text:
Dryness is no fun at all
I want to write about the unspoken bits of menopause. Today a new customer rang me about her reasons for buying my Naturally Feminine Balm and I was moved by our conversation. It made me feel such a range of emotions: sympathy, humour, anger and frustration. And so I want to talk about this issue, get it out in the open. This is the rant that I suspect a lot of women want to have, but feel they can't because it is still so unspoken, still so taboo.
I want to talk about vaginal dryness. There, I said it. I want to air some of the things it can make us feel as it affects us. Maybe it won't affect you. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones, but the reality is if this is not an issue for you then you ARE one of the lucky ones. Statistically, you are in the minority.
Vaginal dryness is most often brought on by changes that come with the menopause, be it naturally occurring, or medically induced. It can also arise after treatments such as chemotherapy. Until you get it, you really have no idea what it's like.
It's horrible.
First up there's the physical feeling. I've had women tell me they feel like their skin splits when they walk! Walk! Forget the nights of passion, this is about daily life. This is about going to work, doing the shopping, caring for families.
Another description is a feeling almost like there is broken glass in your bits. A kind of searing, burning pain, sharp, cutting pain.
most of the time we can't even tell our best friends about it.
And then there's the sex thing. Well, I hardly know where to start with this. It is incredibly hard for women who have had a pleasurable sex life and looked forward to moments of intimacy with their partner, to then find themselves wincing when touched, let alone penetrated. Do you know what I mean? There are many women who find themselves starting to dread sex, not because they don't like sex, but because it is genuinely painful and that, dear reader, is a very difficult thing to navigate with a partner.
Then there's after sex and the pain sets in. It can take days for it to subside. The pain burns its way into your soul. It reminds you that things aren't all that great down there.
I've had women say that they've tried so many things to ease the problem and nothing has really worked and so they feel they'll just have to give up on the whole sex thing altogether and hey, for some of us that is actually fine. It may even be a relief. Menopause can be empowering and liberating and a choice not to have sex is all part of that.
But making that choice can sometimes feel impossible. What will your partner think? How will it impact your relationship? Do you say something and try and get the issue on the table and discussed like grown-ups, or do you suffer in silence? Or do you end up not managing the former and living with the latter?
It can be hard enough during this huge life transition to try to muster up frisky hormones as it is, let alone having to do this knowing that the end result will be agony. Say 'oh yes! ' if you know what I mean.
The media feeds us this myth that we all want to be flat out at it like bunnies throughout life, and that the worst thing about menopause is that it can dampen your libido, but, in spite of this inconvenient lack of estrogen you want to be at it, really you do. They never tell stories about the fact it can be extremely painful and with that pain can come a whole host of misery and THAT's why you're not living up to the media hype.
Vaginal dryness can make you feel like your body is betraying you. It can make you feel like you're betraying your partner. It can place a wedge between you and your partner if you can't talk to them about it; if they don't take time to understand what is going on for you; if they still want their needs met.
It can be heartbreaking to realise that you're no longer initiating intimacy of any kind in case it leads to the other's wish for sex. And then there are the partners who start making snide remarks publicly about menopause – have you come across them? Well, that just makes everyone in the room feel awkward.
Vaginal dryness sucks. Hot flashes and insomnia are a breeze compared to this problem. It really hits a number of taboos and so nobody-talks-about-it. And I just think that's not fair and, at the same time, I totally get why it is so hard to do.
The thing about making a range of products for menopause is that women DO talk to me about it. I'm so glad they feel they can; because most of the time we can't even tell our best friends about it.
I cried when a customer of mine told me she had bought some of my Naturally Feminine Balm and it had 'given her her marriage back'. Another said it made her 'feel like a woman again'. And then recently a customer of mine in the States was in touch saying that she had tried so many things, including numerous prescription products with no success, but my balm had made a huge difference to her and to her life. And then there was the woman who said that it had helped her enormously because things had been so bad that when she walked she split and bled. And the woman who said how much it had helped her after chemo. And the woman who said that friends had said to her, 'lucky you, retirement means you'll have heaps of time of lazy morning sex!', but all she could think about was how much it hurt and how impossible that idea seemed and how there was no one to talk to about it. So many stories of pain, miscommunication or no communication, loss of confidence (so much for liberation).
The creation of Naturally Feminine Balm came out of one woman having the guts to talk about this problem a few years ago. She came to me and asked if I could help her. I'm so glad she did that because, at a basic human level, I want to help people. I want to contribute to helping women going through all of this. This isn't about business, this is about a calling, and my calling is to be working with nature to find ways to support health and wellbeing in key life transitions, in the tough stuff like menopause and like the end of life (not that I connect these two things!). I've spent a long time researching plants and ways in which nature could help make things a bit more comfortable and I use slow and gentle (and ancient) techniques to create the balm. I am really proud of what I've created and how it is helping so many women now (including me!).
There. I said it. I hope in a funny sort of way my rant has helped you. Maybe it has raised things you've been thinking and dealing with? Maybe hearing that there is something natural, made from plant extracts and some beeswax that may be able to help, helps. Maybe you'd like to share your thoughts in the comments below – please do, because here's to solidarity for the dried up woo woos of the world.
Georgina x
PS: How do you use Naturally Feminine Balm? Easy just put a little of it on your fingertips and apply to the affected area. You can pop some internally as well. It can be good to put some on in advance of intimacy and afterwards. For day to day help, use it as needed.
PPS: If you're reading this and you are based in the States you are able to buy the balm there via my listing on Amazon.]]>
Against the backdrop of #Metoo women are reaching forward, stepping into their power. They've had enough of being talked down to, not listened to, abused, ignored.
Are you trying to find that strong place at your core? The place where you are unafraid to express your own sense of self and the world? Are you wanting to celebrate the feminine and use its power to help you feel strong and centred? Unstoppable?
We are the people, the animals, the insects and the plants. We are the mountains and the valleys and the waters.
Look down. See your feet on the belly of the great mother. Take a breath. Feel her energy rising up into your soul. We come from the earth and we return to the earth. We are the people, the animals, the insects and the plants. We are the mountains and the valleys and the waters.
Like us, each plant has its own energy, its own vibration and when we see that and experience that, we become equipped with the ability to tune into the world around us, to feel the energy flowing through us. The landscape becomes our medicine. The plants become our allies. We become invincible.
Plant essences help you tap into the healing power of nature, wherever you are. They are beautiful natural remedies that work at an energetic level to help us balance our emotional and spiritual well-being by deepening our connection to the healing power of plants and the energy of the landscape.
Find your feminine truth and love yourself regardless of what anyone else may say or do.
The Archeus Earth Mothers Plant Essence Set contains three plants (of many) that I have selected and made for their deep feminine energy that protects, nurtures and celebrates all that it is to be woman.
Houhere (a native NZ tree) has the ability to help us cherish and strengthen bonds – between family, lovers and our women friends. It helps you let go when you are holding on too tight to something because of fear.
Violet is a traditional women's remedy and nurtures and soothes the breasts and reproductive tract. Energetically she helps us learn to love our womanliness, especially in situations where we may have a fear or hatred of our own body, or if we are grieving for lost children, or holding on to troubles and past events.
Silver Birch is regarded as a strongly protective feminine energy. She is known as the 'lady of the woods'. She imparts grace and gives you shelter, protecting you from unwanted outside influences.
The Earth Mothers - three plant essences that help you stand your ground. Find your feminine truth and love yourself regardless of what anyone else may say or do.
Available on the Archeus website and selected outlets.
Every purchase returns a portion of proceeds to the earth mother by supporting plant conservation and habitat restoration work.]]>
A few months ago, I was invited to see the team at Waitomo Caves as they were interested in my Archeus offerings, thinking they may be nice for their visitor shop. It's a beautiful drive from Hawke's Bay to Waitomo. Over hills, past lakes, through farmland and bush. I had a sense of being reacquainted with the Mother. I enjoyed her forms and flora, her shadows.
There is a feeling when one gets out of the car at Waitomo. I had a similar feeling years ago at Stonehenge, or by an ancient healing spring on Anglesey or being in the bush at the back of the farm I grew up on in New Zealand. A feeling of power, like industrial mains, running through the land. The air electric with anticipation – will she, or won't she be able to pass through the veil?
The bush is beautiful. The greens, so green. Moss and lichen hangs from trees. The air is damp and the earth smells rich. I walk up to the visitor centre which hovers amid the trees like an insect, yet also like a chrysalis. Its own beauty is in its simplicity.
I join a group of about twenty people for my first experience of the caves. Our guide, a young man from the local hapu is knowledgeable and entertaining and sings beautifully. Upon entering the cave I started to lose a sense of the people around me as I was drawn into the immediacy of my own experience. My advice is to tune into your own experience. Engage all your senses. Allow yourself to dream. I work with energy and plants and the landscape and have refined my skills with shamans and healers over the years, so this awareness of oneness definitely permeated my experience but you don't have to be a shaman to discover the exquisite power of the land in these caves.
Later that night I found myself retracing my steps, returning to the experience and writing it down before it was gone and forgotten. Here is what I wrote:
Shaman's Song
"My first response to the Waitomo Caves was one of awe. It is hard to imagine the quiet beauty of this place. The soft, folding patterns of time creating such shapes, such chambers. Womb. How does a song sound in the place before we are born? It sounds like the cathedral cave. Each note only in the moment, no lingering, but much haunting.
To the earth we return and deeper and deeper into the earth we went. Journeying down, down, down to a river, black as night. As in myth and legend, a boat was waiting for us there and we embarked and floated into blackness. We floated into an underground universe of glow worms. Down there in the caves, silence has an immediacy, a presence of its own. This with the galaxy of lights made me feel like I was returning to the point of creation. I felt I was joining the souls returning to the earth mother, Papatuanuku, Gaia, Pachamama.
To the earth we return and deeper and deeper into the earth we went.
This was going home. A sort of death. A shaman's journey. I had travelled to a place of returned souls flickering in each glow worm light. Sacred. Sublime. Peaceful. A place where dreams can be remade. In the darkness, under the astral gaze a divine force filled these chambers, revealing itself only in the silence. In this place I felt the end and the beginning of time. I felt the mighty sense of the mother. As we started to see feathers of light in the distance I felt as if I was being reborn. Slipping through dark waters, moving towards light. From the earth we come."
From the earth we come, and to the earth we go. My visit to the Waitomo Caves was in June. It was at a time that I was feeling a bit stressed and overwhelmed – until slipping through those waters. They made me feel like I was being given a second chance. A deeper initiation into the healing path I find myself walking. I thought about my teacher Alberto Villoldo and how he would love it at the caves.
Since then much has happened; I accompanied my father on his own journey at the end of his life. I've created a new healing space and I've made a promise to do all I can to bring ancient healing wisdom into our modern living. When I need courage or strength, I can close my eyes and be back in those caves, back in the Mother, back in my shaman's journey.
