Sufi, Sufism, Islam, healing, Rumi, plant spirit shamanism, herbs, herbalism, Seer, Prophecy, James Frazer, The Golden Bough, shamanism
According to Sufi legend, the Seer Sulaymã n was the first to learn the healing properties of flowers and herbs while he was at prayer one day, and a flower sprang up and greeted him. Sulaymã n reciprocal the testimonial and asked the flower what it wanted. It replied that it was a healer. Sulaymã n noted this and, seeing his thing, other flowers grew around him and told him their healing secrets too, until he knew the cure for all diseases.
Flowers heal, it is oral, in that they occupy dhat. This is the spirit of Creator and the essence of every flower that ever was, is, or can be. Shamans say the same: that every plant is all plants, so that lavender is not just a lavender, but all lavenders; and since all lavenders are not just a constituent of their species, but part of the entire plant field, they are not just one flower either, but carry the potency and spirit of all plants.
This shamanic concept also illustrates the magical “ Law of Similarity” referred to by Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough, which states that “ like attracts like. ” Thus, the reaction of a plant is not just limited to its species; if it looks like spare plant of a different species, it will act in a homogeneous way, and if it looks like a human body part or organ, that is what it will heal.
Other shamanic concepts in the story of Sulaymã n are that plants which grow locally will cure local diseases, and they will tell you what ailments they are used for if you ask them instanter. The shamanic practice for doing so is called journeying. It is a form of active meditation, station you take your attention into your body and avow it to impart itself as a form of conscious energy or spirit. You can then ask which herbs or plants it most needs in placement to heal itself, and how these should be used— as a tea, the ingredient for an herbal bath, or an aromatherapy oil to be used in a burner, for specimen.
Having identified the herb, you can then look for it in nature or find it at a herbalist’ s shop and mass a quota for yourself.
Spend a little time with it when you do, reaction it to be a real spiritual being and inflowing into dialog with it so you can explore its medicinal qualities. You might then liking to look up this plant in an herbal encyclopaedia to irascible - check the information you have common with the guidance provided by others who also know this plant. You may be surprised at how accurate you are. But, then again, why should this be so surprising? At some time in the distant foregone, before there were “ scientists” and “ medical procedures, ” the spirit of the plant must have communicated its principle to someone in setup to be included in an encyclopaedia at all.
Two very good plants to enter upon with, if you inclination to restore your body and build your strength, are echinacea and uñ a de gato ( cat’ s claw ), both of which are powerful immune system healers. The immune system is what gives the body energy and helps it fight off and prevent disease. These plants should since be considered in any regime to empower the body.
In aromatherapy, oil of amber, extracted from the resin of the yen tree Picea succinfera, is also recommended as a balancer of the body’ s energies, and for this actuation it is known to Sufis as the King of Scents. A drop of amber advantageous to the inquiry eye will be absorbed by the body and stimulate the pineal gland, which activates and harmonizes many of the body’ s functions and leads to increased well - being.
Harmonizing the Emotional Self
The heart sees the Giver of the secret – Rumi
Balanced emotions acquiesce our souls to flower. When we are halcyon and harmonious, we can moderate the “ heat” of our passions to achieve emotional equilibrium. We are then able to avoid the perfunctory traumas that cause us pain and distract us from the path, so that life’ s ups and downs have less results on us.
There are particular herbs that help with this. The shamans of the Amazon use a plant called chiric sanango, for model. As well as its physical effects of warming up the body and bringing comfort from the cold, it offers more psychological and emotional healing, also to do with hot and cold, in that it “ warms up” a cold heart and “ cools” a heart that is inflamed with jealousy or rage. In other words, it helps people open their hearts to love so they discover a more sensitive and compassionate part of themselves.
Chiric sanango can sometimes be found in technical herbal shops or on the Internet, but mistake that, mint can be used instead, as it is also a balancer of the body’ s physical and emotional heat and promotes the flow of love. For these reasons it is associated with the planet Venus, which was named after the Roman goddess of love.
A good plant to combine with mint is lemon balm, which is famous in Arabian herbal magic for creating feelings of love and wholeness. The chronicler Pliny remarked that its powers of healing were so great that, rubbed on a skiver that had inflicted a slash, it would staunch the flow of blood in an injured person without even the need for physical contact. Recent research at Northumbria University in the UK has also proven its beneficial effects in increasing feelings of motionless and well - being. It is a great relaxant and a perfect aid to exercises in meditation and indulgence.
To make a tea of these herbs, tidily boil the fresh ingredients ( the amounts you use can be much to your own taste, but three heaped teaspoons is about right ) in a pint or so of water for a few minutes and then simmer for a further twenty, allowing the water to reduce. Add honey if you thirst, then strain and drink when air-conditioned.
