Winter Solstice Southern Hemisphere Style.

A Deepwater Winter Fire

Winter Solstice in Oz is usually celebrated in the middle of the year, in our winter in June.

Yule in the Southern Hemisphere

Lore:

The Lady labours through the longest night of the year, giving birth to the Lord at dawn and beginning her recovery. Lights and candles are left burning to guide the Lord from the Goddess' womb and to symbolise the return of the Sun, bringing light to the Earth. The long, cold nights are shortening and the days are getting longer and warmer.

Keywords:

Rebirth, reincarnation, depth of darkness, turning point, remembering light in darkness, festivity, generosity, merriment, warmth, mother & baby, wonderment, joy, mystery.

Botanicals:

Holly (masculine), ivy (feminine), mistletoe (fertility), cinnamon, pine cones, cloves, nutmeg.

Colours:

Red (the Goddess' menstrual blood), white (the God's semen), green (plant kingdom), gold (the Sun).

The second balefire holiday, with the fire usually taking the form of a Yule log - from a special species of tree, or part of the Maypole from Beltane. Yule logs are burned from dusk on the Winter Solstice till dawn on the following day to symbolise the return of the Lord and the Sun. The log should traditionally be from a hardwood tree and in Australia mallee roots, Victorian ash, Tasmanian oak and Eucalyptus (to name a few) are ideal for this purpose. The Yule log is burned down until only a small piece remains, which is saved and kept to be used as a lighter for the following year's Yule fire - in doing this, the Yule fire is symbolically reborn each year as well.

This is a turning point, a point of change, where the tides of the year turn. At this time of the year, no matter how cold it may be, there is a glimmer of spring in the distance. The shortest day of the year has come and the next festival on the calendar is Imbolc, which marks the beginning of Spring.

At Yule, homes are decorated with evergreen, non-deciduous trees, and gifts are given to all family members and all who pass the threshold to symbolise the gift the Lady has bestowed upon the Earth.

A good time to do workings for peace, harmony, love, and increased happiness.

Altar decoration:

A small white candle inside a cauldron on the altar (symbolises the return of light from within the Goddess' womb), pine cones, symbols of the Sun, wreaths, nativity scene (representing the Mother, Father and infant Sun God), red/green/white candles, evergreens, acorns, nuts, apples, cinnamon sticks, reindeer.

A note on Yule and Christmas:

You'll note that the Wiccan Yule lore/celebrations and the Christian Christmas lore/celebrations are quite similar. The main reason they are so similar is that Christmas is based on the pre-Christian pagan festival of Yule, held on the Winter Solstice long before the advent of Christianity.  Now, I'm not saying that Mary and Joseph didn't turn up at the inn 2000-odd years ago, only that the Yule festival itself predates Christianity by thousands of years. Many of the Christmas traditions we observe today (the evergreen Christmas tree, gift-giving, celebrating the birth of the infant Lord, etc.) are remnants of the ancient pagan Winter Solstice celebrations: these practices were 'absorbed' by the Church to make the Christian Christmas more palatable to the pagans they were converting.
Information from a now dead link. (www.shadowsofoz.net/)

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

THEORIES OF NATURE

Recently I wrote down a transcript of what I gleaned from listening to Alan Watts explain the different theories of nature that are simultaneously occurring in our world.

Image Souce - Flickr

Nature as a machine :The western idea.  Inherited from the Hebrews, like a potter makes a pot out of clay or a carpenter makes something from wood.  A construct and someone knows and understands how this was put together and this is the architect which is the Lord God.  By the time of Newton, people were explaining the world as a mechanism.  

Human Being as a factory,  processed by organs like cow in one end and canned corn beef the other end.  Hospital - treated as a machine. Processed and put in a chair and you are divided up in sections.

