Hyssop

Latin name - Hyssopus officinalis aka - Gratiola officinalis, Issopo, Yssop, Yssopo Family - Labiatae

Parts used - flowers, young leaves

Purported actions - antiseptic, anti-spasmodic, carminative, cathartic, diaphoretic, diuretic, emetic, sedative

Methods of use - aromatic, comsetic, culinary, medicinal

Constituents - volatile oil, flavonoid, blycosies, ketones, diosmin, tannin

Origins - Hyssop is a native of southern Europe. It can be found in Asia and around the Mediterranean. The Romans are thought to have introduced it into the UK.

Description - Hyssop is an evergreen, shrubby, perenial. It grows to about 2ft (60cm) high, with long, thin, sharp-pointed leaves. It has long narrow spikes which flower from June to October and there are several varieties with blue, purple, pink or white flowers. It has a woody stem.

Attributed medicinal qualities - Hyssop is well known for its use in the treatment of colds and congestion. In America it is also used externally for the relief of muscular rheumatism, and for bruises and discoloured contusions, in addtion the green herb when bruised and applied is said to heal cuts promptly. It has also been used to treat Karposi's sarcoma found in more advanced stages of HIV infection and is purported to strengthen the immune system.

History - The name hyssop can be traced back almost unchanged through the Greek hyssopos and Hebrew esob meaning 'holy herb.' It is uncertain that Hyssopus officinalis is the same 'hyssop' referred to in the scriptures Scriptures (1 Kings 4.33; Ps. 51.7; John 19.29), however it was once regarded as a symbol of purification and as such was used in the ritual cleansing of churches, it was often planted in monastery gardens and was used in religious painting to symbolize humility.

Because of its bushy nature it was often used as a hedge in herb gardens and even in mazes. In the seventeenth century, it was used as a strewing herb in sick rooms, to deter the spread of infection and to cleanse lepers, as noted in the scriptures.

For centuries it was used as a medicinal herb against coughs and catarrh. And it was part of an old English country remedy for cuts and wounds suffered working in the fields where a poultice of bruised hyssop leaves and sugar was used in order to reduce the risk of tetanus infection. Where Hyssop was at one time official in some pharmacopoeias of Europe it is now grown mostly as an ornamental shrub.

Cultivation - Hyssop is relatively easy to grow and well worth while as it is a pretty addition to any garden with a strong aroma. It prefers a sunny spot in well drained soil, but can tolerate some shade. It can be grown from seed or cuttings. Plant seeds in the spring or take cuttings during the summer. It flowers from mid to late summer.

Harvesting, preparation and storage - You can pick the young leaves at any time of year, and they can be preserved by drying. For medicinal purposes they should be harvested on a dry day at the peak of their maturity and the concentration of active ingredients is highest. They should be dried quickly, away from bright sunlight in order to preserve their aromatic ingredients and prevent oxidation of other chemicals.

Hyssop leaves should dry out in about six days, any longer and they will begin to discolour and lose their flavour.

The dried leaves can be stored in clean, dry, airtight containers, and will keep for 12-18 months.

The flowering tops of Hyssop should be collected in August. They can be used fresh or dried in the sun.

Culinary Uses - Hyssop has a slightly bitter minty flavour. The leaves can be sprinkled sparingly over salads or added to apple stews, pies or flans. A few leaves can be used in savoury dishes such as rich stews and in marinades. The flowers can be used as an attractive garnish and in salads.

Do not use both the leaves and flowers to flavour the same dish as the stronger flavour of the leaves dominates that of the delicate flowers, which can be added just as decoration.

Recipe - Carrot and Hyssop salad

Magical Uses - Hyssop is a purifying herb. It can be used to sweep sacred spaces and added to water, infused and sprinkled sparingly over objects to cleanse them. Scattering the plant or hanging it in the house at windows or doors it can cleanse and protect from harmful energies.

Charm for cleansing

Other Uses -

• It attracts bees and butterflies.
  
• It is used in the manufacture of the liquers Absinthe, Chartreuse and Benedictine.
  
• It is a nice addition to potpourri.
  
• It is said to repel flea beetles and lure away cabbage moths.
  
• It can be used in soothing herbal baths.
  
• The essential oil has been used in perfumes, colognes, soaps, creams and other cosmetics.
  

Quotes
Culpeper: "It strengthens all the parts of the body under Cancer and Jupiter; which what they may be, is found amply described in my astrological judgment of diseases."

Dioscorides: " Hyssop boiled with rue and honey, and drank, helps those that are troubled with coughs, shortness of breath, wheezing and rheumatic distillation upon the lungs."

Gerard: - "Hyssope made with figges, water, honey and rue and drunken, helpeth the old cough."

