(Winter excerpt from my book, Divine Nourishment, A Woman’s Sacred Journey with Food)

Take time to embrace the benefits of winter.

Winter is a challenging season for many. Societal demands and winter are like oil and water. Nature pulls in, slows down to rejuvenate, restore and rebuild her life force for the next cycle. Her energy goes into the depths where it is still. She reduces the outward demands to take time for restoration and to gather energy for herself.

I vote for vacation time in the summer to play and vacation time in the winter to rest and rebuild.

The kidneys and the bladder are the organ systems ruled by winter. They relate to the water element, which governs this season and represents the death part of the natural cycle—the trough of the wave—the dark side of life. Our modern society does not support honoring this season, when the natural flow calls for slowing down and resting. Many find it an impossible luxury. The demands for survival are too intense. When the energy moves inward, the natural desire for inner exploration is not an option. The pace of life continues as it does the rest of the year. Unfortunately, this lifestyle is not in the flow of nature, and depletes our kidney energy, where we build and store our life force.

The wounding of the feminine influences the level of our deep-seated fear. The season and water element of winter has a direct relationship with fear. The combination of not taking the time to rejuvenate in winter and the stress caused by fear is damaging to our kidneys, depleting us of life-force energy. It is a vicious cycle. This energy that fuels our life and supports us to grow and manifest our self is not available. After a certain level of depletion, our life-force energy is insufficient to nourish the health of our organ systems; we are vulnerable to disease. This is a collective cultural issue and one of the more serious imbalances in modern society. Fear is a major factor that keeps us from being able to live by nature’s wisdom. We are running as fast as we can simply to survive, physically or emotionally.

The need to simplify our life is evident and will take a readjustment in our priorities and sense of values. This is an indication of the transformation that is available when we live by nature’s wisdom. Our pace unravels our conditioned world to support natural flow. Without time to gather our energy and connect with our self at the depths of our being, we basically limp through the rest of the entire cycle and can’t access our deepest self to support growth. Some push beyond with the help of stimulants such as coffee and sugar. This forces their kidneys and adrenals into constant overdrive until they give out, never addressing the chronic fight or flight mode of our unconscious.

Winter is the season and element that supports us to take time out to go to the depths of our unconscious and meet our self. Winter supports us to explore the part of us that is in fear, so that we can soothe it. It is the season that many avoid so they can run faster and faster, until they collapse.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to embrace this season and element. After reading this book, if you find it is possible that your kidneys and adrenals have been working overtime I suggest getting extra acquainted with the foods, tonics and energy practices that rebuild your kidney energy.

Make sure the kidney-building foods are incorporated all year long as they come into season, and find a way to nourish your self by checking out of your routine and checking in with nature when you take time to rest.

The combination of healing the feminine wound, soothing the fears, resting, consuming nourishing foods with appropriate cooking methods, tonics and energy practices will greatly support your kidneys. This foundation gives you the force to create and sustain life—just at it does for nature.

Following is a list of foods and cooking methods that will support you to rebuild your kidney energy.

Optimum Cooking Methods for Winter

Winter is a time to cook foods slowly. This cooking method brings the energy of the food deep within where your nourishment is needed in winter to warm your core. Soups, braised dishes, roasted foods, such as root vegetables and meats warm your body, restore moistness and nourish deeply. The colder your environment in the winter, the more warming you’ll want your food.

Seaweed is one of the most nourishing and moistening foods for our water organ system. It is a wonder food in supporting your kidney energy. I eat it in soups in the winter and as a salad in the summer.

It is helpful to make a list of foods that are in season to put up on your refrigerator as a reminder for your shopping. Include foods of all five flavors: salty, bitter, sour, sweet, pungent. This ensures that all your organs are being nourished each season. Include an abundance of foods that nourish the kidney and bladder from your list of foods for kidneys and water element. Some you will eat in winter, some are in season at other times of the year. This allows you to nourish these organs all year around. However, winter is the optimum time to focus on nourishing and building kidney energy.

