Soul-Centered:

Transform Your Life in 8 Weeks with Meditation

(Available May 1, 2012)

You can preorder it here:

Soul-Centered:

Book Synopsis:

Soul-Centered presents a contemporary, mainstream view of meditation in an 8-week program that delivers time-tested techniques and practical exercises to give the reader insight into the how’s and why’s of meditation so they can easily cultivate an effective daily meditation practice.

Inspired by and based on author Sarah McLean’s 20-plus-year spiritual journey, the book begins with insights into the five essentials necessary for successful meditation. Each of the eight weeks that follow explores a variety of meditation practices thoroughly supported by research, insights, stories, and self-awareness exercises. The theme of each week reflects a benefit that meditation cultivates: Awareness, Peace, Freedom, Compassion, Intimacy, Authenticity, Receptivity, and Nourishment.

The program is grounded in science and leading-edge research and features insights and inspiring stories from the author’s 20-plus-year journey as she sought the secrets of happiness and meditation and the keys to a fulfilling life. Her search took her to a remote Zen Buddhist Monastery to work as the head cook as well as to India where she lived and meditated in a traditional ashram setting. Sarah’s worked with some of the best modern-day meditation and self-awareness experts of our time and in the book, she shares inspiring stories of her own travels, transformation, and those of her students’.

Studies show that the practice of meditation alters the brain-specifically the areas that govern memory, empathy, and stress. By the end of the 8 weeks, readers will be confident in their understanding of meditation and their ability to meditate every day. They also will have become more self-aware, more peaceful, and more compassionate toward themselves and others. The easy-to-follow program inspires the reader to confidently cultivate a successful meditation practice and develop a new perspective: they become more self-aware, more peaceful, and more compassionate. It’s a way of life that can truly be called soul-centered.

Early praise for Soul-Centered

“Soul-Centered is entertaining, informative, and inspiring for even the most experienced meditator.” – Deepak Chopra, author, War of the Worldviews: Science vs. Spirituality

“Sarah McLean weaves an inspiring exploration on the essentials of meditation, giving the first-time meditator all the tools they will ever need to explore the potential of their own awareness.”- Debbie Ford, NY Times bestselling author of The Dark Side of the Light Chasers

“Sarah moves us from our mundane lives to the depth offered by our souls. She’s a genuine teacher and a meditation goddess.”- Colette Baron-Reid, Intuitive Counselor and Life strategist, author of #1 bestseller- The Map- Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life

“Basically, meditation is pretty simple; but for most of us, it’s not easy. Sarah McLean’s vast experience and loving approach to meditation and teaching, makes Simple… Easy.” - Lindsay Wagner, Actress, author, advocate

“Sarah McLean has written a book that makes meditation and its many benefits accessible to everyone, novice and expert alike. The simple program she provides on a weekly basis will help all who want to see real change in their lives to begin a lifetime practice. And what could be more motivating than the recent brain science she presents, bolstering the power of meditation to transform our lives.” – Marci Shimoff, author of the bestseller Happy for No Reason

“Soul-Centered is a perfect blend of scientific fact, spiritual philosophy and personal experience beautifully woven into a practical formula for everyday life! In a responsible, well-researched, and easy-to-use manual that you’ll want to keep at your fingertips, meditation pioneer Sarah McLean draws upon her personal exploration of the world’s spiritual traditions to give new meaning to the most basic experience of our lives—the focus of our awareness in each experience and every relationship. The exercises Sarah provides following each chapter provide a beautiful opportunity to anchor in daily life what she offers in the book.

“If you’ve always wanted the benefits of meditation, yet have felt overwhelmed by rigid traditions and techniques, then this is the beautiful book you’ve been waiting for. From engineers to homemakers, from politicians to healers, this book opens the door to the source of your deepest beliefs and sheds new light on every choice you will ever make in life. I recommend Soul-Centered for everyone that is ready to take their lives and relationships to the next level!”-Gregg Braden, New York Times bestselling author of Deep Truth, The Divine Matrix and Fractal Time. www.greggbraden.com

Reviews:

Anna Jedrziewski , Retailing Insight, (formerly New Age Retailer) says:

McLean has practiced and taught meditation for decades. Gradually, she developed her own concepts about how to use meditation in real life, combining techniques from the various traditions she studied. The result was this eight-week program for incorporating mindfulness/meditation practice into a busy schedule. She calls it becoming soul-centered. The effects on a person’s life are often dramatic. McLean sites cutting-edge research in neuroscience which supports the direct connection between meditation and these benefits. Her program requires commitment to the practice, but the actual daily exercises are very reasonable, both in terms of time and mental effort required. Her personal life experiences, and her work with clients, have given McLean a solid sense of what readers will experience as they begin the work. She understands the obstacles and self-doubt that might arise for each individual, and gently offers guidance to help the reader through these challenges. Let customers know that she speaks to readers, not as a distant authority figure, but as a fellow traveler on the path to self awareness

About the Author

Sarah McLean, an inspiring contemporary meditation teacher, makes meditation accessible to everyone. She has spent much of her life exploring the world’s spiritual and mystic traditions, and has worked with some of today’s great teachers, including Deepak Chopra, Byron Katie, Debbie Ford, and Gary Zukav. She’s lived and studied in a Zen Buddhist monastery, meditated in ashrams and temples throughout India and the Far East, spent time in Afghan refugee camps, bicycled the Silk Route from Pakistan to China, trekked the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia, and taught English to Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Dharamsala.

Sarah is the founding director of the Sedona Meditation Training Company (www.SedonaMeditation.com), and The McLean Meditation Institute (www.McLeanMeditation.com) educational companies offering meditation training, self-discovery retreats, and teacher training certification programs that have transformed thousands of lives, and have earned her the praise of her peers and students.

A Conversation with Sean Meshorer

Author of The Bliss Experiment:

28 Days to Personal Transformation

Q: Why Bliss? Is bliss better than happiness? How do they differ?

Bliss is a far more advanced state of being/awareness/consciousness than happiness. There’s nothing deeply transformative or permanent about happiness, it’s incomplete. We can be happy, then fall into unhappiness.

Happiness requires external situations and relationships to reach fruition. Bliss doesn’t require any kind of outer relationship with the world—not even a positive one. Another crucial difference: happiness can be pursued and to some extent, requires action. Bliss, on the other hand, is a state of being. It is about stripping away all that is not bliss.

Seeking bliss helps with stress, anxiety, and depression. It makes people more successful, better able to see and seize opportunities, have more friends, improve social relationships and, importantly, it is the most effective, all-encompassing, and enduring solution for our global challenges.

Q: You say that happiness is an important steppingstone on the way to bliss; can you elaborate on that?

Ultimately, the ability to feel happiness and then bliss are skills. We can choose to put ourselves in the position to feel greater happiness and to tune into bliss. Many of the skills necessary for happiness are building blocks of bliss. They don’t give us bliss themselves but we need them under our belt to have the tools necessary to access bliss.

Q: Tell us about the Happiness Scale, and the stages of Numbness, Pleasure, False Happiness, Everyday Happiness, and Bliss.