Indian Theory (east) Nature as Drama.  Hindu thought that the world is Maya.   Magic illusion art play, all the worlds a stage.  Hindu idea is the Brahman or Atman is the self - universal eternal boundless and indescribable.  It's all on me.  What you hear on radio you hear on the speaker and this is like us  ... we are the speaker.  Hindus measure time in Kalpa's.  The self (Brahman) is lost and all our agonies and adventures get mixed up in it.  Catastrophic fire and awake again and the Brahman rests awhile and so the divine self rests for another 4,326,000,000 years.

Chinese  Organic theory Idea. " Spontaneity and automatic and self moving.  SIDRAN.   What is so of itself. biology. your hair grows, your heart beats all by itself and that is nature.  Spring comes and grass grows of itself. The principal of nature is called the Tao.   Means the course of nature.  Lao Tzu said the TAO that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao because it flows everywhere it loves and nourishes but lays no claim to this.  Tao is the informing principal of nature.  The Tao is not acting as a boss ... the Chinese philosophy of nature is that nature has no boss and is completely democratic.  Westerners don't trust nature.

Confucian philosophy ... JEN  its character that Confucius placed as the highest of all virtues.  It means human heartedness.  Confucius said good goodies are the thieves of virtue.  Not in the sense of moral propriety but of magic.  A man of true virtue is a human heart ed man.  See human nature for its full self of both good and bad.    The worst wars are fought over moral principals. Wars where woman are stolen and goods stolen are easy wars.  But the first is much worse and that is why the goodies are the thieves of virtue, if you are going to do evil do it for a plain selfish motive don't do it in the name of God

Don't do evil in the name of god because if you do it turns you into a destroyer.. so a ineffectively righteous person is not human.

Chinese ideas of Justice is not served this way.  They are into compromise.  Rascals make a mutual arrangement.  This is the Chinese way, it is not the western way.  

There are two forms of LEE

First Lee

LEE  ...is Justice but you cant write it down. 

Another word for Justice in a Chinese character form - A cauldron for cooking sacrifices and a knife.  Long ago Emperor scratched with a knife on the cauldron the laws of the state so people could read these..  The emperors wise sages said this was bad.  When its written down people develop a litigious spirit and people think out ways to wrangle around it. 
This sense of justice is not something that can be put in words.  Equity is the innate sense of fair play.  A good Judge is one that has a sense of LEE ..This is a judge who has a sense of  Equity.  Seeing each case as individual. Trusting the good and bad of human nature. 

Humans are complex, we don't know ourselves well at all really (systemically).  Our conscious decisions are based with this thing we know nothing about NERVOUS SYSTEM.. lol  We are wiser in our nature than we are in our conscious thoughts.

Western mechanical theory
Hindu Dramatic theory
Chinese Organic theory

Organism is a system of orderly anarchy. There is no boss but it gets along by being left to its own devices.  WU WAY.. not interfering or acting against the Grain.

Second LEE

LEE ... Markings in Jade the grain in wood.. the fiber in muscle.  REASON or the principal of things. Organic patterns  Clouds are not a mess foam is not a mess .. it is never an artistic mistake.  They are wiggly but orderly and its difficult to describe this type of order.   We are wiggly like clouds rocks stars as they are arranged.  Nature never makes a mistake in its arrangement because it is great the way it is.  Artist tribute to it by painting landscapes etc. 
Give people a shock .. get them to see things in a new way.    LEE is natural order  shapes are orderly but we cant put our finger on the order but we don't know why and its completely different to a mess. 

St Augustine said I know what is time but if you ask me I don't etc etc.

Nature as a self ordering principal... if you want to know where the flowers come from even the God of spring does not know.
Translate this in politics and its high philosophical anarchy.. government is always mess because the state apposes itself to the people.  Governed by ourselves.  It creates itself as a business along with all the other businesses.  It really should be anonymous and unobtrusive as possible. Not flag waving etc and act ordinary not acting like you are higher.  DO YOUR JOB INSTEAD instead of DOING YOURSELF.  Help the people and not claim merit.  Just to help things along.  Govern a great state as you would cook a small fish.  it will fall apart if you don't do it gently.

