...where You can post your dreams, art, poems, articles, thoughts....etc...check it out and if you'd like to share email allie at herbshealing dot com.
Elena Parashko is an award winning Sydney-based artist, writer and teacher.
Elena's artwork is represented in private and corporate collections throughout Australia and internationally. With a unique style of painting that does not restrict itself to one genre, Elena enjoys experimenting with different techniques and mediums in an exploration of subject matter - from traditional landscapes, still life, botanical illustration and seascapes through to contemporary compositions and abstracts. Elena often finds inspiration in nature and her style celebrates attention to detail.
Elena is a regular contributor of articles and painting demonstrations to numerous art magazines such as 'Australian Artist', 'Artist's Palette' and 'Fine Art and Decorative Painting' magazines in Australia and 'Leisure Painter' in the UK. Her artwork has been featured in lifestyle magazines such as 'Ocean', 'Finally at 40' and 'Honestly Woman' and she has written art related features for home decorating magazines such as 'Modern Home' and 'My Home' magazines. Elena writes a monthly motivational article for fine artists in the American magazine 'Professional Artist'.
As a trained teacher, Elena's art classes and workshops for adults and children are in high demand. She is an international tutor running yearly workshops at Daku Resort in Fiji. For those unable to attend her classes in person, downloadable interactive painting demonstrations are now available via this website.
Elena was a finalist in Sydney Business Review's "Business Woman of the Year 2006". She is a member of the Australian Society of Marine Artists and the Australian Society of Authors.
These powerful images were created by the founder of Touch Drawing, Deborah Koff-Chapin, while listening to Susun Weed speak at the recent Women of Wisdom conference. This is the fourth in a series of Weblogs featuring all of these profound, joyful and inspiring pieces of art.
Touch Drawing is a simple yet profound process where the fingers take the place of pen or brush. Paper is placed over a freshly painted surface. Wherever it is touched, an imprint is made on the back side. Impulses from within take form on paper through the movement of the fingertips on the page. A multitude of drawings can be created in one session, each a stepping stone to the next; guiding progressively deeper into the self. You can see video demonstration here.
In a medium as immediate and transparent as Touch Drawing, previously unused channels of expression are opened, enabling uncensored feelings to flow forth. The act of creating with these feelings provides more than cathartic release: it unleashes vibrant healing forces which guide the psyche toward wholeness. Touch Drawing is a practice of creative, psychological and spiritual integration. There are countless applications of the process You can read stories here by people who are using Touch Drawing here.
From the Website: Touch Drawing is a simple yet profound way of drawing with your fingertips.It is used by people of all ages in a vast range of settings. Touch Drawing is a creative catalyst, healing art form and transformational tool. I encourage you to explore how you can integrate it into your life and work. Find out more about Touch Drawing and the resources of this site here. Continue reading below to get the most current happenings. If you want to receive my 'Image Offerings' and Center for Touch Drawing news, sign our mailing list.
Consider joining Deborah Koff-Chapin and kindred souls at the 15th Annual Touch Drawing Gathering July 10-15 on Whidbey Island Washington. It is a deep experience of sacred creativity. http://www.touchdrawing.com/5Events/Gather.html
I live in England and have thoroughly enjoyed the few You-Tube Video's that I have watched after just finding you on there...
Though I have a question...???
After going onto your website to try to get more info, I find that everything is aimed at "Women" and now wonder if all the stuff on You tube is for "You Girls Only".???
Not to be Used by us Mere Males.....
hello.. herbal wisdom Susun has to share is most certainly for all regardless of gender. Susun has five books published, the one that might resonate with you most would be Healing Wise, which covers seven herbs in depth. Her most current book, Down There Sexual and Reproductive Health, is most certainly for both women and men, covering all sexual organs, for both sexes. Her other three books are for women, and men who live with and or care about women (they cover, childbearing, breast health, and menopause).
At Susun’s bookshop www.wisewomanbookshop.com you will find many offerings, suitable for both genders, and books, audio, and video content for and by both men and women….
