Saffron & the Soul
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’s black wings of despair, anxiety lurks in the shadows of every heart, waiting to steal the breathe away from your prayers of hope and 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.
The 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 on the field of dreams (Loprersti et al, 2020)
Saffron suppresses the appetite in overweight & depressed, nourishing the Soul (Abedimanesh et al, 2017)
Saffron improves memory in Alzheimer’s reminding us of our true nature (Papandreou et al., 2006)
Saffron reduces blood-pressure so that we may love more deeply (Fatehi et al., 2003)
Saffron is safe in schizophrenia, awaking us from the nightmare (Mousavi et al., 2015)
Saffron protects the brain in Parkinson’s, calming the storm that rages (Purushothuman et al., 2013
Saffron protects the brain from poisons, both chemical and emotional (Shati et al. 2011)
Saffron reduces neuro-inflammation, easing the fire that blazes (Christensen, 2005)
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 realise
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 some time back that I use to vitalise the blood and enhance mood. I use it in a very wide array of physical conditions such as tinnitus and macula degeneration, or just as a general tonic for fertility and longevity. Ultimately, it is best used to nourish Soul however.
Saffron Soul Formula: Saffron, Ginkgo Biloba, Brahmi, Safflower, Rosemary
Like Kamand Kojouri, Saffron asks to forget:
“Forget your voice, sing!
Forget your feet, dance!
Forget your life, live!
Forget yourself and be!”
with soul,
Jimi
