Journeying Through the Wheel

~ Spirits of the North ~

Offerings & Welcome

Let us open sacred space in the North, honoring the element of Earth, and calling in the spirits of the sacred circle. Approaching the council fire, we make our offerings and prayers in gratitude to the spirits of the Earth, grateful to find home ground and roots in the North where we begin our sacred wheel journey. We arrive home on earth and in our bodies, grateful to be in sacred family together here with all our relations. 

Opening sacred space & circle.

Journey in the North – Earth

RITUAL ~
Offerings to the Spirits of the North - 

Gather flowers and grains in a bowl to offer the earth. Spend time in meditation somewhere you like to sit and commune with the spirits of nature around you. Find a sacred space near you in nature that feels like a sanctuary place for you.

Spend 5-10 minutes in meditation breathing with the trees. Rest your body on the earth or up against a tree trunk.
Place your hands on your heart, feeling the low you have for the natural world and plants surrounding you. Breathe there for a few minutes

Put your hands on the earth and send energy into the earth from your heart, sending your love and healing energy through your body to all of the trees and plants, through their roots. Send your love to the whole earth, imagining the healing love energy you are sending through you spreading out like light from your hands. 

When you feel complete, move your hands to the bowl of grains and flowers you have. Send healing energy and love into them, thinking of all you are grateful for from the earth. Speak out loud or in your heart all that you are grateful for that you've received from the earth. Grateful for all you receive that sustains your life. Sending love to the plants, animals, waters, rock... 

Sprinkle the grains and flowers around you, walking around the eare you're in and offering the nourishing grains and flower offerings to the trees and plants that surround you. Let love flow from your heart as you make the offerings. 

~ Nourishment ~ Restoring ~ Home ~ Body ~ Service ~ ~ Family ~ Community ~ Nourishment ~ Ancestors ~ ~ Food ~ Soil ~ Plants ~ Sustainability ~ Sacred Place ~ 

Journey to the North

We open sacred space in the north, where the great bear meets us and brings us into her den. Curled up with our family, safe and resting inside the warmth of the earth. Underneath the snow, resting underground with all of the plants who are sleeping as well... their green bodies died back and energy returning to the roots. In their roots they stay warm and nourished by the earth through the winter season. The cold doesn't touch them inside the warm embrace of the soil. A blanket of snow above them. 

In the north we rest. Throughout the winter, resting in the arms of the quite peace of the earth. Everything rests. We have stored what we ned, the animals have packed away all they need to sustain them through the winter months, and will venture out to search for more food now and then... but the winter months are mostly spent conserving energy and resting. I rest in the winter as much as I can, and I welcome the calm slow energy of the North. 

In the North we find our sanctuary on earth. Home, comfort, security, and safety. The north is where we set up our homesteads, plant gardens and create community. In the north we create home and family.... With those we share this beautiful earth with. In the north we find the nourishment we need, where we prepare and eat food with our family and friends. It is the realm of family and relationships with all for life. Where we find support and those we can depend on. 

In the north we can rest and receive the nourishment and care taking we need. It is a place we most often go to heal and be cared for my our elders and family. In the north grandmother meets me with a mug of nettles. She incites me in close to the heart fire where she is cooking a big pot of seaweed soup. Filled with potatoes and fish, or some kind of grain she harvested with the others. She lays me down in bed and tell me to rest. Our home is simple, nothing extra is needed.  We have water from the stream, food from the gardens, and a store of dried food in the pantry. In the north all we need is available. We feel all our basic needs are met and abundance surrounds us everywhere we look. 

The nourishing herbs, wild foods, and cultivated food plants are found in the north. They are the sustainers, the plants that feed us and many other animals. They feed the soil, providing nutrients for the trees and seeds to grow in nutrient rich fertile soil. Root medicines are found in the north,   grounding, strengthening and sustaining roots that help to build and restore functioning of our bodies. 

The north is the realm of earth. The home we share with each other. The home that sustains and shelters us. The earth that receives us when we die. The mother we eat from and return to. 

Wheel of the Year – Winter

Rooting & Restoring

In winter the energy of the plants descends down into the earth to stay warm, the upper part of the plants dying back. The consciousness of the plants then resides in their roots all winter long, living off of the warmth and nutrients stored in their roots (similar to our pantries). In the winter we also live off of the energy we have gathered through the full year's season of growth. Pulling our resources close to us and slowing down enough to rest and contemplate the cycles of growth in our own life. What seeds are we wanting to nurture that are waiting to sprout underneath the snow? What is waiting to be created and born through us in the spring? 