Certainly, much of Susun’s content is geared towards women, but that should not deter you. Sorry to hear you call yourself a “mere male”, we certainly do not feel any less about men than women, and keep in mind that the heart of the word woman, lies the word MAN…so, when reading for instance, about the Wise Woman Tradition, remember you as a man are included. If it were the Wise Man Tradition, however, women would not be included.
Love,
Justine
You can get your health questions answered by Susun in one of two ways. Call our free herbal/health hot line (845-246-8081) Tuesday evenings, 7:30-9:30 pm EST, dates are April through October. Or you may register for a private telephone consultation. You can also join the free women's health forum where hundreds of wise woman can help you. Sign up for the free herbal healing ezine, filled with wise woman wit and wisdom. Visit the Wise Woman Bookshop for online university, gift shop, bookshop, digital downloads, and more. Go to www.susunweed.com for a complete list of offerings including radio show and free videos.
June is the month for brides. And roses are the flowers of love. So I think it fitting to focus on roses this month. Don't you? Not only are roses beautiful, they are good medicine and fine food.
Yes, all roses that haven't been sprayed with poisons (more about that later) can be eaten, whether cultivated or wild, climbing or bushy, white, pink, yellow, or red. My favorite June breakfast is whole wheat toast with butter or cultured cream cheese and a double layer of fresh rose petals. That sure wakes me up! It's a nice change, too, from my spring fancy breakfast, which is whole wheat toast with butter and violet flowers.
Roses capture our imagination like few flowers, and that's saying a lot, as any flower can trigger a wonderfully imaginative burst from even the least poetic of us. "How sweet to seize the blushing Prey,/ And snatch it from the Thorn away!" said Anacreon in the fifth century BCE (translated by Addison, 1735). In mythology, Flora, the goddess of flowers, asks the gods to help her revive a beloved, now dead, nymph. Apollo gives her the breath of life; Bacchus washes her in nectar; Vertummus gives her a lovely scent; Pomona makes her fruitful; and Flora herself gives her a crown of shimmering petals. Thus Rose, the "queen of flowers," is created.
Roses are painted on fine china, splashed across wallpaper, fashioned out of satin and silk and sewn onto clothes and hats, even dipped in gold and silver. Roses are the very image of innocence; roses are filled with sexual allure. Roses are chaste and pure; roses are wanton and wild. Roses bloom and fade in a day, like love, perfect but passing. Roses endure, blooming year after year, like love, eternal.
Rose gardens are found all over the world. Notable rose gardens include the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York, Kew Gardens in England, Westbroekpark in the Netherlands (with twenty thousand plants), the Parc de la Grange in Geneva (with twelve thousand plants), and the gardens of the Italian Rose Society in Milan. The largest garden in the world devoted entirely to roses is in Shreveport, Louisiana, where more than seventy thousand plants are collected into forty different rose gardens.
There are at least two cities that claim to be "The City of Roses." One is Portland, Oregon, where the ten thousand roses of the International Rose Test Gardens are terraced on five acres of hillside in the shadow of Mt. Hood. The other is Chandigarh, the capital of the Punjab in India, where sixty thousand
plants make up the thirty-acre Zakir Rose Garden, including a Museum of Roses, a Moonlight Garden of pure white roses, and a scent garden where roses are bred to be especially high in rose oil, the mostly costly fragrance made.
Roses are not especially easy to grow, for they are attractive to a number of insects and fungal pests. Sprays can keep pests at bay, but even organic pesticides and fungicides can be unwholesome if eaten. Instead, I use a strong brew of horsetail (Equisetum arvense)--one cup of dried herb brewed for four hours in a quart of boiling water--diluted, a cup at a time, in a gallon of rain water, to spray against black spot and other molds. Seeding lawn areas with milky spore is the best control for Japanese beetles which can eat through a rose bush in minutes, it seems.
If you enjoy an abundance of roses, as I do--through no effort on my part, I assure you, for the wild roses are rampant in my area--you may wish to make rose beads. Natural Rose Beads are sweetly-scented black lumps made by throwing wilted roses into a cast iron pot and allowing them to rot for several months. Before the rose paste dries out, gather it into balls by rolling between your palms, then thread carefully onto a thick string and hang to dry completely. Rose beads will last for decades if thoroughly fermented and carefully dried.
