Compassionate Wisdom and the Plants in their Fullness

,,

Last night, I offered a FREE teleclass, "Compassionate Wisdom and the Plants in their Fullness, about my work as a shamanic herbalist." 

I feel such an incredible synergy in sharing the practices related to the plants in their fullness, in expanded consciousness.  

So simple, so close to home and so powerful are the shamanic herbalism practices I have learned from my teacher.  

Here is a link so that you may listen to this class.  

http://rs1614.freeconferencecall.com/fcc/cgi-bin/play.mp3/2096471075-1022555-45.mp3

At the end of the class I offer a gift, Apple Moon-Full Moon Plant Mysteries and also extra special prices on our programs until the end of tonight, the BLUE MOON-FULL MOON, August 31 , 2012. Follow this link, www.crowsdaughter.com,  and look on the left side of my website for a list of all programs.

You may email me to receive this gift and you may sign up for one of our programs with these extra special prices.  

May the Fullness of the Year and the Abundant Harvest nourish and inspire you.  

Peace and Abundant Green Blessings, Julie

I am the Hawk, Soaring Over the Land

It is the second day of snow here on our land on Whidbey Island. Sometimes the cold, dark rainy weather keeps me inside most of the day. The snow lures me outside, to explore the landscape. I noticed the other day that there were still some wild rose hips that looked beautifully red and plump down in the thicket. Today I venture down there to harvest some, knowing full well that the Vitamin C in them is potent because of the cold.

They are so easy to pluck. And the blood red color stands brillant against the white snow and grayish red stalks. I start out gathering rose hips and think I will get bored easily. But there is something about rose that lures me into another realm. I forget this truth until I am here in this expanded version of life, where love and beauty reign.

There are at least three different species of wild rose that I am noticing. The very hard, small fruit are the most vibrant at this time of year. But I venture over to the place where the large, plump hips are hanging. As I am almost to the edge of our land, I look up and overhead comes a very large hawk in its winter garb. Mostly white, with flecks of brown.

I can tell the time by this hawk. It comes in the afternoon about 2:30 pm. It flies over the land and over the garden. I am fortunate to be here at this moment to witness its flight.

Out there on the land, as the sun is ending its fullness and beginning to wane, I feel a sense of connectedness with everything. I am the hawk, soaring over the land. I am the ruby red rose hips. I am the snow, the frozen cold. I am the sun waning and the darkness approaching. I am the earth mother old and dying and the gestating infant earth, held inside the deep dark holy womb.

I remember as I write this that I am held in total darkness as the light of my existence prepares for birth. I am thankful for this vision that peace is felt first before it is seen.

May it be in Beauty.

I am sure I am headed into the mystery again.

I have been out in the garden everyday recently. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with all the weeds. This happens mostly when I take just a bit of time, when I am in a hurry. If I take the time to breathe and listen I begin to notice more and appreciate what I am witnessing.



Today I spent 3 hours weeding the Goddess Garden. This is a space within our garden shaped like a goddess. I created this just over two years ago from stones. She's about 20 feet long.
In this garden we planted oatstraw. And today I found, little plants, lamb's quarters, shephard's purse, chamomile, borage, burdock, red and yellow dock, catch-fly, couch grass and every other kind of grass.



When I stepped out of the classroom just over 13 years ago and stepped onto
the spiral path, I discovered my wildness. I was a little frightened of it and to
be honest sometimes very frightened of it. But I also loved it.
I remember discovering a weed that was growing in my garden in Ballard (Seattle)
was Nipplewort, Lapsana communis and that this plant was utilized as a poultice for
dried, cracked nipples on breast-feeding moms.
This plant that I had thought was a problem, was actually a solution.



It has only gotten better from here. Tadd and I moved from our lovely Ballard home to
a place in South West Washington called Enchanted Valley. I apprenticed with Susun Weed and
returned to our little cabin in the woods where I began my journeys into my wildness. I certainly
did cultivate plants there and in the next places I lived, but I started a practice of never weeding a plant until I knew what it was. And some wild plants that I wanted to eat in my salad and put in my soups, well, I let them grow all over the garden.



I have learned about a lot of wild plants over the last 13 years, and I have grown very fond of my wildness. I have allowed it to flourish and I have grown comfortable with those places in me
that were so frightening long ago.



Just about a week ago, I noticed that I have a strong desire to cultivate, to weed and remove many of the wild plants so that I can grow more medicinals herbs and vegetables. I have a vision of strong-rooted fruit trees as well as lindens and Hawthornes and a old growth forest of cedar and hemlock. I would love to invite, Meadowsweet, Pleurisy Root, more lavenders and thymes, and garden roses of all kinds into the garden. It is time for me to fully cultivate the garden and land here.



And as I begin this quest, this journey, I feel a little nervous that I will tame the wild, wise woman and she won't be any fun, won't know the voices of the unseen world anymore. I am sure I am headed into the mystery again. I am excited this time as I step into the wilds of cultivation and begin to plant seeds there.
Goddess only know what can happen now.

May it be in beauty.