From: http://www.complete-herbal.com/

From My Daily Buddha Meditation Email

All understanding begins with our not accepting the world as it appears. - Alan C. Kay

Tarot - The Magician

Basic Card Symbols

Red & White coloring, the lemniscate (infinity symbol), a small wand, a table displaying a chalice, a pentacle, a staff (wand) and a sword.

Basic Tarot Story

Traveling on his way, the Fool first encounters a Magician. Skillful, self-confident, a powerful magus with the infinite as a halo floating above his head, the Magician mesmerizes the Fool. When asked, the Fool gives over his bundled pack and stick to the Magician. Raising his wand to heaven, pointing his finger to Earth, the Magician calls on all powers; magically, the cloth of the pack unfolds upon the table, revealing its contents. And to the Fool's eyes it is as if the Magician has created the future with a word. There are all the possibilities laid out, all the directions he can take. The cool, airy Sword of intellect and communication, the fiery Wand of spirituality and ambition, the overflowing Chalice of Love and emotions, the solid Pentacle of work, possessions and body. With these tools, the Fool can create anything, make anything of his life. But here's the question, did the Magician create the tools, or were they already in the pack? Only the Magician knows - and on this mystery, our eloquent mage refuses to say a word.

Basic Tarot Meaning

At #1, the Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud ("And God said 'Let there be Light!' and there was Light"). Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand (Mercury *was* the god of thieves!) and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil. The 4 suits laid out before him remind us of the 4 aces, which in the Tarot symbolize the raw, undeveloped, undirected power of each suit. When the Magician appears, he reveals these to you. The reader might well interpet this card as telling the querent that they will be given a vision, an idea, a magical, mental image of whatever it is they most want: the solution to a problem, an ambitious career, a love life, a job.

Thirteen's Observations

If any card in the Tarot is the Tarot, it is the Magician. He's one of the most recognizable cards, always a favorite. He's also the only card in the Majors that refers to the minors with the "trumps" displayed upon his table. If the reader believes the Magician stands for the Querent, then the Querent either is, or is currently finding himself eleoquent and charismatic at this time. Both verbally and in writing, he is clever, witty, inventive and persuasive. People listen and agree with him. He also has an interest in science. He might be, in fact, a doctor or scientist or inventor.
Standing for someone other than the querent, the Magician could be a skillful doctor, scientist, inventor lecturer, salesman, or con-man. It's important to remember that the Magician can as easily be clever as skilful, a trickster as well as a magician. This is someone with a magnetic personality, someone who can convince people of almost anything. For better or worse, his words are magic.

Most importantly, the Magician card stands for the "reveal" - as in a magic trick. The handkerchief is draped over an empty box, the Magician waves his wand, *presto!*--now there is a dove in the box. The Magician card does the same for the Querent--only what it reveals is not birds or rabbits but NEW ideas. Emphasis on NEW. When the Magician card appears, the Querent is likely to say: "Now there's an idea! Why didn't I think of that before?" Truth is, the Querent had that idea in his head all along. The Magician merely revealed it to him. But what will the Querent do with this idea? That's a question for the next card....

From: http://www.aeclectic.net/

Fortuna

Fortuna is the Roman Goddess of Luck, Fate, and Fortune, as Her name implies. She was a very popular Goddess, and was worshipped under many epithets depending on the type of luck one wished to invoke or the circumstances in play. She had many temples in Rome itself, as well as having important cult-centers in Antium (the modern Anzio), a city on the west coast of Italy about 30 miles south of Rome, and Praeneste (modern Palestrina), about 20 miles south-east of Rome, both of which were cities of Latium, the land of the Latini tribes. Her many temples in Rome, and the various aspects of Her worship are a reflection of the manners in which She was honored: from personal Goddess, overseeing the fate of the individual mother, young man, or soldier, to a Goddess of the State, ensuring the fortune of the populace, the luck of the Emperor, or the glorious fate of the entire Roman Empire.

Fortuna was usually depicted holding in one hand a cornucopia, or a horn of plenty, from which all good things flowed in abundance, representing Her ability to bestow prosperity; in the other She generally has a ship's rudder, to indicate that She is the one who controls how lives and fates are steered. She could also be shown enthroned, with the same attributes of rudder and cornucopia, but with a small wheel built into the chair, representing the cycles of fate and the ups and downs of fortune.

Sometimes She is blind, as an acknowledgment that good luck does not always come to those who seem to most deserve it; at other times She is described as having wings, much like many Etruscan Goddesses—and indeed She was equated with the old Etruscan Fate Goddess Nortia, who was often shown winged.

