December 2017 newsletter

Bear Medicine/Winter Solstice

We enter into the darkest day of of the year, The Winter Solstice, after the harvest. The end of summer and early fall represent the harvest; the fruit of our labor; the manifestation of our beliefs and emotions and thoughts. One teacher asked me at this time, "How well did you aim your arrow?" What is the fruit of your emotions? She meant did you achieve your goals of the year? What have you manifested in your life?
   
As the wheel of the year turns away from the harvest, and towards darkness, we are given the relief of Bear Medicine or Introspection. A season to evaluate how well we aimed our arrow. How can we create new goals, that better reflect our changing values.  Dream deep and long and call upon your Loving Ancestors, including Bear, to be nourished by the darkness and to find deeper levels of truth within yourself. Herbal allies for dreaming and resting are: mugwort, damiana, skullcap, rose petals, vervain, and california poppy. Blessed Be and Happy Holidays.

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December 2017 Newsletter View this email in your browser 1500 5th Street Unit #6, Santa Fe, NM (505) 820-6321 Medicine Circle Newsletter Happy Holidays/Winter Solstice     December 2017 Bear Medicine/Winter Solstice We enter into the darkest day of of the year, The Winter Solstice, after the harvest. The end of summer and early fall represent the harvest; the fruit of our labor; the manifestation of our beliefs and emotions and thoughts. One teacher asked me at this time, "How well did you aim your arrow?" What is the fruit of your emotions? She meant did you achieve your goals of the year? What have you manifested in your life?     As the wheel of the year turns away from the harvest, and towards darkness, we are given the relief of Bear Medicine or Introspection. A season to evaluate how well we aimed our arrow. How can we create new goals, that better reflect our changing values.  Dream deep and long and call upon your Loving Ancestors, including Bear, to be nourished by the darkness and to find deeper levels of truth within yourself. Herbal allies for dreaming and resting are: mugwort, damiana, skullcap, rose petals, vervain, and california poppy. Blessed Be and Happy Holidays. Wassail, a favorite English drink at Winter Solstice  Yule Wassail From (website) The White Goddess  Wassail, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon wes hál, meaning 'be whole', or 'be of good health', or Old Norse ves heill, and was a salutation used at Yule, when the wassail bowl was passed around with toasts and singing. Wassail carols would be sung as people would travel from house to house in the village bringing good wishes in return for a small gratuity. The Apple Tree Wassail, sung in hopes of a good crop of cider the following year, other such as the Gower Wassail carol still survive today. Recipe for Yule Wassail 3 red apples  3 oz brown sugar  2 pints brown ale, apple cider, or hard cider  1/2 pint dry sherry or dry white wine  1/4 tsp cinnamon  1/4 teaspoon ginger strips or lemon peel (we have organic cinnamon, ginger and lemon peel at Milagro) Core and heat apples with brown sugar and some of the ale or cider in an oven for 30 minutes. Put in large pan and add rest of spices and lemon peel, simmer on stove top of 5 minutes. Add most of the alcohol at the last minute so it heats up but does not evaporate. Burgundy and brandy can be substituted to the ale and sherry. White sugar and halved oranges may also be added to taste. Makes enough for eight. Wassail! CLASSES AT MILAGRO HERBS Bear Medicine:The Power of Darkness and Introspection (Friday, January 5th, 7-8:30pm) Learn to journey into the shamanic Dream World to meet with Bear. Bear can teach you how to sit with the softness of night; intuition, the power of the North, and how to begin to set your dreams into motion after winter turns to spring. Join us for a night of dream tea and shamanic journeying. Cost: $20 Class limited to eight people.  Please call Milagro Herbs to sign up.  Adaptogens - Herbs for a Changing World (Tuesday, January 30, 2018, 6-7:30pm) Take a closer look at how plants known as Adaptogens can assist us in the day to day constant shifts and changes, whether it is physical or emotional, environmental, to maintain balanced health.          Cost: $15 + tax Class limited to 12 people. Herbs for Healthy Brain Function (Tuesday February 13, 2018, 6-7:30PM) A look at plants that support mental acuity, memory, creativity, motivation and perhaps provide an important key to fend off cognitive or motor function difficulties, attributed to disorders such as Alzheimer's and ADHD.     Cost:  $15 + tax Class limited to 12 people.   Foundations of Western Herbalism (Wednesdays 6-8:30pm, Feb 21 - March 28, 2018 and Saturday March 31 10am-4:00PMpm) This classroom and field experience combination will introduce and broaden students' knowledge and understanding of using plants for creating balance and wellness in their life. Throughout these six classroom sessions and one field experience, we will explore plant medicines through folkloric traditions as well as contemporary medical herbalism. The classroom format includes: hands on medicine making labs, lectures, handouts and discussion. Topics covered are: roots of herbal medicine, terminology, how to use herbs, plant identification, plant actions and energetics, medicine making (water extracts, alcohol tinctures, oils, honeys, salves), formulations, ethical wild-crafting/collection, plant processing and care. Cost: Foundations class:  $225.00 + tax (Limited to 10 participants) Herbs in the Field Camping Experience (April 19-22, 2018) Join us for this plant medicine pilgrimage as we explore spring in the upper Chihuahuan Desert. For four days and three nights we will carpool/caravan and camp spending time at various locations with each night offering hot spring soaking opportunities. Besides plant identification and their medicinal uses we will also explore: ethical wild-crafting, herbal first aid, collecting, plant care and processing as well as medicine