There is No Fear

Samhain, the time of the ancestors, is a potent time for me.  I love the quietness of the earth, and the potent earth energies beneath the ground.  

I used to celebrate Halloween, get dressed up and often get drunk at parties.  This was a shallow experience for me.  Even now that I don’t drink alcohol very much, I am not interested in putting on a costume.  It is as if I want less on, to stand fully naked in the world as I am, like Inanna giving up her things as she navigates the underworld in a journey to meet her

wicked sister, Ereshkigal.  

This year as in years past, the pictures of witches and goblins started to emerge, as well as scary stories and movies and images.  This year I started to question the whole paradigm of fear around this time of year.  What is everyone so scared of?  Why are people so scared of witches and ghosts?  What has happened to our culture so that something so powerful, in my experience, can be seen as being harmful and evil.  

When I started studying the wise woman tradition of healing, a woman I was carpooling to classes with said she was a witch.  I was afraid and I was intrigued.  I didn’t know anything about real witches, only the fake images of evil beings worshiping satan.  I started to meet more witches and learned about Wicca and paganism and celebrating the earth in the seasons.  

The reason I set out to write this piece is because of the fear that is associated with Halloween.  I must admit I was afraid of telling people that I was studying Wicca.  They may think I am evil.  In spite of fear, I began a women’s circle with other women from my herbal class.  We did ritual, sang and stirred up some pretty powerful energies.  

It has been twenty years since I first became a shamanic herbalist.  My studies took me to New York to study with Susun Weed and 15 years ago I started studying and practicing shamanism.  I have been initiated as a green witch. 

The practice of the green witch is simple.  She has an intimate relationship with the plants.  They are her teachers, her friends and they offer themselves to her for healing.  The green witch has just a few plants with which she works.  She knows each intimately.  

The green witch has spirit helpers that guide her practice.  She knows how to access the invisible realms.  She knows how to travel to places in the spirit realm and how to return.  She often visits this invisible landscape to cultivate her power. The green witch’s focus is on living in harmony with who she is truly, and on being of service in alignment with this.  

Halloween is the time when the green witch reaches the depths of the underworld. She navigates the depths of the inner realms and brings wisdom back to share.  There is potency here as she investigates through the darkness.  She is guided by her power animals and spirit helpers, listening deeply to the songs given to her by the plants to help her navigate.  There is no fear in this journey.  There are no bad guys.  There may be beings that stir the cauldron to create challenges for change.  She surrenders to the transformations needed to become more and more of who she is.  There is complete trust.  

In order to live this way, it takes practice.  Susun Weed says it takes seven lifetimes to become an herbalist.  I understand this because of the great fear I have felt in claiming to be a witch and a shamanic herbalist. 

Why so much fear?  Why denial?  Why doubt?  I have been thinking and asking about this for awhile.  What I have realized is that what we fear is who we are in our most powerful form.  Marianne Williamson wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

We have created a culture of fear and Halloween is a time to exploit that.  The real images of witches are women that work with the powerful earth energies to heal and to bring about change.  They are herbalists, midwives, doctors, nurses, dancers, actors, artist and healers.  The spirit helpers like Baba Yaga and Hecate, witches who’s images have been distorted into evil women who cast spells on people.  But in reality, these goddesses are not evil.  And they are not nice!  They stir things up and teach about power, real power.  

I am feeling called today to remember who I am.  To trust in the Goddess to guide me deep into my psyche, into the deepest, darkest forest, to explore the places that require healing and transformation. 

And there is no fear.  

May it be in Beauty.  

Rewilding and Cultivating an Authentic Life

Yesterday I went out in the garden and scattered seeds….all the seeds I had from the last two years.  Chickweed, calendula, sunflower, zucchini, kale, basil and lots more.  I have been receiving inspirations about how to have an authentic garden.  I have been receiving messages from the garden and from my reading about others who have grown permanent gardens.  

Today it is raining so hard.  And it is watering my seeds!  

What on earth could this mean…what on earth can this accomplish?  

It doesn’t matter.  It was a message I got and I followed it.  

The garden appears to be a metaphor for my life.  What happened two years ago was someone who was helping me in my garden quit abruptly in June. It seemed like the worst time to lose a garden helper. But it really was the best time.  I had been to the Fairy Congress in Eastern Washington and had talked to a few beekeepers.  When I returned I realized that the insects were communicating with me.  They were instructing me with messages. In the past, when a wasp would fly near me, I would gently swat it away and ask it not to bother me.  But this time after the Fairy Congress, I knew the wasp was coming near to tell me something.  I listened.  

