Nourish and Flourish with Fiona: Herbal Tarot New Moon in Aries Card No 3

You chose Card No 3

Ten of Swords ~ Ephedra

Deep breath... This card may look alarming, but you have chosen well. This is a good sign that any dramas in your life are coming to an end and gradually you will recover and regain strength.

Ten swords are in the ground still covered in blood after an exhausting battle. The landscape is bleak and cold. It's a dramatic scene and it's not pretty, but the worst is now over. Despite its startling appearance, this card is numbered 10 in a series of one to ten indicating a natural sense of completion and ending of a situation that has now run its course.

Swords relate to the air element representing the intellect, the rational mind and thought. There are times in everyone's life where stress and adversity is insurmountable, like life is some sort of dark comedy. We can get trapped in vicious cycles of negativity.

External events and our own personal resources can run ourselves into the ground until we are no longer able to cope. This can go on and on on subtle and more obvious levels for months and even years, until eventually our coping mechanisms give way. A healing crisis may manifest, like going into shock or catatonia.

How many times have you heard the whispers of your intuition guiding you away from harmful situations, but out of habit and sheer stubborn willfulness, you go ahead and do it anyway? Just this once... and again... and again... and finally we get caught up in a sequence of events that we have almost no choice but to follow.

Following your own intuition gets harder and harder to do and events may spiral out of control. This may leave us feeling very sorry for ourselves, isolated, out in the cold, in despair. While we may have physically given up the fight, the mind may relive experiences over and over sapping the little energy that remains.

There is a bright side, however. Although we do learn the hard way through these experiences, we do learn. With time we can heal from our battle wounds. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. All things come to an end and new cycles must begin again.

With some perspective, kindness and time to recover from the dreadful shock, with the overcoming of tragedy comes wisdom, humility, and compassion for others who have gone through or will go through what you have. We do eventually learn from our mistakes or are destined to repeat them until we do.

The slaughter in this card is not a physical one, but a mental one, a slaying of our ignorant ego minds. Whatever the circumstance this card refers to may still feel very raw but with a glimmer of hope and gentleness we can survive even the most difficult of circumstances and rise again transformed, stronger and wiser to tell the tale.

A Herbal Remedy for Hypersensitivity

~ Ephedra ~

Ephedra, known as Ma Huang in Chinese herbal medicine, has been used for centuries as a powerful anti-inflammatory. This is classed as a Schedule 20 (formerly Sch. 3) medicine which means it is not available for sale to the general public and can only be accessed over the counter as a prescription from a qualified practitioner.

As a tea or tincture, both internally and externally it can help reduce dramatic allergic responses such as inching and swelling of the skin, eyes, mouth, nose and throat from bites or ingestion of irritants. It is often given in respiratory allergy conditions such as hayfever, asthma, hives.

Used wisely, this plant may be a lifesaver, but conversely it can be fatal, causing agitation, palpitations and heart problems in inappropriate doses. This is one for acute situations and flare ups and not to be taken long term.

Be aware that long periods of stress can lead to adrenal burn out and lead to hypersensitivity reactions so take steps to manage symptoms holistically and preventatively before total depletion makes recovery a longer and slower road.

Be mindful of total burn out and highly charged emotions. Take good care, be kind and gentle with yourself while you recover from a challenging period.

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I hope you have enjoyed your reading and you find it supportive to you moving forward into the cycle ahead.

I'd love to hear how this resonates with and inspires you. If you have any insights, connections, recollections of any kind, I welcome you to share them with me in a comment below, my Nourish and Flourish FB page, or personal message.

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Love & healing blessings,