And the meeting with the team? What beautiful people. What an extraordinary place. I felt that people coming through the caves may wish to extend their sense of connection with the landscape, with the healing power of nature and so with the team's blessing I created the Archeus plant essence sets so that visitors to the caves could take the healing power of nature with them, wherever they go.
Go well.
Georgina x
PS: I keep dreaming about offering teachings at Waitomo. Sound interesting? If you would like to experience a two-day retreat with me at Waitomo in which we explore the landscape as medicine, shamanic journeys and travel into the caves for your own sense of rebirth leave a comment below and click on the button to be added to a special mailing list for further information.
I'm proud to be able to make these new Archeus offerings available. Plant essences are powerful ways of connecting with the healing power of nature and these sets are carefully created to help you easily find your plant allies.
Somehow the timing of their release feels even more imbued with healing. My father sadly passed away two weeks ago. I was with him throughout the last three days of his life. During that profound experience I found comfort in the subtle energies of a selection of my plant essences. I didn't need to use them all the time, but when I did use them, the feeling of support and connection with something so much bigger than us was palpable.
Over the past few months I have been working on these three plant essence sets. The Healers, The Storytellers and The Earth Mothers. I've designed the boxes, done the artwork, made the essences. Every step of this process I have approached consciously in sacred space. It is wonderful how nature reminds us of the primal cycles of life: that birth follows death. My father dies and a new offering for healing for others is born.
Plant essences are beautiful natural remedies that work at an energetic level to help us balance our emotional health and well-being by deepening our connection to the healing power of plants. You may be familiar with Bach's Rescue Remedy, well that is a blend of plant essences and Dr. Edward Bach was instrumental in bringing this beautiful form of earth medicine to a wider audience in the first half of the 20th Century.
Take the healing power of nature with you, wherever you go
Archeus plant essences are handcrafted from organically grown and wildcrafted plant material harvested according to season and the lunar calendar. Each set contains three 10ml stock essence bottles of different plant essences, plus a leaflet with information on each plant essence and how to use them.
The three sets are summarised below. Over the coming weeks, I will delve into each plant ally in more detail.
The Healers - Kawakawa, Kowhai and Totara protect and support us in times of change and help us move forward with a sense of peace and joy.
The Earth Mothers - Houhere, Silver Birch and Violet have a deep feminine energy that protects, nurtures and celebrates all that it is to be woman.
The Storytellers - Bee balm, Harakeke and Mullein help us to be heard, to listen well and to speak our truth with kindness.
The sets are available on the Archeus website. I am also running an Introduction to Plant Allies workshop on Saturday 12 October in the new Archeus Apothecary. Online courses will also be available soon.
I love sensing the Archeus, the vital force that flows through us, nature and the universe. Do you know that feeling too? That belonging that comes with tuning in and connecting to the energy of plants and landscape around us. In doing so, we get brought closer to the true nature of our Self.
Five hundred years ago the renaissance physician, alchemist and philosopher, Paracelsus, said that to heal and to do alchemy we had to work with this force, this Archeus. He saw how we are not separate from the world around us, but rather we are completely and totally linked to it.
Since then we got blown off course by the siren song of industrialisation that promised a better future by churning things out cheaper. Faster, faster, no time for spiritual reflection or nature's timepiece with all its beautiful loops and circles.
But it looks like nature is reminding us about how interconnected we are. And it looks like more of us are starting to see those connections that run deeper than food for fuel. We are starting to see how nature also offers (among its many gifts) food for our soul.
This plant in this photo is violet. I took it this morning on my walk. it was still glistening with heavy dew. Its fragrance was so deep and velvety against the morning chill. I see this plant as one of the Earth Mothers, providing a direct connection between us, our own womanliness and our earth mother, gaia, pachamama, papatuanuku.
Traditionally Violets are used as medicine for women's breasts and reproductive tract, reducing lumps and bumps. They're also the flowers placed on a child's grave.
Was it dew I saw on the violet's leaves this morning, or tears? Mother earth weeping for what is being lost?
Such sweet energy, caring for the mothering parts of body and soul. Violets help us connect to the deep feminine in us and in nature. They help us pay our respects to the lost child and honour our own inner (and often lost) child with a hug in each drop. Was it dew I saw on the leaves this morning... or tears? Mother earth weeping for what is being lost?
Leaves that look like hearts and wombs, all curving and curling back around on itself and time. Violet is a plant essence singing us to a better place, a calmer time. Reflection, observation, soul food. This is what Archeus Violet plant essence captures and gives so generously. Deep spirit... from the earth, to the mother, to the feminine soul. Let us hear her song and honour it.
And this is what I do, five hundred years on from Paracelsus, my childhood instinct to turn to nature to help me heal has grown with me over decades. Walking silently beside me as I discovered my own truth and stepped fully onto my own truth. In my forties, I stepped away from an international career and a world of 'faster faster' and onto this nature path, my soul path. Now as a woman in her fifties I feel blessed. I work with nature to share this energy, work with this magic, this healing, this oneness and offer its gifts up to you.
Let nature be your ally, your friend. The one who walks beside you through the good times and the bad.
Each Archeus plant essence and elixir is a hug in every sip. The energy of the landscape in every drop. Available on the Archeus website. Details of new courses coming soon.
Yesterday I put a post of the Archeus FB and Instagram pages of this photo I took on my morning walk. I thought it looked like fairy hammocks and asked people to give me an opening sentence and that I would write a story. I had some great suggestions and you can see them here. I couldn't pick just one so decided to weave them all into a story. See if you can spot them in the story below. Are you comfy children? Here we go...
Once upon a time, buried deep amongst the undergrowth of the vast forest of Dornland, there lived an intriguing and brave young fairy called Teth.
From an early age, Teth always knew that she was different. It's not that she didn't have lots of friends; or that her parents didn't love her, it's just that she felt that she was there to make a difference. She did the dishes and other chores like all other young fairies. She went to fairy school where she learned to use her magic wand and to be nice to the spiders who wove their hammocks and fairy bridges for them. But at night, when the sky was inky black and all she could hear was the gentle snoring of her father in his hammock nearby, and the sound of the morepork singing its lonely love songs, she would snuggle under her quilt of feathers and look up at the stars and say to herself in a quiet fairy voice so no one could hear, "When I grow up, I'm going to change the world." She would repeat it over and over until she drifted off to sleep.
Teth's real name was Tetherina Aquilegia Lavandula Excelsum, which, even for a fairy, was quite a mouthful. Her parents had gathered up names the meant something special to them and plopped them all on her head as a baby: Aquilegia was because her mother's mother would sit under the flowers in the rain and they would say, 'look there's granny's bonnet'. Lavandula was for the beautiful lavender bushes and their sweet, kind, peaceful energy they gave off to everyone who cared to notice. There was something about lavender that would wash away cares and well, that's what Teth's parents hoped for her – that she would never be burdened with cares and woes. Excelsum was in honour of the kawa kawa trees in the forest of Dornland. Sometimes it could be spooky in the forest, but kawa kawa always gave safe haven and you could peek through the holes in the leaves to see what was coming or where to go to next. Excelsum was Latin for high rank or prominence and as Teth's father was the fairy King, this surname came as no surprise. Yes, she was indeed a fairy princess, but the truth was she felt a bit shy about it. Her name Tetherina is said to have links to the number nine and to the serpent. She didn't quite know what all that meant for her now, but she was sure she would find out in time. But that will be another story for another day.
One cold and dewy morning Teth was a sweet little sleeping fairy but then yawned herself awake, stretching her arms and wiggling her toes. A dewdrop tickled her as it plopped onto her nose, causing her to jiggle and wiggle back down into the cosiness of her silky hammock. As she rubbed her eyes and looked around, she had the feeling that today was going to be a very special day. She felt that today was going to be the day that she would start to change the world.
She sat down to breakfast with her father the King, and her mother the Queen with the beautiful name, Aerwyna, and she had second helpings of everything and sprinkled masses of hundreds and thousands on her fairy bread. "You've got an appetite this morning Teth dear," said her mother who didn't altogether approve of how much Teth was piling onto her plate. But Teth knew that if today was the day she was going to change the world she would need a good breakfast. She ate as fast as she could while still maintaining good princessly table manners and then asked to be excused. "Off you go", her father the king said. And off she went.
Ping the piwakawaka was waiting impatiently for her outside, flitting from branch to branch. "Hurry up" Ping said, "I've come to give you a lift. Get on my back."
"Where are we going?" said Teth
"We're going deep into the forest and through to the place that glitters," said Ping. "Hold on, here we go."
"We're going deep into the forest and through to the place that glitters," said Ping. "Hold on, here we go.
The place that glitters was far, far away and there were many stories about it. About how it belched out smoke and had eyes that shone all night and creatures with no heartbeat that roared all day and all night. Teth was a little bit scared but she felt deep down this was something to do with changing the world and so she gulped and jumped onto Ping's back.
Teth held on tight and Ping swooped and flitted through the forest. Up and down and round and round, pipping and squeaking all the way.
"Ooh Ping," said Teth, "you flit up and down and around so, I'm feeling a bit travel sick".
"That's because you ate such a big breakfast", said Ping.
"Please can you fly a little straighter?" asked Teth, a little queasily.
Ping gave a big sigh and tried as hard as she could to fly in a straight line, but in the end, she said "I can't Teth. I'm a fantail and flying hither and thither is what we do. I'll find someone else to take you from here but I'll wait here for when you come back." Ping called and called and along came Caliope the Kereru.
"I'll take you Teth. You have important work to do and I will help you to do it".
"Thank you" said Teth who had been sitting on the branch next to Ping to recover for a bit. Then she clambered up onto the big fat Kereru's back and 'whoppp whoppp whoppp" off they went through the forest and then up, up, up into the sky. Further up in the air than Teth had ever been. She hung on really tight.
In the distance they started to see a glittering light, "oh golly," gasped Teth, "it's so big". She was a little bit afraid.
But she remembered what the great Spinderella had told her that day down in the woodland where she had been playing hide and seek with her friends and then her breath had been taken away by the sight of Spinderella's cobweb. It was so delicate, even lace-like, with a brushing of angels' tears. It was so beautiful that Teth forgot she was a princess fairy and hovered with her mouth hanging open in wonder and awe.
Spinderella came out of her web, playing strange and haunting music on the silken strands with her eight legs as she walked purposefully towards Teth. "Ah my child, I've been waiting for you. You are the one who is going to change the world. You must listen to me. You need to travel to the place that glitters and there you must find a boy and a girl. A human boy and girl, and you must let them see you and then you must show them the magic that we all know. The magic that, like this web of mine, binds us all together so we can live happily. Now this task may sound simple, but it is very, very hard. The place that glitters is dangerous, and humans are not very clever. They have eyes but they cannot see, and they have hearts, but they forget to love anything other than themselves. So you are going to need to search for the right boy and girl and you need to be very, very careful. Now, when the Matariki stars rise in the sky after darkness, you will know it is time for your journey and this new world story to begin. Go my child. Be safe."
