Toward a Better Life

Haiku #12

Peace is here
Holy union between earth and sky, wisdom voices heard
Night becomes day

Haiku #13

Toward a better life
Simple peaceful presence, every breath
Tree talk

Happy Solstice 2012!

May it be in Beauty. 

Hardness Dissolves into Love

Haiku #11

Hardness dissolves into love
There is but one motive
Listen for it

May it be in Beauty.

Ground Swell

Haiku #10

Ground swell
Rebirth of spirit, sap rising early
See through

May it be in Beauty. 

Song of the Night

Haiku #9

Song of the night
Nocturnal blessing be
Laughter let out

May it be in beauty. 

Colors of the Night

Haiku #8

Colors of the night
a palette of deep treasure
trees whisper

May it be in beauty.

The Night is Long

Haiku #7

The night is long
Close to the ground, close to the earth, there is a vibration
Holy, holy, holy

May it be in Beauty.

NIght Full of Stars

Haiku #6

Night full of stars
Vast inside as well as out
Golden preparation

May it be in Beauty.

Compassion is a Small Voice

Haiku #5

Compassion is a small voice
Look deeply into the eyes of the night
Wisdom invisible

May it be in beauty.

Love's Eternal Mind Kindles

Haiku #4

Love's eternal mind kindles
In the dark cave of mystery, in the seed on the cold earth
She calls, she sings

May it be in beauty. 

Laughing out loud

Haiku #3


Laughing out loud
What's been is gone
Smiling at what is

May it be in beauty. 

Haiku #2~Winter Solstice 2012

Quiet Earth speaks of winter
Words are felt not seen in a wind-swept dialect
Stillness come eventually

Haiku #1 for the Transformation of the World

Swiftly Moving Wind

What is not needed blows away

Deeply rooted like trees

Rose Mysteries ~ FREE Teleclass Recording

Greetings, Lovers of the Green,

In celebration of the wild rose hips ripening, I am sharing a link here for a FREE Teleclass

I offered last October 2011 called Rose Mysteries. 

You may click this link below to listen to the teleclass. 

http://rs1614.freeconferencecall.com/fcc/cgi-bin/play.mp3/2096471075-1022555-22.mp3

In celebration of Autumn and the mystery traditions that are expressed so amazingly

during the fall and winter.  I am offering special prices on my programs from now

until, September 30, 2012. 

20% off our Crow's Laughter Mystery School Programs until September 30, 2012. 

To register for these programs, reply to this email and I will send you a paypal money request, or call me, 360-579-2319, to pay with debit/credit card over the phone, or mail a check to Julie Charette Nunn, Crow's Daughter, 6560 Maxwelton Road, Clinton, WA 98236

Crow's Laughter Mystery School Programs 2012

Rose Mysteries ~ Immersion in Shamanic Herbalism ~ Oct. 20-21

Our Farm on Whidbey Island ~ $300 ~ (Full price is $375)

The wild rose hips will be plump and ready for harvest, offering deeply nourishing medicine. We will spend time in the wild rose thickets listening, connecting deeply in earth and acquainting ourselves with the lore of roses. A taste of Rose Mysteries: Shamanic Listening in the wild rose thickets ~ Herbal Crafting with wild rose hips Tantric Dance, Sacred Movement Meditation ~ Divination ~ Ceremony http://www.crowsdaughter.com/herbal-wisdom-circle.html

 Finding Nourishment at Your Doorstep
13 Month Home Study Course in Shamanic Herbalism

$300~Includes 7 phone sessions or 4 in-person sessions. (Regular price, $375)

RECOMMENDED: $540~Includes 13 phone sessions or 8 in-person sessions. (Regular price, $675)

http://www.crowsdaughter.com/new-moon-circle.html

Have You Asked the Trees?
7 Week, Home Study Course in Shamanic Herbalism

$60 ~ ($75 full price) This is an independant study course.

Weekly Themes include:*Stepping out under the trees,*The breath of life,*Wisdom to hold ground *Guardian Tree, *Ancestral Roots, *The True Nature of the Universe. *Council of Elders

Includes: 2 phone sessions or 1 in-person session.

http://www.crowsdaughter.com/new-moon-circle.html

Full Moon Plant Mysteries ~ Calendula Moon, September 29

$135 (Regular price, $169) ~ 13 Moons ~ 4 individual phone sessions 

$36 (Regular price, $45) ~ 3 Moons ~ 1 individual phone session

$14 (Regular price, $17) ~ 1 Moon

http://www.crowsdaughter.com/new-moon-circle.html

Individual Sessions ~ Finding the Treasures Within

Working with the 7 medicines approach to healing, you will be able to go underneath what appears to be happening and find the gift in the "problem".  Issues resolves.  Wisdom is discovered.

