🌕A Full Moon Practice
~ January 3, 2026 ~
In the depth of winter, when the outer light is at its faintest, traditions across time have turned toward practices that preserve warmth, steadiness, and inner fire. Ghee, slowly clarified, golden, and nourishing, has long been used during Winter Solstice as a way of not only tending the light within the body, but sustaining it.
The Great Gift of Ghee
Ghee Recipe by Chitra Martin
Ingredients
- 1 pound (16 oz) unsalted organic butter
(preferably grass-fed)
Instructions
- Place butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat.
- Melt slowly, allowing it to simmer gently. Foam will rise to the top.
- Skim off the foam as it forms.
- Continue simmering until the milk solids separate and settle at the bottom
(about 15–20 minutes). The ghee should be golden and fragrant. - Remove from heat. Carefully pour the clear liquid through a fine strainer or cheesecloth into a glass jar, leaving the solids behind.
- Let cool and store with the lid on. No refrigeration needed.
Chitra’s Note
Use ghee not only in cooking, but as a sacred healing oil, massage the soles of the feet, stir into warm herbal tonics, or blend into chai as a gesture of nourishment and grounding. Spread on toast or melt into grains. Ghee prepared with care is an offering.
Ghee is more than clarified butter, it is a golden, grounding balm for digestion, skin, joints, and spirit. It is traditionally valued for its ability to support clarity, immunity, and emotional steadiness.
- Supports brain, joint, and nervous system health
- Aids digestion and gut lining repair
- Rich in fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K)
- Balancing for Vata—warming, grounding, and strengthening
- Used both internally and externally (especially foot massage at bedtime)
🌕
A Full Moon Sadhana
In The Path of Practice, Bri. Maya Tiwari describes a Vedic tradition of making ghee during the Full Moon (Purnima) as a monthly sadhana of silence. The practice is unhurried and attentive, listening to the rain-stick sound of bubbling ghee, breathing in its nutty aroma, and watching its transformation into liquid gold. Made this way, ghee becomes a practice of stillness, presence, and embodied well-being.
Rest the ghee overnight on the windowsill in the light of the full moon, bathing it in moonlight before use.
Thru soulful eyes 