Finding a peace nook in the world
Sabbaticals
When we immerse ourselves in the natural world, in its vastness, in its universe, take time to remove awareness of the Gregorian calendar, we find spaciousness, sometimes discomfort; yet when we are most unsure of where our place is, we find moments of belong. When we sit here, begin to understand the mind, watch the chatter, let go of things, and recall the breath, maybe we even call in life. Can we surrender, allow, trust, and accept, tune into the vibrant, living Earth and realize that where we sit now is sacred?
Sabbaticals can be planned or unplanned. I had planned for a year, but the year didn’t follow the calendar we often reference. I did not answer the questions of future—I knew I hadn’t found what I was sensing for. I hadn’t listened far and near enough for long enough to hear or feel the subtly of response.
In another attempt at shifting how I could be recognized externally (sometimes known as profession or what I do for a living), I enrolled in a 30-day permaculture and herbal studies course hosted by Ecology Academy and Atitlan Organics on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. I discovered this course when living in Peru and was looking to expand some ideas that had entered my sphere of awareness. To become who I am today, I collected various filtering mechanisms that shape how I experience the world. In order to expand what I cannot see, to more fully experience the inner and outer worlds, I needed to learn what those filters were and how to better use, let go of, or reframe them. We are more than we what we are aware that we are. Here’s a way to understand how things enter our consciousness through our subconscious.
The pre-consciousness process that takes place in human beings before awareness (before we become aware that we are aware) takes place in dreams and unconscious material. Something disturbs the old identity and produces new projections. If and when we become aware and accept part or all of the new projections, we shift the old identity—it can be viewed now as a projection instead of an identity. In other words, when we shift in time or space, it may be uncomfortable to connect with the qualities of the old self.
Archetypes can be helpful for expanding cosmovision, how we see or are guided through the world. Sometimes we need two ideas or archetypes to bring into awareness one of them. When one idea constellates into our unconsciousness, we have access to the model of the idea from which we recognize the other. When an idea moves from the unconscious to the conscious realm, we no longer see it as a projection but consider it as true cognition.
A friend threw this idea into a field I could sense. Maybe we experience the cycles of consciousness like seasons, a reoccurring process of shedding or returning, introspection or pausing, awakening or renewing, and growth or gathering. How many times have we walked away from love, celebrated life, grew with time or with space, or done things solo? When we read the script of Nature, bathe in its colors, smells, and sounds, and study plants or astrological beings, we learn that cycles regenerate the land, sustain the ecosystem, and transform.
We are in an almost endless process of observation, study, and practice—cycles of rebirth, growth, shedding and releasing, and introspection. What knowledge can we regenerate into this life, this plane, that was never lost and waiting to be recalled, for its time to be awarely interconnected again?
The concepts within permaculture allowed me to better understand the Quechua word and way of life, ayni. Ayni is often translated as reciprocity. Permaculture served as a bridge to invite me to the land, to call in aspects of my human nature, as extensions of nature, as a being of interconnectedness. Over the days at Lake Atitlan, there was an unfolding of this understanding of a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship with the land and natural systems—that I could offer as much or more than I take.
A whole systems approach recognizes that the relationship between all components are integral to the whole. In permaculture, we could consider the relationship between the water, soil, and atmosphere; cultivated or wild, perennial, annual or migratory flora, fauna, and fungi; constructed systems; interpersonal dynamics. In holistic medicine, we could consider the organs, genetics, meridians, energy centers, nervous system, epigenetics, vitality of spirit, individual constitution, the individual mind and collective consciousness, relationship to the internal and external environment, etc. We are more than the combination of our separate parts, an interwoven tapestry.
I asked myself: What are the stable agricultural systems that I can be a part of, that regenerate the soil, forests, deserts, prairies, waters, and urban gardens? How can we observe these mutually beneficial relationships (cooperation, competition, symbiosis and parasitism) in the larger natural world and evaluate them in the human body? What are the functions of varying parts of a plant? What is the significance of the age and evolutionary history of the Gingko Biloba tree? Horsetail? How do we restore balance to ecosystems missing their keystone species? (Video: How Wolves Saved Yellowstone, 05:22 min) What can mature forests teach us? Why does any of this matter?
Plants are highly intelligent. In a first peek into botany, I learned to recognize the form and patterns of families and species to understand the plant’s niche, food/medicinal applications, and comparable relationships. Plant root systems look like the neural network in our brains, using neurotransmitters like we do. Primary metabolites (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) are involved in growth, development, and reproduction. Plants do not have an immune system, but they do need to resist the challenges of bacterias, fungi, and viruses. Plants create secondary metabolites, chemical groups that have medicinal value (e.g. alkaloids, bitters, glycosides, gums, latex, mucilage, phenols, resins, sterols, tannins, terpenoids, volatile oils) in response to the challenges they need to resist. Animals receive medicinal value from plants. According to the World Health Organization, 75-85% of the world’s population (80% of the population of Member States) relies on herbal medicines dispensed by traditional healers for primary healthcare. (WHO Global Report on T&CM, 2019)
“It is important to understand that the chemicals the plants create have to be exact in order to work, a slight alteration in structure makes them useless. Further, those chemicals have to be released in exactly the right amounts (parts per thousand, million, billion, or trillion) to be effective. Plants are, in actual fact, highly intelligent. They are not insentient salads to be eaten without moral consequence by vegetarians in order to “save” the planet.”
