Share the Talking Stick

Goddess Meditation with Athena

Goddess Meditation

Overcome Any Stressor with Athena

by Stephanie Cavoli

The Greek Goddess Athena is the perfect inspiration whenever the stresses of work or school seem to be too much. Here is a great Goddess Meditation exercise meant to help you ground yourself as well as get you focused on a goal.

Try to find a quiet space where nobody is going to bother you for at least five minutes. If this means locking yourself in the bathroom or a broom closet at work because that is the only quiet place you will be left alone, then so be it. Place both hands on your stomach and breath in and out for a moment, feel the movement your body is making as you take the air in, and out.

When you are ready to begin stand with your arms down, have your palms open and facing away from you. What is your intention? Your Goal? Perhaps you want to ace that physics test, or maybe you need some confidence when dealing with a difficult boss. Whatever it is: say it out loud, bold and confident. If it happens to come out meek and mild, try it again.

Some Suggestions might be:

“My mind is open and I am ready and willing to receive the knowledge needed to pass this test!”
Or it can be more simple..
“I know I can pass this test!”

Anything that makes sense to you will work.

Now start to become aware of your breathing again. Slowly filling up your lungs, and slowly letting it out.

As you do so, start to imagine that you are standing in front of a mirror. The Image staring back should be an image of the Goddess Athena.

Look at her! Pay close attention to her. What is she wearing? What is she holding or carrying with her? What color is her hair or her skin? How does the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Battle appear to you? Focus sharply on her image and notice every detail. Remember that she is a symbol of knowledge, courage, and strategy! Remember these are exactly the qualities you need to possess in order to nail this project or ace this test. Can you see her confidence; Her energy shimmering in the mirror?

Remember to keep breathing concisely and slowly, squint your eyes a bit and look at her image deeper. Notice Athena’s hair shift in color and texture to your own hair. Watch her body shape and the features of her face slowly change until you can see yourself standing there in the mirror shimmering with her energy and confidence. Look your warrior self in the eye and boldly state your intention one more time.
When you are ready close your eyes with the image of your strong Goddess self in your head and count down from 10 to 1.

Whenever you start to become discouraged or frustrated, conjure up that amazing image of yourself and repeat your intention! “I know I can”

Stephanie Cavoli has been interested in writing and studying Woman’s Mysteries her whole life. Fascinated with the beauty, power, and prestige ancient myths have give Goddesses around the world, she has found that to empower women, is to honor and celebrate their individual uniqueness.

The Many facets of the Goddess is an amazing demonstration of just that. Stephanie owns and operates Potions Soapworks, plans to graduate from the Center of Natural Wellness, School of Massage Therapy in Albany NY this fall, and is excited to be able to incorporate her love for these Goddesses in her practice as well as her business. Stephanie may be contacted at Reclaimingthegoddess@yahoo.com or visit her website at www.Potionssoapworks.com

 

 

 

Energy and Stamina the Wise Woman Way

Energy and Stamina the Wise Woman Way

 c. 2002 Susun S Weed

 

If having enough energy to earn your daily bread and to get all your chores done is a struggle for you. If you go to bed tired, but wake up even more tired. If you can't get up and go without coffee, or can't
slow down and relax without alcohol. If your fatigue is ruining your mood and your friendships. Then it's time to build energy and stamina the Wise Woman Way.

The Wise Woman Tradition nourishes optimum energy, and optimum health, by using safe simple nourishing herbal infusions, eating whole grains, and avoiding stimulants.

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is my favorite energizing infusion. It gives me the energy to work 14-15 hours a day on my dairy goat farm, train my apprentices, write books, run a publishing company and a workshop center, and fly all over the world to teach. I don't know how I could do so much otherwise.

I buy dried stinging nettle and prepare it like this: Put one ounce by weight in a quart canning jar. Fill the jar with boiling water, cap well, and allow to steep for four hours or overnight. Strain and enjoy. Refrigerate the remainder. Drink within 36 hours.

