Oh, that could be! Thanks Arlene

On 12/16/2022 at 12:32 PM, holly said:

On 12/16/2022 at 1:08 PM, Arlene said:

@Arlene That is exactly how I felt with it too, Arlene like the feeling of rust permeated everything, I think that's wonderful that it connected you to your own grandmother, I would love to have you share some of her plant wisdom if you retrieve it.

Lorrie, the words you used to describe their life - bitter and difficult - felt immediately familiar and then when you said the word rust - I could taste it in not just in my mouth but in my whole body. I tried to be guided by that sensation.

@holly This is the Long Leaf Pine that's in SC:  https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-and-Fungi/Longleaf-Pine It doesn't look like it grows as far north as where you live. I checked for Wisconsin and Minnesota and there appear to be three pines native to the area: White, Red and Jack.

Do you remember the actual name of that pine? I wonder if it's in my area, though, it might be too cold here. I knew this project was going to be a bit of a challenge for me. When I work w/my ancestors about getting recipes, I am already somewhat familiar with the plants and herbs they are using and talking about because we are working with the same genius loci. This is requiring me to be a lot more attentive to the finer details... lol

On 12/16/2022 at 12:53 PM, Jean said:

@Jean Thanks for this Jean, I'm noting this and will try myself.

She listened and listened and then would listen some more. She “listened” to all the elements for information on when to seed, plant, harvest, and put to bed. I saw her listening to shadows ( thanks for confirmation Matthew) and voices in the rustles. Instinctual rather than consciously intentional, if that makes sense. To her it was like, oh I just had a moment of “knowing” only she’d never put it into words.

At the boiling pot … she was standing there and it looked like she was enhaling the knowledge (from the steam) of whatever mixture was there? It was more than confirming the mixture was a good mix or in the right amounts… Maybe it was a new plant she was working with. Time seemed to stop while I watched her, that’s why I feel it was more than logical knowledge type stuff.

 

@cammie Thanks for the links on comfrey and boneset, I read that people are using boneset for Covid symptoms and wondered if that was why she was showing it to us? It's interesting anyways

Jess, I would like to tackle American Ginseng, if possible, I am planting some this fall so I hope to be working with it next year.

Lorrie

It's been a while, but I didn't have a quiet moment to type until now

This is a really cool space, I felt a connection to it!

The cabin had a pot boiling on the stove, to help with colds, flus, and lung problems by breathing in the vapors. I'm not sure what was boiling, but I felt this form of remedy could be crucial in a world without many cold medicines.

I asked the granny witch about healing the heart. I felt like, in Appalachia people's hearts are now very heavy, weary, and worn. She said you could sympathetically prepare stone fruit, maybe have the client eat it or interact with it (there seemed to be lots of ways) then when the grief is sympathetically transferred into it, you bury the pit in the ground to rot away and return the healed energy to the client. There were also some bottle spells. I was surprised by all the witchcraft, but I guess it's right there in the name, granny witches... :)

I tried asking more about working with plants - this is my silly metaphor trying to explain the energy! - but it was like the plant knowledge is like chocolate chips, but the tradition itself is the cupcake, none of it makes sense unless you have the energy of the whole thing (or else you just have a disconnected pile of chocolate chips) and it's not about working with a specific recipe or a specific plant, it's about following the lines of energy and intent and will and using whatever you have to the best extent you can. Or at least, that's the message I received.

I spent some time using the mist around the cabin to see some of the past. In the past people lived more in tune with the land and what it could truly support. There were lots of little nature spirits and faerie type creatures, all sorts of interesting things out there.

The granny witch also used other tools. If she set up her firewood for a fire, in the gaps between the split logs, you can see doorways to worlds with little people in them, but they are just as real as here and you can move in there. And the mist can be used like this, maybe a little wilder ride  you can move in all directions through doorways from this position. There is a vastness and a power to her position here.

I felt something about, with the actual living working granny witches, they are living in such harsh conditions, they are really living purely in intent and will, walking through the world like warriors, pulling outcomes out of almost nothing using whatever they have. It was really moving.

She showed me a bit of how she would go about helping a client, following lines of energy the best and most probable remedy, whatever it is. Maybe it would be a plant, maybe making a subtle shift in the world that no one would notice until the change happened. It was inspiring.

Hi everyone,

How did I miss this field trip? Boo, Eman. 😕 

I've been super-preoccupied lately with a book I'm working on and other Makerish stuff the last two weeks, this missed my radar since I've fallen behind reading some of the posts. Next time-- I've got some catching up to do, glad you all had fun and got some good information.

e.

I took my first cave dive yesterday. The Granny was very old and bent but really wanting to share her knowledge.