Wild roses have five petals, each gently notched in the center and arranged in a pretty, open star with a cluster of stamen (the pollen-producing parts) in the center. Cultivated roses have petals in multiples of five. The five-pointed star is a pentagram, or pentacle, which is, of course, the symbol of magic. The rose, a blooming pentacle, is as magical as a flower can be.
Eating the petals of roses will get you lots of healthy flavonoids and vitamin C, as well as coloring materials that contain polyphenols and other heart-healthy, cancer-fighting compounds. If you eat the whole rose, you'll also get allergy-busting pollen to help get your body in tune with your environment.
Besides sprinkling the petals lavishly in salads and across toast, try making Rose Honey. Fill any jar to the top with roses and rose petals. Pour honey into the jar, stirring as needed to remove air bubbles, until the jar is full. Cap securely and label. Wait for at least a week before eating. The longer you wait, the better the taste. You can make Rose Hip Honey the same way; be sure to remove all the seeds and itchy hairs from the rose hips before putting them in a jar and adding honey.
Rose petal or rose hip honey is splendid on toast or taken by the spoonful to soothe a sore throat. To forestall a cold, put a tablespoon of rose honey in a cup, add the juice of half a lemon, then fill the cup with hot water.
Roses are especially cherished as a remedy for "women's problems." The growing tips of the rose canes are rich in hormone-like substances that help women with menstrual difficulties get into an easy flow, those with libido problems to feel frisky, and those who want to conceive to be more receptive. Rose Hormone Remedy: Harvest leaf and flower buds just before they open, preserving with honey, or a mixture of one part glycerin and two parts water. The dose is a teaspoonful several times a day.
Roses are part of a very large family of plants, many of which are medicinal and edible. Raspberry is part of the rose family, and raspberry leaf infusion is a fine uterine tonic. Hawthorn, the heart remedy, is also part of this family. As are most of the non-tropical fruits we enjoy: apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, strawberries, cherries, blackberries, raspberries, and even almonds.
If an apple a day will keep the doctor away, what will a rose a day do for you? Try it and see!
Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, I came out to Colorado in 1987, studied at UC, Boulder and have a BA in Studio Arts & Art Education. I enjoyed teaching art in both Colorado and Washington, DC for awhile before returning to Colorado and becoming a mother.
In years past I've enjoyed working in watercolor, mask making and hand made paper. Since 1998 my artwork focus has been drawing, painting and sculpting different metals with the assistance of my husband, Ben; together we are Zink Metal Art. I offer a strong, fluid, feminine sense of design and form to the metal, and Ben works as our solid fabricator and engineer. Sometimes I've sketched and reflected on the subject matter before I begin drawing on the metal sheet, and other times I enjoy letting my unconscious guide the images, shapes and forms that emerge. Ben cuts most of our designs with a hand held plasma cutter, and we work together on our different finishes. This collaborating on sculpture designs, layouts, finishing and installation has taught us both so very much about the art process and ourselves. We're proud to have created an extensive body of work in this time; both small and large scale pieces in private and public collections worldwide.
Drawing has been an essential part of my life for as long as I can remember. I think creative expression is a human characteristic every bit as vital as speaking or writing. For me, making art objects is a way of translating my inner visions and thought processes into a tangible outer reality, something I can look at, touch, appreciate and share with others. As time goes by I find myself really giving into art more and more, accepting both the challenges and the incredible grace it brings. I feel very grateful to spend my working hours doing something I truly love, with the total support of my family and friends. Finding and restoring the 1897 historic "Charles Pollack House" on the main street of Berthoud has allowed us to work from home in our metal shop, display in our own studio gallery and raise our two children together. Our life as parents and artists at times resembles the frenetic dance of a couple of jugglers, but we feel constantly challenged and inspired, and I think the whimsical, light hearted nature of our creations shows this beautifully.
June is busting out all over and the time is ripe for romance and fun.
