October at Earth Lodge: Classes & New Products

What a wonderfully busy month this has been! This coming week promises to be no exception with Dream Circle meeting tonight at 6pm to share and interpret their dreams, and Drumming Circle banging away this Wednesday, also at 6pm. All ages are welcome at our drum circle, where you will experience the joyful and healing energies of Native American-style heartbeat drumming. Bring a drum or rattle, or join in on the powerful Earth Lodge Pow Wow Drum -- 3 feet of bodacious buffalo power! For more information on any of our classes or directions please visit http://www.earthlodgeherbals.com/classes.htm.

Are you curious about Polarity Therapy and what its all about? Spend Saturday afternoon at Earth Lodge during this relaxed meet-and-greet, Visit us on October 17th from 2-4 PM at the Polarity Therapy Open House and let Polarity Therapist Kathy Lalonde answer your questions AND receive a free 10-minute session to balance your chakras and elements.

Our Shamanic Circle and Reiki Share continue to meet regularly, and offer rich spiritual learning experiences and healings to those who attend. The next Shamanic Circle is 10/8 and upcoming Reiki Shares are 10/2, 10/16 and 10/30. Our next Animal Healing Clinic, where your pets can benefit from multiple animal healers working on them at once, will be held October 24th.

New this month from the herbalists at Earth Lodge:

Sage Smudge Sticks, $12.00

7-8 inches long and bound with rainbow-hued cotton string, these smudge sticks are made from the healing and protective Sage on the Earth Lodge properties. Sage is protective and dispels negative energy, which helps bless and clear the home. Smudging is easy: hold the stick by the "stick" end, light the rounded leafy end on fire, blow out, and let the smoking embers clear your home and mind, carrying your prayers on the wind. Always let your smudge stick burn on or in a firesafe container or pot. To extinguish, tamp out on a firesafe surface or dip quickly into water. Do not soak. Please note: Although smudging is a safe practice indoors, it is not for recommended in barns or hay-storage areas.

Smudge, Sachet, Smudge, Sachet: Two New Products for Your Home

Lavender and Herbal Sachets, $4.50

These fresh smelling sachets are approximately 3.5 x 3.5", and made right here at Earth Lodge using one of two herbal combinations. Choose from Pure Lavender Flowers with just a tiny hint of Star Anise to place in your pillow at night and stimulate dreaming or put in your dryer and freshen your laundry (dark purple or blue flowered fabric, our choice); Or choose a more lively medley of Dried Orange Peel and Lavender Flowers accented with two Star Anise pods, perfect for scenting the closets of any man or woman (purple/green gingham or yellow and purple flowers, our choice).

Lemon Balm Smudge Sticks, $12.00

12-14 inches long and bound with rainbow-hued cotton string, these fabulous smudge sticks are made from the Lemon Balm on the Earth Lodge properties. Lemon Balm has a smooth, uplifting scent that clears the chakras, blesses the home, and harmonizes energies. Smudging is easy: hold th estick by the "stick" end, light the rounded leafy end on fire, blow out, and let the smoking embers clear your home and mind, carrying your prayers on the wind. Always let your smudge stick burn on or in a firesafe container or pot. To extinguish, tamp out on a firesafe surface or dip quickly into water. Do not soak. Please note: Although smudging is a safe practice indoors, it is not for recommended in barns or hay-storage areas.

Order today at www.earthlodgeherbals.com/smudge.htm

Fall Classes, Clinics & Events at Earth Lodge

Highlights:

Usui & Karuna Reiki Certifications

Immunity Booster Class

Polarity Therapy Open House

Drummaking Workshop

Crum Circle

Dream Circle

Course in Miracles Circle (Free Demo!)

Reiki Share

Animal Healing Clinic

Shamanic Journey Circle

details below...

Shamanic Journey Circle
This circle meets on the second Thursday of each month from 6-8 PM (9/10, 10/8) and is led by Maya and Sandra.