The name Fortuna finds its root in the Latin fero, meaning "to bring, win, receive, or get". She may have originally been a Goddess of Fertility, Who brought prosperity and success in the form of abundant harvests and offspring. Her worship in Rome traditionally goes back to the time of Ancus Martius, the 4th King of Rome, who is said to have reigned from 640-616 BCE. According to the propaganda of the time (and the Romans invented an awful lot of it to make it seem that their city had always been destined for greatness, and wasn't just some upstart town founded by a bunch of sheep herders on some hills surrounded by malaria-infested swampland, which it was), when Fortuna first came to Rome, She immediately threw off Her shoes and discarded Her wings, announcing that She'd found Her true home and intended to never leave it.

Alternatively, Fortuna's name may derive from that of the Etruscan Goddess Veltha or Voltumna, whose name encompasses ideas of turning and the alternating seasons. Voltumna in turn may be related to the Roman Goddess Volumna, Who watched over and protected children; and both of these themes are found with Fortuna, who was often depicted with a wheel, and who was said to predict the fates of children at their births. As a Goddess of Fate Fortuna naturally had the power to foretell the future; and under Her aspect of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste She had an oracle, in which tablets inscribed with messages were chosen from a jar. She also had an oracular shrine at Her cult-center in Antium.

Fortuna had a very old temple in Rome on a hill between the Forum Romanum (the Roman Forum) and the Forum Boarium (supposedly the old cattle-market), near to the temple of Mater Matuta. Both temples had the same dedication day, the 10th of June, and each had a horseshoe-shaped altar before it of the earliest type. Fortuna's temple had a very old statue of gilded wood inside, also of an archaic type; and the altar and statue indicate that Her worship dates at least to the earliest days of Rome, if She is not an earlier Goddess of the Latins.

The Emperor Trajan (97-117 CE) dedicated a temple to Fortuna, at which offerings were made to the Goddess on the 1st day of January, at the start of the New Year, probably to ensure good luck and success for the coming year. This temple was dedicated to Fortuna in all of Her aspects.

With Greek influence, Fortuna was equated to Tykhe, their Goddess of Luck and Fortune. Under the title Dame Fortune, Fortuna never lost Her power as an allegorical figure—She makes an appearance on card 10 of the Tarot Major Arcana, the Wheel of Fortune, and She is still to some extent honored today, for She features in gamblers' prayers to "Lady Luck".
She is associated with the Goddess Felicitas, the personification of happiness, and Spes, the Goddess of Hope.

From http://www.thaliatook.com

If Only

May 2, 2008

Locating The Underlying Cause

Often, when we’re unhappy, we fall into the habit of thinking that, if only one or two particular things in our life would change, everything would be fine. We might focus on the fact that we need a new car, or a raise, or a change in our living situation. We dwell on this one thing and strategize, or complain, or daydream about what it would be like to have it. Meanwhile, underneath the surface, the real reason for our unhappiness sits unrecognized and unaddressed. And yet, if we are able to locate and explore the underlying cause of our discontent, all the surface concerns have a way of working themselves out in the light of our realization.

Maybe we really do just need a new car, and maybe moving to another city would improve our life situation. However, it can only help to take some time to explore what’s going on at a deeper level. Sometimes, when we take a moment and stop focusing on external concerns, we get to the heart of the matter. We might realize that all our lives we’ve been dissatisfied, grasping at one thing after another, only to be dissatisfied about something else once we get what we want. Or perhaps we’ll notice a pattern of running away from a place, or a relationship, when things get too hard. We might then wonder why this keeps happening, and how we might work through the difficulty rather than just escaping it. The point is, slowing down and turning our attention within can save us a lot of energy in the long run, because it is very often the case that there is no external change that will make us happy. Once you’ve taken the time to inquire within, you can begin to make changes that address the deeper issue. This can be hard at first, especially if you’ve grown used to grasping for outside sources in order to quell your discontent, but in the end, you will be solving the problem at a deeper level, and it will be much less likely to recur.

From: http://www.dailyom.com/

Lakshmi

Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and prosperity, both material and spiritual. The word ''Lakshmi'' is derived from the Sanskrit word Laksme, meaning "goal." Lakshmi, therefore, represents the goal of life, which includes worldly as well as spiritual prosperity. In Hindu mythology, Goddess Lakshmi, also called Shri, is the divine spouse of Lord Vishnu and provides Him with wealth for the maintenance and preservation of the creation.

In Her images and pictures, Lakshmi is depicted in a female form with four arms and four hands. She wears red clothes with a golden lining and is standing on a lotus. She has golden coins and lotuses in her hands. Two elephants (some pictures show four) are shown next to the Goddess. This symbolism conveys the following spiritual theme:

The four arms represent the four directions in space and thus symbolize omnipresence and omnipotence of the Goddess. The red color syinbolizes activity. The golden lining (embroidery) on Her red dress denotes prosperity. The idea conveyed here is that the Goddess is always busy distributing wealth and prosperity to the devotees. The lotus seat, which Lakshmi is standing upon, signifies that while living in this world, one should enjoy its wealth, but not become obsessed with it. Such a living is analogous to a lotus that grows in water but is not wetted by water.

