Keepers of the Hearth

2007-06-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

Just today I learned to use my first (new to me) digital camera and took some photos of me and my beloved woodland home. here I am contemplating it all as I prepare to head out in the morning.

Here I go. I am done with graduate school now, after three years. I am fertile with myriad possibilities and have so many opportunities, the world is wide open! It is almost overwhelming, and yes a little scary. While big decisions await, mostly I want only adventure for awhile, with long vast stretches of forestlands, being with people I love, dancing, singing, myth & poetry. I leave behind the books, papers, urban expanse, and rather intense anxiety. I touch the Earth with my bare hands and feet, swim in the waters, soak in the hot mineral springs, ascend to the top of mountains where I can look over my life from way high up and lose track of time. Enter the timelessness and dwell there for awhile. I need to remember how to run fast - like the wind. I have come this far and it is an amazing feat.

I celebrate myself and sing myself - Walt Whitman

Wild Dinner

2007-05-19T16:52:00.001-07:00

Springtime always has me wild again - wild for life, wild for love, wild for plants. As an herbalist, I take great delight in the green world coming into full force all around me. For me, medicine-making time begins anew as well time for wild culinary delights. There is little that is so tasty and fufilling as wild meals, and even small amounts of wild plant and animal foods added to meals helps satisfiy my soul and nourish my need to be to remain essentially untamed. Higher in nutrient density & fiber, free from ridiculously wasteful packaging or xenoestrogen-packed nasty pollutants (depending upon where you harvest! - use care and knowledge) wild food serves a welcome role in my diet as it has for most human beings since the dawn of time. It connects me with my self reliant ancestors, the evolutionary survivors whose blood now runs through my body. It also connects me to the land I live on and helps keep me wild. After a long winter, these digestive supporting, blood cleansing spring tonics have a natural role as health enhancing.

My first wild meal this year included dandelion greens (before flowering - or else too bitter for me) and nettle tops (harevsted carefully) sautéd in butter. YUM! Ive also enjoyed burdock root - boiled first before stiring up; chickweed, violets & garlic mustard with greens in salad; wild smoked turkey (a gift from a hunter neighbor) as well as wild duck and bluegill from the Chesapeake (a gift from a nearby waterman). I also love poke salat, fiddleheads with morels, and copious amounts of lamb's quaters steamed and otherwise cooked like spinach. There are others to consider as well - sorrell, watercress, ramps, and later in the year elderberries, acorns, persimmons, and so many other delightful, medicinal, and free foods.

“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” --Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)

Wild
Occurring, growing, or thriving in a natural state; not domesticated, cultivated, or tamed. Lacking supervision or restraint. Disorderly; unruly. Not submitting to discipline or control.

Recipes Online
http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/4060.htm
http://www.wild-harvest.com/pages/chefperkey.htm
http://www.bobcatswilderkitchen.com/kitchen.html

Why eat wild food?
http://www.self-reliance.net/wewf.html
http://www.redmoonherbs.com/articles/nettle.php

BooksThe Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer Feasting Free on Wild Edibles by Bradford Angier

To meet all these definitions at once is a true embodiment

2007-03-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

fox·y (fks)
adj. fox·i·er, fox·i·est
1.
a. Of or resembling a fox.
b. Slyly clever; crafty: a foxy scheme.
2. Having a reddish-brown color.
3. Slightly discolored, as by age or decay; foxed.
4. Slang Sensually attractive; sexy.
5. Having a distinctive sharp flavor or aroma: foxy American grapes.

foxi·ly adv.
foxi·ness n.

BTW Im really proud of my one woman fan club for my blog

Tangier Man

2007-03-13T23:08:00.000-07:00

Writing about our own experiences, I am told, is what makes a blog. Well, I am still new to this and perhaps not as savvy as you all, and furthermore I love my little snipets of myths and quotes and reserve freedom and delight to post these as the spirit moves me. And yet I may as well also go ahead and tell a little romance story. After all, spring is in the air!

People who are salt of the earth are decent, dependable and unpretentious.

Last autumn, I met a rather memorable man while visiting my Dutch friends' farm on the eastern shore of Maryland. Never had I been, and I had no idea the beauty and sweetness of the place! And yes, he was a handsome single man, but thats not exactly what the story's about...

He climbed down off the tractor from where he had been plowing and gave a nice strong handshake along with a nod, looking directly at me introducing himself by full name, to which I chuckled ever so lightly and returned the grounded greeting. He is a neighbor who helps out on their organic farm when he is needed and refuses to take money for his services because "that's the way he was raised". Since my women friends are a gay couple in their fifties I think its pretty safe to say that his intentions are pure. Anyway, I was charmed. As we all walked the land, shared dinner, sipping wine into the wee hours by candlelight in their 18th century home, I was charmed. Seeing his land the next day, his excitement at the growth of the trees he's planted along the fields, placing his hands in the black soil, urging me to do the same, I was charmed.

I am not so easily charmed, I want to assure you. What I noticed first about this lad was an odd country-ish, yet rather eloquent manner of speaking that as I listened to the rhythm of I could not place, try as I might. Here we were on the eastern part of the Chesapeake Bay, and this man sounded as though he grew up somewhere between the mountains of Southern Appalachia and the Isles of Scotland, which indeed he had. I also noticed that he had a very clear way of speaking right to the point of things and tended to express himself thoughtfully and meaningfully, or else remain quiet and listen attentively. He had me laughing from deep down inside, and speaking quite frankly myself - at times sharply debating him, at others wholeheartedly in agreement. Always very engaging and natural. His blue eyes sparkled a great deal. I appreciated this earth-wise sensibility about him, one that our mutual friend often brings up - this distinct & increasingly rare human quality that only people who live very close to the land hold in their being and carry with them, an actual scent about them. Genuine. Hardy. Salt of the Earth.

I myself come from people like this a generation before me, and it has imprinted on my soul. Long ago left behind in search of wild adventures, self discovery and presumed liberation, I have felt at times deeply out of place in the urban world of academia where I have placed myself, a world I had long ago sworn off! A world of winning prestige through intellectual prowess often disconnected from anything practical or particularly useful to the world, where people frequently take the most elaborate and vague routes of speech to avoid saying what they really mean, or simply to impress their peers. Yet my childhood was in some essential way steeped in the value of hands -on visceral intelligence, of rural identity through my loving grandparents, of endless summers spent on the farm, running in the fields, bon fires in the grove, finding arrowheads left by the Kickapoo and Wea and shards of pots left by my own great great grandmothers. Always that sense of being from a human heritage that is inherently part of the land. Perhaps this is what lit up and stirred in me with our Tangier man. It was different from the many back-to-the-landers Ive come across and lived with over the years. Something was definitely different.