Commune with your guardian spirits and power animals, journey to power places of wisdom and healing, and experience new levels of Spirit. Shamanic journeys are meditative visualizations, or miniature vision quests, that allow you to access divine wisdom through your subconscious mind. At each open circle we drum, journey twice, and share our experiences. Led by shamanic healer and author Maya Cointreau. Bring a drum or rattle, pen and paper, something to lie on and an eye mask. Beginners welcome. $15

Course in Miracles Circle -- FREE DEMONSTRATIONS

Schedule One Today!
Sandra is conducting free sessions to demonstrate the planned Course in Miracles Circle - contact us to set up your demo. It will be a two hour session and will include a guided meditation lead by Sandra that will be very relaxing and will provide insight on the step by step experiential life-changing Course in Miracles. The meditation will be followed by discussion. Sandra has been through the course three times, and has spent at least 1000 hours on the Course.Once we have an full group for the Circle, we will agree on a schedule to meet: The future class times for the Circle will be set by the demonstration participants who want to move forward with the Course. These first sessions will be free demonstrations. Once the circle officially begins, there will be a $10 fee per class session. No materials are needed.

Reiki Share

This community-inspired Reiki Share meets every other Friday from 11am-1pm(8/21, 9/4, 9/18)and is open to all Reiki practitioners, whether you are a Master or just beginning. Everyone who comes gives and receives, building their Reiki as well as new friendships. The share often begins with 2-4 people working on a person on the table for 10 minutes, then sharing views of what they felt. Then we move on to the next person, until all at each table have experienced the healing for 10 minutes. We find the sharing of perceptions provides useful learning and affirmation on our intuitive physical and ethereal scanning. Earth Lodge has a table for our use, but as the group grows, we may need some to bring their tables. For those with tables, if you could have it in your car, just in case it needed, it would be helpful. $10 Donation for use of the space, which is regularly cleared, empowered and blessed by the healers at Earth Lodge.

Animal Healing Clinic

Saturday, September 26th from 2-4 pm.

People may bring one dog on a leash or one cat in a crate. The time for each session will be a minimum of 10 minutes.. The sessions will each be $10, as these are introductory demonstration sessions by Sandra, Maya and Lisa.

Drum Circle

4th Wednesday of each month, 6 PM (9/30, 10/28)

Bring a drum or a set of rattles. Heart beat native american drumming only. $5 per session.

Dream Circle

4th Wednesday of each month, 6 PM (9/28, 10/26)

Each participant will bring one dream to share and discuss. It can be an old dream, if current dreaming is minimum. In time, dreaming will increase, as one looks forward to the monthly circle and becomes more involved with their dream circle. Experience with dream circles shows that dreaming becomes richer, more intuitive, more prophetic, and provides more messages from Source, one’s higher self, and the subconscious. Each participant assesses their own dream’s meanings, with suggestive ideas from the Circle. Sandra and Maya will lead the circle. $5 donation.

Drummaking Workshop

October 10th from 2-4 PM

Make your own one-sided Native-American style drum in this class, using genuine deer and elk hides ethically hunted on Tribal Reservations. Registration & pre-payment for this class is required by September 25. Specify your choice of drum size. The smaller drum is good for kids under 14, while the larger sizes are recommended for adults. The larger the drum, the deeper and more resonant the sound, generally. $45 + materials cost ($45 for 10" drum, $75 for 14", $95 for 18").

Polarity Therapy Open House

October 17th from 2-4 PM

Are you curious about Polarity Therapy and what its all about? Spend Saturday afternoon at Earth Lodge during this relaxed meet-and-greet, let Polarity Therapist Kathy Lalonde answer your questions and receive a free 10-minute session to balance your chakras and elements.

Immunity Booster - Class

November Date TBA

This experiential class with Kathy Lalonde will teach you the hands-on technique for boosting your immune system and help keep your energies balanced this winter.

Usui and Karuna Reiki Training & Certifications:

I, II, III/Master Available by appointment.

All classes taught by Usui Reiki Master Maya Cointreau or Karuna/Usui Reiki Master Sandra Cointreau

Usui REIKI I: Level One teaches and attunes you to do hands-on healing work. introducing one to the basics of Reiki Healing and all the benefits that can be realized you are a Reiki Practitioner after this first class. Receive four attunements and your first sacred symbol. Experience a guided meditation to your Reiki Healing Guides, and exchange Reiki treatments also. Cost: $150

Usui REIKI II: Level Two teaches you to do distance/absent healing and karmic work. You will receive distance healing attunements and other sacred symbols, and instruction on how to use them. Cost: $150

Usui REIKI III/Master: Level III/Master brings in the final master symbol and attunement, as well as sacred symbols from other Reiki traditions, and teaches you how to pass on Reiki attunements. Cost: $350

Karuna Reiki I: Karuna Reiki is the next step up from being an Usui Reiki Master, bringing in significantly stronger symbols and healing methods inspired by the Reiki Masters of Japan and further improved over many years here in America by the International Reiki Center to raise the vibration of one's healing potential. Students must be certified Usui Reiki Masters with at least 6 months practice following certification. Registered Karuna Reiki® brings in healing energies that are noticeably stronger and more able to heal a wide range of challenges. The Level I Practitioner brings in use of 4 new symbols. $300
Karuna Reiki II: Only for Registered Karuna Reiki I® Practioners. Level II brings in use of 4 new symbols. $300.