Sample Winter Shopping List

Select foods from each category of flavor for your daily meals

This list varies according to where you live. If you live in the tropics, your winter list will be quite different than someone living on the northeast coast. The best thing to do is to investigate what is in season in your area. Naturally salty foods nourish the kidneys and bladder. Some foods in the following list will be in more than one category. They nourish more than one organ system. They have a combination of natural flavors.

In the tropics farmers’ markets continue in winter. Try to buy your produce at one of them. You can ground yourself with food that is growing locally. If that is not a possibility where you live it is best to buy food that are grown as close to you as possible. For instance east coast shoppers can buy Florida produce instead of California produce, or vice versa.

Salty Nourishes Kidney, Bladder

Cheese, kelp, mineral salt, miso, nori, salt water fish, seaweeds, soy sauce

Sour/Nourishes Liver, Gallbladder

Lemons, limes, olives, raspberry leaf tea, rosehips, yogurt

Sweet/Nourishes Spleen, Stomach 

Almonds, amasake, beef, beets, butter, carrots, cheese, chicken, coconut, dates,

dried apricots, dried beans, dried mango, eggs, fennel seed, grains, honey, kale, lamb, licorice root, milk, molasses, olive oil, oranges, pork, rice syrup, salmon, sesame seeds, shrimp, sunflower seeds, tangerine, turkey, turnip, walnuts, whitefish

Pungent/Nourishes Lungs, Colon

Cabbage, cardamom, cayenne, cheese, chili, cinnamon, clove, coriander seed, cumin, garlic, ginger, horseradish, jasmine, onions, peppermint, peppers, rosemary, sage, thyme, turmeric, turnip

Bitter/Nourishes Heart, Small Intestine

Amaranth, artichokes, bitter sweet dark chocolate, cardamom, chicory, cinnamon, collard greens, dandelion root, fenugreek seeds, kale, kohlrabi, quinoa, rye, watercress, wild rice

I have reduced the price of my book, Divine Nourishment  in Kindle version at Amazon to $3.00 for Christmas so you can afford to give it to as many friends as possible. It makes a wonderful healing gift at a price that supports you in these economical times. I hope you take advantage of this offer.

Love

Mary

Kindle Book

We cannot know ourselves as this empowered, centered, Divine force without knowing our darker self. One side of us feels powerful and wonderful, while the other can feel quite frightened and debilitated. We often swing back and forth between the two, and it can be very confusing if we don’t understand the power and benefit of entering into the darkness. We think something went wrong.

The wave and flow of energy that nature experiences throughout the seasons has a light, outward peak and an inward, darker trough. In nature there is a season for all things. For many on a spiritual path there is a tendency to believe that we are all working hard to move toward just the light. We are working toward that time of all joy when everything is in harmony, balance and happiness.

But when things come back into harmony there will not be a loss of darkness. We will simply understand its place in our life and in our world. We will come to peace with the darkness. Without the darkness of winter we can not have any other season. Without the darkness that comes from the absence of the sun the planet could not function. It works in a way that is already in harmony.

It is the periods in life when we face our dark places that we illuminate more than the “good” expanded times. It is the darker times that have truly opened the doors to the depths and heights of our being. It is because of those times we are able to be the full expression of self that we are.

Learning to love our self because of our darkness, not in spite of it, is a key. The journey of falling in love with this part of us, as deeply as the expanded part that is in the light, supports our wholeness. Acknowledging that every part of us is fine and as it is supposed to be is the journey of reclaiming ourselves.

There is nothing wrong with us! When we learn that and when we are committed to that energy, then the balance is restored. When we really feel the flow of discovery that dipping down into the darkness provides and meet more of our self, it becomes a glorious adventure. Strangely enough the pain starts to become an enjoyment when we let go of the beliefs that something is inherently wrong with us.

When we transform these beliefs we suddenly face our self with no shame and we begin to meet these parts of our self as a homecoming and a celebration. It’s really only our perception of these parts of our self that creates the pain. The shame is rooted in the belief that we should have done it better. When we let go of the self-blame and the shame that goes with it, we shift how we experience ourselves—and that is a great joy.

