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juniper stokes 8/31/23 juniper stokes 8/31/23

A Guide to Perfume Types: Dilutions & Ratios in Natural Perfumes

EDP or EDT? Perfume or Parfum? The world of fragrance is full of various terms that can be a bit confusing when you first hear of them—which is why I’ve put together this helpful guide :)

EDP or EDT? Perfume or Parfum?

The world of fragrance is full of various terms that can be a bit confusing when you first hear of them — which is why I’ve put together this helpful guide :) Let’s take a look at the most common ratios, dilutions, and terms used in perfumery — and how they’re just a bit different when it comes to natural perfumes.

Psst! If you’re looking for info on natural perfume families — aka, chypre vs floral vs gourmand — you’ll want to take a look at this fascinating article: A Guide to Natural Perfume Fragrance Families.

What are perfume types?

In short, different strengths of perfumes have different names — this is what I mean by “perfume type”.

For example, an “eau de toilette” is usually at about a 10% dilution. This means that your fragrance will contain 10% fragrant material (either natural essences like essential oils, or chemical compounds in mainstream perfumes) and 90% carrier (usually alcohol or oil, and occasionally water).

Why is perfume type important?

Because the strength of your perfume dictates how long it will last. As you might guess, the stronger the dilution, the longer the wear and sillage…

Sillage—the aromatic trail left as someone wearing a perfume walks by

The most common perfume type is probably “eau de parfume”, often shortened to EDP. When people in the United States say “perfume”, this is usually what they mean.

If you look up perfume strength meanings online, you’ll find many lists with ratios similar to what I have here. These charts usually estimate the sillage by hour…

This doesn’t work with natural perfumes.

Natural perfumes don’t last as long as chemical-based ones — yet, if you’re just dipping your toes into the world of natural perfumery, you might be surprised at how long Alchemessence Perfumes do last. Here’s why:

Many people confuse botanical perfumes with aromatherapy blends. This is understandable — both are made with essential oils, and both can smell really good. But the two are actually extremely different. So much so that I’ll have an entire blog post dedicated to the topic soon…

What’s important now, is to understand that I intentionally design my botanical perfumes to last longer than simple aromatherapy blends, bringing together top and mid notes with long-lasting bases and “fixatives”.

Fixative—a botanical ingredient that extends the silage of your fragrance in natural perfumery

In natural perfumery, a fixative is a completely natural essential oil, absolute, or CO2 that extends the sillage of your perfume in a few different ways—by slowing down the evaporative rate or fortifying the fragrance, for example.

This means that some of my strongest perfumes will actually last up to 6hrs on your skin—naturally!

Decoding Dilutions: A Guide to Perfume Types and Concentrations

Of course, the more concentrated the perfume, the longer it will last. Here are the common types of perfumes based on their dilutions:

Parfum Extrait

Concentration: 20-40% perfume oil
Longevity: Lasts the longest, often for more than 6 hours, though the aroma of natural perfumes will change more during this window
Intensity: Highly potent and rich in scent
Application: Typically only a small amount is needed due to its strength
Characteristics: Expensive due to the high concentration of natural perfume oils, often packaged in smaller bottles, common in perfume oils and solids

Eau de Parfum (EDP)

Concentration: 10-20% perfume oil
Longevity: Lasts for around 3-6 hours depending on the ingredients
Intensity: Strong and noticeable, but slightly less potent than pure perfume
Application: Spritzing a couple of times on pulse points is usually sufficient
Characteristics: EDPs strike a balance between longevity and potency, making them popular choices and the most common perfume types

Eau de Toilette (EDT)

Concentration: 5-10% perfume oil
Longevity: Lasts for about 2 hours
Intensity: Lighter than EDP, suitable for a subtle scent
Application: Requires more spritzing throughout the day
Characteristics: EDTs are commonly used for everyday wear and are less overpowering

Eau de Cologne (EDC)

Concentration: 2-4% perfume oil
Longevity: Lasts for about 1-2 hours or less
Intensity: Very light and refreshing
Application: Needs frequent reapplication due to its low concentration
Characteristics: Often used for a quick refreshment or in warmer weather due to its light nature

Eau Fraiche

Concentration: 1-3% perfume oil
Longevity: A brief aromatic experience
Intensity: Extremely light and subtle
Application: Requires frequent reapplication
Characteristics: Eau Fraiche has the lowest concentration of perfume oils and is mostly used for a quick mood boost

It's important to note that the longevity and intensity of a fragrance also depend on individual skin chemistry and the specific ingredients in the perfume. Additionally, the same fragrance may smell slightly different at various concentrations due to the interactions between the perfume oils and the other components of the fragrance.

When choosing a perfume, consider your personal preference for intensity, how long you want the scent to last, and the occasion for which you're wearing it. It's a good idea to test perfumes on your skin to see how they interact with your body chemistry and to experience how they develop over time. Natural perfumes especially tend to be shape shifters, dancing uniquely with each of our personal chemistries.

Find your personal, all-natural fragrance in the Alchemessence Perfumery.

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juniper stokes 8/22/23 juniper stokes 8/22/23

5 Essential Oils for Mercury Retrograde (and how to use them)

What are retrogrades and why are they important? And, how can we navigate them with the support of plant allies? Let’s take a brief look at retrogrades from the perspective of ancient and enlivened astrology and five essentials oils for support during these times.

Mercury Retrograde has a bit of a bad reputation…but there are ways you can make any retrograde season work for you! In this article, we’ll take a brief look at what retrogrades are and how they function. Then, drawing from my personal anointing practice, which is based on decades of spirit work and botanical alchemy, I’ll share my five favorite oils for support during Mercury Retrograde. And stick around to the end — I’ve included a magical practice to do with the oils!

Why Retrogrades Matter

I’m not one to let any sort of system dictate my life, and I have no interest in freaking out about this convergence of retrogrades. I do, however, believe that responding appropriately to the movements in our skies is important…

As humans, we’re part of a larger web not just of life, but of cosmic energy. And, the universe has been so kind as to give us literal maps of the energies at play in our lives — the maps found in the skies.

In the ancient astrology I practice, the planets are not just energies, nor are they simply archetypes — they are gods. Inspirited, wise, and powerful, these gods rule different areas of our lives.

When the planets appear to move backward during a retrograde, there is a significant shift in how their energies are received and perceived upon our Earth: forward momentum in their areas of rulership slows and old cycles and patterns come up for review.

Retrogrades in general are a time for all things “re”: remember, review, reflect, release, and relax.

These astrological periods offer us natural, healthy cycles to enter into throughout our lives —- yet modern life doesn’t typically allow for a lot of wiggle room during these retrogrades as we constantly push forward. And this is where we run into trouble.

When we resist the nature of reality, obstacles arise. When we push against the natural flow of energies, everything feels more challenging and frustrating.

When we do what we can to go with the flow, to give ourselves space, and to accept whatever arises with equanimity, then we can receive the gifts of the retrogrades.

Understanding Mercury Retrograde

Mercury is often best known as the planet of communication and the mind — travel, technology, contracts, speaking, writing, and our thinking all fall under his rulership.

Yet Mercury is also the planet of magic. Spellcasting, manifesting, and influencing the subtle realms around you also fall under Mercury’s rulership.

This is why during a Mercury Retrograde, so many things can appear to go wrong. Travel can see a bit more obstacles, launching new ideas or projects can have more hiccups, and miscommunications can abound.

But remember — difficulties during retrogrades are not set in stone. By working with the energy of Mercury Retrograde, gifts arise: You might discover important details on past projects you’d previously overlooked. You might glean new layers of insight about yourself during reflective activities. You might even enjoy a surprise detour if you buffer your travels with plenty of extra time.

Essential Oils for Mercury Retrograde

Just as we find helpful maps in the skies, we find supportive allies here on Earth — especially with the plants.

As both a shamanic practitioner and clinically certified aromatherapist, I love working with essential oils for support — every oil contains the alchemical distillation of a plant’s most potent gifts.

This includes the mental and emotional benefits many people associate with aromatherapy, as well as the physical benefits that arise when each oil’s chemistry meets our own. And these benefits include wisdom, blessings, and energetic healing from the plant spirit that overlights each oil.

Here are a just a few of my favorite oils for Mercury Retrograde:

1. Rosemary: Untangling Cosmic Confusion

Rosemary is my top pick for Mercury Retrograde. Invigorating and opening, rosemary has an affinity for our third eye chakra, helping us see the truth and organize our thoughts with greater clarity — very supportive at a time when thinking can feel scattered.

Rosemary is also the embodiment of graceful memory. Several studies have even shown promising results for using rosemary with Alzheimer's patients. Yet rosemary isn’t just about remembering our day-to-day tasks: It’s about recalling deep wisdom and memories hidden within our lineages and past lives.

You can use rosemary anytime you need to think clearly, increase insight, boost concentration, and improve memory during this retrograde.

2. Clary Sage: Bringing Balanced Wisdom

Clary sage is a beautifully harmonizing essential oil. Both relaxing and uplifting, it physically balances our hormones and promotes emotional balance — something we might need a bit of extra support with during Mercury Retrograde. Clary sage is also my favorite oil for activating insight and intuition by clearing the pathways to divine wisdom.

This Mercury Retrograde, let clary sage be a cosmic hug that helps you navigate uncertainties with calm and clarity.

3. Blue Tansy: Joyful Expression

Blue tansy has a playful energy that brings greater flow and ease to our lives. Sweet and nourishing, blue tansy tends our inner child so we can feel safe to play and trust in all life brings.

And, with its natural bright blue color, blue tansy also has an affinity for the throat chakra. At a time when communication mishaps might be common, blue tansy brings welcome relief.

Use blue tansy to encourage feelings of joy and trust, as well as to support communication, this Mercury Retrograde.

4. May Chang: Positivity Booster

If you find negativity creeping in during this time, casting shadows on your plans and aspirations, may chang is a lovely ally. With its uplifting and refreshing aroma, may chang acts as a natural mood enhancer.

May chang is especially helpful for those feel “tired and wired” during Mercury Retrograde — it uplifts our mood by calming our nervous systems, which in turn actually leads to more sustainable energy.

You can use May change to help maintain a positive outlook and embrace the cosmic twists and turns with optimism.

5. Vetiver: Grounding and Stability

Get grounded and stay present with the support of vetiver. A restorative oil, vetiver is perfect for those times when you’re feeling hypersensitive or distracted. With its deep, earthy, almost smokey scent, vetiver anchors us to both the Earth and the present moment, offering stability amidst the cosmic chaos. Its calming effects can help alleviate stress and encourage a sense of security.

Turn to vetiver when you need to calm down, get present, and come from a place of inner power during challenging times.

How to Use Essential Oils During Mercury Retrograde

There are two simple yet powerful ways you can use these oils to support your flow during this retrograde season.

First, you can diffuse the oils. If you already have an essential oil diffuser, this is a lovely way to receive the benefits of these oils while blessing your entire space.

Simply add 4-6 drops of any of these oils to your favorite diffuser. You can choose one oil, or combine a few different ones. R

Anointing with the oils is especially powerful. An anointing practice can be done as part of a daily meditation, before journaling, or in preparation of Mercury-related activities to harmonize the energy (for example, you might like to anoint yourself with rosemary before reading an important document or blue tansy before a big conversation).

Quick Tip – Make Your Own Anointing Oil
Anointing can be done neat* — meaning with the pure, undiluted essential oil — or with a dilution of about 10% essential oil in a carrier oil.
If you’re making your own anointing oil this way, use about 10 drops per teaspoon of oil. The olive oil in your kitchen is great and has been traditionally used for centuries. Jojoba is a good modern choice, as it has an especially long shelf life.
*Some oils can cause irritation when used neat, including many citrus and spice oils, so in general, it’s a good idea to use diluted oils for your anointing practices.

How to Apply Your Anointing Oil

To apply your anointing oil, place one drop on your finger and then gently rub into selected points on the body. Hold your finger on the point for one to three minutes — until you feel a soft energetic shift. Chakra points are a nice place to start your anointing practice.

I also like to hold two key acupuncture points, as taught by Tiffany Carole, to receive the blessings of the oils: DU-2, located at the sacrum, and DU-20, located at the top of the head. (You can find charts to help with exact locations online.) Simply place one drop of oil on your index fingers, and then hold one index finger on each acupuncture for 1 - 3 minutes.

As we navigate Mercury retrograde, remember that essential oils are more than just pleasant scents – they are alchemical allies that can support our journeys of self-discovery and growth. So choose your oil, take a deep breath, and let the plant spirit guide you through these cosmic waves.

Psst…buying high quality essential oils can feel like a landmine. I wrote this peice to help.

You might also like:

A Complete Guide to Magical & Ritual Anointing Oils

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juniper stokes 8/22/23 juniper stokes 8/22/23

Your Guide to Virgo Season

Tomorrow, we leave the fiery, fun realm of Leo for the grounded, earthy energy of Virgo (August 23rd to Sept 23rd this year). This is the perfect time to find more balance in your daily routines, care for your health in practical and sustainable ways, and tend to the details that will support bringing your bigger projects to life. But this Virgo Season isn’t just about Virgo energy…it’s about retrograde energy. And actually, I think the two vibes go together quite well. With that, here’s your guide to make the most of Virgo - Retro Season!

This is what happens when the virgin meets the magician...plus retrogrades. So many retrogrades.

But this Virgo Season isn’t just about Virgo energy…it’s about retrograde energy. And actually, I think the two vibes go together quite well.

With that, here’s your guide to make the most of Virgo - Retro Season!

A Cosmic Look at Virgo

Virgos have a reputation for being meticulous and organized. They get things done and they get things done right. And they do it the first time. And, whatever they do usually benefits everyone.

Perhaps this is why a keyword for Virgo Season is care. Virgos care — about themselves and others. Self-improvement is balanced with service here, and quite often, the two are connected.

The Virgo Party

One of my favorite ways to feel into each Zodia is to imagine a dinner party hosted in the spirit of the sign.

Virgo’s, of course, would be meticulously planned: The cuisine both delicious and healthy, each course arriving in perfect timing. Seating arrangements carefully thought out in advance to ensure interesting conversation and benefic encounters. And, I have no doubt that coversation cards or other somewhat structured social activities would be in place, ensuring that no one is left out and all are taken care of.

How do you feel about attending this party? Do you feel yourself relax, knowing that all your needs will be cared for? Or do you feel tense, worried that you’ll be bored to death without a bit more freedom? Your reflections might illuminate a bit of your relationship with your own inner Virgo.

Virgo the Virgin

Virgo is symbolized by the Virgin, which might not sound that exciting, but is actually an amazing archetype.

The Virgin is not about sexuality but about sovereignty — it’s about feeling whole and complete in and of yourself.

In Goddesses in Everywoman, Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen describes the virgin goddesses as free and whole. They live their own lives, focus on their personal development, and cultivate great self-reliance.

Virginity also refers to purity here — but not the warped idea of sexual purity often associated with the word today. Rather, the virgin archetype offers us the purity of “original form”. Virgo asks us to reflect on our own true nature: Who are you at your core? What is your true spiritual nature?

Mother Mary, the primary virgin archetype of the West, is a model of this: her heart so pure, her divinity so intact, that she could birth — literally and metaphorically — the infinite love of Christ upon the Earth.

In this way, Virgo Season invites us to reconnect with our true self and sovereign nature, those parts of us that are whole, divine, and free from unhealthy cultural conditioning.

This is the ultimate aim of the personal growth aspect of this Zodia. We cultivate discipline, inquiry, and right effort on our path to self-realization.

Mercury: Magic, Messages, and Mind

Virgo is ruled by Mercury — the planet of magic, messages, and the mind.

In modern astrology, Mercury is most immediately connected with the mind and messenger archetypes. We tend to immediately think of our thought processes and everything related to communication — technology, language, travel, contracts, and more.

And, Mercury is known for its retrogrades. As one of the fastest moving planets, Mercury goes retrograde relatively often, which tends to put a pause on all the communication issues mentioned above.

Yet what’s often left out here is that Mercury also contains the archetype of the Magician.

In Hellenistic astrology, Mercury holds the unique position of not being part of other planetary groups (to put it simply) — Mercury is a free agent that travels between the realms of dark and light, the individual and the collective, and spirit and matter.

And this is how magic happens.
Spirit meets matter, and the mind directs the outcome.

When the Virgin Meets the Magician: Deities for Virgo Season

Virgo shows us that when purity of mind meets the limitless capacity of spirit, true magic becomes possible.

What do you most wish to accomplish? What desires arise from the most authentic place within? And, what is the next small step that will take you in the right direction?

Partnering with the deities that express and model Virgoan qualities can enhance our practices of self-development and magic during this time:

One place to begin your inquiry here is by looking at your relationship with the Virgin goddesses — Artemis, Hestia, and Athena — as well as Mother Mary. I’ve written a full article on these virgin goddesses here.

The other area to look at is the realm of three Mercurial gods — Hermes, Thoth, and Odin.