I could actually say I am in love with the taste of wild rose honey.

One of the most delicious and deeply sensual gifts of life is Wild Rose Honey Electuary. It's taste is exquisite and its healing unfathomable. It is so simple to make. You can make it with the wild roses which are beginning their bloom right now and you can make it with any rose.

Here is how.... Venture off to a place where the wild rose grows. As you come into its presence, begin to pay attention to your breath. Detect the smell of rose, perhaps subtle at first. And then put you nose right into the bloom. (Watch for bees. :<)

Smell this delectable fragrance and give thanks for it. Now, ask the rose if you may harvest. Yes? Well then, look for the blooms who's stamens are still pale yellow. Harvest as many as you can get in a jar just about to the top. Offer gratitude once again.

Saying thank you is a practice in itself and cannot be done too much. You can harvest the roses right into your jar if you like, but when you place them in a basket, they are so beautiful. Place these beautiful roses in your jar and drizzle local, raw honey over them. This is a slow process and can be rather messy evoking the wild wise woman in you.

You will want enough honey to cover the roses. Put a lid on your jar and label this with name and date. And wait...its hard to wait for rose honey, but oh, so worth it. Six weeks is long enough, but you could actually start to taste the rose in the honey after just one day.

You can strain this with a seive and a cloth. And....you can just eat it right out of the jar. And offer gratitude again for such precious medicine. I could actually say I am in love with the taste of wild rose honey. I must just surrender to this fact.

May it be in Beauty.

Love and Beauty at my Doorstep

This piece is the first of three articles I wrote for Susun Weeds' Wise Woman eMagazine ind 2008. You can read all three installments here...http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/June08/goddess.htm

The Journey of the Rose
A Shamanic Herbal Tale in 3 parts ~ Part I

I am looking forward to the blooming of the wild roses this year. Each day making my way down into the yard to “check on them”. We have lived here on this land for just over three years. When we moved here in December of 2004, I remember one of the first things we did was to walk down into the wetland area. My husband was on this trek to “claim” the land he had chosen to steward. I was in search of plants. Who lives here? I saw the thickets of thorny bushes, but I didn’t yet know for sure they were roses.

Around 8 years ago, I discovered a magical place on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington where there are acres and acres of wild roses. I began to travel to this place to harvest the blooms in May/June and then the wild rose hips in October. Year after year I would make this pilgrimage to commune with rose. Wildcrafting wild rose blossoms is bewitching.

It begins like any other wildcrafting task..... asking, listening, thanking, plucking the blooms, sniffing here and there, tasting. But then as I continue, I find myself entering another world. Soon I am mesmerized by this thorny priestess; I am inside the realm of love and beauty. Peace abounds in this space. Loving myself is simple. Wild Rose tells me tales of how to love, who to love and how to teach love. This sacred space that beckons me, welcomes me is difficult to leave. It is soon time for me to stop harvesting so that I may get to the ferry before the last boat. Wild rose is saying pick me, pick me, more and more. I am pulling myself away from her, telling her I will return in fall to harvest her hips. I discover that even after I leave this space between the world, I can still travel there in feelings and sensations.

As spring came ‘round, our first spring here at our farm, I discovered the wild roses...still doubt sets in about whether it could possibly be true that I had chosen to live the rest of my life surrounded by this sorcière couverture. I made plans to travel to the Peninsula to harvest once again my beautiful blossoms. I returned to the spot where the wild roses spoke so loudly to me, seeking that feeling, craving the realm, hungry for it. The wild roses did speak loudly to me then and startled me. “What are you doing here?” they yelled. “You have roses on your land to harvest? You can harvest a few petals here and then you must return to your home and begin your journey there with wild rose.” I was heart broken or might I say that my heart was broken open at that moment. I realized that up until this time, I had to go seeking for love and beauty, I had to leave home to find it. Now I am being called to a simpler and yet more difficult task, to find love and beauty at my door step.

This year, I am restless to discover what wild rose will teach me. Her subtly, fragrant green leaves have already taken me in. Within her wise teachings, there is more difficulty in peeling away layers, in finding more love for myself and there is also laughter and singing to come.

May it be in Beauty.

There are three spaces left for...
The Journey of the Rose ~ Weekend Immersion in Shamanic Herbalism
May 29-30, 2010 ~ Amongst the blooming wild roses at our farm on Whidbey Island
Visit our website www.crowsdaughter.com for detailed information and to register and email us anytime.

The Green Teachings of the Fairies

“Green! ‘Tis the fairy garb of spring with million dew drops glistening.” Pedro Caulderon de la Barca, “Green and Blue”

It was just over five years ago that my husband Taddeusz and I came here to this land on Whidbey Island in Washington. We moved here from the rentals we had lived in for 7 years after selling our house in Seattle. Because we had moved so much, lived in so many places around Puget Sound, getting here to this place didn’t seem that significant at first. Another place to live, to discover, another adventure. What was to unfold as winter turned into spring could not have been known, but perhaps in the holy darkness of my psyche, I knew about the enchantment that was calling me forward.

