Thursday, July 23, 2015

Healthy Herbal Drinks for the Summer

Healthy Herbal Drinks for the Summer

 The Palero's garden is especially abundant at this time of year.  Leaves, flowers, roots and fruits are all available as plant medicines for both spiritual and physical issues.  We make healthy herbal drinks on a daily basis fresh from our gardens which the entire family enjoys.  Many plants are cooling to help us with the summer heat.  Here we share 3 herbal drinks that we recently made.  They are simple, yet healthy, and a much wiser choice than the highly sugared beverages that are aggressively marketed to us and which aggressively compromise the immune system and vitality of the body, contributing to obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and the like.  

We trust that the Palero will be interested to note that many of the herbs that we use are also utilized for spiritual purposes in our Traditions!


Above in the 3 jars fresh herbs are collected.  

On the left:
Mint
Sweet Basil 
Ceanothus americanus (New Jersey Tea Shrub)

In the Center:
Hibiscus flowers (large scarlet flower and smaller pink flowers)*
Pineapple Mint
Purple Basil
(Raw local honey)

On the right:
Echinacea flowers
Lavender flowers
Lemon Balm
Tarragon
Cat Mint

* The Hibiscus that we use is our local shrub hibiscus and herbaceous hibiscus.  Our children are especially excited about the hibiscus in the drinks because of the flamboyant flowers and bright colors.   They are delighted to discover that something so beautiful is also edible.

In particular the Hibiscus-Mint combination is very cooling for this hot season.  Great with ice or just chilled from the fridge.



The recipe is simple.  Add boiling water, let cool, add honey if desired, chill.  (We leave them overnight, but it only takes a few hours).  Then enjoy.  It can be fun and educational to watch the color changes that occur as the hot water pulls the magic and spirit from the plants!  The children love to see this alchemical process manifesting in front of their eyes.


It is no secret that our Ancestors had a more varied diet that the modern diet.  The bulk of their plant food was perennial- such as shrubs, trees, herbaceous plants or self seeding annuals.  The modern plant diet is primarily annuals grown on highly chemicalized and devitalized soils.  Because of their long term stability, trees and shrub food tends to be very mineral and vitamin rich.  Their roots stretch deep into and around the Earth, pulling a specific set of nutrients depending on what tree or shrub we are talking about.  So called weeds (especially those with tap roots) also do this.  What is truly magical and deeply spiritual is that two plants, growing next to each other can pull vastly different nutrients from the Earth, Sky and Sun!  At the Heart of Ancestral Traditions is the wisdom of the Ancestors who were able to understand this magic and bring it into practical uses of healing and creation.


It is concerning that contemporary spiritual practitioners, whether they be Paleros or Tainos (or of any other tradition that is directly tied to the Ancestors and is not a so called "new age" abstraction), are apparently estranged from the direct and daily relationship with the world of the Mysterious and Magical Plants.    There are those "medicine people"(beikes, shamans, boitu etc.) out there who know only to rely on drugs for even the most simplest ailment.  It is the proverbial issue of being thirsty at the edge of a river, hungry in front of a lush garden.  Their spiritual deprivation leads them to sickness and dependence, all the while, Mother Earth and Ancestral Wisdom are offering vitality and empowerment.  Many have the audacity to talk about "medicine" but resort to the quick and easy fix (which is not a fix but a tratado for debilitation) of Frankenstein's laboratory.   Others use the popular god ($) as the reason to choose chemicals and perversions (GMOs) over the plants that Mother Earth freely gives us.  Caring not that this choice ensures the destruction of Mother Earth, yet the next minute they are singing a song to her, with feather and drum in hand!   What hypocrisy and how could the Ancestors give their blessing for this?

Compared to the Ancient (and even not so ancient) Ancestors, we are children, with much more ignorance concerning plants than wisdom, however, there is no shame in humbling oneself to seek out some basic spiritual wisdom concerning the most common plants.  Many powerful plant medicines can be found at the corners of gardens, parks, along roads, abandoned lots, in hedgerows, and riverbanks.  Most of them we overlook everyday, sometimes even aggressively attacking them as a "weed".  Viciously spraying out powerhouses of nutrients such as the dandelion and violet from the lawn.  Trampling over the pile of weeded out plantain to get to a drug to deal with the bee sting we got weeding, not realizing all we need to do is chew a leaf of plantain and apply it to the sting!  

