I should be sleeping

but I smell rain

the cicadas sing

as the metallic air

stings the night

and the humid croak

of frogs kiss the wind

As my potions red

and brown cascade along the counter

I know the coughs will go away

even with the stormy weather

I take my potions sweet and bitter.

As the water bubbles

I add oats, cinnamon, and clove

with cardamom and ginger

spicing up the brew.

It will be pouring by the dawn

I hope for rainbows.

Journey of Heart: Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference 2010

Last week I made a long anticipated journey back to the Southwest, the land I called home for so long to attend the first annual Traditions In Western Herbalism Conference at Ghost Ranch.  The conference was the dream child of two people who have deeply transformed my life on so many levels, Wolf  and Kiva Rose of the Anima Center.    From the beginning so many moons ago, it was clear this would be a unique and outstanding event, unlike any other. 

I was deeply honored to be included in the select group of teachers and presenters this first year-  Including my teachers Paul Bergner and Rosemary Gladstar, long time friends and collegues like Jim McDonald, Phyllis Hogan, and Margi Flint, and herbalists I've long admired and turned to over and over for information and insight like Matt Wood, Phyllis Light, and Charles Garcia.  I got to meet and hang out with new friends from all over, including HerbMentor founder John Gallagher, Howie Brownstien, Seven Song and Corey-Pine Shane.  Every single teacher and presenter there was truly gifted and offered deep teachings on so many levels. 

A long journey westward with Sean ended with a late night driving to the Albuquerque airport to pick up the last of the featured speakers.  I didnt get much sleep between caffiene overload and nerves, but prepared to give my own presentation first thing on Friday morning.  I spoke about Nourishing the Wild Self- what it means to really nourish deeply on levels of the self, not just the biochemical, but the spiritual, social and community levels, and how the choices we make about food can in turn nourish the land we live on and the wild Earth that provides for us everything.  If you missed my talk at the conference, I'll be posting some writing in a similar vein very shortly.  They also managed to video and audio record the entire session, so avail yourself of the recordings for sale of the entire shin dig!

It was truly amazing to be able to share something I feel so passionate about with students, collegues and friends in such an amazing environment.  Each and every one there was engaged and enthused and countless comments about how the subject matter touched individuals in various ways were more than reward for the long journey and agonizing hours I spent formulating and calculating just how to deliver the topic ( which of course flew out the window when I sat down with that group of eager folk!).  

Afterward,  I prepared to just relax, visit with friends new and old and attend the other speakers presentations and teachings.  Evenings were full with stunning entertainment and moonlit sandstone rock formations and massive star studded skies. Being back in the desert southwest was like coming home...to a land that is sacred and infused into my cells and bones, to a family of people and plants I hadn't seen in too many months.  Of course just being there, in the presence of that land and the memories was emotionally intense for me, feeling all the heartache of leaving a home and people I loved for a new life on the other side of the country.  Moving on to new places and experiences is never an easy thing, but I'm deeply grateful for everything I've taken from my time in the desert over the years, the ways that I found myself, the ways that I learned from the land and the plants, the friends and family.  I shed more than a few tears over the course of the weekend.

Really, hard to describe how it felt, but it was like everyone there was on equal ground- as healers, herblaists, plant people, wild ones, and explorers.  No one was left out, the community energy was phenomenal, and I'm still having withdrawl pangs from being in such a wonderful open and outstanding community of herbalists, movers and shakers.

The underlying mission of the TWHC organizers and conference is to further the growth and strength of Grassroots herbalism.  The village herbalists, and unsung heros of communities all over who are working every day with people of all walks of life bringing healing and wholing to bodies, hearts, minds and communities.  It isn't about having certain letters after your name, or how long you've studied, or what plants you use, but about really doing the work, and keeping the flame of traditional healing alive.   This is just the kind of movement we need as governments tighten down on "alternative" medicine, increase regulation of health care, food /agriculture and societal norms.  No, we won't back down, we won't go away and we will get up again and again. 

The point is here- if you missed this years conference,  make sure not to miss it next year.  Though I won't be speaking next year, you can be sure I'll be there to attend and tend to this miraculous energetic community of healers and wholers!  I hope to see you there!

