Resurrection through the shadow

Resurrection through the shadow

Why does the Dragon guard gold? Is it only happenstance that what you most desire is kept away by what you fear? When speaking about shadow work the same connection can be made. It is the parts of our self with the most to offer, that we are the most conflicted about exploring. Because in these dark places are both the things we need to see, and what we most tactfully avoid.

“Let us journey into the shadow, our path lit by candlelight” …

You are here to fall down and be found. if you were wondering why you decided to peek in, and take a dip into the proverbial rabbit hole, and uncover the medicines of death and resurrection. While reading, embrace any personal transformation that comes your way whether consciously or intuitively.

This course is a blending of Herbal, and psychic medicines to effectively give a full chest of tools to do some of the most challenging work that there is. This is the work of self-creation; this is the first step of achieving any desire imagined in life.

In fact, the medicine of the winter months happened to be; decay, entropy, and loss. Still, this is only true if looking at it through a philosophical lens, not necessarily based on our modern culture. That is to enquire into the various meaning, and energies of such a bleak, mortal, and depression-inspiring time. In our “modern” and western society most of us experience winter through the many somatic sensations it may arouse in any given memory.

After all, are we to believe it only a coincidence that the holidays are full of jovial digestive pleasures? This is the result of winter's duality, it's Yin and Yang. Yin is the cooling, female, and storing principle, while yang points to the warming, male, and consuming principle. These forces are integral in our personal constitutions, ecosystems, and holistic medicine and have no doubt been heard by most. In this practice, Yin will represent death, and yang the resurrection, the two integral motions of this ritual.

Before we go any further it is vital that you are able to activate your basic psychic level, or in other words, move your brain from a Beta to an Alpha state. This is referring to the frequency your mind is functioning within; Beta being the logical thinking mind, Alpha being the creative intuitive mind, into Theta the emotional mind, and finally delta the state of full rest where we experience rem sleep and dreams.

By affecting our minds' frequency, we allow ourselves to experience the subtleties of existence. Opening the door to insights that normally would be too far out of reach, being ignored and picked apart by our thinking mind. Our energetic field is intimately connected to our psyche, in fact, The Greek root of Psyche means soul. One can easily see how the aura as we understand it, directly links to mental functions, and can likewise be manipulated through various techniques.

To find the basic psychic level we will start with a simple visualization technique. Finding your meditation, comfortable relaxed breathing, and a reasonably clear mind will do. Now with your eyes closed imagine a balloon to the left of you. Take note of its color, shape, size, capacity, its smell and even taste. All of this is telling information and useful in understanding the induvial practitioner's psyche.

Next while holding this mental image, focus on moving the balloon across your line of vision from your left to your right side, and back to the left. Try to Shift the color after completing each cycle, move along the color weal from red>orange>yellow>green>blue>purple>white. Once at the white balloon pause here and concentrate on this alone. The color white is the one we will associate with our basic level of psychic activation.

Finally count down from 5, while seeing the balloon slowly dissipate into the blank slate of your mind. Now internally say, “In my mind’s eye I can create anything.” This internal dialogue functions as the programming step of the technique. Communicating our desire to our intuitive psychic mind.

Take a moment to return to your meditation, has anything changed? Accessing the Alpha state is somewhat different for everyone, but one can expect to feel an expansion in perception, a full bodied or extra sensory consciousness, even a feeling of spaciousness around the head is common.

Now that you can access the basic psychic level as a doorway to the subconscious, we are almost ready to embark on a journey into the final frontier. Although before we begin, I would like to bestow upon you, your first psychic visualization tool this one totally original and organic to you.

Return to your psychic level, this time just by forming the one white balloon with its string attached to your wrist. Imagen now the concept of safety and protection, even just thinking safety and protection will do just fine. Give your subconscious a moment to produce a fitting response. If a symbol or object appears place it within the white balloon watching it expand to hold the tool. However, if a feeling appears or words, or even a person that communicates these same feelings imagine filling the balloon with this energy. Take note, can you see your object in the balloon? Did the balloon change in any way after you did this step?

Now internally say, I can access this safety and protection at any moment I choose, by using this visualization.

Take a moment to call to your mind’s eye a natural environment that has been kissed by mid winters breath. The icy hardened landscape, leafless trees, and brittle broken shrubs. Touching the earth feel if it is damp or dry, is there recent snow, or is it snowing now, is the sun peeking out, even a bit?

Reaching your hands into the earth lifts the land around you as if it were your favorite comforter blanket. Imagine wrapping yourself in this earthen blanket so that it covers your whole body, and finally the top of your head. Feel its weight and temperature, and the darkness it is now allowing you to experience. Take some time to get comfortable in this new environment, feeling, hearing, tasting, and smelling its multiple complexities.

