The Sacral Chakra & Reproductive System

September ~ Corn Moon

I have sweet juice for you to drink. Give me your tongue, taste all the sweetness the Beloved has for you.

Welcome to the sixth month of A Year of Gaia! This is a delicious month of bliss and pleasure! The sacral chakra has been the first module where I feel such a huge shift in my own wellbeing after putting it together for you. These plants are clearly what I have been needing, after so much surfacing in the root chakra for this country and the whole world… I hope the same might be true for you. I often feel the sacral chakra is the most fun and enjoyable one to explore. We all need the sweetness, sensory pleasure, creativity, and intimacy with the natural world that comes in this chakra.

My prayer is that in receiving pleasure and sweetness this month you will remember the sacred gift it is to be here alive on earth... savoring all the blessings and beauty that surround you. Nature is filled with pleasure for your whole being! Every day you are surrounded in it, even in the difficult moments. The feel of breathing, bathing in water, the warmth of the sun, the taste of good food… the beauty of plants that surround us. The scent of flowers. The pleasure of the night, a misty morning, a good rain on dry earth. The feeling of your body against the earth. The cool sensation of the soil under your feet. The sounds of the birds, or the vibrations of music playing through your speakers. The feel of the wind on your skin… a hug from a loved one. We are wired for pleasure and we given so much of it daily. Every day is filled with nectar.

Aphrodisiac herbs and sacral chakra tonics do not just increase our libido. They enhance our ability to enjoy and receive through all of our senses. What gets you juicy? Notice what attracts and draws you in… where exactly is your pleasure found. This month open to your creative juices and the passions that reside within you. When do you feel the most enjoyment in your body? What are ways that you hold yourself back from relaxing into feeling it? If you have dealt with trauma held in the sacral chakra, what are the safe ways you are able to open to the pleasure of the world, and intimacy with what surrounds you?

May you spend time drinking in the bliss of being alive. Savoring all the moments in your day filled with beauty and pleasureful sensation. Inviting your whole being to receive and be intimate with what draws you close. Drink in the nectar of life, challenging yourself to release guilt that might arise from receiving pleasure. Invite every cell in your body to enjoy being alive. 

Choose a few plants in this module to bliss out with, and invite their medicine in. As usual, you will want to get to know each of the sacral chakra plants through your own body and being. These are plants that will help open you to more deeply receiving and experiencing pleasure, activating creativity and connection. Write down how each effects you during daily or weekly tea relaxation time. I will also have guided exercises to help support your journey through the sacral chakra, so please enjoy them.

This is the month of creating pleasure medicines - herbal honeys, glycerites, cordials, and all sweet medicines. I will imagine us all sitting in a circle, drinking the delicious sweetness of these plants together with huge smiles on our faces…

Enjoy the pleasures of being in your body,
Sage

September Welcome Video

Time to enjoy the last of the beautiful summer flowers, savoring their sweetness, and preparing for fall…

I open to the Beloved in all things. May I be the most kind lover to the world.

The Sacral Chakra

Svadhisthana ~ Sweetness

~ Pleasure ~ Emotion ~ Dance ~ Transformation ~ Sensual experience ~ Union ~ Intimacy ~ Vulnerability ~ Creation ~ Sexuality ~ Embodied pleasure ~ Beauty ~ Relationships ~ Passion ~ Desire ~ Attraction ~ Yin/Yang Balance ~ Womb wisdom ~ Mother Blood ~ Waters of life ~ Kundalini ~ Creative energy ~ Movement ~ Touch ~ Senses ~ Connection ~ Expression ~ Wildness ~ Life force / Vitality ~ Flow ~ Giving & Receiving Balance ~

The sacral chakra brings us into full life enjoyment and pleasure! It is where we can go to feel GOOD. I always feel huge relief when I focus on the sacral chakra, because we are a culture here in America that tends to deny pleasure as healthy and important in daily life. While most cultures celebrate and prioritize pleasure, we are generally not raised here to feel it is a very important part of life. This causes us to repress or feel guilty for our pleasure seeking… if it’s for delicious food, touch that feels good, savoring relaxation, rest, yummy play, enjoying beauty… or anything that brings you deep pleasure. This repression and shaming causes wounding of the sacral chakra and can cut us off from pleasure and creative energy. A lot of depression I’ve found can result as well, and you might find the plants this month help bring you out of a difficult space!