A Brief Detour into the Mercurial Gods…
In classical astrology, each day of the week is given a planetary lord — and Mercury’s day is Wednesday. Wednesday, from the Old English word Wōdnesdæg, means day of Woden or day of Odin. And in the Norse allfather Odin, we see a god of wisdom, communication, and magic, an apt expression of Mercury.
As an aside, I’ve created an all-natural, magically-infused perfume dedicated to Odin. It’s smokey and mysterious. Sweet, spicey, and sultry all at the same time. And filled with magical botanicals to awaken your connection with this powerful god. See Odin’s natural and magical perfume here.
In the West’s classical lineage, Mercury was known as Mercurius to the Romans and Hermes to the Greeks. Hermes — the god of messages and magic. The starting point of Hermeticism. And the incarnation of the Egyptian god Thoth — a primary deity of magic, writing, and wisdom. Both Hermes and Thoth are powerful Mercurial allies.

Which deities do you feel a resonance with at this time, and what might this say about the life themes and lessons arising for you? What support can you find in these gods and goddesses?

One of my absolute favorite deities for working with these energies is that of the goddess Diana, who embodies both the Virgin and the Magician.

Diana is the Roman name for the Greek goddess mentioned above, Artemis, and both goddesses model independence, freedom, personal development, and sovereignty. As a protector of women, this goddess embodies the Virgoan trait of being of service, as well.

Yet Diana specifically brings in the realms of magic. This form of the goddess was kept alive in sacred women’s circles, underground and hidden from the Church, for hundreds of years beyond the fall of the Roman Empire. She is a patron saint of witches to this day. A goddess of true magic.

I have a long standing relationship with this goddess and have created many offerings to her over the years. If you’re interested in learning more, take a look at this goddess workshop dedicated to her. Or, if you’d like to simply receive her blessings, my Artemis-Diana botanical perfume is infused with her energy — it smells of a wild and sweet forest filled with rain and moonlight, and is one of my personal favorites.

The 6th House: Bringing Sovereignty and Magic to Our Daily Lives

Virgo rules the 6th house in astrology, which is associated with our daily routines, health, and service — all areas of focus for Virgo.

Here, we see all the themes of Virgo Season come together:
The virgin’s quest for personal development, the mind’s acuity and focus, and the magician’s gifts in making things happen — all in the realms of our day-to-day lives.

During Virgo Season, let yourself find pleasure in the details. Find joy in giving to others. Make small, sustainable lifestyle changes that will add up to big results over time. And know that your health, happiness, and hopes are worth committing to.

This season supports us in committing to our most important goals, making an organized plan, and following through. Then, we can bring our dreams to life…almost as if with magic ;)

Coming Up In The Cosmos

An astrological season is never just about the ruling Zodia — there are myriad cosmic events that influence us, so let’s take a look at some of the bigger ones we’ll see during Virgo season this year:

Mercury Retrograde — Yes, the dreaded Mercury Retrograde is back from August 23 - September 15th this year. But have no fear! Mercury Retrograde in Virgo helps us review the details of past projects, make tweaks, and then be prepared to move forward once the retrograde is over.

Uranus Retrograde — Another retrograde! Innovative and eccentric Uranus goes retrograde on August 28th, and will stay that way until January, 2024. When such a rebellious planet enters a retrograde phase, it asks us to be a bit more conservative when it comes to making major life changes.

Full Blue Supermoon in Pisces — On August 30th, we’re blessed with a second full moon this August, and it’s a supermoon, meaning it will look big and beautiful over the horizon. Happening in the sign of Pisces, this just might be a time for your dreams to come true.

Venus Goes Direct — On September 3rd, you can take a sign of relief as Venus stations direct once again. Areas of relationships, beauty and aesthetics, values, and more should now feel a bit more easeful.

Jupiter Retrograde — Yeah…there are a lot of retrogrades this month. A planet of luck and spiritual expansion, Jupiter retrograde asks us to travel our inner worlds. This is a time to reflect on our beliefs and blessings, refining them to be more aligned with who we are now.

Extra Long Void Moon — Void moons are an astrological phenomenon that’s almost like a mini “everything is retrograde” period. It’s a time to focus on self-care, meditation, and simple activities like cleaning the house. Void moons happen all the time but usually don’t last for more than an hour or two, so we rarely notice them. On September 12th, we’ll have an extra long void moon — meaning that it will last pretty much all day. Rest and relax as much as you can.

New Moon in Virgo — Thia is a time for setting earthy, practical goals. What do you want your day-to-day life to look like? Set your intentions under the Virgo New Moon on September 14th.

Tips for Virgo Season (and all those retrogrades…)

Does this seem like a lot of retrogrades? It is! Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto will all be retrograde from August 23rd to September 3rd.

What does this mean for you?

Retrogrades in general are a time for all things “re”: reflect, review, remember, and relax.

I actually think Virgo Season could be a lovely time for all these retrogrades to take place. We’re naturally more focused on details, want to clean up and organize a bit, and might prioritize our health. You can use these retrogrades to your advantage by going back and cleaning up areas you’ve been meaning to get to, reviewing and editing past projects for even greater clarity or meaning, and refining your daily routine to better support your wellness.

And remember: Revisiting past dreams, projects, relationships, and struggles can be both tender and liberating. Set the to-do list aside on occasion and create space for self care.

Psst: Here’s how to support yourself during retrogrades with plant allies.

More Tips for Virgo Season:

Refine Your Daily Routines: Virgo thrives on structure, so now is the perfect time to take a detailed look at your day-to-day. What’s working, and what’s not? Make the small, sustainable changes that will lead to your goals.

Make Self-Care a Priority: The transition of seasons, back to school energy, attention to detail, and emphasis on service during this season can feel a bit stressful if not balanced with self care. Commit to one act of true care for yourself each day, no matter how small.

Declutter and Organize: Virgo energy reminds us that an organized environment soothes the nervous system and calms the mind. Whether it’s your home, office, or even digital environment, take time to declutter and tidy up the spaces where you spend the most time.

Embrace Personal Growth: This season is all about self-reflection and self-improvement. Take some time to look back on your achievements, acknowledge your progress, and express gratitude for what you have. From this place of fullness, you can begin to look at where you want to commit to growing even more..

Be of Service: Virgo isn’t just about getting organized and taking care of yourself — it’s about serving others, too, especially in ways that create greater health and well-being. What gifts can you share with your family and community this season?

Make Offerings to Mercury: Mercury energy is strong during Virgo season, making this a wonderful time to add offerings and symbols for this planetary god to your altar and rituals. A few traditional associations from the Picatrix include:

Herbs and Aromas — rue, lemongrass, dill, elemi, mastic, sandalwood, and galbanum
Foods and Beverages — hoppy beer, black and mint teas, walnuts, and dried fruits
Stones — marcasite, agates, malachite, opal, and labradorite

The world needs Virgos and their deep desire to be of service, natural flair for organization, and ability to take care of business. This season, may we all enjoy these cosmic gifts.

You might also like:

The Venusian Mysteries: Awakening the Sacred Feminine

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juniper stokes 8/5/23 juniper stokes 8/5/23

Lion’s Gate Portal 8/8: Ancient Origins, Portal Openers, and the Key to Manifestation

During the Lion’s Gate Portal, the Earth, Sirius, the constellation Orion, and our Sun (in Leo the lion), all come into alignment. Though the energy lasts for around two weeks, it’s said to peak on 8/8, bringing in the numerological blessings of this day. Yet long before modern mystics named the Lion’s Gate Portal, ancient Egyptians were celebrating their new year right around the same time…

You’ll likely be hearing a lot about the Lion’s Gate Portal right around now — I even saw an article in Glamour about manifesting with the energy of this day (sometimes the changes I’ve witnessed in our collective consciousness just within my lifetime astound me).

These articles are helpful — but they are not the full story. Here’s what you might not know about the Lion’s Gate Portal…

Sirius — A Portal to Spiritual Wisdom

Sirius is the brightest star in our skies and has played an important role in spiritual traditions throughout the world…and Sirius is the key to opening the Lion’s Gate Portal.

Sirius is the brightest star visible in Earth's night sky and has been revered by various civilizations throughout history. Modern mystics will often refer to Sirius as “The Great Central Sun” — a luminous portal to divine wisdom.

The name "Sirius" is derived from the Greek word "Seirios," meaning "glowing" or "scorcher," which highlights its brilliance — it’s one of the closest stars to the Earth and its luminosity is about 25 times that of our own Sun.

Fun fact: Sirius is a binary star system, meaning that it consists of two stars — a brighter one and smaller white dwarf companion.

In ancient Egypt: Sirius was deified as the goddess Sopdet (Sothis in Greek) and appears as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head. Sopdet is said to be a form of the goddess Isis, which emphasizes the importance of the stellar being.

Sopdet’s consort was the god Sah — who deified the constellation Orion. Just as Sopdet as associated with Isis, Sah was associated with her consort, Osiris.

Note: Osiris is a god of death and rebirth, transformation and regeneration — something that will become important to remember in the next bit…

The Lion’s Gate Portal 8/8

During the Lion’s Gate Portal, the Earth, Sirius, the constellation Orion, and our Sun (in the sign of Leo, the lion), all come into alignment.

In new thought spiritual communities, this cosmic event is said to activate a celestial portal that allows our manifestations to take form more quickly. It’s a time of collective evolution and an invitation to focus your intentions, connect with spirit, and bring your desires to life.

Though the energy of the Lion’s Gate lasts for around two weeks, it’s said to peak on August 8th (8/8, and next summer will be quite potent at 8/8/8 - 2+0+2+4), bringing in the numerological blessings of this day.

8 is a potent number associated with power, sex, and money, as well as death and rebirth.

(So both the constellation Orion and the number 8 add themes of death and rebirth to this sacred day!)

In astrology, the 8th house is ruled by Mars (in Hellenistic astrology) and Pluto (in modern astrology), and is home to Scorpio, making it our place of deep transformation — we delve into the depths of our psyches to let the old die and regenerate into greater versions of ourselves.

The 8th house is also where we access resources from outside ourselves, including gifts that arrive from others, the earth, and spirit.

With this 8th house energy of transformation and outside gifts, the Lion’s Gate Portal invites us to evolve into the person who is worthy and capable of receiving what we intend to manifest.

And guess what? The 8th card in the Tarot’s major arcana is Strength, a radiant, solar card which, in the traditional Rider-Waite Tarot, features a lion!

The True Mystical Origins of the Lion’s Gate Portal

But let’s be real here. The date 8/8 is a relatively modern invention — the current Gregorian calendar wasn’t established until the 16th century.

This calendar absolutely does add an important energetic signature, and our understanding of the numerological energy of 8 goes back thousands of years, but it’s important to understand that the true origins of the Lion’s Gate Portal are rooted much further in history.

Long before modern mystics named the Lion’s Gate Portal what it is today, ancient Egyptians were celebrating their new year right around the same time.

Sirius's heliacal rising — the first time it becomes visible in the morning sky before sunrise — was associated with the annual flooding of the Nile River, which was a critical event for the region's agriculture and marked the arrival of the Egyptian New Year. (I have an entire article on this celestial event and the Egyptian holy days it portends — if you missed it, you can still read it here.)

Though the celestial gods and their seasons have shifted over time, it’s generally thought that the heliacal rising of Sirius occurs in late July. Late July is of course the start of Leo season and opens the energetic portal of the Lion’s Gate.

So, while we might say this portal peaks on August 8th, the true origins of the Lion’s Gate Portal can be found in the ancient Egyptian New Year.

For me, this makes the Lion’s Gate Portal and powerful time for working with the gods of Egypt. (I’m actually finalizing a set of all-natural Egyptian perfumes, though they won’t be ready for release until the fall.)

Now is the perfect time to work with these rituals and connect with the gods of Egypt.

Portal Openers

I love partnering with plant allies — as herbs, flower essences, essential oils, and of course living plants. They provide us with food and medicine, wisdom and protection, and endless support on our human journeys.

One of my most personally sacred ways of working with the plants is through anointing oils. Spiritual traditions throughout the world have use anointing rituals for blessing, initiation, and protection.

In my own spiritual practice, I work with sacred oils as portal openers.

When I create an alchemical oil or anointing balm, both the energetic signature of the oils used and the ritual transmission of energy I infuse into the oil synergize into a uniquely potent blend.

This unique synergy speaks the language of energy and spirit, opening the way for deeper communication with the spirit world. I often anoint my heart when doing ritual work, as this attunes my own vibration with that of my intentions, opening a portal for greater healing and manifestation.

Whether you feel called to engage with the ritual guide above, or plan on doing your own manifestation practices, I highly recommend working with sacred oils for added potency.

The oils you choose will depend on your intentions. A few of my favorites:

Rose — for love
Basil — for wealth
Helichrysum — for healing
Clove — for protection
Neroli — for spiritual connection

If you make your own oil, be sure to dilute any pure essential oils in a carrier oil — olive oil works wonderfully (aim for about a 5% dilution — this is an energetic blend, so stronger isn’t better).

I’ve created a wealth of potent oils available in the Alchemessence Apothecary. Here are two that are especially potent for Egyptian magick:

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Sacred Scarab Anointing Oil

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Scarab Anointing Oil

I created my new Scarab Anointing Oil specifically for working with Egyptian magic — with true blue lotus absolute, sacred myrrh resin, and many more precious essences to connect you with ancient Egypt. Anointing oils are potent portal activators, and Scarab will help open sacred pathways of communication with the Egyptian deities.

Psst: I have an entire article on the magic of Scarabs here!

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The Venusian Mysteries: Awakening the Sacred Feminine

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juniper stokes 7/27/23 juniper stokes 7/27/23

How to Use Flower Essences: A Complete Guide

Flower essences are vibrational remedies that can be used to heal mind, body, and spirit. As gentle, safe, and accessible remedies, they are wonderful allies for anyone wishing to make changes in their lives. Using flower essences is simple and allows you to harness the healing properties of flowers to support your own well-being. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use flower essences for transformation and healing.

Using flower essences is simple and allows you to harness the healing properties of flowers to support your own well-being. In this article, you’ll learn how to use flower essences for personal transformation and healing — including how to choose the right flower essence for you, different ways to take your flower essences, and how to know if they’re actually working!

Psst: If you want to know more about what flower essences are and how they work, take a look at this complete guide to flower essences!

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use flower essences for transformation and healing:

1. Choose the Right Flower Essence

Select a flower essence that aligns with your specific emotional or mental needs. For example, if you are experiencing general anxiety, you might consider using a flower essence like aspen. For healing past relationships or a broken heart, twinberry honeysuckle could help.

You can select flower essences by researching your intentions and reading descriptions, through kinesthetic testing, intuitively, or with a personal consultation.

Looking for more in-depth guidance on choosing your essences? This free guide will walk you through a fun process!

2. Set Your Intention

Before using your flower essences, take a moment to set your intention or the purpose for using it. Be clear about what emotional, mental, or spiritual aspects you want to address or what positive qualities you wish to cultivate within yourself. This intention will infuse your experience with more healing and prepare you to receive the benefits of your essences.

3. Take the Flower Essence

The most common way to take flower essences is orally — directly under the tongue or in water:

Direct Ingestion: Place a few drops (usually 2-4) of the flower essence under your tongue. Hold the drops in your mouth for about 30 seconds before swallowing. This allows the essence to be absorbed through the mucous membranes and enter your system.
In Water: Add a few drops of the flower essence to a glass of water and sip it slowly. This method is especially useful if you find the taste of the essence too strong for direct ingestion.

Either way, you’ll want to take your dose of essences 2 to 4 times a day for at least two weeks. After two weeks, most people notice at least subtle changes. You should continue taking your essences either until the dosage bottle is gone, or until you naturally feel complete — you’ll notice that you just aren’t drawn to keep taking them.

While taking essences internally and consistently is the most common way to heal and transform with them there are many wonderful and creative ways to use flower essences! You can apply them topically, use them in rituals, share them with pets…the list goes on :)

For a complete list of creative uses for flower essences, make sure to grab your free guide, Flowering Soul.

4. Observe and Reflect

As you use your flower essences, pay attention to any shifts or changes in your emotions, thought patterns, or overall well-being. Keep a journal if possible, noting any insights or observations. Sometimes the effects of flower essences may be subtle and gradual, while other times, you might notice immediate changes. You can read more about signs to look for here.

5. Combine Flower Essences (Optional)

You can create personalized blends by combining different flower essences to address multiple aspects of your emotional or mental well-being. If you choose to mix essences, do so in a separate bottle and label it with the intention or emotions you are targeting. An experienced practitioner can also help you create a custom blend for your particular needs.

6. Be Patient and Gentle with Yourself

Flower essences work in harmony with your natural healing process, but they are not a quick fix. Be patient and compassionate with yourself as you embark on this journey of self-discovery and healing.

Sometimes, what has been buried or hidden within our psyches emerges when we use flower essences — and this isn’t always easy to confront or integrate. Find support for your journey, whether through a trusted friend, therapist, spiritual healer, or someone else with the skills to hold you during your transformation.

