"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’