Lately, like many of my generation, I’ve been having to watch my health. Things that didn’t faze me ten years ago, now sometimes wear me out. I noticed this tendency with both resignation and recognition. Now in my 70's, I still have a lot of work to do with the Medicine Woman tradition. But I’m learning that the days of being able to make a long drive, hold a circle all day, then drive home again… those days may be numbered.

Perhaps, just maybe, I may need to build in less movement and more rest. There are also stressors in my personal life. My grown son returned home due to COVID. My stepmother and my mother have both transitioned. The effort to see that they received the support and care they needed consumed my energy. 

A gratitude practice.

You’ll recall that I’ve spoken about gratitude in the past. An attitude of gratitude goes a long way toward curing a whole lot of what ails you. And while the priestess in me understands that what we focus on grows, and that a gratitude journal creates more good in our lives, science agrees that its effects are both dramatic and lasting.

Here are some of the good effects of a gratitude practice when its’ used every day:

• Lower blood pressure
• Improved immune function
• Better sleep patterns
• Reduces lifetime risk of depression
• Reduces anxiety
• Reduces substance abuse disorders
• Improves resiliency
• Decreases suicides
• Gratitude also helps us choose behaviors that benefit our lives

When we practice gratitude, we tend to

• Exercise more
• Eat better
• Smoke/Drink Less
• Take better care of ourselves
• Overall, we live happier and healthier with an active practice of gratitude

What I have learned is that gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving. Gratitude helps me celebrate the present moment. Live isn’t something that just passes me by, but it’s something that I can appreciate. Gratitude helps me appreciate my friends and family. It brings new opportunities to shop up fully in my practice. It focuses me on the positives in any situation. Gratitude helps my heart.

One scientist, Robert Emmons, says that “Gratitude blocks toxic emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret and depression, which can destroy our happiness.” Spiritual women know that toxicity is the enemy of our hearts and health. Other physical benefits of expressing gratitude include:

• Increased good cholesterol and decreased bad cholesterol
• Reduced cortisol
• Lower blood pressure at rest and under stress
• A state of harmony in the nervous system and heart rate
• Mental clarity
• Improved kidney function
• Decreased cardiac inflammation and heart disease

Here are 4 ways to establish a simple, successful gratitude practice that can help you protect your mental, emotional and physical health.
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1. Recognize what you’re grateful for, acknowledge it, and appreciate it
2. Start a daily gratitude journal and count your blessings
3. Set aside time daily to recall moments of gratitude
4. Write letters of gratitude and feel more optimistic

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This year Thanksgiving may be difficult for some. I hope that you will join me in honoring the goodness in life with a simple gratitude practice that will help us find the light in the dark days ahead.
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Happy Thanksgiving! 
With gratitude and love, 
Susan

The medicine woman's role is often that of gatekeeper to the realm between life and death. Because of this, the observance of Samhain on the wheel of the year affords the medicine woman a place of honor, for her role is one of soul-full harvesting before a time of rest.
 
In olden days, the fields lay fallow as the herbs and wild crafted plants dried from broomsticks tied to the rafters. Here, a 120-year-old image of Baba Yaga depicts her, staff in hand, magical-medicinal mushrooms at her feet, surrounded by the cycle of death and everlasting life.  The last busy days of harvest wane with the October moon. The cycle of life slows down, and priorities change. As the days grow shorter and the nights longer, the lighting of candles, provisions are stored, and a fire in the hearth mark the process of readying for winter.
 
At this time, the medicine woman, too, turns her attention inward. Meditations, trance, long nights of dreaming and prophecy stir the cauldron of the night. She stitches stories and herbs into poppets to assist loved ones in sleep. For the adept, deep mysteries of Samhain offer a rare opportunity to step between the worlds and speak directly with otherworldly guides, spirits or the ancestors, and honor them through remembrance in the form of an altar or offering. The medicine woman's endeavors give comfort to those who recognize the growing darkness.
 
