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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Healing with Amber: By Guild Member Amber4You

50 pcs - Natural Baltic amber beads up to 3-7mm

Our natural healers guild member Amber4You has offered to share some of her fascinating wisdom into the healing properties of amber (the information below are excerpts pulled from her blog (Even though English is not her native language, the information given is still easily read and comprehended...Thank you Amber4You for sharing!):

http://oldknowledge.blogspot.com/


Throughout this blog article, I will also share some of Amber4You's delightful shop items and some recent guild member treasuries that her shop is featured in. Also, please stop by her lovely, glowing Etsy shop to see her beautifully healing amber treasures:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/amber4you?ref=pr_shop_more

"For Amber Waves of Grain" (Etsy Natural Healers Guild team treasury) created by Storybook Artifact.

For beginning about place where amber comes from... People in the territory of Baltic lands and Lithuania lives more than 12 000 years. As traditions ware and are important, many knowledge comes from unknown times.
Lithuanian language is the oldest alive Indo European language. In Lithuanian speaks about 4 million people in the world, but it is taught at the biggest universities of the world. Lithuanian language has many similarities with sanskrit (old Indian language) language, many words which are pronounced in similar way has same meanings. So Lithuanian language is at least 5000 years old. Not many language live so long :)

For beginning about amber: "amber" in Lithuanian language is called "gintaras" [g i n t a r a s]. Many people think (me including) that it comes from the verb "ginti" (we are changing endings in our language and in that way we are creating verbs, nouns, adjectives and etc.). "Ginti" means to protect, defend, guard. To protect from illness, to guard soul and body.

Why to choose Baltic amber for healing?
Baltic amber is valued not for cool marketing :) It is valued because Baltic amber contains most of the amber acid inside in the world (to compare with other ambers from other regions). I have written about ambers of the world and copal in this blog.. But Baltic amber is most valued among them all. Yes, for the same acid. And.. for the beauty. Such beautiful and deep colours.
When you ware Baltic amber, some of succinic acid (it is the other name of amber acid) in very small amounts gets through your skin in to you body. The today's medicine also use amber acid which is taken from the Baltic amber. And yes, today's modern medicine uses that acid to heal people. It is expensive, so many people use natural Baltic amber as an alternative for amber acid sold by pharmacists.

13.4" Child healing necklace / Natural Baltic Amber teething necklace (color mix, roundy beads)

It's chemical formula is C4H6O4. Melting point 184-187 degrees C. Succinic acid is white crystal powder, whose taste is similar to ascorbic acid (That E330, the one which you find in lemons, oranges and so on.. also called Vitamin C).

What else is special about amber acid? It works where body needs help and do not touch healthy places of the body. It do not stay in a body of human for a long time. Amber acid helps for body and mind. There many recipes in ancient Chinese medicine, where Baltic amber is used (Baltic amber to Chine has been brought by Arabian people, who brought also the name "anbar")

Amber acid is antiseptic (kills microbes), strengthens immune system, reduces negative affect of stress, helps to heal when there are inflammatory processes in the body, strengthens the work of intestine and kidneys, helps to remove toxins from the body, stimulates neuro system. Amber (or succinic) acid is also used to heal various anemias, sudden/strong radiculitis, chronic heart veins illnesses (after myocardium infarct, coronary sclerosis).
When people have problems with thyroid, it is suggested to use amber acid (or amber powder) in oral way and to wear a necklace from natural ambers.

Amber acid doest not have any known side affects.

People who uses amber acid in small amount in prophylactic way regularly, have good mood, healthy hart, are active optimists.
The norm of amber acid in the blood is 0,2-0,8 mmol/l. So people who are always sad, always irritated, always in bad mood and feel the stress from almost nowhere, could make a blood test (in clinics) and make some changes in their lives.

The brighter amber is, the more amber acid it has. That is why white, bone, ivory, light yellow colours are valued so much. Even when you are using a piece of amber, you may notice, that smells of brown and light ambers differs a lot. The lighter colour is, the more smell is sour.

People should heal the diseases by themselves. Professionals are for this. But as I say, today's medicine if in hands of pharmacist, where people are not patients any more, they are clients, who bring the profit. In hard cases modern medicine may be main cure, but in many cases it heals symptoms, but not the reason. Instead of helping for the body to heal it self, weakens it.
If you are willing to heal yourself from something with amber and/or amber acid, you should be watched by doctor, to see how it works for you. Do not forget to give all information you have about amber to your doctor, they know much more about many things than other people, but they do not know all.
In Europe Baltic amber is well know, but in other continents it is still exotic "warm stone".

"Camping Comrade" (Etsy Natural Healers Guild team treasury) created by myself Eco-Friendly Freckles.

