Pages

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

9/29/7 - Let’s Get Stoned—Naturally


Let’s Get Stoned—Naturally
9/29/7

Got ya, didn’t I?  I just love to play with words and for those of you who know me—my way of getting stoned is through Hot Stone Therapy.  Stones represent the earth element—one of the four elements in my Couples Elemental Massage.  I’ve included some of the protocol I teach in this particular class.


The Four Elements: Water, Earth, Fire and Air

Water: Swedish term is effluerage which means “to flow.”  Use long connective strokes “to flow” the warm oil on, completely covering the back and arms.  Connect with the flowing quality of water as you lubricate and relax the entire back muscles.  Use these long, flowing strokes to create the feeling of length in each part of the body.

Earth: Swedish term is petrissage, which means, “rock” or “hard.”  Next you will be kneading the muscles with deep, firm pressure connecting with the element earth, which is firm and deep.  Sore muscles love to be worked in this way and deep massage can release toxins that are trapped in the muscle tissue causing pain.  Check with your partner often to make sure it is not too deep.

Fire: Swedish term is tapotement and/or friction, which is designed to bring circulation or fire to the surface.  Rub vigorously or use tapping or slapping strokes to bring a warm, flushed quality to the skin.  This helps circulate the toxins out of the muscles into the blood and lymphatic systems.  This can be very invigorating to the body—but don’t overdo it.  Too much tapotement can become irritating.

Air: Swedish term is etheric which means “air.”  Lightly stroke the body with an “air-brush” quality.  You can use feathers or massage mitts to assist with the erotic quality of air.  This will send your partner “out of this world.”  This also accesses the energy or etheric field of the body, eliminating any trapped negative energy. Continue with the massage protocol addressing each body part using the four elements of massage.

At Breathe Day Spa where I work we do an exclusive Breathe Hot Stone Massage which is absolutely fabulous.  Also at the Bellagio where I worked we offered The Bellagio Signature Hot Stone Massage.  I incorporate many of these hot stone techniques in my own Nu Yu Body Renewal protocol.  The following is a brief history of the use of stones for healing (borrowed from Breathe) that I thought was quite interesting.

Most, if not all, stone use for healing has been passed verbally from one healer or medicine person to the next.
Some cultures teach that the stones of the earth have the memories of all the events of the planet, if not the Universe.  The stones agree to aid each human in their own personal journey of healing and transformation by enhancing our memories and allowing us to view life in a more balanced and spiritual way.
Native Americans use heated stones in their sweat-lodges, usually the bluish-to-black stones.  They also use a sun-heated (heliotherapy) stone on the belly of a woman when her menses are painful to relieve the pain.  In the Sioux Indian tradition, a boy going through manhood would lay on a hard rock and put smooth stones between his toes to teach him the difference between hard and soft, female and male, a beginning for understanding how important it is to balance ones life.
Many shamans, medicine people, and spiritual healers from all over the world use stones and crystals in their healing ceremonies.  Each color and type of stone reflects an energy, purpose, clearing and releasing effect on the client as it is being used.  Very few are chosen to learn from a spiritual teacher how to use the stones for healing.  Usually a shaman will pass on the knowledge of healing to one special student before they pass into the Light to rejoin their creator.  This is one reason that there is very little out there for research purposes.
In Hawaii the Kahunas use lava stones in their healing treatments, and they wrap the stone with a ki leaf.  The lava stone represents healing and protection.  Lava stones were also used for building altars for religious or magical practices.
In the Philippines it is a common practice to use a rough basalt stone to slough off old and dry skin.
In Russia there is a tradition using heated black stones in their bath.  They line the bottom of the bathtub with hot stones and then lie down on the smooth stones, soaking in the soothing warm energy that radiates from each stone.
In the days of cowboys, it was a common practice to heat stones in the fire and then place them on the ground under their bedding.  The stones heated energies not only kept them warm at night, but also the stones were more giving to the body than the earth for comfort.
An order of Japanese monks use the smooth black stones to keep their abdomens warm after a meal.  It is a custom of theirs not to eat a lot at one time.  By placing two or three warm stones in the sash that is wrapped around their waist, they have a sense of being fuller for a longer period of time.
The Mayan Indians use a divination stone to tell them what illness a patient has and what the treatment(s) should be to aid the person back to good health.  This is very similar to the use of a crystal ball.
In China the use of heated stones to relieve tired muscles dates back to before the Chang Dynasty (Circa 2000-1500 BC).
Along with healing, stones have been used for a myriad of other purposes.  The ancient Egyptians engraved their Book of the Dead onto semi-precious stones that had been cut into symbolic forms.  The Celts left their alphabet etched in stones called Ogham as well as building giant stone circles like Stonehenge.  Many North American Indians created petroglyphs in cliff faces and rocks.  Stones have been used for hunting, cooking and protection.  Crazy Horse carried a pebble behind his ear; this stone was part of his belief that he was bulletproof.  Quartz crystal divination was used by Southwest Pueblo Indians as well as the Gypsies.  Cherokee Indians wore crystals wrapped in leather for protection, energy or power.
Nowadays, stones are becoming more and more popular for use in massage.  Hot stones can be used to massage tight muscles to help them relax deeply.  The use of hot and cold stones together is the application of thermotherapy, using deep penetrating heated stones and alternating with extremely cold or “frozen” stones.  Using different temperatures, whether hot or cold, on the body to bring about a certain reaction has been done for eons.  Adjusting temperatures in bodywork to aid clients in healing has always been beneficial.  Basalt and marble stones are the medium and the hot and cold temperatures are the message.  This “vascular gymnastics” of the circulatory system assist the body in self-healing.