Nature is a concept and it is something you should trust.  Inside nature is human nature. It will sometimes let you down with a wallop and this is the risk of life.  The alternative is to not trusted at all and it leads to totalitarianism where every one is the police and reporting everyone and one cannot be trusted about you motivations etc.  Reporting everything to everyone.  everyone is busy keeping records of everything.  Books right etc...   SCHOLAR originally meant LEISURE  ... classics poetry etc. (gentleman and a scholar)  Not necessary for survival (all the charming elegance).

Do things for the sheer pleasure of itself .. take a pebble.  Know it is lovely and just love it (purposely) instead of intellectualizing it.  Just love it for what it is not for what you can get from it.

Bill Trekking the Appalachian Trail

Recently a very good friend of ours,  Bill Bunting who is from the state of Georgia embarked on a huge adventure.  He kicked off his adventure in Georgia to hike the Appalachian Trail - Georgia to Maine.

 Old Hiker boots grow well on the Trail.
Image by Bill

Fun Facts

• The Trail is roughly 2,180 miles long, passing through 14 states.

• Thousands of volunteers contribute roughly 220,000 hours to the A.T. every year.
• More than 250 three-sided shelters exist along the Trail.
• Virginia is home to the most miles of the Trail (about 550), while West Virginia is home to the least (about 4).
• Maryland and West Virginia are the easiest states to hike; New Hampshire and Maine are the hardest.
• The total elevation gain of hiking the entire A.T. is equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest 16 times.
• The A.T. is home to an impressive diversity of plants and animals. Some animals you may see include black bears, moose, porcupines, snakes, woodpeckers, and salamanders. Some plants you may encounter include jack-in-the-pulpit, skunk cabbage, and flame azalea.

 Selfie by Bill Hiking on the Trail

Hikers

• About 2 to 3 million visitors walk a portion of the A.T. each year.
• The A.T. has hundreds of access points and is within a few hours drive of millions of Americans, making it a popular destination for day-hikers.

• “Thru-hikers” walk the entire Trail in a continuous journey. “Section-hikers” piece the entire Trail together over years. “Flip-floppers” thru-hike the entire Trail in discontinuous sections to avoid crowds, extremes in weather, or start on easier terrain.
• 1 in 4 who attempt a thru-hike successfully completes the journey
• Most thru-hikers walk north, starting in Georgia in spring and finishing in Maine in fall, taking an average of 6 months.
• Foods high in calories and low in water weight, such as Snickers bars and Ramen Noodles, are popular with backpackers, who can burn up to 6,000 calories a day.
• Hikers usually adopt “trail names” while hiking the Trail. They are often descriptive or humorous. Examples are “Eternal Optimist,” “Thunder Chicken,” and “Crumb-snatcher".
  
  Read more here at the official web page for the APPALACHIAN TRAIL ..

Swallow Creek Wildlife Management Area .. Image by Bill.

Trail Maps can be sort HERE and a map is a must have.  You would not do this walk without a map of where you are and considering you walk through fourteen states, you kit would be half maps because there are so many of them.

This is Bill and I while he was adventuring down under.  This
was his last evening with us all here.

 On the trail.. it is customary to choose a "Trail Name".  Bill chose BILBO... as in Bilbo baggins I would presume.   One has to only hope there are no Gollum's on this beautiful trail to take him down like the last time.

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Electricity is in the Air ... everywhere!

Immediately after a storm the air feels different.

The very air around us is electric!

As far as I can see in this situation of power control over energy resources I think those in control of the power grids do know these facts.  I also feel there is a withholding of truth around this for the advantage of the profiteers.

This far surpasses any form of alternative energy people talk about regarding solar, wind or water or any fossil fuel source.  Obviously it surpassed it, that should go with out saying because it is the 'air'.

This is the "Magic" I speak of.   It is the magic of the past and of eternity.  This energy never ceases and is constantly generated and the ancients knew how to harness it.

