Early Registration for Weaving the Wheel of the Year is Dec 15!

"The mother of us all, the oldest of us all, Hard, splendid as rock, let the beauty you love, be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth"~ Rumi ~

The Early Bird registration date for Weaving the Wheel of the Year is approaching this week!  Anyone who registers by Dec 15 is going to receive a sweet welcome gift package right around Yule time!  If you've been thinking of joining in for the journey, don't wait, and get started with your connection to yourself- to the Earth- and to Spirit in the season of Yule!  

Weaving the Wheel Monthly Payments

Monthly Payments : $125.00USD - monthly

 

Weaving the Wheel - Full Payment

Full Payment $1,425.00 USD

 

Weaving the Wheel of the Year

Do you feel the seasonal shifts of the Earth in your heart, bones, and spirit?

Are you yearning to find meaningful ways to connect with and honor these energies of the Earth and your spirit?

Do you have a sense that the power and magic of the Earth and the plants is something you could tap into for your healing and well being?

Do you notice the ways that certain plants seem to become more vibrant and powerful at different times of the year?

Would you like to learn practical and effective ways to nourish and prepare your body, your home, and your spirit to live in tune with these seasonal cycles and shifts through food, herbal medicine, ritual, and community?

Do you feel like a kitchen goddess, who enjoys brewing up pots of soup, creative meals, herbal brews, and magical potions for your family and friends?

Are you ready to dive whole-heartedly into all this and more?

Then join me on a powerful journey deep into the medicine and power of the seasonal shifts that our beloved home, Earth, moves through each year. I have spent many years as an herbalist wandering the wild lands of the west- the deserts and mountains, and the east- forests and fields, watching, sensing, and learning about how the seasons, and the seasonal shifts effect our biology, our spirits, and our life journey. I have sat with the plants and learned so much from them through personal experience and communion. They have shared how to spiral into the energy of each season with plant medicine, with appropriate foods, with ritual and ceremony, and nature awareness. My life has been deeply changed and fully nourished by sitting on the Earth and feeling her power and her moods. Now I would like to share this experience and journey with you- so that you too may be deeply nourished from Gaia’s healing plants, foods and energies.

In this unique program you will receive an in-depth, hands on and heart-centered lesson and herbal medicine for each quarter and cross quarter day for a full year. That is 8 lessons and 8 seasonally appropriate herbal medicines to help you balance and attune to the energies of the earth happening around you and within you. Plus access to a community of like minded spirits, and specific practices and suggestions for you from me as you explore!

You will recieve every 6 weeks (8 times per year):

• 1 seasonally appropriate herbal medicine to help you attune and adjust to the seasonal energy (2 oz tincture, 2 oz tea, 1 plant or flower essence, 2 oz oil or salve)
• 1 surprise gift for your ceremony, practice or celebration of each season
• A lesson jam packed with information about the seasonal energies present at each quarter and cross quarter day, plants and herbal medicines that can support you in each seasons energy and work, seasonally appropriate activities to do alone or with your family, journaling questions and more.
• Periodic emails highlighting special natural events, shifts, and resources as you work within the program.
• Access to a private community web space to share your discoveries, challenges and inspirations and stay in touch through the years changes.
• A private teleconference for participants only each 6 weeks with Darcey on a seasonally appropriate topic and Q&A session.

If you are ready to discover your deep and powerful connections with the rhythms of the Earth and her seasons through herbal medicine, healing foods, and time spent on the Earth, then join me today for this amazing journey!

Program begins on Imbolc/St. Brighid’s Day, February 1, 2012 and continues through mid January 2013. Space is limited in this unique and transformative journey, and will close early if all the spaces fill before the deadline!

Registrations accepted through Jan 15, 2012.

Join me today for an amazing journey into Earth, Self, Plants and Connection!

Ready to sign up right now!? 

Register Here!

Gaia's gift of Weather: Thoughts on Hurricane Irene, Preparedness and Presence

Much of the Eastern seaboard, including my little spot in western Vermont is under the baleful eye of Hurricane Irene. Despite the scare tactics and fear mongering I saw in the news this week, it has been a wonderful opportunity to tune in to the messages of the land,  to pay attention to what needs tending in our immediate surroundings, and to harness the power of Gaia's breath.