Winter is a time of retreat and rest. It's an important time to dream, sleep, and allow the dark nights and short days to give you a slower pace where less activity happens often in the physical realms... and more activates in the spritual realms. I find winter is the time to sleep and dream with the earth as it is resting. I love to heave the break from all of the gardening and tending of the land... and just turn inwards to my creative inner world. The holidays during the winter bring us closer to the lights within us.... Drawn together closer to the hearth fires, spending time cooking and celebrating wheat we are grateful for from another full year of life and growth. 

The winter is time to reflect, journal, create from our places of inner visioning. Looking ahead to the spring as we welcome in another season of new life.

In April we are slowly coming out of the energy of winter, and in the transition to spring we feel the energies slowly pick up and begin to rise.

Rituals of the North -
Slowing down your pace and simplifying.

Home - 

Cleaning home and organizing.
Simplifying your belongings, getting rid of old things. Keeping only what you use the most.
Gathering others together at home. Building community.
Resting in bed, napping

Food -
Growing food, gathering food
Wild edibles
Cooking 

Resting -
Going to bed earlier
Napping
Resting during the day
Slowing down
Simplifying tasks 

Healing -
Focusing on healing therapies
Daily attention to working with plant medicines
Tea Meditations
Massage, Reiki/energy healing, Acupuncture, etc.
Sweats, baths
Healing rituals

Ancestors -
Offerings to ancestors
Journeying with Ancestors - Ancestor communication
Healing with Ancestors
Receiving healing energy & gifts from them
Receiving care taking from them

Rooting -
Building roots in community
Getting involved in community gatherings and activities
Planting trees & gardens to sustain
Building long term projects you sustain
Supporting others in the ecosystem
Nourishing relationships

Planting -
Planting seeds
Creating or supporting gardens
Tending to plants & trees
Long term gardens 

Reflecting -
Journaling and writing
Talking to friends, family, therapist
Creating art of your experiences 

Connection to Nature -
Hiking, resting in nature
Laying on the earth
Offerings & Prayers to the earth
Spending time in water

Caring for your Body -
Exercise, yoga, stretching
Massage
Sex and sensory pleasure
Eating nourishing food
Spending time in water
Resting

Plants of the North

Honoring  Your Lineages & Ancestors
Re-discovering Roots

We open sacred space in the north, where we gather with the ancestors that have carried our medicine traditions through generations. In their hands are the seeds that have sustained our families and communities. The seeds of plants they have known for their whole lives. Plants whose memories are intiwimed with theirs. Seeds and roots that were carried across lands, from home to home. Wherever they traceled these plants came with them. The plants we work with are lineages plants. The plants all over the world that have been tended with love and care for thousands of years, all over the world. Plants whose smeells, tastes, beauty, have surrounded our homes and villages. These plants carry memories themselves. In the north we find memory. Memory our families and ancestors carry. Memory our bodies carry. 

We have ancestors of blood and ancestors of soul... those who are in our dreams, their memories carried in our bones and in our hearts. We are not just this body we come in with, we are the sum of all the collective memories and lives of our human family here on earth. We each have a unique experience of life this incarnation, but we can move beyond our limited experiences to see through the eyes of those who have come before us. Those who still walk amongst us. They have things to share. Move towards the ones who want to help and guide you. The elders who are able to hold strength and support for you. 

None of us truly understand what happens when we leave the body, it is a mystery we likely will not know until we experience it ourselves. But somewhere deep inside me I know I exist beyond this skin and live also in the water, in the sky, and in the plants and trees that surround me. My body is bigger than this human suit, my consciousness is wider than just the organ of my Brin. I can feel the ancestors who are strong and well on the other sidde. They are partners with each other and there to help me. 

You also have guiding ancestors who are close by. They may not have been your family in the past, or they may have ben. What matters is they are there to help teach and guide you during your time here on earth. They know life can be difficult, and they have left all they can for you to be supported and cared for during your time here. They love you in a way you may not understand... it is all compassionate and understanding. 

