Saffron & The Soul
Photo by Mehdi Torabi on Unsplash
People think Saffron is just a spice, but it isn’t ‘just’ anything. The spice is ‘just’ what catches up the Saffron of the stars. People think Saffron is the colour of renunciation, but it isn’t. Saffron is the colour of the quest for life. When your Soul is bruised & bleeding, it yearns for Saffron like Rumi yearned for God.
Let me be perfectly clear with you Sweet Friend, let us speak like lovers between whom no more half-truths can slide.
The world is not in the middle of an ecological crisis, nor an economic crisis, nor a political crisis… but a crisis of Soul. Soul is that what takes the lead of mere events and turns them into the gold of deep experiences. Yet where once we had Soul we now have data, where once we danced around the raging bonfire of life - our lips stained equally by grapes and prayers to Dionysus – now we sit back and analyse it with cold reason.
Little wonder the World Soul itself is hurting: depression soars across the earth on leathery, black wings of despair, anxiety lurks in the shadows of every heart, waiting to steal the breath away from your prayers of hope & mercy.
Health itself is not the absence of disease, but the roaring presence of Soul.
Soul ferments activity in everything it touches; it is the leaven in the sourdough, the song behind the revolution. In Traditional Medicine, Saffron is physically used for disorders of the blood, for blood is the throne of the Soul. This may mean failing eyesight, or menstrual pain, or joint pain, or loss of memory – but Saffron excels at disorders of mind and mood.
Remember, herbs and spices are the nutrients of the soul, they fertilise the imaginative faculties as vitamins fertilise the body’s soil. Saffron is indeed an enzyme for Soul.
So my love…
“Lean your sweet neck and mouth
Out of that dark nest where you hide,
I will pour effulgence into your mind.”
Hafiz
Photo by marlik saffron on UnsplashThe research into Saffron shows just how soulful it truly is:
Saffron enhances libido – the Soul’s natural lust for life
(Hosseinzadeh et al., 2008)
Saffron is as potent as anti-depressants & illuminates the dark recesses of the mind (Noorbala et al., 2005)
Saffron improves sleep, so that we may dwell longer in the field of dreams (Loprersti et al, 2020)
Saffron suppresses the appetite in overweight & depressed, nourishing the Soul (Abedimanesh et al, 2017)
Saffron protects the brain from poisons, both chemical and emotional
(Shati et al. 2011)
Saffron eases the grip of opiate addiction and withdrawal
(Ghoshooniet al., 2011)
Hafiz may well have been writing of Saffron when he wrote:
“This is the kind of friend
You are -
Without making me realize
My soul's anguished history,
You slip into my house at night,
And while I am sleeping,
You silently carry off
All my suffering and sordid past
In your beautiful
Hands.”
To enhance the above effects I created a formula that I use to support a healthy mood - free from crippling anxiety or depression, & crystal clear like the desert sky. The Mood Mana Kit has herbs that boost serotonin & dopamine, protect the brain from stress, increase circulation to the head & powerfully regulate the liver-mood axis. Ultimately, it is best used to nourish the Soul, however.
With Soul,
Jimi