making in the field. Students should have a basic understanding of herbalism and be comfortable and self-sufficient camping with minimal amenities. A "what to bring list" and ride sharing will be available upon registration. Cost: Herbs in the Field Experience:  $335.00 + tax (Limited to 10 participants) Cost: Combined with Foundations Course:   $515.00  + tax NEW! NEW! NEW! DoTERRA ESSENTIAL OILS We now carry over twenty (and counting) DoTerra essential oils, including several of the oil blends DoTerra has made famous. These include: Balance (for calming and grounding), Breathe (for respiratory health), Aromatouch (soothing and relaxing), Citrus Bless (Uplifting), Serenity (great for relaxing massage), Digest Zen (soothes the tummy), and Serenity (Peace and Well-Being). Please visit our retail store to purchase DoTerra or you may order directly from our website (which includes a much larger selection of oils as well as many other body care products and gifts.  Go to www.mydoterra.com/MilagroHerbs. Select join and save, then join DoTerra. Select "wholesale customer" or "wellness advocate" (advocate is for those who wish to sell DoTerra themselves). Then enter their information and payment info.  If you would like to know more about DoTerra or essential oils in general please join us for An ESSENTIAL OIL class on Wednesday, December 13th, 1-3 pm at Milagro Store, located at 1500 Fifth Street, Santa Fe, NM. Class limited to 12  people ($5 cost).  For more information or to register contact Milagro Herbs at 505-820-6321 or www.milagroschoolofherbalmedicine.com (OUR LINE OF LIBERTY NATURAL ESSENTIAL OILS ARE NOW 15 PERCENT OFF) FLOWER ESSENCES for the Holidays Flower essences heal on an energy level. Dandelion addresses old trauma issues and honeysuckle reframes negative memories in way that softens them and helps us see the positive lessons. Pink Geranium helps you to view the world with a fresh perspective. Calendula for inner cleansing of old emotions. Pumpkin helps you accomplish your goals, and Red Geranium grounds energy but with strength and passion. All flower essences are 10% off through December.  HOLIDAY SPECIALS GREAT IDEAS FOR STOCKING STUFFERS AND CHRISTMAS GIFTS ARE 10% OFF THROUGH CHRISTMAS DAY.  THE ITEMS INCLUDE: 4OZ DESERT DWELLER, LAVENDER SALVE, SAGE SALVE, 8OZ HONEY, PRICKLY PEAR SYRUP (WITH HONEY OR SUGAR), FLOWER ESSENCES, ASHWAGANDA TONIC, FRANKINCENSE FACE CREAM, SOAPS, AND SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Foundation of Herbal Medicine Program for 2018 Herbal Certification Course Starts April, 2018. We are re-designing our upcoming Foundations of Herbal Medicine Program to include ongoing intensives and laboratory studies in medicine making, therapeutics, diagnostics, field botany, and more. Contact Tomas at 505-820-6321 for more information and applications or get more details at www.milagroschoolofherbalmedicine.com. Our focus has always been hands-on, practical, informative, bioregional, multicultural, and holistic. 250 hours of pure herb learning you take anywhere in the world. We need more herbalists and community health workers as our modern medical system continues to become unaffordable, erratic, and irresponsible. Become a herbalist, a skill you can use for a lifetime. Call us at 505-820-6321 or email us at info@milagroherbs.com for the details including dates, times, and how to enroll. The Ethnobotanist Beat Ashwaganda   Adaptogens, a much talked about non-specific category of herbal medicines, includes many possible plants. Adaptogens became a hot topic in the 1970's as Soviet body builders competing in the Olympics tried to find natural remedies that would keep them in top shape under the physical stress of heavy lifting. They looked for the physiological implications of excess physical demands on their bodies and how they could maintain optimal health. Siberian ginseng became a much used herbal that demonstrated promise for ongoing stress patterns. Stress comes in many forms and manifests in many patterns depending on the individual. Adaptogens generally help to decrease the debilitating effects of long term stress. That may be by relaxing, stimulating, or a combination of the two. Some plant medicines can work with both of those healing patterns, and Ashwaganda is a perfect example. Just as we have heard about other herbs like ginseng being beneficial in long term stress, Ashwaganda root (Withania somnifera) fits the core issues encountered by many people. The best way to describe its' actions are: a decrease in outer dispersing and depleting energy from "flight or fight" hormonal stimulation and a drawing into the solid core, the place where lower amounts of cortisol are excreted and where our deepest strength resides. One of the descriptions for this stress pattern is "frazzled". The "adapting" herb calms and at the same time strengthens. This is an action that only whole plant medicine can provide (not available from pharmaceutical drugs).  Hence, Ashwaganda has a relaxing, destressing quality that can enhance rest/sleep patterns while restoring depleted body resources residing in the kidneys and adrenal glands. I have seen it work well for giving a smooth sleep that has little disturbance where no dramatic physical problems exist. I have also seen it work as a restorative tonic for daytime use that puts "pep in the step" of people feeling tired or lethargic. As in the above description, Ashwaganda draws the native energy into a person's core while decreasing the leaking of precious energy to the body's exterior. At Milagro Herbs we provide locally grown (Abiquiu, NM) Ashwaganda root from a biodynamic farm in several forms: dried root, tincture, or in tonics with rum and water. This is a plant ally that can be taken on a regular, ongoing basis with no side effects and long term benefits. Used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years, Ashwaganda is now grown in the U.S. and widely consumed. As an added benefit, due to its assistance in decreasing cortisol release Ashwaganda root also helps in weight loss! Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*