2-14-2012 Maha's Valentine

 He Stihl Loves Me
by Kristine Lavender Love 

Wondering what the Maha has been up to lately?

I’ll tell you.  The other morning as I was eating some toast out on the doorstep in the sun -- a much healthier alternative than seated in front of the Market Oracle on the computer reading about Babylon going down -- I happened to glance into a large planter and noticed some strange markings.  Like something sat or stepped in there.  Something catlike, but bigger.  Mostly smooth in several spots, but in one area there was definitely a paw print of some sort.  


Maybe, maybe not.  ON MY DOORSTEP?



Oh, that's why.  Behind it stood a tall metal flower can with something smelly and agricultural I was using.  And my cat stick.  Previously left down at the greenhouse for a couple weeks, at what is supposed to be the door.  It's a wreck, there is no such thing.  Left there, after ceremony on Hallowmas, because I discovered a dead fox on the cement slab next to the greenhouse.



I had seen this little fox a couple of times in broad daylight, prior to finding him dead.  He was in the front, outside the fence.  The PG & E lady saw him one day too she told me.  Thought it was a dog or a cat, and was shocked to see it was a  little gray fox, just hanging around...

He was cute.  But I did fret a bit for the cats.  Wondering how a predatory animal like a fox could wind up dead on my garden slab?



Arrrrrrrrrrrghhhhff!!

Guess he couldn't tolerate another predator on the premises.

             So I left my cat staff down there. 


It actually may have had the opposite effect and attracted him, as the other evening at twilight I went down to pick some tetragonia from a large hardy volunteer plant growing in the greenhouse floor.  It was nearly dark as I hunted for leaves, when all of a sudden I went:


“EEeeeeouuuw what is THIS??”  Right next to the plant was the half-eaten carcass of another dead fox-like animal, surely too big to be a squirrel.  Guess he brought me another one....

Oh  yuck, dead fox!

What the animals see

Well at least he leaves my cats alone.  So I took the staff back up to the house on Candlemas, after ceremony with the smelly organic stuff --  put it all on the doorstep and went about my life.  Now we’ve got the stick, the vase of stuff, and the paw print, all right there outside the door.  Sounds a bit like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to me.... 
+
Those Primal Forces and Animal Powers, dwelling in and around my house!

So how’s the Maha?  He IS!!  

He loves me, he loves me not ??


And how’s the chainsaw doing?  Great.  I love my Stihl chainsaw.  
What a great tool.  
I sharpen the chain.  
I keep it filled with good quality bar oil.  I clean the gears and run it with the right chain tension.  
Cutting tools, implements of the East.   Swords.  
Discernment.  Knowledge.  The mind.  Knowledge is power.  “Double edged sword”.  And you better pay attention to what you’re doing when running a chain saw.  It’s hard work, requiring fully focused presence.  


And it smells.  BAD!!!!  Now I know why the Maha gets so upset.  I just read recently that their sense of smell is some ridiculous amount more sensitive than ours as humans.  No wonder he goes YUCK and acts up.  But I think he’s getting used to it.  He lets me know if I leave a chainsaw mess where he walks, but is noticeably less upset.  And he thankfully hasn’t messed with the cats lately.




 Recently I ventured just on the other side of my back yard fence, where the vibration abruptly changes to THE FOREST....  I was actually quite surprised at how differently it vibrates at such close range to my house.  I can look through the trees and see my little dwelling.  But whoa, we know who else looks through the trees and walks around back there.  All the wild animals.  

The oaks have really worked the fence and made a perfect catwalk for anything that can climb or jump, right into my back yard. And I know the cats use this area too, to come and go into the woods. Who am I kidding, he doesn’t even need the natural catwalk, Mahas jump 18 feet vertically.

And if he doesn’t want to come in that way, he and the deer can walk another 20 feet around a corner and jump the Monty Python fence that is slightly more than Kristine height, definitely not 18 feet.

 

 Or he can just saunter over my silly gate.  The cat has many options depending on what he wants to do.

Its funny, for weeks I kept looking at that hole in the trees from my living room window,going -- I KNOW that is a doorway for animals.  


And when I went back there, I saw just what sort of super highway it really was.  Really wild back there, as the land stretches way down through much forest, to the Jesus Maria creek.  

