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A Flower Portal

26 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by Asia in Earth Medicine, Inspirations

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flower essences, spring flowers

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Every spring is a kind of portal. An opening where absolutely everything has the possibility to change. When what was dormant can become activated in an entirely new way. Every winter I forget something of what it means to be alive, and every spring, in the softness of the mud and rain, I remember.

A portal is something that brings you through, beyond, helping you to move past what was once a boundary and step into the subtle winds of a new threshold. Portals deliver you into a place that has always existed, but that you haven’t yet glimpsed. They open gateways to other worlds, and deeper universes inside of oneself.

In the riotous, hopeful gateway of spring there are pockets of transcendence everywhere you look, but the most powerful portals of all are the ones that open anew every day— the flowers.

As humans we are innately attracted to flowers, we plant them and tend them and get lost in their scent. We eat them and admire them, they cause us to stop in our tracks and lose ourselves in memory, reverie and awe.

Flowers are portals that bring us deeper into this world.

 

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Have you ever tried gazing at a flower until it became a mandala? Until it transformed before your eyes? Until it was no longer an “it” but a being who waved at you, who reached into the wind, who knew something you’ve been aching to remember?

Until you saw it for what it was, a gatekeeper to a reality that you haven’t yet touched. But that you can feel, close by, almost here.

Gaze long enough at a flower and something will happen to you. You’ll enter into a portal of interconnection that feels like true bliss to our human-cloistered hearts and stirs a remembrance of a seed planted long ago.

When we come into relationship with a flower we come into the same rhythm of being that the rest of the living world follows, a rhythm that the still-wild place inside of us aches for intimately. We notice things we never saw before. The ants bravely climbing in the duff. The bees with pollen on their knees. The way the petals on every single flower will curve slightly, differently. Each petal, too, its own being.

We begin to notice the subtlety of our own being as well. Flowers teach us how to cherish the wild growth of our own selves with just as much sanctity.

 

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It is a relief to come back into this knowing. This remembering, of the many worlds inside of this world. And that we are a part of this great, soulful, multiplicity.

Flowers have made me cry. They’ve sung to me, they’ve held me, they’ve taught me. They’ve called to me. Maybe a flower is calling to you too?

Now, I know that every time I am drawn to a flower, there is a reason. That the flower is opening itself as a teacher, and I am the same as the bees: eager, drawn, unknowing, but so open to receive. Over the years I’ve learned how to listen, how to drop away from the worries of the day, and hear what is being shared. And what I receive always brings me into a new understanding of who I am, and what I am a part of here in this world.

Flowers are heralds of that great opening, changing, co-creating we feel inside of ourselves in spring. And they are waving at us (from roadsides and forgotten garden beds and river banks) to come back into our own medicine.

 

Flower Essence Bowl

 

Are you ready to open the portal?

Come join us for Intuitive Plant Medicine. Find the flowers that are speaking to you, and develop the tools to listen. Be guided to begin practicing with Flower Essences and learn how to create them, play with them, and use them in healing and on-the-body treatments.

Registration for the course closes this Friday April 28th, and then we begin as a group on Beltane (May 1st) a traditional holiday of blooming and beginning. Come join our rich circle.

Be sure to read on for more portals into flower medicine, including a video guide to my Top Three Flower Essence for spring !

And remember that all blooming first happens in the unseen, deep within the seed of your beginning. It’s happening, it’s unstoppable. And you have everything you need in order to blossom fully.

 

My Top Three Flower Essences for Spring

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When Violets Speak

19 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by Asia in Earth Medicine, Inspirations, Wild Foods, Wildcrafting & Collecting

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

flower essences, herbalism, intuition, plant medicine, violets, wild foods

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I first moved to these mountains in spring. Early spring, when things are still raw with beginning. It felt fitting. I had left behind my entire life in New York City— my relationship, my community and career— to start anew in Appalachia. I brought only what would fit into my car, leaving space for the bigness of what I was carrying, the dream of what life could possibly be like moving forward: To live in daily communion with the natural world, to come into the vividness of my being, to open up the doors of self-initiation that had only been hinted at previously.

I knew something important was aching to unfold, and that stepping out into the great unknown, on my own, was important. And so I did. I started those first lonely weeks without a single piece of furniture or any connections in town. It was exhilarating and terrifying, and some days I wondered how I would handle the bigness of it all.

I was still sleeping on a pallet on the floor of my room when the violets arrived. It started with a few small handfuls of violets, scattered here and there, like tiny daubs of lavender amongst the winter-flattened grass. And then one morning I awoke and the entire hillside was alive with grape and hyacinth. Stretching for almost an acre, I was living amongst a sea of Viola. It was spectacular, and often stirred me to tears. When I looked at them I had the distinct feeling that I too was being seen. 

I didn’t know it then, but this was one of my first initiations into Intuitive Plant Medicine.

