Re-mineralizaing Tooth Powder

I will write more when I have the time about the full WHY of some of what I am about to share, but I have a number of initiatives that I am undertaking.

This post is in service of two of them.

1.  I am trying to gradually eliminate single-use plastics from my life.
2.  I am trying to gradually eliminate toxic chemicals from my life.

One of the places that I am working on this is in relation to personal hygiene products because they both tend to have a lot of toxic chemicals that we put on or in our bodies and they also tend to have a lot of plastic packaging etc.

This evening, after my philosophy group let, I made my first tooth powder.  I did a fair amount of research and came to several conclusions.  The purpose of fluoride in toothpaste has to do with remineralization.  However, fluoride is also on the toxic side of life and there is some research suggesting that in the little bit of time it is in contact with teeth through brushing (unlike fluoride treatments you get at the dentist), it doesn't really help as much as it looks like some other ingredients do.

Plus, I have a pretty strong aversion to mint flavored toothpaste which leaves me with either Tom's of Maine Cinnamon/clove toothpaste or my Greek toothpaste.

A lot of the most toxic ingredients we have in our products are preservatives...but the toothpaste you can make at home goes bad.  But tooth POWDER doesn't.  The way you use tooth powder is that you get your toothbrush wet and then get some of it on your tooth brush and...brush!

Apparently, acid is really hard on teeth and causes the enamel to demineralize, so you want to offset acidity with ingredients that are alkaline.  Also, you want the enamel to have access to the minerals it needs in order to strengthen itself.

I settled on the tooth powder recipe by Wellness Mama.  https://wellnessmama.com/5252/remineralizing-tooth-powder/

It includes:

·      1/4 cup bentonite clay (is alkaline and produces an electrical charge in water, removes toxins, and can help remineralize teeth with calcium, magnesium, and silica)

·     3 TAB calcium powder (minerals for enamel and whitens)

·     1 TAB baking soda (minerals, alkaline, removes stains)

·     1 TAB ground cinnamon (anti-bacterial)

·     1 TAB ground cloves (anti-microbial)

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·     1 TAB + xylitol powder (keeps bacteria from sticking to teeth, which prevents demineralization)

You can also add powdered mint or some mint oil.  I choose not to do so.

You put everything into a mason jar and then shake it really well.  Put some aside into a smaller container where it is easy to dip your wet toothbrush into it.

I spent $36 on ingredients and made the recipe three times over.  If it lasts me as long as 7 tubes of toothpaste, then I will have broken even on the expense.  I have no idea if I will.  However, I also have a ton of bentonite clay left over and a bit of the xylitol left over.  I could order a bit more of the food grade calcium and make even more.  The reason it is expensive is that the smallest bag available of bentonite was $17 and there was a similar situation with the xylitol.

It will take me some time to figure out if I like this, if it is worth it, and if it helps my teeth.  But if I do, then this was easy to make and, while there was some plastic in the ingredients packaging, the hope is that it will last long enough to be less plastic than the tubes of toothpaste.  It certainly does not have questionably safe ingredients.



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Cynicism Can Bite Me - I Choose Hope

Our country and much of the world is currently in thrall (enslaved) to a large number of powerful glamours.  When I say a “glamour,” I am referring to a type of delusion that occurs at the level of being in which cognition is mixed with emotion.  Most of our waking experiences are characterized by cognition (thoughts) that are mixed with emotions.

Glamours are incredibly dangerous because they function by inviting someone to feel powerful, especially in relationships to others, while simultaneously stripping those in thrall of their actual power.  I want to give you an example of one of the most powerful right now and invite you to become aware of its operation and to reject it when it invites you to give it your power while pretending to give you power.  Glamours are defeated by awareness and an act of will in which you reject it.

Let’s talk about the glamour of Cynicism:  Cynicism is pervasive, but let’s look at it in the context of politics. It is the attitude that everything is rigged, so there is no point in trying, or if you are going to try it will be in some grand protest that is not actually a strategy. The cynical person believes that they see the putative “truth” because they are intelligent and that they are more intelligent than anyone who “doesn’t see it”.  Functionally, cynicism becomes an “identity marker” of intelligence and a way to justify feeling superior to other people. Because people who are intelligent tend to value their intelligence, there is pressure from this glamour to verify one’s intelligence by becoming cynical 

So, the glamour of cynicism removes masses of people from actually working to make a meaningful difference in their community, which is what politics is, while simultaneously enabling them to not feel any responsibility for improving things. Instead there is a self-amplifying feedback loop that absolutely disempowers those who are under the thrall of this glamour while increasing their own deluded sense of status as “intelligent” people.  The more things go to hell, the more self-righteous they feel believing they have been vindicated as being “correct” while being blind to the fact that their role is significantly causal.  

