When you stand in your own power, people tend to have some strong visceral responses -- conscious and unconscious, positive and negative and somewhere in between. Most magical traditions have warnings about and protections against "the evil eye" -- and the "evil eye" doesn't always come in the form of a hex or a deliberately wrought energetic attack (although it certainly can.) Resentment, envy, jealousy, fear, and anger are strong emotions, and if you are someone who attracts a lot of attention -- whether you are the "village witch" in a small, conservative town or someone writing and teaching in public or just the kind of person whose presence is immediately noticed when you walk into a room -- those emotions can be directed at you with an intensity and volume that really begins to take its toll.
So cleansing and protection are an essential part of my magical practice. I take salt water baths to slough off the energetic detritus of the day. I burn various and sundry leaves and roots and resins to clear my home and my car and the spaces where I teach or see clients. And, until recently, I regularly did a Lemon uncrossing spell.
There are various versions of the Lemon uncrossing spell, with accompanying incantations that reflect various worldviews, but the core technology is the same. The practitioner holds a Lemon and envisions all the sour spells and prayers and intentions directed toward hir being drawn instead to the sour fruit. The Lemon is then cut into three or four pieces, depending on the version of the spell, and those pieces are covered with salt and left to dry. If the Lemon pieces dry, the energies drawn into the Lemon have been cleared. If the Lemon molds, the spell needs to be repeated.
The spell worked well for me for a good long time. And then I moved to the rainforest.
A few days after I moved here, I performed the spell and put the Lemon slices by my altar.
A week passed. The Lemon slices had soaked up most of the salt but were still pretty moist. The salt preserved them well -- there was no mold. But clearly they weren't going to dry as they were. So I added more salt.
Then another week passed. Still no mold. But the Lemon slices still weren't dry.
Nothing in my life was suggesting a steady slow flow of malice, so I reached the obvious conclusion: there's no amount of salt that will dry out a Lemon in any reasonable period of time in my particular corner of the world. A spell based on drying Lemons just doesn't work in the land of Western Red Cedar and Salmonberries and Western Skunk Cabbage. It was clear that I needed to adapt my magic to my new surroundings.
Being the kind of witch that I am, I began looking to the plants around me to find someone who could bring the kind of protection I wanted.
Himalayan Blackberry came to mind, as I am myself the cultural equivalent of an invasive species adapting to a new part of the world. But its ecological niche suggests to me more the kind of protection afforded in the wake of the equivalent of the emotional equivalent of a clearcut, allowing new growth that will bring forth sweet fruit. Beautiful but not quite what I was looking for.
Hawthorn brings protection from those who blunder into your heart space, and Rose brings protection for the heart to open -- but again not quite what I was seeking.
What I was looking for was Devil's Club.
I'm wary about adopting practices from other peoples' traditions -- especially when I am an interloper on their land. And at the same time, I believe that the magic and medicine of a plant are inseparable, and the experience of people who have lived in a place for a long time is important to look at as I begin to know the plants that grow there. And nearly everywhere that Devil's Club grows, its stem or bark or ash are traditionally used for purification, cleansing, and protection.
All of this resonates with my own first experiences of Devil's Club -- which first called to me when I was sitting in a clinic in New England, looking for a plant to help someone who seemed to feel entirely unsafe and out of place in the world. Just opening a jar of the root bark beside him made him sit up straight and brought a light to his eyes and a confidence to his voice.
Devil's Club can grow to be six feet tall, and has a woody, resinous, thorny bark that surrounds a pith core. When it gets bent down to the ground it roots and begins growing upward again. New stalks spread in a ring around the place where the first one grew. Small, delicate plants often grow in the midst of a Devil's Club patch, taking advantage of the the spiny protection.
Here along the Salish Sea its late April when Devil's Club begins to bud. A single maroon bud grows from the tip of each stalk, concentrating tremendous life force. Biting one, I feel a surge through my body -- and I am strong and alive and aroused.
Devil's Club brings me the protection to concentrate on raising and standing in my own power without the distraction of worrying about judgements and ill intentions being directed toward me.