Remember that while flower essences can be a valuable tool for emotional support, they are not a substitute for professional medical or psychological help when needed. If you are dealing with significant emotional challenges or mental health issues, consider seeking guidance from a qualified healthcare practitioner or therapist.

Using flower essences can be a beautiful and transformative experience, allowing you to connect with the healing power of nature and nurture your emotional and spiritual growth.

If you’d like to go deeper with your exploration, you’ll want to get my free guide to flower essences here:

Ready to start using essences yourself? I offer a selection of handmade essences in the Alchemessence Apothecary. I created each one myself, in sacred partnership with the plants. A few to get started with are:

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Flowers

Zinnia

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Pansy

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High Elevation, Flowers

Sweet William

High Elevation, Flowers

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Flowers

Swordleaf Fern

Flowers

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Flowers

Clary Sage

Flowers

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Flowers

Pink Rose

Flowers

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Flowers

White Rose

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Yellow Rose

Flowers

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Apple Blossom

Flowers

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Quince Blossom

Flowers

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juniper stokes 7/25/23 juniper stokes 7/25/23

All About Flower Essences: How to Partner with Plants for Whole-Self Healing

Flower essences are liquid infusions of blossoms and light that shift the vibrational state of anyone who uses them. And they’re becoming more popular all the time — because they are one of the most gentle, accessible, and still potently transformational healing remedies available. If you’ve been wondering just what flower essences are, how they work, and how you can use them yourself — this article is for you :)

Flower power is back! Flower essences are liquid infusions of blossoms and light that shift the vibrational state of anyone who uses them. And they’re becoming more popular all the time — because they are one of the most gentle, accessible, and still potently transformational healing remedies available. The plants are here to support us, and in this article you’ll learn exactly what flower essences are, how they work, and how you can start using them for your own healing journey.

As the child of nature-loving hippies, I’ve been using flower essences for just about my entire life. I love them.

For the past decade, I’ve also been making my own flower essences in sacred ceremony out in the wilds — I spend miles and hours wandering through mountains, forests, and fields, allowing the spirits of nature to guide me to the perfect plants.

The result is an ever growing collection of powerful elixirs made from a wide variety of botanical allies — some of which are quite rare and true gifts from the earth.

Flower essences have been part of my life for so long that I sometimes forget that not everyone lives and breathes spiritual botany the way I do. And, from the outside looking in, they almost seem like a snake oil type of medicine…how does infusing a blossom in spring water actually make a difference for your own health and wellness?

Read on to discover the magical, vibrational, and natural power of the flowers!

What Are Flower Essences?

Flower essences are natural remedies made from the energetic imprint of flowers. They are created by infusing the blossoms of specific plants in water, and then preserving with alcohol, to capture their unique vibrational signature.

By working on an energetic level, flower essences affect the subtle energy systems of the body to promote emotional, spiritual, and, as a result, physical healing.

Unlike essential oils or herbal extracts, flower essences don't contain physical substances — and therefore have no scent — but instead carry the vibrational imprint of a flower’s unique healing qualities.

The term “flower essence” is often used as an umbrella term for vibrational essences of all types, as well, including:

Trees and mushrooms — even if not technically flowers, these make wonderful essences
Environmental essences — these capture the energy of a place, such as a body of water or sacred site
Gemstone essences — these essences carry the vibrational imprints of crystals and stones

The History And Origins Of Flower Essences

The history of flower essences can be traced back to ancient civilizations, when healers and spiritual practitioners recognized the healing potential of vibrational remedies. The modern-day foundation of flower essences, however, is attributed to the pioneering work of Dr. Edward Bach.

Dr. Bach was a British physician and homeopath. In the 1920s, he developed a set of 38 individual flower essences — known as the Bach Flower Remedies — each corresponding to a specific emotional state. His belief was that imbalances in our emotional and mental states led to physical illnesses, and by addressing these emotional imbalances, true healing could occur.

Dr. Bach created the first flower essences based on his intuitive realization that the healing properties of flowers could be transferred to water, which captured the energetic imprint of the plant — something Dr. Masaru Emoto later demonstrated with his famous water experiments.

A strong proponent of accessibility in healing, these essences allowed Bach to share healing remedies that could be easily administered and understood by people without specialized medical knowledge. To this day, Dr. Bach’s work with homeopathy and flower essences continues to influence alternative and holistic healing methodologies.

How Are Flower Essences Made?

Creating flower essences involves a gentle and sacred process that honors the essence of the flowers.

The most common method is the sun-infusion technique, where freshly picked flowers are floated on the surface of spring water and left to be infused by the sun's energy, which helps transfer the vibrational healing qualities of the flowers to the water. (I use a moonlight infusion for mushroom essences, though, as the moon and mushrooms have a unique relationship.)

Essences from hardier plants, such as trees, are often made with a boiling method instead of the sun infusion, as Bach felt that simmering tougher plant material in water for 20 minutes more effectively brought out the vibrational imprints.

Either way, the resulting infusions are then preserved with alcohol to create the “mother” essence. Brandy is traditionally used, though many people today use vodka. (I have a 100% Demeter Certified organic grape alcohol I like to use.) For those avoiding alcohol, apple cider vinegar is a good alternative.

From the mother essence, you will dilute just a few drops into each stock or dosage bottle. (I share more about this in the free guide!) Each vibrationally attuned drop imprints the water if your dosage bottle, allowing you to receive full benefits of the elixir in amazingly sustainable ways.

Why Flower Essences Work

The philosophy behind flower essences is based on the belief that emotional and spiritual imbalances can manifest as physical ailments. By addressing the root cause of these imbalances on an energetic level, flower essences facilitate healing and personal growth.

They can assist in alleviating stress, anxiety, fear, grief, and other emotional states, promoting a greater sense of harmony and connection with oneself and the environment.

As a subtle healing remedy, flower essences probably won’t give you an immediate, noticable difference with a one-time use. However, used consistently over time, they do make a difference.

You’ll likely wake up one day and realize that your thoughts have become more positive, and you didn’t notice it happening. Or your back pain just isn’t bothering you as much, and you’re not sure why. Or you have an inspired idea, seemingly out of nowhere. These are the essences at work!

Here are a few signs your flower essences are working:

Your dreams — look for shifting patterns in recurrent dreams, insights, and healing
Your habits and daily patterns — notice subtle shifts that arise naturally and will make a bigger difference over time
Your thoughts — again, notice subtle shifts in old thinking patterns, as well as new insights and inspiration
Your intuition — you’ll begin to come into clearer connection with your inner knowing and meditation may feel easier
Synchronicities — seemingly ransom blessings are actually the result of your own shifting energy
Relationship changes — as you change, your relationships with those around will change too
Physical wellness — you’ll start to just feel better, whether that means having more energy, peace, or joy

How to Use Flower Essences

Flower essences are best used consistently over time. The most common way to use them is to drink a few drops in water four times a day — but you can get creative :)

For a complete guide on using flower essences, take a look at this article!

Why to Use Flower Essences

Flower essences can support a wide range of intentions. Here are a few common ones:

Alleviating anxiety — aspen is one of my favorites for this
Healthy boundaries, energetically and emotionally — try a combination of yarrow and rose
Embodying your worth — I absolutely love queen’s crown as an ally
Enhancing psychic abilities, intuition, shamanic journeying, and lucid dreaming — mugwort and amanita are favorites
Shadow work — the poison plant essences are potent allies, and you can get a full set of them here
Support for times of change — bistort helps us with internal scaffolding, and fireweed helps us re-emerge after having the ground pulled from under us
Sleep and relaxation — elephant’s head is my absolute favorite for this
Tending the mother wound — mariposa lily is a beautiful essence
Deepening your relationship with the Earth — you have to read my article on gnome flower essence!
Plus healthy relationships, healing depression, motivation for life changes, physical changes, and so much more.

Safety Considerations And Potential Side Effects

One of the wonderful things about flower essences is that they are so safe and easy to use, with no known side effects or interactions. They usually can be used with animals, children, and the elderly without any problems.

That said, the emotional transformation that may arise with use of flower essences may be intense — you’ll want to have proper support, such as a trusted therapist or holistic healer, for any emotional or mental issues that arise.

Remember: While flower essences can be a valuable tool, they are not a substitute for professional medical or psychological help when needed. If you are dealing with significant emotional challenges, mental health issues, or physical ailments, consider seeking guidance from a qualified healthcare practitioner or therapist.

Flower essences offer a profound and accessible path to holistic healing and personal growth, bridging the gap between nature's wisdom and our own well-being. If you’d like to go deeper with your exploration, grab my free guide to flower essences here:

Ready to start incorporating flower essences into your own healing journey? Explore the wild, sacred essences I’ve created in partnership with the plants in the Alchemessence Apothecary.

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Wild Sunflower

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Fairy Trumpet

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Sacred Datura

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Gnome Flower

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juniper stokes 7/13/23 juniper stokes 7/13/23

The Heliacal Rise of Sirius, the Five Sacred Epagomenal Days, and the Egyptian New Year

Though the date varies year over year, mid July generally marks both the Egyptian new year and the preceding Epagomenal Days.

Happy New Year to my fellow practitioners of ancient Egyptian magick.

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Sacred Scarab Anointing Oil

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Though the date varies year over year, mid July generally marks both the Egyptian new year and the preceding Epagomenal Days. To celebrate, I’m offering a very special Scarab Anointing Oil — which you can read more about, and purchase if you’d like, here:

The Heliacal Rise of Sirius

The ancient Egyptian New Year, known as Wepet Renpet or "Opening of the Year," was celebrated with the annual flooding of the Nile. The inundation of waters after long, dry seasons brought rebirth and fertility to the land, symbolically and literally. Only when the Nile waters returned, could the agriculture that would assure survival take place.

This time of year also marks the heliacal rising of the star Sirius: The first visible appearance of the star in the eastern horizon just before sunrise coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile.

A Nurturing Note on Cancer Season, the Earth’s Birth Chart, and the Egyptian New Year
During my Hermetic Astrology training, which is rooted in ancient Egyptian astrology, I remember seeing the Earth’s birth chart for the first time. And guess which sign was found in the first house, marking the ascendant of the Earth? Cancer.
How beautiful that the watery sign of Cancer welcomed the flooding of the Nile. And how beautiful that Cancer, known to be the sign of nurturing and caregiving, is the rising sign of our Earth, a rare planet filled with the waters that make life possible.

Sirius held great importance in ancient Egyptian cosmology and was considered one of the most significant celestial bodies that traversed the skies.

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This was in part because of the star’s association with the great mother goddess Isis — the stellar goddess Sothis, also known as Sopdet, that personified Sirius was considered a manifestation of Isis (or Auset). The threads of meaning continue to weave a divine tapestry here, as Isis contains the Cancerian and life-giving qualities of motherhood and fertility (in addition to many more aspects, of course).

And it was in part because of the spiritual significance of Sirius for the afterlife — the journey of the deceased through Duat, the realm of the dead, was often depicted as a boat sailing towards Sirius, a destination of spiritual transformation and eternal life.

The Epagomenal Days

The Egyptian epagomenal days, also known as the "Intercalary Days" or Heru-renpet, refer to five days added to the end of the Egyptian solar calendar. The solar calendar consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, resulting in a 360-day year. To align the calendar with the solar year, five extra days were inserted between the end of the old year and beginning of the new.

On each of these days, a great god or goddess was born — product of the union between the sky goddess Nut and earth god Geb (yes, the sky was the cosmic feminine and the earth the fertile masculine in ancient Egypt — a topic for another time!). Celebrations occurred throughout Egypt on every epagomenal day except for the third, which belongs to the unfortunate god Seth. The following is the traditional order:

Day 1: Osiris (also known as Ausar or Wesir)
Day 2: Horus the Elder (also known as Heru-ur)
Day 3: Seth (also known as Set)
Day 4: Isis (also known as Auset)
Day 5: Nephthys (also known as Nebthet)

In Feasts of Light, Normandi Ellis further explores the significance of each day, offering that Osiris’s day was considered a good day to be born, while those born on the day of Horus the Elder would long to return to the skies and their lives on Earth might be short-lived. (While Horus is usually the son of Isis and Osiris, in his ancient form of Horus the Elder, he is son of Nut and Geb.)

The day of Seth was considered to be extremely unlucky — shops were closed and people were warned not to leave their houses. (While I tend take a non-dual approach to deities, Egyptians found the god Seth to be so terrible — i.e., “He Who Makes Terror” — that he is the one primary Egyptian deity I’ve resisted creating a perfume for. What do you think? Would a Seth perfume be healing or harmful? Let me know in the comments, please!)

The birthday of Isis was the most fortunate day of the entire year, a time of beauty, celebration, and the greatest festivities.

The final epagomenal day belongs to the enigmatic goddess Nepthys. Sister to Isis, wife of Seth, Nepthys is associated with mourning and the afterlife, playing a major role in funerary rites. How fitting then, that she marks the final day, the last release of what came before as a year begins anew.

Celebrating the Epagomenal Days with Ritual & Reflection

Here in the West, we celebrate the turning of the year near the winter solstice, welcoming the official start on January 1st. Yet the Egyptian epagomenal days are part of the West’s cultural inheritance, as well, and the gods and goddesses of this pantheon are always available to us.

As we are roughly halfway through our Western year, these five days offer us a beautiful invitation to reflect on our experiences so far as we prepare for what’s to come. The following rituals are designed to help you work with the energy of these sacred days.

*A note on the timing of these days:
Many people like to celebrate the five epagomenal days in July, as that is likely when they took place in ancient Egypt. I like to focus on the days leading up to and around the feast of Mary Magdalene on July 22nd, as she is closely related to Isis and potentially shares a feast day — here, the day of Osiris would fall on July 19th and Nepthys would close the festivities on the 23rd. For those who wish to be more astrologically accurate, the actual Heliacal rising of Sirius will take place between July 24th and September 3rd, depending on your location (source).

Day 1: Osiris

Osiris is a unique god in that he is known for both fertility (his green color associating him with the fertile green earth) and death (he was torn to pieces by his brother Seth). And isn’t death necessary for life, providing compost and nutrients that nourish new forms into being?

Today, meditate on the gifts you’ve received so far this year. Notice what you have needed to let die, and what has been born in its place. Feel the ever-present life force of spirit in and around you — in form, unformed, and changing form all the time.

You may like to ritually release any thoughts, beliefs, projects, patterns, and attachments at this time, so the energy that once kept them alive may become fertile compost for the new delights awaiting you.

Day 2: Horus the Elder

It is said that Horus is twice-born — once of the heavens and once through his mother Isis’s womb. Either way, this falcon god helps us soar to higher perspectives, illuminating divine wisdom through his connection with the sun. Associated with the pharaohs and rulership, Horus invites us to gain new perspectives so we may be better leaders of our own lives.

This day, meditate with the sun. Breathe in sunlight and feel every cell lighting up with solar blessings.

You may like to journal after your meditation, when your mind and heart are clear: What do you most wish to create in the coming part of the year? Where do you need to embody your leadership even more? How can you remind yourself of your divine worthiness to be this leader and receive these blessings?

Day 3: Seth

Seth is the harbinger of death, and while considered an unlucky god, he is given one of the five epagomenal days for a reason — life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, and the more we accept that there are things in life we don’t like, the more unshakable inner peace we can cultivate.

Nondual meditation is a significant part of my personal spiritual practice. I also practice unity meditations, where I become one with Source and feel the oneness of all existence. These practices are immensely fortifying for my spirit, helping me cultivate embodied resilience, compassion, and presence.

And, as a human, I have preferences. There are some things I like, and some things I don’t like. Can you relate?

Rather than resisting what we don’t like — or trying to push away or transmute our feelings of dislike — we can build psychological health by simply accepting and acknowledging what is.

This is where Seth comes in. We don’t like suffering. We don’t like unfortunate events. Loss, harm, destruction, and cruelty are not things we generally want to experience or witness. Yet when we fully face them, they begin to lose some of their power over us. This is the transformative alchemy of shadow work.

Today, allow yourself to feel all the feelings you’ve pushed away this year. The grief, frustration, shame…Bring the following questions into your meditation: How can you experience these challenging emotions without judging them as bad? What internal shifts do you experience if you allow yourself to dislike these emotions, yet also accept that they’re a normal part of life? See if you can feel a lessening of pressure or tension as you sink deeper into the truth of your experiences.

Any sort of shadow work such as this can be difficult and tender. Fortify yourself with loving kindness before and after this practice. Breathe in the unconditional love of the universe. Remind yourself that your true nature is always whole, loving, and loved.

Day 4: Isis

Isis is a goddess of many dimensions. Fertility and motherhood, magic and wisdom, beauty and shapeshifting, royalty and self worth, earthly and celestial realms… Isis is the goddess of many names.

What names do you bear? Parent. Child. Lover. Teacher. Healer. Creative. Scholar. Warrior. Guide. Advocate. Wisdomkeeper. Human.

You are all of these words and, like Isis, you are more.

Today, take time to celebrate the roles you’ve played or still play in this life. Allow the gifts and blessings, those given and received, to arise within your consciousness.