Additionally, those who are working for change are dismissed and disempowered as being either polyannas or sell-outs, and are written off as either not intelligent or not strong enough to accept the “cold, hard truth of the world,” or they are not pure enough.  And, again, this particular glamour appeals to and infects an extraordinarily large number of truly intelligent people whose talents and abilities to make change are effectively neutralized.  If I were Sauron trying to devise a spell to put humanity in thrall and spread my corrupting shadow over the world, I couldn’t do better than the glamour of cynicism.  

The next time you find yourself invited by the Glamour of Cynicism to give it your power so that it can give you an illusion, I invite you to do this instead.  Choose hope and stay engaged.  This is not a naïve statement.  I do not passively “have” hope because I think the world is good.  I choose hope, over and over again, every day, so that I can have the real power to help make the world good.  And then I go, and I do the work that I can.  

If you are of a magickal persuasion, here is a ritual to dissipate cynicism from the group mind.  https://theophaniadcdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/dispelling-glamour-ritual.pdf 

Witch Problems: The Clutter of Magic

I have read more occult books...well...I was counting up and realizing that I have self-identified as a Witch for 32 years now...and I am a librarian.  I have read a lot of occult books.  They warn you about all sorts of eldritch dangers...but the one I have never seen as a warning is that if you become even a half-serious practitioner, your life is in danger of being taken over by MAGICAL CLUTTER!!!  Now THAT is a serious bane.  I'm not entirely sure what Japanese Organization Lady would advise me to do since, "does this sealed arcane spell binding the power of a serial rapist bring you joy?" is not a sentence that should ever be uttered.  Or typed.  TOO LATE!  Because I am a witch and I say shit that certainly wouldn't be said in polite company and maybe shouldn't be said at all.

This post is coming from a Facebook post that I wrote, and I am memorializing it so it can serve as a reminder and cautionary tale for me in the future.

As an urban witch who lives in a one-bedroom apartment, I am incredibly fortunate to have a special nook just for my altars and magick.  Now...of course, I have altars and other stuff ALL OVER the apartment, but I also have a dedicated little personal temple space.  GLORY!  So superior to the years spent in the 400 square foot studio!  But it really, really needed to get straightened up.  But the STUFF.  How do I have this much stuff?  What is this stuff?  The occult books are very clear that one should not have a cluttered magical working environment.  Both, TRUE and HAH!  I mean, I live in a one bedroom apartment and have 9 altars, 3 of which get daily use and the other 6 get used over once a season.  Minimalism is just not the witchy way...no matter how much we romanticize our ancestors and their "simpler" ways.  And I consciously TRY not to do this.  Try and fail.  Try again.

Anyway, I needed to clean up my supplies.  So, I decided to clean house.  It went something like this:

What are these stones? Why are they together? There must be a reason...is that bark? Is this the molybdenite? Why did I buy this much selenite? I must have been planning to do something with it. What the hell was it? Is it disrespectful to throw this out? It was an offering at one point. I know I'm supposed to bury or burn it...but I think my apartment manager would be mad at me if I did that and I'm not in the mood to get caught digging in the park. Oh bloody hell...what is this? I know it's not one of the McCormick spices...I just used the bottle. And here are bottles of oils that the labels are no longer readable or that fell off. And save me from the collection of feathers and special bits of string and other ritual detritus. I really should have labeled my rocks better. The sacred waters are reasonably labeled at least. Note to self...I DO NOT NEED HYSSOP OIL!!! I HAVE PLENTY. Make a bloody inventory already! Why did I ever think it was a good idea to create a spell that leaves me having to keep a physical item until the end of time? That's just bad planning. Etc. etc. etc.


I know that part of this is because we feel like we need to be prepared for all sorts of unknown circumstances...so we collect all sorts of things with the "just in case" mentality.  My personal favorite, for me, was an early morning phone call from my sweetie (who is a magnificent Darren).  
I answered the phone and he excitedly burst out with a "Good morning, sweetie!  Do you need a snake in a bottle?"
 
I couldn't even fully parse what he was saying and was like, "Wha....?"

"Do you need a snake in a bottle?"

At this point, I was trying to think through whether or not this could be some really weird double entendre that was sailing over my head, or something.  Then he decided to explain."My friend at work gave me a dead snake preserved in a bottle of alcohol and I don't know what to do with it.  Do you need a snake in a bottle."  

