The Juniper has a direct communication to the Great Spirit. It was designed for healing.

The Juniper that grows along the slopes leading up to the San Francisco peaks has a very sacred effect, clear to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon came to that area to get the Juniper. They sent the water to pick up the Junipers so that it would purify Navaho land and get rid of all the bad influences and make this a Sacred Land. If you notice how the Colorado comes down the side of the Grand Canyon it's more or less a straight cut. But it swings over to the hills, swings back and goes on down. Where it makes the loop it comes up into the Juniper up on the hill below San Francisco Peak, the Sacred Mountain. Anything that is in this area has super powers.

The Navaho use every part of the Juniper; medicinally, ceremonily, spiritually, nutritionally. They have a dance they put on in Spring-time, called an awareness Dance--Ka teh ca ca.

"We are here. We have arrived. We are aware." A greeting for the spring and the new seasons. The Juniper priests, young men who will serve for one year only, dance for up to 36-48 hours. They study the whole year for the dance. It's a strong tradition. To be appointed is a great honor, and to do your dance better than any other priest has in the 6000 years the dances have been done is part of a great competition. It is a very intense dance. The concentration is intense. They will plant a Juniper branch in the ground and this is their focal point. Each priest sets his own Juniper. Then they dance. The plant would normally dry and wilt. At the end of the dance those are so stiff and are standing up so straight. The longer the dance, the stiffer and straighter those Juniper branches will become.

The only way they can use a hogan in which a person has died in is to fumigate it with Juniper, wait 3 days, take a fresh Juniper branch in and leave it overnight. If the branch is still stiff and upright the next day in the morning, they can still use the hogun. If no, if the branch has wilted or sagged at all, the hogun is abandoned and never used again until the situation is corrected.

When you get down in the dumps, feelings lousy, just wrap yourself around a Juniper tree, lay your head against the trunk, and spend about an hour with your eyes closed. All the problems of the world vanish like smoke. It just absorbs you.

The Juniper aura is a silverish-blue, with a tinge of silver-greens on the outer edge.

Can be used with other herbs, but is better used alone. It is very unique. it grows by itself. you don't see big clumps of Juniper. They are individual.

Doesn't grow well in heavy soils, adobe, clays, etc. Good in decomposed granite soil. Slow grower.