Numbness is the first stage on the happiness scale. Many of us are suffering so terribly—whether physically, mentally, or spiritually—that just to stop the suffering for even a little bit by numbing ourselves seems like incredible progress. To break through our unfeeling barriers, we begin pursuing easy pleasures such as sex, shopping, eating, travel, as well as certain drugs like GHB, cocaine, or Ecstasy. False happiness is that often-fleeting feeling we experience when we have temporarily fulfilled our desires, before the next desires come crashing through. What I call “everyday happiness” is a genuine type of happiness, and finding it involves positive traits including gratitude, optimism, serving others, experiencing a sense of connection, and having a small sense of purpose or meaning. Far beyond everyday happiness is infinite, ever-new, all-encompassing bliss — and we all have the capacity to experience it.

We progress step by step, and we have our moments of numbness, of simple pleasures, and of higher order things, all mixed together. As we become more aware of these states of consciousness and the skills necessary for each, we naturally begin spending more of our time and awareness at the higher end of the scale.

Q: You say that we “all have within us a remarkable, even infinite, capacity for lasting joy.” How can we access it?

Think of bliss as something all around us, something that we are swimming in, surrounded by, just like the invisible radio waves and cell phone signals zooming by and through us right this moment. We can learn to tune into bliss, like we tune a radio to a certain station. We’re not creating anything. It’s already there.

The first step is the most important: Be aware it exists. Once you look for it, it’s relatively easy to tune into, at least a little bit. To tune into it a lot requires practice, skill and dedication. To verify it, feel it a little, is not difficult at all. Why? Because we are all born with the innate capacity to do so.

Exercises for activating our bodies, minds, and spirits to acquire the skills to access bliss are in The Bliss Experiment. They include meditation, focusing our minds, being open, living in the present, and shedding many of the attitudes and orientations that keep us from tuning into bliss.

Q: How do we most often get in the way of our own bliss?

Aside from not even knowing or acknowledging it exists, the single biggest mistake we make is to look for bliss outside ourselves in other people, objects, or sensory pleasures. Bliss can’t be found through money and the luxuries that money buys, or through sex, fame, beauty, or power. All of those things are distractions that keep us finding the true doorway to bliss, which is inside ourselves.

Q: What would you say to the “Doubting Thomases”?

First of all, I began as a doubting Thomas myself. I was a skeptical, perhaps even cynical, atheist who thought this was mostly a bunch of crap. So I’m enormously sympathetic to that viewpoint. A lot of what you see in The Bliss Experiment is the distillation of my own journey, of how I started in one place and ended up somewhere else entirely, somewhere quite unexpected.

That said, the most important thing about this book and bliss in general is that I don’t want anyone to take my word for it. There’s a reason this book is called “The Bliss Experiment.” My only desire is to prompt you, especially any doubters, to conduct your experiment and see what you experience for yourself.

In order to help persuade the doubter to try, however, I’ve included over 300 scientific studies that validate virtually every major claim I make. There’s a tremendous body of scientific literature out there, spread across dozens of mainstream journals and conducted by hundreds of researchers at prestigious institutions. This book might be the only place where all of the research is gathered, where the reader can see how it all fits together. When you read all of the scientific evidence, it’s quite powerful and convincing.

Q: What finding surprised you most as you researched the science of bliss?

The biggest surprise was that there are literally thousands of studies that test and prove various aspects of spirituality and spiritual practice, and that the vast majority of them have found positive results. We’ve come to believe that science and spirituality are two separate things, perhaps even hostile to one another or at best, operating in two different realms that can’t really inform us about the other. It turns out that’s not true.

For example, several studies demonstrate that bliss practices create noticeable, measurable changes in our bodies and physiology, increasing brain wave activity that contributes to learning, healing and spiritual growth. Further, it is known that meditation and related practices don’t merely change brain waves, they also permanently alter brain density. The brain’s density tends to thin as we age, leading to a variety of difficulties. A team led by Sarah Lazar at Massachusetts General Hospital discovered that in as little as eight weeks, meditators developed measurable increases in the thickness of the outer layer of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex plays an important role in consciousness, especially in the prefrontal regions associated with attention and sensory processing, known to be important for learning and memory. Other studies also suggest that meditation increases blood flow to the brain. Our brain is the body’s largest consumer of oxygen, and the oxygen fed to the brain via the increased blood flow improves cognition and concentration and retards the onset of dementia and brain degeneration.

Q: You say bliss does not require much, not a particular job, spouse, bank account, social status or other external “asset.” If bliss is so simple, how do we miss finding it so often?

Mostly because we’ve subconsciously trained ourselves to look in all the wrong places. Our larger society and culture place emphasis on and convince us to value things that are in fact worthless. A nearly infinite variety of external things—from the big categories like wealth, sex, fame, beauty, or power, to myriad everyday sense pleasures like a nice meal, a beautiful pair of shoes, or a minor flirtation with a co-worker—easily distract us and we end up focusing most of our time on things that pull us away from the experience of bliss within.

When we look for satisfaction outside ourselves, the possibilities that we must sift through never end. As soon as we grow bored, frustrated, or upset with one externality, a new one pops up to take its place. It’s easy to spend an entire lifetime chasing these things.

Q: Would this book have been possible without your own personal journey and challenges?

Sean Meshorer: For me, it wouldn’t have been, but that’s because I’m not particularly smart or sensitive. I needed to do really obviously stupid and painful things to get a clue. My sufferings prompted me on my own journey of exploration. But there are a lot of people who are more intelligent and aware than I am. They wouldn’t need to learn through suffering as much as I did.

Q: An exciting element of your book are the videos instantly downloadable to readers’ smartphones or viewable on your web site via computer, bringing an immediacy to each person’s progress within their personal bliss experiment. How did you design these videos to enhance the readers’ experience of your book?

We’re on the cutting edge of redefining what a book is and how we experience it, going beyond words on the page to add images, sounds, and other forms of interaction. It’s fantastic. If you buy the ebook, you’ll be able to click on the videos throughout from within your reader. If you buy the paper edition, you can use your smartphone, tablet, or computer to immediately call them up and view them as you read. It really enhances the experience and helps us to learn better. We can also introduce videos and explanations over time, supplementing pieces based on your feedback as a reader—say if you want something clarified—so the book continues to deliver new information.

There’s also a companion website, theblissexperiment.com, that includes a complete, interactive community. Readers can share their stories, ask questions, interact with one another, meet like-minded people, gain access to bonus materials, and much more.

Through these advances in technology, we—me as the author, you as the reader—can have a sustained, interactive dialogue. We can work together to learn, grow, and help one another.

Q: What would you like readers to take away from The Bliss Experiment?

First and foremost, that a little bit of bliss changes everything. Knowing bliss exists changes everything. You don’t have to live in bliss every minute for your life to improve in enormous ways.

Second, you can see real, tangible results very quickly, in less than a month. You’ll know in short order if there’s any truth here and you’ll see at least some benefits in your life relatively fast. You don’t have to make a 30-year commitment, or even 30 months. Just give me 30 days and see what happens.