"The electrical current density in the air is only about 10-12 amps (A) per m2 – almost nothing.
During fair weather there is an electric potential difference of 250,000 to 500,000 volts between the ionosphere and the earth’s surface; the surface is negative relative to the ionosphere.
It is estimated that this current (and the electric potential difference) would disappear in less than an hour if all thunderstorm activity ceased. Most people are unaware that the atmosphere carries a continuous electric current.
Even during fair weather, there is a strong electrostatic field of about 100 volts per meter close to the ground. This electric potential increases by about 100 volts per meter from the ground up.

Read more at the full article :  

Electromagnetic mechanism of the ultrasound on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun (Visoćica Hill)

by Hrvoje Zujić, Mr.E.Eng.

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Kaneh Bosom

In ancient times this plant was known as this.  The oil was used to polish the wood in Solomon's Temple.   The plant was widely used because it was so beneficial and adaptable and versatile.  Preferring no chemicals or fertilizers to grow.

This was a problem for those Greed mongers who wanted to sell their pharmaceutical wares to the uninformed and trusting public via a government who was supposed to care not demonize the only thing that could really help.   This is a story that start way before I was born and before any of us were born.  It started around 325AD in Rome.  The rest is up to you to find out.

Photo via The C.A.S.H Card Project

 

CANNABIS CURES CANCERS!

http://phoenixtears.ca/

http://www.cureyourowncancer.org/make-the-oil.html

The most important other thing that you need to know about making The Cure oil is

 DON'T BLOW YOURSELF UP!

Alcohol fumes are both TOXIC AND EXPLOSIVE!

Use an extension cord on your rice cooker and boil off the solvent OUTSIDE, and even then have a fan blowing over the top of the pot.

This is not a how to either.   This blog post  is meant to let you know that it is how the resin is obtained for the medicine that has been used for thousands of years.  I do not condone or deny or take responsibility for what some one does with this.

 To all the anti-cannabis "Christians" out there.

"The Lord hath created medicines out of the Earth and he that is wise shall not reject them"
Ecclesiastes  38:4

PHOTO from Cannibus Cures Cancer

Images @ Eminpee Fotography - Bellingen March against Monsanto 2013

Go away Big Pharma,  Nature knows Best!

I saw my First Koala in the wild today!

I am over fifty and I did think it was about time.   Kathy was driving and I was looking out the window and I saw the Koala quite a way off away from the edge of the road.

Nowendoc Koala

  

 I was so excited I could barely speak fast enough.  I think I yelled out I saw a Kangaroo, then I said STOP / Koala.  We stopped the car and started to walk back up the road and another car came along and they were a young couple with children and so after assuring them that we were not broken down instead we were hurrying back up the road to see this koala.

We were road tripping to Leards Forest to see Murray who is baby sitting the gates out there from mining and there is a Red Alert for the :Pilliga Forest so we are going here to find out what is the go with all of this from the man himself.  This just meant we were on the right track.   We both felt very good seeing this chap.

Nowendoc is renowned for its Koala population.

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae, and its closest living relatives are the wombats.


Scientific name: Phascolarctos cinereus

Lifespan: 13 – 18 y (In Wild)

Gestation period: 30 – 35 d

 Phascolarctos (from Ancient Greek phaskolos, referring to a pouch or bag, and arktos, meaning "bear") is a genus of marsupials containing only one extant species, the koala (P. cinereus). The genus was named by French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1816.

 
Images @ Eminpee Fotography

The Bees are doing something different!

They have been here for a few months now and yesterday they decided to swarm on the outside of their chosen hive home here in my yard.   I hope they are all fine, they look alright

Swarm management

Why are they outside now?

During the first year of a queen's life the colony has little incentive to swarm, unless the hive is very crowded. During her second spring, however, she seems to be programmed to swarm. Without beekeeper "swarm management" in the second year, the hive will cast a "prime swarm" and may cast one to five "after swarms." The old queen will go with the prime swarm, and other swarms will be accompanied by virgin queens.