Seven Medicines: Serenity Medicine, Story Medicine, Energy Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine (Nourish & Tonify) Herbal Medicine, Pharmaceutical Medicine, High Tech Medicine.  We put our focus on the first four medicines. 

This work is deeply transformational.

4 Phone Sessions ~ $93 (Regular price-$116)

4 Sessions at our Farm ~ $200 (Regular price-$250)

4 Sessions in North Seattle or Edmonds ~ $252 (Regular price-$315)

http://www.crowsdaughter.com/wise-woman-teachings.html

Prosperity Coaching

4 sessions for $93 (Regular price, $116)

Sessions are 1/2 hour in length and on the phone. This is a working relationship.  We will talk and share and then come up with creative tasks that you will do to start and/or expand your prosperity practice. If you are an entrepreneur and wish to create a successful, sustainable body of work that really makes a difference in the world.  This work is for you.

 http://www.crowsdaughter.com/community-classes.html

To register, reply to this email or call me, 360-579-2319, and I will send you a paypal money request, you can pay with debit/credit card over the phone or mail a check to Julie Charette Nunn, Crow's Daughter, 6560 Maxwelton Road, Clinton, WA 98236

This work that I offer is so simple really.  And yet has supported people not only to learn about the plants and their wisdom, how to prepare them and how to utilize them for healing....this shamanic herbalism work with the plant supports people to find a deep and true sense of themselves, with the earth and plants as teachers.

Peace and Abundant Green Blessings, Julie

"This kind of experience is not in a book, it is in the tending of the garden, walking on your land, gathering the salad greens and passing the talking stick.  Your program brings herbalism into daily life.  I didn't have to 'check my life at the door'  In fact it was necessary that I bring it in and let the plants have a look at it." Denise Paulette, completed our Women & Plants ~ Shamanic Herbal  Apprenticeship Program

Julie Charette Nunn, Crow's Daughter

Sharing the Compassionate Wisdom of the Plants and Cultivating Seeds of Possibility, Shamanic Herbalism Programs ~ Prosperity Coaching ~ Nourishing Herbal Creations, 360-579-2319 ~ julie@crowsdaughter.com

www.crowsdaughter.com ~ www.crowsdaughtersherbs.blogspot.com

Compassionate Wisdom and the Plants in their Fullness

,,

Last night, I offered a FREE teleclass, "Compassionate Wisdom and the Plants in their Fullness, about my work as a shamanic herbalist." 

I feel such an incredible synergy in sharing the practices related to the plants in their fullness, in expanded consciousness.  

So simple, so close to home and so powerful are the shamanic herbalism practices I have learned from my teacher.  

Here is a link so that you may listen to this class.  

http://rs1614.freeconferencecall.com/fcc/cgi-bin/play.mp3/2096471075-1022555-45.mp3

At the end of the class I offer a gift, Apple Moon-Full Moon Plant Mysteries and also extra special prices on our programs until the end of tonight, the BLUE MOON-FULL MOON, August 31 , 2012. Follow this link, www.crowsdaughter.com,  and look on the left side of my website for a list of all programs.

You may email me to receive this gift and you may sign up for one of our programs with these extra special prices.  

May the Fullness of the Year and the Abundant Harvest nourish and inspire you.  

Peace and Abundant Green Blessings, Julie

A Very Rich Space of Healing

on

Today, I hit a bit of a snag, in the flowing river of healing.  

I got depressed and the 'bad advice' from my mind chatter got very loud and took over and I started believing it.  

I really just wanted to lay on my bed and feel sorry for myself.  Poor me, my hip hurts when I walk so I require the aid of a walking stick.  Poor me, I have financial commitments that seem too big right now to take of.  Poor me....blah, blah, blah. 

Well, I got up and decided to read a mind treatment I had written for healing.  I read it four times. 

I read affirmations about healing.  I spoke prayers about who I trully am, not a hurt hip, not a sad, pathetic old woman.  I am the divine expression of the rich, radiant, substance of the universe. And it is my divine right to express this with each breath.  Really?  YES!

The  space of healing this challenge with my hip is a very rich space.  It is filled with mystery and new ways to see everything.  A teacher once told me that if I think I know the answers then I won't be open to learn things I never thought of.  

Here are some things I have been doing to heal: 

• I wrote a mind treatment for healing.
• I created a covenant with the Goddess, a type of contract that in exchange for healing I will do these things.  I chose a whole bunch of things which I must do everyday until the Full Moon, no shit, even if I don't want to do them.  
• I am drinking two cups of nourishing herbal infusion everyday. 
• I am eating nourishing food everyday which includes, fermented foods, soups with bone broth, food made from scratch, raw goat milk, healthy protein.  I am minimizing junk.  
• I am doing 20 minutes of exercise and body connections daily. 
• I am connecting with my Sami ancestry which this experience in my hip is related to. 
• I am spending time outside everyday listening and thanking the earth. 