Interestingly, Ryan Drum notes that in some traditions, houses are made from Devil's Club spines "to prepare for important work and to warn away intruders; some references
claim (pers. comm) that certain healers lived outside the village longhouse
area in such huts, frequently built into huge hollow western red cedar stumps."
This fits with my sense that the plant has an affinity for people doing a certain kind of work -- the work of walking back and forth between worlds, maintaining connection with the wild and divine to serve the human community.
This is not a medicine for everyone Devil's Club is a demanding teacher, insisting that those who come for help be willing to leave behind their games of playing small and bending over and shrinking back and begin showing up more fully in the world. The sheer amount of energy the plant brings surging through the body can be overwhelming for some people. And while it is locally abundant enough in many places for a respectful wildcrafter to make enough medicine for hir own use each year without depleting the population, it is not common or prolific enough to support commercial harvesting -- and indeed commercial harvesting in some places is threatening the plant's availability for local, traditional medicinal and ceremonial use.
But for me Devil's Club brings the protection and support I need for the work I am doing here on this land.
I won't speak here of the exact ways I work with the plant -- the intimate particulars grow out of a personal relationship with the plant, and would not be the same for you as they are for me.
The plant that will bring the right protection for you is growing in the forest or swamp or prairie or desert around you waiting for you to come asking with an open heart.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Upcoming Workshops -- CA, OR, WA, and BC!
Plants and the Twilight Realms
Saturday April 14, 2012 - 10am to 5pm
219 "D" Street in Old Town Eureka (next door to Humboldt Herbals)
An Introduction to Traditional Western Herbal Energetics with Sean Donahue,
May 12-13 2012
Pacific Rim College -- Victoria, BC
In most traditions of medicine around the world, practitioners are guided by systems of energetics - ways of describing and classifying patterns of disease and properties of plants that provide a basis for knowing which plant is appropriate for which condition. These systems are rooted in observation and the sensory experience. Many westerners look to Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to learn about energetics - and these rich traditions provide amazing insights about human bodies and the plants and foods that can help them heal. But there is also a western system of energetics - blending European traditions rooted in Egyptian and Greek medicine with the experiences and discoveries of 18th and 19th century North American herbalists. This workshop offers a basic introduction to Traditional Western Herbalism. You will learn about the origins of this system of energetics, its emphasis on respecting and supporting the "vital force" that helps the body maintain health, and ways of identifying and correcting imbalances based on polarities of heat and cold, dampness and dryness, and tension and laxity. In the process you will try several herbs yourself and learn to recognize the ways they shift energetic patterns in your body. By the end of the weekend, you will have learned the basic concepts of a system that can help you understand what's happening in someone's body and choose the right herbs to support the body's own healing processes.
Course Tuition:
Regular - $300 (Early Bird - $285, until April 30)
Students* - $275 (Early Bird - $250, until April 30)
*PRC diploma students will receive 1 academic credit for this workshop.
Course Registration:
To register, please phone toll-free 1-866-890-6082 or email the Registrar at admin@pacif icrimcollege.ca. Full payment is due at time of registration to confirm placement in the course. Payment can be made via MasterCard or Visa, debit, cash and cheque.
Withdrawal Policy:
For course withdrawals submitted in writing or in person 30 days or more before the start of the course, registrants will receive a full tuition refund less a $40 non-refundable registration fee. For course withdrawals submitted in writing or in person more than 14 days but less than 30 days before the start of the course, registrants will receive a 50% tuition refund. Without exception, no refunds will be given for course withdrawals less than 14 days before the start of the course.
Sean is available to teach on the west coast this spring and summer. E-mail seandonahuepoet@gmail.com
He will also be teaching at the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference in Arizona this September.
Saturday April 14, 2012 - 10am to 5pm
219 "D" Street in Old Town Eureka (next door to Humboldt Herbals)
$75 - $100, sliding scale
(Please call or stop by Humboldt Herbals to register and prepay)
Something flashes just at the edge of your vision and disappears into the woods.
Faint music drifts through the air on a night when the air is thick with the scent of Apple blossoms.