The elders who surround us carry immense wisdom and strength. They have been through immense challenge during their time on earth. Many would not want go back... but they dwell here in a different way.... Still with the plants, trees, rivers, oceans, mountains. Just no longer in a body. They can be seen or choose not to be seen. They enter our houses if we invite them in, they guide us in planting, in finding what we need, and living in a way that will feed not just our heart and soul but give to those around us as well. 

Our ancestors are always available to support us. They are there to help, and to teach us how to live again in harmony with this family of life that surrounds us. It does not matter who the elders are that gather around you and speak to you through the trees. If they are speaking to you they are wanting to help the healing this earth needs. Trust what you hear from them. It does not need to be shared with another else, it is for you. They may want their stories remembered and told, but they are not asking for you to dwell in their pain. They are wanting you to dwell in their strength and compassion. They know the healing that is needed, the balms that are needed, because they lived it. They want us to see all that came before our time here, we can slip through the layers of time if we want to... or feel its presence in moments where there is an especially thin place. Some get stuck between times... lost and not wanting to leave. They may be waiting for something they lost... or decided they were too attached to a place to leave it. Even if there were painful memories there. 

Social Justice in Herbalism
& Holistic healing

Medicine people all over the world have been treating the wounds of humanity for many thousands of years. In order to treat the wounds we have to look at them. The clothes or arrmor has to be removed enough to apply the balms. We may want t someone who understands our experience first hand to apply the balms. We may want someone from our family. Or extended family. Or we may just want someone safe and compassionate, with a gentle presence and understanding heart o apply the balms. 

We are here to bring compassion and love to the wounds of humanity… as much as we are able to while still caring well for ourselves. Sometimes we need to spend time healing our own wounds in order to be service to others. We don’t know when those moments of intense self healing will be needed, but we always will need to care well for ourselves if we are giving a lot OF ourselves.

We are all witnessing the beauty of humanity and this incredible planet… as well as the pain of human violence, greed, power addiction, and war over the course of generations. The human species that survived on this planet were the most violent of all humanoid species... (the more peaceful branches of the human species were. killed off). We are who remains. Many are highly compassionate... built for kindness. Some are highly violent, others harmful more through ignorance. We live in a huge range and diversity of human natures… compassion and violence BOTH increased by trauma and pain. We all handle it differently. We have always needed healers to tend to the wounds of humanity. This is what you are called to do, even if you doubt yourself. What is different inside of you is the compassion you hold, the desire to serve others, and the knowing that many people have to be available to tend to the wounds we all carry. The elders are here to help us. We do this work in partnership with them.      

The medicine plants are our elder healers… as well as the healers who came before us. They come along side our guiding ancestors, and the medicine people we share this home with. They hold safe loving presence for us to reveal the wounds we are here to tend to. Gently, we ask them to help us tend to long standing wounds that haven't healed. They will remain as a scar, the tissue sensations may be different always… the memories stay somewhere in our body's memory. But with time they fade into the sunlight... composting down into the soil we plant seeds within. 

Carrying the Seeds

Plant medicine has been carried by all people around the world. Every lineage and culture… With their sacred plants, their seeds, their roots, their food plants. The ancestors and elders who carried medicine all their lives, who know the ways of healing... they need to be acknowledged. Honoured so that we can hear their voices clearly through our own minds and hearts. Feeling their strength and wisdom in our own hands. 

Herbal medicine traditions have stayed alive in people's homes all over the world. Most often in BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) who make up the global majority on earth. In America due to the legacies of racism and oppression here many of these voices and medicine people have been ignored and not acknowledged by the white folks in the field of medicine. This has gone on for thousands of years, but most obviously over the last few hundred years on this continent. 

Through the dynamics of colonization much wisdom has been lost... from all of our ancestral lineages over time. In Europe through the burning times where millions of healers and medicine people were killed or shunned for their wisdom and practice as Christianity combined with greed and power seeking caused many forms of violence and oppression of people who were simply living their way of life. Using the medicines they had always used, taught to them from their family members and serving the people of their communities. Healers were taught to be feared as witches who would curse you. Fear and suspicion grew as cultures and beliefs changed. Herbalism was always blended with spiritual traditions, all over the world. Healing was seen to happen on multiple levels of the body, soul, and energetic fields. We understood existence as more than just the physical realms. Healing encompassed all... not exclusive to the body. Though layered within and surrounding it. 