Now, our man did mention that where he was from is Tangier Island - a place Id never heard of, an island in the Chesapeake. He spoke of it warmly and yet never explained much about it. I later took it upon myself to discover more on my own... Wikipedia states

The tiny island community has attracted the attention of linguists because its people speak a totally unique dialect of American English, hypothesized to be nearly unchanged since the days of its first occupation by English colonists.

Fishermen and farmers, they have also been studied for their rich folklore and traditional customs. Their heritage appears to be chiefly from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Cornwall, and they have remained relatively isolated from the rest of the world since the 16th century. Over ten miles from the nearest port, accessible only by boat or emergency helicopter, they did not so much as have television or internet until the last decade.

Well no freakin wonder he has this quality.

I cannot help but think on him fondly as winter thaws as soon I will likely meet him again when I venture across the bay to help with spring planting and canoe among the cypress groves along the Pocomoke River. I would like to learn from him all I can and enjoy his vital spirit. Do I fancy him to be my soul mate? No, even with a confessed tendency to romanticize such things, sometimes ridiculously so, and even as my biological alarm clock is sounding off with resounding bells, I do not. He had softened his voice with a moment we had alone, and in a most endearing and reserved way asking if he could call me, would I like that?...hmmmmm..., and later making general reference to his belief in proper courting. I am not kidding. I simply have not really come across this before. I had been thinking that sweetly sharing passionate kisses wouldnt harm a soul. Yet an actual romance would almost certainly be destined to fail, respectful friendship being the supreme choice. Opposites attract, but do they make good long term partners or mutually supportive parents? It is an understatement to say that some of our key core values and ways of viewing the world differ vastly. The first time I ever practiced non-violent civil disobedience I was a very young woman protesting the war he was busy fighting in on the other side of the world. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and so would he. The noble soul shared with me how he reads the bible to himself when he rises in the morning, around 5:30 or 6 a.m., the King James version. I didn't mention how I often sing love songs to the moon Goddess around 3 a.m. or so, still wide awake, crystals warm in my hand, with tiny offerings for the elementals... Ah well, cheers to how different we all can be, and how much more interesting life can be when lovely opportunities open for us to celebrate this and appreciate each other - across genders, cultural identities, and seemingly over centuries.

OK Ill try this

2007-02-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

One Word Answers (For the Most Part)

This Moment: Peaceful
Your Shoes: Red (& muddy)
Craving: Kissing
The State of Your Home: Warm
Annoyed By: (currently) nothing
Noise In the Background: water dripping
Really Want To: Fly
Thinking About: Love
Your Keyboard: Useful
Smelling: Rose oil
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: colored markers
Don't Ever Want To: be beaten
Your Eye Color: hazel green
The Weather: snowy
Have Never Tried: horse drawn sleigh ride
Think Everyone Should Try: to be cool
Last Vacation Destination: Colorado
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: Water
Your Bad Habit: which one?
What You're Going To Do Now: read

Candlemas

2007-02-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

Candlemas

February 2nd...Midpoint between Solstice & Equinox
Transition from Winter to Spring

Origins: In Ireland, where green first appears after the long winter, Candlemas, or Imbolc (from Oimelc, meaning “in the belly”) was a pastoralist's holiday celebrating the first new lambs, their nourishment and growth--with a thorough spring cleaning and rekindling of the hearth fires. Imbolc is especially sacred to Bridgid, the Goddess of healing, poetry, smithcraft, warmth, fire and the sun! Today, Imbolc, Candlemas or Groundhog Day is a welcome chance to call back the green of springtime in the darkest stretch of winter.

This is not a "spring celebration," but the celebration of the approach of Spring. At this time, the cows and ewes begin to bear their young and lactate, as the earth begins to awaken from her winter rest. Imbolc signals that soon the ground will thaw, spring flowers will begin to rise, and the time for planting will be upon us.

Ideas, Concepts, Meanings of Candlemas:

٭This is the Feast of waxing sunlight. What was conceived at Winter Solstice begins to manifest and we are midwives to the new Year, now set in motion and growing strong as the days grow longer.
٭This is a time of our uniqueness, where we each keep our own fires lit.
٭This is a time of contemplation and introspection. The Year is filled with possibilities and wonder. New opportunities await. What will you create? Time for planning and planting the seeds of intent for the coming cycle and kindling the flame of soul-filled creativity
٭As humans we have the choice to attune ourselves to the rhythms and cycles of the seasons and planetary motions. This is a time of inturning and gathering of energy. This gathering can take the form of ideas, projects, dreams, people, and resources. This is a time of reconnecting with the source of light within.
٭People light candles and great fires to call back the forces of light.
٭This is a good time to remember what we’ve learned and done over the last few months\cycle, to review the mysteries and lessons

Brighid

2007-02-01T18:58:00.000-08:00

Bridget Bride Briganna
Triple Aspects

Celtic Goddess of Fire, Blacksmiths, Wells, Springs and Poets. A central goddess of Ireland and Wales. Brigid's feast, Candlemas or Imbolc, is celebrated on the first of February, the midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.

The Celts held poetry in great reverence as it was the art of divination, the revelation of secrets, and preservation of history. In her three aspects Brigid represents the creatrix of smithcraft, the inspiration of poetry, healing and medicine at the hearth, all unified by fire.

Brigit was one of the great Triple Goddesses of the Celtic people. She appeared as Brigit to the Irish, Brigantia in Northern England, Bride in Scotland, and Brigandu in Brittany. Many legends are told about Brigit. Some say that there are three Brigits: one sister in charge of poetry and inspiration who invented the Ogham alphabet, one in charge of healing and midwifery, and the third in charge of the hearth fire, smithies and other crafts. This actually indicates the separate aspects of her Threefold nature and is a neat division of labor for a hard-working goddess.

The symbol of life and energy, also associated with abundance and prosperity, is carved inside the 5000 year-old Newgrange passage mound in County Meath, Ireland (above). Earth works such as Newgrange have been proven to be ancient solar observatories, whose construction can be said to symbolize the womb of the Goddess

Brighids Triple Aspects: The Hearth

2007-02-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

The Hearth represents the magic of everyday life: our relationships with the people close to us, the sacredness of preparing foods and medicines, the utter miracle of childbirth, raising children, making our homes. The Hearth is our light, and warmth, the very center of our home. That Brighid is the patroness of the Hearth, brings to light an entirely holy way of viewing home life, family, and daily living. The mundane is valued and conscious intent is put into all that is done, as if everything matters and is part of this greater ritual of living our lives.