Amber tea? What is this?
Once I was talking with my old friend from USA. I have said, that I am drinking amber tea at the moment. Got a question "Amber tea? What is this?".

Amber tea should be prepared from Baltic amber. Just Baltic amber has enough amber acid to create healing effect to the body.

How to prepare?
If you would like to taste natural Baltic amber tea, you should get so pieces of amber. I usually use about 5g (0.18 oz) tiny pieces of amber for a cup (300-400ml) of water. Why tiny pieces? Because they have more surface which contacts with water, so more amber acid is taken from them. Amber acid melt point is 184-187C (~370 F), so when you use it with hot water, you get just small amounts of amber acid.
But amber has a lot of other good qualities - it is sun stone, charged in Sun. So it contains a lot of solar energy.
Amber tea is prepared in a specific way.
If you are using an ambers for the first time, you might want to was them (unless seller says you should not do that, and did that for you already). Do that with soft, clean water, witch should be about 20C (~70F) degrees temperature. Rub them a little with your fingers in the water to remove the dust which might be there. Remove water. If you think it is necessary, you may repeat it.

Natural Baltic amber, tiny pieces - Amber tea

Amber tea is prepared by keeping heat for some time.
You should put ambers in a bowl which you are going to heat, pour hot, not boiling water (about 80C (~180F) degrees), and keep it on a little fire (best would be candle fire) for 15-20 minutes.
You might use same ambers for many times, but after 7-15 times of using you should put a spoon of natural sea salt (ordinary is not suitable for this) in to the glass with water and to put the glass in sunlight for a day or two. It is the way amber is charged. Then repeat from the beginning :)
Also you might charge ambers just by laying them in direct sunlight for a day or few, but that doest not charge so well as the first way with sea salt.

You might use same ambers for 15-30 times (depends on particles size) for getting amber acid, and for many many times as a way to clean you body in energetic way (just do not forget to charge them in sunlight). So if you have purchased new ambers for tea, you might use them together with the old ones.
"Energy" (Etsy Natural Healers Guild team treasury) created by SpiritHerbs.

What is the taste of Baltic amber tea?
Baltic ambers origin is similar to pine (extincted now) tree resin. If you would taste strong amber tea, you even would be able to feel taste similar to pine resin. Not sweet, a little bit bitter, amazing smell. Everything what is too much is not O.K., so do not use such tea often. If you drink amber tea in normal concentration, you should not feel taste at all, or it should be very very weak. That is why often amber tea is used with other herbs and honey.

If you would like to use herbs together, it would be better if you would not pure them in a same bowl as the ambers, because it might be hard to remove the herbs after putting them among ambers.

What amber tea heals?
Amber tea is antiseptic (kills microbes), strengthens immune system. Cleanses body from energetic rubbish, reduces negative affects of stress.
Also works as a prophylactic in a way as amber acid does. You might read how it works in my article about amber acid.
Baltic amber, copper and silver sterling stud earrings

Friday, March 18, 2011

Etsy Natural Healers Guild Helping Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Efforts in Japan

The adorable image above features a "Japan Disaster Relief Aid - Cupcake Topper" by The Giving Madam.

Our hearts go out to the dear people of Japan, this blog article displays treasuries created by Etsy Natural Healers Guild members that feature items donating to relief funds for Japan as well as some guild members too. Please take a moment to gaze at these beautiful treasuries and support the relief efforts by purchasing and donating. Send your heartwarming wishes and give love to Japan.

"Tears and Healing for Japan - Donations for Relief Efforts" by myself Eco-Friendly Freckles.

"Blues for Japan - Donations Go to Relief Efforts" by Storybook Artifact.

Also, I would like to add that I will be sending 20% of all of my hand-painted upcycled decoupage canister and tin sales to the Salvation Army’s earthquake relief efforts in Japan. You can view them all here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ecofriendlyfreckles?section_id=6793761

Friday, March 11, 2011

Remedy I have used with my children, how to make it, and a yummy herbal treat.


One of the major reasons I started studying herbs was/is my children. I became wholly disgusted with taking them to the doctors' office every week or every other week. They always had ear infections, and were often sick. So my disgust started me on a search for a better option...

The first better option I started out looking for was how I could get rid of ear infections. I had some criteria, it had to be safe, effective (or at least more effective than the antibiotics the doctor kept prescribing),  within my capability of making, and it needed to be cheap to make. After much research I finally came up with a couple of things.