In the days before the onset of the storm, I spent some time preparing myself and my home for the effects of the storm- making sure I had ways to care for myself, even if power went out or I was cut off from travel due to downed trees or flooding.  I have extra water, a source of heat and fire for cooking (both a wood stove and wood and a propane cook stove), plenty of non perishable foods- canned fish, beans, hearty greens, lactofermented pickles, sauerkraut, apples and such.  My herbal pantry is stocked with nervines, and I've been imbibing nervine teas with chamomile and lavender.

    And certainly not least, I've spent a good portion of the weekend outside on the land- feeling the incredible stillness and anticipation in the air.  All the plants and trees communicating their awareness and readiness for the oncoming storm- reassuring me that storms come and go, and life continues to flourish and flower.  I gathered medicines for the upcoming winter months- elderberries, alder branches, boneset, hawthorn berries - and put them up into elixirs, oils, and tinctures.

This storm is a reminder to be to always be living each moment fully- fully present, aware and connected.  That each moment is precious- whether it is our last or one of many more to come.  Things around us can change in the blink of an eye, or in a matter of hours in a storm.  And to be well prepared for life's storms.  Although we can't anticipate everything that might come our way, we can prepare ourselves, through attention and presence, and wise planning to have on hand the resources we might need in many cases.  Food, medicine, community support, back up plans.

As the winds are picking up here, I'm struck by the awesome power and beauty in the storm at hand.  It brings me closer to my humanity, and more in touch with the precious present moment, the trees that surround my house, the river that runs through this little mountain town, my senses are fully aware.

While this storm is blowing through, I'm thinking of the things I'd like to release and wash away, and what I'd like to breath power and life into.  The elements of water and air-  emotion and mental precision. Set your intention with forethought and passion- use the power of these elements to manifest, release and empower.

Wishing safety and peace to all as we journey through this storm!

Song for the Night Rain

soft summer night rain song...oh the longing, oh the wistful ache, oh how too fast life blows by in a blink of the eye.

i want to be reborn as a mighty old mother oak tree...watching the twist and swirl of life currents, 

earth spirals on tree time...

to feel seasons pass as if dreams, upon waking finding a new dream to dream, 

feel the rotting of leaf matter feeding, and the fleeting burst of mushrooms rising to the occasion...

to know the dark secret heart of Her, to touch with outstretched roots the firey creation of her fecund womb

to caress with leafy fingers aloft, along with moonshine, and cloud mist, the miracle of her ceaseless respiration 

to taste the raindrops and summer dew as the sweet nectar that falls from her breast

and feel the snowy down, the cocoon for metamorphosis 

from dying, to birthing, to living. 

each leaf that drops a blessing, and an offering to her fertile altar

the fruit that falls, endless potential,

 neverminding the bears and boars that consume them, 

making pregnant with the seed of my tree soul, 

to birth again, a new potential

My dreams transformed to fruit in the alchemy of life eating life.

Labor pains

I think spring is coming...its like my friend Ananda says, the heaving of freeze, thaw, rain, snow, around and around again.

I hear more birds in the morning dawn hours, and this morning I noticed just a blush of red on the branches of the maple tree out the front window. But the snow is piled high, and the giant slush puddles expand daily...sometimes freezing tight, and at times hidden beneath a layer of fresh snow, splooshing messily when I walk out to the random piles of compost since the pile got plowed under.

I can feel changes in my body. I want to eat spring greens... I mean salad. Thats nuts especially since it is cold out still, but there is something stirring none-the-less.

But the heaving is wearisome, the heaving is hard. Its like giving birth- labor pains of pushing and pulling, giving some and then taking back. Winter hasn't lost its grip, but the Spring Equinox is around the corner. The winter Hag cackles as she goes down fighting the young spring Maiden. The veil of mist rises and rolls in from the river as the snow begins to sublimate in the field below. It whispers of spring, with a kiss of damp. Its not the bite of icy constriction, but the clammy gentle rush of wet on the skin.