It is considered good practice in beekeeping to reduce swarming as much as possible using several techniques. Allowing this form of reproduction often results in the loss of the more vigorous division. The remaining colony may be so depleted and set back due to the brood cycle interruption that it is unproductive for the season. Beekeepers control swarming prior to the natural swarm time. They may remove frames of brood comb making nucs (nucleus or starter colonies) or by shaking package bees (usually for sale) from hives.

Swarming is to the beekeeper what losing all of his calves is to a cattleman. Beekeepers try to anticipate swarming and assist the bees to reproduce in a more controlled fashion by "splitting hives" or making "nucs." This saves the "calves" and keeps the "cow" in condition to accomplish some work.
Old fashioned laissez-faire beekeeping depended upon the capture of swarms to replenish beekeeper colonies and early swarms were especially valued. An old English poem says:

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay;

A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon;

A swarm of bees in July isn't worth a fly.

(Or possibly for the last line, "A swarm of bees in July, let them fly.")

They really know I love them and they are safe here!

More Information

Swarm capture

There are various methods to capture a swarm. When the swarm first settles down and forms a cluster it is relatively easy to capture the swarm in a suitable box or nuc. There are also swarm traps with Nasonov pheromone lures that can be used to attract swarms. One method that can be employed on a sunny day when the swarm is located on a lower branch or small tree is to put a white sheet under the swarm location.

A nuc box is put on the sheet. The swarm is sprayed from the outside with a sugar solution and then vigorously shaken off the branch. The main cluster, hopefully including the queen, will fall onto the white sheet and the bees will quickly go for the first dark entrance space in sight, which is the opening of the nuc. An organized march toward the opening will ensue and after 15 minutes the majority of bees will be inside the nuc. This capture method does not work at night though.

If the swarm is too embroiled in its perch so it cannot be dropped into a box or sheet, a skep can be suspended over it and gentle smoke used to "herd" the swarm into the skep.

Swarms may now be collected by a suction pump and the swarm will be sucked into a box. This way is easy and few bees are lost and none become angry.

Smoke is not recommended to calm a clustered swarm. Smoke will have the opposite effect on a clustered swarm as many bees will become agitated and fly about instead of settling down.

We watched them for ages and they looked happy enough although it  had been very windy so perhaps this is why they are outside of their hive now.  Merve said that I had accidentally created the perfect environment for a bee swarm to come and find this place and make it home.  He said well done Sister.

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

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How all the good of the past could come to this.

A very strange and sad commentary of the way our lives have become.

Powerful energy companies trying to rape the earth for her last great bits.

A new pilgrimage has been declared...  a pilgrimage into the great economic future of the world's industrial wealth.  Humanity has become very much self absorbed and selfish.  This type of action is a sickness.  It is a sickness on par with all serious physical illnesses

In the past we lived modestly in an uncluttered existence.  This says and does a lot.  Living simply and living naturally is so much better for all of the people here on planet Earth.

I am a little envious of  early man who lived in a natural world.  What a world that must have been.   In today's world we have to go back to classes to learn how to overcome the large powerful companies that are liabilities to our planet.  We have to help our planet and we have to help ourselves survive this intrepid behaviour by these mining and energy companies who are raping our planet.

Images @ Melonpopzdropz Flickr

The Astral Light

An all-permeating subtle fluid that interpenetrates all things and is the magical agent of the Formative World. The concept of the astral light was developed primarily by ELIPHAS LEVI.

Light that is just beautiful at Dawn in Urunga NSW

Levi described the astral light as:

. . . an agent which is natural and divine, material and
spiritual, a universal plastic mediator, a common receptacle
of the vibrations of motion and the images of form,
a fl uid and a force, which may be called in some way the
Imagination of Nature. . . . The existence of this force is
the great Arcanum of practical Magic.