Third, this is not hard work. It’s not “put your shoulder to the grindstone” or “grin and bear it.” As you read this book and go through the practices, your life gets easier, better, and more enjoyable. This easy program is fun, and the more you do it, the happier, lighter, and more bliss-filled you’ll be.

www.theblissexperiment.com

by Susan M. Obijiski, L.M.T., R.M.

Sedona is a place of spirituality and beauty. We welcome the changes it evokes in us. We live in the moment and work to achieve fulfillment. But this alone will not help us achieve business success.

No matter what type of business you own, you must manage it with conscious attention. Whether you are a holistic healer, a jeweler, clothier, an artist or a musician your business requires practical focus.

Prioritize

Set priorities. Make a list of the things you want to do. Be honest about the importance of each goal. Ask, “How will this add to my bottom line?”, “Will this attract customers?”

Spend Money Wisely

Small business owners have limited resources. Do your research. Find out where and how to best market and advertise and what products, services and equipment will best satisfy your clients.

Find a Partner

If you are not great at business, get smart. Get a partner to help organize and make the right decisions. If a partner can keep your business growing, it is a benefit you should consider. Perhaps you can barter services to pay your business consultant.

Understand Your Target Audience

Do you really know your customers? You will never capture 100% of the market. Figure out who will buy your products and services and market and sell to those people.

Run your business with conscious focus. Pay attention and stay focused. Think about what you are doing, every day, for every business choice – no matter how small!

Feeling Frisky? Herbs for Fertility

By Susun S. Weed

For thousands of years knowledge of the herbs and wild plants that could increase fertility were the secrets of the village wise women. But after the holocaust against European Wise Women (the “burning times”) and the virtual extermination of Native American medicine women, this knowledge virtually disappeared. In fact, many people erroneously believe that “primitive people” had no means of controlling the likelihood of pregnancy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Many common plants can be used to influence fertility, including red clover, partridge berry, liferoot, wild carrot, and wild yam. Some of these grow wild, others are easy to cultivate, and, with the exception of wild carrot, all are also readily available at health food stores.

One of the most cherished of the fertility-increasing plants is red clover (Trifolium pratense). Common in fields and along roadsides, it has bright pink (not really red) blossoms from mid-summer into the chilly days of fall. A favorite flower of the honeybees, the tops (blossoms and appending leaves) are harvested on bright sunny days and eaten as is, or dried for medicinal use. The raw blossoms are delicious in salads and nutritious when cooked with grains such as rice or millet.

To make a fertility-enhancing infusion, I take one ounce by weight of the dried blossoms (fresh won’t work for this application) and put them in a quart size canning jar. I fill the jar with boiling water, screw on a tight lid, and let it steep at room temperature overnight (or for at least four hours). Dozens of women have told me that they had successful pregnancies after drinking a cup or more (up to four cups) a day of red clover infusion.

It is especially helpful if there is scarring of the fallopian tubes, irregular menses, abnormal cells in the reproductive tract, or “unexplained” infertility. It may take several months for the full effect of this herb to come on and pregnancy may not occur until you have used it for a year or two. You can improve the taste by including some dried peppermint (a spoonful or two) along with the dried clover blossoms when making your infusion. Treat the father of the child-to-be to some red clover infusion too!

That little evergreen creeper that carpets some parts of the woods around your house is partridge berry (Mitchella repens), also known as squaw weed, supposedly because of its ability to enhance fertility. (My teacher Twylah Nitsch, grandmother of the Seneca Wolf clan, says that “squaw” is a slang term meaning “schmuck” or, in the proper term, “penis,” and therefore should not be used in denoting a plant meant to be used by women.) Keep an eye out this spring and see if you can catch Mitchella blooming. Then you’ll see why she’s sometimes called “twin flower.”

Interestingly, when the paired flowers fall off, they leave behind but one berry to ripen. (The shiny red berries you’ve noticed in the forest winter or spring. Yes, they are safe to eat, but leave some for the partridges.) The symbolism of two flowers forming one berry is certainly a suitable icon for fertility. I make a medicinal vinegar by filling a small jar with the fresh leaves, adding apple cider vinegar until the jar is full again. A piece of waxed paper held in place with a rubber band and a label (including date) completes the preparation, which must sit at room temperature for six weeks before use. I enjoy up to a tablespoonful of the vinegar on my salads or in my beans.

By mid- to late-May, the yellow blossoms of liferoot (Senecio aureus) enliven my swamp (in upstate New York) and the neighboring roads where there is adequate water and rich soil. A powerful medicine resides in all parts of this lovely wildflower. As the root has a dangerous reputation, I restrict myself to using only the flowers and leaves, which I harvest in bloom, and quickly tincture. (For instructions for making your own tinctures, please see any of my books.) Small doses of this tincture (3-8 drops a day), taken at least 14 days out of the month, will regulate hormone production, increase libido, normalize the menses, relieve menstrual pain, and improve fertility. The closely related Senecia jacobea and Senecio vulgaris can also be used.

Wild carrot (Daucus carota), better known as Queen Anne’s lace, is such a common roadside plant that most people are amazed to learn that it is a proven anti-fertility herb. In addition to being the wild cousin of carrot, it is related to parsley, dill, caraway, anise, celery, cumin, and a (now extinct) plant whose seeds were the birth-control of choice for many a classical Greek or Roman woman.

The aromatic seeds of wild carrot are collected in the fall and eaten (a heaping teaspoonful a day) to prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. In one small study the effectiveness rate after thirteen months of use was 99%. As modern scientific medicine reports that one-third of all fertilized eggs are passed out of the body without implanting in the uterus, this method of birth control seems in complete agreement with nature.

Of the hundreds of women currently using this anti-fertility agent, I have heard virtually no reports of any side-effects. Note that many books caution you to beware the danger of confusing poison hemlock and wild carrot. Poison hemlock is rather scarce in our area, and, at any rate, does not smell or taste of carrot (as does Queen Anne’s lace), so I believe this warning to be a red herring. In addition, wild carrot leaves have small hairs on them, while the leaves of poison hemlock are smooth.

Another anti-fertility herb that has been tested by small groups of modern women is wild yam (Dioscorea villosa). Since birth-control pills were originally made from this plant, it is not at all surprising that it has the effect of blocking conception when taken daily in rather large doses: either a cup of tea or two capsules taken three times a day.

Does it have detrimental effects? Current studies are too small to show any, but there is a possibility that there could be. Interestingly enough, if wild yam is taken in small doses (a cup of tea or 10-20 drops of the tincture daily from onset of menses until mid-period) it increases fertility! In either case, the effect seems to be triggered by the large amount of hormone-like substances found in this root. When taken daily, these substances may be converted into progesterone, thus decreasing the possibility of conception. When taken for the two weeks preceding ovulation, these substances may be converted into LH and FSH, hormones that are needed to make the egg ready to be fertilized.