For a mix that will last a little longer, add the fresh ingredients to alcohol ( rum or vodka is recommended ), with honey if you thirst, and drink three to five teaspoonfuls a day, morning, noon, and night. These methods of preparation can also be used for the other plants in this section.
Frankincense aromatherapy oil can also be used as an aid to relaxation and for settling the emotions. It is a powerful cleanser of the energies and enhances intuition, awareness, rapport, and compassion. It was, of course, one of the gifts brought by the wise men to the infant Jesus, and it is still used today in religious ceremonies to create feelings of love and harmony among congregation members.
Added means of harmonizing the emotions is the Sufi practice of toning. The long vowel sound a, as in the word father, will travel from the throat to the heart, latitude its vibrations can be felt opening our loving consciousness and stimulating our powers of compassion. An alternative, better known today, is the use of the sacred sound om, for the same proposal: to bring civil and connection to others and to the divine within and without ourselves.
Harmonizing the Mental Self
Intellect deliberates, Intellect reflects
And meanwhile Love evaporates into the stratosphere - Rumi
Plants that work on the mind to enhance our powers of skilful attention are more concerned with the development of nonrational and intuitive information than in the improvement of intellectual reasoning, since our cerebral and analytic faculties are regularly what occupation us back in our spiritual development. As Rumi tells us, “ annihilation happens until you cease contriving with your mind. ”
Intellectual originality is innate of the “ trained” or resistant mind, which has been taught to proceed itself and act in a certain imbecilic way. As the word “ prowess” implies, there is usually also a sense of unwholesome pride or arrogance associated with it, which is a game in itself. To access the greater domains of real maestro within us, meanwhile, new ways of deduction are necessary, uncondensed by expectations or our want to be an intellectual, to roll out ourselves, or to achieve. In gospel, we don’ t need to establish point, and there is not anything we must achieve.
Plants that can free us from the shackles of intellectual musing and help develop our powers of theosophy, clarity, and truth receive bracken, jasmine, marigold, mugwort, and poplar. These plants bring the write-off of lucid dreaming, a special state of consciousness spot we become aware of our dreaming selves and can direct our dreams, which may also be prophetic in nature.
The boundary between sleeping and wakefulness becomes liquor, and our dreams are more colourful, richer, and potent than before.
Poplar leaves and buds were a key ingredient in the “ flying ointments” of European witches, who used it for astral projection. It ( or a combination of poplar and the other plants chief ) can also be used to make a “ dreaming pillow, ” which will help you to explore new levels of consciousness.
To make one of these, take small handfuls of mugwort and poplar, or some of the other herbs mentioned major, and blend them together. Sprinkle the compound with neroli, orange, or patchouli oils, and bind it together. Then place it in a structure purse and put it below your pillow. It is spoken that an intention for dreams based on love is best made on a waxing moon, and dreams about health and well - being are best on a waning moon. Keep a dream diary next to your bed, and as at once as you wake up, note down your dreams and reflections so these messages of your soul are not lost.
Innumerable means of developing powers of skilful cerebration is to work with plants like valerian and vervain that have mad - spiritual properties for acuity of mind and that help us to overcome negativity and inertia.
Valerian has been recorded from the sixteenth century as an aid to a placid mind and, in the two world wars, was used to combat anxiety and depression. It is still used for these purposes. It also brings relief from panic attacks and venture headaches, which generally transpire from an undecided subject or stress of some sympathetic, sometimes to do with love or the dearth of it that we reveal in our lives. By relaxing the mind, the intuition is practical to work on the real problem, aided by the moor itself.
One way of taking valerian ( which will also aid low and motionless sleep ) is by adding double parts to passionflower leaves and bound flowers and cope them with vodka and honey for a few weeks, after which a few teaspoons of the liqueur are impressed at eventide.
Vervain, meanwhile, was well known to the Druids, who used it to arrange against “ evil spirits” ( right now, we expertise say “ inner issues” or “ worries” ). It will help with anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, and depression. Once again, by relaxing the sensible mind, the unconscious is allowed to work on, and darkness, our more low - subaqueous problems and concerns.
Spare base that protects and eases the mind is garlic. Nicholas Culpepper high these qualities and wrote of it as a “ cure - all. ” It has long been associated with magical uses, protection from witches, vampires, and evil spells, and Roman soldiers ate it to give themselves courage and overcome their fears before striving. There is also a tradition of placing garlic subservient the pillows of children to insure them while they sleep and explain them from nightmares.
One way to use this root is to make garlic honey by adding two cloves of removed garlic to a little honey and crushing them in a ballista, then adding greater tablespoon of honey to the homogenize. This can be drunk in hot water or neatly eaten, two teaspoons at a time, morning, noon, and night.
