Dandelions Grrrrrreat!!

It is Almost the end of April and it has been way too long since I have updated this site. So hello out there..

The dandelions abounding everywhere and are at peak here in Sequim so it is a great time to harvest the tasty greens and flowers for eating raw in salads, cooking up the slightly bitter greens in all kinds of recipes, use in making herbed vinegars, tincturing and many possibilities.  This roadside weed the scourge of many mainstream gardeners is so packed full of of vitamins, iron rich and wonderful for our livers. We need strong livers to process all the waste in our bodies and dandelion cleanses and strengthens our livers so befriend your dandelions. We crave all flavors in our diet sweet, salty, spicy, pungent, and bitter. In times of old bitters were served before meals to increase our digestive juices and increase bile in the liver to help us digest and process toxins in the blood. We are way to addicted in our culture to prefer sweet and salty flavors and when it comes to bitter we make coffee our choice which is a toxic mimic for the bitter our bodies actually craves. Try some dandelions today, drink in the yellow sunshine packed field of dandelions with your eyes and then go eat some.

Equinox Harvest

Fall is in the air, green shades changing to reds and gold in the landscape here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I lost one of our old plum trees last week. It was so heavy with fruit that it literally cracked and fell over from the weight. How could this plum-tree that had lived to be nearly a 100 years old produce so abundantly? As I looked down at it’s broken core I was incredibly surprised to see that it was almost entirely rotten inside and it was a near miracle that it was alive at all. What a lesson for us all that a plum-tree could model life so full of meaning and abundance up to its last day of life even at age 100. May we all live that fully no matter how old we live to be and may this beautiful earth be here for the future generations of all its beautiful life forms. Life force of earth is strong on this land as it is fed with natures tending and our deep love and reverence as well. We are now busy harvesting that fruit to make jam, chutney, sauces. We give deep thanks for the life of that tree that stood so long in this land and gave so much to generations of humans, deer, raccoons and so many other critters.

 

Wild-crafting

Wildcrafting is harvesting wild plants for food and medicine. Wildcrafting conjures up landscapes in my mind of pristine wild nature but wildcrafting can be as easy as stepping into the yard or taking a walk down the road. I have an area in my garden that is set aside for this purpose. It is a place where I do not mow and have fenced off from my horses to let grow whatever grows. Here I have harvested dandelion, wild chamomile, chickweed, cleavers, shepherds purse, wild mustards, red dead nettle,  and all from one little spot. A veritable feast of food and medicine is all around you if you just take notice with the eyes of your hunter/gatherer ancestors. It is right between the cracks of a sidewalk,  a weedy space in the garden, or in an unattended  field.  

 I had a true wild wildcraft adventure recently that took me to a favorite place in the mountains of eastern WA state for a harvest weekend with 3 friends and my dog. We camped at 7,000 ft elevation where the snow was still melting in big piles here and there. The road to my favorite lookout spot was blocked by snow and melting ice. It was a first campout for my friends 7-year-old daughter and a first for my year old puppy. We had the whole mountain practically to ourselves and were astonished at the variety and volume of dazzling colored wildflowers. My favorite mountain plant ally the Osha was only 6″ high at this time but later in the year it will reach its full size and height with blooming umbrella shaped white flowers so typical of the carrot family of plants.

 The mountain is primarily pine and spruce trees with some very ancient old growth pine in the center of one of the huge sagebrush meadows. One misty morning we scampered over bogland into the pines and my friend discovered a lightning tree one that had been burned out the middle but was still thriving and alive. We spent time in that forest and communed with the old wise trees. Another magnificent elder of the mountain we communed with were the wise sage brush (Artemisia tridentata), named after the goddess of the hunt Artemis and not really a sage at all but so often called one (sages are salvias). Sagebrush live in a community network of underground roots that originate off of one ancient grandmother plant, some can be 100s of years old and spread over a vast acreage.  These plants are so giving of their medicine if approached with respect and reverence. How does one communicate with the plants? Here are some tips. Get a good plant ID book to start learning your plants.

1) I sit with the plants and quiet your mind of chatter.

2)Breath with your plant and connect with the respiration of your body, pay attention to your inbreath and outbreath which is the mirror opposite of a plant, meaning we outbreath carbon dioxide which the plant takes in for it’s existance and we take in the oxogen which the plant gives off for ours and vice versa. A perfect exchange and completely attuned to one anothers needs. 

3) Now listen deeply and ask to speak with the plant spirit. 

4) I remember to have the basic courtesy and boundaries with a new plant, flower, stone or tree as I would when meeting a new person, you wouldn’t just hug a stranger or cut their finger off of them, so don’t do this to a plant without permission.

5) You may want to use a pendulum, if you are unfamiliar with it’s use then just-get a book or take a class on it’s use. It is a perfect tool for the beginner to help get you started in communicating with the plant spirit deva. Ask permission to speak to the plant deva and listen. Ask in a yes and no format to start.

6) If you are given permission to take some of the plant be respectful and do not take too much from any one plant. Be sure your plant is not endangered or an at risk species. If it is do not select it for medicine and instead choose a plant that has the same medicinal properties but is more common. 

7) Always give an offering. Tobacco is a good one or a hair from your head. In Peru they use the word “Ayni” which means deep thankfulness and reciprocity. Your medicine will be so much sweeter and more powerful when the attitude of gratitude is imbibed throughout this process from plant to medicine.

8) Spend time with your plants,  it takes lots of time to develop a relationship that is deep. So cultivate it with time and dedication. You may want to journal and draw your plant, visit it as much as you can, see it in different seasons, different conditions etc. Be a good human citizen and ambassador to these plants.