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Like most denizens of mainstream culture, I grew up seeing violets but never really seeing them. Suddenly, at this pivotal moment in my life it was as if I was experiencing violets for the very first time— and I was drinking it in. I munched on the flowers and leaves in every salad. I made violet tea (a gorgeous amethyst-hued brew). I candied the flowers and tried my hand at violet syrup. I sat amongst them, drew them, spoke to them. I walked past them and felt them reach out to me.

I had a hard time communicating what I was experiencing but it often brought me to tears. They were healing me. I was in herb school at the time, learning the ins and outs of plant constituents, but there was something lacking from all the violet material medicas I read through. It didn’t capture the sunlit spectrum of what I was experiencing. There was something more, something singing. I could hear it in a place before words.

So I stepped out of the textbook knowing and into my direct experience and I was given something absolutely life changing, a shift in the deepest well of my being. I began working directly with Violet and everything I had been hoping to embody, approach, and initiate through my move to Appalachia came to fruition.

A solidness in my sense of self. A slow removal from the pattern of people pleasing that had defined my life before. An ease in my aloneness, when once there was fear of disappointing others. It turned the tired stereotype of the shy violet on its head, so I could understand (finally) that my long-begrudged inwardness and empathy was a powerful strength indeed. I saw my unique sensitivity for what it is— a gift.

asia-harvesting-sjw

I began to experience myself, and the world, in ways I had never accessed before. And I realized that this was the kind of medicine I came to the mountains to practice. The kind of medicine that brings you to your knees in profundity, the kind of medicine that helps you activate the medicine of your own being. This was Intuitive Plant Medicine, and this was what I was here to learn, teach and share.

Since that time I have had violets come up again and again in my practice, and I am always amazed by how it continues to appear in people’s lives during such similar transitions and big moments of finding one’s medicine.

This kind of direct, multidimensional experience of healing is what Intuitive Plant Medicine truly is. And this is what we (the plants and myself) are so exited to be sharing with you in the new Intuitive Plant Medicine online course.

Packed into this eight week online experience is a deep wealth of such aha moments. Big gateways of inner-growth, self-understanding and truly luminous connections to the plant realm. If you have been waiting for the time to ignite your own inner knowing and profound direct relationship with plants, come join us!

Registration closes on April 28th and we begin as a group shortly thereafter on May 1st. See you in the field of dreams!

<< Come Learn more about the course >>

violet flower essence sans text

>> The Medicine of Violets <<

Viola spp.

As a physical medicine, violets are rich indeed. Both violet leaves and flowers are edible, and are some of my favorite additions to early spring salads. The heart-shaped leaves are highly nutritive, subtly flavored, and a wonderful source of Vitamins A and C. They are also quite mucilaginous. Herbs that have mucilage are deeply soothing for our stomachs and internal mucosa, helping to ease inflamed throats and impaired digestion. Mucilage is also chock full of soluble fiber, so it can be helpful in easing constipation, feeding our beneficial digestive flora, and lowering cholesterol levels. The mucilage of violet leaves can be a lovely addition to thicken soups or a batch of pesto. I like to take a walk-about every spring morning and gather a small handful of wild greens like chickweed (Stellaria media), dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) and violets to have with my morning eggs.

Violet flowers and leaves are considered to be a blood purifier, or alterative, and are often used as food medicine in spring cleanses. High in both Rutin and Vitamin C, the leaves help to strengthen the blood vessels, lessening varicose veins and the tendency to bruise easily (which can be particularly helpful if you like to ramble in the springtime woods). In clinical trials violets have been shown to be a rich in antioxidants (just look at the color! of course they are!), as well as anti-inflammatory and blood thinning compounds.

The Viola genus has around 550 species, including Johnny jump ups, hearts ease and pansies. Many violet species are used similarly to our familiar lawn-native, Viola sororia, but there are always differences between plants, and some woodland species are endangered so always use your head, guidebook and heart when harvesting. Violet leaves also have some toxic look a-likes so make sure to harvest when the plant is in bloom if you are in any doubt of your ID.

Violets actually have two different flowers. The characteristic purple flower we notice in spring, and a hidden white-blanched bud that flowers just underneath the surface of the soil later in the year. The common above-ground flower is what we use as food and medicine.

 

Wid violets

As a flower essence, Violet opens a space of deep self-acceptance, contentment, and individual wellbeing. Calming, steadying and maternal, the flower helps you to feel comfortable and supportive of yourself as an individual. Letting go of negative attachments and patterns of relating (especially to oneself). Violet helps us to foster good connections that come from a deep recognition of self-importance. It is often helpful during breakups, major heart transitions, or in times of self-exploration. The essence can be indicated for those who tend towards shyness and introversion as well as those who would do well to spend more time in quiet reflection and reverence of their lives.