Brighid is midwife as well as herbalist and wise woman. As late as 100 years ago in the west Scottish Highlands, the Matthewses write, the midwife traditionally blessed a newborn with fire and water in Brighid's name. She passed the child across the fire three times, carried the baby around the fire three times deosil, then performed "the midwife's baptism" with water, saying:

A small wave for your form
A small wave for your voice
A small wave for your speech
A small wave for your means
A small wave for your generosity
A small wave for your appetite
A small wave for your wealth
A small wave for your life
A small wave for your health
Nine waves of grace upon you,
Waves of the Giver of Health.

Brighid also protects and heals adults. She is a goddess of healing wells and streams; in her honor, Bridewell is one of the two most common well-names in Ireland, the other being St. Anne's Well, remembering Anu, or Dana, the mother of the gods - a goddess sometimes conflated with Brighid. With Aengus Og, Brighid performs the role of soul-guardian, wrapping worshippers in her mantle of protection. ~ from M. Harline

Brighids Triple Aspects: The Well

2007-02-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

THE EXALTED ONE…woman of wisdom…a goddess whom poets adored…
~ Cormac’s Glossary, 9th Century text

As a Goddess of herbalism, midwifery, healing, and poetry, She was presided over Water as well as Fire. I don't believe that anyone has ever counted all the vast number of sacred wells and springs named after or dedicated to this Goddess.
Offerings to the watery Brigit were cast into the well in the form of coins or, even more ancient, brass or gold rings. Other sacrifices were offered where three streams came together. Her cauldron of Inspiration connected her watery healing aspect with her fiery poetic aspect.

Brighids Triple Aspects: The Forge

2007-02-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

Iron Forge 1772 Joseph Wright of Derby

SMITHCRAFT was highly regarded by the Celts, and a smith god is certainly known from various sources. The triple goddess Brighid was patroness of inspiration, therapy and smithing, and the craft of the smith or metal worker was developed to a high degree by the Celts. Romano-Celtic carvings of a smith god, sometimes bearing tongs and hammer, are known in Britain; he is also associated with Mars, or with Celtic gods similar to Mars such as Toutates.

THE SMITH was always associated with magical powers, for they mastered the primal element of fire and moulded the metals of the Underworld through skill and strength. There is a close connection between concepts of smithcraft and concepts of the creation of the world, in which the Elements of Air, Fire, Water and Earth are fused together in a new shape. Smiths are frequently associated with supernatural powers, including therapy, in folklore, so it is no surprise that the ancient smith gods were credited with similar magical abilities.

Journal work

2007-02-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

Candlemas Questions to ponder

1. Take a moment to look at your life. What changes will you support in the coming cycle?

2. Winter can be a time of endurance. How will you care for yourself through the remaining winter? What will comfort you?

3. Clarity, crispness, stirrings, are some words that describe this time of year. How does your life relate to these characteristics of the Earth right now?

Brighid for me

2007-02-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

For me, Brighid represents the force that moves people towards greater wisdom and wildness. She represents an ancient spirit of human consciousness, where the powers of women and men are considered magical and everyday life is infused with meaning. This is the force that can inspire us to reach as far up into the Heavens as we can, and to spread our roots as deeply into the mysteries of the Earth. She represents the life energy that lives inside us and seeks expression through our greatest passions, whatever they may be. Brigid guides us to take the reins of our lives into our own hands, and helps us to steer through myriad possibilities toward living out whatever it is that we were born to do, our fullest expression of who we are. She is the support that happens when we let Life work with us and through us.
As Brigid is the goddess of both Smithcraft and Healing, she represents the mastery of the fires alive inside of us: our anger, sexual power, and creativity. Her alchemy is the blend of body, mind, and spirit, as well as of earth, air, fire, and water. Her own mastery of fire reminds us that we learn to know and respect the power of our sexuality, and to consciously work with our anger as a force for freedom and evolution. She reminds us to reexamine what it means to be “powerful “, to reexamine altogether what exactly power is and how to share it. She challenges us to grow past our own limitations as we sometimes feel “thrown into the fire”. We are asked to transform, again and again.
If we women in the western world spent even half as much time and energy as concerned with the well-being of the planet and people as we typically do on how sexy we look, the clothes we wear, or on watching TV, our culture and the world as we know it would literally transform. Imagine how much precious energy this would free up! While caring for our bodies, celebrating our sexuality, and even adorning ourselves is inherent in celebrating the Goddess, the obsession\ self-hatred of women’s bodies that permeates our culture must be changed for future generations. Brighid, by whatever name we call her, can remind us of what it is we truly value within ourseleves and with each other, and is an essential part of a force that can aid us in the desperately needed task of recreating authentic human culture.

Brighid bids us to be conscious and respectful of the sources of energy, electricity, and power in our world, to respect the source of Life. She is a force for healing our human communities and our relationship with the Earth.
Brigid is the beckoning of the living Earth, flame, wind, streams and springs to us for their protection, as well as for communion and reverence. She urges us to include a responsible stewardship of the planet among our passions and pursuits. She remembers a time of greater wholeness among people, and seeks to help us bring Heaven back to Earth, with our fiery wills, sharp minds, and skillfull means. She carries with her all of the knowledge and cries of the infinite ancestors who knew her. She can awaken inside of us the holy flame that finds expression through liberation and love. She can help give us courage to live our lives as powerful people in this insane time of near global disaster. Her flame has burned for centuries, in the homes, hearths, cathedrals, forges, and woodlands of those who have gone before. To name her and to acknowledge her presence and endurance is to replenish the fires of our own hearts, to drink from a precious well sourced very deeply inside the Earth, and to remember who we are.

Winter Herbal Care

2007-01-27T05:14:00.000-08:00

Caring for ourselves and our families through

Winter

As the wheel once again turns to the coldest and darkest time for those of us in the northern hemisphere, we can benefit from attuning ourselves to the cycles of the Earth. We are naturally urged to slow down, rest more, and turn within. While this can be quite challenging with busy lifestyles as well as the swirl of holiday merriment and stress as the season begins, there are approaches we can take to ensure our optimal health, help prevent sickness, and tend to it with care when it does occur.

ò In winter, we bring the warmth and light inside – into our homes and into our bodies. Fires in the hearth and candles can help nurture our need for this light. Likewise, warming foods and herbs, along with loving relationships and simple creative endeavors such as cooking, crafts, storytelling and writing can help keep the fires within alive.

ò Our bodies may need more water as well as essential fatty acids such as in flax and fish oils, which may also help temper wintertime blues.

ò We need to keep our bodies moving everyday. Getting out into the sunshine, walking, playing in the snow, and dancing or yoga indoors.