Israel Regardie said of the astral light:
Vibrating at another rate of motion than does the gross
substance of the physical world, and thus existing on a
higher plane, the Astral Light contains the builder’s plan
or model, so to speak, projected downwards by the Idealization
or Imagination of the Father; the plan on which the
external world is constructed, and within whose essence
lies latent the potentiality of all growth and development.

 The astral light has electric, magnetic, and radioactive properties. It is represented in various symbol s, such as the girdle of Isis, the bull-headed serpent , the goat- or dogheaded serpent, the ouroboros, the emblem of Prudence, the symbol of Saturn, the winged dr agon of Medea, the double serpent of the caduceus, the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the brazen serpent of Moses entwined around the tau cross or the generative lingam, the Hyle of Gnosis, the double tail that forms the legs of the Gnostic deity Abraxas, the goat of the witches’ sabbats, and baphomet .
We find the following in G. de Purucker's Occult Glossary.

The astral light is with regard to the material realms of the solar system the copy or reflection of what the akasa is in the spiritual realms. The astral light is the mother of the physical, just as the spirit is the mother of the akasa or, inversely, the physical is merely the concretion of the astral, just as the akasha is the veil or concretion of the highest spiritual.

Images @ Melonpopzdropz  Flickr

TOXIC FLUID SPILL AT GLENUGIE

GLENUGIE UPDATE:
Metgasco have just had a spill of toxic fluids on the site at Glenugie. Pipeline split/came apart and copious quantities of an unknown substance have spilled onto the ground. Whatever it is in the spill was toxic enough that workers ran to shift some green drums (containing more toxic crap). THIS is why we are fighting!

(Sarah Buchanan)
Images @ Melonpopzdropz Flickr

The Trees are special here

Glenugie Protest Site

All Jobs are honorable but this job is the best because you sit alone with the trees a lot waiting for cars so it gives you a chance to listen to the wisdom of the trees. 

This Blackbutt tree behind my chair is substantial indeed and the trees sing like violins.

Images @ Melonpopzdropz Flickr

Liberal MP accused of taking gifts from coal seam gas company

"I think that Mining will become one of the biggest social issues to rise in Australia since the Vietnam war as more and more people see the full scale of what is taking  place right before our eyes. It's totally horrifying.
 ~ Glen Schaefer ~

9 November, 2012 3:22PM AEDT
NSW response 'gives CSG green-light'

By Joanne Shoebridge (ABC North Coast )

The Government has issued its response to the upper house inquiry that travelled around NSW last summer hearing community concerns about coal seam gas.

It was billed as an inquiry that would strike a balance between the interests of coal seam gas companies, landholders, the environment and the state.

However many of the 35 recommendations made by the Upper House Inquiry into Coal Seam Gas appear to have been overlooked by the Government in its response.
The committee called for more scientific data to be made publicly available, for the rights of landholders to be strengthened in negotiations with mining companies, and for stricter environmental controls to be placed on exploration and production licences.

English: Jeremy Buckingham, elected to NSW upper house for NSW Greens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Deputy Chair of the committee and NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham says the Government has ignored the recommendations.
"It's a re-hash of what the Government announced with its strategic regional land-use plans and it goes no way to addressing in full the very strong recommendations of the inquiry," he said.
"Many of the elements of the inquiry remain unaddressed and it's just another indication that this government is green-lighting coal seam gas in the Northern Rivers and across NSW."
Mr Buckingham says the Government has failed to release a review of the use of 'fracking' (hydraulic fracturing) conducted by the NSW Chief Scientist despite a recommendation by the committee for greater transparency, particularly with regard to scientific analyses.
"We were called on by the Government to do baseline data analysis, to do analysis of fugitive emissions, all kinds of things were recommended; the Government has ignored those," he said.
The Government has also announced a review of the Onshore Petroleum Act which governs the industry.
"There's no indication the community will get a say in how that act is re-written and what that means," said Mr Buckingham.
"That's a really important announcement from the Government and another indication that they are disempowering the community, the recommendations have been ignored, and they are trying to roll-out coal seam gas as fast as possible."
Asked whether industry concerns of a 'bubble' in the gas market which could affect the industry and gas prices on the East Coast were valid, Mr Buckingham scoffed.
"That is complete and utter garbage," he said.
"The reality is Santos and Exxon have signed long-term contacts to export Australia's natural gas from

Marcellus Shale Gas Well (Photo credit: wcn247)

our conventional natural gas fields.
"That is what is creating a pinch in supply."
The response was met with disappointment by anti-coal seam gas activists.