The healing plants that feed the sacral chakra help bring us into true pleasure in life as an antidote to the suffering we can experience. It is something we all need! When someone has experienced a lot of pain in life, they will often seek pleasure to balance the suffering. Seeking comfort, ease, and feeling good where they can find it. This can be one of the greatest causes of addiction, as we go for alcohol and drugs that bring an experience of feeling good. Many of these plants (and other sacral chakra practices) coupled with loving the wounded places, can support us in releasing substances we might be addicted to. Sometimes we need them to survive pain… and sometimes they are harmful to our bodies. Not as satisfying as we want them to be, and the moments of feeling good turn into a body weakened.

Our mind is often drawn to feel what is uncomfortable or painful because the body is designed to have an alarm system telling us what is needing care and support. Pain is a voice telling us to tend and care to something with gentleness and attention. For this reason what feels painful or uncomfortable within us can often be the loudest voice and take over our awareness. Pleasure however, is our constant companion. In all moments there is something we can also feel that is pleasureful and feels good. Even in the loudest moments of pain that drown our any other sensations of pleasure. It is still present. What you might think of as small pleasures can become very big pleasures, and the more we explore the sacral chakras, we are drawn deeply into the pleasure filled experience of life on earth. 

Following the inner pull from the sacral chakra for pleasure, we move towards the satisfying sweetness of life. We don’t get too lost in the moments of suffering, and are able to fully drink in the pleasure of the sunlight coming through your window, the feel of the pillows, the pleasure of a sweet warm drink.

Children tend to be much better than us when it comes to enjoying being alive… all the pleasures are new and we haven’t yet built up the guilt and shame that may come with pleasure. Children often carry less wounds than we do after many years of life. They seem less stuck in suffering, and more able to fully immerse themselves in pleasure. A good meal, a swim, the feel of a waterslide!

The sacral chakra is also about the desire and attraction we feel to things we desire…. like a magnet, drawn to drink the nectar. A pollinator drawn to the beauty and color of a flower, its sweet scent and food… In the sacral chakra we drink from the sweet nectar of life, love, and intimacy. The beauty in all things and the sweetness in nature. We are surrounded by a beautiful paradise of many forms, and even if it is a dream, we get to dream this beautiful body ALIVE.

What brings you pleasure in life?

Pleasure Journal ~ This is a beautiful practice that I used to bring myself out of depression and sacral chakra depletion. At the end of every day, write a list of what brought you pleasure that day. Name all the little things and moments through the day that brought you pleasure. As you write them down, feel again the sweetness you received, and allow yourself to relive the pleasure again.

In all moments, some part of our body is experiencing pleasure. Close your eyes for a moment and feel into your body… what can you feel right now in this moment that is pleasureful?

In the sacral chakra we experience pleasure in the physical plane, dancing with the many other forms of life, experiencing connection, intimacy, and joy. Through magnetic desire to what will cause the most transformation within us, we are drawn to the dance partners that upon our merging will birth beautiful new creations and manifestations in the universe! In this sacred center of creation resides our passion for life, our creative life force, and the excitement to move towards what we most desire. In the sacral we learn to trust our soul’s inner desires, freely expressing them out into the world, mindful of the community and home (root chakra) we rest on. Following our desires towards connections that will transform and nourish us, we are mindful of keeping healthy boundaries, and balance in the dance of intimacy with other. The sacral chakra brings us to the pleasure and physical enjoyment of being in a body on this beautiful earth. Here is where we experience a full range of emotions and expressions, allowing ourselves to flow with the tides of feeling.