Violet helps us to appreciate stillness— mindful observation, moments of silence, and the important joy of just being. It can expand your abilities as a listener, both to yourself as well as to others, and open you to a powerful place of acceptance. Violet encourages a commitment to be warm and generous towards oneself, it can help separate the negative feelings of loneliness from the incredible gift of alone-ness. It is sometimes within such still spaces that we recognize just how joyful it is to be ourselves, a being in springtime.

 

Visit our Violet flower essence in the shop
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You Contain Multitudes

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Asia in Earth Medicine, Inspirations

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

flower essences, herbal medicine, self healing, self love, shamanic journeying, shamanism, stone medicine

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Each lifetime contains multitudes. A multicolored collection of insights and experiences. A many-hued menagerie of dusks and dawns.  Each lifetime is not just one thing, but many. Like a field that blooms in wildflowers and golden grass from spring to fall. And each one of us is not just one thing, but many, too.

The child whose imagination created shapes from shadows and knew that a summer was also a slice of forever. The teenager who could get lost in poetry and wasn’t afraid to fall head over heels in love. The new parent who experiences the ecstatic largeness of existence in the absolute smallest moments of life. The elder who can take the wide view. The wise one who knows exactly what to say to soothe a wound, and how to laugh at the silliness of living on earth.

supergirl_asiaAsia at age 3 channeling Superwoman

When we need clarity in our lives we often look to the exterior for guidance. Seeking outside support from your community can be absolutely vital, but we can also be empowered to seek council directly from the complexity of our own being. The deep diversity of our own selves.

As humans, we tend to turn a critical eye upon our past (and present, for that matter). Picking over ourselves with a fine-toothed comb, we lose ourselves in the subtle imperfections, and cease to remember the gifts and talents that we naturally possessed throughout so many moments of our lives. And we forget that those aptitudes, those wisdoms and insights, still remain somewhere deep inside. Within all of us is a real-life confederation of superheros, with specific powers to share.

So next time your heart aches for guidance, consider the possibility that there is a version of you that knows exactly how to heal the wound. A self that can give you a perspective that will transform it all.

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Authentic medicine people recognize that true healing comes from within. That all healing originates from the self. Even when we have the support of an incredible therapist or herbalist, the alchemy that releases us from dark places is a magic that originates inside. Plants, too, are simply allies that bolster our natural abilities to heal. Even an immune stimulating herb like Echinacea doesn’t bequeath us with something entirely new. It bolsters and supports what is innate to us. It ignites the potential within. All healing is born from the cauldron of your multitudinous self. We just have to be open to the diversity inside.

There is much pressure in our culture to package our own identities, to be easily encapsulated in 140 characters. But the real truth is that within each of us is a diversity of different personalities. An entire kaleidoscope that can be experienced in the span of a single day. We are both, we are all.

The person who drinks midnight margaritas and goes out dancing until dawn. And the person who wakes up at first light to sip tea and simply listen to the birds.

We, all of us, wild and meditative. Carefee and conscientious. Confused and completely clear.

We are wounded. And we are our own most powerful healers.

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There is a part of you that is reaching out right now, with a magic balm to help.

So keep reading to learn how to access this multitudinous self. Develop a deep relationship with the medicine person that you are, and the healer that you have been and will become.

It’s all here. You are here. And so everything is possible, beginning right here.

.   .   .

self-heal-mica-mandala

// M I C A //

A vastly abundant mineral flecked in field and stream, Mica is a glimmer of light in our journey to see ourselves. A supremely multilayered stone, Mica brings us into a uniquely celebratory relationship with our multifaceted self. Known in Chinese medicine as a sacred mirror, Mica works to reflect back to us our inherent worthiness and inner-brilliance, encouraging us to recognize ourselves for the divine beings that we truly are. Mica acts as a magic gazing glass, through which we can see all the goodness that exists within.

// S E L F  H E A L //

A profound ally for healing, Self heal (or prunella) reminds us that everything we need to change, transform, and grow is already within us. Added in essence form to any formula, Self heal is considered a potentiator, a flower that helps all other elements of the formula to harmonize and amplify in healing. A central essence in my own practice, Self heal is vital for both the healer and the healing. This sweetly nurturing essence reminds us that everyone deserves time for self care and rejuvenation. And that, in truth, we do not have to look beyond our own selves to experience the most profound healing. At the deepest level, we are always whole.

>> Visit our Self Heal + Mica elixir in the shop <<

// Healing Selves Meditation //

 

We are, in truth, our own spirit guides. Listen to this spoken meditation to open a dialogue with your inner healer and multitudinous self. Re-integrate the gifts of spirit from your inner child, and invite the wisdom of the elder you have yet to become.

Be guided from within.

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// Journey to Yourself //

From a shamanic standpoint we aren’t just a self, we have a self. Part of the gift, and responsibility, of this lifetime is to learn how to care for the selves that we are actively creating. Self care can look like many things: baths, baking, taking half an hour to work on a puzzle. Simply put – one of our most central, and unique tasks, is to learn what our selves need in order to feel supported and cared for.