Many prayers are made for divine intervention, ironically, this Sacred Intervention that is required, is right in front of so many of us.  Mother Earth herself is in the process of requiring us to once again respect her and her Sacred Medicine.  The Earth Changes we are experiencing, which are sure to become more intense, require that we do so.  The overblown egos, and delusions cannot survive her Sacred Response to the vicious and greedy attack that has so undermined the vitality of the Web of Life.


Saturday, July 4, 2015

Aconite Spirit


Aconite!  Do not eat, highly poisonous, but what a beauty.  Use for spiritual purposes only or just enjoy its beauty!  Its beauty says a thousand words!





Lush Medicinal, Edible Gardens





We take a walk through the lush medicinal and edible gardens surrounding our home.  The plants within the garden nourish our senses, physical bodies, and spirits!  In the video you see edibles, including Tomatos, Peppers, Sage, Mints, Oregano, Fennel, Basils, Sunchokes, Raspberries, Pawpaw fruits, beans, sunflowers, asparagus, garlic, multiple greens.  Medicinal herbs include the mints, sages, Motherwort, Asclepius, Calendula, Hops, Yarrow, Red Clover, Raspberry leaf, Elderberry, Toadflax, Chicory, Sweet Annie, New Jersey Tea Shrub (Ceanothus), Catmint, Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink or Worm Grass).  All plants have spiritual value, but specifically we also see Cotton (Algodon), Datura (Campana Blanca), Basil (Albahaca), Ragweed (Artemisa), Amaranth (Bledo Blanca), Sambucus canadensis (Sauco Blanco), Spearmint (Hierba Buena), Plantain (Llenten), Rosemary (Romero).  Flowers include many daylilies, sunflowers, calendula, veronica, trumpet vine, cosmos, hosts, tithonia, wild flowers, morning glory.  Trees include Red Buckeye, Magnolia virginians (Sweet Bay Magnolia), Finge Tree. Shrubs include NJ Tea Shrub, Witchhazel, Inkberry.

Many birds can be heard in the background, mostly wild birds, but also including our rooster 'Papo' and our white homer pigeons!

The video is taken during a light rain shower, and droplets can be seen on the flowers as the plants take in the nourish water!

Munanso Botanical Gardens





Here we take you inside our Munanso's botanical gardens.  These gardens have eliminated our need to purchase plants from a Botanica!  One of our long term goals has been adapt out traditional practices to the temperate climate that we find ourselves within.  While many of the traditional plants from the Caribbean also grow here (or close relatives of them do), there are also many excellent plants that are native to here, or flourish here.  We use the herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees.  You also see vines, especially our native fox grape vines climbing the trees.  



Some of the plants seen here, include the native plants: 

Asarum canadensis (Wild Ginger)

Hydrastis canadensis (Golden Seal) (powerful medicinal value) *

Actaea racemosa (Black Cohosh) (powerful medicinal value) *

Adiantum pedatum (Maidenhair fern)

Heuchera longiflora (Coral Bells)

Meehania cordata 

Tiarella cordifolia

Mondarda didyma 

Tradescantia

Dicentra exima



*Indicates plants that are considered rare or endangered.



Plus many others, including, many Hostas, Aconite, Hellebores, Colleus, Mondo grass, Creeping Jenny, Heavenly Bamboo, Clumping Bamboo, Lily, Japanese Ferns, Lady's Mantle, Astilbes, Hardy Geranium, Ligularia, Sweet woodruff, Lemon Balm, Liriope...



Shrubs include: Mountain Laurels, Purple Smoke Bush, Indigo Bush, Black Elderberry, Black berry, Black raspberry, Wine Berry...



Trees include: Sassafras, Walnut, Hickory, Black Cherry, Black Locust, a small Big Leaf Magnolia (which will grow big), Oak, Apple, Yew, Juniper, Witch Hazel, Peach...



Vines include: Fox Grape, Honeysuckle, Poison Ivy, Virginia Creeper...



This list is very partial and does not touch on the many fungi and mosses that also grow here.