and then there was Gingeng....

planting baby ginseng rootlets

I can't wait for spring, I've got lots of medicinal weeds to plant: Yarrow, St Johns Wort, Valerian, Nettles, Bergamot, & Hoy Basil. ( I hope to write about the benefits of Holy Basil later on). But, yesterday in the mail I got my 28 little 2 year old baby Ginseng Rootlets!

Since it was almost 60 degrees outside I hurried to get them into the ground, since they need the cold snap to properly induce them to sprout. They will take about 3 or 4 more years to mature, so this is a long process. Once they are set and start to grow, all I gotta do is watch them, hopefully this year or next I will start to get seeds from these plantings and I can truely start a cycle of growing and harvesting. There is a large market for selling gensing roots and seeds. This is the area before I dug:













Ginseng likes 75% to 90% shade, anywhere bloodwort and Jack 'n the Pulpits grow are perfect places for ginsengs. After a little snow removal and some digging:

Aftre saying zikr and some prayers over them, like Ya Hayy, Ya Muhyi & Ya Razaq I staked out where I planted them with chop sticks. It seem appropriate...

uyghur children song- tanbur

cani dilden fani

dragon dream

a very cool dream with obvious elements, these only come around once in a while, well at least in my experience..

Fighting a dragon that has been and still hiding in dark places; haunting, conniving, and plotting tricks. It has a voice that is mesmerizing and can turn invisible at will.
...
We are fighting and moving in a dimly lit building, rooms and large windows look out into other open rooms that are darkened. The dragons talks, but I can not recall or understand what it says. The battle consists more of maneuvering around from room to room, using the walls as blinds.
...
I rise high into the night sky, so I can force the dragon out into the open and to meet me one to one. I focus my intention and imagine an image of the Qabalistic Tree of Life projected onto my body and being. I intone loudly the Name of God, Tetragrammaton.
...
As the beast finally approaches in an invisible swoop, as it arcs back towards me either I or it transforms the dragon into a small swallow. I catch the bird with a piece of cloth and cover it, holding it tight. It tries to tear and rip the covering, but I do not let go.
...
The bird becomes docile and I send it on it's way with another "evil" person to go and live out their lives peaceably in some other local far away. Banished, but happy.

dreaming

working through various techniques, finding certain ones that resonate and others that lack what I need. Some patterns that I've noticed since I've been rigorous in keeping a nightly journal is that it seems to be not uncommon to have occasional periods of little memory of dreams. I will have two or three days on nights filled with heavy dream recall followed up by one to three nights of very little. What does seems fairly necessary is to continually intend throughout the day to be aware of the dream-like nature of waking life. While my lucidity has been far and few between, what has been arising with much more frequency is morning false awakenings. Some mornings I have been dreaming for an hour, a dream that I am in bed... it is very strange. It is as if I am wake, but unaware... Since it is a change, I will take it as indicative of something, hopefully progress.

Other things I have found necessary is an energy practice coupled with visualizations, such as floating or being out of the body and also, very necessary has been physical exercise. I can't stress enough the need for a physical practice, what ever it is. I have found the 5 Tibetans very useful, since they incorporate working with the chakras and their composite energy it seems to help in grounding.

This is the status of life!