                                                              A Samhain Song, by Lisa Thiel
                                The Veil between the worlds is thin, our hearts reach cross the sea of time
                                     To bring our loved ones in, Samhain, Samhain we honor all our kin
                                    We honor those who've gone before, as the Great Wheel turns again 
                                                   
The Crone wisdom of Samhain symbolizes a slowing down which accompanies the aging process of all things. Those who knock at the medicine woman's door may ask questions related to managing the psycho-somatic symptoms of cyclical changes like menopause, aging, the end of relationships, a change of jobs, or a move. The person turns inward; there may be a need to acknowledge these closures, and regroup, recharge energetically, contemplate and plan future actions. Still others may seek physical or psychic protection or face their own mortality.
 
Let it lie, she might say. Now is a time to rest before rebirth. Go within to plant the seeds of regeneration. Ask Spirit or the Dark Mother for support, but release attachment to specific outcomes and allow what comes to come.
 
Power your Samhain ritual and honor the Celtic New Year, the archetype of the Crone as medicine woman, or the ancestral realm. Allow the colors of deep purple, midnight blue, or black to reflect the essence of the Samhain night. Work with Samhain essential oil combinations or flower essences, such as Blackthorne.
 
In your rituals, you may choose to:
    Work with the waning moon, Sheila-Na-Gig, and/or the symbolism of the Crone's scythe
    Add bowls of autumn leaves, cones or nuts to your ancestor altar
    Use winter squash and pumpkins as food or ornament wherever you please
   Turn gourds into water dippers, rattles or martin houses marked with your personal symbols for power
    Practice candle magic, working with meditation and trance states to tap your intuition
    Sew poppets stuffed with magical dream time herbs such as mugwort or lavender
    Open to receive explicit insights from the ancestral or spirit realms
    Allow the chaos of the Samhain revelry to plant the seeds of regeneration
    Stand against injustice or harassment, or seek retribution in both realms
    Research and reclaim the medicine woman's depiction as Witch, Crone or Hag
 
Ultimately, Samhain is a powerful cauldron for explicit, intentional change, personified by the medicine woman's Crone aspect. Honor the ancestors as thyself, seek to comfort in these times, and treat relationships in both the spiritual and materials realms with great respect and care.

Love, 
​Susan

In a few quickly moving days, the autumnal equinox will be upon us on Monday, Sept. 22. We begin to mark the series of lengthening nights which lead us to Winter Solstice. Both we and the community or family we serve through our calling to the Medicine Woman tradition will be called upon to aid others in this time of transition. Plant medicine is our friend at this time, and we may see the effects of the turning wheel on our bodies, emotions, and in our homes. 

Autumn equinox is a time when the veils between the worlds may be thin, and our personal boundaries may be easily perforated. As we approach the end of the year, and crave increased rest, it’s important that our body’s energy not be allowed to stagnate. As we push to get more done with less light, we may see an increase in nervousness and anxiety and the sleeplessness that goes with it. 

The Harvest Moon was full last week, reminding us that now is the time to gather leaves, flowers, berries and seeds for the second harvest now at hand. On the east coast, a late summer to early fall hurricane season brings rains and increasing damp along with tapering temperatures.  Making the most of the waning light and the gifts of the land are crucial to gathering what we need now for the season ahead.

Personal and Sacred Space Cleansings

The Medicine Woman Mystery School practices smudging as one of its primary tools for spiritual and physical space enhancement.

I tend to smudge with sage, or sage and sweetgrass, in a manner drawn from Native American tradition. Other herbs, such as juniper or cedar may also be used. Native shamans teach that smudging clears negativity and creates sacred space. It opens the way for clarity, vision-questing, and communing with the ancestors. 

Medicine women in Mexico, curanderas, perform spiritual cleansings at this time of year called “Limpias.” The smudge used includes rosemary, rue, tobacco, and other herbs of cultural significance.  As we are guided into this new season, smudging in this manner sanctifies our spaces, clears our energy, and blesses our transition into the darkening days.