View through the trees behind back yard fence

Lots of poison oak -- that’s  P.O., we calls it.  Or ‘Oak’... as we say, with a look that says ‘oh yuck, oh no, oh dear’...  Want to hear my poison oak story?  Later...

So I cut some firewood back there, cleaned up a bit to improve the animal trail, found an old pile of cut wood lying forgotten about for years because it had originally been lying in a patch of P.O. now dead, chucked it all over the fence into the backyard, and definitely pondered the possibility of meeting a griffin back there if one happened to wander too far down into the trees.  And knew I would probably be hearing about it from the Maha, after leaving all those fumes about.  At least I made their trails nicer for them all. 



That was some weeks ago.  In the meantime I’ve found a dead fox in the green house and a large pile of lion poop right where I walk down the lane to the trailer area; several paw prints in the mud in the driveway; and I think I heard him around 5 one morning recently, like a drunk yowling in the distance.  Hard to say with closed windows, it also could have been Lil Maha the bobcat, who is quite vocal once in a great while.  Apparently he is tolerated.  

And now today the paw print -- or whatever that is --  in the planter, and a prominent scrape on the trail that goes behind the backyard fence where I had been cutting wood.   I noticed it on the way out this morning.  Yep.  He loves me. This is how he says “Hi I’m definitely here.”  He’s not causing a stir with the cats.  But he’s around.  

But really?  On the doorstep???  Hard to say....  In my world, quite likely.


Well he is right about one thing -- that fossil fuel surely does stink!   Why can’t they make these machines run on vinegar or sunlight.   Funny, the only time I feel I smell really bad is after using a gas-guzzling motorized gadget.  And I’m sorry, the answer is not an electric powered chain saw, how utterly silly and impractical.    Sounds like a great way to electrocute yourself, in addition to hacking off a body part accidentally.


So I always treat myself to a nice long hot herbal bath with lots of eucalyptus and lavender after cutting a bunch of firewood.  I like to put all kinds of mud and plant goo on my face and hair.   In my claw foot tub.......  Animal Powers and Creature Comforts, they are most delightful.


Happy Valentine’s Day!!  Don’t forget to Kiss all your Animal Beloveds too!

2-11-2012 More on The Wild Self

-- It’s definitely not the Pits --

by Kristine Lavender Love

Ian

It can be kind of a dilemma, how to integrate the Wild Self, which is the Instinct, with the rest of the self’s aspects.  The Wild Self is just that.  It doesn’t like to be caged.  It likes to be how it is.  You parents out there know all about the Self I’m talking about, having raised children.  THAT’S the piece I’m talking about, that little unsocialized wild animal in there that refuses to take off the T-Rex suit and put on pants for school.  I don’t refer to it as the Inner Child, or the Wild Child because my Wild Self has had to grow up.  The piece of us as humans I am talking about is the part that is in touch with the magical, the unbound, the natural, the ridiculous, the imagination, the pure expression of feeling in whatever way.  It sounds like childhood, or a good mushroom trip...  Kids are naturally psychedelic, left to their own devices, I notice.

 Ian, a dear young man in my world, being offered one of my herbal tinctures when sick.  

WHAT???!!

NOOOO!!!!!!!

Take THAT!!!

                                                This guy has no problem accessing his Wild Self

Rudolph Steiner, one of the
last century's greatest
practical mystics

There is a piece of every human being that is in tune with Nature, by default.  Some lucky ducks have that piece nurtured by their parents and early life, and if they are really fortunate, maybe even by their educational system.  In the Western World model.... good luck.  But it’s out there.  The Waldorf Schools are a great example of an educational system that has reclaimed that piece, integrated it into their curriculum, and can actively nurture and teach pathways back to wholeness for both children and adults.  I know there are others.  They will not be found in the main stream.  I’m a big fan of Rudolph Steiner, a totally plugged-in, multi-dimensional practical mystic.  And you can bet some of his nay-saying peers were thinking “Gad, what an eccentric!”.  Or worse!!  Seen some of his profile pics or heard about his oak bark and other preps? He knew all about powders and their alchemy.  I've picked up a whole bunch of very interesting concoctions, concepts, practices and ideas from Steiner.


So there are 2 things really:

Where I go when tech does
not cooperate

How do you find your way back there, and once there, how do you nurture the connection and integrate it into the rest of your aspects?  

