the pearl of great price

scorpio szn edition

Nov 12, 2023

Hello Venusian beauties,

Welcome to the Scorpio season installment of Venus and the Pearl.

First, a few updates from the past few weeks.

Thank you to everyone who showed up to the Energy Healing and Herbs for Self-Regulation workshop with Social Justice Partners LA. I offered a few simple and powerful practices for centering our nervous systems by using our breath, intention, and energy, along with 6 herbs to restore emotional balance. It was sweet and potent, and I’m deeply grateful to SJPLA for inviting me to participate in their Wellness Series.

Alongside my clinical work, I love sharing wellness tools for personal and collective resilience through workshops, and would love to do this more. If you, your workplace, non-profit organization, or educational institution would like to host an online or in-person workshop on cultivating well being, managing stress, regulating emotions, medicinal herbs, energy healing, or any other topic related to holistic health, please reach out.

If you were to attend an online workshop with me, what topics would you like to learn about? Feel free to reply to this email or comment down below.

scorpionic depths

Scorpio season is all about the deep waters - the depths of love, of our shadow, and of our secrets. It is our entrance into the underworld where we come into contact with the most painful, shameful, dark, and shadowy parts of ourselves, AND the most the precious, powerful, and magical parts, too.

The past few weeks have uncovered the levels of hatred, revenge, and violence that can exist within the human heart. We have also discovered the depths of compassion, empathy, and pain we can feel for others on a personal and collective level, and the amount of concern, action, and solidarity we can muster up in support of our kin.

Scorpio represents our ability to transmute suffering and pain into illumination, which often means looking squarely into our shadow and courageously choosing to evolve.

May we all collectively choose to look at our darkness and step into the light this Scorpio season.

if you’re not crying, something is wrong

I woke up today on 11/11 with a burning desire to write. Perhaps it’s Scorpio season inviting me to lean into the rawness and realness of the moment, perhaps it’s watching genocide unfold in real time and needing to speak up about it.

Loves, it’s dark times. The levels of violence and cruelty we are witnessing are beyond (my) comprehension.

At a recent Jewish Voice for Peace rally in Washington D.C., US Congress’ only Palestinian American Representative Rashida Tlaib said, “If you’re not crying, something is wrong.”

jewishvoiceforpeace

A post shared by @jewishvoiceforpeace

We need to cry. We need to feel our emotions. More than ever, we need to connect with our humanity.

How can our heart NOT break watching the constant stream of violence unfolding? Innocent children, elders, women, men, medical staff, and humanitarian aid workers are being bombed, starved, and dehydrated to death in Gaza. Hospitals being targeted and many others running out of fuel (ie. electricity), anesthesia, medication, and disposable supplies.

Where is our heart? Where is our humanity? Where is our unconditional love and respect for human life in this world?

Join me and the ocean of voices worldwide calling for an immediate ceasefire in occupied Palestine and Israel.

Here are a few options to take action:

Canada: The Ceasefire Now coalition has coordinated 47 rallies across Canadian cities for Sunday, November 12th. The Victoria rally will meet in front of the Parliament at 1:00PM (105 Belleville St.). I will be there and hope you will be, too.
Canada: Petition the House of Commons in Parliament to require the Prime Minister to call for de-escalation and an immediate ceasefire.
US: Use the 5 Calls website or app to contact your local representatives daily.
US: Take action with Jewish Voice for Peace, join rallies, sign petitions, and contact you local representatives.
Poke around the internet, social media, and your community to find out how you can contribute to the peace, freedom, and well being of your kin around the world.

the pearl of great price

In the Biblical parable of the pearl of great price, a wise merchant sells off all his goods to purchase a pearl. This parable also appears in the Gnostic Gospels of Thomas found in the Nag Hammadi Coptic text, unearthed in 1945 in Upper Egypt. It says, “You also, seek after [the] treasure which does not fail (but) endures, where moth does not come near to devour nor worm to destroy (Gospel of Thomas, 76)." The mystical, Gnostic interpretation of this story states that the pearl of great price is the true Self, and more conservative interpretations mention Jesus or the kingdom of heaven.

Venuses, what do you think is the real pearl of great price?

I think the pearl is our humanity. It’s the purity of our hearts, our love for each other, and our prayer for peace and liberation for all. Let’s never surrender our humanity, treasuring and protecting this precious pearl as the most valuable thing we can hold.

building resilience

We take care of ourselves, strengthen our nervous system, and build resilience to feel well on a personal level, AND to show up in the world with more capacity, clarity, and courage. We cultivate well being to be able to face reality, respond to the moment, and take action in the ways we can.

Most of us are going in and out of sympathetic nervous system activation - the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response. If our daily life wasn’t stressful enough, now we have to contend with the fact that we are living in war times while watching it stream live on our devices.

We can be compassionate and caring with ourselves while also being proactive. This moment is inviting us to S T R E T C H our capacity to be with discomfort and act from a place of heart, brain, and nervous system alignment.

Here are a few practices to help you find peace and build resilience in times of war.

Box breathe: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used this centering technique in the past three weeks. Box breathing is a quick, effective way to calm the nervous system and manage anxiety especially in times of crisis. It’s simple: breathe in for 4 counts, hold the breath in for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts, and hold the breath out for 4 counts. Continue for 3-5 minutes. Check out the graphic below for a visual, and click here to visit the source article from Calmerry.