Berries, Seeds and Plant Medicines

In preparation for cold and flu season, I recommend working with elderberries, pictured, and hawthorn berries. A good elderberry syrup can be made now and used as a tonic when we begin to feel under the weather. Here is a good recipe using ginger, cinnamon and elderberry that is easy to do at home. You can also cook with ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon, warming spices which support good mental and physical health.

Hawthorn berries are good for circulating qi, or chi, the body’s energy. It is considered a tonic for healing the heart and heartache, strengthening boundaries and psychic perforations, preventing stagnation, and adapting to change. Here is a good resource for Hawthorn berry syrup and supporting flower essences.

For an overall immune booster, Rosemary Gladstar’s Fire Cider remains one of my favorites. Easy to make, it takes patience and nurturance to wait the 3-4 weeks needed for the brew to reach its fullest potential. Created with powerful intention, the Fire Cider can help kick a cold at its onset. 

For a longer-term solution to healing accompanying more severe colds or flu, I recommend Wellness Formula and a high-quality selection of flower essences and/or homeopathics designed to support the immune system nutritionally and energetically. I am happy to consult with you about these solutions on an as-need basis.  As the days shorten and nights lengthen, our bodies need more sleep. For sleeplessness, anxiety, nervousness, headaches, and muscle twitches, Skullcap, a nervine, can offer a respite and improve restfulness. Corey Pine Shane at Blue Ridge Herbal Medicine in Asheville offers information on skullcap and other herbs increasing restfulness here.

Our kidneys tend to weaken as the dryness of summer turns to the dampness of fall. Herbalists often recommend horsetail, both for its tonic effect and as a source of necessary silica. It’s seen as a way to expel toxins. Here is a good source for information on horsetail and a recipe for horsetail tea. However, if horsetail is contraindicated, you may want to research celery as an alternative.

Explore Autumnal Equinox Plant Medicine

​This list is by no means exhaustive. If you would like to do your own research, I recommend delving into the Druidic herbs common to Autumnal Equinox. These include the tonic or cleansing use of cider and wine, and herbs such as honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, sage, Soloman’s Seal, and Blessed thistle. As you test and tweak these recipes to your own preferences and experience, you may wish to create a Medicine Woman reference book of your own. Some women write out and draw the pages by hand, then slide the results into plastic sleeves to protect their work and note their processes. I’ve also found recording information in a Gardener’s Journal works nicely, due to the addition of the lunar phases preferred in the preparation of herbal medicine. 
How do you record your Medicine Woman workings? How does Autumn Equinox inform your choices and actions at this time of year?

Love and Light, 
Susan

For the past few years, we’ve all needed more than our share of good old-fashioned grit just to deal with the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Many of us have cared for aging parents or children who are navigating their way through the passages of age in the midst of uncertain times. There are job changes, broken hearts, messes to clean up. If we’re looking for chaos, we don’t have to look very hard to find it.

That’s why our resilience and ability to persevere are so important. Here are 4 things you can do today to see your way through these difficult times and retain your sense of hope.

Give Yourself a Break

No-one can sustain high levels of stress for long periods of time without some negative health effects. So you’re going to need to drive a wedge between your obligations and your sanity. In that space, you’ll find the time to give yourself a break. Whether it’s a series of short breaks once a week, or a week away, it’s something you must do in order to persevere when pressures are high. 

Be Kind to Yourself

In order to persevere, you will need to consciously refill your inner well each day. Surround yourself with comforting rituals: a cup of tea, a hot bath, a conversation with a friend. Realize that you are doing the best you can in these circumstances. Smile at your heart. Practice gratitude. Be positive in your self-talk. Look for joy in nature. In other words, be kind to yourself. Remember that Hope remains, no matter the magnitude of troubles. 

Find Support for the Journey

Many of the trials we humans face may be too much to carry alone. Thankfully, there are professionals who can help. There comes a day when an aging parent may need a care manager, or a parent who’s adapting to a child’s special needs may need counsel. Others may simply need a friend. Asking for the help you need doesn’t make you weak. Sharing the load increases resilience and ability to persevere. We find hope comes much easier with the right support.

