If kitchari is the food of cleansing, trikatu is the preparation for it. Where kitchari asks the digestive system to rest, trikatu asks it to wake up first — to clear what has accumulated, so the deeper work can actually reach.

Trikatu translates from Sanskrit as "three pungents." Three spices so ordinary you almost certainly have two of them in your kitchen right now: dry ginger, black pepper, and long pepper (pippali). Equal parts, combined. That's it. No mysticism in the making of it — the power is in the synergy.

A note before I share this recipe.

I'm preparing to go into panchakarma soon — a classical Ayurvedic cleansing process that is, at its heart, less about detox as we typically imagine it (aggressive, depleting, effortful) and more about a deep returning. A settling back into what the body already knows.A note before I share this recipe.

Most of us first meet astrology as another system to decode ourselves with. Jyotish — Vedic astrology practiced through the body — is something different. Here's what changes when you stop trying to get it right.

Soma offers classical abhyanga massage in a private studio in Highett, Melbourne, exclusively for women. If you're ready to experience it for yourself, you can read more about what a session involves here, or book directly.

On Abhyanga …

On abhyanga, and the strange relief of being nourished

I don't remember exactly what I was expecting. Something efficient, perhaps. Something that would help.

I had been practicing massage therapy for a few years when I first received a proper abhyanga. Not the watered-down version — the full traditional treatment. Warm sesame oil. Two hands. No agenda other than the body itself….