One way we can begin to understand our needs is to journey to a quiet aspect of ourselves and ask. Shamanic journeying is a kind of meditation, combined with focused intention, to enter an expanded state of consciousness. It is a great way to connect in and receive guidance for those of us who have active minds. Next time you are needing support, or are wondering how to engage in more meaningful self care, try a journey with the intention to meet an aspect of yourself that is here to help.

Not sure how to journey?

Check out this blogpost for a guide.

 

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Autumn Melancholy + Saturnian Journeys

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Asia in Earth Medicine, Inspirations

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Autumn, carnelian, crystals, depression, fall, flower essences, ghost pipe, harvest, herbal medicine, inward quest, mediation, melancholy, metaphysical, nostalgia, philosophy, sadness, saturn, saturn return, soul search, stones

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetIt is late October, and the peak of the Equinox has come and gone. The fields are golden with constellations of butter-colored squash and dried corn, and every day the light grows dimmer. In the wheel of the year, autumn is a time of both extravagant wealth and liberating death. As the days curl up like leaves, smaller and smaller, we are presented with more literal darkness and invited into a conflicted space of both reapening and reflection.

Autumn wears two crowns. The bright bittersweet berry and the bones of blackberry thorns. It is a time of dichotomy, of arrival and departures, endings and beginnings. Fall is an overwhelmingly evocative season, one that carries the crisp scent of nostalgia at midday, and the fog of old longings at night. For autumn’s light, thin as sorghum syrup poured in early morning sunrise, is the last of its kind. The final flicker before we enter the cave of winter— after fall we are subsumed by the dim unknown. In any spaces of darkness our eyes naturally widen and seek. And in autumn, our pupils begin to open like ponds into the deep.

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 presetwriting by lamplightAutumn’s darkness has a peculiar sheen, like an obsidian scrying stone, there is much to see in such opaque depths. Darkness, an aspect of living that is as integral as the shadow to the light, has been much demonized in our contemporary society; it consorts so closely with the unknown. Traditionally, this time of the year was recognized as a moment when the veils thin and what exists in the underworld (aka. the worlds underneath our perception of this world) can be made visible. The true underworld is not a place of demons or devils; it is the unexplored terrain of the soul. It is a place of individuation, searching, seeking, and deep creation. Like Pele and her lava, this dark place holds the regenerating force of creation in flux, the fluidity that births new land.

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetAutumn presents us with the opportunity to accept this inward quest, and acknowledge the vital importance of death. In autumn we can consciously invite in the dissolution of old habits or ideas, relationships, ways of being, or concepts of the world. Death, in truth, is a kind of harvest; we cannot collect the seed until the sunflower has become hunched and blackened like a crone. Autumn reminds us that death is a natural cycle of life, and in death there is nothing to fear. We engage in petite deaths all the time— the end of the day, the end of a phase, the end of our moon. Our soul is intimately interested in death. In fact, it is so curious that each and every one of us is born into a body that will one day die. Without death or darkness, how can we be reborn?

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 presetDepression is a heavy word in our culture. It carries as much weight as the ferry on the river Styx. As a society, we fear depression, just as we fear death and descent. In the olden days the word melancholy was often used. In contrast to depression, melancholy is not a deaf sinking or a mute plunge into nothingness; it is a search, as important and heroic as an anchor seeking deeper shores. Melancholy is born from a fervent yearning for meaning, a desire to know the purpose behind the pulp of ife. This search is fecund. It is the force that drives us into the unexplored terrain of the soul. In his book Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore echoes the importance of melancholy, recognizing depression’s emptiness as a type of alchemy that can transform the very fabric our lives. Many seeds must first be buried in darkness before they can bloom into light. Melancholy, and all the deep creativity it engenders, is a kind of planting. Traditionally associated with the God Saturn (who is also the God of harvest, age, wisdom, density and wealth), melancholy is a kind of passport into other worlds. In the old days, those who were considered constitutionally melancholy were sometimes called “Saturn’s children” and treated with respect. As progeny of such a distant and deep planet, we are usually asked to travel far.

SaturnWe all move through Saturnian times in our life. Anyone who has experienced the enormity of change that can accompany your own personal Saturn return already understands the heavyweight importance of such underworld journeys. [Saturn return is a term in astrology, marking when Saturn returns to the same point in the sky that it occupied the moment you were born. This cycle comes about in 27-30 year intervals and is generally accepted to herald a time of massive transformation, new directions and change]. Whether you are literally in your Saturn return, or simply descending into a Saturnian moment, we must remember that such sinking is not the same as driftlessness. Every descent has its necessity, every death its reasons. The autumn leaves on the tree do not wonder why they flame and fall, they simply let go.