Video ~ Sacral Chakra Talk

Water & Fire

We move from the earthy root chakra to the sacral chakra filled with the elements of water and fire, bringing passion and sweetness. Traditionally in Asia the sacral chakra is connected more to water, but I have found that fire is also very present here, and needed for wholeness. In this chakra we balance yin and yang energies within us, what we might call the masculine and feminine. In the yin watery space of our sacral chakra we move through many emotions, experiencing the sweetness and pleasure of intimacy. In the yin energy we are receptive, embracing, tender, and loving. The water element in the sacral chakra connects to our emotions, love, pleasure, and sweetness… Water is present in our urinary system and fluids that move through the reproductive organs. It connects to womb blood and fluids, urine, sexual fluids and ejaculate. Many waters move through us in this chakra, and we want them to flow well, freeing emotions and energy needing to be released. When the fluids and energies are moving well, we have access to a well of creative energy that arises from the sacral chakra.

The fire and yang element present in the sacral chakra connects to our passion, libido, desire, attraction, wildness, and excitement. The blood rushing to the sacral chakra in moments of heightened pleasure… our passion for life, and what we desire. The fire that draws us close to what we are attracted to. The yang energy gives us energy and power here, bringing out aggression and intensity. When the fire and yang energy tends to be high within us we can be wild, free, expressive, creative, and excited. With both these energies present in the sacral chakra, we can feel heights of bliss, and the beautiful dance of polarities within us.

Sacral Chakra Wounds & Challenges

The sacral chakra is wounded by any messages of shame or guilt around your sexuality, pleasure, and intimacy. If you have experienced pain within your intimate relationships, this is generally wounding to our sacral chakra, and the trauma can be triggered during future intimacy. We can hold fear here, needing to protect ourselves from any harm that might come from letting someone in close. We can close ourselves off and block energy within the sacral chakra. We might turn towards intimacy that feels safer to us, through connection to nature, and intimacy with the earth. We can give love and healing energy to our wounded places, while practicing healing intimacy that helps us to feel safe and open again. This will open us back up to pleasure and joy!

Causes of sacral chakra wounds ~

Suffering & wounding in the realm of sexuality, physical body, and relationships. Abuse of any kind within relationships, especially those of an intimate/sensual nature. Disconnection from relationship, intimacy, and physical touch. Cultural/societal/familial messages of denial of pleasure and enjoyment in life. Over-focus on survival needs (root chakra). Traumatic birth, abortion, or miscarriage. Unbalance between yin and yang energies. Societal gender roles. Violence or repression against women (misogyny), LGBTQ people, and POC. Harm within intimate relationships. Sexual exploitation & objectification. Obsession with beauty/attractiveness. Denial of creativity. Shaming of emotions, menstruation, sexuality, and intimacy.

 Expression of wounds ~ Sacral Chakra

Please take our your journal and write down any of these you resonate with. You may have felt many of these, currently or in the past. If there is anything you see missing, go ahead and add it in. You do not always have to know the source of the wounds, but I do find it helpful to release any emotions trapped in the body connected to certain experiences. We don’t want to relive a painful experience, but we do want to release the grief or pain still carried. Over time, and with other therapies, as well as the healing energies of the plants, we can slowly heal.

• Fear & difficulty with intimacy (emotional and physical)

• Repressed emotions

• Repressed sexuality

• Fear of emotional self

• Disconnected from physical body

• Lack of pleasure in life

• Difficulty giving self permission for pleasure.

• Uncontrollable emotions

• Shame around sexuality

• Poor boundaries or very rigid boundaries.

• Lack of passion.

• Association between pain and pleasure. Pleasure needing to come with pain or punishment.

• Comfort in difficult/painful intimate experiences.

• Hyper-protective or under-protective.

• Difficulty forming close relationships

• Harmful sexual expression towards self or others.

Physical illnesses ~ (Also caused by physical factors in our environment). Chronic reproductive infections, UTIs, Physical pain during sex, Reproductive/hormone imbalances, Heavy bleeding & painful periods, PMS Depression & Grief, Fibroids and Cysts, Low libido, Fatigue, Anxiety, Panic attacks, Stress - Fight, Flight, Freeze Post Traumatic Stress

Rose ~ Master healer of wounds

In all moments, I feel bliss and pleasure in some part of my body and consciousness.
Bliss is my constant companion.