Because stinging nettle strengthens the kidneys and adrenals, it builds powerful energy from the inside out, and gives one amazing stamina. If you drink 4-5 quarts of nettle infusion weekly, you can expect to see results within 3-6 weeks.

There are no contraindications to the use of stinging nettle infusion. Side effects may include: thicker hair, softer skin, stronger veins, and greater delight in life.

Nourishing herbal infusions can be made with other herbs too. I like red clover blossoms, lots of anticancer protection there, as well as lots of phytoestrogens. And oatstraw, such a mellow brew, and it's so great for easing and nourishing the nerves. I also use chickweed, comfrey leaf, linden blossoms, and mullein as infusion herbs, depending on my need.

All nourishing herbal infusions are made as instructed above.

Whole grains are the backbone of a whole food diet. Because they break down much more slowly than refined (white) flour products, whole grains provide a "time release" capsule that allows you to work and work and work (or play and play and play, as you will). For more energy, eat more whole grains.

Notice which white flour products you currently use, and replace them with whole grain versions as you run out. Soon you'll be eating: whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bagels, whole wheat English muffins, whole wheat crackers (read boxes carefully), whole wheat pretzels, whole wheat cookies, whole wheat bread, brown rice, kasha, millet and more. The tastes and textures will bring new delights to your dining pleasure and well as lots of energy for you to do with as you will.

Avoid stimulants. For powerful stamina and lots of energy, we are well advised to avoid stimulants. Not just drug stimulants like cocaine or "speed," but herb and food stimulants too.

It is tempting to try to get more energy by using stimulants. But stimulants actually decrease overall energy. They provide fast fuel, but no steady flow of energy. Stimulants push us beyond our innate capacity. In effect, they make us work harder than we truly have the energy for, and thus deplete us at deep levels.

The energy-depleting effects of coffee, soft drinks, and white sugar products are cumulative. The more you try to get energy from these sources, the more tired you make yourself. The long-term consequences often include a profound fatigue.

Black pepper and spices such as cinnamon and cloves are acknowledged stimulants too, and, if overused (as in drinking chai daily) can also weaken the internal fires that give us energy.

Herbal stimulants such as ephedra (ma hang or Mormon tea), cayenne, ginseng, and guarana are also unlikely to help build real energy and stamina unless used sparingly and wisely.. Herbal stimulants may even be quite dangerous, especially when powdered and taken in gelatin caps. Water-based preparations of stimulating herbs (teas and soups) are usually the safest, and tinctures are next safest, unless standardized. Small amounts of these herbs taken occasionally are harmless enough. It is long-term use of stimulants that erodes healthy energy.

White sugar is one of the most common stimulants in the fast-food culture. We consume it in dozens of forms: corn syrup, cane sugar, "raw" sugar, fructose. I find that when the diet is rich in minerals, especially those in nourishing herbal infusions, whole grains, and yogurt, the desire for sweets is lessened and more easily satisfied with far less.

For energy and stamina everyday, plus the extra you need to deal with everyday emergencies, follow the Wise Woman Way: drink nourishing herbal infusions, such as stinging nettle, red clover, oatstraw, and chickweed.

For energy and stamina at home and on the road, plus the extra you need to deal with the constant stress, follow the Wise Woman Way: eat only whole grains: brown rice, wild rice, spelt, cornmeal, amaranth, quinoa, and edible wild seeds including lamb's quarter, nettle, and yellow dock.

For energy and stamina, the Wise Woman Way, rely on your own power, trust in your own bodies wisdom if it needs to say "no," and don't force the issue with stimulants (except on those very rare occasions when nothing else will do).

Energy and stamina the Wise Woman Way is simple, safe, successful, and fun. Congratulations for taking your health into your own hands.

Study with Susun Weed via Correspondence Course

Green Witch focuses on personal and spiritual development. You'll create rituals, prepare an herbal first-aid kit, encounter your Goddess archetype, discover the magic of menstrual & menopausal changes, and develop wise woman ways of living and healing. Learn more ...

