🌝glacial intersectionality & sturdy feet | September newsletter

 

“Send me a picture of your feet.” 

A text from my sister surprises me near the end of a long day of back-to-back patients. I’m tired, and texts like this simply elicit thoughts of spam. I text back, “?” 

“Oh I’m curious about your toe spacing, since you’re often barefoot.” 

It’s her. That’s her voice. I snap a photo and blitz it over. I can imagine her grunting on the other side. 

“We have sturdy feet,” she shoots over a picture of her own, “Yours remind me of Ma’s.” 

As we shift from the Fire Element heat and fanfare of summer into the contemplative Metal Element clarification of autumn, we rest into the in-between space of Earth Element late-summer or long-summer (chang xia 長夏), where the days feel like they lengthen as they noticeably shorten, it gets hotter before it starts cooling (here in so-Cal), and we bite into the two apples of Autumn Equinox (秋分) on 9/22, and the Moon Festival (中秋節) on 9/29. 

My big sturdy feet with well-spaced toes tromp around above glaciers and glissade down mountain passes, tromping back and forth between America and Taiwan, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, and intersectional places of thinking, feeling, and being. The Lunar New Year (新年) and Moon Festival are the two biggest Chinese festivals of the year, coinciding with the first full moon of the New Year, and the full moon that falls in the middle of the lunar calendar. 

I feel both childlike delight and aching loneliness during these holidays. Living in California again, as I have for almost a decade now, I am divorced from the familiar traditions of families gathering, friends celebrating, fireworks, incense, ancestral offerings, and more. I feel adrift, anchored only by memories and phone calls. Reweaving the quilt of my indigenous ancestry within the urbane oceanic fabric of my modern life here in Ventura on the edge of the Pacific with various other cultural orphans, we cocreate. I spearhead grassroots community ecstatic dance, the “Tea Talks” podcast series, a new Moon Lab, my clinic and retreats… 

I am an idea-machine with finite energy but boundless vision. I know what deep connection feels like: laughing uncontrollably glissading down a snowy mountain pass paralleling my old friend, in as full control of the situation as we can be, left hand sturdy on ice ax head, right hand leveraging ice ax handle into snow, flipping onto our bellies when we start rolling too fast, self-arresting by jabbing ice ax head deep into snow, where it holds. 

A mountain seems stable, but rocks are always moving, changing, shifting. Snow. Ice. Fire. Sun. Floods. Flowers. Changes loom, happen, make themselves known with scree fields, avalanches, and whole swathes of trees broken at the same level. Eyes moving across a landscape as I tromp, I stop. Close. Take a breath. Open. 

Cultural traditions seem like mountains, steady and unchanging. But, lightning on the high crags. Rain. Hail. Sleet. Snow. Sky. Sun. Changes always happening. Active verb. Present tense. Usually small, sometimes an avalanche. 

Walking between-with-through the intersectional landscapes of first-generation American citizenship, Chinese medicine practice, and more− I cup my hands to my mouth, sipping the fresh glacial melt of rock-water from mountains and sky: unchanging change. I am open yet deeply rooted. All that came before passes through me onwards into all that comes ahead. My only prayer: Let this be beautiful.

Glacial melt, up and over the pass. Eastern Sierra, CA

Coming up

• Equinox Ecstatic Dance at Bodhi Salt in Ventura, CA. Free for members, sliding scale $15-30 for public. Next dance Sept. 22 with community-DJ Nohemi Ramos!
• Elemental Creativity at Green Gulch Farm in nor-Cal— art, movement, and meditation with Zen Monk Fu Schroeder, Art Monk Abbess Suiko McCall, and me! Nov. 29 - Dec. 3
• Ojai Herbal Symposium! Nov. 11-12 in Ojai, CA and online. Offering 12 CEUs for acupuncturists! (Pending CAB approval)
• The Five Elements of Yoga & Chinese Medicine retreat at Esalen with Paula Wild and me, Dec. 11 - 15

Recommendations

• New Nurtured Herbalist | Tea Talks Roundtable podcast interview with Camille Freeman & Erika Galentin
• Plant Stories with Richo Cech, interviewed by Thomas Dick and me!
• I am delighted to find the podcast of fellow intersectional author & human Joanne Lee Molinaro− who wrote The Korean Vegan (yum)
• I often miss the wilderness for weeks after backpacking trips; I often have trouble reintegrating back into ordinary reality. Listening to this book-on-tape while doing the dishes and folding laundry, life feels a bit more manageable: The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson

❤️ Unchanging change,

Jiling Lin, L.Ac. 林基玲

acupuncture . herbs . yoga

JILINGLIN.COM

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Full Moon Gratitude Meditation

Happy Full Moon!