I offered an herbal class at our farm the spring after moving here. As we walked on the land to discover the wild plant populations, one participant walked ahead of the rest of us. I saw her looking down at the ground and pointing. She said, “Look at this.” I came to the place where she stood and saw an old dead tree stump, quite small actually, with shelf mushrooms growing out of it. I knew immediately that this was the place where fairies dwelled. A gateway into their underworld sanctuary.

This place on our land became known as “The Fairy Dell” As spring came into her fullness, we discovered that “The Fairy Dell” was in the middle of a great thicket of wild roses. We told everyone who came to the land that this fairy sanctuary was off limits to humans, showing everyone where they could walk no further.

I didn’t know much about fairy lore. I had attended some talks given by R.J. Stewart and Dorothy Maclean at the Fairy and Human Relations Congress and listened intently. I read stories. And then I began to offer herbal mentorships for girls here at the farm. I did my journey work to discover what I could offer the girls. The fairies appeared in my journeys, giving me shamanic exercises in which the girls could connect with the unseen realm of these enchanted beings. The girls, ages 6-13 years old, understood the fairy language. They were delighted and seriously indulged in these experiences.

We listened, offered trinkets, libations and blessings. When the old tree fell over in a storm we created a staff with ribbons, herbs and beads to mark its place. It was this relationship that the girls had with the fairies that created a place in me to believe and to listen.

The fairy realm is intricatedly connected with the green world. A deva is a plant in its true and entire essence. Offered here are a few shamanic exercises in which you can discover the teachings of the fairies first hand right where you live.

This First Meditation/Journey can be done in a comfortable chair in your home:

• Close your eyes and find yourself at home outside in your garden or yard.
• Within this space, go to a plant with which you feel a connection.
• Notice your breath.
• Breathe in and out 3 time naturally.
• Now breathe and imagine you are breathing in the breath of this plant. Breathe out and offer your breath to the plant.
• Ask your plant, this plant, “What have you for me?” and listen.
• Now look down at the base of the plant where it comes out of the ground. Look for movement, as if you can see the wind.
• Acknowledge this as the fairy beings that dwell around this plant.
• Watch this energy move, and see if you can sense this energy communicating with you. What might it be telling you? Listen.
• When you sense this is complete, step back from the plant and acknowledge it by saying thank you.
• Open your eyes.

Activating the Fairy~Plant Connection: You are going to be activating the fairy~plant connection. The Devic realm will be honored and blessed. The magical realm of the plants will be activated. Fairies and Devas work together in the magical realm of the plants. This ceremony will open these realms. It can be done in each season.

• Fill a bowl with water, and place plants in it.
• Choose plants with which you feel a strong connection. Ask permission before gathering these plants and offer gratitude.
• Hold the bowl of water and plants in your hands.
• Breathe in and out, allowing the entireness of the plant to be breathed into you. As you breathe out, offer your entire self to the plant. Do this for 21 breaths.
• When this is complete, offer this water at the base of an old tree and offer gratitude to the fairies~devas~plants~water.

Song of the Birds: The fairies say that when you breath the song of the birds into your body, when you are in the garden or surrounded by plants, that you go to the place where plants walk around like humans and speak in the language you can understand.

• Find a place where you can sit and listen to the song of the birds.
• Close your eyes.
• Listen to the songs, breathe the songs into your body, feel it enter you body.
• Allow the song of the birds to take you to the unseen realm of the plants. And see what you discover.
• When you are home, cooking in your kitchen, open the window and allow the bird song into your kitchen. Breathe it in. This will bring the fairy energy into your home.

The connections with the fairy realm are not always light and fanciful. The fairies are powerful beings with strong intentions and will ask you to do things for them. Be strong in your own intentions as you begin this connection and trust your own intuition always.

May it be in Beauty.

First Printed in The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries, Spring 2009
www.thebeltanepapers.net

i listen

A rule for participants visiting our land and farm:
Do not to pick any plants or gather anything unless you ask me first.

please honor the land
come into relationship
with plant and animal
people grab and rip grass
seeds taken
tulip petal stolen
Crazy witch?

noticing grass
between my fingers
i greet my apple tree
she shares her wisdom
voices of the land
whispers of plants

a feather
on the ground
is this something
for me?
compassionate beings
changing me

breath
attention
intention
a whole world
opens

i listen

Before St. Patrick

I can easily say,
I love rain.
I love gray days
the holy darkness
that holds our world
when it rains.

Stinging Nettle shone
vibrant green
in the rain.
Full of life force,
presence.
There is a
new green,
this time of year.
From deep, down
in the fertile earth,
comes life once more.
I think perhaps
that before St. Patrick
there was
The Green.

Invisible Quiet

I walked out on the land today.
I asked the apple tree for some advise about my work.
I walked up under the Douglas fir trees and greeted the burdock,
who’s leaves are almost invisible now.
I collected a few evergreen branches to feed to my goats.
I looked down at the beautiful beech leaves on the ground,
amber and glistening from rain.
I looked up at the majestic cedar.
Outside, I was quiet and slow.
Witnessing, listening, feeling.
Inside, I am working through,
continuing, calling, crafting, journeying, writing,
emailing, dreaming, intending, and affirming.
My inner world is very busy right now creating.
My outer world is gently being.
I was reminded by my walk out onto the earth,
that the gentle slow and low energy of this new moon day,
can nurture me best outside. I will follow earth’s energy inward,
and work diligently on the inside.
And I will allow myself to notice the
invisible quiet of the earth on the outside.