Today when I got wise to my mind attitude, I wrote to my teacher Toni Stone who had just sent an email, so pertinent to my situation which included the words: "every victorious way out of a challenge involves one in some way, being what they have never been before...this i know for sure.  what else i know for sure, is that transformation of some sort  is the background of any miracle...and many sad, unsatisfied people want only the miracle without the work of transforming something about themselves.... " And shared with her to help myself see what I was in. 

I called my colleague and dear friend and told her what was happening with me and during our conversation I remembered a dream I had about creating a new program with people that would really activate the work I am doing.  She reminded me that I was none of those things my mind was telling me, that I am light.  

In order to live in possibility, we must be honest about who we are in the moment.  Pretending we have it together doesn't really cut it.  Being honest, speaking with "others of spirit" and allow ourselves to be penetrated.  This allows the path of possibility to open up. 

I am continuing on.  The earth beckons me right now to stand barefoot and listen. 

Peace and Gratitude for Abundant Green Blessings, Julie
 

Patient and Present

Today as I looked over my wild and weedy garden of abundance, I realized that I have been creating an herbalist's garden.

I am moving away from a farm garden, a garden where everything grows in rows.   I have been casting off from within my psyche the notion of neat and tidy as being the goal.

As the seasons turn to the time of the harvest, my energies are turning toward the reaping of what has been cultivated this this year.  This year I planted the vision of a cultivated garden, a garden created in the vision of my life.

My life as an herbalist is coming on twenty years.  This seems like such a short time in relation to the plants.  Susun Weed once told me that it takes seven lifetimes to become an herbalist.  I am seeing more and more wisdom in this.  To live with the plants, to be in relationship with them, to consider them everyday as part of my community is a joyful learning.   Learning to be an herbalist takes patience and presence. 

Right where I planted the squash and sunflowers, a clover began to grow.  I let it stay there as I want to encourage red clover to be all over the place.  I didn't know until it began to bloom that it was indeed red clover.  So thankful.

I knew when I looked into the beauty of my garden this morning that my vision of cultivation has come to its peek for this season.  That this year my work is to truly appreciate the space that I have, to know it, to be intimate with it.  

I am discovering who I am from this garden vision.  More and more of what I am supposed to be doing, fully and truly is coming through in my garden.

Each plant is teaching me its wisdom. 

This has been one of the most challenging of transformations.  I feel sometimes like I am disintegrating, emotionally and spiritually.  My brain goes haywire sometimes and I can't seem to focus on what I "should" do.  And when I step out into the garden and really look and listen, the plants are teaching me to be patience and present.

I leave this writing with questions.....what is next?  who am I?

May it be in Beauty. 

The Journey of a Garden

 
I have written many things about my garden. 
how it mirrors my consciousness
its transformation
my transformation 
I am still writing its story
growth and change are 
the story of a garden
there will always be a story to share
something new discovered
I spent the last two years
letting my garden go to the weeds and grasses  
there are those special places
in the garden that I tended 
the Goddess Garden is planted
with oatstraw every year

 
 











the raspberry patch produces all summer 
the lavender, the lady’s mantle, the little veggie beds
the tomato garden, the comfrey
the motherwort are steadfast friends
the grasses have grown sturdy
the dandelion established permanency 
last year I listened in the garden
a different listening 
I sensed the garden was speaking to me 
relinquish what a garden should look like
allow my wild and free nature
to take over the space
I moved deeper into the uniqueness of my garden 
the garden told me to cultivate  

 
 














I am to plant roses
and medicinal herbs
vegetables plots
a fig tree and ginkgo tree 
blueberries and dahlias and zinnia 
would grow there 
she told me
my garden embodies  
wild and free nature
a life fully lived
and the nourishing 
and healing possible 
at our doorsteps  

I am listening
I am following
I am beginning
the journey of a garden
the journey of a lifetime  

may it be in beauty

The Summer Day

The Summer Day
 
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
 
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
 
 
~ Mary Oliver ~

"Just a minute," said a voice...

 

"Just a minute," said a voice...
by Mary Oliver

"Just a minute," said a voice in the weeds. 

So I stood still

in the day's exquisite early morning light.

and so I didn't crush with my great feet

any small or unusual thing just happening to pass by

where I was passing by

on my way to the blueberry fields,

and maybe it was the toad

and maybe it was the June beetle

and maybe it was the pink and tender worm

who does his work without limbs or eyes

and does it so well

or maybe it was the walking stick, still frail

and walking humbly by, looking for a tree,

or maybe, like Blake's wondrous meeting, it was

the elves, carrying one of their own

on a rose petal coffin away, away

into the deep grasses, After awhile

the quaintest voice said, "Thank you." And then there was silence

For the rest, I would keep you wondering.