And now, here she was. On the back of Caliope the Kereru, under the Matariki stars, flying towards the place that glitters. She could even smell it now. A dense acrid heavy smell. Unnatural and strange. And soon they were flying over rooftops with chimneys with smoke coming out, and there were ribbons like veins with the creatures with no heartbeats that roared up and down along the veins. "They're called cars" shouted Caliope over her shoulder. And there was a shed with cows crying in it and a human with a stick hitting a dog and a child pulling wings off a fly and a fish on a riverbank gasping and a whale on a beach crying for the ocean.
Teth started to cry. Tears fell from her eyes and drifted like snowflakes onto the roads and the rooftops below her.
Teth started to cry. Tears fell from her eyes and drifted like snowflakes onto the roads and the rooftops below her. "This is so horrible this place that glitters. It's eating everything up and it's loud and why do they want to chop down that ancient Kauri tree and replace it with concrete?"
"Yes my child", sighed Caliope, "it is the worst of places, but it's here that you will find the human boy child and girl child who, with your help, will change everything so that the trees can grow and the fish can swim and the whale can return to the ocean. Look for them because you will find them here."
And so Caliope and Teth ventured throughout the place that glitters. They searched and searched and grew weary and thin. They saw things they wished they would never have to see. Teth looked into empty eyes hoping, but not finding. Then one day as they took shelter in a lonely oak tree in a park. The oak tree said to them, "You are close now. Let me offer protection, let me give you energy so you can keep going, so that you take care of yourself as you complete you mission to care for others. Rest in my branches, sleep in my acorn cups. You are safe here. And so Teth gratefully curled up in an acorn cup and slept and slept and slept.
In the morning, as Teth awoke, she could hear singing. Two voices near the roots of the tree below her. A boy and a girl. Singing and playing. They were making a leaf house for a hedgehog they had called Nog. Then the boy got up and said to the girl, "I bet you can't fly as fast as I can!" and he started to run around the base of the tree flapping his arms and jumping and hooting, "I'm a bird! I'm a bird!". The girl giggled and jumped up and started to dance a wavy, bendy dance "And I bet you can't dance in the breeze like me! I'm a sunflower waving and nodding and all golden and bright" and she waved and nodded and glowed all golden and bright. The oak tree, Nog the hedgehog, Caliope the Kereru and Teth all swayed and nodded to each other too – these are the children. These are who we've been looking for.
Then the boy got up and said to the girl, "I bet you can't fly as fast as I can!" and he started to run around the base of the tree flapping his arms and jumping and hooting, "I'm a bird! I'm a bird!"
Cautiously, Teth flew down towards the children. She held her wand tightly and flew around their heads. "What's that!?" gasped the girl. "What?" said the boy. "it's a fairy, it's a fairy flying by your head. No its by my head now. Oh look it's so pretty! A fairy. A fairy!" The human children smiled and stared and sat down by Nog under the tree. They gazed at Teth. "Wowwwww, said the boy child. A real fairy!"
Teth looked at them and they looked at her and then she went up and whispered in their ears. She whispered the secret things she'd been told to tell them. The secret things that would make them understand. The secret things that would make them see the oneness of the universe and she waved her wand and the children smiled and suddenly their world became full of a different sort of noise. They could hear the cows asking for help and the trees begging not to be cut down, and the whale saying thank you as it moved out to sea and the sunflowers nodding "well done children" and the birds saying "at last".
Teth and Caliope, Nog and oak told the children how they all worked together and about a world wide web under the ground that connected everything and how they shared energy and air and food and houses. They introduced them to the plant devas and the shamans and creepy crawlies, that suddenly didn't seem so creepy after all. They taught them to see the lives of others and to love them well. The children cried at what the humans had done but said they would change it forever. And they got up and ran to tell the other humans that there was much work to be done to stop the belching and the roaring and the taking and the chopping down.
And now it was time for Teth to go home. Away she and the whoppp whopping Kereru flew. And there was Ping waiting for her just like she promised. And the forest of Dornland seemed even more beautiful and less scary than she remembered and, as she got closer to home, there was magic in the air and the sound of fairy whispers. Glistening dew drops danced on the branches and the sun was warming all with her radiant smile.
But, when Teth got to her home the hammocks were all empty! Where had everyone gone? Oh dear, was she too late? Where were her parents the King and Queen? Dew drops clung shimmering in the soft early morning light and her heart sank "I'm too late afterall" she cried. And she sat down under a granny's bonnet and wept snowflakes.
"Surprise!" all the fairies flew out from behind the kawa kawa and her parents glided down to her beaming just like the sun. "Tetherina, our beautiful child. You are brave and special, and you went on a dangerous journey to change the world and change the world you have'. They placed a beautiful tiara spun by Spinderella upon her head and the forest of Dornland and the rivers, oceans, mountains and streams were filled with singing and the far off voices of a boy child and a girl child saying "we can change the world".
The End
I know I did. Here I was, back from an international career, building a new business and connecting people to the healing power of nature. In love and living the dream. And then there it came, that 'feeling down' feeling. It's nondescript but there is a sense of dragging down, a hand gripping my ankle in deep water. A black dog in the distance menacing a dark street.
I think we often know how we get here, but can't quite believe that we do. I cast my eye back and look for patterns and circuits to break. I had grown up with a mother who kept pushing me under the water in order to try and save herself. There wasn't enough room in our home for her troubles and my own. So, I too pushed things under the waters. Angst waiting below the waves. A slow, wafting Sargasso Sea of pain. I felt I had to be the strong one.
I suspect for many, that one of the things we fear is looking flawed. And so, like many, I kept my anxieties and worries well hid. But with time, overwhelm and exhaustion can become constant companions. There is a feeling - not so much of being broken, but brittle. Like porcelain. Vague fears start floating to the surface, an oily slick on a surging tide.
When someone is drowning, we hope they raise their hand for help, and we hope that hand is seen. I had not realised how hard this was to do. Raising a hand after so much silence can be like surfacing. The behemoth rising from the deep. It can be hard. We are scared to be seen as something weaker than we want to be. We can be scared of the words it might make. But the truth is we don't have to be perfect.
Like the imperfect pot she throws, we too are made from earth. We are the tree that walks, the flower that blooms, the bowl half empty or half full.
In Japan, the concept of "Wabi-sabi" is the act of embracing the flawed or the imperfect. It acknowledges three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. There is beauty in the flaw. The potter at her wheel, shaping earth, can be a master of her craft but does not strive to create perfection. It is imperfection that lets humanity in. Like the imperfect pot she throws, we too are made from earth. We are the tree that walks, the flower that blooms, the porcelain bowl half empty or half full.
Many years ago, I was interviewed on a Melbourne radio station about how it can feel to be the victim of a crime as a child. I remember saying that once I was able to admit to myself what had happened; that I was able to accept it as part of my story, then I was able to start healing that part of me. It was as if I had taken those memories and the flaws they created and placed them where I could observe them from a distance, the potter stepping back from the wheel.
Many of us are helping others with their pain and their weaknesses, and in doing this we find ourselves increasingly fearful of showing our own. We believe we have to be the strong one. I think we all know how that feels. But then we reach those points where enough is enough. A hand raises up. The whale breaches. We can ask for help and the world will keep turning. We can honour the imperfections and vow to stop pushing our own head under the waters. We can step back from the wheel, look at ourselves and you know what? It is OK. It will be OK.
And so it is that the tides wash in and they retreat, and healing is a place we can return to. There is a rhythm in the universe of letting in, holding and letting out. Whether we are raising our hand for the first time, or returning again to inspect the flaw, we don't have to be alone. People can help, medicine can help, nature can help. Love can help. Let the beauty in this world be your ally. Let the landscape and the people, plants and creatures within it be your medicine. Find the beauty in nothing lasting, nothing finished and nothing perfect.
Here are some things that have really helped me beat the blues. I think of them as green therapy. Maybe they'll help you too.
If you need someone to talk to or advice on where to go for help, you could try:
At Archeus we've always placed nature at the heart of our business. This ethos drives our commitment to small-batch production to reduce waste, composting plant waste from our production processes, giving a portion of each purchase you make to plant conservation and habitat restoration work.
Your purchase helps this happen - the children at Argyll East Primary School are working hard on habitat restoration around the school. So far, Archeus proceeds have helped them build a new shade house, gardening equipment and plants.
Share the love - buy your bit of plant magic here.
I hope you like our changes and how they help you and the environment.
Small is beautiful and Archeus will always be a niche brand that delights in utilising herbal wisdom and traditional processes. Our range features botanically infused oils, natural and organic ingredients. Many of our products are vegan. We care deeply about keeping things pure and natural and working in a way that brings us all a little closer to nature for our beauty, health and wellbeing.
Thank you for your support,
Georgina xx
Archeus founder
PS: we've also started a rewards system on our website - earn points with every purchase or when you refer a friend
Share the love - buy your bit of plant magic here.]]>
Beautiful Calendula. What a friend you are. It's botanical name is Calendula officinalis. In herbalism, calendula is one of our favourite providers of plant medicine. It's hard not to fall in love with its vibrant orange flowers and its sunny disposition. Originally native to Mediterranean Europe, calendula grows freely pretty much everywhere.
Calendula has been used medicinally for centuries. It's credited with a range of benefits including wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiseptic, styptic (which means it helps stop bleeding), circulatory stimulant and a sedative. The healing power of calendula is found in the flower heads and petals. When you touch them on a sunny day you will notice they've got a sticky quality to them – just oozing with goodness!
These golden petals create rich golden oils and tinctures. They can be used fresh or dried. When they are dried, they have a delicious honey-like fragrance.
At Archeus we take time to carefully infuse the petals in carrier oils such as certified organic camellia. This process gently pulls the healing compounds from the petals into the oils. When ready, the oils are strained and filtered and then we use them to make our products. Calendula-infused oil is gentle yet effective and applicable for many different skin problems including wounds, bruises, broken capillaries, chilblains, sore nipples, nappy rash, fungal infections, sunburn and cold sores.
We see calendula radiating vitality and we love using it as a plant essence. Its sunny disposition helps strengthen and comfort the heart. Its sunny confidence is infectious and it can help you win respect and admiration of everyone you meet. We find that it can be handy when you are in a position of leadership as it can help you remain approachable and cheerful even when the pressure is on!
We love to include fresh calendula petals in our salads and we use camellia oil infused with calendula as a salad dressing. Not only do calendula petals look gorgeous in a salad, but they are bursting with all the healing properties mentioned above. Their taste is complex. Take the time to try some petals on their own. Their taste is sweet, almost bland and then becomes more peppery. This peppery aspect must aid digestion.
Calendula makes a great companion plant in veggie gardens. It attracts bees which aids pollination, repels whiteflies from tomatoes and lures aphids away from beans. It also attracts beneficial insects, including ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies, which prey on aphids.
And I have to mention a gorgeous legend - it is said that is a young woman walks barefoot on the petals of calendula she'll understand the language of birds. How lovely is that!?