Many cultures have stories of other worlds - faerie realms separated from our own world by a thin veil. Of people disappearing into worlds of wonder and peril - and those who come back to tell the tale coming back transformed. And in many of those stories and traditions, plants guard the entrance to those worlds.
In this workshop, you will meet plants traditionally associated with the border between this world and the realms of magic, and look at the ways the folklore about these plants relates to their medicine and their ecology. You will spend time with Hawthorn, Datura, Black Cohosh, Ghost Pipe, and Wood Betony, coming to know each plant in a new way.
Please wear comfortable clothes. Bring a notebook, pen, water, and food to keep you comfortable during the day. We'll have folding chairs, but if that's not comfortable for you, you're welcome to bring your own chair or seat cushions. Many dining options are available in Old Town for lunch during our break.
Please call Humboldt Herbals at (707) 442-3541 with any questions or for additional information.
Feel free to forward this invitation to others who might be interested!
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Re-Wilding Magical Herbalism
a workshop in Portland Oregon with herbalist, Sean Donahue
Saturday April 21st, 2012 10-6pm
$75-100 sliding scale
Magical herbalism is often presented today as a set of memorized correspondences: Cinnamon to attract love or money. Rue to ward off "the evil eye." But these traditions all arose from people's deep personal relationships with the plants that grew around them, and from understandings of the world in which the magic and medicine of plants were inextricably linked. This workshop explores simple approaches to developing an organic and living personal spiritual and magical practice grounded in real relationships with wild and feral plants, and the role that kind of practice can play in personal, cultural, and ecological healing.
Sean Donahue is a traditional herbalist, poet and witch. As a teacher, he encourages students to build their own deep, personal relationship with the plants around them grounded in the experience of their own senses and their own hearts. He identifies deeply with the traditions of the edge dwellers – those who live in the places where the human and wild meet, bridging the worlds. For Sean, magic, medicine, and poetry are all expressions of a deep connection to the living Earth, and personal, cultural, and ecological healing are inextricably linked. For more about Sean and the work he does you can visit medicineandmagic.com
To save your spot in this workshop please contact Nicole Pepper at nicoleisnicole@hotmail.com, Spaces are limited, Pre-registration Required. Location in NE Portland TBA.
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TWO WORKSHOPS ON APRIL 29
Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA --
$5 for one workshop, or $8 for both for community members.
Plants and the Twilight Realms 1-3:30 pm
Something flashes just at the edge of your vision and disappears into the woods.Faint music drifts through the air on a night when the air is thick with the scent of Apple blossoms.Many cultures have stories of other worlds – faerie realms separated from our own world by a thin veil. Of people disappearing into worlds of wonder and peril – and those who come back to tell the tale coming back transformed. And in many of those stories and traditions, plants guard the entrance to those worlds.
In this workshop, you will meet plants traditionally associated with the border between this world and the realms of magic, and look at the ways the folklore about these plants relates to their medicine and their ecology. You will spend time withHawthorn, Datura, Black Cohosh, Ghost Pipe, and Wood Betony, coming to know eachplant in a new way.
Wild Healing, Wild Ecstasy: Plants for Reclaiming Authentic Sexuality 5-7:30 pm
Guilt, shame, fear, and pain abound in our culture, separating us from the core of who we are. This is especially prevalent and damaging in relation to sex and sexuality.
Plants are our biological ancestors and relations and possess an intelligence of theirown -- one that is not filtered through the myths and lies and complexes our culture hasbuilt around sex. In this workshop we'll explore how plants can help us heal some of thepain we carry around sex and reclaim our own authentic sexuality.
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a workshop in Portland Oregon with herbalist, Sean Donahue
Saturday April 21st, 2012 10-6pm
$75-100 sliding scale
Magical herbalism is often presented today as a set of memorized correspondences: Cinnamon to attract love or money. Rue to ward off "the evil eye." But these traditions all arose from people's deep personal relationships with the plants that grew around them, and from understandings of the world in which the magic and medicine of plants were inextricably linked. This workshop explores simple approaches to developing an organic and living personal spiritual and magical practice grounded in real relationships with wild and feral plants, and the role that kind of practice can play in personal, cultural, and ecological healing.