Reach out to your herbal allies: Has your mom or grandma/abuelita ever made you chamomile tea when you were upset? It’s time to make yourself a cup of tea, love. Our simplest options are often best, and chamomile tea is a tried-and-true relaxing, sleep-supporting, tummy-soothing champion of the herbal world. Another favorite in my kitchen is Tulsi or Holy Basil, an aromatic nervine I reach out to regularly for its stress-managing benefits. Tulsi also supports digestion, lowers blood sugar levels, lowers cholesterol, and clears mucus from the respiratory tract. I absolutely adore Organic India’s Tulsi Sweet Rose Tea (not sponsored, but honestly I wish Organic India would sponsor me based on how much I recommend this tea lol). With rose, the ultimate heart medicine, plus chamomile this combo is just *chef’s kiss*.
Co-regulate with nature: Did you know you can synchronize your nervous system with nature? Head out on a forest walk, put your feet on the grass, or visit a body of water like the ocean, a river, or a lake. Easier yet, sit with a tree. We can absorb energy from trees by simply being in their presence or by consciously exchanging energy with them. One Qi Gong exercise instructs us to open the crown of the head to accept the energy of the tree, sending the energy down 7-10 feet into the Earth, and imagining it recirculating through the trunk of the tree and back into the crown of your head. For this exercise, pick a healthy tree and ask the tree for permission. If you get a yes, make sure to thank it when you’re done.
Energetic exercise to absorb tree Qi
Eat warm, fortifying foods: Protein-rich soups and stews are great for the fall/winter season and are comforting in a way that nourishes the body from the inside out. My favorites are chicken soup, beef stew with veggies, and hearty bean stews. Start off with broth or water in a crock pot, add onions, garlic, salt to taste, your choice of protein, root veggies (carrots, potatoes), and herbs like cilantro, thyme, rosemary, and cumin powder. Cook overnight and wake up to a delicious bowl of stew that you can enjoy for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Call/text/message your friends: Your friends may also be swimming in a sea of grief right now for personal or collective reasons (hello autumn, season of grief), so reach out and talk about it with them. Make tea, eat stew, cry your eyes out, box breathe, and maybe head to a rally together. <3
Get support: Reach out to a professional for guidance. Having compassionate, competent support around you can help you feel held and taken care of while building resilience in ways that ‘going it alone’ might not. Multi-pronged approaches to emotional and physical health can include a mix of tools including psychotherapy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and meditation.

pearls for your venusian soul

Rescue Remedy by Bach Flower Remedies: An herbal classic, I recommend Dr. Bach’s Rescue Remedy for times of stress and trauma. This formula contains five individual flower essences of Rock Rose, Impatiens, Clematis, Star of Bethlehem, and Cherry Plum. A flower essence is an energetic imprint of a flower in water, and essences can also be made from plants, trees, or physical locations. As such, an essence contains no chemical constituents, delivering subtle medicine to our emotional body. Rescue Remedy comes in many forms (drops, spray, pastilles, and cream) to support emotional balance in adults, kids, and pets, and is widely available at health food stores. For more Bach remedies, check out their Essence Chooser.
Vitamin D + K2 by Thorne: Due to Canada’s northern latitude, between 70% and 97% of Canadians are deficient in Vitamin D. Even if you live in a sunny place like Los Angeles, most people are not spending enough time outdoors to have adequate Vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is necessary for bone health, healthy immune function, and cardiovascular health, and can help prevent seasonal depression. I prefer the liquid Vitamin D + K2 from Thorne due to its ease of use and high absorption. Thorne also carries a Vitamin D version without K2. Consult your doctor or practitioner for safety and dosaging guidance.
The Land in Our Bones by Layla K. Feghali: Herbalist and author Layla Feghali has written a timely book dedicated to her ancestors, plantcestors, and the SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa, also known as the “Middle East”) diaspora entitled, The Land in Our Bones: Plantcestral Herbalism and Healing Cultures from Syria to the Sinai - Earth-based pathways to ancestral stewardship and belonging in diaspora. Since I have known Layla, her dedication to the SWANA community and the land has never wavered, especially now. Support her work by following her on Instagram, checking out her website and product line, and pre-order her book from Penguin Random House.
Syriana Restaurant, Esquimalt, Victoria: While the food in Victoria can often be very mid, the food at Syriana always hits. I’ve been there twice in the past month and have been delighted by their fava bean dip, yellow lentil beef stew, falafel wraps, and all their desserts (especially the baklava). I always leave Syriana feeling nourished, and I can’t wait to go back to try more dishes.

work with me

I offer acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping, gua sha, moxibustion, tui na, and Reiki at Spring Wellness in Victoria’s Quadra Village on Mondays from 9am-2pm and Wednesdays from 2pm-8pm. I bill insurance directly for acupuncture treatments and accept Pacific Blue Cross, Green Shield, Sun Life, Canada Life, Manu Life, and all policies under the Telus Health e-Claims umbrella.

I treat a range of conditions in my practice including acute injuries, chronic pain, back pain, sciatica, headaches, fatigue, anxiety, depression, digestive disorders, hormonal imbalances, and fertility challenges. I’m bilingual and offer services in Spanish when requested.

To book in-person appointments at Spring Wellness, schedule here.

Photo by Kristine Lo for Nature & Intent

Online herbal consults and distance Reiki sessions are available for patients in the US & Canada. With herbal consults, receive a custom herbal protocol and self-care plan, along with holistic tools like supplement recommendations, nutritional support, movement protocols, and/or meditations depending on the concern being addressed. To book a virtual appointment, schedule here.

Thank you for your readership, and I’ll see you next month for the Sagittarius season installment of Venus and the Pearl.

venus and the pearl

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