Palo Azul is traditionally used as a kidney cleanser. In the Old Testament, the kidneys are associated with the inner-most stirrings of emotional life. In Chinese medicine they are associated with the water element, which when out of balance, manifests as fear or anxiety.
I selected this herb from a marketplace yesterday, (in Guanajuato, Mexico where I am living for 3 months) without knowing what it was. When I put it in the water to boil as instructed, the common-place looking bark emitted clouds of deep blue.
It was the perfect accompaniment to my dark moon ritual, which is part of a mid-life “mourning of the dead” - releasing all of the images and shapes I took in my youth which are no longer relevant to the fruition of my maturity.
I wrote my invocation on a piece of paper and bound it, five times for the faith of Jupiter, to this glass containing the Palo Azul, salt and rose petals, (signifiying the well of emtiness, the fecundity of the briny sea and the heart of the virgin).
In three days I will burn this paper, dissolve the ashes in the liquid, and soak a cross, (the intersection of heaven and earth) of Palo Azul in it. Then I will bury the cross in the ground to symbolize my promise: “I need not seek approval nor recognition. Like the moon, I reflect. And by Jupiter’s faith I am protected. I return to myself.”