Healing the Sacral Chakra

We can heal the sacral chakra through many therapies, and I’ve found intimacy with our own bodies and nature to be one of the most powerful. Within this safe intimate space we can release emotions and energy held in the body. I find that releasing emotions while receiving the plants during a meditation or healing session has been the most powerful healing practice for my sacral chakra. We can practice allowing ourselves pleasure, and slowly receiving what feels good. Start with daily simple pleasures! Dancing, moving your body, inviting your senses to awaken and receive. This is powerful medicine. Release the guilt and shame that does not belong to you, and free your body to follow it’s bliss. Make sure the root chakra is feeling strong so that we are taking good care of ourselves as well. Remember that enjoying life and pleasure is a daily need as well… and you have been given the gift of a body wired for pleasure, on this beautiful earth.

Therapies for the Sacral Chakra

There are many healing practices and therapies that are restorative to the sacral chakra. Massage, healing touch that feels really good, pleasureful intimacy with others and with nature, delicious food… beautiful flowers and colors, art and creative expression, releasing emotions, sexual and sensual enjoyment…

Write down in your journal what you feel drawn to to nourish your sacral chakra.

• Healthy relationships & intimacy.

• Pleasure in the body

• Sensory stimulation & pleasure.

• Safe space & relationships

• Sweet foods & teas

• Expression of emotions

• Emotional intimacy

• Physical intimacy

• Massage & Bodywork

• Sacred sexuality

• Freedom of sexual expression

• Freedom of gender identity/expression

• Freedom of emotional expression - Crying

• Caring for your Body – Massage, body-care, herbs, foods, exercise, yoga, sweats, swimming, etc.

Emotions flows through me easily, and like waves they come and go.
I remember to return to the ocean of bliss.

Sacral Chakra Plant Allies 

Hibiscus, Egyptian Blue Lotus, Damiana, Rose, Jasmine, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Ginseng, Cacao, Ylang ylang, Red Raspberry, Red Clover, Motherwort, Blue Vervain, Mugwort, Strawberry, White peony, Angelica, Shatavari, Maca, Ashwagandha, Schisandra, Sweet Orange, Sarsaparilla, Cannabis, Kava kava

Plants of the sacral chakra are sweet, sexy, and get your juices flowing in all ways! They are balancing to hormones and strengthening to our reproductive and sexual organs. Sacral chakra plants increase our passion and pleasure. They are soothing to emotions, and help us open to intimacy and sweetness. 

Sensory Stimulating & Aphrodisiacs ~ Hibiscus, Egyptian Blue Lotus, Damiana, Rose, Jasmine, Bitter orange, Sarsaparilla (Smilax medica), Vanilla, Cinnamon, Ginseng, Cacao, Cannabis, Kava kava, Ylang ylang, Vetiver & Patchouli

Reproductive Tonics ~ Red Raspberry, Red Clover, Motherwort, Blue Vervain, Mugwort, Hibiscus, Rose, Strawberry, White peony, Angelica, Shatavari, Ginseng, Maca, Ashwagandha, Vanilla

Calming Emotions (nervines) ~ Motherwort, Linden, Blue vervain, Rose, Peach, Wild cherry, Hawthorn, Jasmine, California poppy, Kava kava, Vanilla, Wild lettuce, Passionflower, Egyptian Blue Lotus, Valerian

Plants for Sacral Chakra Healing

Sexy Plants for Pleasure

Herbal Aphrodisiacs

Herbal aphrodisiacs enhance sensory pleasure, relax and stimulate our pleasure centers, and activate our passion! They have been used for over 60,000 years by all cultures and peoples of the world. Plants that are used to enhance and nourish sexuality have been regarded as sacred throughout millennia. They can be stimulating to your creativity, passion, and ability to receive any kind of pleasure. So drink up!!! Herbal aphrodisiacs affect the mind as well as the body, and can bring a great deal of joy. They tend to stimulate sexual fluids, blood flow, calm the nerves, and enhance the senses. These are plant spirits that help us celebrate our love for life!