Then ask yourself, what else? What areas of your being remain untapped? What names have you been afraid to own, and where does that resistance originate?

In today’s meditation, imagine yourself in a giant sphere of energy or light. See all the names you’ve taken on to fill this space. Then expand your sphere even more — notice the new space this creates. What might arise when given room? What new names long to be born through your time, energy, and intention? And what ever-present name lies at the heart of the sphere, representing your most authentic, whole self?

Day 5: Nepthys

Nepthys rules the dreamworld, guiding us into what is unseen, just beyond the veils of perception. As a goddess of sorrow, she has no fear of looking into the dark, for she has already faced the sadness of life and still walks forth with a heart filled with love.

If you’ve tended to your daily meditations and rituals so far, you have acknowledged and released what no longer serves. You have embraced your true self worth. You have faced the dark sides of life and emerged with love. You have expanded your understanding of who you truly are.

Now, the groundwork is in place for you, like Nepthys, to see beyond your past veils of perception.

In today’s meditation, ask what may I now see that has previously been hidden? Depending on your heart’s subtle intentions, this might reveal insights into your purpose, the answers to problems you’ve been struggling with, inspiration for your next move, or even a peek into your future. Trust that whatever arises is perfect for right now.

Want these ceremonies in a beautiful, full-color PDF you can download and keep? Well here you go!

Ancient Egyptian Scarabs: 6 Reasons This Beetle is Pure Magic

The scarab beetle holds great significance, spirituality, and symbolism in ancient Egyptian culture. One of the most revered and iconic symbols in this vast civilization, the scarab represents various aspects of life, death, rebirth, and divine power.

Here are six aspects of the scarab’s significance in ancient Egypt:

1. Creation and Rebirth

The scarab was associated with the god Khepri, who represented the rising sun and the cycle of creation and rebirth. Just as the beetle rolls a ball of dung and buries it in the ground, the ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri rolled the sun across the sky and brought about the dawn, symbolizing the renewal of life.

2. The Sun

The scarab was considered a solar symbol because of its connection to Khepri and the sun. The Egyptians associated the sun with life, light, and energy, and they believed that the scarab had the power to bring about the sun's daily rebirth and renewal.

3. Guardian of the Underworld

The scarab was closely linked to the concept of the afterlife. In Egyptian mythology, it was believed that the sun god Ra would transform into a scarab beetle during his journey through the underworld at night. The scarab was seen as a protector and guide for the deceased, helping them navigate the treacherous journey to the afterlife and ensuring their rebirth.

4. Symbol of Immortality

The Egyptians believed in the concept of eternal life and the possibility of achieving immortality. The scarab, with its ability to lay eggs and produce offspring without a mate, became a symbol of regeneration and everlasting life. Scarab amulets were often placed on mummies or buried with the deceased to provide them with protection and facilitate their journey to the afterlife.

Want to deepen your connection with Ancient Egyptian spiritual practice? Grab your copy of this free guide filled with daily rituals!

5. Amulet of Good Luck and Protection

The scarab beetle was also considered a powerful amulet for good luck, protection, and warding off evil forces. People would wear scarab amulets or use them in jewelry, seals, and various forms of art to bring good fortune and guard against harm.

6. Symbol of Transformation and Resurrection

The scarab's life cycle — from an egg to a larva, pupa, and finally emerging as a fully grown beetle — symbolized transformation and resurrection. This made it a powerful symbol of personal growth, change, and the ability to overcome challenges.

To honor the sacred medicine of the Scarab, I’ve created a divine, all-natural scarab anointing oil.

Inspired by studies with Egyptologist and perfumer Dora Goldsmith, this potent oil contains only botanical ingredients (no artificials, no isolates) in organic jojoba oil.

And, it contains magic. As a conduit of energy and practitioner of magic, I’ve partnered with Scarab to infuse each bottle with the gifts listed above.

This is a limited edition offering — learn more and get your sacred scarab oil here.

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Sacred Scarab Anointing Oil

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Gnome Plant & Meeting the Queen of the Underworld

On finding an exquisitely rare plant and meeting the gnome queen deep in the earth.

On a beautiful, sunny July morning in the mountains of Oregon, I made a discovery that would expand my understanding of reality.

I had quit my full time job of six years just the month before. Tortured by a pompous prick of a manager and tired of suffering physically as well as emotionally, I finally leapt off the ledge of so-called security and into the void of the unknown.

I gave myself the summer to heal (which turned into a year). As much as my mind told me that I would lose everything if I didn’t start making money again right away, my body was forcing me to slow down.

And so, on a random Tuesday, free from the responsibilities I was used to, I took myself on a solo hike through a most beautiful forest, hoping that the spirits of nature could help heal my weary soul.

The hike began in the usual way — a crowded parking lot gave way to quiet trails as I traveled deeper into the woods.

I allowed the trees to bathe me in healing terpenes, brushing my hands on lush ferns as I passed. I waded into icy river shores, praying for the healing waters to cleanse away my pain. I greeted every plant and stone and animal and bird, as is my way in the world.

And then, I looked down and saw a being I’ve never seen before — a gnome plant.

The Rare and Wonderful Gnome Plant

This beautiful and strange plant is extremely rare, and any encounter with her is a true gift. I believe she remains hidden by choice, revealing her beauty only to those who have demonstrated their heartfelt appreciation and love for the earth.

So rare is the gnome plant, hemitomes congestum, that very little is even known about her.

"The Gnome Plant is so secretive and illusive one is as likely to encounter a forest gnome as see one of these deep forest dwellers." — Reny Parker in Wildflowers of California's North Coast Range (originally cited by Jeanne Jackson)

She is the only member in her entire plant family, hemitomes, and she exists only on the West Coast of the United States, from California to British Columbia.

Little is known about the life cycle of this mysterious plant, but we do know that it doesn’t contain chlorophyll, likely feeds on parasitic fungi, and is probably pollinated by a moth of some sort.

When I encountered this marvelous and mysterious plant, her petals were closed, giving her a distinctly succulent look. Delighted and awed, I snapped a few pictures, offered gratitude, and continued on my way.

I had thought that this was the end of my gnome plant encounter. It turns out it was only the beginning.

The Invitation Deepens

A few nights later, I found myself wide awake in the middle of the night. Sleep eluded me, so I decided to use the time to journey and take a shamanic trip into the otherworlds.

As someone who has been practicing shamanic arts for over two decades, I have usual protocols for my journeywork — set an intention, go through a portal, meet my guides, explore…

For some reason though, this time I abandoned my usual process and simply set the intention to travel wherever spirit took me.

As soon as my request was sent, a mole appeared.

Now, I have dozens of spirit animals I work with, but I had never met mole spirit before! All felt divine and safe, so went with the flow and followed the mole deep into the earth.

Deeper and deeper. Darker and darker. We were traveling somewhere entirely new for me.

Finally, the pressure of the earth around me shifted, and I dropped into a vast underground cavern. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that the walls around me were sparkling—precious minerals and crystals of all sorts glimmered from some source of unseen light.

Then I saw her. The Queen of the Underworld. The Queen of the Gnomes.

Meeting the Gnome Queen

Now, I should clarify that this is the language she gave me to describe herself. I’m well aware that many deities bear the title of Queen of the Underworld. And, while the term “gnome” is often used for adorable garden figures with pointed hats—that is not the kind of gnome I encountered.

The queen sat upon a crystalline throne, her pale skin luminescent and shimmering with an ethereal splendor.

Honored to be in her presence, I was told that encountering the gnome plant had been an invitation to her realm, an invitation to work with the magic and medicine of the earth kingdom in a new way. The plant was a portal.

I was shown that this particular realm of gnomes (I believe there are actually many kinds of beings who bear this name) operated much like a bee hive: The queen was the only female, hidden from most in our world, protected and served by the male gnomes.

A World within Our World

The realm of the gnomes exists deep within our earth in a slightly different reality than we’re familiar with — perhaps another dimension, perhaps a different frequency.

Though most are unaware of its existence, this realm is of vital importance to our own world.

The gnomes tend the harmonic balance of the earth’s minerals. They build, move, and attune Gaia’s crystalline structure — and heal her from the extraction that happens in our dimension. The queen is a channel for the life force of the mineral-beings within the earth, infusing them with power and source energy.

The queen told me that those who are called to work with this realm have the ability to channel and harmonize earth grids for Gaia. And, by working directly with the gnomes, they just might receive Gaia’s abundance in surprising ways.

I was being invited to apprentice with the gnome realm.

The queen then shared that I could return to the forest to make a flower essence of the gnome plant — a gift to support my apprenticeship energetically.

Creating a Most Rare Essence

Though encountering even one gnome plant seemed like a miracle the first time, I decided to respond to the queen’s generous invitation and see if I could find this plant once more.

Unsure of whether the gnome plant would still be blooming or whether I could even find it again, I decided to make a date out of my next attempt. I invited my partner, Mike, on an after work hike and dinner picnic to the mountains.

After nearly an hour and a half of driving, we arrived at the trailhead and set out. About five minutes into our hike, Mike said, “Whoa—is this one?”

It was. The queen, true to her promise, had recognized an earth ally in Mike, too (which doesn’t surprise me at all…there’s a reason I’m with this man!).

This time, the gnome flower had opened up into beautiful little blossoms — the divine timing of our encounters perfectly orchestrated. I gratefully and reverently gathered just a few blossoms, placed them in a glass jar, and we continued. Soon, we encountered a second gnome flower…and then a third!

Such a gift to have met so many of these magical and strange beings. Such confirmation for deepening our relationship.

I brought the blossoms home and infused them into local spring water to create a flower essence under the moonlight—a moon infusion seemed appropriate for the queen of the gnomes, somehow.

When I asked if I could share this flower essence and my discoveries with others — the gnome plant, the world of the gnomes, the portal to abundance they offered — I was told to wait. Integration was needed first.

And so, for nearly a year now, I’ve been sitting with this essence, meeting with the queen of the gnomes, waiting for further instruction.

Psst — Want to learn more about flower essences? I’ve created a free starter guide that you will love :)

A Sacred Circle of 13

Now, I’ve finally been granted permission to share this precious essence. But only with 13 people. I trust that the exact people who are meant to work with the queen will feel called to purchase their essences at the perfect time.

It seems possible that I’ll be able to release more later, but for now, I’m following instructions. There may even be a special circle offered, live and online, once all the 13 spots have been claimed. We’ll see.

Are you one of the queen’s apprentices? Find your magical gnome flower essence here:

Quick View

Gnome Flower

$20.00

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Coregulating with the Natural World

The importance of being in a well-regulated body cannot be overstated.

It’s really hard to be a fully functional, compassionate, and mature adult when your nervous system is dysregulated. Mindset and willpower can only go so far when your adrenals and vagus nerve are depleted or your general endocrine system is out of sync with your body’s needs.

This is awful for anyone…but for a perfumer? Absolutely devastating. It’s been a slow recovery (that bout of covid was especially rough). Though my smell had mostly come back by mid February, I could tell that I wasn’t picking up on the subtle nuances I used to. The loss of smell has been such a strange piece of this pandemic era…A strong sense of smell has always been a mark of a healer — the ability to sniff out both the diseases and the cures.

Like any trauma — and like so much of our modern lives in general — ecological trauma often leaves us depleted and exhausted. The ongoing existential threats, the feelings of powerlessness, and the potent pairing of anger and grief we experience can coalesce into overwhelm and physical, emotional, and spiritual dysregulation.

Our work is to alchemize this pain and grief into usable energy. Our birthrights include being in sacred relationship with the natural world. Our true potential to be effective stewards of the Earth is without limit.

Here, we’ll take a shamanic approach to recovering from ecological trauma. This approach is rooted in two fundamental principles:

First, as much as we might resist connecting with what we perceive to be the pain of the Earth, deepening our connection with the natural world is our path to healing.

The Earth has provided humans with multi-layered healing for millennia, and we must allow ourselves to receive and reconnect with the gifts of our Earth.

Second, as much as we might perceive humanity as bearing the burden for the fate of the world, we are not alone in our efforts.

When we embrace a cosmological shift to animist perspectives, we recognize that the Earth and all her inhabitants are inspirited — and as such, they have agency to affect the fate of the planet, just as humans do. Listening to and partnering with these nature beings is essential if we hope to enact any change within ourselves and our world.

As we partner with our bodies, with the Earth, and with spirit, we can begin to co-create a wildly wonderful world.

Coregulation with the Natural World

The importance of being in a well-regulated body cannot be overstated.

I’ve noticed that when I’m depleted or experiencing activation in my sympathetic nervous system (the “Fs”: fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and I might add “fatigue”), I become more reactive and judgemental. Yet when I’m well-regulated, I’m naturally more generous and forgiving. I have more energy to take positive actions, and my thinking is clearer, allowing me to direct my resources — time, money, and energy — where they’re needed most.

There are many daily strategies we can implement to tend to our nervous systems — I list several of my personal practices here and here.

One of the most beautiful ways to tend our nervous systems in response to ecological trauma is coregulation with the natural world.

In simple terms, coregulation is the idea that when a person is spinning out and unable to regulate their own nervous system, another person who is calm and well-regulated can help them — almost “lending” their nervous system’s health to the person in need: Think of a child who gets taken over by a sobbing fit, and their parent simply hugs them until they calm down enough to process whatever has just happened.

Humans, being social beasts, are perfectly primed to both give and receive this type of communal support with each other.

But what about coregulating with the natural world?

The shamanic and animist cultures we all come from included the Earth and spirits of nature in our circle of relations. Coregulating with the Earth is our natural way of being in the world.

When I walk through the Rocky Mountains, a place I’ve tended relationship with for over a decade, the mountains literally feel like my grandparents. The trees are wise elders. The animals my brothers and sisters. This isn’t metaphor, either. Nature beings — especially those I know well — are my kin, pure and simple.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked my favorite trails with a broken heart, ready to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of my life. And over the course of miles and mountains, I emerge with the presence and purpose to keep going.

Coregulating with the natural world is effective because nature is naturally well-regulated.

While we certainly witness imbalances and traumas in our ecosystems, most of the nature spirits we encounter in our daily lives are resourced and regulated. They remember their divinity and often hold a broader perspective than our egoic human minds.

And, usually, they delight when humans turn to them for support. The spirits of nature are tuned in to collective memories of times when humans actively partnered with the Earth. They know that sharing their love with us is part of their destiny.

I’m sure most of you can remember spending time in a natural place that just felt good. Even if you couldn’t pinpoint why specifically, you felt yourself becoming present and relaxed. Unintentionally, you were coregulating with the natural world.

Intentionally coregulating with the natural world is even more powerful. While this practice can be done with a variety of nature beings and places, trees are some of our most accessible allies for this conscious coregulation.

Practice: Coregulating with Trees

Begin by approaching a tree you naturally feel drawn to. Hold your intention for coregulation in your heart.
(One of the core practices I teach when connecting with any spirit being, including nature spirits, is to ask permission before you engage with its field of energy. Yet knowing whether your getting a yes or no answer can be tricky without practice. By setting your intention for healing and then allowing yourself to be drawn to a tree that seems to be calling you, or that just feels good, you can safely assume permission has been given.)
Take a few moments to observe the tree. Witness its beauty, notice the details you would normally gloss over.
How do you feel in the presence of this tree? Notice your energy as you approach. How is it shifting the longer you sit with this tree?
Even if you notice that the tree is diseased or damaged, see if you can pierce that layer of existence to align with the true, divine essence of the tree.
Take some time to tune into the roots, the trunk, the expansion of the branches. What sensations arise in your body?
Feel into the solid, grounded energy of the tree. Depending on the kind of tree and time of year, you might sense energy that feels rooted and flexible, grounded and expansive, nourished and nourishing, resilient and joyful.
Check in with your own nervous system again. Feel the energy of the tree within your being.
You can deepen this practice even more by adding circular breathing with the tree. Visualize yourself inhaling both the oxygen and energy of the tree, and as you exhale, it receives your carbon dioxide and energy.
You can also spend time in direct contact with the tree: Either sit with your back along the trunk or go head and give it a big, long hug. Both can enhance the energetic experience of the tree. There’s a reason tree hugging is thing!
When you feel complete, offer thanks to the tree (more on this when we discuss reciprocity in Part 3 of this series). Acknowledge what you have received and move forward with gratitude in your heart.
If available to you, try repeating this practice with the same tree several times. You’ll notice that not only do new sensations arise, but new insights and wisdom will spark within your consciousness, as well.

Coregulating with Place

This is a practice you can do with rivers, mountains, flowers, stones, and the earth herself. The more variety you experiment with, the more you’ll realize that nourishment from the natural world has many different flavors.

Another place that I have a deep, long standing relationship with is the Oregon Coast. If you’ve never visited the Oregon Coast, know that it is wild. Largely undeveloped and protected with state park designations, these rocky beaches have retained an untamable, at times exhilarating, energy.

