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
Jean, I am not a fan of Ken’s style, particularly of his oftentimes sexist “jokes,” and I disagree with him regarding the effectiveness of magic. He lampoons the cabal’s use of magic, whereas, imho, more people ought to educate themselves on energy, symbolism, the power of ritual and the subconscious and how those work so as to direct the energies instead of following someone else’s carefully manipulated energy streams. There’s resisting manipulation, and there’s taking the reins yourself to summon tremendous fuel and energy to your own creation — two different levels of engagement. I radically disagree with him on anything Goddess related. There are gaping holes in his understanding of how energy works, and he often gets stuck in polarized thinking, despite warning people against it.
That said, his research is very good, and he does offer suggestions for solutions — go local, grow your own food, get as self-reliant and local community sufficient as possible, know your neighbors, stop salivating over external Saviors, and find your own direct connection to Spirit/Divinity.
These are wise suggestions. They may not appeal to everyone who wants to just sit in their living room and meditate, but his suggestions are actually quite useful. I’m a big fan of imagination, meditation and reality creation; I also know hope can be a powerful bridge to a carefully crafted alternative reality. I think he’s just warning people against the hopium that got Obama elected. For the record, I saw through Obama when no one else I knew did, except one friend. How people can’t see the things Ken shows is beyond me, but I realize most people don’t until hindsight. In addition to Ken’s suggestions for solutions, I would add to get much more in touch with the land, sea and sky — with the wisdom of Nature and with everything associated with the suppressed Feminine, something with which he seems quite uncomfortable; however, for the most part, his take on international affairs checks with my own read.
I have always said and continue to assert that Putin’s a wild card. Those who claim to know his heart based on speeches or photos would be wise to step back and observe more. He’s a master martial artist; every move, every word, every gesture is calculated, but despite this, there are things he’s hiding even from himself. Those are the wild cards. I don’t even think he knows what he’s going to do. We can hope he ends up stepping away from the script, but right now, in my professional intuitive opinion, he’s right on script. Just because Edgar Cayce — who did not [always] discriminate whom and what he channeled — said Russia held great hope for humanity doesn’t make Putin the answer. Plenty of Russian defectors have given the play by play we’re currently living in, right on schedule. RT News is Russian propaganda. Controlled opposition always includes a large amount of truth or few people would swallow it at all.
I’m not arguing for anyone to have a firm opinion on BRICS. I personally think it’s a bunch of the same old, same old, but used by someone savvy, even the same old, same old could provide incredible opportunities for new things. The only thing I argue for is that people take personal responsibility for their own basic needs and that they educate themselves on basic hypnosis and NLP principles so they recognize them being used. Studying actual ancient traditions instead of watered down Wicca-lite, shaman-in-a-weekend, New Age platitudes would also help make global machinations much less important. If we become wise as serpents, harmless as doves, then we can have our new world, but it will be MUCH more of our making!
Hugs,
Laura