Other common weeds and garden plants of our area that have been used to increase or decrease fertility include stinging nettle, oatstraw, pennyroyal, Jack-in-the-pulpit, rue, and parsley.

The earth is full of wonders, and green magic abounds. As more and more women remember that they are wise women, more of the wonders and the magic will be revealed. May your days be filled with many green blessings.

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com

Chapter 2

The Modernity Project

The Rise of Scientific Technique

The term modern usually conjures up images of progress, development, and betterment. After all, we have been led to believe that to be “modern” implies that one is at the forefront of change. And so it is with many “modern societies”: that they are developing a way forward that is supposedly for the betterment of the citizens. Further, that this Modernity Project, which is a form of science, technology, and organization for postindustrial societies, is the inevitable result of positive progress. As philosopher Bertrand Russell suggests, science also means that techniques are now available for the better analysis, management, and control of the people. This form of scientific technique is in some ways the “inevitable” outcome of increasingly mechanized and rational societies. With improved methods for the organization and management of social practices, more highly concentrated forms of power and control are made possible. This is what is now meant by social forms of technique.

Technique is not necessarily about machines or technology, although it does include them. It is primarily about the ability and methods to increasingly organize and create efficient order. It is about strategies of power and the rationality of control. It could be said that technique is actually the means to enact processes of increased mechanization. This is especially so now, in the twenty-first century, when so much technology has become embedded into our social fabric. Rather than being convenient to us, our techno-mechanized system is turning “us” into the convenience. The last bastion of defense and protest is human consciousness: not only how we think but also how we create and manifest our own inner power and authority. It appears that this has now become the ultimate target for social technique: the containment and control of human consciousness.

The Modernity Project seeks to establish “scientific technique” as a means to absorb and integrate the human being into everything. In the end, a person is not external to anything: there is no “outside” as each individual is absorbed into the very fabric of the system. The danger here is that this momentum leads not toward unified diversity but toward a very real looming standardization. Such techniques as employed in society include the whole array of social conditioning processes–from institutions such as school, church, work, media–to tools such as propaganda and modern communications. It is an all-embracing and all inclusive social matrix. By using the term “social matrix” I am referring to the array of bodies (institutions, laws, policing, education, religion, etc.) that are woven together to form the workings of a control society. And in “control societies” there are both covert and overt strategies for the cultural conditioning of behavior and thought. Institutions and organizations within a social matrix act to concentrate specific forms of power through an array of social networks and hubs. As Russell noted in his investigations into scientific technique:

The completeness of the resulting control over opinion depends in various ways upon scientific technique. Where all children go to school, and all schools are controlled by the government, the authorities can close the minds of the young to everything contrary to official orthodoxy. . . . It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.

Social technique becomes an intermediary not only between a person and their environment but also between a person, their own knowledge base, and their inner self. Such techniques when applied through social institutions strengthen the primacy of matter and serve to bury the manifestation and potential of the human spirit. The human being is increasingly assimilated into a world devoid of magic, mystery, and wonder. These realms or spaces of enchantment become superstition and “primitive,” effectively blocking inherent channels of communication and connection. The human being becomes disqualified from a more expansive world of perception and is instead pulled down–or “distracted by design”–into a constricted, material, magic-less world of prohibitions and “hard-knocks.” There is increasingly less room available for the creativity and expression of the human spirit. The once individual responsibility of self-control has now been turned in to a state function: that of a top-down authoritative procedure of “control of self.” The end goal of this design is for sustained internal coherence of the society. This ensures control and continuity. Again, quoting Russell:

It is to be expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give governments much more control over individual mentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries. Fichte laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished.

Many of our modern global societies now exhibit a “technical consciousness” that operates through regulation, rationality, and calculated efficiency–the very opposite of the natural, the organic, and the spiritual. The necessary prior conditions included: a relatively quick period of technological development, rapid urban growth, an organized economical structure, a social atmosphere receptive to the rise of technical institutions, and a clear national/state intention for control.

The use of technique in today’s modern societies is not about advancing and developing each individual’s freedom. Rather, it is based on a calculus of efficiency that operates to sacrifice the autonomy of the individual for the automation of the collective. Within this system there is provided a limitation of choice. Or, in other words, a person is given the perception of choice within an environment of having no real choice. It is within this technical-social matrix that entertainment and other distraction industries serve their primary roles: they “entertain” us into contentment and containment. Or, as one critic noted, they “amuse us to death.”

TRANSFORMATIONAL ASTROLOGY

May 2012

Henry Seltzer

The Astrology of May features Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Neptune. Mercury conjuncted Uranus in the last week of April as it recovered from its recent retrograde, and also at the time of the April 21^st New Moon that set the stage for the current monthly cycle. Venus, moving through the sign of Gemini, ruled by Mercury, herself turns to retrograde motion on May 15th. This retrograde of Venus leads up to a special time, when she disappears from the sky for 8 days, preceding her heliacal rise in mid-June, as she becomes the Morning Star. The Mayans believed that this symbolic journey through the underworld was a time of uncertainty in the daytime lands of her normal habitation. This is also another extremely Neptunian cycle, as have been the last few months. The April 21^st New Moon closely aspected Neptune, bringing that numinous and otherworldly energy quite strongly into the picture, and Mars is also opposed to Neptune as the current month begins, which further emphasizes Neptune’s shape-shifting qualities.

The enlightening and unpredictable energy of Uranus is also highlighted in the current cycle by the above-mentioned conjunction of Mercury and also by an inconjunct aspect from Mars, just as Mars opposes numinous Neptune and Chiron, the Wounded Healer, at the very beginning of the month. Beware of accidents, and of unintended emotional mishaps. There is an implied wake-up call here, perhaps involving an increased sensitivity to the past and to the pain and injury provoked by early trauma as well as an idealistic determination to rise above such ancient wounding. Jupiter also aspects Uranus, from the beginning of the month until the Last Quarter Moon of the 12^th, increasing the potential for intuition and for optimistic assessments.

The Solar Eclipse of Sunday, May 20^th, represents a powerful time, taking place in the first degree of Gemini and thus sextile to the Aries point. Mercury rules the sign of Gemini and is found in Taurus, in conjunction with Jupiter and in aspect to Saturn and to newly retrograde Venus. Both thought and emotion are brought to the fore and in combination, granting you an unusual opportunity to come to a better set of ideas concerning your earthly situation. Since Venus is exactly trine Saturn, your love-life and relationship energy is inward and somewhat stifled, but intensified. In addition to the important relationships in your life, you are seeking to concretize as well your dreams and your artistic impulses

By the time of the Solar Eclipse the Uranus-Pluto square is less than 2 degrees away from exact – and therefore showing up even more markedly. The hour is growing late for our decade and for our century as we strive to turn things around. This applies to our personal lives just as much as to the cultural situation, and the one is a holographic impulse to the other, so that there are no small actions.  We are enjoined to think and feel our way through the difficulties of our current situation, imagining a better future for ourselves and then screwing up the courage to act from highest principles. Nothing else will suffice in this crucial time period as we bring to the planet and to ourselves the bounty of fresh understanding and renewed determination to make a difference, this time around.