Spend Time in Nature

Whether it’s a walk with the dog or coffee under a tree, spending time outdoors will help you reconnect to the world of which you are a part. Sunlight and fresh air offer health benefits, while the frolic of squirrels in the trees, the flutter of wings, or a rare hawk sighting will awaken your sense of wonder. Nature reminds us of the cycle of life, of which we are a part, and which is a part of us. Feeling our place in the web and our connection helps us persevere and find hope. 

Love,
Susan

Right now, a lot of us don’t know where we’re headed, either individually or collectively. Sure, we’ve got ideas and plans. But a concrete sense of where we’re going and what we’re doing? That’s a lot less frequent these days. 

​We find ourselves in different times. In part, this is because our bodies, their electrical system, and our consciousness is shifting dimensionally. This shift is different, and it can be difficult. Our former 3-D awareness is giving way to a higher level of resonance and frequency identified as 5-D. At every level of our being, we are having to adjust, whether we are consciously working with this shift or not.

If you are new to thinking about personal vibration, this idea can seem pretty far-fetched. But on a basic level, scientists since Pythagoras have posited that everything is made up of types of energies. And these energies carry a vibration. The Universe and the Earth each have a vibration. Over time, these vibrations shift and change, like scales of music. We listen to these vibrations in a natural composition called “The Music of the Spheres.” 

A few years ago, I travelled to Scotland to study ancient times. While there, I came to see that in the old sacred places, that change is open to different levels of understanding and interpretation. Working with vibrations that rise to a to a higher frequency becomes possible. Within that possibility, we can directly experience changes holistically on all levels of our physical, mental, and spiritual awareness as humans. 

Over time, we can look back and see how far we have “progressed.” Technologically, we can see how we have harnessed “the light,” moving from candles to kerosene to electricity and now solar. Our progress, from flame to flare, has elevated our experience of the light on every level from the everyday to the spiritual.

Similarly, we are seeing a progression in other ways, too. Think about your own evolving understandings of time and space, astrology and archetype, and other tools that assist us with the management of our personal, internal energy sources.

This type of analogy shows how the “as within, as without” relates one thing to another so that all connect. If you have directly observed the sun and moon, then you have seen the universe in action. If you stand in the waves as the Earth’s tides go in and out, you have seen the universe in action. If you have marked the passages of the new moon, full moon, eclipses and the cycles of nature - then you have come to understand that all these universal actions are part of and related to nature and its necessary, healing role in our navigating these different times.

Yes, these may be different times, but the resilience they require is something our collective, ancient past has prepared us to survive. For we know - as nature shows us - that whatever does not grow or adapt is destined to die. 

In order to grow, survive, and ultimately thrive, we will find that we are unable to remain in the same paradigm we previously inhabited. Instead, we have to move forward, look ahead, and hope. We have to make different choices. We have to energize those choices with self-nurturance, flexibility, conscious movement and growth. 

These different times are our times. These different choices are our choices.

Love,
​Susan

The Sun and Moon were once described as the two eyes in the face of heaven. And its true, still today, that we see the pair reflected as astrological twins, two sides of the same celestial coin. Now, at Winter Solstice, the co-creative process of the balance of darkness and light is crucial at this point on the wheel of the year. The Sun at Solstice provides the point of inception for the coming year, in much the way a new moon sets the tone for each lunar cycle.

Yuletide, the Winter Solstice, the longest night, asks us to BELIEVE. The light will return, sparked by inspiration, intention, and action. We light a candle or bank a fire, and stare into the light to make sense of this time of rest, reparation and darkness. Yet, unlike the dark night of the soul, this darkness soothes the spirit with the balms of hope, peace, gratitude, and kindness. This darkness is a blanket which tucks us into bed for a sweet slumber of renewal and rebirth.
 