It has been a wild ride since my last newsletter. I uprooted from Asheville, NC and moved back home to Maui, via a month on the Big Island. The growing need and experiment to follow where I am called and not have an agenda that is so strong I can’t be guided has put me to the test with such a big move. And it took awhile to get grounded. It wasn’t until I did ground that I realized I was being blown all over the place. It has once again been a great reminder of the benefits of being rooted in the body with feet on the Earth while staying open to Divine guidance. I don’t know about you, but I need to practice this — a lot.

Letting go of the fear of survival, which the energy of fall supports, and dropping into myself deep enough to feel an unshakable commitment to my soul’s song and contract no matter what, has been the grounding I needed so I can trust myself to steward my gifts with the integrity they deserve. I am seeing this process unfold in others around me and wonder if this is indeed a collective wave we are all riding in our own way.

I continue to come back to the seasonal energetic wave that nature provides so I can flow with the current, stop trying to swim upstream, thrash around in the froth of the waves, or dig my heals in the sand.

Coming home to myself, to the arms of the Mother, as she holds my inner child and makes her feel safe is a glorious journey that dissolves all the false beliefs and structures that were built to keep a fearful inner child feeling safe to begin with.

Fall and winter are superb seasons to take a look at those structures that no longer serve, let them go and access the soul’s treasure chest of gifts unrestricted by fear. Isn’t it an outrageous ride we are all on as we usher ourselves into a new way of being.

Remember, you have a very wise, compassionate Mother guiding you, holding you, supporting you to come home to her and yourself.

If you do not already have my book there is a section in it that supports you to strengthen your internal Mother and use her compassion to heal your inner child. This is where I have found the true safety to be. It is within us. It is not trying to control the world outside ourselves to keep the child safe. It is having a solid, healthy internal Mother and child relationship so the child no longer runs our lives from the background trying to be safe. If you have my book review this section.

For us to move into a new paradigm that is not run by fear is it possible that it is all within ourselves? Strengthen your internal Mother by living aligned with her wisdom reflected to you in nature. Heal your relationship with the Mother, nourish and heal your child. Heal your child and heal our world. Feel her arms around you and you are unshakable in your commitment to your own soul’s song.

Coming home to the arms of my beloved Mother Maui, bathing in her compassionate energy, trusting her to take care of me upon my return, trusting my own internal Mother to care for my child is strengthening the sense of safety and trust in myself. When we feel safe we can have healthy, loving relationships with one another that supports us all to shine brightly. Isn’t that what we are all moving toward in our new paradigm?

Fall and Winter seasons, when honored, is the reflective inward time of the year that supports this journey. Allow yourself to slow down, spend time inward and explore what old beliefs are running your life. Make that child feel safe so you can dismantle those beliefs. Those beliefs are going no where and will continue to run our lives until that child feels safe.

The sacred art of nourishing was practiced in ancient goddess traditions in many forms. It was a way of honoring the sensual pleasures and blessings that came with our physical existence. Nourishing one’s self through food, beauty, touch, sex, music, art and nature is an act of receiving Divine love. The destruction of the goddess cultures has resulted in disconnecting from this sacred art and the belief by many that they are unworthy of this nourishment.

I have met and worked with many women over the years and it has become glaringly apparent to me that just about every woman I’ve known is comfortable with offering nourishment to others. Receiving it is another matter.

I lived in a rather funky little jungle house built into the side of a ridge in the rainforest on Maui. It was an indoor, outdoor lifestyle. The house was all glass on one side overlooking the jungle, with the ocean a short walk away.

I decided to create a day of nourishment for five of my women friends and called it Pele’s Parlor. They gathered one morning at my jungle home for tea from local herbs I had gathered and dried.

We walked down a rutted, dirt road that ended on the cliff of the north shore overlooking the ocean and a special bay. It was whale season so we hung out on the cliff awhile, watching the whales breaching and swimming past. The view was breathtaking. The bay was lined with lava rock that had been ground smooth from the ocean’s constant ebb and flow. I could lie in my bed at home and listen to her roll the rocks back and forth in the stillness of the night. It was her song for the whole neighborhood.