ARIES (March 20-April 19). You are getting serious, Aries. This is an important time of spiritual awakening and resurgence, a continuation of what has been going on all year. This month, your values are the foundation that serves to ground you, with significant partners providing additional ballast. Your ideas and your intuition are sizzling. Since your mentality is so high-flying, engendering concepts that are not only fresh, but, more important, tailored to your own specialized arc of development and growth, it becomes increasingly important that they be grounded into some kind of concrete action. You are seeking to forge a unique amalgamation of Spirit and real-world concerns that will take you forward without in the process losing too much of what you truly desire for yourself, as you make your way forward with your highest intention.

TAURUS (April 20-May 19).  This is a time of great change, Taurus and yet as well a homecoming beyond conditioning to your original self.  A new day is dawning for you, in this your birthday time of the year, and it involves setting priorities at a more internal level while simultaneously re-evaluating your stake in the game and where you are headed. An idealistic streak has been building and the remaining question is how to handle it and to integrate it without losing track of actions within the purely physical plane of ordinary endeavor or the life of the body. You need to have both sides of the human experience; it is all real and yet all not. Only ego imagines otherwise. When you can manage to get out of your own way, the floodgates of your creativity open.

GEMINI (May 20-June 20). This is potentially a time of enormous shift for you, Gemini, and yet everything appears much the same on the surface. You are feeling into a mystical future for yourself, one emerging out of the experience of living in the physical world and yet transcending that day-to-day reality also, and taking this essentially spiritual approach as the only viable way forward. For the first part of this month your dreams might be the place where truth is revealed, and almost nowhere else in your life will this be true.  All is confusion on the outside but revelatory in your inner world. After the eclipse of May 20^th in your sign the plan changes and what is hidden and inner begins to come to the surface.

CANCER (June 21-July 20) You are softer than usual this month, Cancer, but hard enough to change your life as you reflect upon it. The energy of Mars is with you in your communication sector, as tempered by the otherworldly energy of Neptune, so that there could be a subtle sarcastic edge to your commentary now, or at least an impatience with incomplete solutions. You are very expansive and going all the way for the big picture, and you must recognize your power to make a difference for your own future and maybe even for the planet as a whole. Whatever you dream this first half-month will be eventually actualized. Don’t be distracted by details or by the confusion that you and everyone else might feel these days about getting there.

LEO (July 21-Aug. 21) After a fallow period, Leo, the time has arrived for thoughtful action. You are always charged up, but lately you have been taking a break from directly pushing your agenda as you reassessed your beliefs and values. Now, refreshed, you are surging forward as a powerful and idealistic presence in the universe at large, although you must beware also of illusion. You are mentally energized; your mind and heart are filled with images of the way in which you wish to transform the world around you, and yourself in the process. As you move forward, you must decide most carefully exactly what it is that you wish to embody. There are many potential paths, but only the path that aligns with your very highest intention will serve you now.

VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21) This is a fantastic time of opportunity and growth, Virgo, so long as you incorporate deliberation. You are springing forward with the season and with the developmental parabola of your life that responds to the cosmic energies that surround you. Partners supply a helpful and compassionate point of view that you might nevertheless want to verify before acting on, as described in the old Arabic maxim to trust in God but to anyway tie up your camel. You are seeking intimacy and communication and you will find it – although perhaps in unexpected places. The bottom line is that your fundamental action-orientation at this juncture must be tempered by philosophical contemplation and by renewed caution before everything that you are cooking up in your cauldron will be entirely ready for consumption.

LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) This is the time of your life, Libra, and of making key changes as well. Your transformation and growth is remarkable even though, with your ruler Venus retrograding through your sector of higher mind, it might be the case of two steps forward, one step back. This will nevertheless allow you to come closer to the ultimate goal. You are reviewing all your beliefs and values, looking for concrete evidence you can leverage for lasting transformation. A thoughtful and even spiritual point of view is essential to this enterprise and through many major twists and turns will take you where you need to go, which is toward a renewed sense of absolute security that stems not from the opinions of others but from the depths of your very own mind and heart.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) You are in a time of momentous idealization, Scorpio. With any luck you will avoid treacherous shoals of delusion and confusion as you make your way forward into wholeness. As you balance visionary ideas for the future with day-to-day refinements and concerns, you do well to give full credence to both sides of these mystical scales. Hidden limitations and old wounds conspire to throw you off course but you can discern the true north of the magnet’s pull that leads you onward. Partners in your life are important to you now, and provide at least as many answers as question marks, helping you to sort out significant priorities and parameters for your journey amongst all the myriad facets of the divine that are being presented to you for your consideration.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20) This is an important as well as a confusing time, Sagittarius. You are in motion, no doubt about that, and your life as well, and the question becomes wither and to what end. The potential conflict lies between moving ahead with what you truly believe versus business as usual, which seems safer, at least in the short haul. You are filled with a kind of fever for forward momentum and must beware of mindless milling about, especially since the core basis of your psychological security seems an empty page, like trying to walk on thin air. Partners help you by standing firm but the ultimate decision on where you are heading is uncomfortably your own. When you think about your path from the standpoint of its eventual end point the choice becomes clear.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) You are feeling your oats lately, Capricorn. This is your time to shine, or at least, hard worker that you are, to quietly glow with the real-world satisfaction of a job well done. Only, there are factors that seek to counter this more or less comfortable reality emphasis. An instability at the very core of your being is heating up and leading you toward a potentially productive but still disconcerting melt-down. Deceptive communication provides pitfalls even though it might turn out to be your own. You can and will shore up your attitude as the month wears on, but it helps if you can first come to terms with outrageous eccentricity and rampant uncertainty. If you can succeed even here, than nothing will have the power to stop you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17) This is a pivotal month for you, Aquarius, in a pivotal year. You have been experimental all your life and it has prepared you for this moment when the universe is asking from you even more. Your values are on shaky ground, morphing in a direction that is compatible with spiritual rather than mundane standards, which can be a strain unless you are fully committed to the paradox of living in at least two worlds simultaneously. Also, you are bringing yourself more fully to the table of family and of partnership, showing up with a whole heart as you face potential challenges that grow you. There are places within this arc of development that yield to the fuzzy logic of emotion more readily than to the purely mental variety mistakenly called common sense.

PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19) This is a big month, Pisces, an occasion for stretching yourself to transcend previous limitations in heart-felt curiosity concerning who and what you really are. Joni Mitchell’s 1960′s answer might be an appropriate one to latch onto as you navigate the potentially turbulent waters of this monthly cycle: stardust, golden, part of the original garden to which you are striving to return. In any case, communication is key. Only by reaching out to others, it seems, can you find your own place to stand. Partners provide contentious feedback but also partial solutions, causing you to make concrete choices, and allowing you – through depth explorations that take you within yourself to the hidden heart of the matter – to rise. It might be truly said that the way down and the way up are for you one and the same.

Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month’s star signs is available on his website. Holding degrees from MIT and the University of California-San Diego, Henry is a popular speaker and also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.