Massive rocky outcrops emerge from huge coastal waves. Cliffs filled with nesting birds of prey overlook tide pools full of sea anemones and starfish. Giant kelp and jellyfish wash along the shores. The water is numbingly cold even at the height of summer, and ravaging wind gusts are almost guaranteed.

This is not exactly a relaxing scene in many ways, yet the wild coasts of Oregon feel aligned. As rough as the waves and weather may be, the spirit of this place is strong. And I’ve never ended a trip to the coast without feeling more enlivened and empowered because of our time together.

Coregulating with the wild spirit of the coast is a very different experience from sitting with a tree in a park. The calm, nurturing, grounding energy of the tree contrasts with the wild strength of the sea — yet both energies are perfectly aligned with their own divinity. Both are resourced and regulated. And this is what heals us.

Your invitation here is to explore the gifts of coregulating with place.

Where do you feel enlivened? Where do you feel a sense of calm presence? Allow yourself to receive the healing energy of aligning with the Earth’s authentic being.

Coregulating with Animals

You might have noticed that until now, I haven’t included animals in the list of nature spirits to practice coregulating with. Put simply, animals are different. They have nervous systems, just like we do, and they may or may not feel resourced and regulated themselves. Coregulating with animals can be an absolutely beautiful experience, and it can benefit both parties, but it needs to be approached a bit differently.

When it comes to animals in the wild, coregulation is a rare gift. In my experience, wild animals usually don’t sit in presence and regulate with humans. While it can happen, and some humans are especially gifted at this practice, animals in the wild most often appear as messengers.

(If you’d like to learn how to understand messages from animals, I have a really special short course on the topic here.)

Our pets, however, can be wonderful allies for coregulating — and if you have a pet you love, you already know exactly what I mean.

While human-pet relationships can be as varied as any familial dynamics, most often our pets are happy to coregulate with us. Humans have karmic bonds with many species that make dropping into coregulation natural and healing for both us and our animal kin.

The frequency cat’s purr has positive physiological effects on our nervous systems. The unconditional love in a dog’s gaze heals the heart at the deepest levels. I even had a lizard who, though I didn’t have the language for it at the time, would coregulate with me…

I swear — that lizard and I had karma. A lizard wouldn’t have been on my personal pet list, as I always thought lizards were best left in the wild. But this one, a bearded dragon named Diego, was about to be returned to a petshop because his owner was moving across the country, so I volunteered to take him in.

At first, he was so foreign to me — a little dinosaur walking around my kitchen floor. Yet it didn’t take long for me to learn his language, see his intelligence, and tune into his amazing presence.

I was in grad school at the time — not exactly a stress-free era of life — and I would often take Diego out of his enclosure to run around my bedroom while I studied. I distinctly remember that whenever I would pause and take a meditation break, he would run over and hop in my lap to join me. Eventually, this magical little being would initiate the meditation breaks!

I loved that lizard, and would hold him while watching TV, feed him green beans from the garden, take him on little walks in the backyard…I know without a doubt that he was coregulating with my perfectionist student self, and I needed him.

If you open your mind and heart to the many possibilities of connecting with the natural, wild world — support can be found in the most surprising places.

Cultivating Self-Regulation

One of the basic tenets of psychological teachings on coregulation is that it’s not a replacement for self-regulation. We must develop the skills to soothe and tend our nervous systems on a regular basis, to cultivate resilience for challenging times, and to become beacons of stability and healing for others.

In a way, coregulating with the natural world is a beautiful step toward being able to effectively self-regulate. In the presence of nature spirits, we aren’t alone, yet we can be alone in the human sense. We can tune into our own resources, guided by the natural world.

On angels, psychic saviors, fallen gurus, and sovereignty (And the magic of being human)

I coined the term psychic savior for when we give over our own knowing, our own intuition, and most importantly our own decision making, to someone we perceive as being more intuitive or psychically connected to spirit than we are.

Remember Doreen Virtue?

If you’re spiritually inclined and over 30 there’s a very good chance you know this former Hay House superstar.

One of the authors who really propelled Hay House to its current status, Doreen is probably best known for her oracle cards — angel cards, fairy cards, ascended master cards, unicorn cards, archangel cards, goddess cards…So. Many. Cards.

I actually must credit Doreen with helping to open up my own psychic abilities. When I was only 21, I had the opportunity to attend an in-person workshop with her in London.

I sat next to a lovely woman, and we practiced doing intuitive readings for each other. It was wild.

I saw, with my third eye, a blue man peeking over her shoulder. I didn’t automatically know who he was — just that he was a real ally for her. In the moment, I couldn't think of what on earth a blue man would mean, but he felt ancestral. I didn’t make the connection that she was Indian ;)

When I shared, her eyes got wide and she exclaimed, “That’s Krishna!” It turns out, she had been working with Krishna closely for some time, and my vision provided her with immense validation and encouragement.

For me, she saw a man named Michael, who, for some reason, was wearing a plaid shirt and glasses. I knew immediately that this was the Archangel Michael — though why he would be wearing plaid and glasses was beyond me…

Until a few weeks later. As my youthful solo travels around Europe continued, I ended up stranded at a ferry station in Sweden. I’d mixed up the numbers on my ticket, as everything was written in a foreign language, and had missed my boat to Helsinki, where I’d planned to stay with a local friend that night.

Exhausted, scared, and with nowhere to stay late at night in a foreign country (I seemed to have way too many of those experiences during my wild youth…), I broke down. Waiting at the ticket counter for help, sniffling and trying not to make too much of a scene, a kind man turned to me.

He was American and holding a jack russell terrier. These were the kind of dogs I had at home, and just seeing one brought me a homey feeling. Immediately I felt kindness radiate from this man — who was wearing a red plaid shirt and glasses.

He smiled at me and told me everything would be okay. I’m not sure I believed him, but I tried. He said his name was Michael, and he left.

And everything was okay, though a bit rougher than my original plans. I got on an overnight boat that happened to be carrying Elton John’s crew across the waters to a show in Finland. I made it over safely and got a free ticket to his concert. I wasn’t a huge fan, but it was a fun experience. I was exhausted by the end of everything, but I was okay.

I believe Doreen was truly connected to the spirit realms during this time, and I’ll forever be grateful for the ways her teachings opened me to the realms of angels, gods and goddesses, and ascended masters from around the world.

The Psychic Savior Industry

Yet…there’s a trap that emerges with teachers like Doreen. I call it the psychic savior phenomenon.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s this was huge — I’m honestly not tracking how much it still occurs today (let me know what you think in the comments, please!).

I use the term psychic savior for when we give over our own knowing, our own intuition, and most importantly our own decision making, to someone we perceive as being more intuitive or psychically connected to spirit than we are.

While this has always been a part of guru-based religions and spiritual practices — you need the guru or priest as a mediary to higher realms and wisdom — the 90s brought it to the masses under the guise of personal empowerment.

This definitely isn’t all bad and isn’t all intentional, either. There is real personal empowerment in the materials Hay House and other such companies publish, and there are very real teachings for deepening your connection with spirit from many of the biggest authors in this world.

Yet as much as the most well-known psychics profess ideas that “you can do it!” and host millions of “anyone be psychic” workshops, the audience, for the most part, ends up disempowered.

Part of this is because of brand of “psychic” being sold is very different from the subtle, intuitive knowing most of us experience.

Instead, we imagine that these powerful psychics can see and hear spirits as clearly as if they’re in physical form. We think that the spirits will always tell us exactly what to do to be forever happy, and we’ll hear the answers clearly once we’re more psychic, too.

When we can’t get to this “level”, we assume either that we just aren’t psychic or that we’re not psychic enough — yet.

So, the power goes back to the psychic saviors. They’re the ones with the connections. They’re the ones who can tell us what to do.

Can’t afford a $500 reading with one of these famous psychics? Get their card decks, and keep drawing cards until you get the answer you’re looking for.

The psychic savior phenomenon is rooted in one of the most pervasive pit holes on the spiritual path: The idea that when you can hear spirit clearly, or when you’re in alignment with your highest self, you’ll always know what to do.

It’s a vision that pretty much anyone in this tract of the helping industries pedals: Your life flows. It’s filled with synchronicities. You can hear your “hell yes’s” easily and drop the fear to follow them. Your alignment with spirit leads to wealth, relationships, children, dream homes, dream jobs, and anything else your heart desires. And of course, especially if you are a woman (and in this marketing arena there’s a good chance you are), you also become “radiant” — because alignment looks good on you.

Honestly though, who doesn’t want this vision of life?

A Lifetime in the Spiritual Wellness Industry — for Better or Worse

I’ve spent a lifetime in the spiritual wellness industry — as both a consumer of these goods as well as a producer of them. I worked for a major spiritual publishing house for six years, I see clients as a spiritual coach and healer, and I’ve read all the books and done all the trainings (really).

And I have almost no regrets. By far, the benefits of this path have outweighed the harms. Yet…the shadows, including unintentional harm, held within the spiritual wellness industry are real and worthy of excavation.

So what really happens when we “reach” what feels like a new level of spiritual awakening? Life. Life goes on — though perhaps with a bit more soulful fulfillment, presence, equanimity, and appreciation for the everyday miracles that surround us. And this is no small thing.

I’ve had numerous spiritual awakenings throughout my life. Those magical moments where all of the sudden I’m actually able to astral travel. Or I get a download of the true purpose of this life from higher perspectives. I’m able to feel energy as if it were in solid, physical form. I receive a realization or vision that sends me riding a wave so high it feels as if everything will always be wonderful because I finally “get it”.

Ha.

As an extremely sensitive soul with a whole lot of Scorpio and 12th house energy (yeah, I spend a lot of time alone pondering the darkness of existence…), the clarity and connection I receive through these mystical experiences fuels my survival.

And yet, they are not the point. And they do not mean I’ve made it. And they do not mean I don’t make terrible decisions, deal with regret and all sorts of self-sabatoging emotions, or face challenges with my health, finances, and relationships.

Because this is the art of being human.

I know this is nothing new. There’s a reason the first noble truth of Buddhism is “life is suffering”. Yet, no matter how much our soul’s might recognize this truth, our egos really want to believe that psychic saviors can make our lives better.

And here’s what I know about psychic guidance and making decisions: More often than not, the process of actually making a decision is the whole point.

The Process is the Purpose + True Oracles

Decisions, especially big ones, require soul-searching, coming into clarity with our own values, cultivating bravery and resilience, developing self-compassion, taking leaps of faith, and so much more.

(For the astrologically inclined, while Scorpio is home to much of my planetary power, my sun, moon, and ascendent are all in Libra. So, yeah. I’m probably a little extreme when it comes to agonizing over decisions and processing every single aspect in order to choose some theoretically “correct” outcome.)

Decisions are also the main reason many of my clients find me. Whether they need to decide where to live, who to date, whether or not to take a job or start a business, how to get out of debt, or how to heal a mystery ailment…what they’re really asking is which choices will make their lives better.

Time and again, the spirits tell me that they will not tell someone what to do. They will share broader perspectives and offer healings that unlock supportive flows of energy and restore personal wholeness. But they won’t really say, “do this” — because so often, the process is the purpose.

That said, there are times when very clear information comes through on exactly what a client (or myself) should do. And I know a handful of psychics who provide remarkably specific and prescriptive guidance that has positive effects on their clients’ lives.

It comes down to the difference between a psychic savior and a true oracle.

Psychic saviors always end up disempowering those who turn to them for help. There’s an underlying current that makes people feel as if they simply can’t make a decision without the help of their savior. The psychic savior sells the lie that when you connect with spirit, you will no longer make mistakes.

The oracle brings through clear spiritual information without any agenda, and they continually work at getting their egos out of the way. The oracle offers themselves not as an unquestionable savior, but as one of many ways that spirit communicates with us.

The Fall of the Guru

For a while, it seemed as if another “guru” fell from grace every week. Spiritual leaders like Chogyam Trumpa or Sadh Guru, more yoga teachers than can be listed, and cult leaders like in NXIVM.

Then came the bizarre exodus of popular new thought spiritual teachers from love and light to fundamental religions. Doreen Virtue isn’t the only teacher to go this path, but she is one of the most well-known.

If you were never part of the cult of Doreen — that really is what it felt like — you might not understand how impactful her switch to born-again Christianity was for many people.

Mostly women, who had followed her for decades, were suddenly faced with the questions: Was any of this real? Were her teachings bad? What does this mean for me?

I reserve all judgment and trust Doreen’s soul on the paths she chooses. I also feel that there are some divinely orchestrated gifts that have come from her public renunciation of Hay House. By stepping away in the drastic manner she did, she helped break the mirage of the psychic savior.

The era of the guru is over. However helpful hierarchical structures may have been in the past, our current era asks us to take our power back.

Our sovereignty. Our ability to trust our own intuition. To take responsibility for our lives — the decisions we make, where we place our energy, and whatever outcomes unfold for better or worse — this is the art of being human.

A brief and somewhat related note on Saraswati…

For years, my spiritual explorations of deities from around the world were inspired by Doreen’s oracle cards and books.

I remember reading about Saraswati as the patron goddess of the arts, a being who could inspire creativity and assist us in any artistic pursuits.

What a ridiculously limited view of one of Hinduism’s primary deities.

It wasn’t until studying with an actual Indian master that I began to understand the breadth of gifts that Sarasvati shares. She is partner to Brahma in creating the universe. She blesses us with wisdom and higher mind. She embodies sovereignty and self-worth.

In many ways, I feel as if Saraswati is the benefic goddess of culture in it’s most exquisite, creative form.

Much of my work revolves around rewilding, and helping humans decondition from the harmful effects of unquestioned enculturation. At the same time, human expression of high culture and the arts alights my soul.

That a human being could be blessed with the ability to express cosmic truths through material form, to translate emotions into beauty, to find and articulate meaning through stories or songs or poems with universal resonance…this too, is the magic of being human.

For anyone who wishes to dive deeper into the gifts of Saraswati, I have a lovely workshop available.

This workshop includes an 80-minute video and accompanying 20+ page workbook, beautifully designed and filled with extras not included in the main class.

You’ll explore mantra meditation, pranayama, rituals, and guided practice for connecting with this divine goddess’s energy.

Saraswati Goddess Activation

***Empowered creation with the goddess of wisdom.***
**Learn More.**

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Humans are losing their ****, and how body and Earth can help (aka, tend your nervous system)

You’re not crazy for feeling a bit crazy right now + healing from extreme adrenal fatigue.

It's not crazy to feel like the world is a bit crazy right now.

Ever since the pandemic arrived in 2020, life has felt a bit volatile — right?

I find peace through my connections with nature, spirit, and the cosmos…but I’m always tracking our collective energies through various media outlets.

Intuitively, I’ve felt that we should expect more collective upheaval until 2025 or 2026 (something many astrologers have confirmed). This isn’t saying that major goodness and growth won’t happen along the way. Rather, it’s more of an acknowledgement that yes, things feel a bit crazy and no, you’re not crazy for noticing.

The completely bizarre shootings of young people making mistakes last week really hit me. Being naturally sensitive, I’ve of course felt the pressure-cooker like energy of our collective. I’ve watched as people have become so filled with fear — what is likely deep, existential, multi-layered fear — that they are losing their humanity.

We’ve traded our reverence of life for the gods of money.

Now, personal survival and individualism to the extreme seem to come first no matter the cost. No civilization has ever thrived with rampant individualism at the core of its values (the elites in that civilization yes, for a time, but without collective care I don’t think you can really say an entire civilization is thriving).

I’m not surprised that people have lost their shit.

The pandemic, no matter how you were personally affected, shook the foundations that so many had taken for granted.

The way the media pours fuel on the fire of the most aggressive voices in our modern cultural movements — from every side and in all directions — has further shaken the foundations and assumptions that once provided stability in people’s lives. And has further made us fearful of each other.

(Though, for what it’s worth, shootings like this aren’t actually new. The media just decided to cover them all in one week. Once again, we must always check the agendas of any media outlets and the energetic influences they are susceptible to.)

I’m not saying the need to question our assumptions is a bad thing — it’s an essential part of our soul growth. But I do know that it’s not easy, and without the proper skills and support, and a lot of compassion, this process can feed into collective fears (furthering the divides that keep us disempowered from enacting real collective change).

And then there’s the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and the effects this has on our psyches. Just a few months back, AI programs like ChatGPT basically seemed like advanced search engines. Now, even a layperson like me is seeing hints of true AGI. When a computer learns how it works and discovers how to improve itself, how long until we really do reach the singularity?

This monumental change to life as we know it further fuels humanity’s existential fears. And it’s not just about robots taking our jobs anymore — though that’s certainly a concern. And it’s not just about feeling as if you can’t keep up with these changes, or are losing your way of life — though those are at play too.

These fears arise because on some level, whether consciously or not, humans are wondering what role reality will actually play in their lives — and what the definition of “reality” will even be. (More thoughts on this here.)

Which brings us to what is real, right now: our Earth. No one is immune to the Earth changes before us.

We must tend our bodies and regulate our nervous systems to meet for the challenges before us.

When I feel into my own experience with shaken foundations and future insecurity, I notice that my personal response changes drastically based on the physical health of my body, especially when it comes to the state of my nervous system.