Boudicca Cerese from the Northern Rivers Lock the Gate Alliance says the response is a failure.
"It seems to continue the Government agenda of fast-tracking the CSG industry across the state with just a few more hoops for the industry to jump through," she said.
"They're saying they have all these policies, nothing has been regulated yet so the aquifer interference plan, there's still no regulation with any of it so I guess the next thing is to see what regulations they do bring in."
Ms Cerese says the Lock the Gate Alliance will continue direct, non-violent protests such as the demonstrations earlier this week at the Casino Airport where Metgasco was conducting seismic testing.
"The CSG-free community strategy rolling out across the region is really enabling local communities to become engaged in the whole debate and say 'no we don't want this industry in our region,'" she said.
The Minister for Energy and Resources Chris Hartcher, and the Chairman of the Committee, Shooters MLC Robert Brown were contacted for comment but were not available.

ABC Mid North Coast

Northern Rivers Houses (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: German-production-of-coal-mine-methane; coal; coal seam gas; methane; Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Miguelito Shale fractured layers at bluff at Montana de Oro 18 Aug 2010 (Photo credit: mikebaird)

Ban Fracking and shale gas in Europe before it is too late! (Photo credit: greensefa)

Ban Fracking and shale gas in Europe before it is too late! (Photo credit: greensefa)

Ban Fracking and shale gas in Europe before it is too late! (Photo credit: greensefa)

"The Greens" - The Greens NSW Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ban Fracking and shale gas in Europe before it is too late! (Photo credit: greensefa)

 NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said Mr MacDonald has also held a coal seam gas forum in his home town, Armidale, and invited Santos to speak.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/liberal-mp-accused-of-taking-gifts-from-coal-seam-gas-company-20121101-28lev.html#ixzz2BnLxSjYE

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/liberal-mp-accused-of-taking-gifts-from-coal-seam-gas-company-20121101-28lev.html#ixzz2BnLeAVEm

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Recipe for Homemade mascara

Mascara (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What is in mascara anyway?Mascara dates back to ancient Eygpt. Most formulas contain the same basic elements: pigmentation, oils, and waxes. But most mascaras on the market these days have plenty of other “stuff” lurking about them.

Cosmetics are very loosely regulated by the FDA. There is a great deal of freedom for the beauty industry in the formulation of cosmetics. There are some concern for some ingredients found in mascara since they have been found to cause cancer in mice, and others are known to be highly toxic to the human body.
So why not homemade mascara?

DIY all natural homemade mascara

Ingredients:
2 tsp coconut oil
4 tsp aloe vera gel
1/2 tsp grated bees wax (grate then measure)
1 – 2 capsules of activated charcoal*
a clean mascara container
*Activated charcoal can be found in most health food stores or online.
This is not the same stuff you use to get your grill going, okay?

Method:
1. Put coconut oil, aloe vera gel, and grated bees wax in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until beeswax is completely melted.
2. Open 1 – 2 capsules of activated charcoal (depending on desired color, about 1/4 – 1/2 tsp) and pour into oil mixture. Stir until completely incorporated. Remove from heat.
3. Pour into a small plastic bag, pushing the mixture down to one corner. Then cut a very small hole in the opposite corner of the bag. I do this exactly the same when piping icing or chocolate.
4. Fill and empty mascara bottle easily from the bag with the hole in the corner.
Thank Your Body - A  Journey to Real Health