The following excerpt is taken from the book The Hunter / Farmer Diet Solution  by Mark Liponis, M.D.  It is published by Hay House (Available Apr. 1, 2012) and available at all bookstores or online at: www.hayhouse.com.

Chapter Three

The Hunter / Farmer Story

We’ve talked about the history of food, and the two types of people: Hunters and Farmers. But why are there two types of metabolisms that need two different diets? What accounts for these two types?

First, the idea of being a Hunter or a Farmer shouldn’t be taken literally; I’m not talking about whether you actually hunt things or grow things in a garden. The terms apply to a new paradigm—a new way of thinking about eating and controlling weight. The terms are useful because they also explain in part the eating strategy that’s best for you.

Hunters and Farmers are very different, and in some ways, opposite in their eating behaviors and food choices. As mentioned, Hunters are dependent on hunting animals or finding edible plants, fruits, and nuts. Farmers grow crops that can be stored to create a surplus that provides a dependable and readily available source of calories.

The Hunter’s diet is more sporadic and depends on where and when food resources become available. Hunters are naturally more resistant to the effects of food shortages, as they’re better able to maintain a steady blood-sugar level, or to use belly fat for immediate energy. Farmers are more sensitive to food shortages, as they become hypoglycemic—that is, they get low blood sugar—when they’ve gone just a few hours without food.

The most significant difference between Hunters and Farmers is that they have varying sensitivity to the hormone insulin. Hunters are insulin resistant, and Farmers are insulin sensitive.

Chapter Seven

Hunter / Farmer Diseases

Anyone can get any disease, and for any one individual, it’s impossible to precisely predict what a future disease might be. That said, knowing a person’s Hunter/Farmer type can help make predictions about the likelihood of certain diseases. It’s certainly helpful for me, as a doctor, because I know what to be concerned about, what to be looking for, and how to help prevent problems in the future.

Hunter Diseases

For example, we know that Hunters are more likely to suffer heart disease than Farmers—as well as other diseases of the circulatory system like stroke and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Cardiovascular diseases all share a common thread of

atherosclerosis, or hardening of the vessels. Atherosclerosis develops as a lifelong progressive accumulation of plaque in the arteries. The rate of accumulation is roughly proportional to the amount of blood flow over time, so direct arteries to the heart and brain along with the aorta and kidneys are especially affected, because they receive the most blood flow. Atherosclerosis shortens life by cutting off circulation to vital organs, and this can be catastrophic as in the case of heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm.

Atherosclerosis has been linked with all of the Hunter characteristics including belly fat, narrow hips, low HDL, elevated triglycerides, and high blood sugar and insulin in both men and women. In addition, atherosclerosis accelerates faster as Hunter traits are accentuated. If a Hunter’s belly grows, or triglycerides or blood-sugar levels increase, the pace of atherosclerosis hastens.

Developing high blood pressure can add fuel to the fire, with higher pressures putting more strain on the heart and blood vessels, increasing the plaque accumulation and contributing to a seemingly vicious cycle.

The only solution is for Hunters is to eat a diet that prevents belly fat from accumulating, blood sugar going up, triglycerides rising, and HDL dropping. That’s part of the reason why newer drugs like statins and blood-pressure medications have been so successful, because they’ve helped to slow the progress of atherosclerosis. Thus, medications can help, but they can’t help lose belly fat or improve fitness. Without the right diet and exercise, medications are only a stopgap measure.

Unfortunately, the perfect storm of stress, high blood pressure, bad eating, and lack of exercise is the environment where catastrophic things often happen.

Farmer Diseases

Farmers are less likely to get cardiovascular disease than Hunters. The predominant features of Farmers are usually protective factors against atherosclerosis—high levels of HDL and low levels of triglycerides, glucose, and CRP. The protection these afford is probably a few extra years of life, relative to today’s Hunters, because of less cardiovascular disease.

Current life expectancy in the United States averages 77.7 years, with women averaging 80.2 years, and men 75.1. Farmers may do a little better than average, but their issues are that they contract more of the diseases of aging, like arthritis, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. (It’s not that Farmers are necessarily more prone to those disorders, but because cancer is the second-biggest killer and Alzheimer’s sixth, they’re statistically getting relatively more non-cardiovascular diseases.)

The chance of a Farmer getting a Farmer disease, or a Hunter getting a Hunter disease, increases as Farmers or Hunters age, or as they gain weight. That happens when they’re eating the wrong diet: a Farmer eating like a Hunter or vice versa.

Just as the shape and physical characteristics of both Hunters and Farmers become accentuated when they gain weight, a slim Hunter and a slim Farmer are harder to tell apart. Even their blood results start looking more similar when they start losing weight. And their chances of getting Hunter or Farmer diseases go down, too. That’s the biggest reason for both Hunters and Farmers to maintain a healthy weight—to reduce their chances of getting sick!

To learn more about this book click here

The Art of Conscious Business Management

by Susan M. Obijiski, L.M.T., R.M.

Sedona is a place of spirituality and beauty. We welcome the changes it evokes in us. We live in the moment and work to achieve fulfillment. But this alone will not help us achieve business success.

No matter what type of business you own, you must manage it with conscious attention. Whether you are a holistic healer, a jeweler, clothier, an artist or a musician your business requires practical focus.

Prioritize

Set priorities. Make a list of the things you want to do. Be honest about the importance of each goal. Ask, “How will this add to my bottom line?”, “Will this attract customers?”

Spend Money Wisely

Small business owners have limited resources. Do your research. Find out where and how to best market and advertise and what products, services and equipment will best satisfy your clients.

Find a Partner

If you are not great at business, get smart. Get a partner to help organize and make the right decisions. If a partner can keep your business growing, it is a benefit you should consider. Perhaps you can barter services to pay your business consultant.

Understand Your Target Audience

Do you really know your customers? You will never capture 100% of the market. Figure out who will buy your products and services and market and sell to those people.

Run your business with conscious focus. Pay attention and stay focused. Think about what you are doing, every day, for every business choice – no matter how small!

Book Excerpt - Science and Psychic Phenomena – by Chris Carter

Chapter Nine

The Roots of Disbelief

Say this about assertions that aliens have been, are or will soon be landing on Earth: at least a scenario like that of “Independence Day” would not violate any laws of nature. In contrast, claims in other fringe realms, such as telepathy and psychokinesis, are credible only if you ignore a couple or three centuries of established science.

–Sharon Begely, “Science on the Fringe,” Newsweek, July 1996

Remarks such as the one from Sharon Begely’s article are common in the skeptical literature. Such remarks are based on the assumption that the existence of psi phenomena is somehow incompatible with fundamental, well-established scientific principles. So, no matter what evidence the parapsychologists produce, the skeptics stoically maintain their denial and doggedly search for any possible counterexplanation. As we have seen, Ray Hyman has simply run out of plausible counterexplanations, yet he refuses to accept the latest results from a long line of experiments as conclusive. He seemed to consider himself the spokesperson for mainstream scientists when he wrote recently in the Skeptical Inquirer: “What seems clear is that the scientific community is not going to abandon its fundamental ideas about causality, time and other principles on the basis of a handful of experiments whose findings have yet to be shown to be replicable and lawful.” (At the time Hyman wrote this article [1996] the “handful of experiments” included 61 independent Ganzfeld experiments, 2,094 PK experiments using random event generators, and hundreds of other experiments involving tossing dice, dream research, and remote viewing.) Although surveys consistently show that most people either accept the reality of ESP or have had psychic experiences themselves, remarks such as this in the skeptical literature can give one the impression that all such phenomena are “scientifically impossible.”