If I’m already feeling drained and stressed, and I know that my HPA axis is out of whack, I tend to go into protection mode: I feel so depleted and under-resourced already, that I’m put on notice to guard everything I have left — whether this is my time and energy or my physical property. New information or a new person becomes a threat until proven otherwise.

If I’m well-resourced and nourished, my personal response is radically different — and more in line with my true nature: I immediately turn to love. As cheesy as it might sound, our hearts are capable of endless compassion. From this place, when I see others acting out of fear, an inner determination to be a beacon of light, grounded and hopeful, in the midst of chaos fuels my motivations.

I can’t emphasize enough how intricately connected these responses are to my physical state of being.

My own journey through (and still in) extreme adrenal fatigue, catalyzed by a series of traumatic events and ongoing grief, has taught me a lot about this.

Even though my emotions might be going haywire and my soul feels wounded, if I’ve slept enough, fed myself nourishing foods, sipped on nervine teas, done my daily meditation practice, and kept up with regular abhyanga, my response to any disrupting information is more compassionate.

Unfortunately, it requires a lot of effort to stay healthy and sane these days (especially since most of us are already in recovery mode from the past two years). When your nervous system has been taxed by years of compounding stress — personal, collective, and of course environmental and physical — simply “maintaining” isn’t enough.

How to Tend Your Nervous System When Burnout and Trauma Are Becoming Too Much

Needless to say, everyone is different, and finding the magical combo of support that works for your system and your lifestyle takes time and real effort. That said, I can share what has been most impactful for me, in case it inspires any support in your own life.

(It should be said that I hit a state of what felt like near catatonic exhaustion, with real adrenal fatigue and ongoing grief that will not subside to this day. The dedication I’ve needed to put into recovery is hopefully more than most of you will need to do. If this sounds extreme, simply take inspiration for what feels true and doable for you.)

Vitamins — So basic, yet so important. If nothing else, remembering to take my daily vitamins and a probiotic keeps me afloat.
Meditation — When I was entering auto-immune territory, I knew I needed more significant changes. I committed to 40 - 60 minutes of meditation daily, mostly practicing the golden elixir meditation from Taoism, and this has probably helped more than anything.
Pranayama — Along with meditation, I practice yogic breathing for another 20-30 minutes a day.
Syncing with natural cycles — I try to expose my eyes to the light at sunrise, high noon, sunset, and the night sky every day. This means I’m up before sunrise and in bed by 9:30.
Plant Allies — These have been huge:
- I traded out my morning coffee for a homemade adaptogenic brew filled with bitters, mushrooms, and liver-loving herbs.
- I sip a big batch of nourishing herbal infusions to replenish my minerals and soothe my nervous system throughout each day — nettle, oatstraw, raspberry leaf, lemon balm, marshmallow, horsetail, tulsi, gotu kola, and skullcap are some of my favorites to include in the mix.
Spend time in nature — The natural world reminds us of our own natural essence. Physiological and psychological healing arises when spend contemplative time in the wilderness.
Smell good things — It’s so easy to add a bit of aroma to your day, yet it makes a massive difference for the psyche.

The commitments I’ve made to restoring my HPA axis and nourishing my nervous system have been significant, timewise and financially. But in essence, they’re really pretty simple. Take your vitamins. Breathe. Look to the skies. Meditate. Partner with plants.

There’s more of course — movement, cold showers, dietary changes, saying no wayyy more often, limiting media exposure, time with loved ones, and partnering with the spirit world, to name a few. I have a whole article on stepping into rest if you’ve forgotten how, and another one with many more healing protocols.

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Severed from Scent

At the end of last year, I woke up on Christmas morning and my sense of smell was gone.

At the end of last year, I woke up on Christmas morning and my sense of smell was gone.

This is awful for anyone…but for a perfumer? Absolutely devastating.

It’s been a slow recovery (that bout of covid was especially rough). Though my smell had mostly come back by mid February, I could tell that I wasn’t picking up on the subtle nuances I used to.

The loss of smell has been such a strange piece of this pandemic era…

A strong sense of smell has always been a mark of a healer — the ability to sniff out both the diseases and the cures.

It’s also closely associated with our intuition. We can smell when something — or someone — is off.

This probably has something to do with the unique ability of aroma to bypass our conscious minds, eliciting unbidden feelings and memories before our thinking brains can process what’s happening… or get in the way.

Our sense of smell also brings us into our bodies. While transcendence may certainly be part of our soul paths, we also come into bodies here on Earth to experience being fully human. Our five senses are the gateways to embodiment. And embodiment is a gateway to both pleasure and presence.

And, fragrance is a gateway to the gods.

In Egyptian mythology, the fragrance of the sacred lotus birthed the universe. Statues of deities in ancient cultures were anointed with fragrant oils to wake up the gods they housed. The deceased were anointed with aromatic plant material to help carry their souls along their journeys. The aroma of flowers is said to announce the presence of the gods or angels. Temples around the world are filled with fragrant smoke.

Healing, inner knowing, pleasure, presence, and spiritual connection…all rooted in our ability to trust our own noses.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that our connection with smell as been under attack for some time.

Even before the pandemic, humanity had been slowly led away from our sense of smell and the myriad gifts it offers, effectively cutting us off from a profound gateway to healing, intuition, memory, pleasure, and spiritual connections.

One long-standing culprit is the fragrance and flavoring industry.

I’ve long been skeptical of a fragrance and flavoring industry that trains humans to prefer the smell of artificial ingredients in their cosmetics. While the synthetic compounds added to our foods and body products have physically detrimental properties, my concern also lies in effects this has on our psyches and souls.

The fallout of the rampant scent-washing in our culture are twofold:

First, artificial fragrances have distanced humans from the natural world.

The idea that ingredients from a factory are somehow cleaner or potent than those from a forest pervades our collective consciousness.

That the fragrance of an air freshener, filled with known cancer-causing compounds, smells “fresh” is a sign of this insanity. That a “peach blossom” lotion smells like no peach nor blossom ever found in nature is a sign of how far removed from the natural world we’ve become.

These fragrances train our noses — and our knowing — to deny what we know is true and believe the lies sold to us.

The fragrances found in whole plant materials contain myriad compounds perfectly designed to harmonize with each other. We humans evolved in relationship with these plants, and our bodies readily receive their gifts. Our sense of smell brings these complexities into our psyches, where we intuitively receive our plant allies’ wisdom.

As humans learn to prefer synthetic flavors and aromas, they are cut off from their relationship with their own ability to sniff out what’s true. To sniff out their own cures for what ails them. They are subtly disconnected from their innate powerful, intuition-supporting sense of smell.

The second outcome is found in those humans who loudly proclaim that they can tolerate no fragrances of any kind.

I get it. These people’s bodies told them that synthetics were harming them, and they listened. The problem comes when this makes people afraid of all smells — even the ones with profound healing benefits.

Of course, toxic overload from synthetics can lead to the body’s inability to process naturals. And, many smells marketed as “natural” actually contain plenty of synthetics, so I can understand the fear. Yet, this fear cuts off important pathways for healing and delight.

Our sense of smell is a gift from the gods, part of the wonder of being embodied in the human forms. Not only does it help us survive, it helps us enjoy life and find pleasure in our physical experience. And pleasure is part of why we’re here.

My heart breaks when I hear that someone cannot tolerate any fragrance (if you’ve ever worked in an office building, you’ve met many of these folks). As a natural perfumer and clinically certified aromatherapist, I know that simply smelling precious oils from plants (let alone the benefits of topical applications) can help us focus, give us energy, regulate our hormones and nervous systems, alleviate depression and anxiety, soothe us in times of grief, ignite aphrodisiac qualities, relieve insomnia, and so much more.

Anyone who’s ever worn a perfume, or had a signature fragrance of any kind, knows the feelings that arise with that first spritz. You somehow feel more like yourself — the best version of yourself. You might feel more beautiful, sexy, powerful, calm, fulfilled, peaceful, hopeful, abundant, or creative depending on the perfume of the day.

Those over-the-top perfume commercials? They may be ridiculous, but they’re also a pretty good representation of what perfume does for the psyche. While synthetic perfumes legitimately give many people headaches and worse, perfumes made with true naturals bestow even more transformational energy and pleasure to those who wear them.

If you love beauty, pleasure, and Venusian delights as much I do, you might enjoy taking a peek at my perfumer’s artist statement.

The next severance from our sense of smell comes from our online lives.

The pandemic no doubt accelerated this phenomena, yet the seeds have been in place for decades. Our online communities and interactions, social networks and getting lost in the “scroll hole” (This is my partner Mike’s and my term for not just doomscrolling but getting lost in an endless mind-numbing feed of information. I’m surprised it hasn’t taken off yet, to be honest…). And then came the Metaverse and increasing capabilities of virtual reality.

Any life lived online is removed from our embodied experience. Yes, we use our eyes and take in the visuals, we connect with audio and can converse or enjoy a melody, and we can even engage in some sensory experiences with haptics and the rare VR bodysuit.

To my knowledge, however, smell — and its sister sense taste — are not yet available in the online realms. Smell keeps us in our bodies, in the present, and connected to what is true and real for us in the moment.

By the time the pandemic arrived, humanity had been well prepped for relinquishing our sense of smell.

To be clear, I’m not saying that losing our sense of smell as part of the pandemic was some orchestrated event. Rather, I can’t help but wonder if this particular effect is a reflection, showing us what we’ve already lost in no uncertain terms.

If we look at our collective pandemic experience, we can see the separation of us from each other, from our own healing capabilities, and from our intuitive knowing of what is and isn’t true. Yet these questions extend far beyond the pandemic too.

Where have you doubted your own knowing? Your ability to heal yourself? Where have you lost touch with pleasure, embodiment, and the ability to be present in each moment? Where have you forgotten what’s actually true, or allowed yourself to be led by lies? Where has the reverent ritual of bringing spirit into daily life been set aside in favor of more “urgent” matters?

Smell is a gift from the gods and fragrance is the perfume of spirit. May we can heal our broken relationship with olfaction, realign with the true nature of reality, and reawaken reverence and wonder in our hearts.

Returning to the Perfumery

It’s now been a bit over four months since I lost my sense of smell, and it’s just about returned. Though it’s hard to tell if my nose is really as strong as it was before, I at least feel confident to work in the perfumery again. And this fills my heart with joy.

I have several new perfumes I’d designed last year, before the loss of smell, in my studio. I didn’t want to share them until I could be sure they were up to my standards, and now that I can work again, I’m finally putting the finishing touches on them.

A few that will be coming soon…

Odin

The all father of Northern lands, Odin is the newest addition to the masculine Gods series. His perfume is as strong and complex as he is. Imagine walking into a mysterious hall, almost an elevated and member-only speakeasy filled with aromas of tobacco, cognac, and cacao. A hint of spice, a touch of musk. Decadent and dark.

Yuzu Yoru

One of my conceptual pieces, is inspired by my years living, eating, and inhaling the fragrances of Tokyo. A citrus forward fragrance, fresh yuzu and Asian kumquats meet with robust citrón and cedrat, gently harmonized with rare strawberry gum (a type of eucalyptus, not the artificial chews!), Japanese hinoki, and precious osmanthus blossoms. A rare delight for summer days and Toyko nights.

There’s also a magical Chinese Goddess, a watery Greek elemental, and more to come :)

While you wait, be sure to explore the new Scents of Summer Discovery Set, filled with the perfect botanical allies for celebrating this season.

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juniper stokes 3/22/23 juniper stokes 3/22/23

Ecological Trauma: A Guide to Understanding Eco-Trauma

The first step in transmuting the chronic grief, rage, and suffering brought about ecological trauma is to acknowledge its existence.

I recently came across an article in the Economist, of all places, entitled, “Shamanism is Britain’s fastest-growing religion”.

The article itself is not impressive (Shamanism is a religion? Um, no.), but it does share an interesting hypothesis:

People are increasingly returning to nature-based spirituality because of the existential threats facing our earth.

How interesting. Shamanism and other nature-based spiritual practices arose at a time when humans lived in partnership with the Earth. Now, after centuries of separating ourselves from the natural world, humans are waking up to the fact that the more we distance ourselves from the Earth, the more we distance ourselves from life itself.

Those of us who deeply love our Earth often feel a complex, ongoing, and even subconscious traumatic response to the immense pain humans have inflicted upon the planet and her inhabitants.

We feel grief — at the harm done to the Earth, the animals, the plants, waters, mountains, and more at the will of humans.
We feel rage — at all the ways our current environmental crises could have been prevented, at how many obstacles we still face to get even the most basic protections in place.
We feel guilt — for being part of the human species, for having to live in ways that cause more harm simply by existing within our society.
We feel pain — as empaths whose energy bodies do not separate the Earth’s pain from our own.
We feel numb — because continuing to stay open and aware can be too much for our hearts to bear.

These are strong emotions. And as difficult as it is to feel this much grief, rage, guilt, and pain, there is power in these feelings.

Emotions are charged with energy — and all energy is usable energy.

The question then becomes, how will you alchemize your grief into hope? Your rage into healing?

Living with the Effects of Ongoing Ecological Trauma

Before we jump into transmuting our pain, we must acknowledge what is true now: Humans are collectively traumatized. The existential ecological threats facing our species reside in all of our consciousnesses.

The word “trauma” has become astonishingly pervasive in our current cultural narratives, with many voices contributing nuanced definitions of what was once a more specific psychological term. Here are a few key components that I consider when referring to something as traumatic:

In general, trauma occurs in response to unusually distressing, life-threatening, and adverse events. These might be single occurrences, such as an accident, or ongoing experiences, such as abuse and neglect.
Trauma doesn’t just arise from directly experiencing a traumatic event — witnessing, failing to prevent, and perpetuating adverse events may also lead to trauma.
Trauma is more than an emotional response. It lives in our minds, bodies, and souls — and thus healing trauma must incorporate holistic approaches.

I find the perspective of trauma as a moral injury especially valuable when it comes to conversations on ecological trauma. When we experience, witness, allow, or perpetuate an act that transgresses our fundamental beliefs about how the world should operate, there can be a break in our psyches. Shame, guilt, fear, and loss of trust in the goodness of life fill the cracks.

What Is Ecological Trauma?

When it comes to environmental trauma, all of the above coalesce to create a complex and seemingly inescapable form of collective trauma. Let’s look more specifically at what this means in four ecological contexts…

1. Experiencing and Witnessing the Adverse Effects of Human-Caused Climate Change

When people first hear the term “ecological trauma”, their minds often wander to the effects of human-caused climate change — natural disasters that have been accelerated by human impact, food and water insecurity, the harmful effects of environmental toxins and pollution (an area none of us are truly immune to), and the violent conflict that may result from all of this.

With our ever more connected world, even if we haven’t personally lived through a natural disaster or experienced food insecurity, we’re constantly reminded that ecological traumas are happening (we witness them through mass media) and that they will likely impact our lives at some point (the existential threat).

I simply don’t know how anyone could witness the growing numbers of wildfires and “1000-year” floods every year, hear predictions that our coast lines will be underwater and farmland will cease production because of drought, learn about microplastics in our waters and glyphosates in our foods…and not experience fears around safety and survival. This is trauma, and it has become a consistent part of modern life.

One of the most dangerous impacts of this line of ecological trauma is the sense of powerlessness it imbues us with.

There is nothing more dangerous than giving up. If you’re feeling powerless or fearful about these far-reaching effects of climate change — ask yourself, where are the roots of this fear? How is the mass media machine feeding my sense of powerlessness?

This type of ongoing trauma can become debilitating — it can cause us to numb out, give up, and shut down. And it can be tended.

Tending your nervous system in response to the existential threats we face strengthens your resilience to keep embracing what’s true while holding a vision of what is still possible. The elements of the natural world are available to support us:

Turn to the air, and breathe four counts in and four counts out.
Turn to the earth, and allow plant allies to soothe you with restorative teas.
Turn to the water, and soak in salts that draw toxins from your body.
Turn to the fire, and feel passion fortify your heart.

2. Our Innate Empathic Connection

In recent years, I have witnessed a wave of “empath awareness” content sweep through popular culture. While I’m happy to see this phenomenon named and normalized, I feel that most teachings on this topic, which tend to focus on recovery and protection, are missing an important point:

Empathy is our natural state of being.

We are meant to embrace the nonverbal, energetic knowing that alerts us to the state of the world around us. Our natural way of being is to intuitively understand the true feelings and motivations of others. Of course we want the skills and awareness to differentiate between other and self, to be able to turn off connection so as not to be overwhelmed — but we must remember that being an empath is a healthy part of our human wholeness.

People who deeply love the earth tend to be in touch with their innate empathic gifts. Being around too many other people for too long can overwhelm our nervous systems, and the natural world provides soul-soothing relief.

Unfortunately, this also means that as sensitive folks, we can feel the earth’s pain as if it were our own. Witnessing harm done to the earth and her inhabitants can feel like physical pain in the system of an empath. Hiking through a forest that has been clear cut, wandering along an ocean shore filled with plastics and fishing line, visiting locations where human atrocities have taken place — ecological empaths will feel deep grief wash through our beings and we may not even know why.

