As i write my first post from India I want to say THANK YOU DEEPLY to all of those who put your intent, prayers, and donations towards bringing me here. I could not have done it without you and honor and appreciate all of the generosity and kindness that poured through everyone. I really hope to see that money becomes second to fulfilling our soul purpose in life and I do see that the internet is helping that to happen.
I arrived at the hotel last night at about 11 pm and today I am really feeling the Jetlag from the 14 hour flight. Its 6 am your time and 6 in the evening here – So i am pulling an all nighter, well except for its the middle of the day, so an all dayer! you can see why my body is confused. I am staying at Pahar Ganj (for 2 nights) which is miles and miles full of shops, ive never seen so much stuff in my life, and if you arent careful each one of them would suck you into a debate as to why you dont want to buy their whateveritis.
Today i took a walk around town and took the freedom to plant wander, I met black nightshade (Solanum spp) – a controversial edible plant with poisonous parts that most of the field guides have mashed up facts about. I also met lots of amazing and totally exotic trees, One im pretty certain was a banyan tree! It was huge and had lots of gnarled roots. It is amazing that the trees breathe here, Everything is caked with who knows what and has a grey dull shade. The toxigen is definitely having its effect on me as well and I am boosting up on lomatium tincture to keep my lungs clean and help process that stuff through. I wrote a blog on what I brought in my herbal kit and that can be found here: http://returntonature.us/?p=916
In my wanders I also met an ayurvedic physician who I got to ask about rasayana (deep rejuvinators- immortality claims etc), bhasma (sacred ash), and doing fire ceremonies for earth healing by offering up medicinal herbs in the fire. I spoke with him for about 2 hours and it cost about 15 dollars!
According to Alchemy and Tantra as well as many other esoteric traditions, Each herb does the same thing for the earth as it does for your body. I am seeking to explore this practice more in depth while I am here as this is a tradition that has been putting that philosophy into practice for thousands of years. It is a common tradition in every indigenous culture to have ceremony to offer to the earth as a thank you and way of syncing with higher energies. I highly recommend following your intuition to find your own unique way of doing this. Often times when I am in the woods looking for plants and mushrooms I give a simple mixture of sunflower, pumpkin, and other fragrant herbs. Remember that if it is a viable seed it will sprout so I suggest hulled seeds – Or being really mindful as a replanter. I consider that since i am taking other animals food I can replenish it some.
Thankfully I leave here for the mountains and fresh air in the A.M. where I will fetch my own rickshaw and maybe even film the chaos =) – the ability of the people, cars, cows, rickshaws, and taxis to weave through each other is amazing and is definitely living on the border of “any closer and that would have been an accident!” But its just the way of life here…
Ok Im off to the Himalayas! Haridwar and Rishikesh are next where I will be meeting beautiful plants and hopefully have the guts to bathe in the ganga (ganges river). It will be super freezing! but how can I not! Stay tuned for more plant magic!
Much Love and Blessings!
Dan