Over the course of the past year, I've explored more deeply the solar and lunar aspects of both the masculine and feminine, or rather, I've delved into the masculine and feminine aspects of the Solar and Lunar archetypes. Too much

​Solar activity in the previous year can often result in burnout; while too much Lunar energy means we may be awash with sentimentality or that we way difficulty slogging forward. Winter Solstice asks us to reflect on the balance between active and passive, reflective and proactive in the year we leave behind, and to make the necessary adjustments for the year that lies ahead.

Too, the Goddess as Crone, Maiden, and Mother are all present, simultaneously accessible to those of us work consciously with the solar and lunar aspects of the divine feminine as a bearer of light. We see the in the as above mysteries as the Venus shines, An archetypal cycle of death and rebirth, release and renewal, healing and restoration, is re-enacted during this time. Ritually, we may experience this time apart either as accelerated time, or as a time out of time. Winter Solstice is a time to ask for guidance and opening to receive.

The respite following Winter Solstice invites us to release the old as we make room for the new. Now is a good time to clean and clear our closets and arrange the items we keep in a way which inspires us. Inside our dwellings, we need a palette which supports the life we want to create, releasing that which has not served our higher and best interests or outcomes.

Too, we turn our attention to our loved ones. Renewing and rejuvenating relationships, family travel, and lingering over brunch with friends are ways we can balance the light and dark in our personal lives during this time. Raise a glass of sparkling water to the light in celebration. Add the simmering scent of orange and cloves, frankincense and myrrh, ginger and star anise to the room to invite positivity. Rest and unwind.

Clearing space within ourselves and our homes, living our values, and honoring our hearts allows us to consciously choose light. When we allow light to dwell within, we spark the promise of the new Solar year.

Love, 
Susan

As the Yuletide season approaches, the significance of the home transforms into a profound celebration of sacredness. In many cultures, the house serves as a microcosm of the universe—a symbol of safety, security, and shelter. This concept parallels various spiritual traditions, highlighting the home as a sanctuary that embodies the nurturing qualities of the Great Mother.

In sacred architecture, just like the temple, palace, and mountain, the home stands as one of the world’s centers. It represents not just a physical space but also an inner realm where personal and collective stories unfold. During the Yuletide season, this connection deepens as families gather to honor traditions and share love, echoing the home’s role as a repository of wisdom and memory.

This year, I reflect on last year’s family gathering. So much has changed since then, and a lot of it has to do with changes happening in my home and family. Like so many of us, my mother is aging, and each gathering seems particularly precious. The time spent at my family home in Statesboro has yielded a new understanding of its history and the future. My home here in Marietta has been my respite as I recuperate from a recent accident. Last year, I lived with my holiday decorations well into the new year; this year, given all that has come to pass, it’s likely that my family and I will scale our celebrations to match.
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From a Jungian perspective, the dynamics of our internal lives are mirrored in the spaces we inhabit. The feelings of warmth and safety that the home provides reflect our own psychological state. As we adorn our homes with lights and decorations, we engage in an act of internal reflection, inviting the spirit of the season into our lives.

Freudian interpretations further enrich this understanding by emphasizing the feminine symbolism of the house. The nurturing environment it provides evokes qualities traditionally associated with femininity, reinforcing the idea of the home as a protective womb. The roof symbolizes heaven, the windows become portals to the divine, and the walls embody the earth—all elements that connect us to a larger cosmic reality.

In the context of Yuletide, this sacredness is amplified. As we gather around the hearth, we not only celebrate the warmth of our homes but also acknowledge their role as sacred spaces that cradle our aspirations, fears, and love. The rituals we perform—be it decorating the tree, sharing meals, or exchanging gifts—transform our homes into temples of joy and connection.

Ultimately, the home during Yuletide serves as a vital center where the sacred and the everyday intertwine, reminding us of the enduring importance of shelter, security, and community in a world that often feels chaotic. As we embrace the season, let us honor our homes as sacred spaces that reflect both our inner selves and our shared humanity.
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Love, Susan