The temptation here is to shut down. But repression is not a local anesthesia (thank you to Jose Soutelinho for that inspiration). When we numb ourselves to grief, rage, and pain, we end up numbing ourselves to joy, hope, and love, too.

We must learn to acknowledge and feel our pain. We must expand our capacity to hold challenging truths in our awareness. And we must remember that the world is more than trauma. She is not broken, and neither are we.

The pain we perceive is only a small layer in the immense divine presence of the earth and the spirits of nature. Rather than shutting down, empaths can learn to extend their awareness beyond the surface and into the true nature of the wild world. And we can tune into non-human timelines, where we see that the earth is never barren and the potential for restoration is always there. Here, you’ll discover compassion, beauty, and divine order far beyond what our human minds might initially perceive.

3. Caught in a Double Bind of Ecological Abuse

Whether we experience, witness, or perpetuate it — abuse is traumatic. And our earth is under an onslaught of abuse that few of us have the power to prevent.

We know that precious resources are extracted from our earth with greed rather than reverence. We know that our waste, sewage, and toxic byproducts are dumped into her soils and waters. This trauma of witnessing and failing to prevent these acts is an inescapable part of our daily lives.

What can be especially traumatic at the soul level, however, is that we are also required to participate in this abuse.

Most people are dependent upon modern society for survival, yet modern society — and all the infrastructure, consumption, trade, and resources it requires — is the earth’s abuser.

Do we leave our abuser to fend for ourselves in the wilderness, knowing that our own departure does nothing to stop the machine, or do we stay and do our best to effect change, knowing that our very existence will have harmful consequences for the planet?

This is a soul-crushing bind to find ourselves in. And it requires soul-level tending.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: “Our ecological crises require cosmological solutions.”

We must remember that the earth is alive, inspirited, and has consciousness — and we can partner with the earth and the myriad spirits of nature to bring about healing. We are children of the earth, and the soul of the earth holds us in endless compassion.

By connecting with the earth’s loving soul on a regular basis, we’re more able to release environmental guilt and fill our hearts with hope. We recognize that even if our personal efforts to live more regenerative lifestyles seem like drops in an ocean, the spirits of nature witness our heartfelt intentions and it does make a difference. The ripple effects might be unseen and subtle, but they are there.

4. Abandonment: Returning to Our Original Mother

For millennia, the earth was seen as alive and as an essential part of our more-than-human family. She was our great mother (and our fertile father in some ancient traditions), who ensured the survival and well-being of all her children. We were born of the earth, nourished by the earth, sheltered by the earth, and loved by the earth. And we remained in reverent relationship with her throughout our lives.

Much of modern life removes us from our ancestral partnership with the earth. Severed from this original relationship, we experience the traumatic effects of parental abandonment in the core of our psyches.

This core abandonment can leave us feeling unloved and under-resourced, as if we must fight for survival and bear the weight of our burdens alone. Helplessness, unworthiness, and ongoing anxiety are natural outcomes of disconnection with our earth mother.

Inherent in this dynamic is also the sense that it is up to humans alone to “solve” our climate crises — we caused it, and we alone can fix it.

While we must take responsibility here, this perspective traps us within the limitations of the human mind. Once again: Our ecological crises require cosmological solutions. We must recognize the natural world as inspirited, with agency in the course of its own future.

We must restore our relationship to the animated earth, listening to the deep wisdom of our mother with reverence, humility, and gratitude.

As deep as this wounding of ecological trauma is, it is perhaps the most available for healing — for our primordial mother has not abandoned us. She is with us every moment of every day, waiting for us to return home to her loving embrace.

Transmuting Our Grief and Trauma Recovery

The ongoing nature of these ecological traumas makes it challenging for us to stay present and well-regulated. It becomes much easier to numb ourselves to the pain of the world, turn away from suffering, and give up hope for healing.

By bringing key practices from trauma recovery into ecological contexts — in other words, by healing in partnership with the natural world — we experience transformational healing.

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Lessons from Squirrels

Squirrels can show us how to adapt to city life…but also how to be more in tune with our wild natures.

When I lived in Denver, I considered three special squirrels to be my “outdoor pets”. These were city squirrels that lived in our urban backyard.

Brown, sleek and wily, I watched as they darted around our yard as if it were their own. And, of course, it was.

The squirrels in Denver made a nest in our roof—with cotton pilfered from our patio chair cushions. They ate our tomatoes, stole our corn, and took big bites out of every single squash we grew.

Once, a squirrel hopped in the lettuce bed as I was weeding, looked me straight in the eye, wrapped its little arms around a giant leaf, took a single bite out the middle, and I swear it smiled as it stood there, waiting for my reaction.

They were so naughty and so cute. I loved them completely.

Over the years, I was able to build a relationship with these squirrels (despite needing to kick them out of their nest in the roof…). I could identify each one, and we came to a truce with the garden. It took two years, but they finally focused on eating 2-3 squash total and leaving the rest untouched.

I suppose I got used to squirrels that had adapted to the city, as I had. They would often leave slices of half eaten bread in our yard. They stole all sorts of cottons and fabrics for their nests. I rarely saw them gather anything that hadn’t been made or grown by a human.

The squirrels here are different.

Big and gray, with tails that rival those of a winter fox, these are not the ones I knew in the city. The squirrels I live with in Central Oregon are a bit more wild.

They keep their distance when I’m outside—hopefully trust will build over time—but I often watch them through our windows.

If city squirrels had a bit of tough, no-nonsense, street-smart vibe, these wild squirrels are brave yet cautious. I once saw one skillfully somersault just out of reach from a hunting hawk.

After years of living with city squirrels, I feel somewhat awed when I see a squirrel storing a pine cone for food, or gathering bunches of grass to prepare its winter nest.

This makes me ridiculously happy. Perhaps because it just seems so healthy.

No more cotton or white bread. Just the natural foods and materials that squirrels in the wild enjoy.

The Spirit Animal Workshop

A self-paced class to discover how to work with the spirit animals in your own life.

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Like the squirrels, we humans adapt to our environments.

We use what’s around us to survive—for better or worse.

Yet, there’s deep inner sense of alignment I feel when I see a squirrel carrying a pine cone versus a tortilla (yes, it’s happened). And I wonder if getting a bit more back to our own wild roots would feel more in alignment for us humans, too.

Living with the seasons, sourcing local and wild foods, knowing your land. Every bit of rewilding we do on earth, rewilds our spirit as well.

As a spirit animal, squirrel is often said to carry the gift of preparation—gathering and storing sustenance throughout the summer and fall for the long winter ahead.

Perhaps in this way, the squirrels all around ask us to look at what it is we’re storing. Yes, preparation is good medicine. Filling our pantries can fill our souls. (And I think most of us are a bit more hyper aware of the need for preparation after the pandemic.)

Yet, let’s ask ourselves—what are we gathering? Is it food, materials, and even ideas that nourish us? Or have we been programmed to fill up on that which does not truly align with our souls?

We are currently in a potent time for releasing the old to make way for the new, with our seasonal winter fast approaching. How are you preparing for the season ahead?

If inspired, hold a small ritual or meditate on what is truly needed in your preparations this Samhain. What old programming can you let go of, and what resources will truly support you in the season ahead? Allow spirit and your own intuition to speak these answers to you.

What are squirrels like where you live? Let me know in the comments :)

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7 Signs You're a Modern-Day Mystic

Are you really a modern-day mystic? As the trappings of conventional religion and new wave gurus dissolve, as we face existential threats from human activity, we must usher in a new way of communing with earth and spirit. Here are 7 signs you’re part of the new consciousness movement.

Today, as we live in times of collective reckoning around power dynamics and the crises facing our mother earth, both traditional religions and alternative spiritual communities dissolving. A new spirituality is emerging…

If you’re a modern-day mystic, you play an important role in ushering in a new wave of spiritual understanding and connection, of supporting the ascension of humans and our planet.

Which of the following do you resonate with?

You seek spiritual equality and sovereignty.
Modern mystics want to experience spirit directly for ourselves and to know that we can trust our own intuition.
You care about our earth.
The climate crisis is forefront in our minds, and forming meaningful connections with nature has taken on a sort of spiritual urgency.
You are rebelling against old power dynamics—especially patriarchal and colonial ones.
Calls to end oppression and center previously marginalized voices become intertwined with spiritual practice.
You are called to connect with your ancestry and ancestors.
We’re here because of the ancestors that have survived challenging times before, and there’s a growing recognition of the wisdom we might find through ancestral work.
You are participating a psychedelic revival.
The shutdown of psychedelic research in the seventies was clearly meant to cut us off from cultivating our own direct spiritual connections—and therefore our ability to think for ourselves. Now, we’re reclaiming our right to research and use psychedelics for healing and connection.
You are re-engaging with Jungian thought.
You find meaning in the transpersonal realms of archetypes, omens, symbols, mythologies, and dreams—acknowledging that the universe is always communicating with us if we’ll listen.
You are embracing animism.
With the climate crisis more pronounced than ever, we are recognizing the need to shift out of human-centric worldviews and into an appreciation of the inspirited nature of all things.

Does this resonate? Then welcome. I’d love to stay in touch. Also, the term I use for this wild, beautiful spiritual life is mythoanimism. You can read more here.

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juniper stokes 12/12/22 juniper stokes 12/12/22

Healing with the Goddess Ma'at

The Egyptian Goddess Ma’at holds all cosmic truths, law, harmony, and balance in her wings. She weighs our hearts against a feather at death… or does she? Discover the deeper truths to Ma’at’s mysteries.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead — Entering the Afterlife

It is said that when you die, the Egyptian Goddess Ma’at awaits at the halls of the afterlife. Here, she weighs your heart against a feather to see if you have passage to paradise…or if you’ll be devoured by a monstrous god.

A feather-light heart is the secret to passing through the halls and judgements of the underworld.

In Egyptian mysticism, the neteru, the gods and goddesses, are both deities and higher truths.

Ma'at represents justice, truth, law, and balance. She is the cosmic principle that maintains order on earth, that prevents chaos from disrupting natural order.

As with many religions’ take on the afterlife, it appears that our lives are judged by some outside source. Grand, powerful beings decide if our sins are too great to enter heaven, or ascend to paradise, or get off the wheel of samsara.

This is a superficial understanding of a much more nuanced and loving truth…

Want to deepen your connection with Ancient Egyptian spiritual practice? Grab your copy of this free guide filled with daily rituals!

Judgement Day or Divine Neutrality? A Channeled Message from Ma’at

In my personal spiritual practice, I often channel divine beings. The art of channeling is a full-sensory experience for me, as my body becomes attuned to their wisdom and I can feel the cosmic truths shared by the divine.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to channel Ma’at during a shamanic teacher’s reunion with Sandra Ingerman. The love I felt in the presence of this goddess is not something I can describe in human words, and she shared a beautiful perspective on our afterlife judgements — one that we can begin to implement during our lifetimes.

Ma’at shared that in the afterlife, it is not so much that our hearts are weighed on a scale to determine our fates…we are the scales.

We have the power to to shift, release, and transmute any heaviness that does not serve our spiritual ascension.

And even if we choose to do so through being devoured, our feather-light souls emerge renewed.

Simply being in the presence of this goddess is healing, as she witnesses our souls from the perspective of divine neutrality.

Contrary to all the religious tales around judgment day, divine neutrality is the complete absence of any judgment. It’s the ultimate non-dual, unity consciousness state of being. And it’s the most purely and powerfully loving energy I’ve ever experienced.

You may have heard me use this term before — it’s the exact same feeling I get in the presence of Archangel Azrael, another deity who helps souls along their journeys in the afterlife.

It’s no coincidence that the beings who assist our souls in death embody the spirit of divine neutrality: Judgment as we know it is a uniquely human quality. When we die, we realize the perfection and eternal love of all that is.

Perhaps most importantly, Ma’at shared that we do not need to wait for the time of our passing to transmute the heaviness carried in our hearts.

Her divine love is always available to us, always ready to help us remember our own transformative power.

A Meditation for Healing with the Goddess Ma’at

Ma’at shared a visualization that we can do anytime to transmute heaviness and embody a feather-light heart:

Imagine yourself merging with a set of giant, golden scales. On one side is your heart, the other a feather.
Notice the initial balance you experience. How heavy is your heart? What burdens does it carry?
See the darkness and heaviness carried in your heart begin to flow into the feather. As this magical feather absorbs your pain, the energy is immediately transmuted into lightness so the feather never gets heavy.
Continue witnessing and feeling this process until your heart appears as light as the feather.
When complete, feel yourself separate and unmerge with the scales, offering Ma’at gratitude for the healing.
Feel the lightness in your being and see yourself filled with a golden-white light. Allow yourself to rest in this glow before returning to everyday life.

Beginning September 2025
Cultivating a
Feather-light Heart

*A 42-Day Journey with the Ideals of Ma’at*
**Learn More**

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Angel Magick for Protection: An Alchemical Meditation

Angels offer us protection, healing, and guidance. Discover six powerful angels from the Western Magick tradition, along with an alchemical ritual for personal transformation.

Angels are divine beings who offer us healing, protection, guidance, and blessings.

Though I’ve always loved and felt connected to the angelic realms, it wasn’t until a few years ago, when I encountered Damien Echols’s teachings on Western Angel Magick that I discovered how profound ritualized practice with specific archangels can be…

Many cultures throughout the world use wheels or circles to impart teachings on the nature of reality—the cycles of nature and seasons, the directions, and the elements appear on Native American medicine wheels and the Celtic Wheel of the year.

In Western Magick, the image of a circle is used. For each direction, there is a color (these change a bit depending on who you ask), an element, and a guardian archangel:

Guardian of the East: Archangel Raphael

Raphael is traditionally called in the east. His color is green, his element is air, and his symbol is a caduceus.

Guardian of the South: Archangel Michael

Michael is traditionally called in the south. His color is blue, his element is fire, and his symbol is a sword.

Guardian of the West: Archangel Gabriel

Gabriel is traditionally called in the west. His color is white, his element is water, and his symbol is a chalice.

Guardian of the North: Archangel Uriel

Uriel is traditionally called in the north. His color is red, his element is eart, and his symbol is a pentagram.

Michael's flaming blue sword — Michael’s flaming blue sword

In addition to these four cardinal angels of the vertical plane, Echols brings in guardian angels for above and below, as well:

Guardian of the Below: Sandalphon

Sandalphon both guards the space below and attunes our frequency to the crystalline grid of the earth. His colors are earth tones, turquoise, and metallics. I often see brown, gold, or even crystalline white in my third eye when Sandalphon is present. He sometimes appears with a musical instrument…something I interpret as a sign of his ability to work with frequency.

Guardian of Above: Metatron

Metatron both guards the space above and attunes our frequency to divine wisdom. His colors are purple, gold, silver, and white. His symbol is Metatron’s Cube, a form of sacred geometry that contains all the building blocks of matter itself.

Sandalphon earth grid — Sandalphon’s earth grid

In my personal practice, I’ve long invoked these six powerful angels for protection—especially before engaging in any kind of spiritual practice.

After years of simply calling in the angels and feeling their guardian presences, however, a new more advanced ritual with them was revealed to me during a channeled session—one for both healing as well as protection.

I’ve shared this ritual with small groups before, and everyone has had powerful experiences. Now, with the release of pure angel anointing oils, it’s time to share this ritual with anyone called to partner with these divine beings for protection, healing, guidance, and blessings.

The following practice can be done anytime you’d like to connect with the energy of the angels.

Note: This practice involves visualizing a merkaba—a powerful symbol for protection, healing, and insight, all the things we’re calling in here :) If you’re not familiar with this symbol, here’s an image:

An Alchemical Ritual for Angelic Protection, Wisdom, and Healing

Begin by setting your space for sacred arts. Light a candle, burn some incense or sage, and prepare your mind, body, and spirit for mediation. If you can, play some soothing music—theta music, binaural beats, or solfeggio tones are wonderful.

If you have anointing oils for these angels, place them nearby for use during the ritual. If you don’t have angel oils, simply skip the anointing steps.

I recommend calling upon the angels out loud and visualizing their colors and symbols as you move through this practice.