Some herbal aphrodisiacs are consumed as teas and infusions, decoctions, syrups, mead, and other beverages. Others are eaten as spices or food. Aphrodisiacs can be burned as incense or smoked in a paper or pipe. Some are used as oils, salves, and ointments for massage and external stimulation. Use one herb at a time to get a feel for its effect on your body, starting with a weaker dose and then working your way up. Once you have used each herb one at a time, you can experiment with combinations. The standard dose is 3-4 doppers full of tincture, or 1 cup of tea. Yohimbe is the only plant you want to take a low dose of 10-20 drops to start, it can be strong!

Vanilla

Vanilla spp. – Bean seed pods used as food, in honey, or tincture. Oh vanilla… I am crazy for vanilla tea, especially mixed with cacao! That is my greatest tea pleasure honestly, and I know I’m going to have a really good time when the vanilla and cacao tea is filling my house with scent. Vanilla is very calming to the nerves, consciousness shifting, opening to the heart, and stimulating to the sacral chakra. It definitely can make you feel loose and very relaxed. The beans come from an orchid native to Central America, where it’s been cultivated by pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples for thousands of years. At the time of their conquest by Cortés, the Aztecs used vanilla as a flavoring for chocolate. From the time of the Aztecs, vanilla was considered an aphrodisiac. It has been used to cure impotence, enhance the senses, and bring us into space for intimacy.

Vanilla is an aromatic that has both a stimulant and relaxing affect to the nervous system, helpful for getting us into sensual space. Vanilla has been used through history in love potions and food. To make vanilla tea, simmer the contents of 1 vanilla bean in 2-3 quarts of water on very low with the lid on to trap the oils. Steep for 15 minutes, let it cool a little, and drink. Wonderful mixed with cacao nibs or other aphrodisiacs. Makes a delicious tincture (used in food flavoring), honey, or added to smoothies.

Damiana

Turnera diffusa - Damiana is a native shrub from Central America, Mexico, South & North America, and the Caribbean. The leaves and flowers are used as a tea, tincture, or smoke. This plant has a spicy, fire-filled, sexy energy! Damiana feels nourishing and naughty in your body all at once, and tastes great. It helps to balance yin and yang energies and very healing to the sacral chakra. I speak about it in the May module under consciousness shifting plants, and if you haven’t tried it you’re in for a big treat. The tea tastes wonderful, and the smoke brings you into bliss land… I mix it with Egyptain blue lotus to stimulate creativity and passion. Damiana is lovely added to wine, or drunk as a tea. Damiana is stimulating, a nervous system/cerebral restorative, antidepressant, a genitourinary tonic, menstrual regulator, aphrodisiac, and a mild euphoric. The leaves and flowers boost your energy levels, restores your reproductive organs, and relieves impotence. Damiana increases testosterone and progesterone in the body, and helps with PMS symptoms, menstrual disorders, fertility, and the loss of sex drive. This plant helps to make us juicy!

Damiana eases anxiety, depression, helps with low self esteem, and the feeling of wanting to be left alone. Try Damiana mixed in wine, brandy, or just as a tea! Steep 1-2 tsps. of herb in 1 quart of water for 20-30 minutes and enjoy! If you would like a stronger infusion, let the herb sit in wine for a few days, or a few weeks. Put a handful of Damiana into a bottle of wine, shake, let sit for a few days, and drink…

Cacao

Theobroma cacao ~ Native to South America ~ Mallow family.
Cacao is one of the world’s favorite plants, and a potent aphrodisiac. The seeds of this tree has brought an incredible amount of pleasure and sweetness to millions of people’s lives for thousands of years. ‘Cacao’ means bitter drink, and it has been used in Central and South American countries as a sacred and ceremonial plant for centuries. Mexican Aztecs burned and ground cacao beans, maize, water, and spices to drink. Some tribes and cultures in Central America believe that the cacao seed was dropped from the top of the ceiba tree by the Creator. Where the cacao been landed, women grew! This illustrates the connection that is often connected to women and cacao. We do seem to love it…. Cacao is a wonderful plant for awakening the sacral chakra and making us feel more juicy. It can open the way where we are blocked to receiving sweetness and pleasure. It contains compounds that stimulate endorphins, which make us feel joyful… Yes please! We are all completely in love with the combination of sugar and these bitter beans. Cacao’s beans are filled with fats and oil, which make cocoa butter we use in body care, and often added back into the ground chocolate beans to make them even more tasty and smooth. 