No matter how I might try to stay in my dark winter hibernation, the changes are afoot, and I can't really stop them. We are likely moving from this land/house, which I think is mostly good, but has its drawbacks. It also means I have NO IDEA what sort of garden plans I can make at this point. At all. I mean assuming we move by the beginning of may, and there is a space, there is still time to put in a sort of garden. But I haven't bothered to order or start seeds, because it is just too much effort to move all that around. I'll just buy plants if I get a chance to put in a garden somewhere.
If not, I suppose I'll put out for CSA again. And hope to get enough to can and pickle for the winter.

I'm pretty sure the clinic we moved up here to see clients out of is a bust. We've dealt with 4 different business managers to no avail. I think I'll just turn a corner of our new place, wherever it may be, into a space for client visits.

I'm really excited for the Herbal CSA, and have so many ideas bouncing around in my head for what I'm going to create for the members, I can hardly wait to get started! I ordered the herbs I'm out of and the jars and bottles I need.

Everything is in flux. Home, business, life, emotions. Things die, and things grow. But hanging in the precipice between...thats the hardest place to be. Misty inbetweeness. Not yet new, but still the old- as the world heaves in response. Goverments who think they can dictate the people, people uprising in revolt, continents heaving and washing over that which we like to think of as permanent. I wonder what Gaia is giving birth to...

Still sleeping

Winter is still in control. It's icy grip lays over the land, relinquishing nothing.  Not a trace of spruce tips- too early for that-  poplar buds frozen solid, with sticky resin inside that burns my tounge with its pungency and balsamic taste, it will be weeks before it is time to harvest that medicine- not even the hawthorn buds are swelling.





The ocean of snow, perfectly poised with precision- waves waiting to crash in on themselves when the skin kisses the vast expanse.  But for now- seeds lay sleeping far beneath the icy waves.

Hawthorn buds in waiting

I've been remiss in visiting my spiny hawthorn tree for the Tree Year in the fields below.  Crossing the ocean of snow is daunting.  She is still sleeping as well.  Wild cucumber and grape vines dangle lifelessly from her spiny arms, also waiting.  No sign of bird nor squirrel.  Just waves of snow 5 ft deep.


But the birches have birchkins...thats my word for catkins...because really they aren't cats, they are birches, and birchkins sounds more fun. 

birchkins

 

 It is supposed to storm again this weekend, but could end up being rain, so instead of working today like I had planned ( had a list going even) I went outside. The first time in months it feels like.  It really did take about 30 min to get dressed and get the snowshoes on and get the dog ready, but it was almost warm in the 25 degree sunshine.  But the snow doesn't think so, nor do the poplar buds. 

So here we are, all the plants, and all the herb folk still locked in winters icy reign- still sleeping, still hibernating, still awaiting the kiss of the sun prince to wake us from the 100 day slumber.

Discovering Herbalism :Classes in Avon, Maine

January 29-30, February 19-20, March 12-13, April 23-24, May 14-15

Summer and Autumn Dates TBA

$100 - $150/month, payment plans and thoughtful barter proposals will gladly be considered.

Sean Donahue and Darcey Blue French are offering an opportunity for beginning and intermediate herbalists to develop or deepen their relationships with the healing plants of New England through a series of weekend intensives at our home in Avon, ME.

Through lectures and discussions, readings, meditations, ceremony, and direct experience, participants will learn about:

* Listening to and learning directly from the plants themselves

* The art and ethics of wildcrafting

* Making herbal medicines

* Understanding the energetics of herbal medicine and of the human body

* Nourishing the body, mind, and spirit

* Therapies for chronic and acute injury and disease

* Working with plants in ceremony and magic

* Plant identification and Materia Medica

* Establishing herb gardens

For more information or to register, e-mail herbalists@brighidswellherbs.com

Floor space and limited couch or bed space will be available for those traveling. 

Breakfast will be provided.  Lunch and dinner will be potluck.

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.

What an herbalist does on vacation...

I've decided that after a really frustrating week spending too much time on the computer, I had to spend some time on vacation. Yah.
So what did I do with my stay at home vacation day #1.

