This week I hurried to finish reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up before the ebook had to be returned to the library. After I finished the last few pages, I went to blend some more tea for myself and took a minute to appreciate how much my loose-leaf tea supplies “spark joy.” In terms of the Kon-Mari method, I’m pretty sure I’m actually a hopeless case, but I am enjoyed the book and the fantasizing about decluttering All. The. Things.

Back to the tea. About two years ago I learned how satisfying and empowering it is to blend my own loose tea blends. Before that, it felt “scary” almost. You mean I have to have one of those tea ball things? What if I end up drinking a bunch of sticks? Aren’t tea bags easier? Well, like many homemade things, self-blended loose leaf tea is so much tastier and more fulfilling than store bought tea. After two years of mixing big batches of loose tea in big bowls and then dumping it into baggies or jars and sharing this experience with groups of women’s at my women’s circle and in the Red Tent, I had an epiphany: why mix it in a bowl and divide it when you can just layer the tea right in its storage jar? This was a huge “duh” moment for me and perhaps will be an epiphany to no one else, but just in case you overlooked the obvious too, here is a super easy, super fun way to make tea blends in a jar. No more weighing or measuring ingredients or trying to fairly divide a blend with a group. This method works when the ratio of ingredients in the tea is equal, or is easily “eyeballed.”

Ingredients for Happy Woman Tea:

• Alfalfa
• Red raspberry leaf
• Nettle
• Cinnamon
• Optional additions: Oatstraw and/or Motherwort

Each of the herbs in this tea blend are specifically intended to support women’s health, both physically and emotionally. It is adapted from a recipe I learned from Sacred Postpartum.

Process:

Each person participating should have their own clean glass jar or other clear container. Except for the cinnamon, this blend uses equal parts of each herb, so all that is required is to layer equal parts of each herb into your container. With the recipe above, fill one third of your jar with alfalfa, then the next third with raspberry leaf, and the final third with nettle. Leave a little bit of space at the top to allow shaking for blending the herbs. Then, sprinkle some cinnamon on the top. Shake well to blend! You can layer only one ounce of each in a tiny, or one pound of each in a humongous jar, no measuring is required for any size.

To prepare finished tea blend – combine 2 tsp herb blend with 8oz boiling water and steep for 5-10 minutes.*

Simple Red Tent Tea Ritual:

While pouring, blending, and shaking the ingredients for your loose leaf tea, have each woman in the circle choose a word and then sing Call Down a Blessing together with each word. This will empower your tea with all kinds of juicy, beautiful blessings from your circle and bring the “mojo” and magic you create together back into your home and life every time you enjoy a cup.

Call down a blessing

Call down a blessing

Call down a blessing

Call down

__________before you

__________behind you

__________within you

and around you.

This song is based on Cathy Parton and Dave Para’s song, but is sung collaboratively with each person “plugging in” a blessing to sing together.

Here is a recording of my own circle singing during our tea ceremony. The clinking sounds you can hear are us stirring our tea blend in a big bowl the Red Tent before I had my small jar epiphany!

(*Due to the uterine stimulant properties of some of the ingredients in this tea, pregnant women may wish to wait to enjoy the tea until they are close to full term.)

If you’d like to explore more of the messy, beautiful real-life work of practical priestessing with me, I invite you to join me in our seven week Practical Priestessing or Red Tent Initiation courses.

Membership in the Creative Spirit Circle is FREE and packed with beautiful, bountiful resources, including a free Womanrunes e-course, Womanspirit Wisdom mini-course, weekly virtual circles in our Facebook group, Red Tent resources, blessing posters and mandalas, access to Divine Imperfections sculptures at 50% off, and your monthly Creative Spirit Circle Journal filled with resources such as ceremony outlines, book recommendations, articles, sneak peeks, and special freebies.

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