. So, I would sit West and asked Grandmother Medicine Bear for a healing and an understanding of the fight I had with my husband. I would ask for awareness, clarity and resolving the issue.

If I had a fever, I would sit South (fire element) and ask Grandfather Coyote to put the fire out in me (like cures like).

If I had to solve some kind of complex problem, I would sit EAST (air element) and ask the Spotted Eagle for counsel, suggestions and a way to figure it all out.

You can take your portable Medicine Wheel anywhere with you. You can make it large or small, depending upon what you are wanting to use it for. In your office, put one stone on each of the four walls to create it. Of course, you can’t put the green stone in the middle unless your desk or something sits on top of it to protect it, but that’s okay if you can’t put this fifth stone down. You can make your office space hum at maximum efficiency by putting down the medicine wheel and appropriately placing your desk in a COMFORTABLE direction for yourself.

SITTING THE DIRECTIONS FOR A REASON

Sitting the directions is easy. Just remember to GROUND yourself before you enter the Medicine Wheel to begin working. If you don’t, you will come out feeling disjointed, floaty and spaced out. It will take you hours to come down from this feeling and get back into your body.

Neutral directions won’t always be that way. It doesn’t hurt to sit a neutral position because some day, it will open up and be available to you. The only way to find out is to sit it every once in awhile and see if it is yet available to you.

DOUBLE CHECKS–THE WORLD OF MAGIC

If we have a particular weakness that we want to work on to make a strength, we sit that direction and ask for that spirit’s guiding help, suggestions. You may receive a dream answer, so don’t be surprised. Or, you may receive a ‘double check’ out in the real
world (your every day waking world). A double check is a validation of whatever you thought about, or ask for guidance on, coming to you in the here and now. It’s very magical.

Let me give an example. The other day I was undertaking my two mile hike up and out of the canyon when I obliquely wondered if all Thunder Beings (creators of thunderstorms) were male. That was what I’d been taught. I wondered if perhaps somewhere else in the
world there might be female ones. It was a passing thought. Two minutes later I turned and looked up at the sky. What I saw just about made me gasp. There, in the south, was a large thunderstorm. Only, at the front of it was a man’s profile with ‘hair’ in the form
of many strands of clouds, around his head. Behind him was his body and the dark storm he was bringing with him! Clearly it was a male face. There was no guessing on that! I stood there and just laughed at the sheer clarity of answering my question. A Thunder Being had unveiled himself to clearly show me he was ONLY male! I have photos
I took so that you can make up your own mind on it.

Double checks are everywhere if we know what we’re looking for. We receive validation in numerous ways. If I’m wondering if I should trust someone new and a rattlesnake comes across my path at the time I’m wondering this, I know the answer is no. Snakes come
into my life only when there is deception afoot.

Or, I’m washing dishes at the sink and I wonder if I should go to the store today or not. A hummingbird suddenly comes and hovers in front of the window to say, “Yes!”

If I’m driving along and a hawk swoops low in front of me, I know there’s an important phone call coming my way within an hour or two.

Seeing my buzzards fly the canyon, I know that there’s something transforming and I’ll know, usually, within 24-48 hours what that means. It always means a CHANGE to me so I am more alert than usual and sure enough, change does occur in some mode or fashion
as a result.

The world around us mirrors us if we just pay attention. And when you work in the Medicine Wheel you may sense color, symbols, feel a particular sensation or emotion. Remember them. They are a message from the spirit who symbolizes that direction. If you don’t know what it means, do the footwork to find out because it has something to do with you, your growth or giving you a message about something meaningful you’ve been pondering.

THE MANY USES OF THE MEDICINE WHEEL

Knowing that energy is all around us, we can harness it and utilize it to help ourselves in the most positive (strongest hit) UNCOMFORTABLE direction. For example: Know which direction(s) are your uncomfortable ones. Do you sleep with your head in that direction? If you do, I bet you don’t get a good, deep sleep. Rather, it’s restless and broken or worse, you suffer from insomnia.

How about the direction your desk at work faces? I’d want my desk in one of my COMFORTABLE directions to make my work as pleasant and flowing as possible.

Are you watching TV from your couch or chair facing an UNCOMFORTABLE direction? If you are, you aren’t getting the most out of your ‘down time.’

And when you meditate, is there a specific direction you always sit? Most people do, so check yours out. Are you sitting in a COMFORTABLE direction or not? You’ll get a lot more out of meditation if you do.

Do you want a deeper spiritual life? Then sit the wheel and the directions. Nothing opens you up like the Medicine Wheel.

Are you ill? Then sit the direction that helped create the symptoms in the first place. Many times, that is the WEST because it symbolizes water and our emotions. And it is our emotions that usually get us in an unhealthy place.

Are you all work and no play? Have people accused you of being dour and too serious? Then sit in the SOUTH and get the playful energy of Grandfather Coyote. Over time, you will start to cultivate a better sense of humor and even a more playful demeanor. Life is not all work and no play!! We must have a balance.

Upset? Anxious? Panic attack? Sit the NORTH direction for it will bring you calmness, clarity and practicality. It will also bring you awareness and arm you with information so you no longer have to emotionally knee jerk on it and go into high drama.

Want to be more creative? Sit the SOUTH direction. It will help to tap into your inner passions for creativity and bring them to the surface.

Depressed? Again, it depends upon what is fueling this but often, it is suppressed rage. If that is so, then sit SOUTH, the position of fire, righteous anger and getting it out instead of sitting on it. If you are depressed with grief due to a loss, then sit in the WEST. You will cry an awful lot but remember this: better OUT than IN. Discharging our emotions, especially our hurt ones, is the specialty of this direction. Tears shed in the West are healing.

Unable to make a decision? Sit the NORTH direction. You’ll be able to parse all the possible combinations and figure out the best course of action to take.

Stuck for ideas? Writer’s block? Sit the EAST direction and watch your block get disintegrated in a hurry. Ideas will come like an avalanche to you.

Trouble with tests and memorization? Sit in the EAST direction and it will stimulate your left hemisphere of your brain when it comes to memorization of material. It’s also useful to carry the yellow citrine of the EAST in your left pocket during a test–you’ll be able to recall things much more easily!

The possibilities for the Medicine Wheel are as endless as people and ideas. There is a direction for everything. Try using it when you’re stuck or unsure. Watch how it will help move and support you.

Posted in Metaphysics | Tagged four directions, medicine wheel, Metaphysics, spiritual development | Leave a comment

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