Foods

Nourishing marrow soups and homemade veggie broth, mineral-rich roots such as beets, carrots, parsnips, and rutabagas, dark leafy greens, and whole grains are all wonderful. This is an excellent time for trying new recipes and foods. Keeping it colorful and varied helps ensure a variety of nutrients. Including warming spices to foods is an ideal way to include herbs in our wintertime ways. Adding even very small amounts of sea vegetables, astragalus (in soups), or shitake mushrooms also makes an immune medicine.

Wintertime Herbs

These plant medicines and spices can be used in cooking, in teas or tinctures, either as simples (by themselves) or in blends. Among the abundance of useful plants for this time:

Warming Herbs - Cayenne, Ginger, Cinnamon, Cardamon, Garlic, Rosemary, Sage

Nervines – these calm, soothe, and may help enliven the heart: Oats, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Nettles, Motherwort, Linden flowers

Immunomodulators and Adaptogens – These help build our overall resistance to disease preventatively, as well as aid our bodies ability to adapt to stress: Reishi (probably best in capsule form) & Astragalus are my two favorites for this time of year. There is no herb to substitute fundamental self-care with proper rest and nutrition however.

Colds & Flu

Increased rest, soups, staying warm, beginning herbal treatment in early stages if possible, and staying consistent with dosages are fundamental in herbal treatment of wintertime sickness. Indicated herbs do vary depending on the person being treated and characteristics of symptoms. Often combined each other and with peppermint or ginger in a tea, some general suggestions include:

ò Elderberry - flowers and berries traditionally used for colds and flu. Sambucus is great for kids, especially as a syrup, yet also useful for adults. Tea: one cup boiling water poured over 2 tsp. flowers, infused 10 minutes or 2 to 4 ml of tincture, three times per day. Safe in pregnancy.

ò Yarrow - used in acute stage of colds and flu, this antimicrobial herb is also known to help keep infection from reaching the lungs. Use 2-4 grams of yarrow in tea or 2-4 ml of tincture, three times per day. Not in pregnancy.

ò Boneset – A favorite for bringing down fevers and dealing with aches and congestion in colds and flu. Tea: 1-2 tsp steeped in covered container 15 minutes, three times per day up to every hour. “Bitter as all get out” explained Appalachian herbalist Tommy Bass, yet for the hardy, there’s nothing like it to bring down a fever. Not for use in pregnancy.

Expectorants- these include: mullein leaf or marshmallow root for a dry cough; thyme tea or tincture, or eucalyptus leaves as a tea and steam for a wet mucus- rich cough.

Suggested Books for more information:

The Family Herbal and Herbal Healing for Women by Rosemary Gladstar. This remarkable herbalist shares valuable traditional knowledge for addressing a wide range of health issues as well as simply enhancing well-being.

Naturally Healthy Babies & Children by Aviva Jill Romm. This is a commonsense guide to herbal remedies and nutrition for young ones

Medical Herbalism by David Hoffmann. A hardy text full of applicable information for the more serious student. the less serious and more economical herbalist might try his Holistic Herbal.

2007-01-27T04:14:00.000-08:00

Mythically, winter is the time of the wizened old woman and old man, the Grandmothers and Grandfathers - those who have lived fully and well. They are the old ones who have lived long before us and who now guard the gates of life and death. They are guides in the darkness, weavers of fate, and even glorious angels, whose reverence has endured for at least thousands of years. They speak to us to honor and listen to the stories of our elders as well as to connect with the places inside ourselves which are ancient and wise. Winter is an excellent time to remember and discover that which is truly most important to us and to our world, as though we were looking over our lives at their end. What might seem most essential to us then? The still darkness of winter invites us to enter into the timelessness of our own spirits and to connect with that which most truly nourishes our bodies and souls. While no doubt a supreme time to treasure and deepen bonds with loved ones, winter is also a time of great benefit from quiet reflection, from time spent in conscious self-discovery. Journaling, meditation, prayer, ritual, artwork, and creative expression of all kinds can emerge from the darkness of winter.

Winter’s promise is the rebirth of the sun at winter solstice as the daylight once again begins to grow and soon enough, the Earth will warm again. This time of sacred darkness can be well spent envisioning ideas and plans for our lives and for the year ahead as we rest and replenish our vital energies.

Curried Chicken Coconut Soup

2007-01-26T13:11:00.000-08:00

Curried Chicken Coconut Soup

A very warming soup for wintertime

Will definitely help cure just about whatever ails you

* About 3 lbs organic chicken w/ bones * 2 cans coconut milk
* 1 bunch chopped green onion * 1 -3 Tbs curry paste
* 2 –3 stalks lemongrass (if available) * 2 – 3 Tbs mined ginger
* 1 bunch chopped spinach * juice of 1 lime
* 1 bunch chopped cilantro * pinches of sea salt

Cut edible parts of lemon grass into small pieces and set aside to add later, saving stalks. Boil, then simmer chicken in one quart water for 40 minutes until done, skimming the top as you go. Take chicken out of broth and allow to cool. Then separate the meat. Place bones back in broth with lemongrass stalks and simmmer on lowest setting for another hour or up to twelve hours. Meanwhile, wash and prepare veggies and ginger (cuttings thrown in with broth), and cut chicken meat into small pieces. Let broth cool a bit, then strain out bones and lemongrass stalks into empty pot. Place remaining ingredients together with strained broth except for the lime and cilantro, which are added just before serving. Simmer on low for at least twenty minutes, longer is fine. Curry paste can be mixed in small bowl of broth separately before being added, to ensure smoothness. It can be quite hot, so add to taste.
* Is excellent served with basmati rice or rice noodles .
* The longer the bones are simmered, the richer the broth. Canned chicken broth and boneless chicken can be substituted for boiling processes (yet soup will lack fullness of both taste and nutrient richness). Making hardy stock is a lost art, see book Nourishing Traditions or www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/broth.html for more detail).