- Stephen Harrod Buhner, “Please Stop Telling Everyone What to Eat,”
4 April 2019
The moon’s gravitational pull can affect ocean tides; a sunflower’s face follows the sun throughout the sky; a wolf howls at the moon. If these ideas can be accepted, then there can be room for the idea that humans too can feel planetary pulls. To continue this idea further: plants may have planetary associations, days of the week may have planetary associations, our organs may have planetary associations. May we consider that the world might be more interconnected than we knew before?
Let’s see how planetary aspects of a plant can give us insight into its chemical constituents1.
Urtica Dioica, or nettles, for example, embodies the signature of Mars with the element of fire. Mars is known for its masculine archetype, iron-rich, hot, red planet. I first experienced this connection by ways of flagellation, or whipping the body with fresh stinging nettles. The formic acid crystals on the serrated edges of the leaves create a localized topical inflammation, stimulating circulation to even arthritic joints. The antidote to stinging nettles is usually growing nearby—yellow dock, sage, rosemary, or mint. I was having irregularity in my cycle and experiencing some coldness traveling in the Andes and while the reaction to the stings were uncomfortable, it brought a warming sensation to the surface of the skin and attributed to bringing on my cycle soon thereafter. Mars’ color association is red, the color of blood. Fresh nettles can be steamed and eaten as a tonic, known to build and recycle or clean blood, are high in chlorophyll, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, silicon, vitamins A and C, and zinc. Nettles grow well in moist and disturbed areas (soils high in nitrogen or phosphate). The water element of its habitat, offers reference to the elemental influence that corresponds to water systems in the body. Nettles support the removal of water (removing stagnation) in the body as a diuretic, dries excess mucous in the lungs, and reduces or brings balance to excess heat. The chlorophyll-rich properties have an alkalinizing effect on the tissues. Studies have shown nettle root to be beneficial in supporting the prostate.
It’s a lot to consider or constellate. It may discomfort. If the mind hasn’t become overly disturbed, suggested books: Sajah Popham’s Evolutionary Herbalism, Wolf D. Storl’s The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners, Julia Graves’ The Language of Plants.
“In societies where this interdependency was honored, tree pruning and cutting was done in a conscious manner that persists today in unbroken tribal communities. Plants were often gathered by hand so one could physically sense, by tugging, which plant parts were ready to separate from the tree. Permission was asked of the spirit who lived in the tree to take branches from it, and an offering was often left at the base of the tree in exchange for its gift. Care was taken to preserve enough trees for the generations to come; for it was not forgotten that the continuance of our species is interwoven with the preservation of the tree family.”
- Judith Berger, Herbal Rituals, pg. 91
Trees and oceans are the lungs of Pachamama, Gaia, Mother Earth, Akna. The health of human lungs deeply connect to the health of Her lungs. Our perception of them as either sacred or mundane, echoes our relationship to our own bodies and cultivates patterns of wellness or disconnect in ourselves and our environment. Managed forests that have replaced old and ancient forests do not have the same expansive mycelium network and do not have mature trees to teach young saplings the small details for living to maturity. When the sun goes down, the trees respirate with us, releasing CO2, all the while allowing the oceans to feed us all. Our existence and experience requires and reflects the balance of O2 and CO2.
Seeing the ways to regenerate the outer world, we find patterns of the inner world that need attention. Consciously navigating and organizing thoughts, I can operate from a space that has less limitation. This beautiful, previously emptied calendar time-year has been filled with processing, integrating, and renewing. When we find aspects of the natural world that capture our attention, we can live more reverently with its gifts and its people. Sabbaticals, or breaks from the world we once knew, don’t have to be long, but they do require emptying time.
I am reminded in Thich Nhat Hanh’s How to Eat, to find the interconnectedness of daily food nourishment. Meals are a collaboration between sunlight, moonlight, starlight, the seed sower, the gatherer, the seed-savers, the animals that didn’t munch on all the leaves or roots, the symbiotic relationship between companion plants, the fungi, the pollinators, the wind, the rain gods, the person that brought it to market, the person who built the water and energy systems used in cooking, the kitchen designer and installer, the cook, the salt and spices of the world, and ancestral and modern techniques. Though not a complete list, perhaps we can find, inspire, and ground into more interconnectedness.
Recently made and gifted:
HERBAL GOMASIO
1 cup sesame seeds, hulled or unhulled
1/4 cup dried moringa leaves
1/4 cup dried nettle leaves
1/8 cup hemp seeds
1/8 cup dried catnip leaves
1 Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. black peppercorn, ground
Toast sesame seeds lightly. Cool. Set aside half of the sesame seeds to keep whole.
Mix half the sesame seeds and remaining ingredients in a blender. Grind to about 70-80% crushed. In a separate bowl, mix in remaining whole seeds with ground mixture. Store in cool, dry place. (I prefer the refrigerator to keep the oils fresh since kitchens can get warm.)
Chemicals produced in the stinging hairs of nettle include histamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and formic acid. Other constituents found in nettle include leukotrienes, oxalic acid, tartaric acid,11 flavonoids (glucosides and rutinosides of isorhamnetin, kaempferol, and quercetin), caffeoyl-esters (caffeoylmalic acid [U. dioica only], chlorogenic acid, and neochlorogenic acid), caffeic acid, scopoletin (cumarin), sitosterol (-3-0-glucoside), polysaccharides, fatty acids, vitamin C and other vitamins, minerals, protein, and dietary fiber.
Source: Herbalgram.org