vitality

"The true opposite of depression is not gaiety or absence of pain, but vitality: the freedom to experience spontaneous feelings. It is part of the kaleidoscope of life that these feelings are not only cheerful, "beautiful," and "good;" they also can display the whole scale of human experience, including envy, jealousy, rage, disgust, greed, despair, and mourning."

~ Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child

I sometimes forget that

I was created for joy

My mind is too busy

My heart is too heavy

Heavy for me to remember

that I have been

called to dance

the sacred dance for life

I was created to smile

to love

to be lifted up

and lift others up

O sacred one

Untangle my feet

from all that ensnares

Free my soul

That we might

Dance

and that our dancing

might be contagious.

Hafiz

Notes on Ghost Pipe

From ANA

In lieu of Halloween, Samhain there’s an otherworldly plant called Ghost Pipe.

Ghost Pipe is a unique plant in that it’s one of the few plants that lacks chlorophyll.

It survives in a symbiotic relationship by tapping into the mycorrhizal network of the forest.

(A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a green plant and a fungus.)

Ghost Pipe has often been associated with states of the underworld. As a guardian of the threshold, it seems to rise like a ghost from the forest floor, pale in color because of its lack of chlorophyll

With its sedative and antispasmodic properties, Ghost Pipe is inclined towards managing neuronal disorders like psychosis, acute anxiety, nervousness, irritability, restlessness, and convulsion episodes.

It has been said that Ghose Pipe can “put the pain beside you” where it can be examined and ultimately transcended.

As a flower essence, Ghose Pipe can help people put their fear beside themselves and honestly examine what attachments they have

What ghosts are haunting you? What underworld journey have you been on? And how can you begin to ascend?

Ghost Pipe can be thought of as a remedy to help reclaim your inner terrain by extracting the ‘ghosts that haunt our minds’ and finally open us up to the transformations that come through the dark night of the Soul

Note: This plant has become over harvested in recent years. For this reason, I only recommend using Ghost Pipe as an energetic essence- aka flower remedy. My favorite place to get this remedy is at One Willow Apothecaries (.com) She makes a beautiful blend of Ghost Pipe + Carnelian which she describes as being like ‘the torch to help you find your way out of the cave’