But many mainstream scientists do not hold this opinion. Two surveys of more than 500 scientists in one case and more than 1,000 in another were made in the 1970s. Both surveys found that the majority of respondents considered ESP “an established fact” or “a likely possibility”: 56 percent in one and 67 percent in the other. Yet if most scientists are open to the possibility of psi, how can we account for the following story?

Robert Jahn was dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University and a noted authority on aerospace engineering with a long record of work for NASA and the Department of Defense when he decided that certain parapsychological problems were worth investigating. Did his colleagues applaud his pioneering spirit? Not exactly. They as much as said he was crazy and a disgrace to science and the university. The university even convened an ad hoc committee to oversee his research–something unheard of for a scientist of his stature.

And yet not all scientists reacted this way, as Jahn pointed out in a 1983 address to the Parapsychology Association. Referring to his Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program, he said, “We have had commentary on our program from no less than six Nobel laureates, two of whom categorically reject the topic, two of whom encouraged us to push on, and two of whom were categorically evasive. So much for unanimity of high scientific opinion.”

However, despite the willingness of many scientists to express favorable opinions toward psi research, parapsychology courses are not routinely taught at universities; there are only two labs conducting full-time psi research in the United States, and only a handful of such labs in the entire world. One explanation for this (and for Robert Jahn’s experience) is that skeptical opinions of psi seem more common among the administrative elite than among ordinary working scientists. Sociologist Dr. James McClenon surveyed the council and selected section committees of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1981. He found that these scientists were more skeptical of ESP than scientists in general, with just under 30 percent believing that ESP was “an established fact” or “a likely possibility.” Surveyed members in the social sciences (where parapsychology courses would normally be categorized) were even more skeptical (20 percent believers) than those in the natural sciences (30 percent believers). Worried about the reputation of their schools and labs, administrators seem far more reluctant to express favorable opinions of psi research than ordinary working scientists.

The skepticism of those who run the scientific establishment is surely one reason why, throughout its history, the resources devoted to psi research have been extremely meager. Psychologist Sybo Schouten compared the funding directed toward parapsychology over the one hundred years spanning 1882 to 1982 and found that it was approximately equal to the expenditures of two months of conventional psychological research in the United States in 1983. The other reason funding is difficult to come by is that many private and public funding agencies have no wish to be associated with what the skeptics call “pseudoscience.” Is it any wonder they feel this way? Not when scientific journals continue to publish hostile attacks on the scientific validity of parapsychology. For instance, the prominent journal Nature published the following in a commentary by skeptical psychologist David Marks:

Parascience has all the qualities of a magical system while wearing the mantle of science. Until any significant discoveries are made, science can justifiably ignore it, but it is important to say why: parascience is a pseudo-scientific system of untested beliefs steeped in illusion, error, and fraud.

Clearly then, many scientists find the claims of parapsychology disturbing. The existence of psi implies that the minds of people can sometimes communicate, perceive events, and influence objects without the use of the five ordinary senses or their limbs. Science in its present state cannot explain these phenomena. This in itself should not be a problem: there are plenty of other phenomena that science cannot currently explain, such as consciousness, the placebo effect, and the fact that the expansion of the universe appears to be accelerating. But is the existence of psi in conflict with well-established scientific principles?

www.innertraditions.com

Be Your Own Herbal Expert- Part 4

 by Susun S Weed

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used – and our neighbors around the world still use – plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too.

In your first lessons, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes, how to make effective water-based herbal remedies, and how to distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs.

In this lesson, you will learn how to how make herbal tinctures. You will make tinctures from fresh and dried roots as well as from fresh flowers and leaves.

Then you will collect your tinctures into an Herbal Medicine Chest and begin to use them. Shall we begin?

Tinctures Act Fast

Tinctures are alcohol-based plant medicines. Alcohol extracts and concentrates many properties from plants, including their poisons. Alcohol does not extract significant amounts of nutrients, so tinctures are used when we want to stimulate, sedate, or make use of a poison. (Remember that nourishing herbs are best used in water bases such as infusions and vinegars.)

The concentrated nature of tinctures allows them to act quickly. It also makes them perfect for a first-aid kit or herbal medicine chest: a little goes a long way.

I have dozens of tinctures in my cabinet. But these are the ones I carry with me when I travel; they are the ones I don’t leave home without. This is my traveling herbal medicine chest.

Echinacea tincture                 Motherwort tincture                     Skullcap tincture

Ginseng tincture                     Dandelion root tincture                Wormwood tincture

St Joan’s Wort tincture           Poke root tincture (danger)        Yarrow tincture

Making Dried Root Tinctures

I strongly prefer to make tinctures from fresh plants. But many people have a hard time getting fresh plants. Most books therefore ignore fresh plant tinctures and focus on making tinctures only from dried plants. The only dried plant parts I use to make tinctures are roots and seeds. All other plant parts I use fresh when making a tincture. And I actually prefer to use fresh roots too.

To make a tincture from dried roots:

- Buy an ounce of dried Echinacea augustifolia or Panax ginseng root.

- Put the whole ounce in a pint jar.

- The dried root should fill the jar about a third full. If not, use a smaller jar.

- Fill the jar to the top with the alcohol. Cap tightly and label.

Almost any alcohol can be used to make a tincture. My preference is 100 proof vodka. A lower proof, such as 80 proof, does not work nearly as well. Higher proofs, such as 198 proof or Everclear, can damage the liver and kidneys, so I don’t use them to make medicine.

The tincture is ready in six weeks, but gets stronger the longer it sits. I like to wait about six months before using my ginseng tincture and a year before using my echinacea tincture.

Making Fresh Root Tinctures

Roots generally hold their properties even when dried. But two of my favorite root tinctures must be made from fresh roots are the dried ones have lost much of their effect.

Making a tincture with a fresh root is similar to making one with a dried root.

- With great respect for the plant, dig up its root.

- Gently rinse mud away. (For more about digging dandelion root, see Healing Wise.)

- Chop root into small pieces and fill a jar to the top with the chopped root.

- Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

- Fresh root tinctures are ready to use in six weeks.

Making Fresh Leaf and Flower Tinctures

I use only fresh flowers and leaves in my tinctures. These delicate plant parts lose aroma and medicinal qualities when dried.

Tinctures can be made from dried herbs, but I find them inferior in both effect (how well they work) and energetics (how many fairies are in it), not to mention taste (how many volatile substances remain) and somatics (how something makes you “feel”).