We need the wisdom of all healing traditions around the world, because the medicine plants are different that grow in each part of the world. We need the wisdom of the people who learned these plants deeply, sho carried the wisdom of plant medicine over generations. We cannot replace generations of wisdom with what science can test in plant constituents that are isolated into drug like compounds. 

In herbalism we need to acknowledge dynamics of erasure, silencing, violence and harm that has been done... in order to both tend to the wounds, and to find the right medicine for them. I may not have the medicine needed for someone... but there will be another practitioner who will. One size does not fit all. We are diverse and have a diverse experience of life, we have different wounds andante need different balms for them. 

A diversity of healers, and a diversity of medicines is needed. All of us with different skills, able to serve part of the whole. In order to make sure no one goes without care. We need people who understand the medicines and balms that might be needed in a certain situation. Your wounds, and the tending of them, makes you more helpful to others with the same. Or similar wounds to yours. We need to address the dynamics of white supremacy and harm that continues to wound. If we are committed to healing, we have to be brave enough to tend to the wounds long left untended. They will be especially slow to heal with continued harm. 

We each have our roles, we each are not meant to tend every wound that exists. But those whoa re built with extra compassion and are made to help tend the wounds of humanity are ready to help. You are one of these people. You can help tend any wound, even if it hasn't been your experience as well.... If you are invited to help. We have to work on not harming others ourselves if we are wanting to help bring healing to their ouchy places. If a woman has been so harmed by some men in her life that she won't feel safe with a male heler, that is okay. It is not the fault of the mail healer, it's just what she needs. 

Do not let your ego get in the way of recognizing you are not always the practitioner that is needed for someone. We need many many different healers, with different skills... and the people who are the right fit for you will find their way to you, and you to them. Same with friendships and people you are meant to work with. Trust you will find your way to each other. 

Help a diversity of voices and healers to be seen by the public... increase access to health care by those who have the least access to it. The most in need are often the ones who have the least access to natural medicine. 

By teaching others we give them an endless supply of medicine, instead of being reliant on a practitioner. (Paying them). Consider your way of sharing plant medicine with your community.... How can you help others to have access to free food and medicine that is available to all of us? Part of social justice in herbalism is sliding scales, biopic scholarships, and education. What can you do to help your community with accessing the medicine they most need? 

We all have important healing lineages to carry forward and share. Help the people around you by sharing freely and generoyusly. The medicine plants do not belong to anyone but themsvels. 

The lineages of herbalism belongs to those who have carried it and learned/studied through experience and training often for their whole lives. Recognize and acknowledge them with gratitude. Their voices are needed. Who has been left out and not acknowledged for the wisdom they have carried? What lineages have been ignored in fact of others? Let's feel into this and why this has happened. Dunmamics of oppression and maerasure can stop in our actions. 

Make sure the herbal lineages you honor and include when talking about herbalism include those from all over the world. What lineages have taught you? What lineages have you been fed by in your own learning? I have wisdom within me from many traditions.... Because herbalism in America is a mix of many lineages. Afdrican, carrieban, southern, central and south american, European, asian, and pacific islands. We work with plants that come from all of these contidents, and a diversity of cultures and medicine lineages within them. Too many to name, and most shared as oral traition from person to person instead of written down in books. 

Many herbal lineages were not written about in books, they were passed on through oral traditions and still are. My instinct is to teach directly, not through writing books for this reason. These traditions were carried by the elders who passed it on through their family members, and to individuals who had a special connection to plants. The same is true for many lineages all over the world. You are the ones who were especially connected to the plant realms. Some part of your soul remembers how to work with plants for healing, and how to grow them for food as well as medicine. Food and medicine plants were not seen as completely separate... there is much overlap between them. Think of the nourishing herbs.

Herbalism
& Climate Change

What is our role as herbalists through climate change? 

Tending to the plants, animals, and humans in whatever way we can. Providing food and basic resources based on plants. 

Planting gardens, native plants, food plants, doubt resistant plants, plants that provide food for the animals. Plants that are drought resistant that provides food for human communities. 

Soil building. Nitrogen fixing plants. 

Increasing diversity of plant species. 

Pollinator feeding plants 

Water conservation 

Forest gardens 

Food & Medicine gardens 

Who are they supporting? 