To conclude our series on the use of the four elements for healing, again I quote from The Essene Gospel of Peace.

Your Mother is in you, and you in her.  She bore you: she gives you life.  It was she who gave to you your body, and to her shall you one day give it back again.  Happy are you when you come to know her and her kingdom; if you receive your Mother’s angels and if you do her laws.  I tell you truly, he who does these things shall never see disease.  For the power of our Mother is above all.  And it destroys Satan and his kingdom, and has rule over all your bodies and all living things.
The blood which runs in us is born of the blood of our Earthly Mother.  Her blood falls from the clouds; leaps up from the womb of the earth; babbles in the brooks of the mountains; flows wide in the rivers of the plains; sleeps in the lakes; rages mightily in tempestuous seas.
The air which we breathe is born of the breath of the Earthly Mother.  Her breath is azure in the heights of the heavens; sighs in the tops of the mountains; whispers in the leaves of the forest; billows over the cornfields; slumbers in the deep valleys; burns hot in the desert.
The hardness of our bones is born of the bones of our Earthly Mother, of the rocks and of the stones.  They stand naked to the heavens on the tops of mountains; are as giants that lie sleeping on the sides of the mountains, as idols set in the desert, and are hidden in the deepness of the earth.
The tenderness of our flesh is born of the flesh of our Earthly Mother; whose flesh waxes yellow and red in the fruits of the trees, and nurtures us in the furrows of the fields.
Our bowels are born of the bowels of our Earthly Mother, and are hid from our eyes, like the invisible depths of the earth.
The light of our eyes, the hearing of our ears, both are born of the colors and the sounds of our Earthly Mother; which enclose us about, as the waves of the sea a fish, as the eddying air a bird.
I tell you in very truth, Man is the Son of the Earthly Mother, and from her did the Son of Man receive his whole body, even as the body of the newborn babe is born of the womb of his mother, I tell you truly, you are one with the Earthly Mother; she is in you, and you in her.  Of her were you born, in her do you live, and to her shall you return again.  Keep, therefore, her laws for none can live long, neither be happy, but he who honors his Earthly Mother and does her laws.  For your breath is her breath; your blood her blood; your bone her bones; your flesh her flesh; your bowels her bowels; your eyes and your ears are her eyes and her ears.
           
I’d like to end this week’s good newsletter with the words to one of my favorite songs, “The Flower That Shattered the Stone.”  What a beautiful metaphor and a great song to honor our Earthly Mother and all the gifts that She blesses us with.

The Flower That Shattered the Stone

            The Earth is our Mother
                        Just turning around
                        With her trees in the forest
                        Roots underground
                        Our Father above us
                        Whose sigh is the wind
                        Paint us a rainbow
                        Without any end

                        As the river runs freely
                        The mountain does rise
                        Let me touch with my fingers
                        And see with my eyes
                        In the hearts of the children
                        A pure love still grows
                        Like a bright star in heaven
                        That lights our way home
                        Like the flower that shattered the stone

                        Sparrows find freedom
                        Beholding the sun
                        In the infinite wisdom
                        We’re all joined in one
                        I reach out before me
                        And look to the sky
                        Did I hear someone whisper?
                        Did something pass by?

                        As the river runs freely
                        The mountain does rise.
                        Let me touch with my fingers
                        See with my eyes
                        In the hearts of the children
                        A pure love still grows
                        Like a bright star in heaven
                        That lights our way home
                        Like the flower that shattered the stone

                        Like a bright star in heaven
                        That lights our way home
                        Like the flower that shattered the stone

                        (Words by Joe Henry, Music by John Jarvis, Sung by John Denver in his album, The Flower that Shattered the Stone)

No comments:

Post a Comment