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetSaturn and its melancholy asks us to go deep, casting off our surface personalities to seek the wider identities of our soul. At its most primal element, a Saturian autumn is a time of approaching mystery. Not only the mystery of death and beginnings, fairy tales or witches brews, but the unfathomable mystery of oneself. As Oscar Wilde wrote near the end of his life, “The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? “

Autumn is the time for approaching the brave trajectory of your own soul. It is the season in which we are asked to simply witness our rotation, recognizing the fecundity within the dark sides of our moon, and accepting the shadowy gifts autumn’s Saturnian return.

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Earth Alchemy finalThe Birth of Earth Alchemy

Several months ago I was sitting amongst a patch of Ghost Pipe on the forest floor when, like an ember thrown from a far off fire, Carnelian sailed into my awareness. In that moment, a flame burst into being. I recognized that these two medicines were asking to create magic together, and so I bowed my head and made it a reality. Only a month prior Kunzite + Mimosa has engaged me in a similarly surprising waltz. With this imploring I knew that a new era of One Willow had been born, and so I began to gather tinder to feed this deeply inspiring spark. By definition, alchemy is a practice that can literally transform matter. Soon after I began working with these earth medicines, I knew these elixirs held the ability to turn even the darkest elements into gold. Now, in the richness of this Saturnian time, I am so proud to announce the beginning of One Willow’s new Earth Alchemy line, an ever-evolving collection of flower and stone pairings that have asked to be breathed into life.

Ghost Pipe + Carnelian is the second essence in this alchemical collection. In recognition of this season I wanted to introduce you to the two beings behind this glowingly transformational essence.

carnelianCarnelian

In Chinese medicine there exists a concept of ghosts that goes far beyond our understanding of hauntings. In traditional Asian medicine ghosts are not simply the energetic residue of the formally living, they are entities that result from a resistance to what is, a tear in our resonance with the universe. When we resist or reject our current circumstances, we often cause a split. In this way of thinking ghosts can actually be aspects of ourselves— unresolved grief, unacknowledged loss, regrets, guilt, and the haunting of old hurts. In traditional Taoist medicine Carnelian was thought to help move (and thus integrate) the ghosts we have accumulated throughout our lives. This fiery stone works an emissary, or torch, helping energies get to where they ultimately belong. Carnelian can help us mend that original split, enabling us to let go of the grief that has caused us to stagnate in dark places for so long. Historically, carnelian is linked to courage, bravery, and the ability to be eloquently bold. More contemporary understandings of Carnelian revere this embered stone for its ability to help us step into spaces of personal power and leadership. Carnelian encourages us to take action in our lives, moving us like a flame through the darkness in order to manifest our brightest dreams. Carnelian emboldens us to find our deepest courage and take the leap into the unknown.

Ghost pipe 1Ghost Pipe

Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is an eerily unique being, one that has captivated the hearts of many people over the years. It is one of the few plants that lacks chlorophyll and survives in a semi-parasitic (some would say symbiotic) relationship by tapping into the mycorrhizal networks of the forest. It has roots in both depth and dependency, embodiment and death. Ghost Pipe has often been associated with states of the underworld, and as a guardian of the threshold it seems to rise like a ghost from the dark forest floor. As an essence, Ghost Pipe can help us enter liminal spaces with safety. In Sean Donahue’s beautiful article on this evocative plant he writes, “Ghost Pipe to me is the distillation of the consciousness of the forest — of the deep peace that comes from complete integration in the cycles of birth and death to the point where the distinction ceases to have meaning.”

Ghost Pipe reminds us that, in truth, death and rebirth are one in the same. Emerging from the soil in a pale stand of downward facing hoods, this plant seems to embody the penetrating vision of the crone— the movement of bringing ones gaze into the inner worlds. After this plant is fertilized, the flower shades a miraculous pink and turns its face upwards to the sky. Ghost Pipe is an exotic example of the life-giving essence than can arise from our journey into the underworld. Once we allow ourselves the time of descent our souls require, we can fertilize a whole new generation, the blush of a fully lived existence returning to our cheeks to help us show our faces even more gallantly to the world.

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetGhost Pipe has fallen out of contemporarily popular materia medicas, but was in wider use in the early Americas, where is was listed in King’s American Dispensatory. A nervine, antispasmodic and diaphoretic, Ghost Pipe turns purple when tinctured, a velvety reminder of the insightful alchemy that can happen when seek our medicine in the depths.

Ghost Pipe has historically been used in drop doses as a pain remedy. This curious companion was cited to help “put the pain beside you” where it can be examined, and ultimately transcended. Depression can be overwhelming, but when we focus on the pain we prevent ourselves from moving deeper into the places that our discomfort is asking us to address. Ghost Pipe can help us to put aside the intensity of the hurt and see our wounds as an opening into a truly transformational journey of the soul.