This is the completion of level one of this coffin style meditation, count back from 5 allowing your eyes to slowly open coming back into the room you currently find yourself.

In the winter landscape, it is clear to see the dormant lifeless vistas, and easy to feel down at what appears to be death. Morning the sun's absence is a fine way to spend overcast days if you wish, still winter's crisp beauty is something no one should miss.

This perceived desolation is an illusion as beneath the soil is seething with life. A pulsating heartbeat can be felt by the roots, seeds, and within the bark of deciduous trees. One of which is Prickly Ash; An Alterative herb with the potential to aid several organs as it works through the mechanism of the blood. Moving through the body like a burst of electricity, prickly ash assist circulation and the movement of Qi throughout the body.

As a helpful antidote for cold extremities, a useful lung tonic, and powerful pain relieving herb it was a well-known medicine amongst native tribes who would drink large amounts of the boiled bark before bathing in streams. The tradition removed aches and pains effectively, while also opening the surface of the skin allowing for the release of trapped heat during fevers.

As a warm, stimulating, and physically restorative herb that is also accessible in the winter months, Prickly Ash's usefulness cannot be overstated. It is a versatile medicine for the herbalist, and for the hitchhiker cursed to be lost in a winter storm, it could be a lifesaving remedy.

The Bark of the tree is boiled for no more than 5 minutes, then steeped for 10 minutes. A tablespoon is plenty for a cup of water. Enjoy its earthy, sweet notes first thing in the morning for an invigorating pulse of vitality.

The winter forest is something like a graveyard; filled with the bones of dormant plant life. The carcass stands like stiff frozen bodies trembling in the wind, and the roots are like the buried bones consumed by the decomposer.

One of these pseudo bones in the soul is the deep carrot like taproot of Burdock. Pale and thick, extending up to a foot into the earth is the herb dubbed the “universal alterative herb”. A perfect cleanse for the entire system, this herb is naturally cooling making it ideal for any inflamed tissue state. Burdock is specialized for treating digestive trauma such as leaky gut syndrome, and IBS which can lead to more advanced autoimmunity. As the Digestive is intimately connected to the skin's health being that they are formed of the same tissue. Burdock is a fantastic remedy for alopecia acne, eczema, and psoriasis treatment.

Burdock being a prebiotic will aid the digestive microbiome, affecting the health of the mind as it is intimately connected to the gut's bacterial balance. Burdock's actions make it an ideal herb for a winter tonic, to purify and nourish systemically even while the sun and many greens are not available to provide this essential function.

The bone like appearance of hidden roots, and carcasses like form of the aforementioned lone standing ash tree, give the ambiance of surrender, as the cycle of death and life move about like seasons unchanged from year to year.

Returning to your meditation find your way back to that of the earthen blanket, shrouded in the darkness of the earth sit a moment in this serene silent solitude. Bring your attention now to your own body and see not the skin or flesh, but only the white of your bones. See them as if scattered roots in the soil, slowly being reformed into the earth. Think to yourself, I am from the earth, and reborn in the earth. Exhale, and watch your bones turn to the dust, as the nutrients of the soil.

Now slowly extend tiny white roots out from your fingertips, and toes. Follow them paying close attention to the path they forge, and the unique form your roots take on. This will give insight into your own subconscious if studied and continued to be mapped.

Using each of your now expanded roots attempt to breathe in through each tinny tube-like appendage. Visualize the red primal energy of the earth being pulled out of the soil and into each of your roots then finally into your own being. See if you can feel the sensation of this energetic drink, maybe an energizing or uplifting feeling or rather one of deep satisfaction.

Continue to visualize this red nectar being pulled into the dark void like self, letting it fill you up so entirely that each portion of your body is covered in rich energetic fluid. This represents root or vital energy; it is the primal prana that is at the base of us all. Unfortunately, this place is often neglected leading to a weakening in each following energy center. Remember that simplicity is the greatest sophistication, and the humble man the wisest of us all.

Slowly counting back from 5 watch as the roots you formed, the earthen blanket, and the darkness that enveloped you dissipate completely.

What if anything came up for you while focusing on the meditation? Was there a portion that reminded you of another time? What was it like to focus on the energies of decay, and then that of nourishment and restoration? Did you notice any emotional release? These are all worth taking notes on, as they speak to the subtle nuance in each of our psychic minds.

Don’t let me give you the wrong idea the winter is not only bleak, there are few berries that remain radiant when we could use their color the most. Still, there are a couple that show their splendid face late into the winter's cold embrace.