May it be in Beauty.

Calling us into Relationship, October Blog Party: Bio-regional herbs for Colds and Flu

Click on this link to visit Rosalee de la Foret's blog and links to many other herbalists who has written their blogs with the theme: Bio-regional herbs for Colds and Flu
http://methowvalleyherbs.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-blog-party-bio-regional-herbs.html

When I moved to Whidbey Island, just over 7 years ago, I had a good relationship with a few plants that boosted my immune system and helped me release viral and bacterial infections, helped me soothe myself through being sick and support me back to wellness. Some of these plants didn’t grow where I lived and so I depended on buying the fresh root and at times the dry root to make tincture. I had no idea what I would find here, on this precious island, and I am still amazed every time I think about it.

At a recent plant walk I offered on the island, I spoke to participants of how we don’t need to worry so much about colds and flus on Whidbey Island because we are surrounded by amazing immune system plants. I will share a bit about a few of these plants, how to prepare them simply at home and then at the end offer a few ways to nourish your immune system so that you are less likely to contact a cold or flu in the future.



Wild Rose Rosa nutkana and other species:
We have wild roses here on our land on Whidbey Island, almost an acre of them. They are in abundance all over the island as well as all over Western Washington, into the mountain and beyond. Wild Rose is anti-viral to name just one of many ways this plants offers itself to us. I met a man years back at an herbal conference who had done significant research on Pacific Yew as an anti-cancer herb. He told me that at University of British Columbia in Canada, they were testing some native plants for their anti-viral properties and the wild rose rosa nutkana, leaf and flower tincture killed the cold virus in the laboratory.
I was amazed and excited, I had some wild rose tincture at my booth, which is what sparked the conversation. I had not utilized it in this way. I began to make the tincture as he suggested and have utilized it now when I have a cold. It has been gentle and very effective in my healing. Students of mine have used it and we have found that it strongly supports healing, and can turn what appears "bad" to "not so bad "in a short amount of time. This “Pacific Yew Man” as I call him, said that he believed that wild rose hips tincture would have a similar effect. My husband and I now utilize both of these preparations for healing our upper respiratory infections. One of the beautiful things about this herbal preparation of wild roses is that it also supports the relaxation of the nervous system, which is beneficial when we are sick. It helps bring us into a more positive perspective about our health.

You can easily make wild rose tincture and wild rose hips tincture yourself at home. Right now, the wild rose hips are ripe and ready to offer themselves to you for healing.

• Find a stand of wild rose hips from which to harvest. Spend some time with the plants and breathe in their oxygen, breathe out offering your breath. Listen and see what these plants specifically have for you.
  
• Ask their permission to harvest and gather the wild rose hips in a basket or cloth bag. Say thank you for such beautiful medicine. If these rose hips are in abundance, gather enough to dry as well for infusions full of Vitamin C and pectin.
  
• Place your wild rose hips in a jar, filling it 2/3 full with these ripe red berries. Fill the jar again with 100 proof vodka. (You can now find organic vodka at the liquor store) Put a lid on your tincture and label it with name, date and perhaps something the plant spoke to you. Let this brew sit for six weeks, the turn of a season.
  
• Strain it through a sieve with a clean cloth draped over it. Squeeze out the liquid, as much as you can and place this incredible life giving medicine into a beautiful bottle.
  
• My husband and I use 25 drops about every 3 hours when we are right in the middle of a cold and then lessen it to once or twice a days as we are getting better.
  
• Next year, when spring is turning to summer, you can gather the wild rose flower and leaf tips and make a tincture in the same way.

One of my practices that keeps me connected with the compassionate wisdom of the plants that I utilize for medicine is to continue to thank the plants for their healing. And so I return to the plants again and again and wish them well, say thank you and remember what they have offered me.