To begin, visualize yourself in the center of an etheric pyramid of light.
Make sure that this pyramid is large enough to contain your entire physical body and energetic aura.
Anoint your heart with Raphael’s angel oil.
Then speak aloud: “To the east, I call upon the great Archangel Raphael with his emerald green rays.”
Visualize the pyramid being filled with an emerald green fire. Feel this sacred fire cleanse any imprints of disease or illness from your energetic field. Feel healing and harmony restored to your physical and energetic bodies.
Allow as much time for this process as you’d like. You might get psychic hits of the work being done—specific imprints or illnesses being healed—or you may just sense that healing is happening. All experiences are welcome, so try to experience yours without judgment.
When the process feels complete, see the green flames recede into the eastern wall of the pyramid, which retains a green glow to anchor the healing energy of Rapheal.
Next, anoint the back of your neck with Michael’s angel oil.
Speak aloud: “To the south, I call upon the great Archangel Michael with his fiery blue rays.”
Visualize the pyramid being filled with Michael’s blue fire. Feel this sacred fire cleanse any foreign energy from your field. Once again, allow as much time as you’d like for the process.
When this feels complete, see the blue flames recede into the southern wall of the pyramid, ensuring that you continue to receive Michael's energetic protection.
Next, anoint the back of your wrists with Gabriel’s angel oil.
Speak aloud: “To the west, I call upon the great Archangel Gabriel with his pure white rays.”
Visualize the pyramid being filled with Gabriel’s white fire. Feel this sacred, watery fire cleanse your emotional body and thought patterns. This protective white light is like a soothing balm for any emotional challenges you’ve been experiencing.
Once again, allow as much time as you’d like for this process.
When this feels complete, see the white flames recede into the west wall of the pyramid, ensuring that Gabriel’s energy remains anchored to your sacred space.
Next, anoint your solar plexus with Uriel’s angel oil.
Speak aloud: “To the north, I call upon the great Archangel Uriel with his ruby red rays.”
Visualize the pyramid being filled with Uriel’s red fire. Feel these sacred flames removing lower density vibrations and thought forms from your field, creating space for higher vibration outcomes to manifest in the physical world.
As before, you may receive specific insights here, or you may simply experience energetic shifts. Once again, allow as much time as you’d like for this process.
When this feels complete, see the ruby red flames recede into the north wall of the pyramid, ensuring that Uriel’s energy continues to stabilize your energy field.
Next, anoint the soles of your feet (or ankles if easier) with Sandalphon’s angel oil.
Speak aloud: “To the space below, I call upon the great angel Sandalphon.”
See a crystalline grid appear at the base of the pyramid. Sandalphon uses this grid to help attune your energy with the energy of the earth. Feel your vibratory shift as the light grid reaches into your energy field. See how the grid of the pyramid is connected to both your energy system and the earth’s crystalline grid.
When this feels complete, let go of tracking larger grid movements. Simply see a crystalline grid of light at the base of the pyramid.
Next, anoint your third eye and crown with Metatron’s angel oil.
Speak aloud: “To the space above, I call upon the great angel Metatron.”
Visualize a golden-purple merkaba at the top of the pyramid. See this cube begin to spin, creating an active portal for divine wisdom to come through. Allow yourself to attune to this wisdom, feeling it flow into your being through your crown chakra.
Again, you might get specific insights, but that isn’t the point here. You are becoming a stronger, more aligned vessel for a continual stream of wisdom to flow into and unfold in divine timing.
When this process feels complete, return your awareness to the entire pyramid.
Revisit each of the walls—green to the east, blue to the south, white to the west, red to the north. Revisit the grid below and cube above. Feel the protective, loving energy of this space. Notice if you can feel any shifts in your own body and energy.
To close, thank the angels for their presence, healing, and protection.
Speak aloud: “I gratefully acknowledge the great angels Raphael, Michalel, Gabriel, Uriel, Sandalphon, and Metatron for their blessings and presence in this practice. I ask that I continue to receive angelic protection as I go throughout my days.
For now, this practice is done. Our parts are done. And we may rest.”

Let go of your visualizations and return awareness to your body and the present moment. You may like to ground a bit after this, as it’s quite powerful. Going for a walk outside or eating a few nuts and drinking water can be supportive.

Enhance Your Practice with Angel Oils

I created Angel Oils to enhance our connections with these divine beings.

These oils are filled with sacred, rare, and very precious botanicals—white lotus, sandalwood, tuberose, angelica, and more—that align our frequencies with those of the angels.

When applied directly to your skin, these oils become portals for divine angelic transmissions and greatly impact the potency of angel magick and ritual.

If you’d like to purchase a set of anointing oils to enhance your practice…and simply to smell divine because they are truly elevated perfumes, you can find discovery sets here:

The Angel Oil Discovery Set

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How to use angel magick for protection and healing

juniper stokes 11/20/22 juniper stokes 11/20/22

3 Simple Ways to Rewild Your Thanksgiving Table + A Wild Winter Recipe

Eating wild foods attunes our energy field and our DNA to the land we live on, and when done with reverence and gratitude, shows the spirits of the land that we don’t take our abundance for gratitude. It’s a way to nurture our relationship with place, open our hearts to mothering from our earth mother herself, and tend our wellbeing in physical and energetic realms.

Want to add a few wild bites to your Thanksgiving feasts this year? Here are a few simple wild foods available just about anywhere in the states:

Thanksgiving mythology tells us that this holiday marks a time when native peoples helped pilgrims survive by sharing the bounty of a new land with them.

Obviously, the actual history of the holiday is a lot more complicated and painful than this simple recounting—something I reflect on here—yet the ritual of pausing to honor and show gratitude for the abundant gifts of the earth is one I continue to love in the midst of a complex history.

One of my favorite ways to truly celebrate the abundance of the earth, as well as the ancestral spirits of the land, is to incorporate local, wild foods into our menu.

Want to add a few wild bites to your Thanksgiving feasts this year? Here are a few simple wild foods available just about anywhere in the States…

Wild Greens

If you’ve been following along here and have some wild greens infused vinegar on hand (usually made in the spring), use it to replace any other acids in your recipes. It’s great for brightening up butternut squash soup and mixing into wild salad dressings.

Depending on where you live, you might still be able to gather some wild hearty greens in your area…even your backyard! Mallow, dandelion, chickweed, and nettle can often be gathered in small quantities even after the first snow. Sprinkle a few greens on side salads or even stir them into stuffing—the mild flavor goes with everything.

Rosehips

Rosehips are best collected after a few frosts, which heightens their sweetness. If you gathered hips earlier in the autumn, great! If not, even wilty looking rosehips can be gathered and cooked into tart cranberry sauces or brewed as nutrient-rich teas. (Just be sure to remove the hairs and seeds first!)

Evergreens

Evergreens are an abundant winter wild food available almost everywhere. Rich in vitamin C and other phytonutrients, evergreen needles can be infused into butters and finishing salts for a fresh, herbaceous flavor, or brewed into healing teas.

Most evergreens are edible, so you don’t need to worry too much about identification here. The two exceptions (that I know of at least) are yew trees and ponderosa pines. There’s mixed messaging on the edibility of both, but general consensus is to steer clear to be safe. Firs, spruces, and most other pines are just fine!

Yews are easily identified by their distinctive orange-red berries—see below. But, the berries aren’t always in season, so if yews are in your area make a positive identification first!

yew tree and berry — The signature berry of the yew tree—one of the few non-edible evergreens.

Ponderosas can be a bit trickier. If you know you have ponderosas in your area, watch out for tall strong trees with large pinecones and extra long needles. Any time you use any wild food, please quadruple check your identification. And then triple check again.

A Fragrant & Festive Wild Tea

This tea is based around two wild ingredients—evergreen needles and rosehips. From there, you can get creative with all sorts of fragrant herbs and spices.

Ingredients

2 cups water
A handful, roughly chopped evergreen needles
One extra large handful of fresh rosehips, or a smaller handful dried (either leave whole or remove seeds and tiny hairs if chopping)
3-4 slices of fresh organic oranges
One cinnamon stick
2-3 stars of anise
Lemon and honey to taste

Directions

Place water and herbs in a pot and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in honey and lemon, and serve in festive mugs. Enjoy!

As always, whenever you’re working with wild foods, it’s wise to follow basic ethical and safety practices. In short, triple check your IDs and prioritize the health of the ecosystem above your own gathering needs.

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juniper stokes 11/17/22 juniper stokes 11/17/22

The Ancestral Convergence: Food & Ritual for Healing this Thanksgiving

I recently saw yet another post about eating ancestral foods and working with ancestral plants on Instagram…

Eat the foods your ancestors ate. Return to the foods that enlivened your DNA throughout generations. Turn to the native plants of your ancestral lands.

This was the message.

On the one hand, I love it. This is something I teach in my Rewilding the Spirit course, having students do a bit of research and prepare a meal that their bloodline ancestors might have enjoyed.

Yet I also teach my students how to connect with their land ancestors—the local ancestors that are keepers of the land they live on now, in this lifetime. Ancestors with whom it’s equally important to partner. Here, we prepare and enjoy local, wild foods to attune our current DNA to the current land we live on.

Reading this post on ancestral foods so close to Thanksgiving here in the States got me thinking—what would an ancestral Thanksgiving meal actually look like?

the ancestral convergence - food and ritual for healing this thanksgiving

I recently saw yet another post about eating ancestral foods and working with ancestral plants on Instagram…

Eat the foods your ancestors ate. Return to the foods that enlivened your DNA throughout generations. Turn to the native plants of your ancestral lands.

This was the message.

On the one hand, I love it. This is something I teach in my Rewilding the Spirit course, having students do a bit of research and prepare a meal that their bloodline ancestors might have enjoyed.

Reading this post on ancestral foods so close to Thanksgiving here in the States got me thinking—what would an ancestral Thanksgiving meal actually look like?

Would we turn to our recent American ancestors—those who cemented stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie into our collective consciousness?

Or perhaps we celebrate local abundance and honor the spirits of the land here, with wild rice and three sisters (squash, beans, and corn) themed cuisine? (An approach my family usually takes...)

Or maybe, as the post suggests, we travel further back to the native lands of our blood relatives.

I have to laugh as I think about what option three would look like…my Dutch, Irish, Swiss, French, and Welsh meeting Mike’s Italian and German heritage would create quite the menu!

And what if we tried to really incorporate all our ancestral influences? Pumpkin pie, wild rice, pickled herring, spaghetti and (vegan) meatballs…

As ridiculous as this image might seem, I actually love how clearly it demonstrates an important truth:

We are the convergence of many ancestral lines.

Ask yourself: What would a truly representative ancestral Thanksgiving dinner look like in your home?

A Thanksgiving Menu with Ancestral Cuisine

This year, Mike and I are having a quiet dinner…but still going all out on our menu, as I’m somewhat addicted to cooking.

Our menu tends to mix some traditional foods with some local ones, and I always try to add a bit of wild, foraged plants in the mix. As we’re both vegetarian and I’m gluten free, everything becomes an updated fancy-pants version of ancestral cuisine.

We’ll have a few dishes I make every year—butternut and wild rice salad, boozy spiced cranberry sauce, pumpkin bread rolls, and green beans. Mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy always make the menu as well. (You can find a few of my favorite recipes here!)

We often have a stuffed pumpkin for our main, but I’m changing it up this year with a sagey mushroom, chestnut, and walnut loaf. Fingers crossed it turns out!

Gratitude, Trauma, and a Complicated Time of Year

Thanksgiving has traditionally been a time to focus on gratitude. Yet, I think many of us are sensitive to the fact that this holiday brings up many challenges, as well…

For those who have lost loved ones—and so many have, especially in the past couple of years—Hallmark images of happy family holidays can feel like knives in the heart.

For those who experienced early childhood trauma, any holiday focused on family can heighten a complex array of difficult emotions, decisions, conversations, and more.

And, while Thanksgiving is still a time to reflect on all we’re grateful for, it’s also becoming more and more a time to reflect on the ancestral traumas that gave birth to this holiday. The very real scars on the peoples and lands who tended this earth before the arrival of settlers cannot be ignored.

These challenges are real and painful, and they can make it easy to slip into guilt and despair. They can even activate fear around even publicly celebrating this holiday.

Yet gratitude is one of the highest vibration states we can enter into. Gratitude shifts our energy and opens our heart. It fortifies our spiritual strength in trying times. It tells the earth and our loved ones that we appreciate all the gifts in our lives. It communicates our own true worth to our innermost selves.

What if we treated our Thanksgiving menus as opportunities for healing? What if we ritualized our feasts as vessels of ancestral reconciliation?

Thanksgiving rituals for healing - navigating complicated legacies with love

Rituals for Thanksgiving Healing

Rituals work because of the powerful confluence of intention and energy they create. Though seemingly magical, they are one of the most powerful ways I know of to create real, observable change in our lives.

Any major holiday is already charged with extra usable energy—generations of repeated intentions and actions have already ritualized these days.

This means that when we set the intention for our Thanksgiving dinners to become healing ceremonies, we really can impact our personal and collective energy in powerful ways.

Though the details of your personal rituals will look different depending on your intentions, a few pieces will be the same:

Set your intention for healing before you begin preparing your meal. Then hold this intention throughout the cooking process. See your love, gratitude, and desire for healing flow from your heart, into your hands, and into the food.
If possible, state your intentions out loud at your dinner table. Invite the others present to offer their intentions for healing, as well.
Affirm that as you consume the food laid before you, your body becomes an alchemical vessel of transformational healing. Just as your digestive system physically transmutes food into energy, the energy of intentions you’ve poured into the food alchemizes into healing.

Any and all healing intentions are welcome here. Trust your guidance. Here are a few suggestions depending on what might be alive for you in this moment:

For family gatherings that might trigger personal trauma or seemingly inevitable conflict, try infusing the food with the emotions you wish to cultivate more of—perhaps self-worth, protection, or family harmony.
For those who wish to honor loved ones across the veil, you may like to prepare their favorite dishes. Imagine the part of them that lives on in you getting to enjoy the meal through your physical vessel. Allow space for their physical absence to be named, and perhaps their spiritual presence to be welcomed.
If your heart is pulled toward all the people without healthy, hot meals at this time of year (or any, really), a beautiful practice here is to harness the energy of your own gratitude. Have everyone around your table feel a deep sense of gratitude for all the abundance you enjoy. Then imagine this abundance spreading to all beings. Visualize, with all the energy and focus you can harness, a world in which all people are fed. This practice might seem small, but it's a little bit of collective magic that really does spread blessings upon the ethers.
To contribute to our collective reconciliation around the traumas inflicted on native populations and the land here, learn about the traditional foods of the ancestors where you live. See if you can incorporate and celebrate these foods into a menu with your own traditional dishes. Set the intention that as your body harmonizes these foods, so harmony and reconciliation build in our collective. Focus on shifting guilt and judgment to love and visions of a better future for all who walk this land.

Please know, these practices aren’t meant to replace the very real-world actions needed to reconcile and heal a horrific legacy of colonization. Nor do they replace the self-healing and resourcing necessary to navigate complicated family legacies. (And for goodness sake, if hunger pulls on your heart be sure to donate to local food banks!)
My intention here is to help transform the underlying energy of our collective traumas so that we can create greater leaps in healing in the physical plane. Just as we tend our own well-being in mind, body, and spirit, we can tend our collective well-being through multiple modes and layers of healing.

An Invitation

This Thanksgiving, take some time to reflect on the many lineages that make up your ancestry. Feel into where healing is needed. Feel into where celebration is called for. And enjoy the sacred dimensions of the wild convergence that is you.

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Why is perfume type important?

Decoding Dilutions: A Guide to Perfume Types and Concentrations

Parfum Extrait

Eau de Parfum (EDP)

Eau de Toilette (EDT)

Eau de Cologne (EDC)

Eau Fraiche

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Why Retrogrades Matter

Understanding Mercury Retrograde

Essential Oils for Mercury Retrograde

1. Rosemary: Untangling Cosmic Confusion

2. Clary Sage: Bringing Balanced Wisdom

3. Blue Tansy: Joyful Expression

4. May Chang: Positivity Booster

5. Vetiver: Grounding and Stability

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How to Use Essential Oils During Mercury Retrograde

This is what happens when the virgin meets the magician...plus retrogrades. So many retrogrades.

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The Virgo Party

Virgo the Virgin

Mercury: Magic, Messages, and Mind

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Coming Up In The Cosmos

Tips for Virgo Season (and all those retrogrades…)

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The Lion’s Gate Portal 8/8

The True Mystical Origins of the Lion’s Gate Portal

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Portal Openers

Scarab Anointing Oil

1. Choose the Right Flower Essence

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2. Set Your Intention

3. Take the Flower Essence

4. Observe and Reflect

5. Combine Flower Essences (Optional)

6. Be Patient and Gentle with Yourself

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What Are Flower Essences?

The History And Origins Of Flower Essences

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Why Flower Essences Work

Here are a few signs your flower essences are working:

How to Use Flower Essences

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Safety Considerations And Potential Side Effects

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The Heliacal Rise of Sirius

The Epagomenal Days

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Celebrating the Epagomenal Days with Ritual & Reflection

Day 1: Osiris

Day 2: Horus the Elder

Day 3: Seth

Day 4: Isis

Day 5: Nepthys

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1. Creation and Rebirth

2. The Sun

3. Guardian of the Underworld

4. Symbol of Immortality

5. Amulet of Good Luck and Protection

6. Symbol of Transformation and Resurrection

The Rare and Wonderful Gnome Plant

The Invitation Deepens

Meeting the Gnome Queen

A World within Our World

Creating a Most Rare Essence

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A Sacred Circle of 13

Coregulation with the Natural World

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Cultivating a
Feather-light Heart