What if the plants you need to make all the tinctures in your medicine chest don’t grow where you live or you can’t find them? Try one or more of these solutions.

- Take a vacation to a place where the plant you need does grow. And make sure to go at the best time to gather it.

- Find an herbal pen-pal who lives in the area where the plant you want to tincture grows. Have your pen-pal make a tincture of the fresh plant for you. You could make a tincture of something you have lots of to give to her too.

Even if the plants do grow where you live, it may take a year or longer for you to find them, harvest them and make tinctures. While you are “in limbo,” it’s fine to buy tinctures to use in your herbal medicine chest.

When you finally find the plants you want, don’t be afraid to make several quarts of tincture. Tinctures last for hundreds of years if protected from heat and light.

St. Joan’s wort tincture: Eases muscles spasms, anti-viral, pain-relieving.

- Pick yellow Hypericum perforatum flowers in the summer’s heat.

- Fill – don’t stuff – a jar with the blossoms and leaves.

- Your fresh St. Joan’s wort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Motherwort tincture: Eases menstrual cramps, mood swings, stress.

- Pick Leonurus cardiaca flowering tops (leaves and flowers) in early fall or late summer.

- Fill – don’t stuff – a jar with coarsely chopped blossoms and leaves.

- Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

- Your fresh motherwort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Skullcap tincture: Pain-relief, headache remedy.

- Pick Scutellaria lateriflora flowering tops when there are seeds as well as flowers.

- Fill – don’t stuff – a jar with the blossoms and leaves.

- Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

- Your fresh skullcap tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Wormwood tincture: Counters food poisoning and parasites.

- Pick Artemisia absinthemum leaves in the late summer or early fall, when mature.

- Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

- Your fresh wormwood tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Yarrow tincture: Counters all bacteria internally and externally, repels insects.

- Pick Achillea millefolium flowering tops, white ones only, when in bloom.

- Fill – don’t stuff – a jar, with the coarsely chopped herb.

- Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

- Your fresh yarrow tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Double and Triple Tinctures

An herbalist in Austin Texas shared her special way of preparing a tincture that helps her keep her cool in stressful situations. She tinctures fresh lemon balm, gathered before it flowers, for six weeks, in 100 proof vodka. She pours that tincture over a new jar of fresh lemon balm leaves. After that sits for six more weeks, it’s a double tincture. She then pours the double tincture over another new jarful of fresh lemon balm and lets that sit for six weeks. After which she has a triple tincture. She uses: “A dropperful sublingually – works absolute wonders for me when I’m stressed out and ready to scream.”

Plant Poisons

You remember that there are four types of poisons in plants: alkaloids, glycosides, essential oils, and resins. The first three are fairly easy to move from plants to a tincture.

Resins, because they “fear” water (hydrophobic) are difficult to tincture. When I want to tincture a resin I do use high proof alcohol. Some examples would be: pine resin tincture, balsam bud tincture, calendula flower tincture.

Taking Tinctures

I see many people put herbal tinctures under their tongues. I prefer to protect my oral tissues from the harsh, possibly cancer-causing, effects of the alcohol.

I dilute my tinctures in a little water or juice or even herbal infusion and drink them.

Using Your Tinctures

Here are a few of the ways I use the tinctures in my herbal medicine chest. For more information on using these tincture, see my books and my website.

Acid indigestion:  5-10 drops of Dandelion root or Wormwood tincture every ten minutes until relieved. I use a dose of Dandelion before meals to prevent heartburn.

Bacterial infections (including boils, carbuncles, insect bites, snake bite, spider bite, staph): 30‑50 drops Echinacea or Yarrow tincture up to 5 times daily. For severe infections, add one drop of Poke tincture to each dose.

Colds: to prevent them I use Yarrow tincture 5-10 drops daily; to treat them, I rely on Yarrow, but in larger quantity, say a dropperful every 3-4 hours at the worst of the cold and tapering off.

Cramps during menstruation: 10 drops Motherwort every 20 minutes or as needed. Used also as a tonic, 10 drops daily, for the week before.

Cramps in muscle: 25 drops St Joan’s every 25‑30 minutes for as long as needed.

Cramps in gut: 5‑10 drops Wormwood, once.

Diarrhea: 3 drops Wormwood hourly for up to four hours.

Energy, lack of: 10 drops of Dandelion or Ginseng tincture in the morning.

Fever: 1 drop Echinacea for every 2 pounds of body weight; taken every two hours to begin, decreasing as symptoms remiss. Or a dropperful of Yarrow tincture every four hours.

Headache: 25 drops St Joan’s plus 3-5 drops Skullcap every 10‑15 minutes for up to two hours. 5 drops of Skullcap may prevent some headaches.

High blood pressure: 25 drops of Motherwort or Ginseng tincture 2-4 times a day.

Hot Flashes: 20‑30 drops Motherwort as flash begins and/or 10‑20 drops once or twice daily.

Insect: prevent bites from black flies, mosquitoes, and ticks with a spray of Yarrow tincture; treat bites you do get with Yarrow tincture to prevent infection.

Nervousness, hysteria, hyper behavior: 15 drops Motherwort every 15‑20 minutes.

Premenstrual distress: 10 drops Motherwort twice a day for 7‑10 days preceding menstruation or 10 drops daily all month.

Sore throat: Gargle with Yarrow tincture.

Swollen glands: 1 drop Poke root tincture each 12 hours for 2-5 days.

Viral infections (including colds and the flu): 25 drops of St. Joan’s wort tincture every two hours. Add one drop of poke root tincture 2-4 times a day for severe cases.

Wounds: I wash with Yarrow tincture, then wet the dressing with Yarrow tincture, too.

In the next installment of Be Your Own Herbal Expert, you will learn about herbal oils, including infused and essential oils. Future lessons will explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, applications of the three traditions of healing, and using the six steps of healing to take charge of your own health and make sense of medicine.

Experiment Number One

Choose one plant and make several small tinctures of it using different types of alcohol. Taste and smell each tincture every week or so for 6-8 weeks.

Experiment Number Two

Buy or make different tinctures of the same plant: dried herb, fresh herb, timed with the moon, in different menstrums, made by different people, harvested in different places. Can you taste differences? Are the effects different? What else do you notice?

Experiment Number Three

Make a double or triple tincture of motherwort, skullcap, or lemon balm. See if it relieves anxiety, hyperactivity, emotional distress, headaches. I use a dose of 5-30 drops. Remember skullcap can induce sleepiness. 

Experiment Number Four

Tincture four plants that are common to your area. Learn at least three things they can each be used for and if at all possible, use them.       

Further study

1. What is osmosis? Why does 100 proof vodka make stronger tinctures than 80 proof?
2. What is a menstrum? What other menstrums are used to make tinctures?
3. Of the four plant poisons, which are present in each of plants used in the medicine chest?
4. Why don’t I consider vinegars tinctures?
5. How is a glyceride different from a tincture?

Advanced work

- Make a tincture from a resinous plant.

- Make a glyceride.

- How is a standardized tincture made?

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