Lomatium Lomatium nudicale: I found out about this plant from Ryan Drum, www.ryandrum.com, at an herbal conference. I had heard of Lomatium dissectum, a plant that is strongly overharvested. Ryan talked about how traditionally, the seed of the lomatium nudicale was utilized by the native first people here around Puget Sound. He said it was much more sustainable to harvest the seed than the root and really, the root is not a traditional medicine. I was intrigued with his stories.
I had just moved to Whidbey Island and asked him if he thought this plant grew on our island. He said “Yes” that he had seen it up near the central part of the island on the beach. I purchased lomatium seed from Ryan so that I could make tincture with it and begin to bring its medicine into my life. I have found the place where Lomatium nudicale grows on the beach. It is a member of the carrot family, and has a beautiful low growing umbel of seeds that ripen in late summer. I am excited to share this medicine with others, passing on its gentle and effective healing of upper respiratory infections. I also discovered that it has been called the “Indian Consumption Plant”
There is one more bit about it that is significant here. The Lomatium nudicale seed is a spirit healer as well. It was given to another when the giver wished to be heard. This to me represent relationship. And I have found in my studies and journeys that the immune system is about just that, relationship.
This plant is a little more elusive than wild rose. But if you do happen onto it, gather the lomatium seeds in late summer and make a tincture very similar to the directions above. Infused honey is another preparation that can be helpful when we are in need of support in healing a cold or flu. In this case, fill a jar half full with the lomatium seeds and pour local, raw honey over this to the top. You can use this preparation in a week or two, but do wait for at least six weeks for it. It will be worth it.
Tinctures are such a great way to make herbal medicine last for long period of time. I like to advocate that people also make infusion with plants. The mineral richness of the healing herbs will be extracted in a strong tea that sits for a long time. This is also the more traditional use of the herb.
Infusion of Wild Rose Hips:

• Pour one quart of boiling water over one ounce of dry rose hips.
  
• Let this sit for 4-8 hours.
  
• Strain off the liquid and put the wild rose hips in a saucepan with more water.
  
• Boil this for a long time.
  
• Strain this through a cloth draped sieve (so you don’t get the little hairs inside the hips)
  
• Add the two liquids to each other.

This is an exquisite infusion and full of goodness.

There are two , two weeds, that grow in my garden and on our land with which I make nourishing herbal vinegars. They are Dandelion Root Taraxacum officinale and Burdock Root Artium lappa. Now is the time to harvest these roots. They are filled with inulin, a starchy substance that nourishes your gut flora. It is becoming more and more widely known that most of the immune system is in the gut. When you have a healthy gut, you are well. Here is a link to a blog post I offered awhile back with instructions for harvesting dandelion root and making an herbal vinegar with it.
http://crowsdaughtersherbs.blogspot.com/2008/01/dandelion-has-been-potent-ally-of-mine.html
You might think the dandelion root would be bitter, but right now it has sweetness in it. I put this dandelion root vinegar on my salads, in my soups and on my well cooked greens.

The healing plants are calling us into relationship. "Come outside" they say, " And discover a whole new world of nourishment and healing at your doorstep."

May it be in Beauty.

The Alchemy of Our Divine Nature

I walked out this morning as the sun rose over the tall evergreen trees, to check on my goats and to visit the tipi that sits on our land. I stood in the bowl (a natural concave) before the tipi entrance and look up at Grandmother Cedar, released my burdens, sloughed off what is no longer useful and entered the tipi to replace the water and check on the now dowsed fire. Our Summer Solstice~New Moon Earth Celebration last night was powerful and precious. Fourteen people gathered for community potluck and then new moon ritual to release anything we no longer want for ourselves, our families, our community our world. And then we gathered blessings for our world, scattered rose petals for love and beauty, laid yarrow stalks for transformaton and placed cedar boughs on our path to bless each step we take in the world. I am moved by the rituals we have here, I receive a great deal from them and am inspired to know that each person evokes their own inspiration.



It was mentioned last night that the word Solstice means "pause". My shamanic teachers have offered wisdom to me about this time of year as not a waning but a widening, an expansion of the earth's energies and a great time of manifestation. At Summer Solstice, the energy of the earth is fully activated from the deepest parts of the earth up and out to the deepest reaches of the cosmos, connecting us with our ancient past and our ancestors and also into our infinite future. My garden this morning was powerful, so many plants speaking to me, offering themselves to me.



There are a few plants that bring their most potent medicine at Summer Solstice. St. Joan's Wort, Hypericum perforatum, connects us with the soul of who we are. She is a most precious nervous system nourisher and healer and a plant teacher. Plant teachers are those plants that will heal anything and everything. St. Joan's Wort is one such plant. Nervous system, liver, immune system, energetic system, healing thoughts, emotions and spirit. The beautiful yellow flowers reveal within them, a deep magenta-red substance who's smell calms and who's medicine is like to other.



We have a native Artemesia plant here on Whidbey Island, Artemesia suksdorfii. This powerful plant's fragrance is intoxicating and calls me over whenever I am in the garden the last few days. I utilize her for bringing focus to my dreams. I will gather the flowering stalks now to dry and make smudges and to place under my pillow. I won't use her indicriminately though. She is powerful enough that I use utmost integrity and intention when I evoke her magic.



Yarrow, Achillea millefolium grows wild on the beaches here on Whidbey and in my garden wild, from plants I transplanted from my beach home. Yarrow is utilized by wise woman who want to stop excessive bleeding, flooding during menopause. She also is a native healer for the immune system and a wound healer. I call upon her to transform my entire being, bring new manifestation to my world. I dreamed of her years ago...a phoenix in a garden burst into flames and was reborn as a yarrow plant.



We have an incredible opportunity to transform our lives, our world into one that works for all beings. It is already here before us, we only need evoke new thoughts to see and receive it. Noticing what is working, speaking prayers of peace, of prosperity and humanity, of kindness and nourishment, of inclusion for all in this sacred earth community is what will transform our thoughts. It is the alchemy of our divine nature that supports the growth and expansion of this new world.