Immigrants Preserve Traditional Remedies

2007-01-17T23:39:00.000-08:00

Immigrants From Mexico's Indigenous Groups Work to Preserve Traditional Health Care CustomsBy JULIANA BARBASSAMADERA, Calif. Dec 29, 2005 (AP)— A thick tangle of marigolds reaches chest-high around Caritina Cruz, who plucks one of the deep orange flowers and explains to her little sister how to prepare it in a tea that soothes indigestion.With Cruz's care, the plot eventually will sprout plants that immigrants from Mexico's dozens of indigenous groups may use to treat everything from insomnia to stomach cramps.The garden was planted with the help of a nonprofit group and is part of a larger effort to preserve health care customs that predate the Spanish conquest even as community leaders work to forge ties with the local medical establishment."I want to keep what we know and be able to use what's here, too," said Cruz, 19, standing in the patch of dirt she hopes will preserve the community's health and its cultural identity.Members of Mexico's 60 Indian groups are even more likely than other recent immigrants to fall outside the reach of the American health care system, said Nayamin Martinez Cossio, of the indigenous organization Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno.Isolated in remote farmworker settlements and usually uninsured, they often speak languages most Spanish-speaking Mexicans don't recognize.Often discriminated against in Mexico, they also are "at the bottom of the ladder" in the United States, said Jonathan Fox, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz.The 2000 Census showed there were about 154,362 such immigrants in the state, according to an analysis by researchers at UC Santa Cruz.Mexico's indigenous groups also are making up a growing share of migrants entering the country, according to estimates from the National Agricultural Workers Survey.Between 1993 and 1994, Mexicans from states such as Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero accounted for 9 percent of immigrant farmworkers coming to the country, a figure that rose to 19 percent between 2001 and 2002."They're difficult to reach and they're difficult to treat because they travel so much," said Norma Penalosa, a communicable diseases specialist with Fresno County's Department of Community Health. "One case can become many cases spread around the country."In 2003, Fresno County health workers identified a tuberculosis outbreak that eventually spread to dozens of Mixtecs. Centro Binacional raised money, held educational meetings and tested more than 1,000 people.Martinez and others with Centro Binacional also have sent 15 immigrants who speak a variety of Indian languages to train as interpreters at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.They've delivered workshops in far-flung rural towns on AIDS prevention, diabetes, nutrition, and other health problems farmworkers might come across in the United States.And they brought three traditional healers to California for a November conference where the healers told their American counterparts about how they rely heavily on herbal remedies and rituals to treat diseases.Several doctors attending the conference said having access to traditional medicine can comfort patients by giving them a connection to home something Western doctors can't do. But they also warned against relying only on traditional healers and herbs.Jesus Rodriguez, a family practitioner at Fresno's Sequoia Community Health, encourages his patients to bring in any herbal remedies they might be taking so he can evaluate them and work them into a regimen that might include conventional medicine."They'll go to a healer for as long as they can and by the time they come in, they might have advanced diabetes and be at risk for losing a limb," Rodriguez said.Enriqueta Contreras, a Zapotec midwife, said that being in a foreign land where nothing is familiar can itself be a source of physical and mental illness."They are away from their family, their language. They can't get the herbs they're used to," Contreras said in Spanish. "They don't know who they are anymore. That makes them sick."
On the Net:Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno:http://www.fiob.org/centro.html

Working Class Acupuncture in Portland

2006-12-13T22:51:00.000-08:00

Working Class Acupuncture's mission is to use acupuncture to create social change in health care. We provide, and advocate for others to provide, accessible acupuncture and wellness resources for working class patients; we support acupuncturists in being social entrepreneurs; and we share our business model for natural health care that empowers patients, builds community and breaks down class divisions. Acupuncture is one of the oldest, most commonly used systems of healing in the world. Acupuncture is simple, safe, and sustainable healthcare. As acupuncture has moved more toward the mainstream in America, it has become prohibitively expensive for most people, but this trend does not have to continue. Acupuncture does not need to be expensive to be effective. Acupuncture can be part of the solution to the soaring cost of healthcare – if it is affordable and accessible to everybody. Working Class Acupuncture makes this possible. We are located at 3526 NE 57th Ave in sunny Portland, Oregon. We are open for appointments 9am-7pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 8am-8pm Wednesday; and on Saturday 9am-12noon and again from 2pm-6:30pm. Our phone number is (503)335-9440. Call us and make an appointment today! (Sorry, we are usually unable to take walk-ins!)
http://www.myspace.com/working_class_acupuncture

Ithaca Free Clinic

2006-12-13T22:49:00.000-08:00

Our mission is to provide access to healthcare based on need, not on ability to pay, where the talent and generosity of our healthcare community come together to provide mainstream medical services, Complementary Alternative Medicine and Social Advocacy to establish healthcare as a human right and not a privilege
The Ithaca Free Clinic, which opened its doors to the public on January 23, 2006, offers totally free integrative health & wellness services, combining complementary / alternative and mainstream medicine. IFC is located at 225 South Fulton Street, Suite B in Ithaca, NY.
The clinic is a whole health center offering:
walk-in clinic hours:Mondays 2-6pmThursdays 4-8pmfor preventative and immediate primary care
professional services provided by our volunteer staff of doctors, herbalists, acupuncturists, massage therapists and others
the Ithaca Health Alliance health resource library is available for you to browse and borrow books right from our waiting room
nutrition and educational programs
facilitated enrollment into state programs
lifestyle education (body mechanics, movement therapy, organic food choices)
subleases for healthcare providers who wish to use IFC facilities for private clientele
CONTACT:Free Clinic Coordinator, clinic@ithacahealth.org, or call 607-330-1254 Ithaca Free Clinic P.O. Box 362 Ithaca, NY 14851
http://www.ithacahealth.org/clinic.htm

Common Ground Health Clinic

2006-12-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

The Common Ground Health Clinic is a free, integrative health clinic established after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana. Our mission is to provide quality, client centered primary healthcare to uninsured, underinsured and in need folks in the New Orleans Community while developing a model of a community controlled healthcare organization. We are currently in our second year of existence and have seen over 15,000 patients. Our services include primary care, medication refills, lab work, bi-lingual services, a Latino Health Outreach Project, acupuncture, herbalism and health education. We have built a basic network of donors, funders, volunteers and supporters, and established relationships with numerous other public health, medical, and grassroots organizations. Currently we are focused on fortifying these local and national networks in order to guarantee the long-term sustainability of the clinic and to make Common Ground Health Clinic an organization that is truly anti-racist and community driven.

http://www.commongroundrelief.org/

Herbalists Without Borders

2006-12-13T19:28:00.000-08:00

Herbalists Without Borders is an international network of herbalists and members of the herbal products business community, traditional healers, students, farmers and farming organizations, consultants, health care workers, and others interested in the role of plants in primary health care, trade, and ecological restoration. Recognizing that a majority of people in the world today live in poverty and do not have access to conventional medical care, we are particularly interested in how information and access to plant medicines can be made more broadly available. Our organization operates through local chapters in both developed and developing nations, whereby the sharing of resources and cross-cultural exchange of information, volunteer service, new ideas, and opportunities for development and support of fair trade in botanical materials and herbal products may be facilitated in new and dynamic ways. We believe in the protection of traditional healers' intellectual property rights, in the preservation of traditional knowledge, and in the fundamental human right to be healed by natural means and by common sense. We invite you to join us as we come together to seek common ground and to bring healing to those who are in need.