"OH!  You mean do I need a SNAKE in a bottle."  And you know, for a witch, the answer to that question, taken literally, is "Yes...Yes I do.  I do need a snake in a bottle."  

I have a magnificent Darren.  He gave me a snake in a bottle.  Now, should there ever be an emergency in which we were thinking, "I could save the world with my wild edge-walking magicks if only I but had...a snake in a bottle..."  The struggle, it is real.  

But seriously...I am still not done organizing the clutter.  I did create an inventory.  I am thinking maybe I should capture and release some rocks back into the wild.  But I do think we need to be thinking about our magical detritus problem.  If I never, ever, ever get another random piece of special string or a candle I'm not supposed to finish burning or whatever in a ritual...this would be good.  And I am going to be much more conscious about what I saddle people with at the rituals I run.In the meantime, if I'm ever caught burying shit in the park...I promise you a weird trial.

The Abortion Debate is Not About Abortion

The abortion debate is not about abortion.  Abortion is not the issue, it is the battleground.

I know that the abortion debate is not about abortion because, if it were, there would be common ground discovered and actions taken.  We know what prevents abortion and the vast majority of abortions could have long since been a thing of the past if the mis-named "Pro-Life" forces were working with, instead of against, us in trying to shape create the changes that would prevent most abortions by making them irrelevant.

This is how you eliminate the need for most abortions.

• Eliminate all barriers to safe and effective birth control.  
• If we were serious, we could make it state-subsidized, free, and easy to get.
• Eliminate all stigma around women's sexuality that would prevent them from getting birth control.
• Make it possible for minor women to get birth control without parental knowledge or consent, so long as it is medically safe.
• Condoms are in men's control and can be sabotaged.  They are important for other reasons, but women need control of their birth control.
• Put more public money into developing safer forms of birth control that have fewer side-effects.
• Mandatory comprehensive sexual education for all of our youth that focuses on de-stimgatizing sexuality, gives comprehensive understanding of how to prevent pregnancies, and focuses on sexual consent and communication.
• Make ending rape a cultural and societal priority by embracing a culture that openly discusses consent.
• Strengthen the social safety net, especially funding childcare and parental leave, so that women who would want to give birth and keep the child if their financial circumstances allowed them to do so can make that choice.

There will still be some need for abortion in unexpected and tragic circumstances where the woman wants to have the baby, but there is something badly wrong--with her health or with the fetus.  These are, by definition, tragedies and NO ONE outside of the woman, her doctor, and whichever intimates she allows into that inner circle of decision-making even has a right to an opinion.  

When I have tried to find common ground with those who swear that they just want to save the unborn babies by suggesting we could work together on any of the above--which would actually prevent abortions--it became crystal clear that this is not about the unborn babies or abortion at all.  The so-called "Pro-Life" side actually works against all of the things that we know prevent abortions.  The abortion debate is not about abortions.

What the abortion debate is about is whether or not women have full ownership of their bodies, or if that legal, societal, and cultural right is contingent and they can be owned by someone else...be it the father of the fetus, the husband, her father, or the state.  If a woman's right to own her own body is not absolute, then she is not legally fully human.  She is dehumanized and becomes pseudo-property.  If I can be owned by someone else--if the state can tell me that I lose my rights to make medical decisions about my body should I become pregnant--then I am legally much lesser than any man, whether or not I am actually pregnant.  I believe that the ability of the individual to have ownership of their body, the very vessel in which we walk the earth, is essential to being fully human.  The abortion debate is about whether women are legally full persons or if their legal personhood is contingent.  If it is contingent, then women are in a position where they are legally dehumanized.

Abortion is the battleground out of biological necessity.  A fetus only exists inside a woman's body.  Until birth, the fetus is in a dependent symbiotic relationship with the woman's body.  There is no way around that fact.  Once the fetus is in a woman's body, she must either have control over her body or someone else has control over her body.  You can't act "for the fetus" against the woman, without denying the woman sovereignty over her own body.  It logically cannot be done.  

In this way women are simply biologically different than men and vulnerable to having their humanity stripped from them in a way that men are not.  This is the battleground.  There are ways to prevent most abortions without resorting to a battle about whether or not women legally own their bodies--but in the actual abortion debate, there is no compromise.  Women either own their bodies, or this basic human right is contingent and women are not recognized as fully human.  If you give the fetus rights that supersede the mother, you deny women their full legal humanity.    

There can be no compromise on this battleground.  

I have never been pregnant and I never will be pregnant, but my legal-standing as a full human equal to men stands in the balance along with all of my Sisters from all backgrounds.  This is not about abortion.  It is about the emancipation of women.