In her house there were two work spaces at right angles - tables I guess - pushed against the wall She had plants drying against the wall tto the right. Fresh plants on the table to the left. She began immediately telling me when to use fresh or cooked plants vs dried, The life energy of the freshly picked/cut plant was useful for immediate issues, for illnesses or injuries that could be cured within a shorter period of time. Dried herbs/plants, on the other hand could be crumbled with tallow or animal fat to make pills or lozenges to be used for more chronic conditions. the reason: because the dried plant had drawn all of its essence concentrated within. (This makes sense to me when I think about culinary herbs - you use more volume of fresh than you do of dried.)

I got the feeling that she was careful to smell and taste every fresh plant she intended to use. I got an image of a cut stem end and its extraordinary vitality. We didn't even get to individual plants, nor did we get to plants that had been cooked or steeped in a liquid. There was so much knowledge to be had it was overwhelming in this first dive. I'm so excited to go back!!

I mentioned mushrooms to her, and she had me follow her outside and down a woodsy path where mushrooms grew. The mycelial network was profoundly obvious just in my seeing the mushrooms, like the individual mushrooms were the knowledge gatherers for the whole network. I was losing concentration at this point, so I had to leave.

That place has just been one layer of reality over since I went there. I see and feel the draw of it keenly. Can't wait to back for maybe some more specific information. There's just so damned *much*!

{{Plant Pioneers}}

I actually took my first dive on December 23rd, but because of the holidays plus a small run with health issues (I mention this here because it's relevant to my dive) I'm only posting my experiences now:

I went with the intent of meeting Grannie too, but she wasn't there. It was all as was described, the actual cabin, the grim poverty, but I did love how nothing went to waste you could see everything was created by materials hard come too. Did anyone notice that big vat over an unlit fire she had outside? I couldn't quite see what was in there but she wasn't cooking it but soaking stuff, like a cold extraction. Inside was very busy-- so many projects everywhere, stuff handing from the ceiling, on tables. I noticed an old-fashioned chimney/cooking fire pit area (don't know the proper name), there was a fire going, but no one was home. So many objects, plants from nature she was doing things with.. what, I could not tell actually I spent most of my time looking around and taking it in- there were mushrooms on the table though, dried ones. It was as if the table had separate areas where different projects were going on in their own huddle of surface space. Tinctures in the-making, plants at various stages, from freshly gathered, to being made into things. There were even small woven, small wooden objects Grannie's made. 

After I left, the next day, Christmas eve, I felt I summonings from Grannie, so of course, I answered it and went back. I was back outside of the cabin, near the unlit kettle over an outside fire pit, and she walked out of her house towards me. I could describe her if you want but some brief details: old but spry, and old in that way when you can't really tell the actual age (not that it matters). She wanted to look into my mouth (knowing energy, no words exchanged). I agreed. First, she checked out my teeth. Then, it was if she dove down my open mouth and right into the maw of my energy, my seeing sort of went along with her, but she moved very fast so it was like streaks of my energy bodies (the colors I've assigned each one), rushing through the void. Then we were back standing outside, and she turned around and left, walking back into her cabin, no reaction. She's very detached, a little brusque and no-non-sense, power witch. I felt she left a little knowledge with me about my own energy in her dive into me, heheh.

So quick aside, I really indulged this holiday season and developed tiny gall bladder stones... this is a genetic predisposition as well, and if I look back I think the first indicator for me was at the workshop when we went out for dinner: I could not eat my lamb curry. Even later that night, when I reheated some, my body was just, "no". My husband's been learning to cook too, which I'm happily encouraging but he's been making rich, fatty, meaty foods and I've been trying to eat them, some better than others lol, I don't eat a lot of flesh in general, but I woke up on Christmas morning with upper abdominal pain that went away after a day or two and then came back with a vengeance Jan 1st: it was my gall bladder, and small stones irritating the tubing between it and the pancreas. Of course I am fine now, thanks to the healing lab and just tapping into the info out there in my seeing and verified sometimes by our good friend google. 

So I think grannie saw that I was not healthy and that was her way of seeing and trying showing me what was off about me. Oh, and I went and checked my teeth in the magnifying side of a mirror: I have two, very fine cracks in the veneer of my front teeth, also some chips (I'm a grinder) so nursing that veneer and wearing my night guard religiously. I enjoyed how this dive was personally helpful to me as well. Really excited to go back for Dive#2 with everyone to gather knowledge from her, she definitely has some maker mojo.

emandy

**EDIT: PS I'd also set a strong intent to revamp the way I eat and live and work on my health in 2023 as a priority, so good timing.