Cacao is deeply nourishing, helpful for debilitation and increasing energy levels. I mix it with adaptogens to help with chronic fatigue and wake me up in the morning. The seeds stimulates the nervous system with caffeine and theobromine (related to caffeine). It is a powerful tonic for the brain and neuroregenerative used in cases of dementia, alzheimer’s, and brain damage. Cacao also stimulates the production of natural antidepressants, and helps us to lift our of sadness. It is also heart tonic, cardio protective, and very heart opening… wonderful to share with a lover or intimate friend. Cacao is vasodilating (opening to blood vessels), and increases circulation. This is helpful when blood is trying to flow to our sexual organs!

Cacao is cleansing to the whole digestive system, a natural laxative, and stimulating to digestive juices. It will help improve digestion, appetite, and elimination. Preparations of the Hot tea - Pound dried beans into nibs and simmer 1-2 handfuls in a few quarts of water 15 min. on low with lid on to trap oils. Do not let it over boil. Glycerite of cacao - 2-4 droppers full in water. To make cacao glycerite, fill a jar half full of cacao nibs. Cover in a mix of 2/3 glycerine, 1/3 water. Steep 4-8 weeks, strain and bottle. It is HEAVENLY. Cacao honey - Cover crushed nibs with honey, mix well until desired consistency (add more honey or nibs as desired). Mix in chopped fruit if desired and refrigerate for eating.

Jasmine

Jasminum odorattissimum or J. officinale & related species) - Olive family
Jasmine flowers have been used medicinally for thousands of years all over Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. I love jasmine brewed as a tea or made into a sweet tasting glycerite. This plant was my most treasured ally along with garden sage when I first started working with plants in a sacred way as a teenager. The plant spirit is sweet, gentle, and so lovey. Jasmine is a powerful healer for the heart, sacral chakra, and crown chakra. The flowers can help to ease grief, emotional pain, anger, depression, and heart break. I find it’s wonderful to call all kinds of love in your life, encouraging deeper spiritual love and connection. Jasmine will encourage love, passion, openness, and sharing. The tea tastes thick and sweet, and can be safely drunk anytime (though be careful during pregnancy). 

Jasmine is a hormone balancing reproductive tonic, as well as an aphrodisiac. The flowers help relieve PMS, irregular menstruation, heavy bleeding, vaginal infections, and soothe menstrual cramps. The flowers are very calming to the nerves and help to balance emotions. Jasmine can be used for encouraging a quiet sacral chakra, releasing shyness and distrust. Jasmine is soft and safe, comforting, and spending time with this plant spirit is like wrapping yourself in sweet hugs from the ethereal flowers! Rub jasmine oil into your skin and hair. Drink jasmine tea, bathe in jasmine blossoms… Jasmine combines wonderfully with hibiscus, damiana, and rose. You can even grow jasmine in your home! There are different varieties, but all of them smell incredible, open your heart, sacral chakra and connection to Spirit.

As a tea, put 1-2 tsp. of the flowers in 1 quart hot water. Steep for 15-30 minutes. To make a jasmine glycerite, fill a full jar of fresh flowers packed down and cover with 3/4 glycerine mixed with 1/4 water. If using dried flowers fill the jar halfway and pack down, then fill the whole jar with a mix of 2/3 glycerine and 1/3 water. Steep for 1-2 months, strain, and bottle. Take 2-3 droppers full in water, or drip a few drops onto your tongue… YUM.

Note - My favorite kind of jasmine is J. odorattissimum, it tastes especially sweet without much bitter taste, which some of the white jasmine buds can have.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus sabdariffa - Native to Africa & Caribbean ~ Mallow family

The calyx (Seed casing) is made into a tea or glycerite. Hibiscus is an incredible sexy red flower and herbal aphrodisiac. The tea is thick and dark, red, tart, and sweet. Use this flower tea to bring passion, fire, sex, and juice to your love life! Hibiscus will stir up your passions, and overwhelm your body with sensual bliss… The tea helps to balance reproductive hormones, support the kidneys and urinary tract. Because hibiscus is so cooling, its especially helpful when there is heat, congestion, and contraction. The flowers help to purify the blood and the heart, physically and emotionally . Hibiscus can help regulate menstruation, and slow excessive bleeding. Hibiscus calyx is very high in vitamin c, so it can be a bit tart to drink (you can always add honey). The vitamin c content means that similar to rose hips or citrus, hibiscus is boosting to the immune system and antioxidant.