Archeus products:
Archeus products that contain Calendula: Breast Balm, Botanic Repair Balm, Calendula Plant Essence, Calendula & Gotu Kola Skin Repair Cream, Calendula & Sandalwood Intensive Facial Serum, Supernatural Tattoo Aftercare, Vitality Tea,
We make all our products by hand in small batches to ensure freshness and to reduce waste. You can order online or find Archeus products at selected New Zealand outlets. We ship internationally.
Here is one of our favourite ingredients for Archeus skincare products and chances are its growing in your garden or a park near you.
It's camellia, the much-loved beauty ingredient in Asia.
The botanical name for Camellia is Camellia sinensis. I'm fascinated with what names of plants can tell us about their history or use. When you see 'sinenis' in the botanical name of a plant, it tells you the plant originates, or was first classified in China. Camellia grows widely through the Asia region and is also native to India and Japan. These days though, camellia bushes are known in gardens around the world as beautiful evergreen shrubs with flowers ranging in colour (dependent on the variety) from deep red, to white. Camellia sinensis flowers are yellowy-white.
Below is a picture of camellia sinensis growing at an organic tea plantation I spent time at in Japan. The plantation is down by the banks of a river and the camellias just love that moist, morning mist on their leaves. That's why tea is also grown at altitude - to catch those quenching forest cloud mists.
Now, here's where it gets interesting: camellia sinensis is also the plant that tea is traditionally made from. Green tea is made from fresh camellia leaves that have been dried at a low heat. Matcha is finely ground green tea. Black teas such as oolong are made from partially fermenting the leaves, rolled and then dried at a higher heat.
Green tea is very high in anti-inflammatory properties; so much so that the American Cancer Foundation recommend it to help reduce inflammation in the body, which can lead to a range of problems, including cancer. If you would like to read more about this we have pulled together some really interesting research for you here.
What's all this got to do with skincare? Well, camellia oil is made from the seeds that appear after flowering - we took the main photo of some so you can see what they look like. Camellia oil is best processed by cold-pressing it – in the same way as high-quality olive oil is produced because so often heat can be the enemy of good.
We love using camellia oil in Archeus products, for all the same reasons that make it so good for us as a tea, we want those anti-inflammatory properties soaking into our skin. It's wonderfully nourishing, especially for mature skin, and its antimicrobial and antifungal properties help promote wound healing. It's also important to us to ensure our products have the right feel - and camellia is a nice light oil that absorbs easily into the skin.
If you're wondering what we mean by light - take some olive oil from your kitchen cupboard and rub some onto your skin (also really good for you) and you will feel it is reasonably thick and takes a while to absorb; well camellia is lighter than olive oil. So when we make products for use on the face we think about that feel and absorbency as we develop our formulations.
Products that we make with certified organic cold-pressed camellia oil include: Calendula & Gotu Kola Skin Repair Cream, Burdock & Juniper Serum, Calendula & Rose Face Cream and our perfume oils. We've had some fantastic feedback on these products. Natasha had this to say about our Burdock & Juniper Serum, " This serum is just divine - smells lovely, beautiful texture and feels wonderful on my skin". Ariel loved our Calendula & Gotu Kola cream saying, "Thank you for the delicate product. The cream is light with delightful scent. It absorbs well. I look forward to using it every day".
We make all our products by hand in small batches to ensure freshness and to reduce waste. You can order online or find Archeus products at selected New Zealand outlets. We ship internationally.
Oh and I almost forgot! We do say our ingredients are good enough to eat and we actually do use camellia oil as a salad dressing! Yum yum!!]]>
Plant essences are beautiful natural remedies that work at an energetic level to help us balance our emotional health and well-being by deepening our connection to the healing power of plants.
When we recognise a plant for its energetic 'character' as well as its physical form and therapeutic benefits, this subtle yet powerful form of healing becomes available to us. Each plant's unique energetic properties melds with our own energetic needs, bringing us back to a place of harmony and balance.
Archeus plant essences are handcrafted by harvesting organically grown and wildcrafted plant material according to season and the lunar calendar, placing it in quartz-infused water, under the sun and moon, and adding alcohol for preservation.
Archeus plant essences are safe and easy to take – just a few drops under the tongue or added to your water bottle – and are suitable for all family members including our pets.
Dosage: regardless of whether you are using a single essence or a blend (we like to call these elixirs) you only need to add a couple of drops to water and sip. This isn't like taking cough medicine!
Ways to use them: you can use Archeus plant essences and elixirs in many different ways including:adding a few drops to a water bottle and sipping through the day, anointing pulse points, anointing chakras, adding to your face cream, putting in an aroma diffuser (NB: it won't be fragrant), using as a meditation tool, in acute moment you could put drops directly on the tongue.
Some people feel drawn to just one plant for a particular need, while others feel like they need the supportive energy of a few plants; both approaches are absolutely fine. My recommendation is that if you choose to go down the multiple essences route, you try and limit your blend to no more than seven essences. I feel like any more than that creates energetic confusion.
Step Two – Select the plants that resonate for you, being guided by the answers to your questions above (then you can start to narrow it down to:
Tip: you can use a couple of different plants for some of these points if you need to.
Jenny has been having a series of meetings with a colleague she finds difficult. She feels like he talks over her, doesn't listen and doesn't take her contributions to meetings seriously. There is another meeting coming up and she wants to feel better about the meeting. She selects the following essences:
Plant for the Problem
She chooses Motherwort so she can listen to her inner voice of wisdom – the wise woman bravely standing her ground and taking no rubbish from anyone.
Plant for the Support
She chose Totara to stand guard and protect her, and keep an eye out so Motherwort could do her thing
Plant for the Dream
Jenny chose two plants: Mullein so she could listen well and speak her truth with clarity, and Evening primrose to help her remain flexible, open-minded and joyful.
You can order your Archeus plant essences and elixirs here.
We'd love to hear how you have found plant essences beneficial. Help our community by sharing your experience of working with plant essences below.]]>
Imagine a plant energy that could help you speak your truth, be heard, listen better. Would you want to meet that plant?
May I introduce to you Mullein, Verbascum thapsus.
Traditionally Mullein has been used as a lung remedy, which makes sense when you spend time with this plant and observe its soft, furry leaves veined like bronchioles and alveoli. Its delicate yellow flowers on those thrusting stalks are an ear remedy. The flowers would infuse their properties into olive oil, and a few drops of the oil would be used. I have used this on men, dogs and children and found it helpful.
Mullein also has a reputation for helping put things back in place and was used as a poultice on bits that get bent out of shape.
Energetically, all that medicine for lung and ear makes it a plant of communication, a powerful ally for people trying to speak their truth, or who need to learn how to listen with less judgement, more clarity. This plant has a wise woman energy, the wisdom of crone helping bring things back into balance, things falling back into Right Place.
Did I mention crone? Yes I did. Some people say that with that great big old phallic stalk, Mullein has a masculine energy. I can see that, but I also see the ones on the hill with a crown of stalks; the grandmother looking over the next generation as they grow all soft-leafed and gentle.
Mullein has been man and can be crone. How beautiful that is. What great energy to work with and a powerful ally, which is why I make a plant essence with it.
Would you like to get to know Mullein better? Would you like to experience her as a remedy, a friend? This is where plant essences can help you. They are a subtle yet powerful form of 'earth medicine' and a beautiful way of connecting with Nature. I love making Mullein essence and making them available on this website.
Plant essences are simple to use. We have put them into handy 10ml dropper bottles for you. All you need to do is put a couple of drops into water and sip. You don't need much – that's the beauty of the quantum physics of botanics. That sip, that communion merges with your own Self. In the still place between breaths feel that energy, that plant supporting you. Mullein helping you speak your truth. A beautiful medicine of plant and earth.
#earthmedicine #plantspiritmedicine#plantessences #floweressences#apothecary
Yesterday Bonnie the Dog and I took a little time to absorb the greenness radiating from this tree. The light was intense (no filter used here) and the moment was beautiful.
Green is the colour of the heart chakra. Did you know that hemoglobin in our blood and chlorophyll in plants is almost identical? The main difference is that in mammals, it is built around iron (Fe) while in plants it is built around magnesium (Mg). Hemoglobin transports oxygen around the body, while chlorophyll is engaged in photosynthesis.
We are all taught at school that as plants photosynthesize they absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air. Without them we would not have oxygen. We were made to live side by side - each giving life to the other. It's important to remember that.
Green is a colour of unconditional love. So how come we started placing so many conditions on plants? 'You can't grow here', 'we must be here not you', 'you take up too much space', 'we're going to spray you with chemicals'.... We've totally missed the point and now we are paying the price.
Without plants of all shapes and sizes, we are nothing. Without pollinators such as insects and birds, or transportation when a seed catches on fur or clothing, there will be no plants. Everything is connected.
This is a somewhat simplistic rant, but the facts are simple.... with no Nature there is no us.
So show some love: nurture a tree, don't spray all the insects in your house, buy organic so you are helping reduce this chemical death of our fundamental life systems, reduce your intake of meat and dairy to help prevent clearing of forests for pastures and the massive impacts on water. Get rid of the products in your home that are full of chemicals that disrupt and kill. You do realize that things like triclosan in your shower gel don't stop killing when they reach waterways....
Green is the colour of the heart chakra. The colour of love. The colour of symbiosis. What is one thing you'll do today to show some love to something green? Get us inspired and share you action below.
Don't you think it's strange how random the things are that can take you back to another part of your life? They can take you by surprise, can't they?
I'm watching telly: the 80s band Simple Minds play an acoustic gig at the Hackney Empire in London and I've found myself feeling a little drifty and nostalgic.
It's not the music so much, although I must confess, I was a huge Simple Minds fan in the day… no, it's not that. It's the venue. The Hackney Empire in London. I see the shots of the crowd and I am right back there at various gigs. I know that space out front and backstage. I have stood on that stage. I have sat in the stalls. I sang happy birthday when my dear friend Michael Nyman played a gig there for his 65th birthday. So many memories coming back of friendships and finding taxis home and bumping into interesting people in the queue for the loo or the bar at half time.
But I'm not there anymore.
I probably would have been there at the Simple Minds gig if I were there, in my London life.
I watch the concert, and through the window next to the TV I see the beautiful view of this life now. Two realities side by side.
If you've lived in different places, which so many of us have, do you feel that part of your soul is left behind in each place
If you've lived in different places, which so many of us have, do you feel that part of your soul is left behind in each place and that there are a whole lot of "you's" existing in different times? The you at school, the you here, the you there.... the me in Melbourne, my British life, my German life, my Albanian life, my New Zealand life. The me before the rape. The me after it.
Time doesn't just travel in straight lines. It loops back around on itself. It's past, present and future all at the same time. Moments like seeing an old haunt on television that's 12,000 miles and 10 years away (I can't believe it's nearly 10 years since I left) bring it all back and in that moment - you are everything you have ever been.