Ghost pipe + Carnelian final A guide for the Saturnian journeys of our lives

Life, like clouds, moves in cycles. Moments of brightness and clarity exist just as wholly as shape-shifting horizons of storm. To acknowledge the light, is to recognize the darkness, and to interact with the shadow is to learn about the very nature of light. A remedy of ember and empowerment, Ghost Pipe + Carnelian is a guide for such journeys into the underworld.  In the old days, the natural seasons of melancholy were considered the domain of Saturn— the Roman God of wealth and wisdom, dissolution and depth, harvest, wholeness and liberation. Ghost Pipe + Carnelian is a torch for all those who are ready to move through the Saturnian journeys of their life. An invaluable ally in times of depression, darkness, or stagnation, this powerful pairing reminds us that we are, in truth, our own guides. We must only trust the imperceptible path. When we embark with willingness into the worlds that lay beyond this one, we consciously enter into the terrain of the soul. Ghost Pipe + Carnelian emboldens us to embrace entirely new ways of soulful seeing and being, a journey of consciousness that necessitates the death of the old. This dynamic essence dispels any energies that may be hindering our quest— ghosts, cords or parasitic attachments, and reminds us that rebirth always arises from places obscured.  A bravely alchemical pairing, Ghost Pipe + Carnelian gives us the power and energy to burn like lava through the darkness, manifesting entirely new land.

// Visit Ghost Pipe + Carnelian in the shop //

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Avena Sativa: The Warm Weather Medicine of Milky Oats

03 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by Asia in Domestic Bliss, Earth Medicine, Wild Foods, Wildcrafting & Collecting

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

avena sativa, between seasons, flower essences, gardening, herbal medicine, herbs, medicine, meditation, milky oats, nervine, oat straw, oats, overwork, reflection, relaxation, stress, stress remedy, tea, tincture, wild oats

Milky oats on stone ledgeWe’ve slipped into one of the most delicious times of the year– that liminal, lofty space between spring and summer. The raucous rush of springtime ephemerals has died down, leaving a haphazard cascade of petals dissolving beneath the trees. And yet, the hot days of dry grasses and hibiscus have yet to arrive. Like the anticipation of a full moon, the coming of this new season has stirred something inside me that I can only recognize as a honeyed, exhilarating mixture of nostalgia and desire.

The plumping of the oats, sown in the earliest days of Spring, is yet another indicator that the heat of Summer is near.  Milky Oats is one of the most sensuous, enthralling and enchanting herbs I have ever had the pleasure to grow. (Even its scientific name is utterly delicious: Avena sativa). Most people are familiar with oats as a cover crop or a cereal grain. Growing up I, quite frankly, thought oats were supremely boring! (Although, having been raised as a Quaker, I did feel a strange modicum of pride in our small, oat-bound, claim-to-fame. There was something about that simply dressed Quaker character and his good old-fashioned stoicism…) Turns out, oats are wild, exciting and truly incredible medicine.

oats closeGrowing at breakneck pace, the green stalks of oats are unbeliveably nutritious and mineral-rich. Infused in hot tea, oat straw is considered a tonic nutritive, feeding our body and nourishing a calm state of mind. It is an excellent source of calcium and magnesium and can help ease the stress of rough transitions and dark moods. If you grow oats as a cover crop, you can snip the greens at anytime. Cut them into sections oats in basketfor easy drying and store as a delicious tea beverage throughout the year.

Let your oats keep growing, and their magic will continue to unfurl in the tiny, delicate wands of their seed heads. Soft, prancing, seriously delightful, the semi-mature oat seeds should be harvested for medicine at a very specific time. It requires finesse, and maybe a whispered hint from a fairy or two, to get it just right. You must develop a relationship with your oats, squeezing them gently every day until you see that telltale drop of “milk” appear at their tip. This milk is a naturally occurring latex, and signals us herb-worshipers that the time is ripe to gather this medicine.Oats on stalk

Blended with alcohol to make a tincture (using a ratio of one part herb to two parts alcohol), Milky Oats forms a vibrant, verdant green slurry of medicine. After it sits for at least 6 weeks, you can strain your alcohol off and enjoy the many blessings of Milky Milky oat tinctureOats. Note on Gluten: As someone with an extreme gluten-sensitivity, I have never had a reaction to any reliably grown oat medicine. Grown commercially, many oats are processed with wheat, rendering them unsafe for anyone with celiac or gluten sensitivities. I do not generally buy oat straw from the store. However, oats that I know have been grown and processed separately from wheat have always treated me kindly and should, technically, be completely gluten-free.

Milky Oats is known as a nervine and a trophorestorative for the nervous and endocrine systems (meaning that oats are a deeply nutritive restorative for these systems. I’ve heard people describe Milky Oats as “nerve food”). Milky Oats can work wonders for those who feel burnt out, exhausted, fried, tightly wound or scattered due to overwork and stress. They’ve been known to cool and relieve states of high anxiety and anger, irritability and addiction, grief, and panic disorders. Often indicated for those who are experiencing a loss of libido, Milky Oats can help plump up your general juciness and replenish deep reserves of energy. A steadfast and calming companion to help ease the transitions during major life passages. (Interested in Milky Oat Medicine? Check out our shop!)

