Natural Healing Corner (2) Everyday Rituals

So, here we are, back to Friday and the Natural Healing Corner. Today, I invite you to focus on your everyday rituals. What do you do every day without fail? What makes your day a go, right from the start?

I like to share and be with my family. More specifically, I enjoy waking up and sharing a drink with my son and husband. It doesn’t matter what type it is, green tea, hot cocoa, chamomile, rooibos or even coffee, it’s the shared activity of drinking that is the ritual. As we sip our drink, we mentally and spiritually prepare for the day ahead.

Recently, my husband’s friend, shared a gorgeous bag of dried hibiscus flowers with us and advised us to make tea. Though it originated in the Motherland, in Angola, it is popular in his native Mexico, and this friend feels that hibiscus is an elixir for a good, strong life. Our shared drink, at least between my husband and me, over the past week has been hibiscus tea. Blood red, hibiscus has strong red, healing medicine in the form of bioflavonoids, it is cleansing and strengthening to the system.

I gave some to another family member, who suffers from high blood pressure, a common ailment in the African American community. Hibiscus has been scientifically tested and has come out as effective, if not more effective than a certain blood pressure medicine used for bringing down high blood pressure. Supportive of optimal cardiovascular health, hibiscus is also used for healthy cholesterol maintenance.

It is slightly acidic. It is called Sour Tea in Iran. I had previously filled my life with sweets and now that I am on the road to being trimmer, I enjoy the addition of tarter tastes in my daily diet. My husband’s friend advised us to ice it. What I do is, cup together my hands, blow my intentions into the tea with a deep breath, and add this handful of the dried flowers to a half stock pot of water. Simmering these flowers for ten minutes. Strain them immediately. Let the tea cool and then put in a pitcher with ice.

Some, in my family enjoy it better with a natural sweetener like honey, added. If you suffer from high blood pressure or the wrong type of high cholesterol, and it is okay with your healthcare practitioner, give hibiscus a try. In any case, hibiscus will wake up your weary spirit and is an effective, healing brew to add to your daily ritual of healing.

I will be featuring hibiscus in an African American herbal healing (all day) workshop at New York Open Center on July 19, 2014. More on that soon, here and on their website.

If you want to know more about red healing medicines, there is an entire chapter devoted to them, built around wisdom found in Yoruba medicine, in: The Big Book of Soul: the Ultimate Guide to the African American Spirit

Gran Bwa

Gran Bwa is a lwa that helps you connect to ancestral roots or the spiritual home of Vodou. A friend of mine, who is an expert on Haitian Vodou, who has spent a lot of time in Haiti with the artists there, told me I had painted Gran Bwa when I made this spontaneous work out of walnut ink and sumi-ink on handmade paper. I had considered this painting a self-portrait. She now holds this piece in her private collection: Quite a few people are afraid of Vodou but it is an awe-inspiring tradition of bringing together plant energy with divinity, spiritual and personal energy. My friend who is very involved with Vodou, especially the art that surrounds it, is from European ancestry. She is light in spirit and bubbly, with a close relationship to nature and her garden. Vodou affirms the relationships between cycles of life, trees of knowledge and spirit. The Vodou vision of lwa , understands them as the intelligence of energy present in humans, nature and thoughts. Mysteries ca

Xochitl--Flower

(Winter Poinsettia by Stephanie Rose Bird, oil on wood) One of my Facebook friends does daily posts and shares called "I love Flowers." I love flowers too, in real life, in my garden, in paintings and as they are related to the gods and goddesses, in healing, as well as their use in folklore like Hoodoo. Not long ago I posted about Xochipelli (Sho-CHEE-pee-lee) prince of flowers and Xochiquetzal (Sho-CHEE-ket-zul) goddess of flowers in anticipation of April's blooming season. The Goddess and Prince of Flowers post is here. Today, I want to focus in on the root word of their names and it's symbolism. This word is Xochitl (Show-CHEE-tul) in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. This word means flower. ( Frida Kahlo "Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser) In many different belief systems there are nature gods and goddesses connected with flowers. Flowers possess symbolism,

Follow Fest Interview and Sharing

When I first became a blogger it was difficult to know if I had readers and visitors coming to my blog. I’d post and be met by the sounds of crickets. Then, I branched out into the world of the blogosphere, a world I didn't know really existed. From my ventures, I met a lot of interesting bloggers. I've started following and commenting on numerous blogs, for you see, prior to my outings, I too was out among the crickets. Lurking about but seldom saying anything. A fellow blogger I've met through my journeys around the blogosphere is Melissa Maygrove . She had the brilliant idea to have a Follow Fest , where we share about who we are, what we do and most importantly, how you can connect with us further. It is my intention through joining Follow Fest, that I’ll connect with many more readers and people interested enough in what I do to want to learn more by following. So, here goes my entry for the fest. Name: Stephanie Rose Bird Fiction or

Stephanie's Studio

Search This Blog