An aromatherapy oil that is good for peace of mind and the unraveling of spiritual consciousness is sandalwood, which is especially recommended by Sufis “ whenever bound meditation and spiritual practices are being undertaken, now it is quieting to all of the egotisms of the body, especially those undifferentiated to sexual energies, ” 11 which can recurrently play on the mind.
Hereafter, there is a toning practice, too, which helps to develop our involuntary mental capacities. This is the use of the vowel emphatic i ( as in regime ), which causes healing vibrations at the inquiring eye, demiurgic the pineal gland, strengthening the powers of wisdom, and relaxing the dominion of the resilient mind.
Harmonizing the Spiritual Self
In the body of the world, they say there is a soul
And you are that – Rumi
Perhaps the superlative create allies we have for soothing the soul and bringing good fortune and harmony are marigold flowers. Aemilius Macer, as long ago as the thirteenth century, wrote that merely gazing at marigolds will trail “ angry humours out of the foot, ” “ abetment the heart, ” and make “ the bad eye illumined and clean. ”
Shamans grow marigolds near the front door of their houses to absorb negativity from people who pass by. They say that the flowers turn black when this happens, but go back to their ordinary coruscating flush when this negative energy is dispersed through their roots to the earth. Marigold petals are also scattered under the bed, whereabouts they will make sure mild sleep and enrich the soul, aiding astral travel, during which we may district with the infinite and learn its loving and healing secrets. They can also be wider to bath water to bring quiet to body and soul.
Bounteous practice you might try is to take a bucket of water containing battered marigold flowers and thoroughly wash the floors of your meditation room, to create a peaceful sanctum for your soul. You can also drink marigold tea, or eat the petals fresh in salads, to enhance your spiritual powers.
Myrrh is perhaps the most potent redolent oil to help with spiritual expansion. It is mentioned in the Qur’ an for its healing properties and was one of the oils commended by Tutelary to Moses. According to Shaykh Hakim, “ in ancient times it was used to shlep to people a certain internal esoteric teaching, to purify their spiritual environment so that the teachings would have a proper smear in which to be planted, ” and it is still used today as one of the most sacred anointing oils.
All aromatherapy oils are simple to use, and myrrh is no different. It can be massaged into the skin, used in a burner, rubbed onto bed sheets for blessings while you sleep, or a few drops can be supplementary to your bath. It is also available in incense form as an aid to meditation.
The vowel sound u ( as in you ) can also be used during these meditations. This sound, according to Shaykh Hakim, is “ Post our enterprise meets and intermingles with the divine permission, the idhn, ” and it will unblock ( and unlock ) the soul through its vibrations, allowing you to connect with the greater soul of the world.
Enhancing Mystical Powers
The real truth of existence is sealed,
Until after many twists and turns of the road – Rumi
When our bodies, emotions, minds, and spirits are harmonious in themselves and in balance with one increased, we are better able to find our way to the centre— to keep forever ourselves again and mix with the Girlfriend. And again, there are practices to help with this.
According to the twelfth - century spiritual Abdul - Qadir, who founded the Qadiri Sufi line, the brick is the most magical, potent, and soul - filled of all, and “ all dervishes use the dahlia ( ward ) as an emblem and symbol of the rhyming word wird ( ‘ concentration - exercises’ ). ”
The rose— the Mountainous of Scents— represents divinity itself. Tradition states that, at the presentation of the world, Tutelary created the soul of Prophecy, and that this soul gave birth to the 124, 000 Prophets who have since walked the earth. So brightly did the soul of Prophecy shine that it began to perspire, and from the waters of these holy droplets grew the cherry.
Every claret, and so, is infused with divine power and carries the essence of the Prophets themselves. It is for this ground that the fuchsia is considered the greatest ally for mystical experience, the most skilful healer, and the most accomplished teacher of the arts of love ( which may be why we still give roses to our lovers today ).
Blush water can be used throughout your soul’ s journey to help you balance any angle of body, mind, emotions, or spirit, but it is of particular use in member us attain the mystical state, setting the sheets are thrown back to receive our Girlfriend.
To make wine water, pour in a few ounces of rust petals and place them in a bowl of spring or lavish water to soak for at virgin a day and a night, then decant the liquid into a glass container. This elixir can be used at once on the skin, in cleansing water, or drunk; ingestion will absorb the blessing ( baraka ) of the Prophets themselves, and the knowledge of World spirit. Fresh vermilion petals can also be eaten, used as an ingredient in the dreaming pillows mentioned earlier, or sprinkled onto bed sheets so you sleep among the gods.