Kryon / Lee Carol has a wonderful message the last days about just this.  He's talking about the Wild Self, and what lies beyond it.  That's another topic...
http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/process-%E2%80%93-kryon-fyi-kryon-only-known-channel-drunvalo-supports-thanks-paul

How do you find your way back there?  Feeling, coupled with a lot of self and unconditional love, and intuition.  Feeling will put you in touch with an empathic relationship to life.  Once you understand that the life around you is alive and conscious and aware of YOU, and has feelings, that changes how you might want to posture yourself to life and notice more of what is going on all around you.  I’m not just talking about how you relate to human beings.  Let’s take it out into the realm of Nature.  Do you consider that Nature is aware of you?  And can feel your presence?  That nearly every move we make out there as unconscious and even awakening humans is actually quite destructive?  Well who wants to look at that?

Tip-toed through the tulips lately?

And yet, Nature is so forgiving if we learn.  If we work with her consciously.  She understands our difficulty and is giving us a realm in which to learn.  BUT -- learn we must.  And quite frankly people -- if you knew where it takes you, you would WANT to learn. It's a kick in the pants.  We live on a Paradise Planet. The difficult part is, we as moderns have been so steered away from it and have created something hideous instead.  The direction in which Paradise lies seems to not exist, and when elucidated, it has the tendency to gross modern people out.  

Hey!  Piggies have more fun!
Peace, Bro! 

Want a real-life graphic   example?? --


Who in the twisted world ever came up with the idea that women must not have hair under their arms and on their legs?  Good Grief, how idiotic!  If I had to be a slave to shaving my legs and pits every day and slopping toxic poison under my arms because the culture tells me that’s what I surely have to do to attract a mate, and if I don’t I’m a gross pig -- I’d REALLY BE A NUT  !!!  Gad, give me my handful of lavender, please.  And yes they might be right.  However if that’s the price tag and what men really want, then I don’t want one and they SURELY don’t want me!!


When you change your life and eat a more pure diet, you don’t need all that toxic crap to smell good.  I make a wonderful natural body powder out of local white clay, arrow root powder and ground up herbs, when I need such a thing.  Or my favorite method, given in a most graphic and hilarious demonstration from my dear friend Aimee, who has been described as a wild horde  - or herd - unto herself by another mutual friend who would probably know about such things....  

Note:  People with animal references

 in or as their name are giving you 

a dead wringer clue as to a 

portion of their identity.

The Wild Horde grows
awesome peppers

Holy Basil

So picture this: The sun is going down and we are on our way to a party. “Come on Aimee let’s go, it’s a long drive out to the Dykens'.  Let's not drive both ways through Ichabod Crane country in the dark.” 


We like to drive out there.  It's a wonderful jaunt.  And after all these years, both of us can still get lost.  One wrong turn on a dirt road and you end up somewhere you never saw before, and better hope whoever greets you doesn't have a sawed off shot gun and a pack o' pit bull dogs.

Aimee & Kristine,
The Face of Modern Agriculture

Plus it's a beautiful drive, I like to see it.  She’s in the garden fussing with her greenhouse, still not ready and I'm tapping my toe.  All of a sudden she whips off her clothes, hoses herself off, shakes a bit, then grabs a big ol’ handful of Tulsi -- which is holy basil, if you’ve never grown or used it, and smells HEAVENLY - clamps it down under her arm and gives it about 10 good whacks back and forth. 


“My deodorant” she grins as we both crack up like idiots.  I nearly choked and swooned with delight! What a great idea! I now do it with lavender on a regular basis. I keep a big basket of it in my bathroom for such purposes.

Bathroom Lavender

You know, sweating is healthy.  It releases toxins and cools the body.  The Wild Self sweats and does all things natural.  See why most people run screaming?  

Who am I??

I say, WHO am I???

Okay well I’m a country girl. Now.  I am allowed to sweat, right?  


I used to be a city girl, years ago.  I lived downtown in a major US city, worked with computers, wore suits and the most gorgeous but awful feet ruining high heeled shoes and make-up -- and drank a lot of alcohol. 


Guess what I was looking for in all those years.....  The culture has done something really perverse to the Wild Self. It does not allow it to grow up.  It rewards you greatly if you mangle maim and kill that part of yourself, with a good deal of torture involved in the process.  Women, what do you do to yourselves to be beautiful?  Does it involve a lot of money bondage and pain, or simplicity ease and freedom? I guarantee you that the Wild Self loves simplicity, ease and freedom.