A simple practice to support this perspective:

• Write down 100 things in your life that are working.
• Write down 100 gratitudes.
• Say thank you to 10 people everyday that have helped and supported you in any way.

May it be in beauty.

A Wild Thing to Do

It was been a beautiful spring and early summer here on Whidbey Island. We have had more sun than usual at this time of year and the garden is expressing herself exuberantly. I have planted a few vegetables this year and have been rewarded with wonderful romaine lettuce, dinosaur kale, and walla walla sweet onions. More veggies to come soon.... What I am especially enjoying this year are the weeds. I am inspired to share a few ways to utilize the weeds in your garden. It is quite a wild thing to do and offers you incredible minerals and even healing in every mouthful.

Our Chickweed Stellaria media is still coming up in many places, cool evenings and shady area are helpful for its continuation. Chickweed is cooling, nourishes our skin, our eyes, and is a tonic for the heart among other wise healing ways.
Sow Thistle Sonchus oleracea is another wild green packed with mineral salts. You may be weeding this plant out, even cursing it and not realized its potential for nourishing.
Isla Burgess tells us in her book, Weed's Heal that Sow Thistle cools fevers, returns health to intestinal issues, and nourishes the blood.



Lamb's Quarters Chenopodium album: I am so happy this weed returned to my garden this year. It is one of my favorite cooked greens, it out does kale and spinach for mineral richness and flavor.
Wild Greens Pesto: Gather chickweed, sow thistle leaves and lamb quarter leaves (the ladder two best harvested before flowering) cut them up just a bit and put them in a food processor with a bit of olive oil and sea salt. Blend this and add more olive oil until you get a nice paste. If you have basil you could add a bit of that for flavor, or any of the Mediterranean herbs (Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano).You can add fresh garlic if you like or fresh young onions from your garden. Cook whole wheat spaghetti pasta until al dente, strain and mix in your pesto. Sprinkle parmesan or feta cheese on this and serve immediately. Enjoy!



Red Clover Trifolium pratense infusion and vinegar: The red clover returned this year with a gusto. The deep fushia flowers are abundant and covered with bees. I have been harvesting the flowers everyday and placing them on a flat basket away from direct sunlight to dry. The warmth of the summer days helps to dry them quickly. When dry, they are ready to infuse ~ fill a jar with the dry red clover flowers, don't pack them just drop them in and fill the jar again with boiling water. Place a lid on this and leave it on the counter overnight. Strain it and drink. Iced is nice during the summer months. Red Clover nourishes your blood, your liver, your lungs, is anti-cancer and anti-tumor and is very calming. Red Clover connects us with our bloodline and promotes a sense of happiness. What an amazing repetoire for a weed!
If you have an abundance of flowers, gather them and fill a jar with them packing slightly. Then pour organic apple cider vinegar over them, label this with name and date and let this sit for about six weeks. When you strain this, you will have a sweet, nourishing and tonifying treat.



Oh, Dandelion Taraxacum officinale: There are countless ways to utilize this precious, potent plant. The dandelion leaves right now are full of the bitter richness that support healthy digestion. Gather the dandelion leaves in a basket. Hold several leaves at one time and snip them small. Fill a jar with these leaf pieces and then fill again with organic apple cider vinegar.
Six weeks of infusing allow the abundant minerals to be released into the vinegar. Strain this and eat it on salad, on cooked green (someone say lamb's quarters) or put a teaspoon of vinegar in a glass with water and drink 10 minutes before eating. This will support your body to metabolize more minerals.

When I gather plants for eating and for crafting, I always ask permission to harvest. The plants are most often agreeable to my request. I listen to these compassionate beings and I am told which leaves to harvest, how much and sometimes other bits of wisdom are offered. It is a life close to the earth that is cultivated with this practice.

May it be in Beauty.

Ignited in Me Was the Wise Woman

I have been on the spiral path of the wise woman for almost 15 years now. Before that first step onto the path, I was a therapeutic teacher at a school for homeless children in Seattle. It was very stressful and joyful work. My energy was depleted in ways that I didn't realize at that time. I loved my work and yet needed to strongly commit myself to it again and again to continue it.