Here are some special offerings that accentuate this luscious, loving time of year. These are great opportunities for finding and honoring the love in your life — for your present or hoped-for significant other, for Mother Earth and most importantly, for YOURSELF.
I hope you will partake of one or more of these specials.
Sending you all blessings of pleasure, sensuality and LOVE,
Our birthday is our own personal New Year. It is an annual reunion with ourselves — a periodic opportunity to take serious personal stock. It is the perfect time to check in with our deepest and best self to evaluate the past year and to project the next.
Build your confidence and self-love by understanding your motivations and focusing on your dreams and intentions.
Your free membership will entitle you to a tarot reading during the month of your birth for only $100, which is a 1/3 discount off of the regular price of $150.
If you are not already a member, just contact me by return email with this info:
Name: Email: Birthday: Time zone:
***** LAST CHANCE!!!!! JUNE 9-12 WHERE WOMYN GATHER
I will be presented a full schedule of workshops and rituals at this wonderful annual festival of Women's Spirituality.
Learn how to invite the energies and qualities toward you that will help you to enhance your life, and how to confer appreciation, acceptance, esteem, honor and love upon your best Self.
$25 Register for 3 teleclasses in the series Only $60
***** SPIRIT SUPPORT SKILLS SEMINAR RECORDINGS
A SERIES OF RELAXED WORKSHOPS TO DOWNLOAD Lessons in practical spirituality that offer no-nonsense approaches and practices to help you live your daily life in a consciously (and conscientiously) sacred manner.
SUNSET SOULSTICE CELEBRATION A sizzling Celebration of Summer. A family friendly event. Bring kids, dogs, drums, percussions and plenty of rousing spirit. Socrates Sculpture Park 32-01 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City, Queens For info: 718-956-1819 www.socratessculpturepark.org FREE
I am not writing about luxury holiday hotels or villas, but about primitive empty places which can be used by travelers at little cost, or none at all, if they take the trouble to search them out.
Usually there will be no water from taps and no electricity, but most likely there will be beauty of surroundings and freedom from noise and tension. And there will be contact with the country people--the true representatives of all regions.
Such simple places are what artists, writers and musicians seek, and which they, and I, have found the world over: the shining palaces.
Living in nature dwellings one has an all-important contact with the earth, its everchanging loveliness and its scents.
About Travelers, poem, pp. 204-205
You shall die, and I shall die! Take our places in the sky. You and she, and he and I, When the time comes, all must die. That’s a game we would play, Man and woman, girl and lad, In gypsy camps far away, Laughing times, yet passing sad.
Poppy crowns for everyone, Red rose for the fairest one. We would shout King Death to come, Laughing loudly, turn and run. Then more the cry! Who will die? Nor he, nor she, and not I, Want that fearful power to fly.
We would pass the hours that way, Bed with Gypsies by cool streams, Golden days of dance and play, Harp and flute and tambourines. But poppy crowns droop and fade, Feet grow weary, hearts afraid. Rime kills all in Gypsy Glade, Flower and tree, man and maid.
Gone the Gypsies, every one, All who played the Gypsy game, Left the earth, its mirth and fun, Starry nights and hyacinth lane. None can play that game alone, Thus I want to hear the cry, Come now! Leave thy earthly home, Join the Gypsies in the sky.
Spend the summer with The Grandmother of Herbal Medicine and her two toddlers as they explore the Sea of Galilee in the modern State of Israel.
Join Juliette de Bairacli Levy – Gypsy herbal veterinarian and mother of two toddlers – as she spends an eventful summer swimming in the waters, and the history, of the Sea of Galilee, in the modern state of Israel.
Juliette trains her observant eyes, and lovely descriptive prose, on the people, places, plants and animals around her.
You will hold your breath as Juliette dares to traverse the forbidden militarized zone around the Jordan River in pursuit of a personal communion with this holiest of lands. You’ll thrill as she and her children discover ancient treasure, be fascinated as she visits the tombs of Jewish mystics, and, perhaps, scream in terror as she is visited in the dark of night by an enormous snake – only to breathe a sigh of relief when she is saved by her faithful Afghan hound.
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