Sean Donahue is a traditional herbalist, poet and witch. As a teacher, he encourages students to build their own deep, personal relationship with the plants around them grounded in the experience of their own senses and their own hearts. He identifies deeply with the traditions of the edge dwellers – those who live in the places where the human and wild meet, bridging the worlds. For Sean, magic, medicine, and poetry are all expressions of a deep connection to the living Earth, and personal, cultural, and ecological healing are inextricably linked. For more about Sean and the work he does you can visit medicineandmagic.com
To save your spot in this workshop please contact Nicole Pepper at nicoleisnicole@hotmail.com, Spaces are limited, Pre-registration Required. Location in NE Portland TBA.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TWO WORKSHOPS ON APRIL 29
Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA --
The Evergreen State College Organic Farm House
Free for TESC students -- $5 for one workshop, or $8 for both for community members.
Plants and the Twilight Realms 1-3:30 pm
Something flashes just at the edge of your vision and disappears into the woods.Faint music drifts through the air on a night when the air is thick with the scent of Apple blossoms.Many cultures have stories of other worlds – faerie realms separated from our own world by a thin veil. Of people disappearing into worlds of wonder and peril – and those who come back to tell the tale coming back transformed. And in many of those stories and traditions, plants guard the entrance to those worlds.
In this workshop, you will meet plants traditionally associated with the border between this world and the realms of magic, and look at the ways the folklore about these plants relates to their medicine and their ecology. You will spend time withHawthorn, Datura, Black Cohosh, Ghost Pipe, and Wood Betony, coming to know eachplant in a new way.
Wild Healing, Wild Ecstasy: Plants for Reclaiming Authentic Sexuality 5-7:30 pm
Guilt, shame, fear, and pain abound in our culture, separating us from the core of who we are. This is especially prevalent and damaging in relation to sex and sexuality.
Plants are our biological ancestors and relations and possess an intelligence of theirown -- one that is not filtered through the myths and lies and complexes our culture hasbuilt around sex. In this workshop we'll explore how plants can help us heal some of thepain we carry around sex and reclaim our own authentic sexuality.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 12-13 2012
Pacific Rim College -- Victoria, BC
In most traditions of medicine around the world, practitioners are guided by systems of energetics - ways of describing and classifying patterns of disease and properties of plants that provide a basis for knowing which plant is appropriate for which condition. These systems are rooted in observation and the sensory experience. Many westerners look to Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to learn about energetics - and these rich traditions provide amazing insights about human bodies and the plants and foods that can help them heal. But there is also a western system of energetics - blending European traditions rooted in Egyptian and Greek medicine with the experiences and discoveries of 18th and 19th century North American herbalists. This workshop offers a basic introduction to Traditional Western Herbalism. You will learn about the origins of this system of energetics, its emphasis on respecting and supporting the "vital force" that helps the body maintain health, and ways of identifying and correcting imbalances based on polarities of heat and cold, dampness and dryness, and tension and laxity. In the process you will try several herbs yourself and learn to recognize the ways they shift energetic patterns in your body. By the end of the weekend, you will have learned the basic concepts of a system that can help you understand what's happening in someone's body and choose the right herbs to support the body's own healing processes.
Course Tuition:
Regular - $300 (Early Bird - $285, until April 30)
Students* - $275 (Early Bird - $250, until April 30)
*PRC diploma students will receive 1 academic credit for this workshop.
Course Registration:
To register, please phone toll-free 1-866-890-6082 or email the Registrar at admin@pacif icrimcollege.ca. Full payment is due at time of registration to confirm placement in the course. Payment can be made via MasterCard or Visa, debit, cash and cheque.
Withdrawal Policy:
For course withdrawals submitted in writing or in person 30 days or more before the start of the course, registrants will receive a full tuition refund less a $40 non-refundable registration fee. For course withdrawals submitted in writing or in person more than 14 days but less than 30 days before the start of the course, registrants will receive a 50% tuition refund. Without exception, no refunds will be given for course withdrawals less than 14 days before the start of the course.
Sean is available to teach on the west coast this spring and summer. E-mail seandonahuepoet@gmail.com
He will also be teaching at the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference in Arizona this September.
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