Moving Forward with Intention~September 11

Hello Everyone, I wrote two poems after the momentous events of September 11, 2001.
The first one I wrote within days of September 11th and the second one about a year later.
May we all move forward with peace in our hearts.
Green Blessings, Julie

It was a morning like any other,
I crouched in front of my heater,
I remember a dream I had right before I woke
Lovers were intertwined in the mud,
In the rubble along a flowing river
It was my mother's call that alerted me to the tragic plane crashes
I was in shock I was afraid and excited
It was, after all, an awakening.

It was a mourning like no other
An incredible sadness lay heavy in my body.
I sought information from the radio internet
I sought my own true nature for wisdom
I felt myself rise up out of my grief
And follow the path of my dreams

The path is filled with possibilities and road blocks.
"Pray for peace" my email message read.
"We must destroy the evil" I heard him say.
"Extend compassion empathy to everyone involved." he wrote
"God Bless America" everywhere I look.
"Love is the answer to every question." She sang.

And a voice sings out in me strong and clear.
"Follow your heart's desire.
Do only what you are called to do.
Nothing more.
Feel everything strongly and thoroughly,
Let despair envelop you until you find possibility.
Let rage propel you to act without hesitation.
Let sadness bring you a last to peace within yourself."

And I cry,
"I love myself."

This poem was published in my column, The Wise Woman's Garden, in
The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries, Spring 2002




In the heart of hopelessness,
I found a new world.
In its sadness,
a river flowed in peace.
And in the center of all grieving,
a flower bloomed
into a joy
beyond all knowing.


May it be in Beauty.

The Roses by Mary Oliver

All afternoon I have been walking over the dunes,
hurrying from one thick raft of the wrinkled, salt
roses to another, leaning down close to their dark
or pale petals, red as blood or white as snow.
And now I am beginning to breathe slowly and evenly-
the way a hunted animal breathes, finally, when it has galloped,
and galloped-when it is wrung dry, but, at last, is far away,
so the panic begins to drain from the chest, from the wonderful legs,
and the exhausted mind.

Oh sweetness pure and simple, may I join you?

I lie down next to them, on the sand.
But to tell about what happens next, truly I need help.

Will somebody or something please start to sing?

Weaving the Green

I had a wonderful and quite a dynamic experience with my free teleclass this morning.
As I talked about the potent energy of the earth very close to the ground in the fall and winter
months, the potent wind through the trees blew our electricity out. Then it came back
on. A bit of delay in the class, but powerful display of the transformational energies
that are present during this winter-into-spring time.

Two things I shared on this teleclass this morning:

• An excerise to connect with the green emerging
• Seven ways to weave the green into your life right now.

The New Green Way ~ Shamanic Exercise:

• Go outside on the earth where you live. Look at your feet.
• Bend your knees slightly and allow your energy to sink into the earth just a bit.
• Breathe naturally, three breaths.
• Now breathe with the awareness that you are breathing in the breath of the plants around you and breathe out, offering your breath to the plants.
• Now become aware that this beautiful earth you are standing on is alive. Breathe in and out with the earth.
• Bring awareness to the green around you, no matter what the weather or what appearance of the landscape.
• Breathe in and out with the green.
• Now connect the green with the green of your inner landscape. And listen.
• Offer gratitude when this is complete.

Seven Ways to Weave the Green as winter turns into spring:

1. Spend time outside everyday, listening and breathing with Gaia, our living earth.
2. Breathe in and out with the green, whether you can see it or not. It is there now.
3. Before harvesting any plants, ask permission. Wait for an answer.
4. See all weather patterns of spring as being instrumental in bringing about fertility. Give up complaining about weather and give thanks instead.
5. Plants seeds as soon as it is possible. Plant your intentions with them.
6. Drink nourishing herbal infusion to wake up your body.
7. Notice what nourishes you and what doesn't nourish you.

May it be in Beauty.

I am the Hawk, Soaring Over the Land

It is the second day of snow here on our land on Whidbey Island. Sometimes the cold, dark rainy weather keeps me inside most of the day. The snow lures me outside, to explore the landscape. I noticed the other day that there were still some wild rose hips that looked beautifully red and plump down in the thicket. Today I venture down there to harvest some, knowing full well that the Vitamin C in them is potent because of the cold.

They are so easy to pluck. And the blood red color stands brillant against the white snow and grayish red stalks. I start out gathering rose hips and think I will get bored easily. But there is something about rose that lures me into another realm. I forget this truth until I am here in this expanded version of life, where love and beauty reign.

