Alternatives

I won’t be participating in this year’s Pagan Blog Project. Last year, I met with too many personal obstacles to complete my tasks. I got as far as Polyamory, and things got too complicated to write about. The PBP was fun. I will read others’ posts, I just can’t commit this year. But, I think Polyphanes’ 49 Days of Definitions series has inspired me to (or shamed me into–whatever–I’ve heard it both ways) work on a more systematic devotional project.

Therefore, as an alternative to the PBP, I think I will simply commit to systematically adding to my category “Ehsha’s Apples” and reflecting on alternative medicines, providing information for my students (and the rest of y’all who benefit) about herbal therapies, and reinforcing for myself why I do the witchy healing thing in the first place.

Plus,this way I am not beholden to an alphabet, a timetable, or a length (a year) and am more likely to actually play if I’m making all the rules.

Due to an external element of cray-cray that won’t settle itself down, my health has been a little topsy-turvey. And I hate-hate-hate pharmaceuticals. Ethically, physically, financially, spiritually. Blech. So, I’ve had more than my share of experience with what works over the past six months.

I figure I should share with you:

• What works for an ill-timed UTI
• What clears the impending rattle of pneumonia before it can take hold
• What tastes mighty-fine and what tastes like arse (and what you should man-up and take anyway because it’s the best cure for what ails ya)
• What goes well in the vaporizer
• What needs to go directly on the skin
• What to put on a doggie’s calluses–on account of pooch is going to lick whatever you put on her
• What and what not to put in the chicken coop (and when AND HOW to properly use a heatlamp in these arctic temperatures that plague the Deep South this week)
• What to never, never, never  give your cat
• And maybe a little of how-to-honor-the-outlanders-without-making-your-priest-in-training’s-dog-vomit-the-entire-day-after-ritual. Mmmh.

I plan to start later this week as tonight is all about mulling mead (one of the things I’ll be sharing with you) and Downton Abbey, tomorrow is all about the BCS Championship (WDE: FYI, we won’t be discussing the avoid-alcohol-and-shouting-when-you-have-a-respiratory-issue, um issue; it’s kinda obvs and kinda one we all ignore despite our better judgement), Tuesday is half taken with said “external element” and half taken with an awesome soldering project that needs doing (and what better day to do it than one that will see single-digit temperatures in The Deep South?), Wednesday is all about prepping for Thursday–which is, alas, my return to the secular classroom. So? Friday?

Until then, waes thu hael!
~E

 

My New Addiction

A few of you have sent me the sweetest notes asking me to get writing again. One or five of these even included some remedies for what ails me. You cannot know how much your well wishes and proddings to “get well soon” have meant to me. I always find that when times get tough, there’s someone on my side.

I posted my last PBP post at The Files. Then I went and signed up for the 2013 PBP. It’s been addictive.

I want to talk a little about another new addiction of mine. You see, like I said–many of you knew I was unwell and sent me homeopathic remedies. Given that I have Lupus, I have to be extremely careful about herbal remedies. Sometimes they can set of a cascade effect that makes the situation worse instead of better.(Here’s a decent site if you need one. Here’s another.) As my body rebels against itself, it swells and rumbles and complains and bitches and throws things and makes mucus. Gross, I know. Since Thanksgiving, I have been slowly drowning. I’m tired of it. Overshare? Sorry, it is what it is.

Undershare? Read this.

I’ve meant to set aside the one little moment I need to initiate the process of self-healing, but just as I get my ducks in a row and get ready to blast, I’m too tired.

Then I lay down. Then I cough. Then I can’t sleep. Rinse. Repeat.

What’s a Witch to do? (Besides read, watch foreign film, be exceedingly grateful that the semester is out and The Husband has paid-PTO.) Typically, the answer is herbal. Sometimes this works for me. Sometimes, um, not. This time I discovered that one of my favorite spices (spice–not herb, go figure!) is good for what ails me.

So, I decided to add a new category to the blog: Ehsha’s Apples. As in “an apple a day.” I’ve never been one to wallow in my diagnoses; and I’m certainly not one to post those horribly specific medical statuses on Facebook. But it came to my attention that mayhaps someone else is looking for what I happened to have found. (Chances are, y’all knew it years before me. I’m a great gardener; I’ve never been a big herbalist.)

Today, it’s turmeric.

 

I’m a big curry fan and make my own blend (and my own Garam Masala–the house smells amazing for a week!) and have always looked for an excuse to add turmeric to any dish. But I never thought of adding it to my tea. Or making a tea of it alone–let alone with. . .

Wait, should I just give you a recipe?

• 8 ounces coconut milk–warm gently

To your mug, add:

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2-inch wide round slice of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• Dash of cayenne pepper

Mix a few tablespoons of warm coconut milk (I suppose you could use almond milk too) to the spices until they are well dissolved. Then add some honey to sweeten the deal. (I’m told you could also add

• butter, cinnamon, and/or cardamom. I tried cardamom today but the difference was negligible.) Finally, fill the mug with the remaining milk and stir.

The drink is hot–cayenne and ginger, right–and sweet and creamy. Who could ask for anything more? The result is that both the turmeric and ginger lowers inflammation and breaks up phlegm without sending my immune system into a tailspin. The only other botanicals shown to do this for lupus patients without fail and without backlash are harpagophytum procumbens (aka “devil’s claw”), hyssop, and–yup, you guessed it–cannabichromene, found in cannabis. (Don’t get me wrong, some other stuff works for some other folks some of the time. These five are the things for which I have heard/found consistent reports of relief and no reports of rebound.)