Hibiscus is an INSANELY delicious glycerite. I recommend dripping hibiscus glycerite all over your lover’s mouth and body. Fill a jar halfway with dried flowers, then cover with a mix of 2/3 vegetable glycerin, 1/3 water. Steep for 1-2 months, strain, and bottle. Take 1-3 droppers full of this sweet, tart, incredibly amazing glycerite whenever you feel like it! To make hibiscus tea, steep 1-3 tsp. dried flowers in 1 quart of hot water for 30 minutes. Safe during pregnancy.

Yohimbe

Pausinystalia yohimba ~ Bark used as a tincture or tea. Yohimbe is the herbal Viagra! It is known to produce strong and long lasting erections, and increase sex drive! Yohimbe is a huge evergreen tree native to central Africa. It has been used there for hundreds of years to stimulate the sex drive in both men and women. A component of Yohimbe inhibits a set of nerve cells which prevent the flow of blood out of the penis. As it prevents the flow of blood out of the penis, it also stimulates another group of nerve cells which regulate the flow of blood into the penis. This results in the strength and duration of an erection. It not known to increase the production of testosterone. Take Yohimbe one hour before sex. Start with 10-15 drops of tincture, and up the dose to 15-25 if you do not notice the effects. Side effects are rare, but can include anxiety, dizziness, heart palpitations, very long lasting erections, and changes in blood pressure. Do not take Yohimbe if you are on any medications, as it can interact with many of them. Be careful with this herb, but have fun! Not taken during pregnancy.

Ginseng

Panax ginseng - Roots used as a tincture, decoction, or tea. Ginseng is a wonderful nerve tonic, aphrodisiac, energy booster, and immune stimulant. It has been used for thousands of years in China to prolong life, and increase the body’s resistance to stress and illness. It has become popular in America for its stimulant effects, specifically on the sexual organs! Ginseng is known for treating impotence and increasing testosterone levels, (which boost libido for everyone). It also helps supply blood to the sexual organs, and increase the strength of erections by about 30%. Ginseng can stimulate the production of sperm and treat infertility. Everyone can enjoy the benefits of Ginseng as an aphrodisiac! It helps to regulate all hormones, boost energy levels, and increase passion…

Ginseng is an amazing adaptogen, which means that it helps the body to cope with stress and change. The roots are incredible for repairing damaged, irritated, depressed nervous systems, and burnt out adrenal glands. You can use Ginseng for chronic fatigue, poor memory, concentration, and regulating stress levels. It is best taken as a tincture, 2-3 dropperfuls three times a day, or as a tea. It may be too stimulating for you, and feel a bit like caffeine, so you might want to start with 15-25 drops at first, or just the tea. Be careful with this herb if you have high blood pressure. Not taken during pregnancy.

Sarsaparilla

Hemidesmus indicus ~ Indian sarsaparilla native to Asia.
The roots are made into a tea or tincture. I looooove the root beer taste of sarsaparilla. It is especially heavenly as an oxymel! (Herbal vinegar with honey). Many people see a dramatic increase in sexual desire when they begin taking sarsaparilla… which surprised me when I first started working with it! Sarsaparilla root is an awesome aphrodisiac and libido booster. It is balancing to hormones and increasing testosterone and progesterone production. The root is used for impotence, increased energy, and stamina. Sarsaparilla helps relieve inflammation, ease joint pain, cleanse fluids, stimulate circulation, and increase the metabolism. It is thought to help maintain one's youth and energy. I find it very stimulating, warming, sweet, spicey, and fabulous. Take 2-3 doppers full of the tincture in water, or make a decoction from the dried roots (1 tsp. to 1 quart, simmered for 15 minutes). Not taken during pregnancy.