There are at least three different species of wild rose that I am noticing. The very hard, small fruit are the most vibrant at this time of year. But I venture over to the place where the large, plump hips are hanging. As I am almost to the edge of our land, I look up and overhead comes a very large hawk in its winter garb. Mostly white, with flecks of brown.

I can tell the time by this hawk. It comes in the afternoon about 2:30 pm. It flies over the land and over the garden. I am fortunate to be here at this moment to witness its flight.

Out there on the land, as the sun is ending its fullness and beginning to wane, I feel a sense of connectedness with everything. I am the hawk, soaring over the land. I am the ruby red rose hips. I am the snow, the frozen cold. I am the sun waning and the darkness approaching. I am the earth mother old and dying and the gestating infant earth, held inside the deep dark holy womb.

I remember as I write this that I am held in total darkness as the light of my existence prepares for birth. I am thankful for this vision that peace is felt first before it is seen.

May it be in Beauty.

I will tend and water and pray and sing

The garden this year has been deeply nourishing. It is the 5th year of this garden for us here at our little farm on Whidbey. I have written before about my whole life being an adventure of moving here and there and discovering new plants and new gardens. It was so easy in the past to uproot myself and leave for new adventures. When we moved here, I knew it was permanent.

There has been a stirring in me for over 20 years to root into the land and grow from there. It started in Seattle, where Tadd and I owned a little house in Ballard. We had a eight foot thick laurel hedge growing around the perimeter of our yard. Tadd, with chainsaw in hand, cut the laurel back dramatically. We discovered that the squirrels lived in there as we disrupted their homesteads. And the summer after that clear cut, I discovered a blue elder growing out of the laurel. This was right around the time when I met Susun Weed and EagleSong. My life was to change dramatically in a very short span of time and I didn’t quite know it yet.

I began to do small rituals out my my yard, to honor the earth, to pray for my life purpose to be revealed to me and for peace. I would pour herbal infusion on the elder at the end of my rituals. The elder grew flowers and then berries that summer, right in the middle of Seattle, right in the middle of the laurel. I trusted this message and thanked Mama Earth for such a generous gift. One day when I finished my ritual, I turned to walk back in my house and from around the corner of the house flew an enormous hawk. It flew very near me and then out of sight.

I was taken to my knees by this experience. And from it I felt something grow in me that now flourishes some twenty years later. I learned that wherever I am on the Earth, it is sacred. I learned that to do what we are called to do wherever we are, whoever we are is what is needed.

I am now being called to cultivate the land here. This seems like the hardest task of all. It is the land itself that is calling for this. I could easily live here amongst the great weeds and tall grasses and not grow many plants. But I am being called into something greater than I have been before and with some reluctance and resistance I am answering the call.

It is like the shedding of the snake’s skin. I am surrendering to the fact that I am
changing. It is uncomfortable with a lot of not knowing. And like the seed that hold new life inside it, I don’t yet know what I will become with it. I will tend and water and pray and sing and trust the invisible hands that guide me on.

May it be in Beauty.

Divine Design within the Imperfection

I returned from my fourth trip to Vermont Prosperity Training this last Sunday evening. It was a good training this time. Each time I am opened more. This time I really wanted to hide and not open because of disclosing my lack of integrity in relationship with money.

I am even reluctant to share it here. What will you think if you know that I am not always in integrity with money?

We had an assignment to choose four ways of changing. One of these ways was....”from tired overwhelm of a mess that’s chaotic, unconscious, frantic, scatter and make wrong”...to....”energetic actions of order and design making priorities and promises that are focused, scheduled and accountable.” In choosing this one, I saw that I could organize my finances and be straight with what I need to pay. What occurred after this was somewhat of a blur. My teacher Toni Stone proceeded to break-down the ego mind with which I was operating and help me to see that I am not fully in integrity with what I said I would do. I truly thought I was doing pretty well up to that point, that I was doing my best. I discovered that I sometimes pretend to be ignorant when really I am not at all.

Later we talked about witnessing these imperfect ways that we are and accepting ourselves as we are. I am learning from this training and also from my prosperity conversations with students that the goal is not to be perfect. The goal is to be vulnerable, to open ourselves to being ourselves. There is a kind of divine design within the imperfection.

May it be in Beauty.

Bring into the World, That Beautiful Idea

Tadd and I were living in Arlington, Washington about ten years ago. The house we were renting was an old, old Victorian farmhouse that was falling apart. I had returned from my apprenticeship with Susun Weed in New York about a year before that and was beginning the integration period of this life changing experience. I was also just beginning menopause and I felt like I was falling apart also.

