My newborn self stopped eating and the doctors couldn't figure out why. I stopped thriving and my mother became desperate and so took me to a miracle church on a mountain top where crutches covered the walls (Convento da Penha). She prayed and begged for a miracle, but I got weaker still. She had a dear friend who lived in her building, who wore billowing, white caftans and a white scarf wrapped on top of her head. She was a priestess of the Umbanda religion and agreed to perform a ceremony to find out what sickness I had. My mother describes this event as the most supernatural thing she's ever seen. About 6-10 men and women danced in a circle with lit candles and when they entered a trance their faces changed and looked so different, like different people, more ancient, completely different - hard to put into words she says. When the ceremony was finished they told my mother that I had 'espina caida' (portuguese) = fallen spine (english) . My mother didn't know how to use this information and she didn't ask them for a remedy. She went back to the Dr's., in desperation, begging for them to do something, anything. They used their last resort and gave me a heavy dose of the strongest antibiotic, tetracycline, and I began to eat again.

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Years later I met a psychic who had unlocked her ability to speak to guides and guardian angels when she was pregnant and discovered she could talk to her unborn child. She told me that before I was born I could see the pain of early loss, abandonment, violence and difficulty I would face on my particular path yet I agreed to come here…but when I was newly born and I began to experience my mother’s severe postpartum depression, I lost courage and almost turned back. My 'fallen spine' was a loss of courage, loss of "backbone". Even as a newborn I knew that I had a rough road of parental loss ahead (father), a mother to whom I was *almost* an alien - the blackest of sheep, a life with a violent step-parent and more…but in those first months my mother fought for me, found her love for me and fiercely protected me from death.

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Fast forward to 18 years ago when I rode a Greyhound bus to explore New Mexico where I would meet the love of my life, my husband. Well, two loves actually. First I met mullein. It was everywhere and anywhere—even growing in the middle of abandoned, blazing-hot, concrete-covered lots. I immediately knew that I would always want mullein near me. Its presence soothed me. I felt that I understood it and it understood me and that its beauty was unparalleled. I happened to also feel exactly that way about the person I'd just met, so we left Taos searching for a nest to start a family and a garden. I would have mullein close by, always. (The stars wouldn’t align for us to stay in Taos…we tried!)

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Mullein was a mainstay in our garden but we didn’t use it as we weren't prone to upper respiratory problems. Three years ago, in the midst of a transformation in our marriage, I began to have a lot of pain at the bottom of my spine. I went to a chiropractor who told me my hip was chronically out of place from childbearing and that consequently other things were out of place and pushing on nerves...so I did exercises, took long baths, and the pain began to subside as I became stronger. At the same time my marriage morphed into its new, even more beautiful incarnation and I became drawn to  M U L L E I N  F L O W E R S . Before, it was the texture of the leaves and the blue/green/white color that held my attention, but suddenly I wanted to capture the essence of the flowers. I picked them, dried them, dropped them into a jar of oil and waited. A week later when I opened the bottle and sniffed I couldn't believe my excitement. It smelled exactly like the large green olives I love to eat. I definitely wanted to use this oil so I researched its medicinal uses and found this:

Musco-Skeletal System - Mullein reduces inflammation and pain, making it a perfect herb for use where delicate, complex bones such as in the hand or feet have been broken and cannot be set, or where there are complicated alignment issues in the spine (even in the lower spine and hips). click here for info credit.

I'm using mullein oil on my spine and the ghost-pain is kept at bay. I wonder if this is the future the priestesses saw or if this is a body signal that shows up when I begin to lose my courage, confidence in my own strengths.

***

I also use mullein flower for earaches. One or two drops in the ear very quickly resolves pressure and pain…even the feeling of fullness in the ear. Drop it in, put some cotton fluff in the ear opening and lay on your side for at least two minutes (leave in the cotton fluff a bit longer as you go about your business for the next half hour or so.)

Using mullein flower and root combined with Saint John’s Wort infused in oil I have healed the tiny bones of a broken toe.

I now use mullein leaf in upper respiratory steams for congestion, sore throat, difficulty breathing, before, during and after a chest cold to restore the cilia (tiny hairs) in the lungs that help the lungs get oxygen. *** I don’t ever advise drinking mullein leaf as an herbal infusion (tisane/tea) because the tiny hairs on the surface of the mullein leaf can irritate your mouth, throat etc.***