Wildlife

Plant populations

Water 

Humans - food, medicine, water, shade

Shelters and shade

Health is based on health of the ecosystem. 

Gardening with nature - let the wild plants come up on their own, selective weeding and maintaining biodiversity. 

Learning what the plants need. 

This month - 

Choose 3 pollinator feeding native plants to add to your gardens or get to know well. Learn about their medicinal and ecological value. Share on our Facebook group any information you have about them, articles, medicinal uses, or ethnobotanical information. What pollinators do these plants feed? 

Find 3 wild food plants to plant or tend in your garden. Make a new recipe with each other them, try a new way to eat or cook them. Share with the group what wild food plants you are getting to know! Wild plants tend to be doubt resistanct and more climate change resistant compared to our cultivated vegetables. 

Think about the illnesses people are experiencing with climate change and increased population / ecosystem degradation. What are we seeing that we could most support people with? 

Examples - Nervous system support, increases in inflammation, allergic reactions, hdhd, addiction, immune strengthening, cancer prevention, liver support, clearing out plastics, heavy metals, and toxins from our body and soils. 

Choose one of these health issues and profile 3 plants that can be used for that particular climate change related illness. 

Restorative Herbalism

Understanding Nourishing & Restorative herbalism
vs. Acute treatment

Acute medicines are needed din the moment of illness or suffering... like an emergency medicine. S remedy Isneeded right away for something that we are currently experiencing. That is an acute remedy. We can also use herbs more for prevention and long term treatment of illnesses that linger. Chronic conditions that can get worse over time. Without treatment or lifestyle changes many issues can become something chronic that we are dealing with sometimes for our whole lives. Think of acute remedies as a bandaid and ointment needed right away. The restorative medicines are to strengthen the body o ver a long period of time,. Often preventing illnesses or injuries through healing the cells, organs, and tissues from deep within you. 

Acute remedies are needed always... day to day. Something to soothe an upset tummy. A pain relieving herb, or a tea to help us go to bed. A tea to wake us up. A tea to calm our anxiety. A tea to precent anxiety or insomnia from happening as much? That's a restorative tonic medicine. 

We are focusing on restorative herbs this year as the foundation of all medicine treatment. Then we learn the cure remedies. I will be breaking these different treatment methods down each module when we get to the systems of the body. 

In the North we are building, restoring, strengthening, and sustaining. We are helping the soul to be fertile of our bodies, the waters to be clean and the soul to be well. We are looking at healing as  process of supplying the body and being with all that it needs, not just providing bandaids. A bandaid won't heal the deeper cause of the wound. We are looking to understand or find the deeper causes... And also understand we can't remove all source causes of our wounds. We can sometimes work to change what wounds us and may others. 

Most importantly finding the causes of the wounding brings us to the wound. Where it is located in the body.... These places are stored with memory and energy. Intelligence. They are asking to be hearrt, the emotions to be released, and love to be received. All wounds need love to heal. Safgety, compassion, gentleness, protection, and tenderness. Exposing the wound for anyone to touch isn't advised.... Protect it, and allow only those who feel safe and having medicine you need to access it. 

The plants we have covered din the first year are going to be further explore din this class. Restorative herbs will be highlighted because they should be used the most. Acute treatments will be discussed, and often taken inline side the restorative herbs. 

Wild food, Healing foods, and Nourishing herbs

Healing foods and nourishing herbs are the bases for our restorative plant medicines. We need nutrients for cellular repair, and with these nutrient rich plants comes a host of other compounds in the plants that will help to strengthen organs and tissues as well as resolve certain symptoms of illness. 

We have covered the nourishing herbs in depth the fist year, and below are the main uses for each of the nourishing herbs according to the organs and systems they support. Please see the handout located here for a full list of plants according to the organs or systems they support. 

Nettles - musculoskeletal system (restorative to bones, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, joints, hari, skin, nails), kidneys, immune system, adrenals a, endocrine and hormonal system, lungs, digestive system, urinary/bladder/prostate, 

Oat straw -nervous system, musculoskeletal, heart,   

Burdock, digestive system, liver, kidneys, adrenals, lungs, liver, pancreas

Dandeelion - digestive system, kidneys, endocrine system/hormones. 

Red clover - reproductive system, lungs, 

Chickweed - musculoskeletal system, tissue healing, endocrine system

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Please use the forum to ask questions and learn from each other’s journeys.