Light a candle, get comfortable, and enjoy this Full Moon Gratitude Meditation: 

For more podcasts, visit https://www.jilinglin.com/podcasts

Have a great month!

New Moon Intentions Meditation

Happy New Moon!

Light a candle, get comfortable, and enjoy this New Moon Intentions Meditation: 

For more podcasts, visit https://www.jilinglin.com/podcasts

Have a great month!

Moon + Ritual

How do you align yourself with the Moon? 

Do you have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or yearly rituals? 

The darkness of the New Moon provides a spacious opportunity to reflect, vision, and start afresh. Spend some solo time in nature with a journal. Gaze up at the stars. What are my intentions? What am I creating this month? What am I manifesting? What actions am I taking, to create a life that's in line with my intentions, for the highest good? Take a bath. Cleanse. Let go of what didn't work from the previous month, re-calibrate, and move forward with empowered clarity. Write down solid actionable intentions and achievable actions for the month ahead. 

The fat brightness of the pregnant Full Moon inspires lunacy and celebration. Gather with friends and share gratitude, grief and praise. Share journeys and reflections since the last Moon. What has illuminated my path? What illuminates my path ahead? Place water in glass jars in the moonlight for Moon Infusions. Take night hikes under the light of the Moon. Howl. Dance. Revisit intentions from the New Moon, and re-calibrate as necessary for the remaining Moon cycle. 

Calendars

I draw Moon cycles onto my yearly paper-calendar, and sync a Moon-calendar to my Apple-Calendar. Each year, I draw a Moon table at the back of my journal charting the whole year's Full/ New Moons, where I also chart my own Moon cycles, and track parallels. 

Astrology

I'm subscribed to Mystic Mamma and WeMoon's mailing lists, where I receive monthly emails about the astrological significance of the New Moon, Full Moon, Solstices, and Equinoxes. They provide insight and inspiration when life gets murky. 

Everyday Lunacy

For both Full and New Moon, I enjoy baths, journaling, candles, and nature-time. I often consult the I-Ching for a "Hexagram of the month," and send my intentions off with incense. 

By realigning with the Moon's natural cycles, we re-attune to our primal animal natures, while engaging our uniquely Human gifts to conceptualize and create via the cerebral yet Heart-centered reflection and visioning process. We have immense power. Use it responsibly. Live to your highest potential, co-creating the most beautiful healthy thriving Earth- community you can. 

Enjoy.

~

Afternote: 

I feel Earth's shifting and Moon's changing tides most profoundly when I live close to Earth. Bare feet pattering across raw Earth day and night, season by season, attuned to rhythms of plants, and patterns of change. 

I currently live in downtown Ventura, where we sleep with shades drawn and windows mostly shut, as it's noisy and bright outside. 

Whole different world. 

I still track the Moon, and honor her cycles. It helps me stay grounded yet uplifted.
Human.

Making Moon Water

Full moon nights may inspire lunacy. How do you celebrate? Do you like full moon hikes? Naked moon howling? Werewolf parties? Song circles? Dance circles? Orgies? Moon bathing, anyone?

I like to make moon water. It’s simple yet profound, and fun for kids, too. Here’s how:

1. Fill a clear glass jar with drinking water. (I use a 1 liter Mason jar, with a cap).

2. Go outside. Place your water-filled jar in a bright moonlit clearing, where it will likely get moon exposure for most of the night.

3. Lightly cap your water, or place a mesh or cloth screen on top, to keep bugs out.

4. Let sit overnight.

5. Retrieve it in the morning, before the sun hits it.

6. Do this for all three nights of the full moon: the night before the “official” calender date full moon, the “actual” full moon night, and the night after. (Or, if you’re time crunched, then just do the “actual” full moon night.)