I had quit my job as a teacher and was living off of some savings I had and then off of Tadd's income. I already had started a small herbal products business and was selling at farmer's markets and a bit through mail order. I had started writing a column for The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries and discovered I could write about plants.

There was a very, very large managed forest to the east of us. I would climb up behind our house and walk and walk through it. I spent my days walking in the woods and gardening, talking to the plants and wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Tadd wondered that also.

I began to cook all our food from scratch at that time and also made nourishing herbal infusions for us to drink. I grew lots of food for us and made medicines from the plants that were near. I grew very close to one of the Douglas Fir tree up in the woods and visited her almost everyday.
I also remember the Herb Robert and how it helped me feel welcome on the forest trail.



I had some problems with my self esteem at this time. My body was changing and I gained quite a bit of weight. I had shaved my head to celebrate my transformation upon finishing my shamanic apprenticeship and I hated the way my hair looked for a long time.

I sought shamanic healing to help me navigate this strange new life and trained with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I started a shamanic practice in my little delapidated house near the woods. In the unseen world of my journeys, I found the home base for my shamanic herbal practice. I began to teach and enrolled a couple of apprentices to come explore the way of the wise woman with me.

Then the world trade towers came down. This marked a significant change in both Tadd and myself. Tadd began to struggle a bit with finding enough work and well, I was hardly making any money at what I was doing. Our chiropractor told Tadd about a woman from Vermont, Toni Stone, who had helped his wife double her income. Tadd gave her a call and started to receive coaching from her.

Within the next year, we had moved to Whidbey Island to rent a little house on the beach. I started to receive coaching also. And within a couple of years we bought a beautiful farm where we now live and work.

It has been almost six years since we moved here to our little farm. My herbal school, Crow's Laughter Mystery School is very successful and my products are helping to heal many people all over the US and even internationally. I have always had within me a beautiful idea of how I wanted everything to be. When I started studying prosperity with Toni Stone and now Gifford Booth and many others, I learned that I could bring into the world, that beautiful idea. And I have done that and continue to paint a greater picture of it.



I have learned that sharing my gifts even when I don't think I have them to give has opened me to a greater sense of life. I have learned that being thankful for what I have been given over and over has trained me to see possibility. And I have learned to give up the easy road and instead, I have found a deeply engaging path that is rich and embodied.

I look forward to growing deeper and stronger into the richness of life and invite any and all of you to join me in celebration of our passionate abundance.

May it be in Beauty.

I am sure I am headed into the mystery again.

I have been out in the garden everyday recently. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with all the weeds. This happens mostly when I take just a bit of time, when I am in a hurry. If I take the time to breathe and listen I begin to notice more and appreciate what I am witnessing.



Today I spent 3 hours weeding the Goddess Garden. This is a space within our garden shaped like a goddess. I created this just over two years ago from stones. She's about 20 feet long.
In this garden we planted oatstraw. And today I found, little plants, lamb's quarters, shephard's purse, chamomile, borage, burdock, red and yellow dock, catch-fly, couch grass and every other kind of grass.



When I stepped out of the classroom just over 13 years ago and stepped onto
the spiral path, I discovered my wildness. I was a little frightened of it and to
be honest sometimes very frightened of it. But I also loved it.
I remember discovering a weed that was growing in my garden in Ballard (Seattle)
was Nipplewort, Lapsana communis and that this plant was utilized as a poultice for
dried, cracked nipples on breast-feeding moms.
This plant that I had thought was a problem, was actually a solution.



It has only gotten better from here. Tadd and I moved from our lovely Ballard home to
a place in South West Washington called Enchanted Valley. I apprenticed with Susun Weed and
returned to our little cabin in the woods where I began my journeys into my wildness. I certainly
did cultivate plants there and in the next places I lived, but I started a practice of never weeding a plant until I knew what it was. And some wild plants that I wanted to eat in my salad and put in my soups, well, I let them grow all over the garden.



I have learned about a lot of wild plants over the last 13 years, and I have grown very fond of my wildness. I have allowed it to flourish and I have grown comfortable with those places in me
that were so frightening long ago.



Just about a week ago, I noticed that I have a strong desire to cultivate, to weed and remove many of the wild plants so that I can grow more medicinals herbs and vegetables. I have a vision of strong-rooted fruit trees as well as lindens and Hawthornes and a old growth forest of cedar and hemlock. I would love to invite, Meadowsweet, Pleurisy Root, more lavenders and thymes, and garden roses of all kinds into the garden. It is time for me to fully cultivate the garden and land here.



And as I begin this quest, this journey, I feel a little nervous that I will tame the wild, wise woman and she won't be any fun, won't know the voices of the unseen world anymore. I am sure I am headed into the mystery again. I am excited this time as I step into the wilds of cultivation and begin to plant seeds there.
Goddess only know what can happen now.