The five of us built a small fire in the shade under a large false almond tree. Then we stripped off our clothes, dove into the ocean waves, and lounged on the warm boulders with the surf crashing around us. I ceremoniously brought out the sacred red dirt harvested from a vein that ran through the cliff, put it in my coconut bowl and added a little ocean water, mixing it into a fine slip. We gathered around and smeared this iron-rich mud all over our bodies. The only thing showing that was not bright red were the rings around our eyes. We basked on the boulders in the sun as the sacred mud drew out toxins and filled us with blood-nourishing iron.

Some women could not help but release their primordial screams as they danced on the rocks, covered in mud with the waves crashing around them. We dove into the ocean and scrubbed off the mud with seaweed, then returned to the fire for a snack in the shade. Each of us ran our fingers over our silky skin—oohing, aahing and feeling primal.

We walked back to the lanai of my jungle house where I had set up a table filled with bowls of avocado, yogurt, papaya, oatmeal and yogurt, breast massage creams, foot massage oils, moisturizers, washcloths and towels.  We gave ourselves facials with the various ingredients and ate the wonderful fruits that grew wild in the jungle, We had bananas, mango, guava, pineapple and coconut.

After awhile, with faces smeared with food, we all went into the kitchen and prepared a meal together giggling, talking story and drinking my wild-crafted tea. We convened back to the lanai and sat around a beautifully-set table with flowers that grew abundantly around the house.

Another woman friend who specializes in the ancient Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage set up a massage table and altar in the downstairs, outdoor room. Each woman took her turn receiving a massage. Another woman brought her Tarot cards and gave each of us a short reading. We continued to drop deeper into self-nourishment while being filled by our friendship. The image of one of the women sitting on my lanai eating wild guava, tear-streaked face smeared with avocado while she massaged her breasts with oil, will forever be etched in my memory. Her tears flowed with the merged feelings of gratitude for this experience and the deep grief of not feeling worthy of such frivolity.

As the day unfolded every woman had a moment of deep grief woven with joy and ecstasy.  At some point throughout the day, each of us fell into our moment of recognition of the absence of this in our lives. Unanimously the feeling of not deserving nourishment in the form of pure pleasure was expressed by the women as if it came from the same underground pool.

Soon it was dusk. With the candles lit, the Hawaiian music playing, another snack, we all melted into a moment of deep nourishment and self-love. We were full.

The next morning I received a call from the one of the husbands. “I don’t know what you women did yesterday, but a monster left in the morning and a goddess returned.”

 Simple, Sacred & Fun!

If you live on Maui or planning a trip consider a sacred day of nourishment. I am offering a day you can share with friends celebrating a birthday, upcoming wedding, or just being alive.  I will guide you on a hike through one of our valleys, up rivers, or to a waterfall enjoying the ritual of nourishing ourselves on many levels while tapping into our primal selves. There is no describing the journey into the arms of Mother Maui, receiving her deep nourishment when we take the time to check out of our fast paced lives and honor ourselves.

Introduction to 5 Element Cooking        

When we feed our bodies energetically aligned with the Earth’s wisdom with seasonal local foods we eventually EMBODY that wisdom. The Taoist 5 Element perspective on nourishment honors her wisdom for body, mind, spirit and our human journey. This is the wisdom of the Divine Feminine. Bringing her back into our world requires us to embody her. In 30 years on the path of sacred food as a professional chef I have found nothing that compares to eating aligned with nature’s wisdom. It awakens our own body’s wisdom and we can let go of the latest food trends and allow our natural body wisdom guide us.