My beloved friend and
first dance teacher, Farasha

And the culture will waste no time telling you how inferior and obnoxious you are and must smell if you don't coat yourselves in it's cesspool of products.  I don't listen to that.  I prefer to talk back....


One time when I was actively on the dance scene, I took a trip with my first dance teacher down to the San Francisco area to attend a big yearly dance festival.  We stayed overnight at the home of a very accomplished dancer who is originally from our region in the mountains, so she knows all about being a country girl.  


When we walked in, she and her daughter kept exclaiming “You smell so good!  You smell like the Earth, the country”  I had no idea.  And neither of us were probably wearing much of any kind of fragrance product.  It happened one other time too on a different occasion in a bar in San Francisco.  Women in the bathroom said my 2 friends and I smelled good.  Can you imagine?  They picked that up in a smelly city bar.

Crawling around in the
lavender again, Peaches?

Hera, one of my cows
years ago

But as I think about it, my cats always smell really good when they come indoors after being out, especially during the winter.  The cows I used to keep always smelled really good. I used to love to snuggle up to them and inhale their odor.  It smelled sweet.   Earthy.  Wholesome.  Nothing putrid about it.


Here’s a recipe for a really nice body powder if you have access to good white clay.  If you’ve dug it outdoors somewhere, strain well to remove any gritty particles and botanical matter, then put it through a hot purification process to kill bacteria.  If you don’t like the proportion of ingredients, change it!  Ground eucalyptus or rosemary would also be a good herbal choice in place of sage.  I use all dried botanicals, measured after grinding to a fine powder in a blender. 

Sage Lavender & Violet Body Powder

Blend equal parts:

Fine White Clay

Organic Corn Starch or Arrow Root

Ground Sage, Lavender & Violets

Keep in an airtight jar.  Dust on as needed.

There are many things you can use.  Years ago I was given a large lump of smooth rock salt as an under arm product. That worked well.  I don’t know anymore what is out there as I’ve found my own concoctions.   But I definitely stay away from anything with Frankenstein chemicals, especially aluminum.  Goes right in.  Who are they kidding, do you really need that in your system?  It's toxic!!

Amon Ra, Bar Fly:
"Who smells so good???"

Okay you tell me you simply do not have the head for coming up with this stuff but are interested.  What to do?  Check out some of the writings and herbal materia medica of Jeanne Rose, a most delightful author, herbalist, artist, creative being.  She wrote many practical works on the subject and provides awesome recipes and anecdotes.   I've drawn from her work many many times.

http://www.jeannerose.net/books.html


And consider the role clothing plays in your choice of body products.  Natural fibers breathe and allow a better air flow onto your skin.  Synthetic ones do not.  If you’re prone to hot flashes, do yourself a favor and dress in layers that can be removed fast without unduly shocking anybody.  


I just have to laugh at some of the antics of my women friends as they’ve integrated and walked their beautiful Wild Selves out into the world, shamelessly -------  The Culture of Yuckdom loves to heap shame and embarrassment upon you for doing it.   Try not shaving, if you’re a woman, and happen to have body hair.....  Feel a vignette coming on?

I never saw a purple wild cow...

So my first dance teacher and her elderly mom are sitting at the table having dinner.  They’re talking about something or other, when the mother leans forward and says to her “And how do you think you’re EVER going to catch a man if you don’t shave your pits?”  ... at which my hippie dancer friend just laughed uproariously.  Warrior’s Laugh......  It sometimes can blow people’s silly lil ideas of how things should be, right out of the water.  

She did get married recently, as a matter of fact.  Her beau could not care less about the state of her armpits.  They are not offensive.  She feels free to shave or not.    It’s the freedom that counts.  She loves my body powder too.  


Remember that old Lou Reed song? 

 “Plucked her eyebrows on the way, 

shaved her legs and then he was a she, 

she said Hey Babe, 

take a walk on the 

Wild Side...”

Well, whatever blows up yer dress I guess.  Or down yer chainsaw pants,

 heh heh heh.  But that's a subject for another day!

Lavender, a great aromatic way to
nurture your Wild Self.

And the Maha likes it too!