Today is Christmas 2014. Happy Christmas! With this wish, I pray the day is well spent, not in the typical revelry which has come to characterise the way many people observe the anniversary of this memorable event, but in quiet, sober reflection of how its message has been well understood and applied in daily life by every Christian. I may address this later.
Meanwhile, the thought which came over me last week as another Christmas approached was delay of the harmathan season this year. Long before I was born, the harmattan interfaced in Nigeria between the rain season and the dry and hot spell, when it can be so hot that old people may die of sunstroke. With cold, dry and foggy African wind, the harmattan visits the continent at about the same time winter is upon Europe. Some hammatan authorities believe the name of this continental trade wind blowing over west Africa between the end of November and the middle of March came either from a Ghanaian word or the Arabic, Harram. In North Africa, the harmattan is reported to be so active that it may disturb social life and temperament, making thought and decisions erratic or wrong. Even a Christian Christmas hymn invites us to come to “the house of the Lord, who had provided for our needs before arrival of winter”.
Lagos weather
In Lagos, the rains seemed to have stopped abruptly this year. They often did in years past with short and thunderous heavy rains. Since the rains stopped, the Lagos weather has been so hot it would appear the air was burning. Everyone was sweating profusely in-door or out-door. The handkerchiefs market was booming and the Chinese export market was booming. Back home in Nigeria, the cold water industry, too, was thriving, as was the soft drinks industry. Fruit sellers experienced bigger sales. All over Lagos, the wheel barrow has ceased to be a construction site tool for loading and moving, sand, mortar, blocks or cement bags. People from diverse lands, including Chad and Niger Republic, load fruits in them and, irrespective of the law forbidding street trading, display their wares and selling on the highway in the rush-hour traffic of workers returning home for the night. Most of these fruits, unknown to the buyers, are moon fruits, which are good for consumption this season if they are eaten at the right time.
Moon plants and sun plants.
The sun, the moon and the stars are not ornaments in the skies. They were all created to make human life possible on earth, and affect every aspect of earth life. The moon broke away from the earth a long time ago. Some plants are known as moon plants because the moon affects their lives more than the sun and the stars. For similar reasons, some plants are known as sun plants. Our health benefits from our eating moon or sun plants at the right time.
efore the rain season comes again, the weather will be hot and we would all be sweating. Back in high school, I learned that “rapid cooling” was bad, and that it may be worse to “cool down”, as we say, with ice-cold drinks. Ice-cold drinks shock the nerves and the system. The kidneys, in particular, are said not to like them. Besides, the body has to work extra hard, utilising hard-earned energy to warm up the cold drink to body temperature. This is extra work, and unnecessary wear and tear. When cold drinks are taken with or over a meal, it slows the digestion of the meal. In the refrigerator, the cold arrest enzyme activity to keep foods almost as fresh as we kept them in there. In the same way, it froze the food in the stomach of a corpse discovered under ice in Europe about 15 years ago. The man was overrun by a river of ice hundreds of years ago during the age of glaciers. When the ice berg which preserved his body melted years ago, the corpse was discovered. The food he had just eaten before he was buried alive did not digest. This is an indication of what may happen, though on a smaller scale, when cold drinks are taken with or over a meal.
Drinking copious amounts of cold or cool water or drinks when excessive perspiration makes us thirsty may suggest ignorance about what sweating means and about how to respond to it. There are many possible causes of sweating or excessive sweating. Sweating is the excretion of excess heat in the body through salt-based fluid. The excess heat may arise from the consumption of spicy food, caffeinated drink (soft drinks, tea, coffee), alcohol, beverages, medications, fever, infections, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) synthetic thyroid hormones etc. Sweat is made of water, electrolytes (sodium and potassium in particular) and fat. When these are replaced with white sugar in soft drinks, a depleted electrolyte stock may be aggravated by the acidosis which sugar and carbonated drinks cause in the body. For electrolytes such as potassium, calcium and magnesium may be required to bring the internal acidic condition to an alkaline status. In time, potassium deficiency may lead to primary or mild hypertension, headache, sore and aching muscles, tiredness and, in worse case scenarios, growths of all kinds. In other extreme conditions, a sunstroke or heatstroke may occur which may lead to death. Doctors save the day when we are electrolyte depleted by giving us drips. In emergencies, one may take Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) salts which can be bought at a patient medicine store. Coconut water may also help. To avert such an emergency which calls for this intervention, one may regularly take green drinks. These drinks are minerals rich. One of them is wheatgrass. Another is spirulina. Yet another is barley grass. There is hardly any mineral, vitamin, and co-factor they do not contain. They help to restock the nutrient lost from excessive sweating which can be complemented with the nutrients from moon plants. Moon plants, as stated earlier, are those plants influenced by the moon than by any other stellar or heavenly body.