I look back on my London life and I remember so clearly thinking that when, one day, I had hollyhocks growing outside the window, I would know I had found home. There is something so reassuring about hollyhocks and their place by doors and windows throughout time. My friend Anne and I, both blowing like tumbleweed across the globe, used to laugh and sigh at this thought. Two lost souls in search of roots to dig down deep into the soil and hold us to a place.
Now I have the hollyhocks and it's a beautiful thing. And when I look at them I think about the person I was and who I am now, and it's all ok. They show me a sense of place, a point of belonging. They show me how far I have travelled to be here now.
But I still scan the faces of the people in the audience in case I see someone I know.
It's no surprise that I made a plant essence from the hollyhocks by the Archeus apothecary door. Rosea althea, the plant of place, of belonging. A botanic anchor for the rootless and drifting. Hollyhock also used to be a medicine for hysteria, such womanly angst.
Simple Minds playing at the Hackney Empire remind me of who I was, and then a drop of hollyhock essence tells me it is all ok. We belong in all the moments of our lives, and the art of knowing this can help us find peace and belonging in the moment we are living now. Other people will never truly know all the parts of you, but hollyhock lets you be all those moments and memories and, if you need them, she gives you roots to set down into the soil so you are not cast adrift again.
I'd love to hear about the anchors that stop you from drifting. The plants that show you, that you are home could also help someone else. Do share in the comments below.
I get asked this question many times and so I have put this short video together for you to help answer the question.
Once we start to reshape our relationship with the Natural world around us, we can start to find our own inner strength and purpose. We can start to heal after trauma and we can feel less alone.
I know because this is what happened to me. I turned to Nature as a child after I had been raped in a barn at the age of seven. Yes, it was crap and yes life goes on. The point is, during that experience, I left my body and floated above the crime that was taking place. It was then that I first learned about the power of energy to move through all things.
I think that moment put me on the path of the Wounded Healer and made me eventually take my place in the daisy chain of healers, shamans and medicine men and women stretching back through time.
Afterwards, I couldn't tell my parents about what happened and so I found solace with Nature. The more time I spent with Nature, the more I started to see and feel the unique energetic vibration of each plant and I started to learn how each may, or may not help me. I understood the oneness of all things. I started to heal.
Now in my 50s, I am ready to share what I have learned with you. I'd love to help you connect to Nature for your own well-being. I want to introduce you to the plant healers I have been fortunate enough to meet in my life in the hope that they can also help you fulfill your soul's purpose.
I just love the different energy of plants. There are the strong silent types, the joyous carefree ones, the take-no-shit-from-anyone ones, the protectors, the big grandmother-hug ones, the soothers and the cleansers, to name but a few. They can really help us through the tough stuff and they can do it alongside other support you may be getting from other professionals.
So if you are interested in looking into this a little further, I recommend that you read the profiles of the Archeus range of Plant Essences and Elixirs. Under the Soul Food tab on the Archeus website, you'll find our range of single Plant Essences and our Plant Elixir blends. You'll also find training under our Workshops tab, and if you have any questions do feel free to email me.
You could also sign up to our Plant Essence list to receive more info about each plant we work with and how you can work with them too.
Georgina x
Heartbreak. Grief. Overwhelm. Lost dreams. The end of innocence. Does the forest hear the sounds of breaking hearts?
I think it does. Do you?
When I was a child, an only child, threatened into silence... my innocent world crumbling around me and no one to talk to... it was Nature that heard my silent cries, the breaking of my heart.
I asked for help and Nature gave it to me.
My heart let Nature in and time deepened the bonds and healed the wounds. Yes, they are still there but they don't own me anymore.
Now I'm in my 50s and I'm finally finding the words with which to articulate the extraordinary and transformational power of Nature and its ability to help heal our traumas and give us the power of recognizing our soul journey.
Can you picture your life enriched by the deepening of your own bonds with Nature? How would your heart space feel if you could develop your own awareness of the unique energetic resonance of different plants, trees, rocks, landscapes?
How would it feel to know that by tapping into Nature, you will never need to feel alone?
Archeus is the manifestation of the many years of my deep and deliberate relationship with Nature. A relationship that has existed in years of city life as well as my rural one. Each product I make is imbued with the healing power of plants. The plant essences and elixirs capture the spirit of plants and transform them into a portable 'hug in a bottle'.
My workshops enable the sharing of my earth medicine knowledge with intimate groups of people.
Maybe my offerings could help you.... help You too?
If you sign up for the Archeus newsletter you will be able to take advantage of early booking offers on workshops (summer schedule will be released soon) and exclusive offers on my range.
I'd love to hear how Nature has helped you, or what you feel you would like from Nature but don't know how to activate. Leave a comment below and if you could take a moment to share this post with a friend who you think may find the Archeus offering helpful, well that would just be beautiful.
Georgina xx
#earthmedicine #natureheals #plantessences #healing #depression#recovery #grief #soulfood
How do we Be when someone is dying?
I'm sitting on his bed. I ask him how he feels, but I know I will not hear the words as he cannot speak. The reality is he has not been able to speak for weeks.... but the body speaks.
I've noticed that every beautiful book I've read and every podcast I've listened to on compassionate care for people as they near the end of their life, all speak of a two-way conversation in which the person dying speaks of their wants and needs; their fears and visions. There is a conversation; an illumination provided by vocabulary, a life and death described.
No one seems to talk about the people who cannot talk. Or how we navigate this moment with them.
I am spending time at the moment with a man who is dying. He cannot speak and has not been able to for some months. He is showing me things I have learned as others have died before him: my mother, grandmother, godfather, friends... loved ones letting go. But what makes this different is this man is a stranger to me. I don't know his story, his family, his life. He is a man dying without words or family in a bed in a care home.
This pool of unknowingness means that the only thing to focus on is the journey he is making in the here and now.
And how we both navigate it.
When he has made it through and slipped out of this life, I will share what I have learned about a death with no words, with history and yet with no history, in a blog In the hope it may help someone somewhere.
But for now my reflections on being with dying are:
1: Slow down. Give their body time to talk
2: Breathe together
3: Don't deny a frail hand the exertion of a hug
4: Hearing is powerful so choose your words tenderly
5: The greatest medicine is love
Did you know that Nettle (Urtica dioica) is a superb spring tonic herb? Yes folks, there is so much more to it than its nasty sting.
Nettle is one of my favorite plants, it is bursting with minerals and vitamins, it is a specific herb for treating hot, sensitive skin conditions - which is why I use it in a number of my products including the luxurious Calendula & Sandalwood Facial Serum.
Nettle is a delicious food plant, and I've included an easy recipe for you below. It is also a wonderful textile plant. In fact, during the second world war, nettle became the primary crop in Europe for making textiles with, as trade routes for cotton were so disrupted.
Nettle is gentle enough to use every day to nourish and tonify your system, but powerful enough to really get to work soothing inflammations. It is also used to help clear auras.
Check out this quick video I shot a few days ago and why not give the recipe below a try.
Rich Russian Nettle Tonic
I discovered this recipe in Susun Weed's book, Wise Woman Herbal. It is so quick and easy to make and so delicious. It serves 4-6 people.
4 cups nettle tops
1 cup water
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup sour cream
salt to taste
Cook the fresh nettles in water, well covered, for 10-15 minutes until tender. Drain well, then blend or run through a food processor with the garlic and sour cream (you could also use yoghurt).
Serve immediately over rice, noodles, toast or vegetables.
Or you could puree the cooked nettles and add them back to the cooking water with the garlic and sour cream to make a delicious soup.
Tip: When handling fresh nettles it is best to use some gloves!
Do you have a favorite nettle recipe or memory? Let us know in the comment box below.
Georgina xx
Wellness starts when taboos get the boot
Are you one of the many women today who feels relieved that at last, menopause is something that you can speak about?
The idea of menopause being a taboo topic is so last century. In today's world, we are starting to see recognition and celebration of the reality of women having a middle age and we're able to make more choices about how we navigate this stage of life.
I have to confess that for me, going through menopause has brought with it a sense of stepping into my own power. I haven't been too keen on some of the effects of this transition, but overall, I have found it immensely liberating.
Here are my five tips for going with the flow of this transition:
2. A practical thing to do is keep a journal so you can keep track of your body's rhythms as this will help you discover triggers for things like hot flushes and mood swings.
3. This time of life can make us question who we are and where we are going. Talking to a girlfriend who is a similar age or older can really help you realise you are not alone. Don't be afraid to talk to a friend about what you are feeling.
4. You'll start to notice changes to your hair and your skin. Keep hydrated - water will help keep your complexion looking fabulous. Look for natural options for helping with skin problems and try a regular oil treatment for your hair.
5. Some women are not affected by hot flashes and others most definitely are. My tip is that going with the hot flash, rather than trying to fight it is better in the long run. Imagine surfing the flash and give yourself a moment to quietly be in awe of the energy your body possesses.
Natural Options for Support Through this Transition
I've spoken to so many women who have said they just wished there were some natural options for dealing with some of the symptoms of menopause. I've had women coming to me crying because they felt they were losing their sense of self, or that intimacy was affected by their bodily changes. Then there are other others who have said 'Hallelujah!' and are loving this time of life.
I come from the point of view that the application of mainstream medical care and the use of natural products and therapies does not have to be a 'one or the other' model. I do tell my customers that if they feel they have a problem or concern they should definitely get it checked out by their doctor, but there are also many ways we can work with Nature to help us get through the tough stuff.
Nature's given us a whole first aid kit for body and soul and many of what are seen as dowdy 'weeds' can be powerful healers, we have just forgotten how to see this and how to connect with that healing power. My aim is to help people find that connection again.
Archeus has evolved into helping people through the tough stuff, and for many women, Menopause can be tough. Menopause hits at a time when a whole bunch of stuff is going on in women's lives. It can often be hard to tell if the emotional upsets are due to changing hormones or to the pressures of life. Things like kids leaving home can create a vacuum in one's sense of identity, you may be dealing with ageing parents, often illness has reared its head or the sense of running out of time can become unbearable.
I don't have children; and yes at first I did feel that panicky sense of running out of time, so I really understand that issue menopause can bring for many women. But after a while that agony of wondering if one could or would have children was gone. This realisation brings with it some sadness but also some relief. Now it just is what it is, not what it could be and I have made peace with that.
I have found that the Archeus plant essences can help with the emotional turbulence of menopause. As I grew up, I developed a very close relationship with Nature. It got me through some really difficult times and after a while, I began to see the unique energetic character of different plants and how their energy and healing attributes can help us in our own lives. For example, Silver Birch is also known as 'Lady of the Woods'. She has a very protective energy and a cool, pale elegance. I have found she is wonderful for helping to feel grounded and calm in times of stress.
Vaginal Dryness - more common than you think
Now, I bet you weren't told when you were younger, that one of the things menopause can bring with it is vaginal dryness? I look back at my own life and I know I never for a moment thought this would be something that would happen to me! But the reality is that it happens to many women.