Green Allies explores herbal medicine through direct experiences with plants, plant spirits (fairies, devas), and plant medicines. For those who want to deepen, rather than broaden, their knowledge of plants: a year's worth of investigation and experimentation with one plant ally. Learn more ...

Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition focuses on understanding, internalizing, and using the Three Traditions of Healing (Wise Woman, Heroic, and Scientific) and the Six Steps of Healing. Health-care practitioners find this course exceptionally helpful, but anyone who cares for the health of others (even family members) will benefit. Learn more ...

ABC of Herbalism!! This is a special course for the aspiring herbalist who'd like to have me "by your side" teaching you how to harvest, prepare, and use 52 healing herbs. Your studies will be both experiential and intellectual and you will make and use herbal remedies as well as reading about them in a variety of sources.
Learn more ...

 

Wise Women of the Southeast

Wise Women of the Southeast

or Reviving the Wise Woman Tradition in the Southeast

By Lee Walker Warren

We live in a forested valley about 45 minutes southeast of Asheville, in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The three of us, Corinna Wood, Ema Carmona, Lee Warren are friends and neighbors sharing values of simple, low-impact living, and environmental and social activism.

As women in our 30’s and 40’s we’ve grown up with the notion that women can do anything. Thanks to our foremothers, we’ve experienced much liberation. Our life paths have taken us back even further to learn the old ways: herbal medicine, home-birth, tending animals, growing food, and sitting in circle with other women. We are changing culture from the inside out.

From our first annual Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference event in 2005, we quickly discovered that women in the Southeast were ready and eager for this community of teaching and connection that we were creating at the conference. We discovered that we were filling a deep need. Our first conference drew 250 women, a high number for a start up event. By 2010, our sixth year, over 800 women attended, during a rough economic time when event after event were collapsing. The conference now has a heart and soul of its own. For many it has become an annual event, a tradition in education, inspiration, and sisterhood.

At this point our conference has become not only the largest women’s herbal conference in the country but the largest in general. One of our regular teachers who had to miss last year due to a scheduling conflict said, “I really feel like Cinderella about to miss the best party of the year.”

It seems that part of the draw to the conference comes from the authenticity that we bring to it as organizers. We use the weekend to give women a taste of the way we actually live. We all live at or near Earthaven Ecovillage, an intentional, permaculture-based community on 325-acres and home to 50 members who are experimenting with living more lightly on the earth. For us, green business and sustainability aren’t just buzz words: they’re the way of life we’ve chosen. Our office and apothecary run entirely on solar and hydro electricity, our homes and offices are built and heated by wood from our land, we grow much of our own food on our adjacent farms and gardens, we raise our children in a community context and we practice herbal medicine, natural health, and women’s cooperation in our everyday lives.

While most of us recognize that much wisdom and knowledge has been lost as we move towards modern medicine and institutional living, it’s often hard to find the resources to incorporate these ideas and practices into our lives. Speeded up living, a fear-driven culture, and messages galore from the corporate media often leave us breathless and spun. Our weekend provides a deep cellular call towards the folkways that were passed on between generations since time out of mind: simple living, local plants and deep nourishment. As we remember, we are midwifeing each other back into wholeness.

And it’s happening. Women are going home to change their jobs, relationships and lives. They incorporate more natural approaches to healing or childbirth. Or change their level of inner confidence. The smallest changes—to a more green business or more respectful relating strengthens the web. Consciousness is like mycelium, we become an underground network, miles and miles wide, doing the sometimes small and sometimes large work of inner and outer healing. And as women grow in strength they become their own hubs, affecting countless others. The more we affect the whole, the more we can help others and the planet heal from war, environmental destruction, and huge emotional pain.

Additionally, maybe empowerment is a sort of pride in where we’ve been and where we’re going. It’s only when women can see the light of liberation that they can actually embrace what has been. It seems like we’re getting there. Our conference is one small part of reweaving that visible and invisible web.

