Imagine you are sitting in a magical grove of old conifers: pines, spruce, cedar, junipers, Douglas fir, sequoia… arboreal elders from all over the world, and all over the landscape of your heart. Take in their magnificence, their shimmering green needles and scales, the resinous scent of this primordial medicine, the medicine of rest. Nourish your roots, here.
Doug fir, and many conifers, hold up the forest canopy, providing shelter for plants, animals, fungi, and us. Steep fresh needles in teas for enlivening vitamin C and antioxidants. Infuse their resinous pitch into salves and sacred perfumes. Most importantly though, just be with the trees. Slow down. Sit with your botanical elders. Breathe them in. In their presence, come home to yourself as nature. Resting into this sense of deep inter-being and inter-belonging, we can act from a place of natural strength, in service to all beings.
Winter Water governs your Kidneys and Bladder, the gentle power of your will to survive and thrive, and your 精 Jing-Essence, the lush reservoir of your inner gifts and resilience that comes from the long line of ancestors and plantcestors dancing through your bones and body.
Which plants fed your ancestors and flow through your bloodstream?
Who are your plantcestors?
What nourishes your bones?
Activism begins with rest. Tend to the wintry, watery parts of your body and life. When you sip tea, be with your tea. When you eat, be with your food. Take refuge in simplicity. Be present with the moment-by-moment gift of your life: your body, the people, plants, and other beings surrounding you, this breath.
Take three conscious breaths: one for yourself, one for the planet, and one for the wider world— the Great Mystery.
This is the fifth article in the series, “Herbalism is Activism,” a six-part journey through the Five Elements of East Asian medicine. Each month, explore different facets of herbalism as activism with a seasonal plant guide. For each plant, hold them, sip them, or spritz their hydrosols. Breathe these words to life.
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- Free Easy Wanderer Incense Recipe
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- Tea Blending & Ceremony