Did you know though that experts estimate that 40 - 60% of women will develop vaginal dryness at some point during the menopause transition? For some women, vaginal dryness will start before their periods have stopped, while others will experience it in the years following menopause.
What is it about this dryness that make us feel unable to talk about it? After all, we seem happy enough to talk about periods and childbirth and less than perfect bladder control?
Acknowledging that dried up lady bits mean sex is painful, or that walking can chafe and irritate our bits, seems to carry with it a perception of us admitting to being 'less than a woman'.
I think now though that one of the Archeus products I am most proud of is our Naturally Feminine Balm. This came about from women asking me if I could make something to help with vaginal dryness, and then as I went through menopause, I started to release this problem could affect anyone at any time. Some women were suffering from this earlier on in life due to medically induced menopause, while for others it came much later.
Burning, stinging, irritation, itching, painful intercourse and general discomfort were the most common complaints discussed. The more women talked to me, the more I wanted to create something from nature's medicine chest to help with this hidden symptom of ageing.
Developing a natural product that is not all about sex, but very much about feeling feminine and womanly and, to be frank, comfortable has been very liberating.
A sense of comfort in one's own body was of paramount importance in the brief I set myself as I started to develop Naturally Feminine Balm. To get that 'soothe factor' my starting point was making the balm with oils and butters rather than the more common water-based products. The balm is complemented by Archeus Transition Drops, The Change Functional Fragrance and the range of teas, vinegars, beauty creams and serums.
It means a lot to me to be creating products that are helping women through natural or medically-induced menopause. I think it makes a huge difference that my customers know that I am going through this transition as well, so I really understand some of the issues.
I think we need to celebrate this transition as a time of 'stepping into our power'. Rather than fight my own hot flushes I now marvel at them and go with them. I treat my hair regularly with our Halo Oil to help with 'menopause hair' and I have stopped trying to compare myself, my body shape, to the younger me.
Being kind to ourselves is important, and no less so at this transition. Everything we do at Archeus is about being kinder to ourselves and to the planet.
If you'd me ten years ago if I knew I'd be making menopause products, I'd have said no way! Mind you, if you'd asked me ten years ago if I understood what an issue dryness is for women as they age, I would've had no idea! It just shows that looking for ways to solve problems comes best from experiencing the issue.
Every product Archeus sells and workshop place booked contributes to giving back to Mother Nature by supporting plant conservation projects run by schoolchildren. I believe that as Nature provides so much it is just simply respectful to give something back.
Archeus products for menopause are curated on the Menopause Wellness Page. New customers can save 10% on their first order when they sign up to the Archeus newsletter.
Archeus founder Georgina Langdale
At Archeus we believe in the 'oneness of things' and work with this vital force.
The word Archeus was created by Paracelsus a 16th Century physician and alchemist from Germany. He was brilliant, bombastic and a visionary of the renaissance period. He said that in order to heal and to do alchemy one had to work with the 'Archeus', the vital force that connects man, the universe and Nature.
Paracelsus believed in the healing power of nature saying 'The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician'.
He was a deeply controversial man who frequently raised the ire of the establishment due to his outspoken ways. In fact his second name Bombastius, and his personality gave rise to the term 'bombastic' for outrageous and difficult behaviour.
But beneath this prickly exterior was a man who believed in nature as a starting point for healing. He was inspired by alchemy and believed that the health of the body relied on the harmony of man, the microcosm, with Nature, the macrocosm. He knew that man was part of the natural world, not apart from it and that man's harmony with nature would contribute to his own health and well-being.
Five hundred years on and that vital force, that Archeus is inspiring us here in the Archeus apothecary. We hope he would appreciate the ways we work with Nature for healing: from balms, creams and serums to plant elixirs, to energy and earth medicine. Everything we make is made in a way that captures that energy, that Archeus.
Each step on this journey is made richer by the ongoing deepening of knowledge and refinement of technique. What is so wonderful about the work we do here is that the more you learn about ways of working with Nature - the more you want to dive even deeper into it. For me this has meant a couple of things this year: I have recently graduated in shamanic energy medicine from the prestigious Four Winds Light Body School; and I have also started a slow but deliberate exploration of creating Paracelsus's alchemical spagyric plant essences in the Archeus Apothecary. I hope to create a small collection of these over time and I will share more information about them nearer the time.
As time goes on I feel like I am working in a much more alchemical way. I consider the body of the plants - their healing properties, the way they grow, taste and relate to the landscape around them; I think about the effect of the plants I use on the soul and emotions of a person; and finally I consider how these plants and their energy help us connect to the oneness of things. Someone left a beautiful message for me the other day saying that they felt there was a special energy to Archeus products. This made my day because every aspect of Archeus is committed to creating ways to help with healing body, soul and spirit. It is so lovely when customers tell me they can sense that.
Working with plants is a beautiful way of exploring history, traditions, legend and ritual. I am so grateful for the ancient wisdom of the visionaries, healers and teachers that has been handed down through the ages so that we may help you in the best way we can.
Georgina x
We were delighted to have been invited to appear on the TV3 AM Show down at the Napier Soundshell this morning.
The AM show was in Napier broadcasting live for the past three mornings and they had some great guests on the programme giving a neat snapshot of things going on here in the Bay.
It was a beautiful crisp, clear morning and I was terrified, but actually it was great fun. I tried to cram as much information as I could into less than three minutes! No mean feat at that time of day!
You can see the full interview here.
Georgina xx
I am delighted to have been selected as a WINNER of the inaugural Ceres Organics Good Magazine Awards! Thank you so much @goodmagazinenz and Ceres Organics
My award is for Good Person of the Beauty Industry. You can read all about it in the July issue of Good Magazine out now. They have recognized my work helping people connect to Nature to help get through the tough stuff.
Now they are asking the public to vote to choose the overall winner who will get $5k.
I would love to win that as then I can give some of it to the kids at Argyll East Primary School for their plant conservation and habitat restoration work, and use the remainder to create more materials to run Connect to Nature courses for people looking to heal and to get through life transitions. So if you could vote and spread the word that would be wonderful!!!
Why do I do what I do?
Here I stand, a woman in her 50s, and I look back over the years of my life and see how much the child that was me, the child that cycled home along that country lane after being bound and raped in a barn... has taught me. That child, the Wounded Healer stepping onto the shaman's path, who turned to Nature to help her heal. I am grateful for her wisdom. And courage.
She was the one that led me to study the power of plants and to embrace ways of working with energy. I had to grow up first though before I could find the courage to live my truth.
Archeus has been a journey in itself. What started out as tentative steps into the 'beauty industry' has deepened into letting the healer shine and creating products from, and helping people connect to, Nature to find their own strength, their own beauty and purpose and their own healer within.
I could not do what I do now without this journey and turning trauma into wisdom.
Life is what we make it.... (cue piano riff!)
Over the past 24 hours, some people have said to me, "You're so brave" and I do appreciate their acknowledgement of what it takes to reveal deep truths.
The reason for their comments is that Woman's Day magazine feature me in their issue this week. In the sensitively written article (thank you so much Fiona Fraser), my experience of childhood sexual abuse is publicly disclosed. What has surprised me since the article coming out is that I wish I had said more because this stuff doesn't just stop at childhood, it can roll on through your life like dominos falling. This is the stuff that society conditions us to keep quiet; that the people who perpetrated these crimes against us, condition us to keep quiet. This is the stuff that eats us up from the inside out and makes us never quite sure of how to place ourselves in this world.
I touched on this with Woman's Day because the work I do is evolving into creating ways to help other people work with Nature on their healing journey. I do this work because it was Nature that helped me find strength when I felt weak. It was Nature that held me without judgment or ulterior motive. It was Nature that I could turn to with trust when I had lost my trust in everyone else around me. I believe that drawing from my own experiences could create ways to help others too.
Here are five things Nature has taught me:
It has taken me over 50 years to reach a point where I can start to articulate the extraordinary power Nature has to help us heal and illustrate this power through my own story and experience.
And yes, it has required some courage to allow these deepest secrets to come out onto the page. For that handful of words revealed, there is a whole big dark iceberg of memory, experience, disappointment, shame and anger moving beneath the surface. That's the thing you see, I found I could heal, but I could not forget. Now I have reached a point where it's all there but it does not own me anymore.
In these years I have also, like so many others, been dealing with the illness and death of loved ones and this has been a whole other journey in itself, yet still connected - life's experiences flowing together like a braided river.
So how does Nature help with healing? Put simply, I found that when I took time to look into Nature I was able to see the oneness of things and I found strength. We are part of this ecosystem, yet we seem to have forgotten that over the past few millennia. We survive thanks to photosynthesis – plants, trees, we exchange breath. What a beautiful gift. But this works both ways: treat the planet well and it will look after you, the Earth Mother providing life, nourishment and shelter. Treat it with contempt, abuse it and it will stop functioning in a healthy way.
Contemporary society seems to have lost sight of the basic principle of cause and effect: deforest hillsides, and this changes the weather patterns and creates a landscape that cannot soak up the rain, so it floods. Keep telling a nation that everyone is out to get them and so they think that everyone is out to get them and act accordingly. Abuse a child and it loses trust and gains confusion.
I knew instinctively that Nature could help me, that it could heal me.
Within my childhood confusion, I knew instinctively that Nature could help me, that it could heal me. I just needed to get really close to it. I needed to give myself time to observe it and to simply Be in Nature. And yes that can be a simple as hugging a tree. Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it.
The more I looked into Nature the more I started to heal.
Each plant, each landscape, has its own unique energy. It's like every human having a distinct personality. You can see a whole garden, or you can see the different plants and flowers growing there. The big blousy show-ponies, the delicate flowers with the bowed heads, the prickly plants, the furry ones. You start to learn their therapeutic benefits: the plants that reduce pain or inflammation, the plants that heal skin, tissue, bone; the plants that ease anxiety, the plants that can help expel toxins or vermin; the plants that dry, the plants that moisten. You start to see what is called 'the doctrine of signatures', the clues of their healing power indicated by the way they grow, and where they grow. Their characters start to emerge – shy and retiring, pushy, wary, exuberant, calm, protective. They start to have a voice, they chatter and shout and whisper and sing. You realise that if you spend time with plants, you can learn from them. With knowledge and observation, what were once insignificant weeds become powerful healers - each with its own energetic force. Medicine men and women throughout time have seen this.
You start to see what is called 'the doctrine of signatures', the clues of their healing power indicated by the way they grow, and where they grow.
Since my childhood I have worked to develop my relationship to these energies: sneaking out to the stables to move energy around a lame horse's fetlock; becoming the tree in order to find answers to questions, training as a reiki master; and as a master energy practitioner. At night, after the day job was done, I studied herbalism, aromatherapy, shamanism, environmental science, anything to deepen my knowledge base of the ways in which we can work with Nature for Good.
