Walking down an animal path from which there are no signs or parking,
I unexpectedly find myself in a field of diverse wildflowers. I know
which one to look for … the pungent Sagittarian colored one. There
were many to choose from, but when you are going to take life it is
important to have discretion.
The first discretion is to make sure whatever you are taking is in
abundance; which it certainly was here.
The second discretion is to never take the strongest, healthiest
individual.
But the main thing is to spiritually ask for which plant to take. To
be organically guided to the plant of which you are about to create
relationship with.
Walking further and further, I finally see the one. It is glowing in
the sunlight and was in abundance.
I knelt down to gently touch this plant … “is it ok if I take
you?”
I feel that it is.
And with tentative tears, with my trowel I begin to carefully remove
the top layer of grass and moss to replace when I am done. Then I dig
through the precious fertile soil to volcanic rock. This beautiful
plant is tenacious with it’s fleshy roots growing between the rocks
and expanding these spaces over the course of decades.
Like an archaeologist carefully peeling back layers of time never
seen with human eyes I slowly move the ancient rocks as I forage for
roots.
As soon as I remove one rock, there is another. I use my fingers to
trace the direction of roots and feel I am touching the muscles,
veins and sinew of the Earth. As I go deeper, I pull the stones out
of the cool soil as if delivering a baby from a womb. I can only
place rocks gently after such an experience.
Finally I have retrieved all the medicinal aromatic roots with dirt
embedded in fragrant sap on my hands. I smell just like the plant of
which I was searching. Now before me is a hole just large enough for
me with rocks stacked around the edges. I can sit in this cool nest
of rock and dirt where there was once another being.
As I dig roots I am taken back to an embodied memory of what our
ancestors did daily. I connect to the wisdom of plant medicine and
nourishment derived from nature. My mind quiets and I am present with
my environment as the crow teases me upward. Naturally I chew on the
bitter root as I dig with its alkaloid medicine evident upon my
tongue. My conscious perception begins to change. My movement slows
down. My peripheral vision expands and colors brighten. The animals
stare me in the eye. I see things for how they truly are. Things I
don’t usually see. I became different after digging and eating the
roots of our ancestors. The altered state of consciousness was
heightened beyond placebo such that it made me wonder if I had
poisoned myself; this was not a plant known to have any psychoactive
properties. I quickly realized that when you put your hands in the
Earth, you become attuned to the subtleties around and within. All
elements of Nature will change your awareness if you allow it. The
wind, rain, snow, lichen, moss, soil, rivers, smoke, trees, animals,
insects, fungi and of course plants. We owe our life to these people.
Before I leave my rock nest, I tell the plant of which I dug and the
Earth of which I dug from:
“soon, I too will return to the soil”.
Words cannot describe my connection with Nature.
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