So the garden helper quit and I was left with a garden that appeared to need weeding and manicuring.  But that is not what I did.  I freaked out for a very short time and then I got a very strong feeling that I was to not do anything in the garden, to let it grow without tending.  I called this rewilding.

For two years I didn’t tend the garden.  It felt weird and it also felt right.  When I would go out in the garden to visit, the energy was sweet and nurturing.  The garden was happy.  

And the buttercup grew and the grass grew and the blackberries came in.  

I thought that this was what the garden would be, a wild place to find peace.  

What I started to notice about my relationship to the garden was that instead of making excuses to people about how I didn’t have time to weed and that it doesn’t look like a garden, I was teaching about rewilding.  I wasn’t making excuses anymore because this garden was the authentic expression of what it desired to be.  

And then I read “The Secret Teachings of the Plants” by Stephen Buhner and he referenced Masanobu Fukuoka and his book, “The One Straw Revolution”

Fukuoka talked about waking up and discovering that nature carries forth on its own without prompting from human, without disruption, and chemicals and tilling etc.  He started a rice farm where he grew rice and citrus fruit without tilling, without chemicals and without even added compost.  He did this for over thirty years before he wrote his book.  He grew healthy rice with yields the same or greater than those who used chemicals.  

He wrote about nondiscriminatory gardening and farming.  He wrote about how to do less, how not to do things.  

I became inspired from his writing.  What he was writing about, the soil integrity, the way everything works together to make the environment work, that is what I was feeling.  I am so thankful for this wisdom.  

And so this year in the garden, I decided that I would begin to work and to cultivate in the energy of what was desired.  Instead of pulling out grass, we cut the grass to the ground and laid the cut grass on the ground under the plants.  

We also built six hugel culture beds, a way of creating a permanent garden bed that will increase in fertility over the years.  

When I get anxious about what it looks like out there with all the weeds and grasses and things coming in, I listen to a deeper message.  Then I can feel the vibrant life that is teeming out there.  Then I can sense the inspiration of a space coming into its own. 

We recently put some compost from a pile near the road that had

been breaking down for several years.  With the rains have come chickweed, lamb’s quarter, kale, motherwort and other little green starts.  

This garden design is a metaphor for the design of my life.  Instead of making excuses for how I am,  I am sharing with others about my life as a listener, to the messages that instruct me to live authentically.  

May it be in Beauty.  

Arsenic Levels in Foods

Arsenic is naturally present in the environment, which means it gets into food and water with levels varying in different regions of the world. It’s impossible to eliminate it from food, however, having too much arsenic in our diet could be harmful to health. Rice tends to take up more arsenic from the environment than other cereal crops, although this can vary according to variety and method of production. The arsenic in rice also tends to be predominately the more toxic inorganic form, which has the potential to increase risk of illnesses including cancer. Recent interest following a televised documentary programme on the risks of eating rice has brought this old topic back into the spotlight once again.

There really is arsenic in lots of food. In fact, the proposed new limits from the EU (200 parts per billion in food for adults, and 100 parts per billion in food for children and babies) are supported by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). Arsenic occurs naturally in rocks, and there's some lying around in the earth from the days when arsenic-containing pesticides were used. It dissolves easily in water, and is absorbed from water and from the soil by plants. It's found in fruit, vegetables and grains. On the whole, levels in grains tend to be lower than in plant leaves, but we don't eat as much plant leaf as we do rice. And rice is particularly efficient at picking up arsenic compared to other grains. What's more, because the arsenic gets in from soil and water, rather than from insecticides used today, organic products are just as high in arsenic as non-organic ones.

As a nation, we eat four times more rice than we did 40 years ago, and rice cakes and baby rice are very widely used as early foods for babies. So these new guidelines probably have more to do with a realisation that even tiny amounts of arsenic can add up in the long term, rather than a sudden increase in the levels of arsenic in rice. It's always been there, but we've only just noticed.

While every doctor knows the risks of serious alcohol poisoning (diarrhoea and vomiting, abdominal cramps, heart problems, dehydration, collapse and sometimes death), far less is known about the long-term effects of exposure to lower levels of arsenic. It has been linked with a possible increased risk of cancer, including bladder, skin, kidney and lung. It may also be a risk factor for heart attack and stroke. In pregnancy, there may be a link with miscarriage and low birth-weight babies, and in kids it may have an effect on brain development.