My husband, Taddeusz, worked in an involuntary psychiatric facility on Capital Hill. A woman came to give an in-service to the staff and shared a healing perspective with him that drew him in. He purchased a book, Healing Wise by Susun S. Weed from the trainer, EagleSong. He came home and showed it to me, and I think attempted to give it to me. I looked through it and found only a few herbs listed. I tossed it aside thinking I might look at it later. Tadd then invited me that next spring to go on a plant walk with EagleSong at Discovery Park. We learned of the wild plants you could eat and utilize medicinally. I enjoyed this and discovered a very sweet place at this park where the energy was magical. Tadd invited me to harvest nettle that spring also, which we did and hung in our basement from the ceiling to dry.
The next year, I attended the Women of Wisdom conference and signed up for EagleSong's class. She came in dressed in a long black dress, hobbling on a walking stick and throwing french fries around the room. (Salt of the earth.) She spoke...I am Black Eagle Woman, daughter of.... granddaughter of ....., great great granddaughter of ..... I began to cry and couldn't stop for a long time. I don't remember anything else about this workshop, only that EagleSong had cracked open a door for me and pushed me through.
I also met Susun Weed at this conference. She overwhelmed me with compassionate wildness in her evening talk. She jumped around on the stage and grabbed her breasts and said things like, "How can milk and eggs be bad for women, we are milk and eggs!!" Another step on the spiral path.
I signed up for The Ultimate Alchemical Circle that spring at Ravencroft, EagleSong's homestead farm in Monroe, and there I met my sisters, my wild companions. And I chose to dance with Stinging Nettle. I began to drink nourishing herbal infusions of nettle often and even brought this brew to school with me.

And then something strange began to happen. Where I once was contented to be a school teacher inside a little room in the Central District of Seattle, I found myself looking outside. I began to dream of spending time outside instead of in the classroom and even took my students on plant walks around the neighborhood where we collected dandelion flowers and plantain leaves for oils and salves.
Then came the crows. Crows began to come and sit outside the window of my classroom on the fence and look in at me. I was soon discontent to be in the classroom. What was once my passionate calling was now crumbling before me and what was ignited in me was the wise woman.

Stinging Nettle led me further on. I followed. Nettle helped me forget things so that I could re-member other things. Nettle nourished the cellular memory in me of being a shamanic herbalist. Nettle nourished my body, so deeply depleted and changed me. I am a shamanic herbalist because of these wise teachers. And I am so thankful.

Nourishing Herbal Infusion of Stinging Nettle: It is time to harvest Sister Spinster Stinging Nettle now.

• Harvest her before she flowers cutting about four inches from the ground, leaving a set of leaves so that she can grow again.
• Hang her upside down in a warm, dry place until the stems are quite dry.
• Store the dry nettle in paper bags in a cool, dark place.
• And...place one ounce of dry stinging nettle in a quart jar, fill to the top with boiling water and let this sit 4-8 hours (overnight is great).
• Strain her nourishing brew and drink hot or cold.

Listening with Stinging Nettle:

• Heat the Nettle infusion to just below boiling
• Pour this into your favorite teacup.
• With cup in hand, sit wherever you love to sit when drinking tea.
• Sip the infusion
• Savor the flavors, the temperature of the infusion and notice her many qualities.
• Begin to listen to your body’s response to the brew.
• Take note.
• Now, ask the question, “What nourishes me?”
• Listen for a response, notice thoughts and feelings that come into your consciousness.
• Ask this question at least three times.
• When you have finished your cup of infusion, rinse the cup and place it on the counter in your kitchen.
• Give thanks for Stinging Nettle
• Give thanks for the things that nourish you.
• Give thanks for the ways you nourish yourself.

May it be in beauty.

Visit our website www.crowsdaughter.com for the latest news about apprenticeships, classes, immersions, events and celebrations.

A Time of Great and Small Movements

What an incredible time to be alive.
We as humans have the opportunity to create our lives as works of art.
This spring time energy of emergance feels to me like the emergance of a new way, a new culture and we are crafting it with each breath, each thought, each intention, each act, bringing forth a world of peace and abundance.
I have been paying close attention to the energy of spring this year. Emergance is a powerful force. When I look down at the grown and see the deep, red Valerian leaves breaking ground and growing little by little up toward the sun, I think I understand how to change. When I think about the wild, winds yesterday, rushing through the towering Douglas Fir Tree on our land, I think I know how to change.
Because emergance is a transitional time, a time of great and small movements, it can be challenging to pin down how to nourish ourselves. Nurturing ourselves during this seasonal and cosmic shift will help us embody fully what we perceive as our most precious path. I have found that focusing on what is emerging and how to nurture myself through great change has helped me to stay focused on the sensory aspect of living and create my story from within me.

Here is an shamanic exercise that will help to nurture emergance:

• Find a comfortable place to sit, inside or outside.
• Notice your breath and breathe in and out three times.
• Allow things to emerge, to bubble up, to pop out. What comes to mind?
• Write it down, then again and again 27 times
• These things you have written down are like a puzzle, a dream interpreted. Read these and discover themes.
• What you decipher from this is what is emerging for you.
• Find ways to nurture these things.
• This is a very creative, wild way to take your thoughts and utilize them to discover what calls you and to nurture it.

This time of emergance is a wonderful time to discover and enhance self love. Nourishing Herbs are a wonderful way to give ourselves the mineral richness that Earth provides at our doorsteps. Stinging Nettle is initiating herself all over the place now. Soon she will be large enough to harvest and dry for nourishing herbal infusions. Oatstraw, wild, nourishing and estatically vibrant plant can be planted right now to harvest in summer. These two plants bring nourishment to our blood, bones, energetic and nervous systems and so much more. Stinging Nettle nourishes change and oatstraw bring focus to our consciousness. This is a good place to start loving ourselves from the inside.
May it be in beauty.