The four hands represent the four ends of human life: dharma (righteousness), kama (genuine desires), artha (wealth), and moksha (liberation from birth and death). The front hands represent the activity in the physical world and the back hands indicate the spiritual activities that lead to spiritual perfection.

Since the right side of the body symbolizes activity, a lotus in the back right hand conveys the idea that one must perform all duties in the world in accordance with dharma. This leads to moksha (liberation), which is symbolized by a lotus in the back left hand of Lakshmi. The golden coins falling on the ground from the front left hand of Lakshmi illustrate that She provides wealth and prosperity to Her devotees. Her front right hand is shown bestowing blessings upon the devotees.

The two elephants standing next to the Goddess symbolize the name and fame associated with worldly wealth. The idea conveyed here is that a true devotee should not earn wealth merely to acquire name and fame or only to satisfy his own material desires, but should share it with others in order to bring happiness to others in addition to himself.

Some pictures show four elephants spraying water from golden vessels onto Goddess Lakshmi. The four elephants represent the four ends of human life as discussed above. The spraying of water denotes activity. The golden vessels denote wisdom and purity. The four elephants spraying water from the golden vessels on the Goddess illustrate the theme that continuous self-effort, in accordance with one's dharma and govemed by wisdom and purity, leads to both material and spiritual prosperity. Goddess Lakshmi is regularly worshipped in home shrines and temples by Her devotees. A special worship is offered to Her annually on the auspicious day of Diwali, with religious rituals and colorful ceremonies specifically devoted to Her.

- Bansi Pandit

Sedna

Sedna is the Inuit (or "Eskimo", though the word is an insult) Goddess of the animals of the Sea, who is considered malevolent to humans, and greatly feared. Offerings are made to Her in an effort to win Her over and ensure plentiful hunting. The word Inuit is often translated simply as "the People"; however the singular form, inua, is the word for "soul" or "spirit", giving it a far richer meaning.

Sedna's legend is quite sad:

She was the beautiful daughter of a widower and had many suitors, all of whom She refused. Then a handsome hunter came and succeeded in winning Her over, and took Her away to his Land of Birds--for he was actually a Kokksaut or petrel-spirit in disguise as a man. When Sedna found out his true nature, She was inconsolable that Her husband was not what he had seemed.

In the meantime, Sedna's father, missing Her, made his way to Her new home, and finding Her husband away took his weeping daughter back. Together they set out to their home back across the Sea. But the petrel-husband followed them demanding his wife back. The father refused, and the Kokksaut changed into his bird-form, summoning a great storm. In horror and blind panic at having offended the bird-spirit, Sedna's father came to the conclusion that to save himself he must give Sedna as a sacrifice. So he threw his own daughter into the raging Sea. In desperation She grabbed the side of the kayak, but he took an axe and cut Her fingers off to the first knuckles. She clutched the kayak a second and third time, and Her father further mutilated Her hands. Finally She sank beneath the surface and the storm abated.

Later the father's tent was swept away by a rare high tide, and he joined his daughter beneath the Sea. Sedna's mutilated hands became the Sea animals--the joints of Her fingers became the salmon, seals and walruses and the rest of Her hands the whales.

Sedna is believed to live under the Sea in a house of whale-bones and stones, and rule the realm of Adliden or Adlivin, where the Dead go to cleanse themselves of the sins of their lives.

Inuit Shamans sometimes journey to Her. In the ritual they bring a comb and use it to brush out Her long tangled hair, which She can't do Herself as She no longer has any hands. By soothing Her and treating Her with compassion, they hope to calm Her and gain wisdom. Her Iglulik Inuit equivilant, Takanakapsaluk, like Sedna, receives the dead and causes misfortune, but is known also as a healer who helps hunters.

Sedna in a reading indicates deep, buried anger and a feeling of powerlessness. Unacknowledged or disowned anger can lead to depression. However, this anger or buried emotion is in fact very powerful and needs to be accessed, acknowledged or released in a safe manner. Take your cue from the Shaman's journey and treat this inner angry person with compassion and soothing gestures. Above all, listen.

Sedna is widely worshipped among the Inuit peoples of the polar regions and has many forms and names: Ai-Willi-Ay-O or Aiviliajog; Kannakapfaluk, Arnakapfaluk ("Big Bad Woman") of the Copper Inuit; Idiragijenget for the Central Inuit. She is called Ikalu nappa in Her form as half-woman, half-fish; Meghetaghna in Siberia; Nerchevik in Labrador; and Nerrivik ("Food Dish") or Nivikkaa ("Woman Thrown Backward Over The Edge") in Greenland. For the Iglulik Inuit of Baffin Island She is Uiniyumayuituq or Unigumisuitok, "The One Who Did Not Want a Husband".

From: http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/sedna.html