My way of working with Nature for Good is manifesting in several ways:
This blog makes it sound like it was all so Instagram easy. We all know life is not like that. It takes courage. It requires bravery. I make mistakes and regrets and miss opportunities and I get scared and angry and I laugh and hide and put myself out there in the world. I have made friends, moved countries, fallen in love, fallen out of love. Felt nurtured, felt used. All that stuff that we do. But each and every time I needed to find strength, to centre, to get through stuff, it was Nature that helped me do it. Now it is my time to pay it forward and provide ways of Nature helping others on their journeys too.
Here's to the beauty of life and the wonder of Nature. Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting Archeus. If there is anything you would like to share, please leave a comment below.
Georgina xx]]>
Do you know what a loved one will want if they suddenly get really sick?
When my mother was told she had six months to live we talked about what she wanted in terms of treatment. In the event that she was not able to speak for herself, I knew exactly what she would want. She had a plan and I knew how to follow it.
Do you know what you or a loved one would want in terms of medical care if something happens?
My mother lived for 18 months following that initial prognosis. She did pretty well for a while and then the inexorable decline started to accelerate, and she transitioned from home to hospice, back to home and finally to the hospital wing of a rest home facility. I had power of attorney for her welfare and so did everything I could to ensure that she got the pathway through it all that she had wanted.
Dad went into rest home care after mum died. Then he moved to a secure dementia unit. Then at Christmas time he had a stroke and was moved to the hospital wing of the rest home he is in. They look after him so well. They are amazing, and he is not always easy. His path is up and down.
It is about an hour or so round trip to see him, which I do a few times a week. Most of his friends do not visit him anymore because they are faced with the discomfort of his decline. The less other people go see him, the more I go to see him. He can't talk very well but he is still aware. I try to shield him from the absence of friendships.
Then. Last Friday. I got the call. The call from the doctor that requires you to make choices; potentially life or death choices, about the care options for your loved one. It was at this moment that I realised that Dad and I did not really have a plan.
I have tried a few times over the past few years to get Dad to talk about what he would want in terms of treatment, how he would like to be sent off after he died, what messages he would want passed on to his family or friends. But, like so many people, he has pretty much refused to talk about it. This meant I had to piece together comments he has made at different times over the past couple of years in order to try to think in his shoes.
No matter how hard it may be to get a loved one to talk about what they want, while they can, it is easy compared to the agony of having to make choices when you are not sure what that person truly wants.
What I learned on Friday when the doctor rang was that no matter how hard it may be to get a loved one to talk about what they want, while they can, that is easy compared to the agony of having to make choices when you are not sure what that person truly wants. So, people, if you have read this far, my message to you is 'get a plan'. You need a plan. The reality is you never know when you may need it. Honestly, it is agony if you don't have one and nothing had prepared me for the ethical crisis I faced with that call. I believe that compassionate care at the end of life works both ways, for the one leaving and for those left behind. I think we owe it to each other to make this as easy to navigate as possible.
So, what happened next? I was able to speak to dad about his situation and he was able to give me thumbs down to having any treatment. I realised how lucky I was to even get this sign. I didn't have to make the decision on my own. Others are not so lucky. The first couple of days were rocky but as things are at the moment, he seems to be improving. A cold that was turning into pneumonia seems to have stalled and his temperature is down, and he is more alert. Well, by that I mean alert for a man with dementia. Yesterday I asked him if he was feeling better and he gave me the thumbs up.
This is what life is now. Up and down. Up and down. The rush to the bedside. The preparation for the end. The reprieve. The sorrow of seeing someone you love in such an incapacitated state. The relief of not having to say goodbye just yet. The wishes for their freedom. Good days, bad days. Thumbs up. Thumbs down. Exhaustion. In all this unknowing, the thing I know now is that the transition from wellness, to illness, to death is so much better navigated with a plan.
Here is my checklist for caring for the seriously ill and the dying that I am learning from my own experience with my parents:
I hope this helps. Archeus has grown out of responding to the needs of people through different transitions. We are a small business that is informed by, and responds to, real life. If you are dealing with the needs of a loved one who is seriously ill or dying you may find comfort in our Plant Essences and Elixirs, our Anointing Oils, our Energy Medicine sessions and maybe even our botanically infused burial shrouds. Later in 2018 we plan to run workshops helping people with compassionate care for end of life needs.]]>
What inspired Archeus? Where does the name come from? What does Archeus founder Georgina think of 'weeds'? How does a little HB business get recognised internationally? How can Nature be with you in palliative care and at the end of life?
Find out in this interview Georgina did with the lovely Alison Cowell for Radio Kidnappers.
Thanks so much Radio Kidnappers for supporting local ventures!
Listen here]]>
Our mission is to help Nature help you through transitions. Many of our customers come to us as they journey through illness as the way we work with Nature resonates with the way they want to look after their body and soul.
We have curated this collection of products we have made in response to customer requests for beautiful, natural and high-quality products to use as their bodies recover from cancer treatment and other medical interventions.
This Cancer Wellness collection includes products for hair and scalp, aftercare for cosmetic tattoo procedures, serums and creams for the face, balms and serums for the breast area and a soothing balm for feminine dryness.
These products are complemented by our Plant Essences & Elixirs and our Shamanic Energy Medicine offering.
Archeus is a Finalist - Best New Premium Skin Care Product, 2018 Pure Beauty Global Awards.
Have you ever had one of those moments when you watch someone else speak, someone you don't know, have never met and yet your words keep tumbling out of their mouth? And, while their story may have different details, the insights are eerily familiar?
This happened to me last night and I feel like I have to mention it because in telling this story, it helps explain some of the Archeus story and why I do what I do. It's not an easy story for me to tell because it has grown out of issues we are conditioned to keep quiet.
Last night I watched a BBC Hardtalk interview with James Rhodes. James decided to become a concert pianist when he was 28. He's in his mid-40s now and doing very well creating and living that dream. In the interview, he also talked very candidly about how as a young boy of about five his life became ripped apart by serial sexual abuse inflicted upon him by a teacher at his school.
He spoke about how the victim is made complicit in the perpetrator's plans… the more threats of terrible things: death, punishment and abandonment - the more the victim is made mute and horrifyingly tacit in the crimes. I know that feeling so well. Knowing the knowing that things are wrong, but trying so hard to make everything appear normal so one's world does not come crashing down.
Knowing the knowing that things are wrong, but trying so hard to make everything appear normal so one's world does not come crashing down.
I was the same age as James when the abuse started for me. It happened when I was left in the care of other adults: a farm worker or father of school friends here, a family friend there. This is not a story of stranger danger and the actions of one abuser would lay the grounds for the next and a wall of silence was built.
Over time I developed a sliding scale for ranking the physical injustices from "not so invasive" to "very, very bad". There is one time, the highest on the scale, where I remember floating away from my seven-year-old body and looking down at it through drifting dust motes while it was bound by twine in an English hay barn. I remember everything said. Everything done. I remember the smells. I remained mute.
James said that to escape from the horrors of his life he would lose himself in recordings of Bach played on a cassette recorder under his blankets at night. For me, as an only child growing up on farms, I would lose myself in Nature. I didn't just hug a tree…. I became the tree.
Of course, the scars from these experiences are never just physical. Life can become the 'normal' role you are expected to play, and the 'real life' you feel. Fear and shame always prevented me from telling my 'real' story. Humans were kind of tricky, but animals, birds, plants and trees just accepted me for who I was. They let me speak without judging. They showed me love. They became my healers.
James Rhodes' childhood relationship with Bach's music was intense, as was my relationship with Nature. His fingers lost themselves following a dizzy trail of beautiful notes and melodies; my fingers would trace stem and limb and the energy that flowed in and out of all things.
These were the things that saved us.
My life hasn't taken the route his has through addiction and incarceration, but I did recognise his fear, his pain and I saw my own absolute faith in the natural world and the gratitude I feel for its role in my healing, in the way James spoke with such child-like joy about his love for music and how it saved him.
All of us at some time or other in our lives face some kind of trauma. It could be abuse, it could be illness, it could be any number of things because life gets like that. It gets messy and we all try and get through it the best we can.
So for those of you reading this who know my business Archeus, when I speak about 'helping Nature help you', it is not said as some glib marketing line. I speak directly from the experience of knowing how beautifully Nature has helped me. I speak with my hope that my work with Nature can, even in some small way, add to how it can help you too.
Shamans speak of the Wounded Healer and the Oneness of Things: the deep connectivity between earth, sky, sea, plant, creature, rock. They say that when we can see the sacredness of this connectivity and lose our fear of the ability to journey back and forward through time, great healing can occur.
I sometimes wonder if things had been different, if they had been kinder, whether I would have connected so strongly with that Archeus, that vital force.
The word Archeus was made up by the brilliant and mercurial physician and alchemist, Paracelsus who lived in the late 15th and early 16th Centuries. Paracelsus believed that to heal and to create alchemy, one must work with the Archeus, the vital force, the energy that flows between man, Nature and the universe.
I sometimes wonder if things had been different, if they had been kinder, whether I would have connected so strongly with that Archeus, that vital force. In many ways, I am grateful for being made open to this gift. Nature helped me turn pain into empathy, anger into compassion and experience into words… an alchemy of the soul.
It feels strange to talk about this, I am not used to it, but shamans say that whatever we do or say in this life will ripple down through the next seven generations, and that got me thinking about whether I was OK to keep quiet for that amount of time. Turns out I'm not.
We can't shake off our stories, but we don't have to be defined by them. We can dream a better future into being. For me, my dreaming has seen me return to that close relationship with Nature, with more knowledge gained and more life lived. I am the shaman now; a wounded but now joyous healer, working with plants and people at the physical and energetic level. I am dreaming a world of connection with, and respect for Nature into being.
We can't shake off our stories, but we can dream a better future into being
James Rhodes really touched me and I found his candour liberating. We are strangers with different stories but a shared sort of oneness. When he plays piano, the alchemic mix of gratitude, pain and his own healing flows through his fingers, taking the beauty of Bach's compositions and rendering them even more exquisite.
When I create things from plants or work with energy, my intent is for the alchemic forces of knowledge, past pain, ancient wisdom and simple empathy to blend with the healing power of Nature, to support the healing within this land, sea and sky... and within us.
Music. The smell of autumn leaves. The hum of the piano after the note has played. Hands in the soil. A voice found. Life isn't always easy and these are just a few of the things that can save us. What have you found that saves you, or that fills your life with beauty when things get messy and life becomes mute?
Georgina x]]>
I'm writing this on International Women's Day and reflecting on how the gorgeous women who are Archeus customers have helped shape the story of this woman and the work I do.
In my travels, I saw women around the world, just like me, who wanted to know that what they were put on and in their bodies was made from the purest organic and natural ingredients. Women who wanted a deeper connection with Nature to help them feel beautiful through the good times and the hard.
It's easy to be there for the good stuff, but I have created Archeus to help you through the tough stuff too. Archeus celebrates and supports real women living real lives. We are there in the messy stuff as well as the good times. We make things for the busy mums, wives, daughters looking after ailing parents. We make things for women coping with empty nests and for the women having to deal with no nest at all. We are there for women celebrating career moves and personal milestones, the birth of a child; we're with women mourning the loss of a breast, a break-up, a bereavement and we're there when embracing joy.