Hollow

Wilderness Skills kicked off our first day of courses back at the Hollow today. The land smells of honey and hay and is showing the first colors of Autumn. Despite being busy all day, the breathing of the land filled my heartbeat with rhythm, grounding, and solace. It was good to be back.

The Skills posse is small this year - just the four die-hards and their devoted mentors. How I love their familiar faces and newly grown vertical inches. How I love their glowy eyes and sighs of "finally" when they return. How they bring the stories of the land to life.

I long sometimes to go back and ride a day in their boots. And vicariously I suppose I do. As they pressure flake, swamp-walk, groundhog skin, cattail eat... I feel if nothing else at least the next generation will be able to make a fire and feed me if necessary:). Even if only theoretical - it serves a profound need of mine to see a few children into adulthood with some valid Earthskills.

Despite not hiking the trails today, the land seemed to come to me. The wild grapes line the rock walls, the chipmunks chirp outside my office door. The amaranth punctuate the meadows, and the wild cucumber; unruly with spines.

Preliminary Syllabus for Magic & Medicine of Plants: Year long online herbal study

We've got the preliminary syllabus for the year long online herb course ready, and here it is!  Ifyou've been thinking about taking this course, now is the time to register! 
with Darcey Blue French and Sean Donahue November 1, 2010 - October 31, 2011
Plants are our ancestors and teachers.
Throughout history, people have looked to them for healing, guidance, and transformation.

In this year long course, herbalists Sean Donahue and Darcey Blue French will help you connect with the wisdom, magic, and living medicine of the plants growing around you.
Our proposed syllabus is posted below -- but is subject to change.
Tuition will be $75 a month (or $750 if you pay for the entire year in advance.) Students will also be expected to purchase herbs and books for the course.

Please register by October 25 2010- herbalists@brighidswellherbs.com


November


Origins: The Shamanic Roots of Herbalism

Plants as ancestors and teachers

How the plants speak to us

Shamanic journeying

Vitalism and the vital force: the world is alive

Finding a plant ally

Research project: Trace your ally through history and folklore

Samhain

The third harvest

Death and the healer

The underworld

Medicine making: Infusions — hot and cold, long and short

December

Awakening the heart

Anatomy of the spirit — Chinese, Ayurvedic, Celtic, Huna

Three centers of consciousness

Heart-centered consciousness

Plants from a heart-centered perspective

People from a heart-centered perspective

Treating the person, not the condition

Finding your plant ally’s unique personality

Yule

Stories of descent and return

Bringing messages back from the dreamtime

Evergreens

Medicine making: Decoctions

JANUARY

Energetics

Constitutions — Ayurvedic perspective

The body as ecosystem

Samuel Thomson and the Physiomedicalists

Energetics of herbs — hot and cold, wet and dry, stimulating and relaxing

Energetics of conditions — six tissue states

Herbal actions

Energetics of your ally and how your ally effects different constitutions and tissue states

Direction of cure: Moving from center to circumference

Medicine making: Baths and hydrotherapy

FEBRUARY

Nourishment

Primal nutrition

Insulin resistance and metabolism

Food allergies

Sleep

Exercise

Spiritual practice/meditation

Gut ecology

Nutritional deficiencies and supplementation

Conditions of the digestive system: tissue states and the herbs that match them

Imbolc

Brighid of the three fires

Nourishing the three fires

Medicine making: cooking with healing herbs

MARCH

Supporting the Immune System

Understanding the immune system

Nourishing the immune system

Immune modulation vs. immune stimulation

Vectors of transmission

Herbs for acute infection

Herbs for chronic infection

Fevers

Allergies, inflammation, and autoimmunity

Ostara

Rejuvenation

Rising sap, blood types, and Southern folk medicine

Seeds

Medicine making: Herbal vinegars

April

Paths of elimination

The myth of the “herbal detox”

Understanding “spring tonics”

