The Amazing Power of Pascalite Clay

It's not hard to find claims of products with extraordinary healing powers online and offline. Always have been, always will be those who try to sell you instant wealth, instant success, and best of all, instant health. We want quick fixes, whether over-the-counter, doctor prescribed, or self-medicating synthetic drugs. Yet it seems to be that some of the simplest and most effective remedies come directly from the earth itself. And what's earthier than clay? And how powerful is clay? Well, what if you found out that for some 30 million or so years there has been a clay mined in only one area of the United States? And that one part of the country is near the Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming, home to the Big Horn Medicine Wheel? So what? Being a logical person, you should ask questions about medicine wheels in western states. First of all, the wheel is approximately 10,000 feet above sea level. Secondly, while it's a lot newer than Stonehenge, it does serve the same purpose in that it is 80 feet across, and maintains 28 spokes, comparable to the lunar month. To the Native Americans, this has always been a sacred site, sort of like an astronomical observatory. Not far from this sacred site is a mine where pascalite clay, also known technically as Calcium-Bentonite Montmorillonite, hails from. This clay is mined underground to avoid contamination, and then the dense, beige colored clay is solar dried at the mountain site. Unlike the more commonly found sodium bentonite, pascalite is a non-swelling clay, meaning it doesn't expand up to seventeen times its size when water is added. While pascalite absorbs water like a sponge, it doesn't increase in proportion. Pascalite also is high in calcium, iron and magnesium; making is safe for internal and external use. Several years ago I ordered some pascalite from pascalite.com as I'd been researching an article about various clays and the references to pascalite were somewhat astounding. It seemingly cured spider bites, cleared up bad skin, stopped minor skin irritations such as poison ivy and oak from spreading and itching, and even helped revive flagging energy if taken internally. With recommendations like that, I had to try the stuff. So I got some, used it a few times, experimented with it in clay facial masks, and then forgot about it as I investigated other natural oils, butters and clays. In fact, I'd forgotten I had a jar of it buried in my bathroom cupboard until last month. The great thing about clay is that if it's correctly stored, the shelf life is infinite. My cat got into a fight with a spider recently, not surprising since she came home wearing a shroud of cobwebs on one ear as a trophy. But a day later one of her eyes began watering, then discharging some ugly colored pus. Beneath her eye was a new shape - puffy. Uh oh, that cat was about to go to the vet when I recalled that pascalite jar and also remembered that I had been sent some accompanying literature, which was still in the file. To make eye drops, all I had to do was mix one teaspoon's worth of pascalite into a lidded container along with a tablespoon or so of spring water, shake thoroughly, allow the clay to sink to the bottom and separate almost completely, and then take the water from the top and apply into the cat's infected eye. I did this, amidst some protesting, as most cats only like to drink water, not have it applied elsewhere, and sit back and wait for any improvement. Fortunately, I read the part about how the condition might get worse before it got better. And that's what happened. There was more swelling, and her eye was closed except for a dark red spot beneath it where it was swollen. She looked like a prizefighter who had lost the prize. So I gave her a few more drops. The next day I saw that the inflammation and puffiness had diminished. In fact, I was able to see what color her eye was instead of just a patch of angry red. Giving her more of the pascalite and water mixture, she still wasn't too thrilled about it, but she must have known the stuff was helping her. By the end of the day her eye had returned to normal. That pascalite sure helped as no other remedies were used. Also, her illness was only eye-related as her appetite hadn't diminished nor had her sleeping/cleaning habits changed. I decided to try a pascalite clay mask to condition my scalp, as I'd read that many toxins are stored there due to the products we use and environmental factors. While I've used neutral henna in the past, and sometimes powdered amla, the one thing in common with both of those herbs is the fact that they are extremely difficult and time consuming to wash out of my hair. Not so with pascalite, which was easily rinsed out within a matter of minutes. And I didn't even need to shampoo it out. The results were also worth it--my hair was shinier and fuller and it felt very clean--as did my scalp. Odd, but I'd just added clay to my scalp and hair and it felt cleaner than if I'd used a shampoo! So, I also put about a teaspoon's worth into my shampoo so I could have a clay shampoo. Of course I had to shake it really well, but again, it was easier to rinse out and I had fewer tangles. Then I made a small peppermint pascalite soap with added powdered green tea so I could have my own pascalite shampoo bar--which smelled terrific and worked really well. Pascalite is different than other clays such as rhassoul, French green, Moroccan red, kaolin and even sodium bentonite. Perhaps because it's near an energy vortex of a Medicine Wheel, or that it is solar dried at a high elevation, maybe because of the geological formation of the earth in that area of Wyoming, or all the factors contribute into making pascalite a helpful, healing clay that can be of benefit to many. It seems as though pascalite, which is named after the French trapper, Emile Pascal, the first white man who used pascalite back in the 1930s. According to the company's literature, "...while setting out his traps in the outcropping of clay, his badly chapped and cracked hands became covered with the cheesy earth. Later when he washed his hands off, he noticed they seemed better. He started using the clay, and encouraged his friends, as well." And there it is, some information about a clay that you might never have heard of before reading this article. A special clay found only in one area of the U.S., older by far than any of us, and it can help assist us with mending minor complaints or injuries in a very earthy way.