"To dream psychic visions and prophecy one must ritually drink dandelion root tea 3 times a week" I have been interested in divinitory dreaming for a long time. I love Astral travelling (who doesn't?) I became even more interested in my dreams when the dead would feature in them.. I dreamed about abstract messages they had for me, I dreamed about them repeatedly... and I loved it. In those dreams the pictures were the most vivid. Then when I became my most unhealthy with an auto-immune condition (Hashimotos Thyroiditis) the dreams stopped. At this point I was an alcoholic, a cannabis addict, a sugar junkie and had allergies and gut issues that prevented me from leading a normal life. Because my system was trying so hard to heal the inflammation during my sleep, I wasn't producing enough energy to benefit from the most important part of sleep; the REM part. The dreaming part. I just couldn't produce enough serotonin to make it happen. I was told I would have to be on medication for the rest of my life and being that I do not have trust in the mainstream medical system and their pill popping culture I thought "Absolutely NO way". I had always been interested in natural health and knowing that the body has the innate way of healing itself given the right environment; I embarked on the path to self healing. I started sun gazing. I started replenishing my serotonin by bathing my eyes in the early morning sunrise and late evening sunset. This was my daily meditation. My daily ritual to honour the Sun God. To give thanks and gratitude for the opportunities presented. My night vision improved. The stars in the sky became colourful. My life improved in general and I began to find the answers as to why/how I became so unwell. From a very young age I was very interested in natural medicine and in particular plant and herb medicine, so I began using them. Dandelion for kidney and liver function and for detoxification. Plantain for cuts and burns. Lemon Balm for the chronic cold sores I would get.. etc.. real simple stuff at first. I made a soft entry into The Craft and embarked on the spiritual path of Paganism. I asked many questions. I read many books and all the time honouring Yarilo - the Sun God everyday in my sun ritual. I went away from Paganism as I felt it to be too soft for what I needed and wanted to go to my roots : to Slavic Witchcraft. During my sungazing rituals I began to ask/pray for the answers to be able to heal myself so that I could help others... The answers came. They came so fast that I just could not believe the "synchronicity" happening. The Sun portal is so strong! It's no wonder we have all those ancient temples built to worship the Sun all around the world. The dreams of the dead came back. The messages were very clear. I had to quit sugar. That was the hardest thing I ever did - hands down; and I've been an alcoholic. But quitting sugar was 8 weeks of hard work and detox - but SO worth it. My blood sugar was back in control. After I quit sugar I felt I could conquer anything. Then the synchronicities/messages came in the form of knowledge - To fix my Gut health I had to fix my food sensitivities. - I quit dairy - the embarrassing toilet issues stopped and my chronic congestion went away, then I cut out gluten and soy and the change was miraculous. I dropped 40 kilo in 6 months without doing any exercise! Then I became alcohol free. Yup... It was something I never ever imagined myself being... living without alcohol.. Like ... WUT? Meeka doesn't drink anymore?! Get OUT. Then because I was still getting high anxiety and gut problems from beans - and coffee is a bean - I quit coffee. Yes, you read right. I god damn did it! I quit coffeeee!!! I struggled with it on and off for so long but I feel so much better without it. And again my sleep improved. I was doing a lot of healing. Soul searching. Learning. Witchcraft. Plant magick. Experimenting with altered states of consciousness through plants, herbs and mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms.... All during this time I did the holistic approach to repairing and replenishing my body with the nutrients, vitamins and minerals it needed in order to heal. I ate clean and healthy. I took copious amount of B group vitamins to deal with stress and assist in giving my body the energy it needed to heal. I learned that the B group vitamins are vital in being able to give the body energy to produce restful sleep and R.E.M. sleep and when we R.E.M . sleep - we HEAL. I started dreaming more. Not good dreams though - they were nightmares and highly sexual dreams. Really weird shit. Disturbing actually. I will just quickly add that the Sun gives us vitamin D to help us produce adequate amounts of melatonin to in turn produce serotonin so we can dream and heal! Vitamin D is SO important for our sleep health. I learned that sugar depletes magnesium in the body because it takes A LOT of magnesium to convert sugar. So I took large amounts of magnesium to counter the effects of my sugar addiction. I bathed in magnesium and lathered magnesium oil all over my body.. It stung like crazy but this was because I was so depleted of the stuff! The stinging eased over time. I also learned that one of the side effects of heavy cannabis use is the depletion of magnesium. No wonder cannabis users are so strung out without their "meds". So I quit cannabis.... I never ever thought I could do it as I used it every single day for many years - but my love hate relationship for this herb had to end. I was anxious and paranoid and I had had enough. I had a few issues I needed to resolve and I was turning 40 soon. So on a new moon in my sign - Gemini, in the month of wintry Latrobe Valley Victorian June, I locked myself away in a canvas tent, in my backyard for three cold rainy days and three freezing nights and went through the procedure of rebirthing myself, with a journey to the Dark Goddess (a story for another time). I accompanied this procedure with some really powerful trauma therapy and I was able to cut the cords of my pot habit and say goodbye - forever. During this process I dedicated myself to the Dark Goddess of dreams and of the dead. I promised to never forget her again. So with good amounts of Magnesium in my system - I am chilled out and sleeping well, with B group vitamins I am healing and dealing, with my love and honour of the Sun God and dedication to the Dark Goddess, with the use of herbs and plants I am opening up the portal in my mind and connecting to source itself. Day and night. Travelling through the portal of the sun and connecting to the place where dreams, divination and dead mingle, I use Dandelion root tea almost every day as I find it very effective for vivid dreams and astral travel... I love that it tastes a bit like coffee, I eat the bitter greens, I make dandelion flower biscuits for the kids, I burn the leaves and flowers as an offering to Morana/Hekate and the dead. I love Dandelion so much, I have let it take over my garden. It has helped me heal, it takes me to that place I like to visit every night. That place where I have interesting encounters with people, old friends, strange places where I get messages from trees and plants, and most pleasing to me are the encounters with my dead ancestors and friends.
So here's me: a straight, sober, dandelion tea drinking, clean eating freak and I am a dream addict, and I am off to dreamland.