The liver: functions, dysfunctions, and therapeutics

The kidneys: functions, dysfunctions, and therapeutics

Lymph and lymphatic herbs

Medicine making: The art and ethics of wildcrafting

Drying herbs

May

Mental and Emotional Health

The biology of stress

Nourishing the nervous and endocrine systems

Regulating the nervous and endocrine systems

Understanding and easing anxiety

Understanding and easing depression

Heartsickness and soul sickness

Sleep and insomnia

Beltane

Ecstasy vs.Fertility

Aphrodesiacs

Leaves

Medicine making: Tinctures and elixirs

June

Muscles and Bones

Nourishing the muscles, bones, and connective tissues

Herbs, nutrition, and muscular development

Acute injuries to muscles, bones, and connective tissues

Chronic problems of muscles, bones, and connective tissues

Midsummer

Elder, Hawthorn, and the Faery Realm

Flowers

Medicine making: Oils

July

Reproductive Health

Nourishing the reproductive system

Menstruation

Pregnancy

Contraception and fertility

Reproductive health for male bodied people

Menopause and Andropause

Sexual trauma and reproductive health

Medicine making: Salves

August

Circulation

The heart revisited

Hemoglobin and Chlorophyl

Nourishing the heart and blood vessels

Blood pressure

Stress and the heart

Peripheral circulation

Connecting the physical, emotional, and spiritual hearts

Medicine making: Flower essences

Lughnasadh

Honoring the sun

Wild nourishment

Fruits

September

Respiration

Breath

Nourishing and strengthening the respiratory system

Asthma

Acute respiratory infections

Chronic respiratory infections

Medicine making: smoking blends

Mabon

Harvest

Fall planting

Honoring and restoring our medicine places

Roots

October

What kind of herbalist are you?

Ethics for healers

Boundaries, protection, and clearing

Personal consultations on next steps on your path

Sharing of allies’ lessons

Medicine making: formulation

Samhain

The underworld journey revisited

Journeying for healing

Entheogens

Irreverent choice?

Sometimes staying authentic means pissing people off, disappointing them, or involuntarily shattering their images of you. It's not done maliciously. It's not done with spite. However it is haunting if you've attached your own self worth to their approval. But life is not an unspoken barter of worth. In the end, what matters is how you feel about your choices - are they bringing you closer to your truth, or closer to others' agendas? Are you actually breaking an agreement you made - or simply breaking someones made up expectations?

And yet it is so often that on the other side, if we as humble humans are open enough, we can realize a place that contains the richness of composted illusions and fears. We can come to a place of compassionate support and mutual honesty. We can come to a place where we find the breakdown is a gifting of deeper strength. We can discern the beautiful edges that may have lined the old structures well, and take them with us for new trim.

I will tend and water and pray and sing

The garden this year has been deeply nourishing. It is the 5th year of this garden for us here at our little farm on Whidbey. I have written before about my whole life being an adventure of moving here and there and discovering new plants and new gardens. It was so easy in the past to uproot myself and leave for new adventures. When we moved here, I knew it was permanent.

There has been a stirring in me for over 20 years to root into the land and grow from there. It started in Seattle, where Tadd and I owned a little house in Ballard. We had a eight foot thick laurel hedge growing around the perimeter of our yard. Tadd, with chainsaw in hand, cut the laurel back dramatically. We discovered that the squirrels lived in there as we disrupted their homesteads. And the summer after that clear cut, I discovered a blue elder growing out of the laurel. This was right around the time when I met Susun Weed and EagleSong. My life was to change dramatically in a very short span of time and I didn’t quite know it yet.

I began to do small rituals out my my yard, to honor the earth, to pray for my life purpose to be revealed to me and for peace. I would pour herbal infusion on the elder at the end of my rituals. The elder grew flowers and then berries that summer, right in the middle of Seattle, right in the middle of the laurel. I trusted this message and thanked Mama Earth for such a generous gift. One day when I finished my ritual, I turned to walk back in my house and from around the corner of the house flew an enormous hawk. It flew very near me and then out of sight.

I was taken to my knees by this experience. And from it I felt something grow in me that now flourishes some twenty years later. I learned that wherever I am on the Earth, it is sacred. I learned that to do what we are called to do wherever we are, whoever we are is what is needed.

I am now being called to cultivate the land here. This seems like the hardest task of all. It is the land itself that is calling for this. I could easily live here amongst the great weeds and tall grasses and not grow many plants. But I am being called into something greater than I have been before and with some reluctance and resistance I am answering the call.

