Ann Kreilkamp offers her personal recipe for a healing chai elixer. I’ve not tried this yet myself, but the ingredients sound potent and delicious. I know Ann’s been enjoying her morning ritual for months. I’m a huge fan of Reishi, taking it most days in some form or other. I also find that ritual — in whatever form — adds structure and meaning to everyday life. Finding a practice, whether making chai, meditation, or another mindful activity offers a chance for daily reset and connection throughout Time.

A Saturn/Pluto gift: Meet ANN’S CHAI ELIXIR!
One way to view this Saturn/Pluto conjunction year is to see it as a time when we are creating new structures (Saturn) for the life force (Pluto) to flow through. And some of these structures are invisible, prompted by decisions to utilize our experience of “time” in new, repeated ,ways. For example, various ceremonies and rituals can invoke, focus, channel and express the ever present primal Plutonian life force with tremendous power.
Rituals that are performed on a daily basis, unless we see them as “sacred,” we tend to call them routines. And “routines,” as my teacher often reminded me, “build character.” In other words, what we are doing now, is what we are becoming over time. Thus does a particular type of “doing” generate a particular quality of “being.”
Which brings me to today’s topic: “Ann’s Chai Elixir”
About a year ago I discovered that I was allergic to, not caffeine, but to the coffee bean itself. Okay. So I switched to various types of caffeinated teas.
Meanwhile, at our local farmer’s market, I discovered Aahaa Chai, a local company that makes organic chai teas from scratch. Hmmm . . . what would that be like? Most commercial chai is just so darn sweet that I avoid it.
Oh wow! I loved their “robust” chai tea. And so got in the habit of going to the market every two or three weeks to purchase a bag of it.
But then I got tired of having to go to the market to get the tea. On a whim, around my 77th birthday in December I made the unusual decision to look into making my own chai tea, searching the internet for various ingredients that could be used in chai.
Well, within the very first week, I was hooked, totally in love with my surprise birthday present to myself. For about $20 (the cost of buying it from the local company) I could buy my own ingredients from bulk bins at Bloomingfoods, our local co-op. At this point, I have settled on fourteen. Fourteen different ingredients, plus black tea, put in my tea pot to boil for a few minutes, every single morning! Thus did I reconfigure my first, and most important ritual of the day, and just in time for the 2020 Saturn/Pluto process!
My new morning ritual, about five minutes long, during which I bring the special basket over to the kitchen counter, open each little bag, and pinch a bit of its dried ingredient — plus cut up tiny slices of fresh ginger and turmeric. Each day’s chai alchemy yields four or five large steaming mugs worth (I also add a tiny amount of organic half and half, each time I refill the mug). As the day goes on, I just keep adding water when needed, as the herbs keep on yielding more and more flavor.
When I run out of one ingredient, I take that bag back to the co-op, to refill with more of the same. That way I don’t use more bags than necessary.
The bags run out at different rates, in part because I’m not at all precise in the amounts purchased, and even more because the daily pinches from each one are never exactly the same. Yes, this chai, utterly full of complex aroma and tastes that go on and on, is slightly different each day! Thus does my daily “routine” include daily surprise.
But, and here’s what REALLY surprised me. I hadn’t thought about my morning chai as my morning medicine. Didn’t think of it as an “elixir.” But my body likes it even better than my mind does, and now I know why.
Here’s my list of ingredients at this point, in no particular order, with a bit about the medicinal value of each that I grabbed from various internet sources. I can’t vouch for any of these sources; I just want to “give you the flavor” of why this amazing chai tea is so fantastic. It means that every single morning, both mind and body get to swoon at the very first taste of my very first mug of this stunning chai elixir. Continue reading →