So how do you honor your ancestors? This is the time of year for making that happen and honoring the ancestors is our favorite part of it all. Yes, yes, they left us all some crap to deal with but that's because they did the best they could with the time and place and space they had and we're all in this together anyway. Find the good stories. Dig deeper back in time to the ancient ancestors that are still with you quite literally deep in your genetics. Learn how it was for them and harvest some the magic that happens anyway. In our home we love many traditions. 

The Day of the Dead is such a mystical, magical, and ancient holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 and 2. It makes such sense too. We need more holiday celebrations. Tradtionally many cultures have one at least every 6 weeks. For The Day of the Dead, many believe that the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October 31, and the spirits of each family revisit and celebrations ensue through November 2. In most villages in central and south Mexico, beautiful altars are made in each home. They're decorated with candles, buckets of flowers, mounds of fruit, peanuts, plates of turkey mole, stacks of tortillas and big Day-of-the-Dead breads called pan de muerto. The altar needs to have lots of food, bottles of juice, hot cocoa, and water for the weary spirits. Toys and candies are left for the children and tobacco and shots of mezcal tequila are offered to the adult spirits. 
 
The Day of the Dead can be a very expensive holiday for the many self-sufficient, rural based, original intact people of this part of the world. Many spend over two month's income to honor their dead relatives. It's believed that to honor spirit and to honor the spirits of our ancestors, one must be lavish, provide a respite, and create beauty. We want the same in return for they care for us too in unseen ways, right? Happy spirits will provide protection, good luck and wisdom to the family. Altar building keeps a family close and is a sacred act of creating the doorway for this beautiful sharing. It is the time of the Watery West on the Medicine Wheel as a compass and the “veil is naturally thin” at this time between the worlds.
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On the afternoon of Nov. 2, the festivities are often taken to the cemetery. People clean tombs, play cards, listen to the village band, and share stories about their loved ones. Tradition and ceremony keeps a village close. Day of the Dead is becoming very popular in the U.S.~ perhaps because we don't have a way to celebrate and honor our dead, or maybe it's because of our fascination with its mysticism. Deepen connection is the what draws many.
 
Day of the Dead is also celebrated throughout Mexico and the Catholic world in Italy, Spain, South America and the Philippines but under a different name where all celebrate “All Souls and All Saints Day” on November 1st and 2nd. Special Masses and perhaps cleaning and decorating of the cemetery tombs are part of the traditional activities. It's only in Central and Southern Mexico where the colorful parties take place in the cemeteries and elaborate altars are built in the homes to honor specific family members who have passed on. But you can change that in your home. 

Basic Chaga Tea
Ingredients
1 Tbsp ground chaga per quart of water
Optional Additions: Maple Syrup, Honey, Cream, Cocnut Milk

-Slow simmer chaga in the water covered for 1-2 hours
-Strain through a fine seive and enjoy. The tea is delicious on its own with natural vanilla compounds already in it so try some by itself first. Depending on your source, the outer black layer is more bitter but a welcomed tonic this ime of year.  

Chaga Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
1 cup Chaga tea recipe above
1 cup Coconut Milk - we like the full fat kind (or 1/2 cup Cream)
1-2 Tbsp cacao powder  (or 1-2oz. dark chocolate works great too)
1-2 Tbsp Maple Syrup - yes, from the tree
Whisk or you can use a blender.

-Return your warm tea to a pot and add all other ingredients and whisk on the lowest heat gently until frothy and mixed well but do NOT boil. Play with the amounts to suit your taste. I've also been known to add a sprinkle of cinnamon or cayenne depending on my mood. Find the perfect mug and ENJOY!  

Deeply bowing to you and your ancestors...  XO-Jen

Going on a short drive throughout the Northeast in fall offers a memorizing display of a seemingly impossible variety of colors as the trees change their survival focus in response to their cyclic dance with the Sun and the Moon. They're quite literally responding to a change in the rhythm of the dance. But why do leaves change color in the fall? A surprising number of people don't know, even if they've danced with the cyclic seasonal changes for decades. Here's a little science, straight and simple as we honor the trees and their dance with the Sun and the Moon. The trees "do" less and resonnate more of a "be" state. May the colors inspire you to change your rhythm to the current dance, synchronize with the slowing down process, and maybe dress it up a bit too. 
 
So, chlorophyll exists in leaves to help facilitate the process of photosynthesis, where plants absorb carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to produce oxygen and sugars - yes, they literally make matter materialize as plant tissue. Chlorophyll is green and while other colors are present, the tree leans on the chlorophyll so heavily to turn the suns rays into matter that the green color dominates. This can happen easily during the times of year when there is plenty of daylight hours.  But when there are more hours of darkness per day than sunlight, things change. Priorities change. The deciduous - leaf -trees find keeping chlorophyll working on the process of photosynthesis far too expensive in terms of energy expended to thrive. The shortening days and lengthening nights are the prompt to stop focusing on the whole photosynthesis process and just let that whole thing break down and fall away. Once the abundant green chlorophyll shrivels and fades, other pigments hiding in the leaf, such as the anthocyanins which give us burgundy and reds, and carotenoids which give us the golds and bright yellows, reveal their color briefly for a few weeks before the leaves fall off altogether to become a brown crunchy mass on the forest floor. This then feeds so much more on the forest floor as the trees prepare for the cold and conserve their energy with promises of spring blooms.