Embracing Ancient Wisdom Through Nature's Rhythms and Rituals Spring, a time of bustling activity for land caretakers, is a breathtaking spectacle. Nature bursts into full bloom, pollinators return, and we are privileged to witness the culmination of our daily prayers and actions over countless years.
This year, we were blessed with a rare sight: our fruit trees blooming for the first time in 15 years. This synchronicity was further amplified as our daughter was born on the land that same week, and we joyfully welcomed 7 baby chicks into our care.
We are extending our pollinator gardens, adding 300 sf of wild native plants. It is also the second year of the Wizard Garden next to the Wizard Hut, which was planted with the nine sacred herbs. Deeply rooted in Norse tradition, these herbs hold significant spiritual and medicinal properties. They are not just plants but gateways to ancient wisdom and connection with the divine.
The Nine Sacred Herbs are Camomile (Matricaria chamomilla), Nettle (Urtica dioica), Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris), Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Plantain (Plantago major). Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium), and, possibly, Cockspur Grass (Echinochloa crus-galli). Some believe that the latter was instead Betony (Stachys officinalis).
I studied for many years with a Norse Shaman, Jeremy RJ White, and those 9 herbs are part of that Norse tradition. Each herb has medicinal properties but is also used for magic and spells.
This complements our four sacred herb gardens (tobacco, sage, cedar, sweet grass) for activating the medicine wheel. The medicine wheel is a sacred symbol in many indigenous cultures, representing the cycle of life, the seasons, and the interconnectedness of all things. Each herb in our gardens has a specific role in this cycle, and we build relationships with those plants and understand their language and spirit so we step out of materialistic connection into deep animistic relationship.
We do not plant 'for us' but for activating the ancient laws of the universe. This act of planting is a sacred ritual, a way to bless the land with our offerings and weave ourselves back into the timeless wisdom of the stars, the waters, and the land. As a benefit, we will be fed, nurtured, and spiritually filled with those threads of magic. This is not just gardening but a profound spiritual practice that connects us to the cosmic order.
At the root of animist and shamanic traditions, we always find the concept of the unseen, the underworld, connected to the soil (earth matter). It is where not only seeds are planted but also dreams and prayers and where the "unexpected visions" (what we often call "out of nowhere" insights come from). In Andean Cosmology, "nowhere" is a place called UkuPacha. Nowhere is somewhere. It is a Pacha (space and time). The territory of the silence, the snake, the darkness, and the prayer of the belly (Earth and Mother womb).
Anytime you wish to create anything, you must first connect to that place. When I asked my teacher while visiting Machu Pichu, "How did they build this?" he answered, "They dreamed of it; this is where all creation emerges from..." from dreams. And it is a new dream that is indeed missing from our world today.
So, it was always understood and embodied that you must first have a deep connection to the land to manifest your life and dreams. It is not a romanticized or a "one-way" type of relationship, as is often the case with our nature explorations. But to plant. To touch the soil. And to work in good relations with the seeds, the water, and the Earth. There are many teachings in the timeless wisdom of the Andes to guide us through this process. It also reminds us how first to ground our practices and receive the ceremonies, rituals, and songs FROM our land in a sacred relationship and reciprocity that goes way beyond our own needs and self-healing.
If we fail to maintain those two sacred precepts (sacred relationship and sacred reciprocity), we cannot create from that place and will use the colonized mind to direct our lives with all the pitfalls and illnesses it carries.
I pray we get to meet on the land so I can share in more depth those ancient and magical teachings that cannot be shared in writing. I pray we get to weave magic together as, like the land, we need those myceliumystic connections to thrive and awaken.
💚🦌
Angell Deer