To help humanity find healing in herbal medicine, for people and for the planet.
To promote ethical and compassionate intercultural exchange of ideas, resources, and volunteer services.
To develop and promote equitable and sustainable trade relationships that are ecologically sound, economically viable, and that support healthy communities.
To enhance and engage human understanding and creativity regarding the many and diverse roles of plants in ecological restoration and cultural survival

http://www.herbalistswithoutborders.org/

2006-11-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
- Audre Lorde

2006-11-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

Eros from an Athenian vase 490 BC

As women, we need to examine the ways in which our world can be truly different. I am speaking here for the necessity of reassessing the quality of all the aspects of our lives and of our work, and of how we move toward and through them.
The very word erotic comes from the Greek word eros – the personification of love in all its aspects – born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony. When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.

~ Audre Lourde from Uses of the Erotic as Power

Song for You

2006-11-26T11:33:00.000-08:00

There is a very pretty Emmylou Harris song in my head that keeps going round and round. So I'll sing it for you here:

If I had a bird, a little bird

I would teach that bird to sing your name

Prettiest song that you have ever heard

Your indifferent heart I will claim

So be off my little bird

Fly away, fly away

And when my love you see

Only then, my little bird

Cry away, cry away and bring that heart to me

If I had a moon in the sky

I would light the world and pull the tide

And when the moon is full, like my heart

It will surely pull you to my side

But in the darkest night I pine away, pine away

Until your face I see

So throw your light my lovely moon

Shine away, shine away and pull his heart to me

If l had a wagon made of gold

Pretty painted horses numbered four

With a silver harness I would hitch them up

And drive that wagon to your door

And if my hand you choose to hold

Ride away, ride away with the pretty horses four

But darlin' if you heart is cold

Hide away, hide away I’ll trouble you no more

Trouble you no more

Emmylou Harris/Kate McGarrigle/Anna McGarrigle

Historic Art Moment

2006-11-26T11:21:00.000-08:00

Ive always loved this vintage piece honoring the famous crafty and soulful magician who outsmarted even the meanest.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

Gratitude is a holy thing to celebrate, as are true cross-cultural peaceful relations. The sincere offering of Thanks for the blessings that abound in our lives is fundamental to many of us in our spiritual and personal ways, and may be a universally vital part of being fully human. We can embrace the opportunity for this holiday and make it meaningful for us, but lets be real about the roots of this particular tradition, and teach the children the truth.

Deconstructing the Myths of “The First Thanksgiving”

by Judy Dow (Abenaki) and Beverly Slapin

What is it about the story of “The First Thanksgiving” that makes it essential to be taught in virtually every grade from preschool through high school? What is it about the story that is so seductive? Why has it become an annual elementary school tradition to hold Thanksgiving pageants, with young children dressing up in paper-bag costumes and feather-duster headdresses and marching around the schoolyard? Why is it seen as necessary for fake “pilgrims” and fake “Indians” (portrayed by real children, many of whom are Indian) to sit down every year to a fake feast, acting out fake scenarios and reciting fake dialogue about friendship? And why do teachers all over the country continue (for the most part, unknowingly) to perpetuate this myth year after year after year?
Is it because as Americans we have a deep need to believe that the soil we live on and the country on which it is based was founded on integrity and cooperation? This belief would help contradict any feelings of guilt that could haunt us when we look at our role in more recent history in dealing with other indigenous peoples in other countries. If we dare to give up the “myth” we may have to take responsibility for our actions both concerning indigenous peoples of this land as well as those brought to this land in violation of everything that makes us human. The realization of these truths untold might crumble the foundation of what many believe is a true democracy. As good people, can we be strong enough to learn the truths of our collective past? Can we learn from our mistakes? This would be our hope.

Myth: “The First Thanksgiving” occurred in 1621.
Fact: No one knows when the “first” thanksgiving occurred. People have been giving thanks for as long as people have existed. Indigenous nations all over the world have celebrations of the harvest that come from very old traditions; for Native peoples, thanksgiving comes not once a year, but every day, for all the gifts of life. To refer to the harvest feast of 1621 as “The First Thanksgiving” disappears Indian peoples in the eyes of non-Native children.

Myth: The Pilgrims found corn.
Fact: Just a few days after landing, a party of about 16 settlers led by Captain Myles Standish followed a Nauset trail and came upon an iron kettle and a cache of Indian corn buried in the sand. They made off with the corn and returned a few days later with reinforcements. This larger group “found” a larger store of corn, about ten bushels, and took it. They also “found” several graves, and, according to Mourt’s Relation, “brought sundry of the prettiest things away” from a child’s grave and then covered up the corpse. They also “found” two Indian dwellings and “some of the best things we took away with us.” (5) There is no record that restitution was ever made for the stolen corn, and the Wampanoag did not soon forget the colonists’ ransacking of Indian graves

Myth: Samoset appeared out of nowhere, and along with Squanto became friends with the Pilgrims. Squanto helped the Pilgrims survive and joined them at “The First Thanksgiving.”
Fact: Samoset, an eastern Abenaki chief, was the first to contact the Plimoth colonists. He was investigating the settlement to gather information and report to Massasoit, the head sachem in the Wampanoag territory. In his hand, Samoset carried two arrows: one blunt and one pointed. The question to the settlers was: are you friend or foe? Samoset brought Tisquantum (Squanto), one of the few survivors of the original Wampanoag village of Pawtuxet, to meet the English and keep an eye on them. Tisquantum had been taken captive by English captains several years earlier, and both he and Samoset spoke English. Tisquantum agreed to live among the colonists and serve as a translator. Massasoit also sent Hobbamock and his family to live near the colony to keep an eye on the settlement and also to watch Tisquantum, whom Massasoit did not trust. The Wampanoag oral tradition says that Massasoit ordered Tisquantum killed after he tried to stir up the English against the Wampanoag. Massasoit himself lost face after his years of dealing with the English only led to warfare and land grabs. Tisquantum is viewed by Wampanoag people as a traitor, for his scheming against other Native people for his own gain. Massasoit is viewed as a wise and generous leader whose affection for the English may have led him to be too tolerant of their ways

Myth: The Pilgrims and Indians became great friends.
Fact: A mere generation later, the balance of power had shifted so enormously and the theft of land by the European settlers had become so egregious that the Wampanoag were forced into battle. In 1637, English soldiers massacred some 700 Pequot men, women and children at Mystic Fort, burning many of them alive in their homes and shooting those who fled. The colony of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay Colony observed a day of thanksgiving commemorating the massacre. By 1675, there were some 50,000 colonists in the place they had named “New England.” That year, Metacom, a son of Massasoit, one of the first whose generosity had saved the lives of the starving settlers, led a rebellion against them. By the end of the conflict known as “King Philip’s War,” most of the Indian peoples of the Northeast region had been either completely wiped out, sold into slavery, or had fled for safety into Canada. Shortly after Metacom’s death, Plimoth Colony declared a day of thanksgiving for the English victory over the Indians

Myth: Thanksgiving is a happy time.
Fact: For many Indian people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country, “Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.

