Herbal Wise: The Benefits of Celery

Back in the far away (and very hazy) day I used to dance ballet. Those days were over fast when I realized two things: those (comparatively) huge boobs were not going to work and and my right knee was trouble from the get go. Hey, it was fun while it lasted.

To the point, though, I still have problems with my knee. It pops and pains and I wear a soft brace made from bamboo charcoal fiber most days just to keep the darn thing in line. Recently though, due more to the fact that I often research possible helpful solutions for my daughter's Juvenile Idiopathic (they used to call it "Rheumatoid") Arthritis than any interest in my own uncooperative joint, I have found a surprisingly simple solution. Celery.

It turns out that celery seed has been of long standing assistance to those with joint pain. According to Andrew Chevallier in The Visual Reference Guide to Herbal Remedies, celery is a "... good detoxification remedy, celery stem, leaf and seed stimulate the kidneys to clear waste... especially helping to cleanse salts that accumulate in joints, causing stiffness and inflammation."

Celery seed in particular is of great assistance in this process, and can be found at health food stores and herbalists in capsule form. Both my daughter and I take one capsule daily to the benefit of our sore joints. I won't say that it has completely alleviated our symptoms like some miracle but celery seed has certainly helped.

An added bonus here is that celery seed, and more specifically the juice of the celery stem, can help in detoxifying and moving unwanted fluids along. If you are prone to swollen ankles after a long day at your desk, a nice infusion of celery juice in an evening green tea will help move those fluids along and make you less gargantuan in the lower extremities after a long day.

But Pauline, you say; this is HQ. We're not here to have our piggies de-bloatified by some silly celery tea. What will celery do for us magickly gosh darn it?

Hold your horses, as they used to say. I've got that for you too.

Use celery in your cooking not only to help your dreaming hint at the future but to bring peace and harmony to your home and your family.

Most often, celery - particularly in the form of seed - is used to encourage psychism. Crush and bruise a few celery seeds, then wrap them in a muslin bag or a coffee filter and brew them into a tea with very hot water to help you along in your card, crystal ball, pendulum or other readings. The celery tea is said to open the third eye to visions of the future and what might be the best path for anyone you are reading for - including yourself.

You can make a mojo bag for psychic vision by placing equal parts anise, calendula, poppy flower and celery seed into a muslin or yellow flannel bag with intention. Place the mojo in your pillow case and sleep on it nightly to encourage your psychic ability. Carry it - if you dare - into haunted places to see the ghosties and ghoulies that walk the night. The mojo is best held in your left - receptive - hand for this purpose but beware: this practice can encourage an attraction making an unwelcome entity glom on to you and follow you home. Not a very pleasant experience and one that can only be avoided by proper and careful warding beforehand.

In the end, celery is both a practical and spiritual plant that can help in myriad different ways and on various levels. Use it wisely, and the benefits will be manifest happily. Bonne chance ~

Header: Found on Tumblr; isn't the internet amazing?

Vendredi: Chthonian Histories

The vast, Saharan desert has always held its mysteries, some of them straight out of any chthonian nightmare.  One of these survives to this day in the form of Aisha Kandicha or Quandisha, the camel-legged succubus.  Aisha, like so many other demonic ladies of the religious "Big Three", was once a revered mother goddess who has become a symbol of that most feared item on the Judeo-Christian-Islamic taboo list: female sexuality.

According to legend and some modern day accounts, Aisha is a djinniya or female spirit, who romes the desolate mountains of northern Morocco.  She is said to have beautiful hair and a stunning face that can make a man forget what he is up to and follow her into the shadows.  There, sadly, she will reveal herself in her true form: below the neck she sports long, heavy breasts, the wings of a bat, the talons of a hawk and the legs of a camel or goat.  The wayfarer is done for at this point; Aisha will tear him to bits and he will never be heard from again.

Most curious of all the legends of this frightening harpy is that she is a creature of water.  Despite her desert haunt, her name - Aisha - can be translated as "loving to be watered."

Patricia Monaghan in The Book of Goddesses & Heroines tells us that, despite how it may look on its face, there is in fact no paradox here.  Aisha is most probably yet another demonized form of the great Phoenician goddess Astarte whose name meant exactly the same thing to her people.  The true meaning of the name has been lost however, for the water Astarte loved was the life-giving seed of her consort, Haman.  Monaghan speculates that Astarte's worship may have traveled to Morocco with colonists from Carthage, which itself was a Phoenician settlement.  Aisha's second name - Quandisha - may be a corruption of Qadesha, the holy temple prostitutes who served Astarte.

Once again, a figure who embodied sexuality as joy has been transformed into a monster, representing sexuality as misery and death.  Aisha even has a consort of her own, an evil jinn whose name is strangely familiar: Hammu Kaiyu or Qaiyu.

Modern reports of Aisha sightings continue to this day.  Disappearances in the Moroccan mountains continue to be blamed on her as well.  But don't take my word for it.  Click over to the Destination Truth blog and find out what Josh Gates and his team found - or didn't find - in their search for yet another goddess turned demon.

Header: Aisha Kandicha via Unexplained Mysteries