If embodying this wisdom is of interest to you please consider registering for my next 6 week live teleseminar course, “Introduction to 5 Element Cooking beginning Tuesday, Sept 6th at 8:30PM EST. You will receive a solid foundation that will not only nourish you on all levels, but support the health of our Mother Earth as well. You do not need to become a 5 element foodist. You only need a desire to live and eat in harmony with a wisdom that sustains and honors life taught by the master herself. Nature. For details on this course click link. http://www.divinenourishment.net/onlinecourse.html If you can not attend this course, but have interest in this nourishment wisdom please check out my book Divine Nourishment, A Woman’s Sacred Journey with Food. www.divinenourishment.net

Blessings on all our journeys of transformation

Mary

The Divine Feminine has many facets to her. She is vast. She is pure sexual creative energy connected to the Divine Source as the womb of the realm of possibility. She gives birth to all there is, she nourishes it, guides it, devours it. In her wholeness she is  united with her masculine essence that brings her unbridled sexual creative energy into focus, resulting in form. All form can be traced back to her. Everything is self similar. It just vibrates at a different frequency depending on the dimension in which it is accessed. Form is the densest frequency, but by all means no less Divine.

No wonder she scared the beejeezes out of those who didn’t understand her. However, she has never left us. Her wisdom, intelligence, compassion, fierceness, beauty, the list is endless, has just been disregarded, ignored, hidden, and pushed back into the shadows until we were mature enough to handle her. Seems we are finally approaching that time in history. Her intelligence in it’s least distorted manifestation comes into form as nature, our beloved Mother Earth.

It is no coincidence that when she was devalued and ignored, so was the physical manifestation of her wisdom in the form of the natural world, the body, and women. They are all self similar. It is also no coincidence that as we honor the Divine Feminine and welcome her wisdom back into our world, we are returning to honoring women, our bodies and the Earth. You can not separate them. Lord knows we have done everything imaginable to separate them, but to no avail.

Fifteen years ago I experienced a kundalini awakening that lasted about two years. The serpent uncoiled and took me for an indescribable ride that I’m still integrating. It was the Divine Feminine in her unbridled, unmanifested raw sexual energy surging through my body at about 660 volts. What a ride! I experienced the tiniest thought reverberate out in infinite larger, grander expressions of itself, manifesting as it grew from my personal experience to the collective and beyond. It shined a light like a beacon into every crack and crevice in my psyche, showing me the negative thought patterns that was not aligned with her authenticity. She’s still doing this.

We are witnessing the same thing on the collective level as she shines a light on all the corrupted belief patterns in our society causing them to crumble. They are just a larger manifestation of individual unconscious and disowned beliefs, thrown into one big pot of yucky tasting soup. If we are to welcome her, then we must honor her in her entirety, not try to save her. We must honor her as she is manifested as the Earth, not try to save her.  We must honor her as manifested as woman, not try to save her. We must honor our bodies’ wisdom, as it is her wisdom. “Saving” still comes from the patriarchal stance that we are superior. What a joke.

So how does this relate to the art of transformation? As it has been taught by the ancient ones in many cultures, sexual energy has enormous transformative power. It creates and transforms. However, it is not discriminating. It creates form of whatever consciousness it is channeled through. As long as we are hooked into the consciousness of our old negative beliefs, and the patriarchal collective system that is what will be created. However, she will not stop shining a light on this, and we may see what is hidden in the shadows and allow this energy to transform into a consciousness that is more aligned with hers if we choose.

If the natural world and Earth is a physical manifestation of the Divine Feminine and  self similar to us then the same kundalini energy that moves through our bodies and consciousness also moves through the Earth’s. This wave of creative life force moving through the Earth’s body can be witnessed as seasons going through the process of creation, life, and destruction, death. We are witnessing her infinite creativity and willingness to let go of what no longer serves, and become food for the birth of the new. It is transformation at it’s best.

As self similar creatures we are souls who have manifested as a physical being on a human journey to evolve. Our physical surroundings are transforming constantly. When we are aligned with this wisdom of the Divine Feminine we are one with this ongoing transformation, and we are carried by this wave of sexual energy. We let go of what no longer serves us and give birth to new creations of our soul’s growth cycle by cycle. Spring birth transforms into summer’s full expression, transforming into the harvest of our creation, letting go of what is no longer aligned in fall, planting seeds for new growth, and allowing death to become compost for these seeds of potential in winter for the new life ahead.

Take this yearly cycle and apply our self similarity and you have the same cycle every day, every minute, every breath.