This article can be found in its entirety at:
http://www.oyate.org/resources/longthanks.html
The Plimoth Plantation of Plymouth Ma. has recently dedicated a new Exhibit, "Irreconcible Differences", that provides an insight into the relationship of the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims in the years following 1620.
More about the Wampanoag:
http://www.wampanoagtribe.net/Pages/index
http://www.pilgrims.net/native_americans/
Article by a Sioux woman on the Selling of Native Spiritual Traditions: http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/News2000/0800/WC000801Commentary.htm

Wha' Happen?

2006-11-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

Who are these lovely lassies, circa 1986?

And perhaps more importantly, where are they now?

2006-11-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

Thlolego EcoVillage in South Africa,

Findhorn in Scotland,

And the Permaculture Institute in Northern California

EcoVillage Mania

2006-11-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

Today I got to see some old friends on national news - right here in the Sunday Washington Post. I am amused and excited! It is a pretty positive article. It is true that they are pretty much a bunch of white middle class hippies living out in the woods, and that while far from modeling utopia, the fact that the mainstream media is finally aware of ecovillages as a modern phenomena is a window of hope for me. I cannot emphasize enough the rugged dedication, physical labor and personal processes that go into such a lifestyle. Anyone who has grown up on a farm or who has homesteaded or ever been through a consensus meeting can imagine that this might be so. Like many others, I have spent several years of my life visiting and living in such places, geared towards living sustainably, and meeting people from all around the world who share this practice. When it becomes most engaging to me is when it involves people in the non-industrialized world, the working poor, urban projects, and indigenous people determined to preserve and adapt their own traditional lifestyles and values. These grassroots inspired human settlement projects are happening throughout North and Latin America, India, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere. Most people seem to have no idea that this is even happening, or have any context for imagining it. I am here to tell you, it is happening! In different ways - all over the world. Not nearly enough, however. It may not be what single handedly "saves the world", and yet it is joyous and inspiring to witness such human wisdom responding resourcefully to our modern challenges. As I see it, ecovillages do not provide "the" answer, but are part of a tide of creative solutions to our current global path of destruction, part of what may help turn the collective scale towards a saner, more sensible, more human and humane way of being in the world. Human beings are stewards, not masters of the Earth - and we will have to come to terms with this eventually. Imagine what Heaven on Earth might look like, and feel like to be a part of. At least imagine what it might mean simply to survive as a species. Imagine actually acknowledging collectively the finite nature of the resources we depend on, and learning to rebalcance our lives in rhythm. We have an incredible capacity to envision and create when we decide to. We are inextricably connected to all of life on the planet - all around and inside us. We are not only dependant on the Earth, we are Earth. Many other ways of living are indeed possible, and necessary.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/14/AR2006111400979.html?nav=hcmodule

2006-11-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

We need a new kind of feminism, one that stresses personal responsibility and is open to art and sex in all their dark, unconsoling mysteries. The feminist of the fin de siecle will be bawdy, streetwise, and on-the-spot confrontational, in the prankish Sixties way - Camille Paglia

I would also assert that we need to revision feminism in a way that expands to make enough room for a huge diversity of womens voices throughout the world, including specific views, needs, and interests that may be quite different from our own. We need a vision that is essentially Life-affirming and connects us all ecologically, rooted in a deep respect and conscious re-valuing for what has been traditional womens work - in particular child rearing and homemaking. Although these roles may not interest us personally, they are the sacred foundations of human culture and deserve our support as a society.

2006-11-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

From the beginning, humanity's survival has depended upon women's sexuality. Every tribe's survival has depended upon women's capacity to give birth, to bear healthy children into the next generation.
Our ancestors understood women's birth-giving power as kin to the Power of Being that creates, sustains, and transforms the world. Their images and icons of the Sacred Feminine celebrate women's awesome ability to regenerate life. In woman's body, the Great Goddess becomes manifest.
Our sexuality is not only our capacity to bear children. It is, as well, our power to promote creation in any dimension we choose. In these times, humanity's survival depends less upon the capacity to bear children and more upon the conditions into which our children are born. Survival depends upon women birthing new ways of being and doing that promote peace, justice, and sustainable economies on our planet.

With movement and breath, we cultivate the pro-creative power seeded in our Energy Garden - our body's center.

We know ourselves as sacred beings and respect our sexuality as a sacred force of nature.

We realize that we're sexy—at our juiciest—as we express the truth of who we are.

And, we direct our pro-creative power not only for sacred pleasure but also for personal and planetary healing.

by Lisa Sarasohn Author of The Woman's Belly Book

World Dancer

2006-11-18T22:14:00.000-08:00

Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances.

- Maya Angelou

Nightime Dance

2006-11-17T22:21:00.000-08:00

Life is a dance and I am remembering how to be a World Dancer. I may have sat out the last few songs but I was tired and needed to rest and just watch, perhaps snooze for a bit and be a hermit for awhile. And yet now I am up again and dancing - moving through all of the myriad emotions, experiences, blessings, challenges, and devotions. It has everything to do with rhythm and letting go into the music of Life. One essential thing I am grateful for, it is music. It is that my life is a great dance and that my soul has inherent rhythm.

Traditional Story of First Man and First Woman

2006-01-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

Selu the Corn Mother and Kanati the Hunter Father

A shortened version of a Cherokee tale with many woven spins

Selu lived with her husband, Kanati, and two grandsons. Everyday, she would go away from the house and return with a basket full of corn. The boys wondered where the corn came from, so they followed her one day. They saw her go into a storehouse, and they got where they could peek in and watch her.
There they saw her place her basket and shake herself. The corn started falling from her body into the basket. They saw that the grain was coming from her body. In this the boys lost their appetite and their gratitude for this life sustaining grain.
Selu could read the boys' thoughts. She told them that she must now die, and that after her death, they would need to follow her instructions so that they would continue to have corn for nourishment.
"After I am dead, you must clear some ground in front of our house. Then drag my body in a circle seven times. Then, you must stay up all night and watch."
The boys did this, but they got the instructions backwards. They cleared seven areas of ground, and drug her body twice in a circle. Where her blood dropped, corn began to grow.
Because the boys were careless in listening to the instructions, corn must now be planted and taken care of in order for it to grow. And to this day, it only grows in certain spots and not the entire earth.