Lee Walker Warren lives in a Cohousing Neighborhood at Earthaven Ecovillage in the Appalachian Mountains of Western NC (near the artsy, hip city of Asheville.) She is an herbalist, food & social activist, writer, and manager of a cooperative farm focused on pasture-based system of animal and crop rotation. She is also Program and Promotions Coordinator for the Southeast Women's Herbal Conference, and annual event held near Asheville, NC and dedicated to the Wise Woman Tradition. This year’s conference takes place October 14-16, 2011 and features Brooke Medicine Eagle as the special guest speaker. Details can be found at sewisewomen.com.

The Artwork of Mollie Kellogg

The Artwork of Mollie Kellogg

Artist Statement

With my mother a painter and my father a photographer and art collector, drawing and painting came relatively easily to me at an early age. Whenever my mother would take a break from painting, I would sneak in and add my own touches to her unattended canvas.

My technique has evolved over the years. After studying and performing theatre, becoming a mother and then facing serious health issues, my work has changed dramatically. In the beginning, my figurative approach ranged from oil on canvas to illustration for publication in watercolor, pastel and pencil. Theatre created opportunities for my fine art when mural-sized figures of nudes on stretched canvas caught the attention of local critics.

Moving from Arizona to Seattle and then to San Diego, oversized nudes became impractical to produce. A transition to smaller, more personal work became important, as well as exploring many new themes in my life. Today my paintings are still figurative in nature -- and I often use family, friends, fellow artists and myself as reference -- but they are now more complex, and more intimate.

As an actress missing her stage, I feel these paintings are moments expressed in body language and facial expression. I feel each curve and the position of each figure as if I were on a stage performing the scene as I paint.

Many ideas are inspired by dreams and life experiences. Some works are representational, reflecting my interest in mysticism, spirituality and a deeper connection with Nature. I am inspired by the images in poetry and literature, as well as the work of visual artists like Odd Nerdrum, Victorian painter, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Chicano Artist, George Yepes, and teacher, Betty Braig. 

For some, my images of children resonate with the art of Mary Cassatt. But where Cassatt's work is design and color first and character studies second, my paintings center around emotion and are intended to be felt. The passion in my work also has been compared with the German artist Kathe Kollwitz. Although my art draws more from American genre painting, I share Kollwitz's visceral appreciation of relationships and the human condition. 

At present, my painting technique involves sketching the image into gesso while wet, then applying a metallic underpainting. Over this I pour combinations of colors, allowing the paint to dry into the textured surface. I also include metallic powders, metallic foil, metal flakes and other objects such as feathers, broken glass and dried flower petals in the wet paint or imbedded in the gesso. The image is then laid over this complex background in several layers, and sealed with a series of varnish applications. (View The Process) Another artist recently described my large, heavily textured and thickly painted canvases as "reading like the flesh of Rembrandt's mother." He continued: "The subjects' features are worn, etched by time, painfully familiar with tragedy, yet fully present and economically described."  

 An interesting observation concerning the evolution of my work, and a driving force, was realizing that each new painting answers different questions and makes other answers less important.

— Mollie Kellogg

Visit the Artist's website here!

PEOPLE’S MEDICINE: HERBS FOR HAGS by Susun S Weed

PEOPLE’S MEDICINE:           HERBS FOR HAGS                         by Susun S Weed

 

I'm so glad I'm finally old. Sadly, many of my friends don't like me to use that word. They say they don't want to be "old.". I think what they really mean is they don't want to be the kind of old that's infirm and dependent. I agree.

Vigorously old, excitingly old, sensuously old, daringly old --- those are the adjectives I like to apply to myself as an old woman.

Toward the goal of remaining vigorous, exciting, sensuous, and daring for many more decades, I pay close attention to the food I eat and the medicines I use, and don't use. So you may be as vigorous, exciting, sensual, and daring as you wish to be, too, I'll share my thoughts and choices about health and nourishment with you.