Hawthorn berries are a great seasonal remedy that grow much earlier in the season but will often last on the trees late into the season. This crunchy seed filled berry is the best remedy for regulating blood pressure. Adjusting heart rate, blood viscosity, and vein dilation. Hawthorn is a cardiovascular tonic gentle enough to take daily. Slightly warming and nourishing, the berries are high in vitamin C and will help to build the blood as well.

This Tree can be recognized by its thorn covered branches, and twisted bark similar to that of an apple tree. The hawthorn tree is highly recommended for grief and loss that sits in the center of the chest. As it helps to warm and reduce stagnancy in this area. Its thorn is symbolic of these challenges, and its fruit is the outcome of our resilience.

Deep within the soil, there is another ally of decay although it is not one that you will find in the Rocky Mountains. Reishi mushroom is a shelf fungus, it can be found growing out of decaying trees like fins. The Medicinal decomposer has been used for millennia to treat a variety of the most common illness. Since Reishi has no toxicity and works to modulate several organ functions it can be useful for anything from general health and seasonal illness to cancer, diabetes, Hashimoto’s, jaundice, pneumonia, and a variety of others.

We seldom think of mushrooms as fruit; however, this fungus is the fruiting body of a much larger and harder to locate mycelium tree. An underground network of fungus spores returning death to life. In this way, decomposers are excellent death and resurrection medicine. Not to mention their ability to help you build vitality even through the winter season. Keeping the mind from slipping into seasonal depression, and the body from becoming overly stagnant. All while being a gentle, mild herb that can be boiled into a tea or broth quite easily.

Reishi mushroom is a 2nd-level apoptogenic herb, meaning it will help the body acclimate to new stressors, by supporting the system and therefore supplying supportive phytonutrient support. Other adaptogenic herbs such as Eleuthero, Rhodiola, or Astragalus can be helpful winter tonics as well, and a bit more stimulating.

Now for our final part of the psychic visualization practice, this is our moment of resurrection. We have found and connected with a portion of land, then allowed ourselves to be raped in and surrendered by it. Followed by our own decomposition, and deep nourishment is given so graciously by the blood of the earth. Like an Ash tree through the winter, our branches may be bare yet we are still very much alive. Cultivating the primal energy that will allow for full transformation and reincarnation.

Dropping back into our psychic level, count up to 10 slowly returning to that space you created under the earth. Witness again the decay of the white branch like bones within the dampness of the soil. Listen for the immortal heartbeat of the earth. Pull in the deep red vital energy once again through the roots you have spread so completely throughout the Black dirt.

Focus on yourself within the earth, and on the vital energy you have stored. Really try to feel this vitality, where do you feel it in your physical body? Are there thoughts that it is producing? How would you describe its texture, does it feel inspiring or somewhat motivating?

As we exhale, we will continue to build the Ball of Red Qi, while on our inhale we will move this energy up into our crown. On the next exhale we visualize the red energy escaping through the top of our head. Continue to breathe in this pattern allowing the red aura field to build up substantially, charging the entire body as vitality circulates through each vein and aortae, stimulated by your psyches will.

Finally, notice the point that the energy is leaving through the crown. Here you have a choice, from this point you may visualize a growing flower, any kind will do. This flower can continue to grow into a tree or produce fruits symbolic of the creative energies reaching their final states.

Instead of a flower, or tree one may also choose to produce a mushroom I suggest the type that grows like a fin from the skin. Instead of focusing on the aforementioned point of release, for this visualization one must hold the vital energy within the vessel not allowing it to escape. Visualizing mushrooms sprouting from various places upon your body. Program the purpose of this meditation by saying internally “each fungus is purifying, and building my blood.”

While in this place you are continuing to build energy in a Yin state, rather than the yang state mentioned in the previous visualization technique. At first glance, these concepts may seem pointless however they should not be overlooked. If one is able to apply the proper attitude, deep concentration, and consistency the level of vitality that can be unleashed is astounding. Please remember it is through these means we can ask our body to respond in ways far beyond our recognized cognitive perception. Communicating down to the cellular level is the purpose of the practices here.

Through these and other techniques, we are able to use thought power or psychic energy to affect every aspect of our lives, and the world we live in. Truly there is nothing that can be achieved when the mind energy is sufficiently harnessed towards a desired goal.

Visualize where you want to be on the journey of your life or contemplate a change that needs to come about sooner rather than later. Find a clear view of your greatest version, focus and hold that self-image. This is what it means to resurrect, allowing the old patterns that no longer serve our higher purpose to melt away. Leaving the purified self-sitting in the proverbial strainer, left behind as gold washed in spring water.