It's easy to be there for the good stuff, but I have created Archeus to help you through the tough stuff too.
Archeus offers products, training, energy medicine and workshops. We've been selected for international awards and we receive extraordinary feedback from our customers, and it was the simple act of listening to what women wanted, that helped us create the range we have today. Thank you for being part of that.
Your needs have helped me create all our products. Products which are gaining international recognition - in fact today I have been advised that Archeus has been selected as a finalist for Best New Premium Skin Care Product at the 2018 Pure Beauty Global Awards.
Located in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, we make all our products from the finest ingredients and materials we can source from around the world, as well as plants growing organically right here on our property.
What do we do? If you've been with us since the beginning in 2013 you'll have seen us explore different ways we can work with Nature for beauty, health and well-being along the way. But the place that means the most to us, that means the most to me, is the one where we are creating products to help you through different life transitions.
Here's a snapshot of what we offer:
We think that menopause is the most empowering transition in a woman's life and we celebrate it. We also know that some of the symptoms can be a real nuisance and bit of a drag so we've created a range of products including balms, drops, teas and mists to help you with hot flushes, mood swings and dried up lady bits.
These products are complemented by our facial serums and creams for truly natural beauty at any age.
Sometimes there are bits that need an extra hand and so we have created a range of balms & serums to help get things back to beautiful.
Botanic Repair – FINALIST – BEST NEW PREMIUM SKINCARE PRODUCT – 2018 PURE BEAUTY GLOBAL AWARDS. Cosmetic tattoo & micropigmentation are increasingly used to help after hair loss. Skin can be affected by medical interventions and this product is designed to soothe and support healing.
Halo Oil – a beautiful blend of botanically infused organic oils makes a natural and luxurious hair and scalp treatment. Can be used on all hair types and as hair is growing back after chemo.
Breast Balm – plants used throughout millennia to support and nourish women's breasts and reproductive tract team up with plants used to support healing of scars and wounds.
Violet Leaf Breast Serum – harnessing ancient women's wisdom and beautiful herbs to soothe and nourish the breast area.
We are also really proud of our tattoo and piercing aftercare balms and oils one of which was also recognised in international awards.
Each plant we use has a therapeutic benefit in herbal medicine, but we also see its energetic aspect that can offer support to help you with the tough stuff. We think of them as a hug in a bottle.
We have a range of elixirs as well as single essences. Our elixir blends include 'Acceptance', 'Letting Go', 'I Can Do This', 'Goddess', 'Loving Me' and 'Intense Grief'.
Finding peace and healing within your emotional state at any time of life is important, but we also take particular care of our customers or their loved ones who may be nearing the end of their life, or who are dealing with loss and bereavement. Gaining a sense of peace and acceptance at this time is very sacred and can make a huge difference to all concerned.
Soon you will have the opportunity to become a certified Archeus Plant Essences & Elixir practitioner. Online and in person study options available from mid-2018.
Finding peace and healing within your emotional state at any time of life is important, but we also take particular care of our customers or their loved ones who may be nearing the end of their life, or who are dealing with loss and bereavement.
Approaching the end of life is a natural but profound part of our life cycle. At Archeus we believe in the concept of 'healing into life and death' and that by working in gentle and subtle ways with Nature, this transition can be navigated with added care and compassion.
Our Anointing Oils help create loving touch for the living and a gentle goodbye for those who pass. Our Plant Essences, Elixirs and Energy work can help with emotional states, our mists and body washes refresh and cleanse with beautiful intent and finally, our Botanically Infused Shrouds* are a beautiful way to create a tender goodbye.
*Approved by the NZ Natural Burial organisation
We believe in handing knowledge on and run workshops in our beautiful apothecary building on our founder's property in Hawke's Bay, situated in a picturesque rural location just minutes from Napier and the Hawke's Bay airport. We are also happy to look at possibilities to run some workshops in other parts of this beautiful country. See our website for details.
Archeus founder Georgina (that's me!) is a reiki master and shamanic energy medicine practitioner trained by Alberto Villoldo at the prestigious Four Winds Light Body School.
Energy work can support you through key life transitions along all parts of the life cycle, from birth to death, grief to joy, executive stress to empty nest. I offer sessions in person or by distance. See the website for details.
So, in every way we can, we are weaving the healing power of Nature into every transition you make. We're not just trying to make people feel pretty, we are trying to support and help women to feel truly beautiful - inside and out.
To all the women in the world – we, I.... salute you.
Georgina xx
Archeus Founder
PS: If you want to see more of my story and some gorgeous photos of our the Archeus Apothecary (where we now hold workshops and energy consultations) check out the feature in the March/April issue of Life & Leisure magazine. Out now.
I had thought I would never get a tattoo. I worried about having to live with something gained in a moment of whimsy but that would not travel through time. I wanted to keep the canvas of my skin bare. Clear. Untouched. But when my mother got cancer her illness and death made me question who I was. When she died I wanted to make a mark that said to me, 'I am here, this is me'. I wanted something totemic and I started to think that this might be in the form of a tattoo.
Meanwhile, I had been asked by tattoo artists to make a healing balm for aftercare, but it wasn't until a woman asked me if I could make her something to heal a tattoo she had done on her reconstructed breast after having a mastectomy that I really moved this work forward. Like me, she had never considered getting a tattoo but now it had become something significant, it became part of taking her body back for herself. Tattoo enabled her to write over cancer. This wasn't just ink. It was empowerment.
Tattoo enabled her to write over cancer. This wasn't just ink. It was empowerment.
I was incredibly touched that, through the oils and balms I had made, I was contributing to this beautiful woman's healing journey. I was helping Nature contribute to her healing journey. Suddenly her journey coinciding with mine made the art of tattoo incredibly relevant and I wanted to make my balms and oils available to others.
I started selling my tattoo balms and oils in 2015. Within a short time, my tattoo oil was selected as a finalist for Best New Natural Product by the Pure Beauty Awards in the UK. Today many tattoo artists around the country and abroad (including Dean Sacred pictured above) use my aftercare line. I also have a product called Botanic Repair that I developed for use after cosmetic tattoo/micropigmentation procedures such as new eyebrows after hair loss.
Within a short time, my tattoo oil was selected as a finalist for Best New Natural Product by the Pure Beauty Awards in the UK
So how can a tattoo help a cancer patient? The wonderful counselor Sheila Hight, of Esperanza Counselling in Hawke's Bay, works with many cancer patients. She emphasised to me how profound it is for cancer patients to feel they have regained some control over their bodies, how tattoo's ability to transform can be a power for good, and how it can be a powerful part of the healing journey.
Cancer patients need to feel they have regained some control over their bodies
I could relate to this as for me the idea of a tattoo transformed from the unfamiliar to the deeply personal. It became something liberating, totemic, a definite mark that recognised the cycle of life as well as my own journey. Once that thought got hold of me it felt empowering.
If you have a story to share about how you used tattoo or micropigmentation to help claim your body back after cancer treatment we'd love to hear about it below.
Georgina xx
What happens when a bunch of women in their early 50s, who had been in the same year at the same boarding school, gather together for the first time in 35 years?
Yes, it does get loud. Very loud! But it gets a whole lot more than that too. It turns into two days of condensing around 30 life stories into scattered conversations and an extraordinary journey into what it means to be woman.
We all went to an all-girls boarding school in Hawke's Bay in the early 80s. Last week's gathering took place in Auckland and women had travelled from across the country to be there. Others had even come from the UK, United States and Australia.
Many of us, myself included, had approached the gathering with a mix of nervousness and excitement. It brought back so many school day memories and for most of us, not all of them were good! We wondered if the 'cool girls' still be 'cool' and we hoped that the nerdy ones had transformed into beautiful and talented swans. We needn't have worried though as this gathering was joyous and inclusive. Seeing each other as individuals and hearing our stories revealed, sharing insecurities and achievements shows how time is a great leveller.
Many of us, myself included, had approached the gathering with a mix of nervousness and excitement. It brought back so many school day memories and for most of us, not all of them were good!
What happened to these women in the intervening years? It is not for me to share their intimate details here, but it was fascinating to see how we have journeyed through life. Most of them have children and some were unsettled by the loss of identity that can come with the onset of the empty nest. Only three of us in the group of 30 women had not had children. Some have carved out careers, others haven't. Some have had illness, injuries and bereavement. Some have got thinner, others bigger. There were lines and grey hair and hot flushes.
It was fascinating to ask the questions of people that we did not have the maturity to ask at school. We learned some back stories to our school days. These were not heroic stories of the 'privileged'. These were stories of what it means to be human and female: happy families and broken ones, love and protection, loneliness and sexual abuse, all standing side by side 35 years on. I admired every one of these beautiful women.
When I explored the reasons why my old school contemporaries celebrated their 50s there was one comment that often came up first... "I am no longer so concerned about body shape and if I am attractive",
There was an overriding sense of celebration of reaching our 50s. We have made it this far and we are grateful. When I explored the reasons why, there was one comment that often came up first, "I am no longer so concerned about body shape and if I am attractive", or "I no longer care so much about trying to be something I am not".
I was really struck by this, Each and every one of us, regardless of shape or physical appearance had all struggled with how we might look to others.
The next comment that came was "and I no longer care what other people think". Hallelujah to that. Finally we are starting to realise that to be ourselves - is totally OK.
On the last evening, some of us were back at the motel in one of our rooms where we were all bunked up together, just like the old days. One woman, who remembers school as a time of deep insecurity and being (in her words) 'a complete bitch to everyone', reflected on the reunion. This woman has dedicated her life to nursing others, she is bringing up two beautiful children (I know because I have been lucky enough to meet them) and has created a loving home with her husband. As we sat and chatted (with slightly hoarse voices) she said, "This reunion has been so healing. I have worked hard all my life. I have given out love and I have never taken anything for granted and now I have realised that not only am I OK, I am actually a really good role model for my kids.'
I think I may have cried a little bit at that moment.
Each of us tries to get through life as best we can. We all have joys and sorrows, achievements and regrets, hopes and fears. Every one of us has been tested by something at some time and I think this all contributes to what makes a woman beautiful. I found myself feeling proud of what I have achieved so far in life and very happy in the work that I do at Archeus, dedicating my life now to creating things to help women through the tough stuff as well as the good times.
... I have realised that not only am I OK, I am a really good role model for my kids.'
I was profoundly moved by the experience of those two days. Over 35 years ago we all shared an experience of that school and we all went out into the world at the same time. Our paths have been diverse, yet here we all are. And now we say farewell again, heading out into our respective worlds…. real women living real lives.
These two days reminded me of three things:
1: Friendships endure
2: Don't spend your time worrying about what others may think of you - they haven't lived your life
3: Believe in yourself - you're already amazing to have made it this far.
To real women living real lives, I salute you.
Georgina xxx]]>