As you know, I love plants; I'm an herbalist. I use herbs to flavor my food, to provide optimum nourishment, and to prevent and deal with a variety of both minor and major ills. Of course, I'll be sharing lots of herbal lore with you. But I want to do much more than that. I want to share people's medicine with you. I want to help you make sense of medicine. I want to help guide you through the confusing, conflicting choices in health care. Simply. Safely. Effectively. And with joy.

 

THE SEVEN MEDICINES

Let's start with one of my three best ideas: The Seven Medicines. This sorting system for remedies helps me get a sense of the safety of any type of treatment.

The safest medicine is Serenity Medicine, also called "Do Nothing.". It includes meditation, sleep, deep relaxation, even idleness. Rest cures, going fishing, and time away from responsibilities are also Serenity Medicine.

The next safest medicine is Story Medicine, also called "Diagnosis.". Here we collect information. Ideally, figuring out the nature of our problem is done without dangerous hi-tech techniques such as x-rays, MRIs, CAT scans, and exploratory surgery. Remember that every story/diagnosis implies and leads to a treatment. The story (and the plan of action) you'll get from an acupuncturist will differ significantly from the story (and drugs) an MD will give you for the same problem.

Only slightly more dangerous is Mind Medicine or Energy Medicine; some call this "Placebo Medicine.". Anything that engages our mental ability to heal is included here, from flower essences to psychic healing.

Lifestyle Medicine speaks to the ways we "Nourish and Tonify" and, while generally quite safe, is more dangerous than the previous three Medicines. What we eat, what we wear, where we work, how we use our bodies, and how we amuse ourselves are all part of this Medicine.

The first four Medicines build health, even if they don't cure; and they frequently do cure, while causing minimal harm. The last three Medicines always harm, even if only slightly, even if they can create miracles of healing.

The fifth Medicine is Alternative Medicine; the action is "Stimulate and/or Sedate.". Alternative Medicine includes herbal medicine, naturopathic medicine, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, and many more specialties. Unless used wisely, these medicines have the potential to do serious harm. At the least, they excite or depress us by using, but not replacing, our core energy.

The sixth Medicine is Pharmaceutical Medicine. Drugs, as we are all aware, are fraught with problems and side-effects. In fact, one of the leading causes of death in the United States is reaction to prescribed drugs. Pharmaceutical Medicine is not limited to prescription drugs, nor to products of the pharmaceutical industry. Essential oils, supplements, and most encapsulated herbs are so drug-like in their actions that they share the dangers of drugs.

The last, and most dangerous of the Seven Medicines, is Hi-Tech Medicine, or "Break and Enter.". While surgery and other hi-tech techniques can work miracles, the harm done by this last medicine can be fatal, permanent, and disfiguring. The amount of hi-tech diagnosis that is currently done is truly scary. Using the first four Medicines not only prevents the need for Hi-Tech Medicine in most instances, it also improves our ability to benefit from --- and protects us against the harms of --- Hi-Tech Medicine if we do choose it.

Serenity Medicine, Story Medicine, Mind Medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine can be used daily to build health. Alternative Medicine, Pharmaceutical Medicine, and Hi-Tech Medicine are best reserved for acute, immediate emergencies.

 

BONE HEALTH AND THE SEVEN MEDICINES

Many postmenopausal women fear breaking a hip. This fear is promoted by Pharmaceutical Medicine, assisted by Hi-Tech Medicine, and disseminated by advertising which increases fear and claims safety comes from bone scans and drugs.

In one ad, we are told that taking a certain drug will cut our risk of a hip fracture in half. Sounds good, unless you realize that the risk for most postmenopausal women is only two percent. Cutting that by fifty percent brings the risk to one percent --- only one percent lower than the risk of women who don't take the drug. And the drug does nothing to improve bone health.

Women are frightened into agreeing to use Pharmaceutical Medicine to counter osteoporosis. But increasing bone mass does not reliably prevent fractures, nor does it improve health. In fact, postmenopausal women with high bone density are far more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Drugs don't improve health, they improve test scores.