It is like the shedding of the snake’s skin. I am surrendering to the fact that I am
changing. It is uncomfortable with a lot of not knowing. And like the seed that hold new life inside it, I don’t yet know what I will become with it. I will tend and water and pray and sing and trust the invisible hands that guide me on.

May it be in Beauty.

love

I am in love with the world today-
the perfect beauty etched in stone and cloud and shadow.
The sun after rain, and the clouds interrupting with their dance
across the blue bowl of sky.

I am in love with the world today-
chiaroscuro of rain and warm sun.

Blessed rain that washes over us all- like tears,
releasing the pain, the greiving,
letting go of what is passed, washing away what is old.

And the ever generous sun- returning always
to give life to sleeping seeds,
buried deep in the heart,
in earth.

I am in love with the world today-
filled with the deepest sadness and most ecstatic bliss
in the space between each breath.

The wildness of my soul aches
for days like today
everything so clear, so intense
in the contrast between love and heartache.

The beauty of this world so intense, almost too much to hold within myself.

Herbal Roots Giveaway Monday: Clay Pendant

Giveaway Monday: Clay Pendant

Stunning!

I have a couple of Rebekah's herbal pendants myself and I adore them! I of course *must* have the rose one, lol, but whoever wins this treasure will feel the same I am certain.

Return to http://www.herbalrootszine.com/2010/09/giveaway-monday-clay-pendant/

and Share - tweet - FB - blog etc for a chance to win!

Custom Tea Blending by Darcey Blue

Here's your chance for a personalized tasty tea formulated by a clinical herbalist with 8 yrs experience. Send me a message at my Zibbet Store with your needs, desires, likes, dislikes and I'll create a tasty healing blend just for you!


This purchase will be for 3 oz of your special blend, which comes loose leaf and with a reusable muslin tea bag.  $12

Customized Tea Blend at Zibbet- $12 plus shipping

Time With Trees

I love trees. They make my heart flutter.

I've spent the last couple years just adoring them; gathering some knowledge, practicing recognition, and making medicines. And of course I continue, as it's such an ongoing process.

My most treasured learnings thus far have been from Black Birch, Black Cherry, Hickory, Witch Hazel, Alder, Sassafras, Willow, Apple, Linden, Cottonwood, Juniper, Locust, Pine, Peach, and Elm.

In fact I would venture to say that collection could cover quite a panacea. I nearly feel sad for states with less abundance and varieties of trees!

As I marvel through my plethora of tinctures and elixirs overflowing their allotted counter and cabinet space, I ponder what I might share with my readers. Some days words just don't cut it. How can I possibly tell you what my black cherry elixir tastes like, or how unusually warming and comforting my black birch elixir feels?

What I really want to say, is go spend some time with trees. Smell the bark of the cherry trees. Taste the leaves of the birch. Draw each part of the tree. Watch what creatures love it for home.

Log how long it takes for the leaves to turn color, then fall. Get to know your trees.

I could pontificate or get esoteric; sharing about my thoughts while gathering black cherries. How they spoke to me of balancing labor and fruits of labor. How they coaxed me into a pleasurable rhythm as I collected, making the work easier and the reward greater. How I knew we had more rain than New Hampshire by the size and moisture in the cherry. How the Natives prized them for lung and heart conditions.

But will those be your thoughts? Wisdom you can own? Maybe not. Perhaps the cherry elixir will clear your cough the way it does mine - but my time with cherry can't replace yours, no matter how profound it was. My wind and sky and temperature on that particular day will be different. My heart was listening for wisdom applicable to my own context - and why would a friend tell all their friends the same advice?

Perhaps I can sell a bottle of my willow tincture, even filled with all the energetic magic of my time while I gathered and prepared it. But what if, instead of downing some while driving, you took that tincture while sitting under a willow tree?

So there is a part of me that wants to arrive here, for all you lovely readers and plant friends, and announce a grand medicinal realization - it makes me sound professional, wise, and well-studied. It would make me feel as though I just gave everyone some great gift of myself or stamped success on my day. But I'm not sure that today I need approval; what is greater in my heart, when I really listen, is a desire to sit under a tree with the glinting sun on it's blades, hear the lessons meant for me, and know that some others out there in the world are getting their very own session of tree healing too.