May it be in beauty.

I could actually say I am in love with the taste of wild rose honey.

One of the most delicious and deeply sensual gifts of life is Wild Rose Honey Electuary. It's taste is exquisite and its healing unfathomable. It is so simple to make. You can make it with the wild roses which are beginning their bloom right now and you can make it with any rose.

Here is how.... Venture off to a place where the wild rose grows. As you come into its presence, begin to pay attention to your breath. Detect the smell of rose, perhaps subtle at first. And then put you nose right into the bloom. (Watch for bees. :<)

Smell this delectable fragrance and give thanks for it. Now, ask the rose if you may harvest. Yes? Well then, look for the blooms who's stamens are still pale yellow. Harvest as many as you can get in a jar just about to the top. Offer gratitude once again.

Saying thank you is a practice in itself and cannot be done too much. You can harvest the roses right into your jar if you like, but when you place them in a basket, they are so beautiful. Place these beautiful roses in your jar and drizzle local, raw honey over them. This is a slow process and can be rather messy evoking the wild wise woman in you.

You will want enough honey to cover the roses. Put a lid on your jar and label this with name and date. And wait...its hard to wait for rose honey, but oh, so worth it. Six weeks is long enough, but you could actually start to taste the rose in the honey after just one day.

You can strain this with a seive and a cloth. And....you can just eat it right out of the jar. And offer gratitude again for such precious medicine. I could actually say I am in love with the taste of wild rose honey. I must just surrender to this fact.

May it be in Beauty.

Love and Beauty at my Doorstep

This piece is the first of three articles I wrote for Susun Weeds' Wise Woman eMagazine ind 2008. You can read all three installments here...http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/June08/goddess.htm

The Journey of the Rose
A Shamanic Herbal Tale in 3 parts ~ Part I

I am looking forward to the blooming of the wild roses this year. Each day making my way down into the yard to “check on them”. We have lived here on this land for just over three years. When we moved here in December of 2004, I remember one of the first things we did was to walk down into the wetland area. My husband was on this trek to “claim” the land he had chosen to steward. I was in search of plants. Who lives here? I saw the thickets of thorny bushes, but I didn’t yet know for sure they were roses.

Around 8 years ago, I discovered a magical place on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington where there are acres and acres of wild roses. I began to travel to this place to harvest the blooms in May/June and then the wild rose hips in October. Year after year I would make this pilgrimage to commune with rose. Wildcrafting wild rose blossoms is bewitching.

It begins like any other wildcrafting task..... asking, listening, thanking, plucking the blooms, sniffing here and there, tasting. But then as I continue, I find myself entering another world. Soon I am mesmerized by this thorny priestess; I am inside the realm of love and beauty. Peace abounds in this space. Loving myself is simple. Wild Rose tells me tales of how to love, who to love and how to teach love. This sacred space that beckons me, welcomes me is difficult to leave. It is soon time for me to stop harvesting so that I may get to the ferry before the last boat. Wild rose is saying pick me, pick me, more and more. I am pulling myself away from her, telling her I will return in fall to harvest her hips. I discover that even after I leave this space between the world, I can still travel there in feelings and sensations.

As spring came ‘round, our first spring here at our farm, I discovered the wild roses...still doubt sets in about whether it could possibly be true that I had chosen to live the rest of my life surrounded by this sorcière couverture. I made plans to travel to the Peninsula to harvest once again my beautiful blossoms. I returned to the spot where the wild roses spoke so loudly to me, seeking that feeling, craving the realm, hungry for it. The wild roses did speak loudly to me then and startled me. “What are you doing here?” they yelled. “You have roses on your land to harvest? You can harvest a few petals here and then you must return to your home and begin your journey there with wild rose.” I was heart broken or might I say that my heart was broken open at that moment. I realized that up until this time, I had to go seeking for love and beauty, I had to leave home to find it. Now I am being called to a simpler and yet more difficult task, to find love and beauty at my door step.

This year, I am restless to discover what wild rose will teach me. Her subtly, fragrant green leaves have already taken me in. Within her wise teachings, there is more difficulty in peeling away layers, in finding more love for myself and there is also laughter and singing to come.

May it be in Beauty.

There are three spaces left for...
The Journey of the Rose ~ Weekend Immersion in Shamanic Herbalism
May 29-30, 2010 ~ Amongst the blooming wild roses at our farm on Whidbey Island
Visit our website www.crowsdaughter.com for detailed information and to register and email us anytime.