What we don't know is the level at which risks start to rise. We're never going to remove all the arsenic from the soil or from food - just like we're never going to remove all the radiation in the world we live in. We certainly don't have to ban rice from our tables immediately for fear of collapsing, frothing at the mouth. In fact, there's absolutely no need to do anything if your rice intake is limited to a few meals a week.

So what is being done to tackle this issue?

The FSA is contributing to discussions in Europe to set limits for inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products. The limits are close to being agreed. There are international efforts to better understand this and develop of code of practice that can be employed by producing countries to mitigate levels of arsenic in rice.

• The FSA supports setting EU maximum limits for inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products. We now have systems available in official labs which will mean that products can be checked to ensure they meet the rules.
• The FSA is working hard in Europe to ensure that effective, proportionate and enforceable EU maximum limits for arsenic in rice are agreed as soon as possible; that more stringent limits are put in place for rice and rice products for infants and young children; and that these will be subject to regular review. The limits are close to being agreed, and we expect them to apply from mid-next year.
• EU maximum limits for environmental contaminants are reviewed on a regular basis and are subject to future revision to take account of the latest evidence and data – therefore there may be scope to reduce them further in due course.
• It is the responsibility of manufacturers to ensure that the food they produce is as low as reasonably achievable in regard to arsenic. This will still be the case once maximum limits are in place.
• The Codex (Alimentarius) Committee on Contaminants in Food is compiling a Code of Practice for the Prevention and Reduction of Arsenic Contamination in Rice, for rice producers to use to control levels. The FSA has ensured that experts have an opportunity to influence the drafting of this document.
• The FSA is carrying out a survey on infant foods, and this will include looking at the exposure of infants to rice products and arsenic. It’s likely to be published in the new year, and the FSA will consider whether the results indicate any further risk management action is required to compliment the EU maximum limits.

Advice on the consumption of rice drinks

The FSA advise that toddlers and young children (ages 1 - 4.5 years) should not be given rice drinks as a substitute for breast milk, infant formula or cows’ milk. This is because of their proportionally higher milk consumption and lower bodyweights compared to other consumers. There are a number of alternatives to suit those with an allergy or intolerance to cows’ milk or soya. Advice should be sought from a health professional (such as a doctor or dietician) to ensure a suitable milk alternative is sought for a healthy and balanced diet.

Brown rice: Not a health food!

Brown rice, on the other hand, has significantly more arsenic than white rice and should be avoided or consumed rarely. Some of the brown rice brands tested contained at least 50% more than the safe limit per serving, and a few even had nearly double the safe limit. Note that some of the worst offenders for arsenic are made from brown rice: processed rice products like brown rice syrup, brown rice pasta, rice cakes and brown rice crisps. These processed products are commonly consumed by those following a “healthy” whole grain rich or gluten-free diet, but they clearly pose a significant risk of arsenic overexposure, especially if a person eats more than one serving per day. Obviously, brown rice is not a food that should be a dietary staple, or even eaten on a regular basis.

Aside from having a higher arsenic content, there are other reasons to avoid brown rice: it’s harder to digest and nutrient absorption is likely inferior to white rice because of phytates in the rice bran. Despite a higher nutrient content of brown rice compared to white rice, the anti-nutrients present in brown rice reduce the bioavailability of any vitamins and minerals present. Plus, brown rice also reduces dietary protein and fat digestibility compared to white rice. In short, brown rice is not a health food for a variety of reasons, and a higher arsenic content is simply another reason to avoid eating it.

No food is completely safe or without some level of contamination risk: vegetables make up 24% of our arsenic exposure and tap water can legally contain 10 ppb arsenic per litre (some systems even exceed the legal limit.) So while rice may contribute an unsafe level of arsenic, it’s certainly not the only source in our diet, and we need to be cautious about demonising an entire class of food based on a sound bite from a news story. Whilst rice may not be a necessary component of a healthy diet, it can be incorporated safely as a source of starch: just be sure to pay attention to the brand you’re buying, as well as your method of preparation.

References:

https://www.food.gov.uk/science/arsenic-in-rice

http://chriskresser.com/arsenic-in-rice-how-concerned-should-you-be/