Milky oats close

Personality wise, Milky Oats is akin to a sweet, round, sensuous water nymph…asking you to slow down, simply drink, and enjoy. Milky Oats is a tonic in the traditional sense, you will see the most profound shifts in physical and emotional states when taking Milky Oats over a longer period of time. I recommend 1-2 dropperfulls of Milky oats in basket on pathtincture up to 3x day taken for at least three months for long-term benefits (although, as a supremely safe herb, you could increase that dosage to 3-5 dropperfulls as needed).

One of my favorite expressions is the old adage of “sowing ones wild oats.” When you seed oats you broadcast them, recklessly and with abandon, knowing that at least one of them will take and, frankly, not caring very much which one! Recently, a younger friend of mine broke up with her long-term high school sweetheart and has had a string of brief love affairs and amorous encounters. When asked about it, her mom simply shrugged and smiled, “she’s just sowing her wild oats.” Far from the negative stereotyping of wild foolishness or reckless naivety, sowing one’s oats can be incredibly empowering. It’s about striking out into the world, finding levity and the space to play, trying new things and seeding the light of your curiosity and creativity in all kinds of crevices. (In this way it reminds me of the stone known as Fools Gold, or Pyrite).

Wild Oat Flower essence, a form of energetic plant medicine made from a wild variety, embellishes this same narrative. This sweet essence is also called the Vocation essence, as it can help those who feel distracted or distanced from their life purpose,Wild oats or squarely confused about the nature of their path, next step, or greater calling. Often indicated for those who feel consistently restless or dissatisfied with their life. Taken in drop dosages, Wild Oat flower essence can help you find and feel enlivened by the call of your individual destiny. Vivid and true, Oat essence shows you the uniqueness of your path and helps you to invoke and appreciate work as an expression of your true spirit and inner calling. A clearing of purpose and conviction, this essence is wonderful for those graduating from school, stagnating in a limiting or boring vocation, or perhaps even experiencing a mid-life crisis.

*         *           *

Yesterday, I went out to the garden to harvest my last batch of oats. Soft and slender, I held each one like a small dancer. On my knees, I clipped them slowly. I was in no hurry. I let them fall into an old willow basket and felt the late afternoon sun warm like orange on my skin. The breeze moved across my arms gently, carrying the distant scents of fresh grass, wet earth, and faraway roses. Summer was coming, and she was speaking to me with each methodic clip and quiver. She was whispering something that felt like a daydream and sounded, in hollows and vowels, like destiny.afternoon trees

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Introducing: One Willow Apothecaries

03 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by Asia in Earth Medicine, Inspirations

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

business, calling, destiny, fate, flower essences, honeys, launch, new beginnings, one willow apothecaries, smoking blends, teas, tinctures

LOGO_MDToday is one of those days that will stick out, alive and vibrant, in my mind forever. After over a year of writing, developing, photographing, and exploring I have pushed collection- tincture formulasmy small boat out into the harbor– One Willow Apothecaries has launched!

One Willow Apothecaries is a small herbal business based out of Asheville, NC. My online shop is replete with tintures, teas, flower essences, honeys, smoking blends, and more love than I can express. One Willow Apothecaries is, plain and simple, the realization of a dream.

Over a year ago, the idea first appeared in the high meadows of my imagination. From the beginning it seemed like an exotic seed drifted from some unknown place. It felt, quite plainly, like something that came from somewhere else– a divine insistence to sit up and chase a fast flicker on the horizon. I never thought I would start an herbal business. My love of plants grew from long hours of solitary sifting of garden soil and scaling tall trees to examine their lichens. But One Willow was insistent. The idea, at first just a single wave far out in the ocean– soon delivered itself in a veritable tidal wave of inspiration. I was simply swept away.

california poppy basket

What does fate look like when it comes knocking your door? To be honest with you, I’m not sure. But I can tell you what it feels like: One Willow has been like a small bee, honeysescaping into the walls of my mind and setting up an incredibly intricate residence. Since it arrived it has filled these walls, quickly, tirelessly, with ever more of itself. Ideas upon ideas, whole nests of intention and purpose that literally shake me at times. Over this past year I could hear One Willow‘s demand for existence like you can hear a whole hive of hornets thriving in your roof. I could hear it, but still…I knew I was the one that had to give it shape.

It’s a tall order– trying to fulfill one’s dreams, continue the natural path of your life, and keep one ear, always, to the unknown ground of destiny. But it’s been a common theme in my life that when the time comes for a big life change, I arrive at the crossroads and the decision seems to have already been made. I feel lucky to have rhododendron in hand photohad such paths cleared so early, so unmistakably.