The Green Teachings of the Fairies

“Green! ‘Tis the fairy garb of spring with million dew drops glistening.” Pedro Caulderon de la Barca, “Green and Blue”

It was just over five years ago that my husband Taddeusz and I came here to this land on Whidbey Island in Washington. We moved here from the rentals we had lived in for 7 years after selling our house in Seattle. Because we had moved so much, lived in so many places around Puget Sound, getting here to this place didn’t seem that significant at first. Another place to live, to discover, another adventure. What was to unfold as winter turned into spring could not have been known, but perhaps in the holy darkness of my psyche, I knew about the enchantment that was calling me forward.

I offered an herbal class at our farm the spring after moving here. As we walked on the land to discover the wild plant populations, one participant walked ahead of the rest of us. I saw her looking down at the ground and pointing. She said, “Look at this.” I came to the place where she stood and saw an old dead tree stump, quite small actually, with shelf mushrooms growing out of it. I knew immediately that this was the place where fairies dwelled. A gateway into their underworld sanctuary.

This place on our land became known as “The Fairy Dell” As spring came into her fullness, we discovered that “The Fairy Dell” was in the middle of a great thicket of wild roses. We told everyone who came to the land that this fairy sanctuary was off limits to humans, showing everyone where they could walk no further.

I didn’t know much about fairy lore. I had attended some talks given by R.J. Stewart and Dorothy Maclean at the Fairy and Human Relations Congress and listened intently. I read stories. And then I began to offer herbal mentorships for girls here at the farm. I did my journey work to discover what I could offer the girls. The fairies appeared in my journeys, giving me shamanic exercises in which the girls could connect with the unseen realm of these enchanted beings. The girls, ages 6-13 years old, understood the fairy language. They were delighted and seriously indulged in these experiences.

We listened, offered trinkets, libations and blessings. When the old tree fell over in a storm we created a staff with ribbons, herbs and beads to mark its place. It was this relationship that the girls had with the fairies that created a place in me to believe and to listen.

The fairy realm is intricatedly connected with the green world. A deva is a plant in its true and entire essence. Offered here are a few shamanic exercises in which you can discover the teachings of the fairies first hand right where you live.

This First Meditation/Journey can be done in a comfortable chair in your home:

• Close your eyes and find yourself at home outside in your garden or yard.
• Within this space, go to a plant with which you feel a connection.
• Notice your breath.
• Breathe in and out 3 time naturally.
• Now breathe and imagine you are breathing in the breath of this plant. Breathe out and offer your breath to the plant.
• Ask your plant, this plant, “What have you for me?” and listen.
• Now look down at the base of the plant where it comes out of the ground. Look for movement, as if you can see the wind.
• Acknowledge this as the fairy beings that dwell around this plant.
• Watch this energy move, and see if you can sense this energy communicating with you. What might it be telling you? Listen.
• When you sense this is complete, step back from the plant and acknowledge it by saying thank you.
• Open your eyes.

Activating the Fairy~Plant Connection: You are going to be activating the fairy~plant connection. The Devic realm will be honored and blessed. The magical realm of the plants will be activated. Fairies and Devas work together in the magical realm of the plants. This ceremony will open these realms. It can be done in each season.

• Fill a bowl with water, and place plants in it.
• Choose plants with which you feel a strong connection. Ask permission before gathering these plants and offer gratitude.
• Hold the bowl of water and plants in your hands.
• Breathe in and out, allowing the entireness of the plant to be breathed into you. As you breathe out, offer your entire self to the plant. Do this for 21 breaths.
• When this is complete, offer this water at the base of an old tree and offer gratitude to the fairies~devas~plants~water.

Song of the Birds: The fairies say that when you breath the song of the birds into your body, when you are in the garden or surrounded by plants, that you go to the place where plants walk around like humans and speak in the language you can understand.

• Find a place where you can sit and listen to the song of the birds.
• Close your eyes.
• Listen to the songs, breathe the songs into your body, feel it enter you body.
• Allow the song of the birds to take you to the unseen realm of the plants. And see what you discover.
• When you are home, cooking in your kitchen, open the window and allow the bird song into your kitchen. Breathe it in. This will bring the fairy energy into your home.

The connections with the fairy realm are not always light and fanciful. The fairies are powerful beings with strong intentions and will ask you to do things for them. Be strong in your own intentions as you begin this connection and trust your own intuition always.

May it be in Beauty.

First Printed in The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries, Spring 2009
www.thebeltanepapers.net

i listen

A rule for participants visiting our land and farm:
Do not to pick any plants or gather anything unless you ask me first.

please honor the land
come into relationship
with plant and animal
people grab and rip grass
seeds taken
tulip petal stolen
Crazy witch?

noticing grass
between my fingers
i greet my apple tree
she shares her wisdom
voices of the land
whispers of plants

a feather
on the ground
is this something
for me?
compassionate beings
changing me

breath
attention
intention
a whole world
opens

i listen