Of course, you can take your ginger and turmeric in pill form, but why do that? This drink is lovely and absorption is better (you get to breathe in the fantasticness as you drink) than pill form.

So, if you are in town and smell the smells of  spicy coconut milk, stop by. But, heads-up, BYO Kleenex.

(Ew, right?)

Happy breathing and waes hael,

~E

Health, Hyper-competence, and HBO

So I had this great post planned out about the representation of Witchcraft in Hollywood.

Next week, ya’ll. I promise.

This week, I gave a rousing lecture in one of my classes that caused one of my students to become so physically excited that she hurled.

Either that or she had the flu.

Hilarious.

I’m assuming the latter, because two days later, I was debilitated by a flu the likes of which only happens in Stephen King movies. On the upswing of that bug running its course, I’m thinking about my health more than Hollywood.

Despite what Gregory House says, sometimes it is Lupus.[1] When The Bad Witch was just getting used to her thirties, was still a Sex Witch, and was still living on the Southside of Chicago, and after an acute case of pericarditis (Latin for: “Please Gods let me die now”), I was diagnosed with SLE: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.[2]

Those of us with Lupus have to take a little better care of ourselves, paying close attention to what our bodies react to, allowing time for rest during “flares,” SPF-ing the heck out of ourselves, and avoiding toxins. I do none of these things.  I exhaust myself on a regular basis, I drink, occasionally I smoke, I sometimes eat horrible-horrible things, and I burn my skin regularly each summer. You’d think that after my body decided my liver was a foreign object and I writhed in pain for three straight weeks in 2003, I’d change my wicked ways. You’d think after several lost weekends with nothing but the Discovery Channel to show for it and after my stint with annual bouts with Thanksgiving pneumonia (2004-2007), I’d get a clue.[3]

Well, in my defense, I stopped eating things with added hormones in 2002, was vegan for about ten years (then the grad exams while a fairly single mom of three under ten – chicken nuggets saved my ass), began “detoxing” every few months, and, most recently, stopped eating things out of boxes. If I can’t make it come out of my mouth, it doesn’t go in. But I still drink. And occasionally smoke. And exhaust myself.[4]

A friend of mine and I have had discussions about a Reiki Master whom we know that is chronically unwell. The general thought is: “Physician, heal thyself.”

I am a Witch. I understand healing. I have had Reiki attunements.[5] I understand herbology. Plus, I understand anatomy and biology and have a basic understanding of virology. Why don’t I just heal myself?

Well, one of the very first lessons I learned from my dear first mentor, Bertie, is that we don’t cast away those things which we need.

Need? Need, you say? Need an incurable illness?

Pay attention. The Bad Witch is not only a person with Lupus; she is a hyper-competent person with both Lupus and a very high bull-shit tolerance level.[6] As I get a little older and a little wiser, I am starting to realize (finally) that I have to stop every once in a while and get myself back together. If it takes a funky rash and a chest-wheeze to tell me, “Ehsha, time to slow the fock down,” so be it. I’m hoping I can get to the point where I realize it’s time to slow down before I lose two days of productivity to the couch and DVR. Aye, there’s the rub. Productivity tends to trump all for me. Somehow I feel like my productivity defines my worth. Until I can get to the point where I feel worth more than the sum of my manufacture, I need this freaking disease to tell me when enough is enough.

I think I did pretty well this time. I said no to a ritual gathering I really wanted to host – but knew I couldn’t/shouldn’t. I took the two days off *almost* before I had no other choice.[7] And I made peace with an antagonist, no small fries in that endeavor.

Tomorrow, The Adopted comes for her weekly dose of hard-core Momma Witchery and Game of Thrones. I may let her dote on me jes’a lil for a change.  Tomorrow I will write lovely commentaries to my hard-working Freshman, the remainder of whom the lights finally went on these past few weeks. Tomorrow, I will pick up the sewing I left off before the flu hit the fan. Tomorrow I will cook a lovely large meal for my family. Tomorrow I will make every attempt to get back on this horse. But tonight, I’m making tea and grabbing the remote from my teenagers.

Hello HBO, sometimes you’re the best healer in town.

Be well!

Blessings, Quarks, and 93,

The Bad Witch

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[1] Season 4, Episode 8: “You Don’t Want To Know.” Alas, in the end, it was Lupus.

[2] N worries y’all. Back in the day, <50% could expect to live 5 years with Lupus. Now, the 10-year survival rate exceeds 90%.

[3] Ironically, as it is with Lupus, I get this fine blush to my face and a slight inflammation all over my body. The inflammation, like acute rheumatoid arthritis, hurts like hell and even strawberries weigh a ton. The inflammation does something to my eyes and they get very bright and shiny. This all makes me look, I’m told, “The picture of health.” I look more beautiful, healthier, and brighter when I feel most like I could die at any given moment.

[4] I’ve been a little more unwell in the past six months than usual. I was in remission for three full years until a very stressful family situation plunged me headlong into a flare from hell. I haven’t really bounced back in the eighteen months since, but the past six months have been harder than the rest.

[5] Though I rarely use Reiki — on humans; I’m better with horses.

[6] At least that’s what my therapist calls it. Ha!

[7] I mean, I was gonna take Saturday off, but was forced to take Friday and most of Saturday off. Sunday’s looking bright!