Visit our website, www.crowsdaughter.com, for a full list of apprenticeships, classes and more.

In Your True Tongue

I am eager to garden this year.
I was outside today with my hori hori knife,
lifting some buttercups out of the garden spaces.
The earth is pretty frozen in many places still and I am ready for spring.
I am impatient.
If ever there was an appropriate time to be impatient this would be it.
Waiting, waiting, anticipating, quickening, initiating, emerging........
Opening my eyes to this new world.
What do I see?
I see possibility
I see new green nettle shoots emerging when I look closely at the ground.
I see new ways to think about my life and my work.
I see deep, red raspberry buds emerging from long, curved stalks.
I see a new way to look at money and finances that serves me,
sustains me and nurtures the well being of the world.
I see the emerging tips of daffodill leaves and flowers.
I see the way to take good care of myself and my family and get all of my work done.
I see my pregnant goat, Fille Luna.
I am ready.
I invite you to step outside into this new world and see for yourself
that what you dream and desire is within your reach.
Within us is possibility.
When we find it,
we are then able to bring into being
our heart’s desire.

Take a deep breath of oxygen, that which is offered to us by the trees, the plants.
Breathe and know that within our cycles of breath we are connected with all of life.
Imagine for a minute that the heart of this new world is beginning to beat in time
with the deep resonant beat of Mother Earth’s rhythm.
The energy of the heart at this time of year is green. Green for newness and green for aliveness and growth.
And now connect this heart felt energy with your deep red of your womb space (the true heart shaped organ and our deep dark wisdom center).
Breathe a breath into your heart, and now a breath into your womb,
Again your heart, again your womb,
and again your heart and again your womb.
This connection will enable you to speak your true tongue.
In your true tongue, tell someone you love about your heart’s desire.

May it be in Beauty.

Crow's Laughter Mystery School Offering for 2009:
Call or email for more information and to request an apprenticeship application.
360-579-2319 ~ julie@crowsdaughter.com

Women and Plants ~ Shamanic Herbal Apprenticeship Program
Next sessions begin May 1 and September 18, 2009 ~ 16 Months, Comprehensive Immersion in the shamanic herbal tradition of the Wise Woman. Call or email to request an apprenticeship application.

The Journey of the Rose ~ Weekend Immersion in Shamanic Herbalism
June 13-14, The Wild Roses will guide us as we listen, make herbal preparations
and acquaint ourselves with their mysteries

Herbal Wisdom Circle ~ Plant teacher for February is Garlic
February 21, 2009 ~ 10:30-2:30
Monthly open circle, come to as many as you like, discounts when you sign up
with friends and multiple circles.

Crow's Daughter's Herbal and Earth Teachings ~ Individual Sessions
I work intuitively, consulting my shamanic helpers to offer you what is needed.
Sessions are experiential. You will be connecting with your wisdom through time in nature, creative arts, and deep listening. I recommend multiple sessions to delve deep into the heart of what you desire. Available at our farm on Whidbey Island and in Seattle at BodySong Healing and Art Center.

The Compassionate Nature of Plants ~ 13 Month Home Study Course in Shamanic Herbalism, an opportunity to begin crafting a deeply nourishing life where you live.
Start anytime, participate at home. 13 monthly assignments with daily practice lessons, 9 seasonal assignment, phone consultations, and discounts on our other classes.

Abundant Earth ~ Prosperity Circle
Monthly on the 2nd Tuesday, 6:30-9:30 pm
Details on our website soon. Call or email to reserve your space.
The Well ~ A Study Group for Women
First Wednesdays, 7-9 pm ~ February 4, March 4
A group for women to explore the wise woman tradition, nourishing ourselves deeply and connecting with the treasures within us.

First Green Earth Celebration
Feb 1 ~ 2-5 pm
Free event ~ Everyone welcome, children are encouraged to attend

Herbal Wisdom Mentorship for Girls
Monthly: Jan 31, Feb 28, March 28, April 25, May 30 ~ Fee is by donation
Come explore the amazing healing way of plants ~ Learn to see through the eyes of the wise woman ~ Discover your plant ally ~ Learn to listen and talk to plants.
Dark of the Moon Lodge
Sunday, February 28, 7:30 pm
Nourishing supper, Talking Stick, Co-created ritual

Classes in the Community ~ Seattle and beyond:
Herbalism of Place ~ Beginning with Spring
February 7, 10-12 pm
Living Earth Herbs, Bellingham, (360) 734-3207

2009 Women of Wisdom Conference
February 13-16, 2009
Saturday, 5-6 pm ~ The Trees Know
www.womenofwisdom.org
✂ ✂ ✂
Abundant Earth Prosperity Circle
February 25, 6:30-9:00 pm
BodySong Healing and Arts Center in Seattle

Edibles and Medicinals Plant Walk
North Seattle CC~May 9, 10:30-12:30
www.learnatnorth.com

9th Annual Fairy Congress
June 26-28. Eastern WA
Julie teaches two classes:”The Lore of Roses”
and “The Green Teachings of Your Garden Fairies”
www.fairycongress.com