Calcium supplements may sound like an alternative, but they are Pharmaceutical Medicine, too; and women who take them are actually more likely to break a bone than those who get their calcium from food.

What can we do if we want healthy bones that flex instead of breaking? Don't begin with a Hi- Tech diagnosis, for starters. Instead, start with Serenity Medicine. A short daily meditative practice helps us be more alert to the inner and outer landscapes, improves our stability and gives us better grounding. Fewer falls definitely translates into fewer broken hips.

Then engage Story Medicine. Change fear into action. Collect information about your bones without scans. How? The more flexible and toned the muscles are, the stronger and more flexible the bones they attach to are. Your overall flexibility is a window of insight into the health and flexibility of your bones.

Mind Medicine offers us a shaman's playground of mind-over-matter techniques, including prayer, visualization, homeopathic remedies, and Reiki, to name but a few. Just imagining our bones as sturdy and strong actually helps make them so.

And be sure to treat your bones to Lifestyle Medicine. To keep my bones healthy I: eat a quart of yogurt a week, drink a quart of nourishing herbal infusion each day, eat plenty of well-cooked greens from the cabbage family, regularly use mineral-rich herbal vinegars, practice yoga weekly, walking walk daily, do tai chi several times a week, and pump iron at the local gym for at least an hour a week. These Lifestyle Medicines don't just prevent a broken hip, they improve my overall health. They help make me a vigorous, exciting, sensuous, and daring old woman.

 

REWEAVING THE HEALING CLOAK OF THE ANCIENTS

I hope I have your ear, and your interest. I want to help you reclaim the power of your own health. In future issues we'll talk more about healthy bones, healthy hearts, healthy libidos, and Wise Woman Ways to make old age fun.

Come with me. Let us sit at the feet of the old wise women and listen to their stories. Let us knit the yarns they spin into our own lives. Together, let us reweave the healing cloak of the Ancients.

Susun Weed
Copyright 2008 Susun Weed

 

Online Course with Susun Weed
Menopausal Allies
( Link to detailed description of: Menopausal Allies )

Mentor: Susun Weed

This course will look at menopause as puberty prime, as a metamorphosis, and as the springboard for the last fifty years of our lives. You will mine gems of wisdom from how you dealt with your first puberty, recast your problems as allies during menopausal withdrawal, meltdown, and emergence, and learn how to use herbal allies to create yourself as wise old crone – juicy, vital, vibrant, strong-boned, hale-hearted, and gleeful.

You will look at the facts behind some of the prevalent myths of and learn which herbal allies are better choices. You will learn about herbal allies for menopause: herbs for dealing with fertility, mood and emotion, sex, hot flashes, sleepless nights, lack of libido, and your own personal problems. I invite you to join our circle, a menopausal moon lodge, as it were, of women honoring themselves and reweaving the healing cloak of the Ancients.

find out more about Menopausal Allies

Susun Weed, author of the Wise Woman Herbal series, is an extraordinary teacher with a joyous spirit, a powerful presence, and an extensive knowledge of herbs and health.

Ms. Weed is the voice of the Wise Woman Tradition, empowering women worldwide to reclaim their health and wellbeing through knowledge, simply and safely.   

Susun Weed is the founder of the Wise Woman University.

The Artwork of Monica Sjöö

The Artwork of Monica Sjöö

 

From the Artist's Website...

Monica Sjöö, the great artist whose work is timeless, has presented us with images of ancestors and of the ancient world that nourish and sustain. Searching from within her own heart out into the heart of nature and of memory, sitting with the ruins and that which has been paved over, peering into the abyss and holy well, she has created masterpiece after masterpiece of the human and female soul. Her work is astonishing. Arresting. So moving that, usually, one finds, upon examining it, no need of speech. It has a completeness, in that sense, that much art lacks. We stand before her canvases, often quite large, as before a field of yellow sunflowers or green corn, or the sea.