I am proud to have given this dream, something I honor and respect as an entity unto itself, a space to exist in the world. I welcome One Willow Apothecaries into existence and am so excited to see how it continues to blossom.

– Visit the Store – 

www.onewillowapothecaries.com

tea photokitchen windows & tulsi


biden and fawn     mimosa photo

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Bach Flower Essences

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by Asia in Earth Medicine, Inspirations

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Tags

bach flower remedies, chakras, energy medicine, enlightenment, flower essences, herbal medicine, higher self, intuition

Tis the season of flower essences. In honor of all the new blooms I’m reposting an article I wrote about the most well known of all flower essences, Bach Flower Remedies…

The first time I ever read about Bach Flower essences I actually cried. Not out of any particular wound or hurt, but because something about this medicine struck such a deep and familiar chord of truth. Flower essences heal on many levels, helping the emotional and spiritual, as well as physical, body. As it turns out, I am not the only one to have experienced such a powerful introduction to the world of Bach flower essences. If you ever take time to sift though the many testimonials of both patients and practitioners, you will find that miracles simply abound.

Blooming flowers, like the lotus, have long been a symbol for enlightenment. For centuries Tibetan Masters have preached that there is a direct link between our higher selves and the plant world. In the 1930s Dr. Edward Bach became the first modern physician to undertake a full-length study of our unique energetic connection with flowers. Bach, a sensitive, intuitive, and compassionate man who offered free treatment to the poor and devoted his life to the improvement of mankind, is the father of the 38 different flower essences now available worldwide.

Spring Nymphs by Emily Balivet

Physically speaking, flower essences are the energetic imprint of flowers captured in pure spring water at the height of their bloom. Once collected from the wilds, the flowers are either infused, by floating them in water underneath the sun’s rays, or lightly boiled. In this way, the water becomes the carrier of that particular flower’s energy. The infusion is then preserved with grape brandy and diluted into stock bottles to be taken as drops in a glass of water or directly onto the skin.

Bach flower remedies are predicated on the belief that we, as individuals, exist on many levels. We have spiritual selves, as well as physical identities, and communication between all our layers of being is vital to maintaining a happy, healthy, and above all, fulfilled life. Native American Shamans were experts at traveling between these different levels, communicating and healing illness at the source. According to Bach practitioners, our own intuition or sparks of desire are actually bits of guidance from our higher selves. These out-of-nowhere motivations are meant to direct us further along our life path or destiny. If you have ever had a crucial hunch that proved inexplicably correct, you will know the precious importance of trusting your inner knowledge. For one reason or another, however, we often block our own intuition. By ignoring what we might consider the dictates of our own souls, we create unhappiness, discordance, and imbalance within ourselves. Flower essences help to transform the negative thought patterns that hinder communication with our higher selves. By transforming these mental and emotional ruts, flower essences help to cleanse the “psycho-toxins” of negativity out of our spiritual metabolism, reestablishing our resonance with our inner voice.

Illness or disease is the cumulative result of ignoring these kinds of energetic andemotional imbalances. This idea is nothing new; science has known for decades that negative feelings and stress can weaken our body’s systems. According to Bach, however, illness is our body and soul’s way of telling us that we are in a state of disharmony, out of alignment with our life purpose or greater truth. In this way, illness can actually be seen as a gift, a condition to be worked with and learned from in order to prevent even further error or harm.

Bach Flower essences are incredibly individual and their effects will be different for each person. Each flower essence is indicated for a specific personality type and their corresponding negative patterns. For example, those who find they cannot turn off their thoughts and experience a kind of “mental merry-go-round” will be helped to achieve mental quiet and a return to their natural state of incredible concentration and inner organization by taking White Chestnut essence.

Flower essences work in a very subtle manner, so their effects might take some time— although those who are very sensitive can sometimes feel a more immediate shift. In my experience, using this medicine is a very lovely, comforting, and incredibly gentle experience. Over time, taking the right combination of essences, you will undoubtedly notice a marked difference in your mood, energy, and overall health. Much like experiencing a beautiful sunset, flower essences harmonize our spirits on a deep and often imperceptible level. For this reason a “feeling sense” is important to finding the right essence. If one essence in particular seems really appealing to you, then you probably should be taking it. Lastly, one of the most important concepts behind Bach Flower essences is the old adage “Heal thyself.” Everything you need to be healthy and whole already exists within and is available to you at any time. So whether you decide to self-treat or see a licensed Bach Flower practitioner, remember to open up to your own light and listen to the best healer you could ever ask for— yourself.

Originally Published on A Green Beauty

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Defined

[wool-gath-er-ing] v.
daydreaming, the gathering of thoughts and dreams as one might collect fallen tufts of wool

[wild-craft-ing] v.
the harvesting of herb, root, flower or inspiration from the wilds

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