Moon Plants
It is a pity man no longer seems to do anything right, that is as Mother Nature demands it be done. We plant and harvest without regard to lunar or heavenly guidance, and, for this reason, do not seem to derive the best benefits from foods and herbs. Isaac Newton long ago established the Laws of Gravity. These laws teach us that the tides are affected by the moons gravitational pull. The moon exercises a stronger pull on the earth than the sun does, although it is much, much smaller than the sun, because it is nearer to the earth. The moon has two major phases: the waxing and the waning.The waxing phase takes the moon to full moon. The waning phase takes it to half-moon or quarter moon. The waxing moon “pulls the nearest body of water a little away from the solid mass of the earth beneath it, and at the same time pull the earth a little away from the water on the farthest side. In this manner the moon sets up two tidals bulges on opposite sides of the earth”.
The same forces affect the soil’s water content. They create more moisture in the soil during the new or full moon. An increased moisture makes seeds sprout and grow. At the North-western University, Dr. Frank brown carried out a 10-year experiment which showed that plants absorbed more water during the full moon even when he carried out the research in-door, away from direct exposure to the moon, he discovered that the results were the same.
Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophical Movement, developed a “biodynamic method” of planting “The movement saw a correlation between science, Nature, Universal Laws and spiritual concerns”. He taught that a relationship existed between the earth, air, fire and water which related, also, to specific parts of the plant. Thus, earth corresponded to Roots water to Leaf grown, fire to seed production and Air to flowers. From this, I can assume that when seeds are eaten in a hot weather, one adds fire to fire.
John Jevons, author of How to grow more vegetables, says increasing moonlight during the waxing moon phase stimulates leaf growth. Growth of the plant above the ground slows when the moon begins to wane. At this time, the roots are stimulated. This shows our herbalists were wise and in tune with nature. They know what time of the day to harvest different parts of a plant for food or medicine.
In 1939, Frau Dr. Kolisko and in 1956 Maria thun experimented with root crops and found that germination of their seeds was influenced by lunar phases, with maximum germination on the day before full moon. The experiments of people such as these show we do not need fertilisers to grow robust and health-giving foods which, in any way, fertiser- grown foods cannot oblige.
In Psychic gardening, Mellie Ugldert says: “All water ich plants are true children of the moon, such as the cucumber, pumpkin, melon and those living in and on the water such as the water Lily, Brandy-bottle etc, and on the bank such as the willow and the plants with half moon shaped leaves or oral leaves composed of two half-moons.
“Like a person a plant never, of course, belongs to one heavenly body or sign alone; they are named after the sign or star which clearly predominate in firm and habit. In man, moon plants promote the creation and flow of fluid such as the operation of glands, menstruation, the excretion of urine and sweating. That is why cucumber juice is good for promoting better circulation during woman’s menopause. Climbing moon plants twist to the left (yin) and can be recognised by that. Those that turn to the right are of the sun”.
Millie Uydert says that, in man, moon plants are good for ailments. For example, chickweed may be used against convulsions. For sharp memory, she suggests cashew nuts. Papilionaceae is a good nervous system tonic. As food crops, beans can be used for nutrition. Nos Vomica is good also for the nerves.
When we perspires we lose not only water but chemical substances as well. The composition depends on what has been eaten or drunk, and for how long the perspiration has persisted. Generally, perspiration contains water, minerals, lactate and urea. The minerals may comprise (1) sodium (2) potassium (3) calcium (4) magnesium. The body also excretes trace metals such as (1) Zinc (2) copper (3) iron (4) chromium (5) nickel (6) lead.
Sodium deficiency may affect nerve function. Potassium shortage may cause primary hypertension and muscle aches and pains and palpitation. Calcium and magnesium deficiency may cause spasms and constipation. Zinc deficiency may cause infertility, slow healing of wounds, immune depletion, eye problems, nail, skin and hair problem Iron deficiency would bring low blood count and anaemia. Water or soft drinks alone do not replenish these loses. Most water brands have no minerals and are acidic LASENA WATER, Nigeria’s first artesian well water from more than 500 meters depth is alkaline and has calcium, magnesium, zinc and other minerals. LASENA is 7.4pH. SUPERIOR ALKALINE WATER, infused with minerals – dense CORAL CALCIUM is 11.5pH and has to be mixed with five bottles of normal water for each bottle to hit 7.4pH. tissue or cell salts, biochemic and homeo pathic, may be dissolved in these water brands or any other to enrich them.
Moon plants are fluid-rich some of them are tomato, water melon, pawpaw lettuce, spinach cabbage, broccoli celery etc. Dr. William Rogers in THE WONDERFUL WORLD WITHIN shows that lettuce is one of the richest vegetables on earth. Adding the juice to say, orange juice or lime or lemon juice, which have lots of potassium, makes a revitalizing drinks.
After a day’s hard work, I take wheatgrass and spirulina drink to which add food grade edible salt (96% silica) and