Reflections on Selu

2006-01-08T05:02:00.000-08:00

Mostly from the book Selu,
by Appalachian Cherokee storyteller Marilou Awiakta:

In all versions of the compass story respect between genders is an implicit wisdom. Humanity has two genders. To preserve the balance, the genders must cooperate and get along, for themselves, the sake of the community and the environment. Selu and Kanati model this harmony between genders. This wisdom begins in the tangible world with Mother Earth and the Corn Mother, she who sustains life for the people. Selu’s husband, Kanati the hunter, is the mythic father of humankind and the bringer of the equally essential hunting and woodlore to the people.

Strength and tenderness
Tenderness and strength
Balance
In the human dimension

…for the individual, regardless of gender. And for the community in all levels of society, from family ceremonies to government. Woman and man represent cardinal balances in nature.
Regardless of the era in which the ancient story of Selu is told, one of the unchanging elements is that a basic imbalance, a lack of respect, between genders disturbs the balance in the environment, just as such an imbalance in an individual invades the web of his or her life and affects all relationships.
In the spirit of survival, what is needed is a reweaving in consciousness

This is quite similar to some of the last written recent words of herbalist and midwife Jeannine Parvati Baker, a precious teacher now in the world beyond -

New body parables that express the creative power, the wilderness of woman's soul and the holy nature of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and child-rearing are sorely needed. Pleasure and pain must be revisioned through a metaethics of partnership, in light of the new gender complementariness rather than dominion and separation. Our fear of pain, the other gender and a punishing God are related- and traditionally the opiates of childbirth anesthesia, avoidance of conscious heterosexuality and religious dogma have been the strategies employed to distract us from realizing that, from the soul’s perspective, sexuality is spiritually.

A spirituality which recognizes that matter is holy, sexuality is life-force, and the genders are partners can bring ecstasy back to birth, not as hyperbolic possibility but actuality. Living ecstatically in the present moment can bring a greater ability to respond to what presents itself for healing. This is where spirituality, sexuality and ecology all converge.

And again, Awiakta -

Somewhere in the world
Selu is always singing

To my grandchildren Ill say “You aren’t supposed to spy on Selu or her daughters when they’re doing they’re doing their first private work – not even with your ears.” And Ill tell then the story of Little Deer, too, how he is connected to Kanati, the Lucky Hunter.

Without being mean spirited about it – even when the transgressors are bent on murdering her – the Corn mother calmly draws a line in her hearts sweet meal, reminding her sons that to cross it is to separate themselves from their sustainer. The line is the law. To break it will set inevitable consequences in motion. The sons remember the goodness of their own hearts. In a ceremony of sevens, they carry out the Corn mother’s injunctions and faithfully keep the watch. Only then does she return to bless them. Ginitsi Selu endures all things. But she does not put up with all things. If we are reverent toward her and take only what we need, she will sustain us. If we are irreverent and take too much, we separate ourselves from her power and we will die. Ignorance of this natural law is no excuse, because through Mother Earth the Creator reveals them continuously.

As I think of my grandchildren and their future I think of Selu story and that she knew she had sprung from the corn and that she needed to take something of her heritage with her.

These grandchildren have Celtic heritage also, through their fathers who are mountain men, and through part of my family. From what I see of this teetering world these children will need every root of their heritages to survive. Most of this knowledge will be passed through family.
From first contact centuries ago the Celt and the Cherokee got on well together because of what shared: devotion to family; love of the land; reverence for the Creator and natural law; the egalitarian relationship between men and woman; the sense of fierce independence and outrage at foreign invasions which both sexes would battle to repel; the love of ceremony and symbol. All of these combine in a quality of soul that relies on the inner life of the spirit to survive.

As American society searches for new life patterns for the future, it is sensible to study also those patterns that are indigenous to our country and that have proved reliable for the survival of the people. In this study we will undoubtedly find agreeable harmonies – perhaps moving in counterpoint, but harmonies nonetheless. If we listen to each other, many concepts which appear controversial may be rendered less divisive than we thought. When we look at the increasing role of women in the government of America today and the increasing participation of men in family life, we see it not so much as a new phenomenon, but as a resurgence of the indigenous roots of democracy.
When we turn to the Cherokee, who in the historical record appear to be separated from the Iroquoian people by thousands of years, we see links appearing in similarities of language constructs and customs but science and history can only go so far in establishing links

Song of the Grandmothers

I am Cherokee.
My people believe in the spirit that unites all things
I am woman. I am life-force. My word has great value. A man reveres me as he reveres Mother Earth and his own spirit.

The Beloved Woman is one of our principal chiefs. Through her the Spirit often speaks to the people. In the Great Council at the capital, she is a powerful voice. Concerning the fate of hostages, her word is absolute.

Women share in all life. We lead sacred dances. In the council we debate freely with men until an agreement is reached. When the nation considers war, we have a say, for we bear the warriors.
Sometimes I go into battle. I also plant and harvest.

I carry my own name and the name of my clan. If I accept a mate, he and our children take the name of my clan. If there is a deep trouble between us, I am free to tell him to go as he is to leave. Our children and our dwelling stay with me.
As long as I am treated with dignity, I am steadfast.
I love and work and sing.
I listen to the Spirit.
In all things I speak my mind. I walk without fear.
I am Cherokee

The reader will not be a little surprised to find the story of the Amazons not so great a fable as we imagined, many of the Cherokee women being as famous in war, as powerful in the council. – Henry Timberlake, Memoirs, 1765

Early Romans exposed to Celtic tribes were aghast to observe that these “barbarians” as a practice will consult their women in their decisions – even of government and military matters (!). Along with healers, witches, queens, and peasants were women as fierce warriors. According to Diodorus of Sicily, “Among the Gauls the women are nearly as tall as the men, whom they rival in courage.” Ammiamus Marcellinus observed that “the mood of the Gauls is quarrelsome and arrogant in the extreme. In a fight any one of them can resist several strangers at a time, with no other help than his wife’s, who is even more formidable.” From Women of the Celts.

Bloodroot

2005-10-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

First Posting

2005-10-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

So this is my first posting to check this all out. Ive little idea what to anticipate...My only intention is to occasionally write about things that I care about and connect with others out there who can support, share, and challenge me in good faith. Since I am spending more time at my computer than ever before and am living in a new place where I am somewhat out of my element, so this seems a good place to connect: cyberspace. While Im not interested only in connections with folks who are just like me, I do welcome kindred spirits who have a profound respect for the Earth, for women, human diversity, and social change as something of a fundamental basis for life in this crazy/beautiful world.
Enough for now