Maca

Lepidium meyenii - Maca balances and normalizes hormone levels and is an adaptogenic herb that boosts libido for everyone. Maca can help to increase testosterone, balance estrogen levels, and bring energy to a depleted system. I profiled Maca in the August module, but I want to stress here that it is an amazing aphrodisiac. It helps to increase healthy sperm counts, increase vaginal lubrication, and increase arousal. It is wonderful used during menopause and andropause, since it is full of phytosterols (plant hormones), anti-aging, strengthening to the whole body. Take 2-3 doppers full of the tincture, or make a decoction from the dried roots (1 tsp to 1 quart, simmered for 15 minutes).

Video ~ Bee balm for pleasure!

My favorite aphrodisiac is often Egyptian blue lotus and Cannabis…
Other amazing pleasure plants include Rose, Strawberry, Cinnamon, Sweet Orange, Passionflower, Ylang ylang, Kava kava, Schisandra, Ashwagandha, Fo Ti, Shatavari, Oatstraw, Burdock, and many others!

Sacral Chakra Prayers

I see the Beloved, the divine lover all around me, and the Beloved sees me.

There is a well of sweet water inside you, always available to drink from. A well that never runs dry… You are always full.

In the beauty and life that surrounds us, all of my senses receive pleasure with gratitude.

Lover moon, let me drink you in whole! Ocean, enter me deep below the skin... Sun fill me with your joy. Plants transform me in your loving touch.

I am beauty... I am the open flower giving nectar to the bee. I am the sweet perfume, and I am also the one who drinks such sweetness.

In all moments, I feel bliss and pleasure in some part of my body and consciousness. Bliss is my constant companion.

May we freely and joyfully drink in the nectar and sweetness of life, as it is all here for our pleasure...

Freely the forces of creation rise up from my body, cleansing, transforming, freeing, and opening me to the ecstasy of being alive.

I birth creations into the world with ease and openness.

May I live life with wild passion, excited and filled by all we joyfully experience here.

~ Sage Maurer

In the sweetness of life, we open to the ecstasy of physical connection and relationship, dancing into union and transformation, creating life, energy, and vitality.

Sacral Chakra Worksheet

Questions for Journaling and Reflection

1. Do you freely express your feelings as they arise? What are there methods you use to hold back your feelings or distract from them?

2. When and where do you experience pleasure in your life? Write down some of what brings you the most pleasure in life.

3. How do you experience bliss and pleasure in your body? What are the feelings that arise there? 

4. Are there experiences you can feel in your body from this life or others that hold you back from intimacy? How do those parts of you wish to be supported right now?

5. For those who have or have had wombs - How would you describe your relationship to your womb? Is there anything it is asking for?

6. What is your experience of creativity and creative energy? Are there any specific blocks you experience?
   What creativity do you want to express to the world?

7. What helps you open to the beauty and bliss of life? Do you crave a deeper opening to pleasure via relaxation? 

8. Are there ways you limit yourself from experiencing pleasure? Are you able to relax into it?

9. What are your greatest romances with non-humans? How do you honor the intimacies and connections you have shared or currently have?

10. Do you feel attraction energy towards others, and them towards you? Are you open to the energy of attraction? How does this energy feel to you?

11. What are the ways you most like to explore intimacy with another? Are there fears that arise?

12. Do you feel free and at peace with your sexuality? Are there ways you wish to be more free there?

13. What are the ways you feel connected to or disconnected from our cultural ways of gender expression? What feels natural to you?

14. Is there a balance you are seeking within yourself around yin & yang energies? What aspects of yin (receptive, internal, slow, hidden) are you wishing to explore? What aspects of yang (active, expressive, powerful, external, energetic)?

15. Are there known traumas or difficult experiences in need of healing in your sacral chakra? What might be a balm for these parts, and are any specific plants calling to me as medicine?

The Reproductive System
& Plant Allies

Continued in Part Two

Booklist & Readings

Botanica Erotica by Diana De Luca
Making Love Potions by Stephanie Tourles
The Encyclopedia of Aphrodisiacs by Christian Ratsch

Opening to Spirit by Caroline Shola Arewa
Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith
Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith - PDF Here

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