Yummy breakfast- scrambled eggs w/ CSA peppers, squash, onions, garlic and italian sausages.
A nice long walk outside. Seems like these days I don't get enough time outside to collect, forage and Identify new plants. So made a point of going out for a little foraging mission and relaxed walk. The air was cool, sun behind the clouds, and sweet breeze kept the mosquitos at bay (for a while anyway). I found a beloved friend whom I've never met in person, Lobelia Inflata. Of course I forgot to bring my field guide along, but I knelt down after she caught my eye, and mysteriously knew who she was. Who said plants don't talk! Maybe it was the little balloon-like seed pods, or the blue flowers, but I instinctively knew it was lobelia, and took a tiny taste of the leaf. Sure enough acrid and biting as hell...tastes like my good friend lobelia. (Later I positively ID'd a specimen I brought home with Newcomb's Wildflower Guide).

Then further up the trail I found the place where the sun breaks through the trees and the goldenrod is blooming a golden song all about the meadow, and set to picking some of the sweet scenting flowering fronds for tincture and oil. As she led me on, she took me to where the St John's Wort patch I've been waiting on all summer is FINALLY in full bloom. I spent a good while picking St John's Wort tops as well before heading home. Nothing like sweet golden plant friends to cheer a weary and gloomy herbalists heart.

Back at home, a quick lunch of cold chicken and cucumbers, smothered in homemade mayonnaise, and I went to town tincturing up my harvest.

Then, as I've signed up for the Preserving the Bounty Challenge from Nourished Kitchen, I set to work on making a batch of Apple Beet Relish! YUM!

It's so beautiful ruby colored sweetness...spiced with ginger, cinnamon stick, clove and cardamom...I Can't wait to try it! Plus its much fun to squish grated beets and apples and salt together into a pink luscious juicy mess!

I guess that might sound like a lot of work, but its a purely relaxing day for me. Now for a supper of baked stuffed zuchinni and homemade marinara!

Make New Friends.....

It's been 4 months since I arrived in New England, spring has sprung and summer is almost upon us. I thought I would reflect a little bit on some of the new plant friends I have met in the time I've been here....as an herbalist transplanted from the hot, dry Southwest, the lush, moist greenery of New England has been a deep drink of sustenence. Of course, as the song goes...make new friends, but keep the old..one is silver and the other gold....my golden oldies from the Southwest are still some of my favorite plant allies that I wouldn't want to be without...precious anemone tuberosa, who I was able to get from generous herbalists in Tucson, Tagetes lemmonii (marigold) euphoric and antiiflamatory healer, and the always useful and fragrant larrea tridentata.

But in my efforts to remain a bioregional and wildcrafting herbalist, I will remain most closely dependent and allied with the plants of my new bioregion....
here are some of my new friends
Betula lenta (black birch) and betula allegehenensis (yellow birch) sweet stimulating, relaxing, tonic root beer tree


Hammemelis virginiana (witch hazel) astringent, refreshing tonic for skin and mucous tissues

Rosa multiflora (multiflowered rose) sweet, fragrant sister to rosa rugosa, and soothing to my rose deprived heart

panax trifolius (dwarf gingseng) magical little friend to american ginseng, who greeted me by suprise this spring


Lady's Slipper Orchid who broke my heart open and brought me to my knees with tears in the forest with her tender beauty and emanating love.

March Nature Observations

March 29-Drizzly rainy day after yesterday's blustery clouds.
March 28- Motherwort and catnip leaves beginning to show in N. Vermont!
March 26- Forsythia are starting to bloom in various spots
March 25 - Hard frost in the early morning
March 24 - Ice is melted completely on the pond at Robin Hood Park
March 22-23 Steady spring rain, and a little sleet
March 17- first crocuses, oaks starting to flower
March 15- Red Maples flowering down the road

Spring is coming to New Hampshire

March 24 - Ice is melted completely on the pond at Robin Hood Park
March 22-23 Steady spring rain, and a little sleet
March 17- first crocuses, oaks starting to flower
March 15- Red Maples flowering