7. That’s it! Store your moon water in a cool place, where it can stay fresh for up to a month.

I place my moon water next to my array of flower essences, tinctures, vitamins, and/ or supplements that I ingest each day. I start off my mornings drinking warm water with a splash of lemon juice. I add a small glass of moon water into my morning cocktail, along with whatever flower essences I’m experimenting with, drinking a little everyday. This helps reinforce my connection with the moon, bringing its essence into my body gradually, as a vibrational, or energetic medicine. But, it can also be drunk all at once. It can be used ceremonially, taking internally, spritzed on, or anointed externally. I was part of a full moon women’s circle for a while, where we anointed each other with moon water, like a witch’s baptismal. Some women incorporate moon water into moon time (menses) rituals, drinking it only during that time, to align themselves with the moon’s cycles, as they also wax and wane, ebb and flow, internal fluids rising and falling, drawn like tides towards and away from the moon. There are infinite possibilities! Experiment, and have fun.

This moon water making technique may be used for making moon tea, or other infusions. Just add whatever plants you want into the water, then let it all infuse overnight, in the moonlight. Consider making other infusions in the moonlight: flower or plant essences, tinctures, oil infusions, etc. What do you associate with the moon? How about the full moon? How can you creatively incorporate that full moon energy into your food, medicine, and life?

Moonlight is said to help clear stored energy in stones, particularly crystals. You can place your favorite stones around or near the infusing moon water, for a shared moon bath. Sometimes, I surround my infusing moon water jar with special stones, to infuse some of their energy into the water. Make a total ritual out of it. Create the bare bones of the ritual: just making moon water. Then, modify that structure moon to moon, depending on your needs and desires of the moment.

I lived with two girls for a few months, ages 5 and 7. They noticed me padding out into the night barefoot for three nights every full moon, and wanted to join. So, we created a little ceremony out of it, and they joined my full moon rituals. I eventually left the USA for three years of Asiatic travels. I visited them again, upon my return. Three years later, now ages 8 and 10, they still remembered. “Do you still make moon water?” They ask. Laughing, they say, “I remember dancing and singing in the full moon, and it was so cold, and, and, and...!” It’s a simple yet memorable, fun and beautiful ritual that helps to connect young girls and women with the cycles of the moon, and rhythms of the sky. How can we imbue a sense of sacredness and magic into the lives of our youth?

Here’s some extra ideas to add to your moon water making:

- Song

- Prayer

- Incense

- Candles

- Dance

- Journaling

- ...whatever you like!

After so many years of constant change--- home, community, work, everything, week to week, month to month--- I find solace in the sky. The earth is solid beneath my feet, but the landscape looks different everywhere I go. The sky looks different too, but not as drastically so. It’s different shades of blue, but it’s still the great blue blanket that covers us all, regardless of where we live, walk, and dream. The night sky looks similar, with differing amounts of visibility. I always look for the Great Bear, Polaris, Orion, and Venus, and notice where the moon is, in her cycle. Connecting with the moon’s phases helps me connect with my personal moon cycle, or menses. It helps increase my awareness of, and track the flow of my physical, emotional, and spiritual journey, and the patterns therein.

I love ritual. Ritual feels as grounding and anchoring as the pure sky and earth. It helps me return to myself, regardless of where I am, remembering that Home lies within, not without. Ritual is a symbolic action imbued with intention, that is repeated at certain times of importance. It can be personal or communal, and personalized to each individual.

Every month, I fill a 1 liter clear glass jar with drinking water. I walk to an area where the full moon will shine on my jar for as long as possible. I do a little ceremony. The full moon inspires lunacy, for she is fat, pregnant with all the seeds sowed during the new moon. I start projects on the full moon, such as planting seeds, starting tinctures or other macerations, etc. On the full moon, I’ll evaluate where I am in my projects, harvest what is ready, and give thanks for all of the gifts received along the way. I’ll recalibrate my inner compass by updating my original intentions and visions, then continue walking forward with renewed visions, clarity, and inner strength received through this process. I speak with the moon and stars, plants and earth. I light a candle to waken the spirits, then burn aromatic plant incenses as smoky offerings, to cleanse, and send my prayers skywards. My prayers begin with gratitude, and include both what I’m releasing, and what I’m manifesting. Action and intention, prayer and ritual. The moon, stars, and night sky have heard my voice since childhood. We are after all, made of the same materials as the stars, planets, and entire Universe. Imbuing moon water with the energetic essence of the ripe fat moon, I drink that energy into my body, realigning myself with the Universe, helping me remember who I am, where I come from, and what I’m doing here.

(A special thanks to herbalist and wise woman Lucy Mitchella, for sharing these traditions with me!)