She is the master. She is a manifestation of this transformative process in the form of the natural world. She carries us through the transformation, and when aligned with her wisdom, the wisdom that honors all of her creation, and the harmony of life and death, this raw sexual creative energy that flows through our bodies, consciousness, and Earth we will become the channels for this Divine wisdom and love. We will enjoy the journey, and experience the ecstasy that comes from unbridled sexual creative energy brought into form through our imaginations free from old limited negative beliefs.

Sounds like a lot to accomplish? She has brilliantly set this wisdom in motion one cycle at a time, making it doable as an exciting adventure one digestible bite at a time. Aligning with the wisdom of the Divine Feminine physically manifested as the Earth will support us to grow, evolve, and raise our consciousness as a collective reflection of her creation. Honoring the Divine Masculine energy that is a part of her supports us to bring her creation into form. We can know ourselves as a self similar embodiment of her Divine creative energy, wisdom, and love. She is the Master!

I invite you to check out my live online courses:

Heal, Nourish & Honor the Feminine Within

Introduction to 5 Element Cooking

Food, Sex, Nature & the Art of Transformation

You might find them supportive, informative and empowering

Details

It’s easy to get lost in the idea that if you go deep within in the winter, you will somehow get lost down there and never resurface. In many parts of the country and world you are surrounded by death in the plant kingdom during winter.

Every spring, without fail the world comes back to life. Not only does it come back to life, it is brilliant in its expression of itself. Dazzling, alive, renewed, and full of life force surging with potential.

After writing my previous posts through winter and sharing a little about my journey, I wanted to also share with you that, no, I did not get lost down there. In fact, quite the contrary.

This winter was my all time experiment in going to the depths, discovering what is underneath the layers of survival techniques, and go for the gold, the treasures that await me if I am brave enough to take the journey.

I felt prepared and equipped after taking smaller excursions each year, and deepening my skill of aligning, and nourishing myself. I had the inner strength and trust that I would resurface no matter how deep I dove. My desire was stronger than my resistance and fear.

I was, and am not disappointed! Well worth the trip! On the other side of the old beliefs, conditioning, of not only me, but my long line of ancestors, what was waiting to be discovered, waiting for me to claim, waiting for me to experience, was ME. The me that I  have not known, but oh so longed for.

The tools of aligning myself with the Divine Goddess, Mother Earth in how I live and nourish myself has been a necessary step in knowing myself as her. Each step I took that brought our alignment into form was an action that embraced my inner masculine who is in service to her. Every time I allowed this cooperative dance to support my journey one baby step at a time I strengthened their relationship, their love for one another.  But until I freed myself of all the old beliefs that fed the collective miasm that kept them apart, they could not fully embrace.

The lies, conditioning, beliefs that has been passed down to us all that has split these lovers apart, creating war within ourselves has been a painful history with obvious horrific results in our world. The lies run so deep, they are so buried in our unconscious and have gone on for so long that it takes a strong headlamp, courage, desire, and commitment to dive deep enough to see what a ridiculous bunch of nonsense we have been fed. As long as these two lovers within are estranged, we are in strife.

It takes deep trust for the feminine aspect of ourselves to surrender enough to do her inherent job of receiving Divine guidance. Bringing her Divinely inspired gifts out into the world of form without the support of her beloved masculine who’s job is to bring the guidance she receives into form and out into the world is next to impossible.

On the other side of this collective miasm that I referred to in my other writings are two lovers in harmony, and IN LOVE! Gloriously IN LOVE!!!!!!! I am loving the integration that is strengthening every day as this long awaited UNION deepens, and nourishes me.

Imagine a life with these two lovers within fully embracing one another. Imagine a life that the feminine aspect of yourself is so safe surrendered in her beloved’s arms within that she is an open vessel for Divine energy, creativity, and inspiration to flow through. Imagine a life that your inner masculine is so devoted to her, so in love with her, that he feels honored to bring these Divine gifts into form. Imagine this level of creation that has flowed through the channel of the most exquisite love affair imaginable. Imagine what it is like to have them right inside of you. Imagine a world as that this love affair radiates out into. Imagine!