Plants have a lot to say if you listen and use your senses. Plant energetics learned through the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, can convey so much information about what a plant is used for, its actions in the body and active constituents.

Wildcrafting be it in the back yard or in mountains can connect us to nature and to something deeper in ourselves through our deepening connecting to the plants.

Beautiful Blessings, -Victoria Reddick herbalist,  plantspirit medicine practitioner.

Gaialogue Radio Show with Dr Jeff

This was a live 1 hour radio interview with herbalist and plant spirit medicine practitioner Victoria Reddick that was held on July 2, 2012.

It is now available on podcast. Go to Transformation Talk Radio archives or the Gaialogue radio show website (Link below).

Listen live online to Storyteller, Herbalist, Plant Spirit Medicine Practitioner Victoria Reddick on national award-winning radio program - “Gaialogue Radio” with Dr Jeff at 1pm Pacific 

http://gaialogue.com/announcing-nature-speaks-with-storyteller-herbalist-and-plant-spirit-medicine-practitioner-victoria-reddick

Welcoming The Solar Feminine

“Venus Is In The House”

Yesterday was the Venus transit,  and there were many people all over the globe watching as the tiny marble shaped planet cross our huge glowing sun. A rare thing to be sure and one not to be repeated in our lifetime as the next one isn’t till 2117. Astrologically speaking Venus in Gemini is about unifying polar opposites. So we may we use this transit for personal and global transformation. Venus is about passion and values and our ability to magnetize the desirable story. What is your desired story? What is the story you would like to be living ? The world you want to live in?  Through envisioning processes such as meditation, journeying, creating art, storyboards, and other creative means we can engage both hemispheres of our brains and activate the new for change. The shadow side to this is that the powers that be use fear as the biggest motivator in our world. We must ”buy the product”, buy into the reality “they” sell, the way “they” look at the world and the way that lines “their” pockets. But we should remember that we are also the “They” that I’m speaking about, we each have a personal shadow nature, counter intention, or  ”the not I”. So take back your “not I” and be friends with it learn what it has to say and balance it within . In personal reality and in collective reality we all get a vote,  we have the choice to choose. Learning to love your counter intention takes work,  understanding, and sometimes guidance from a great therapist, shaman or teacher but it can be done. This work can really free us up and can free up a lot of energy. It takes bravery but you can do it and do something new.  This is not just wishful thinking this is also proven brain science,  whereby we create new neuro pathways in our brains by working to balance both hemispheres. This is also called co-creation. Our thoughts co-create our reality,  so why not put those thoughts to work for you and re-lease the fear. 

Herbs for Venus

Lavender-Lavendula Sp. Plant sacred to Venus and sacred to Sequim, haha. Lavender in baths lavender in oils used for calming stressed nerves, dab a bit on your temples if you have a headache, and use it as a great antiseptic for cuts, scrapes and mild abrasions(lavendin oil is best for cuts).  

Flower Essence of lavender: Is for mental clarity, staying alert, promotes the healing of mother and feminine relationships.  

Rosemary-Rosmarinus officianalis. “Dew of the Sea” sacred to Mary and to Venus who was birthed in the sea. Planted near the front door of a house it announces the feminine power of the woman of the house. Rosemary so great in foods to help us digest fats and the oil is divine and very healing for so many things. 

Flower Essence of Rosemary: Promotes truth, inner wisdom, peace, and balanced emotions.

The May- It’s all about Sex

It is that time a year again the cross quarter mid spring holiday of the solar year called Beltane. I remember back as a child my excitement at making May baskets in school by weaving colored papers together, taking them home with instructions to collect flowers to fill them and then we were to give them to loved ones. I had so much fun with my mother collecting all sorts of spring tulips, hyacinths and daffodils from our garden to fill those tiny baskets and then leaving these bright fragrant surprises on people’s doorsteps anonymously. Boy have times changed, now we are more likely to see children and adults spending more time with their heads buried in technological devices then buried in flowers smelling the fragrance of spring or noticing the perfection of natures beauty. Other May celebrations included a Maypole ceremony which symbolized the male and female energies wedded in copulation through a pole garlanded with flowers planted in the earth. We kids didn’t know we were participating in some ancient fertility rite by weaving ribbons in opposite directions girls going one way and boys the other not stopping until the pole was covered in  all the ribbons. This ancient ritual also symbolized the world tree or tree of life with roots into the earth and branches into heaven and the balancing of earth and sky. However you choose to celebrate the May now is the time to use natures natural fecundity energies to seed your creativity, dreams, and plant physical or metaphoric gardens.

Those Powerful Yet Subtle Flower Essences

 

After 22 years of using essences, 17 years since making my first essences and 13 years as a professional essence producer; flower essences still continue to amaze me by their powerful yet subtle effects on humans and animals going through emotional processes. I know it may sound weird and contradictory that essences are both subtle and powerful but I assure you it is true. Some of the most powerful things in the universe operate this way such as a small creek slowly carving out a canyon or how a person who is quietly wise who need not say a thing but resonates a  calm and steady energy can affect the mood of those around them. Powerful things can be so subtle that we hardly notice them and instead our attentions gravitate toward the big bright larger than life kind of power that our media and culture is so obsessed with and which many fortunes so depend upon. Plants too can be subtle like the grass in our lawns that we hardly notice as we walk apon it daily or a plant can catch your attention and demand respect such as poison oak or nettles.

 Essences are plant spirit helpers who open channels into yourself, they will take you to the core of an issue and then gently nudge your healing process but you must be a dedicated partner in your own process of healing -there is no magic pill.