I must say, I was really nervous about trying this stuff on my girls. I don't know if I ever would have tried it if my youngest had not had one of those late night mommy-my-ear-hurts episodes. By that time I had read in a few places that a warm chamomile tea bag (damp but not dripping) placed on the affected ear would ease the pain enough to get through till a doctors' visit. (By the way, I was also out of childrens pain reliever and broke at the time, a true recipe for desperation.) So I tried it. I microwaved some water, stuck the tea bag in it, waited a bit, took it out and squeezed it till it didn't drip any more, had my little girl lay down on the couch and I put the tea bag on her ear...Just to clarify, ON her ear, NOT IN her ear. Do not put stuff in anyone's ear, it is a bad idea.  It worked, she and I both got some sleep and I was amazed.

That sparked further research and I came up with this recipe. This recipe has gone through some changes over the years, so this is how it started : Olive oil, mullien, and garlic.
Sounds really simple right? Well, yes and no. I got the ingredients, used an old spaghetti sauce jar that had gone through the dishwasher, put all the ingredients in and let it sit in a sunny window for roughly two weeks. (With the lid on tight) Then I strained the plant bits out through a coffee filter (took forever but worked great) and put the "clean oil" into a new sauce jar and had my next remedy to try on the children. This time I was a lot more confident about trying my remedy. Soon enough I had the opportunity to try my remedy. And it worked! It got rid of the ear infection completely! I was ecstatic, to say the least.

So, over time and with much more study I came up with this recipe. It is the one I use to this day, and it has worked on kids, husbands, and doggies. This is how it is made:

Ingredients-
Olive oil
Garlic cloves
Clove bud essential oil

Get a clean jar, either boil it or run it through a dishwasher with the heat dry on. Put your garlic cloves in the jar. If it is a small jar I would go with three-five cloves of garlic. Cover the cloves with the olive oil. Put in a sunny window and wait...After roughly two weeks have passed, strain the oil through a coffee filter into another jar prepared the same way as the first. Then add 10 DROPS of the clove essential oil to your freshly strained oil. Put your lid on, and swirl it around a bit to make sure the clove oil mixes in, and put in a cabinet to await use.  Also, you should date your mix and get rid of it after a year or if it gets funny looking. I will post more pictures of mine as it goes through its process.
There you go, it is a pretty simple recipe. But it saved me so many trips to the doctors office, I can't begin to express how glad I am to have it.
The jar of brown stuff is actually the beginning of a yummy treat. :) It is garlic cloves and Tamari. That is going to sit for a month, though it won't be in the window, I will move that in bit to a spot out of the sun. After the month is up, I will take out half of the Tamari (which I will save to use in food) and add in the same amount of honey as I took out of Tamari. It turns into a yummy treat, I could eat by the pound. lol But after I put the honey in it sits for another month. Long wait, delicious reward!

Heather

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Healing in the Kitchen



After reading an article titled Kitchen Cures by Nicci Micco in this month's issue of Parenting magazine, it inspired me to write about it in my first Etsy Natural Healers Guild blog post.


"Imagine: You take your sick kid to the doctor and come home with a prescription recipe for an immune-boosting broth to soothe his sniffles.  This may sound strange (yet wonderful!), but that's precisely how Daphne Miller, M.D. runs her family-medicine practice in San Francisco.  Best known as the author of The Jungle Effect, her popular book about the world's healthiest traditional diets, Dr. Miller is all about promoting the healing properties of food."  Check out one of Dr. Miller's family's and patient's favorite healing recipes below:


> Mushroom-Ginger Soup
Serves 1
Chase away sniffles with this get-better-soon soup.  Ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory and decongestant, and research suggests mushrooms can boost your immune system.
Put 1 1/4 cups sliced mushrooms and 1/2-inch piece of peeled fresh ginger into a pot with 2 cups cold water.  Cover and bring to boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and remove ginger.  Mix 1/4 cup of the broth with 1 Tbsp. miso paste and 1 tsp. rice vinegar.  Stir this mixture back into the pot.  Top with scallions (green onions) and serve. 



On the topic of healing mushrooms, Kombucha Tea is a biological active product fermented with a living culture to become a natural living food high in enzymes. Scientific research shows the benefits of Kombucha, whose high concentration of probiotic-rich acids can provide a powerful energy boost, as well as detoxify and cleanse the blood of disease-causing toxins, allowing the body to alleviate a wide spectrum of ailments and conditions; from the mildest indisposition to the most serious diseases.

Drinking Kombucha tea regularly has been shown to benefit the human body by:

* balancing the metabolism
* cleansing the blood and regulating pH levels
* improving liver, gall bladder, and digestive function
* detoxifying the body and enhancing the immune system
* raising overall energy level


^This Kombucha product information and photo were both found in Eco-Friendly Freckles shop.  Shop owner, Jessica, is a proud member and new captain of Etsy Natural Healers Guild.




Jessica's Komucha is also featured in my very first Etsy Natural Healers Guild Team Treasury titled Clovers and Blue Moons.




:-)