13 Moons Alchemy - Apothecary

Had the most amazing homecoming, and now I am on my way back home.
I'm feeling super grateful for my medicine haul 🌿

What I'm coming home with 👇🏽

Echinacea
Bee Balm
Self Heal Plant
Black Walnut
Blue Cohosh
Wild Mint
Ghost Pipe
Yarrow
Gravel Root
Lemon Balm
Mugwort
Cedar
Juniper
Juniper Berries
Sumac

Some will be dried for the apothecary, some will become tinctures, oils, salves, teas and other preparations.
A few will be worked with fresh while they’re at their best, and the Ghost Pipe is already tincturing 🤍

There’s something incredibly special about bringing these plants home from my ancestral land and turning them into medicine by hand.
Every harvest teaches you something, and each prayer I leave behind, a seed for a more abundant harvest next season.

I remember getting to witness this first hand when I revisited the same spot I gathered Black Cohosh from and seeing how much it multiplied the next year!

Definitely feeling grateful for this one 🙏🏽
Can't wait to start processing!

Self Heal 💜

I’ve actually tried growing this one before with absolutely no success, so when I came across it growing wild, I was really happy to see it!

Self Healing Plant has been used traditionally for wounds, sores, burns, inflammation, sore throats, mouth sores and as a general cooling and soothing medicine.

It’s also been used traditionally to support the lymphatic system and for fevers and minor skin irritations.

I’ll be processing this batch into a tincture and a salve so I can put this little medicine to good use 🌿

Found my first ever Gravel Root yesterday!! 🌿

I’ve been wanting to find this one in the wild, and there’s something super exciting about your first time finding a new plant friend!

STAGNATION is the common thread in this medicine.

You’ll usually find it where the water moves slowly and the Earth stays saturated…

Yet..
Gravel Root has traditionally been associated with helping move what has become stagnant, and I LOVE that contradiction.

Kinda like that backwards medicine..
Aiyyyeee!

Medicinally, Gravel Root has traditionally been used as a urinary and kidney herb, particularly for helping move things along that have become stagnant.

It’s a plant associated with movement, flow, and clearing.

And that same Spirit carries over into its spiritual and magical properties. ✨️

Stagnant energy can show up in so many ways.

Sometimes it’s physical…
Things in the body that aren’t moving and flowing the way they should.
Gravel Root has traditionally been used to support the urinary system and kidneys, helping the body move along and eliminate what needs to leave.

And sometimes that stagnation is emotional or energetic...
When we hold onto old emotions, experiences, fear, grief, resentment, or energy that isn’t ours to carry anymore, it can start to feel like we’re moving through life with something weighing us down.

We need movement & release, so we can create space for new energy to come in ✨️

That’s where I find the spiritual medicine of Gravel Root especially interesting.

It’s traditionally associated with clearing blockages, breaking up stagnant energy, grounding, protection, and helping move things that have been stuck.

Whether that’s an old pattern, an old attachment, a thought we keep circling back to, or something we’ve been carrying in our body for far too long.

There’s something beautiful about a plant whose medicine is so closely connected with the idea of getting things moving again.

I’ll definitely be working with this myself, when I get home

I love discovering these layers in the plants I find.
The physical uses, the traditional knowledge, the spiritual associations..
It's all fascinating to me.

And yes.
I'm taking some home to share

This grows everywhere out here in Northern Michigan!

Who knows what it is

In my morning prayer this morning-
I was going over the Seven Anishinaabe Teachings

Wisdom
Love
Respect
Bravery
Honesty
Humility
Truth

And when I hopped on FB, I started seeing all the posts about 'Lions Gate'

One of the things I’ve always felt called to do in this life is speak the truth as I know it.

Even when it irritates people...
Even when it makes people uncomfortable..
Even when I know damn well it would be easier to just keep my mouth shut.

And believe me..
Sometimes I do bite my tongue.
Sometimes keeping the peace, and letting people just be, matters more than saying what I want to say, lol

But this morning..
Stting with the teaching of Truth, I felt like this was one of those pieces that needed to be shared.

The whole 8/8 Lion’s Gate thing is a modern tradition.

There is NO ancient celestial portal that opens every August 8th because Sirius, the Sun and Earth are all magically lined up.

8/8 is just a date on the Gregorian calendar.
If you’re working from a 13 Moon calendar, the significance of 8/8 on a Gregorian calendar means absolutely nothing.

So this especially applies to you, if you are operating from any type of Earth based faith.

Which leads me to asking you this..

How much of what we call ancient cosmic wisdom is actually ancient??
And also..
How much of it is something we’ve layered onto a calendar system that is a pretty recent human construction, as far as calendars go?

We are all quick to acknowledge the Gregorian calendar is a lie, but still quick to celebrate the days on that same calendar 🧐

And that brings me right back to Truth...
Debwewin.

Debwewin isn’t just about not lying.
It’s about speaking to what you actually know.

What you have lived..
What you have experienced..

Not pretending to know something you don’t know, and not adding things to a story just because they sound good or make it more mystical.

Something gets posted online and then now it 'ancient'
Somebody else adds a little more 'magic' to it, and now we’re all repeating it as fact.

Its deception wrapped in a pretty white cloak.

So I keep coming back to Turtle.

Slow down.
Look closer.
Know what you know.
Know what you don’t know.

Don’t be afraid to say the difference.

You don’t have to have to make everything bigger or more mystical than what it really is.
I want to know what ACTUALLY happening in the skies

We are floating on a rock through space, and alive for fucc sakes 🤣
Isnt the truth is pretty damn magical without having to dress it up in beautiful lies?

Personally..
I wanna know where the sacred ends and the bu****it begins.

And that concludes my teaching of truth for the 8/8

PS..

There IS a real astronomical event involving Sirius called its heliacal rising.
This is when Sirius becomes visible again in the morning sky, and the date varies depending on your location.

There’s also a solar eclipse coming August 12.

Honor these events properly if you feel called to do so 💛✨️