Karuna Reiki Master: Receive Karuna Reiki Master training. Prerequisite: Karuna Reiki II. Registered Karuna Reiki Master students will be required to sign a code of ethics, developed by the International Reiki Center and will receive a training manual developed by the Center. Special training will also be provided on animal healing; and an Earth Lodge Animal Healing Level I Practitioner certificate will be awarded. $450.

The Viral Buzz

Since we are a group of healers dedicated to helping people feel good, we decided it is only appropriate to write a little something about viruses in general, and the Novel H1N1 Flu in particular.

Everywhere you go these days, you are no doubt hearing alot about the flu, and "the vaccine" for the Novel Flu.

"Should we get it? Should little baby K get it? Should grandma get it?"

People are calling their doctors and getting frustrated and angry that they if they can't get it. One mother I know is switching doctors because the doctor suggested that her baby will be fine, as long as she doesn't let anyone touch or lean over the stroller when she is out shopping.

But here's the thing. There currently IS no vaccine for the Novel H1N1 Flu. Not yet. The CDC website is very clear about that. Companies are working on it, and it "may" be ready in the fall. And once it exists, it won't be available until after a month or so of the minimum required testing, to make sure it at least doesn't kill people outright (so testing for long-term effects, or effects on babies in utero.) All flus, including the novel strain people are so worried about, is spread primarily through direct contact with an infected surface, sneezing and coughing. My friend's baby in the stroller will indeed be quite safe if she remains in her stroller, especially if mom throws a sheer scarf over it to discourage strangers from peering in at her baby.

And here's another thing. In its current mutation, the "novel flu" virus is no more serious that your regular flu. Medical language is scary to lay-people, but the fact is that this pandemic is not something to be terrified of. This is, frankly, one of the nicest pandemics we could get. It doesn't kill any more people than the regular flu does, and my OB and pediatrician both agree that they are not seeing anything in the material they gets from the CDC or WHO to recommend that their patients get the vaccine for the novel flu if they aren't also planning on getting one for the regular flu. The recommendations for all flus, novel and not, are the same at this time.

The CDCs biggest recommendation is that we all wash our hands more. Personally, this fall and winter I will wear my gloves all the time to enter places like schools and malls, and I won't then wipe my gloves on my face. If I know someone is sick, I will try not to see that person, even for several days after they are well.

Now, with my 3 year old son starting a Pre-K program at our local elementary school, you can bet that I just went out bought some hand sanitizer and will be using it every day when I put him in the car to pick him from school. Yes, this is coming from someone who rarely uses anti-bacterial soap, and washes her dishes with regular soap and warm water by hand. The fact is that schools are breeding grounds for ALL viral infections, and when I ran a health center for five years, it was the parents of school-age kids who got sick the most often. I personally would like to avoid that. I rarely got sick as a kid, and that continues as an adult, but still: I recognize that sometimes a little extra care is all that is needed. Baths for kids right after school, instead of at night-time, are not a bad idea either. Wash your hands before you cook or eat, and make sure your kids do, too.

The best things I believe I can invest in are basic health supplements for the family, and the best nutrition at meals. Think preventative care. Zinc, selenium and vitamin C in the diet all help the immune system stay strong, as do B vitamins and good nutrition in general. School age kids can benefit from a daily chewable vitamin, as well as some extra vitamin C during cold season. A chewable C with extra zinc can help knock out colds in their early stages. And when all else fails, I always have very good results from Hyland's cold formulas (especially "sniffles & sneezes for kids" and their cough syrup) and Olbas cough syrup. We have also formulated a special supreme anti-viral extract formula to knock out respiratory flus and other viruses, fast.

Well. That is enough on that topic! As a mother, of course it has been on my mind. Even more so since I am pregnant, and the media is really going out of their way to strike fear into my preggo heart. "There is nothing to fear, except fear itself." A little common sense and extra hygeine can go a long a way during cold & flu season.