I think it is because she is painting that which has been silenced, hidden, almost thoroughly. I believe many of the images she reintroduces to us were meant never to appear before female eyes again. It is as if she is reintroducing us to our lost passions. Passions about the earth, about nature, about true worship, about our own strength and power in the face of the mystery that we, as humans and women, inhabit.

Her gift to us is measureless as is her integrity and implacable dedication to the tending of earth and the psychic health of awakening human beings.

Alice Walker
Writer/Poet/Artist
November 2003

Visit Monica's website here!

 

Featured Website...Sophia

For our Spanish Speaking Readers....

Sophia

SOPHIA es una revista que busca recuperar la ancestral sabiduría de las mujeres para hacer así su aporte al mundo contemporáneo. Lejos de los mandatos sociales de juventud y belleza del cuerpo, de exitismo, de frivolidad,  SOPHIA  revaloriza la espiritualidad, la intuición, los vínculos y los valores como la solidaridad y el compromiso con los vulnerables. Creemos en la fuerza de la palabra y los testimonios para cambiar el mundo, y volverlo otra vez un lugar para el asombro, la gratitud, la reverencia, la hermandad.  Te invitamos a desplegar el alma y a acompañarnos en nuestra utopía.

 

El camino de la mujer sabia

¿Cuántas veces hemos arrancado yuyos "inservibles" de una maceta o del jardín? De estar cerca, Susun Weed sin duda se acercaría a mirar la planta en cuestión y sugeriría aprovecharla en una infusión medicinal, una sopa nutritiva o una rica ensalada. La veterana herbalista se dedica a rescatar y devolverles a las mujeres un antiguo saber: el que se vale de la naturaleza y el amor para nutrir, aliviar y sanar...

lea más aquí

Sacred Corn Mother by Susun Weed

 Sacred Corn Mother
by Susun Weed

 

As seen printed in Mystic Pop Magazine

"Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, An corn rigs are bonnie;
I'll ne'er forget that happy night, Amang the rigs wi' Annie."
“It Was Upon A Lammas Night,” by Robert Burns

The least known of the eight major Pagan holy days is Lammas, celebrated on the first of August. (The other primary holy days are the Summer and Winter Solstices, the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, and the Cross Quarter Days of Beltane, May Day, and Halloween.)

Lammas, or "Loaf Mass," is the Feast of the First Harvest, the Feast of Bread. This Holy Day honors the women who created agriculture and bred the crops we cultivate, especially the grains, or corn. In the
British Isles, celebrants make corn dollies from the last of the newly-harvested wheat. The corn dolly holds the energy of the grain Goddess and, when placed above the door or the mantle, will bring good luck to the household all year.

When we think of corn, we think of succulent cobs of crisp, sweet, buttery yellow or white kernels: immature Zea mays, Indian corn. You know, corn. As in sweet corn, popcorn, blue corn, decorative corn, corn bread and corn chowder. Corn!

But, did you ever wonder why it's corn? "Korn" is an old Greek word for "grain." Wheat and oats, barley and even rice, are korn. This usage is preserved in the song "John Barleycorn must die." When Europeans crossed the Atlantic and were introduced to the beautiful grain the Native Americans grew, they, of course, called it "corn." And nowadays we think of corn as only that, but corn is Kore (pronounced "core-a"), the Great Mother of us all.

Her name, in its many forms -- Ker, Car, Q're, Kher, Kirn, Kern, Ceres, Core, Kore, Kaur, Kauri, Kali -- is the oldest of all Goddess names. From it we derive the English words corn, kernel, carnal, core, and cardiac. "Kern" is Ancient Greek for "sacred womb-vase in which grain is reborn."

The Goddess of Grain is the mother of civilization, of cultivation, of endless fertility and fecundity. To the Romans she was Ceres, whose name becomes "cereal." To the Greeks, she was Kore, the daughter, and Demeter (de/dea/goddess, meter/mater/mother) as well. To the peoples of the Americas, she is Corn Mother, she-who-gave-herself-that-the-People-may-live. She is one of the three sister crops: corn, beans and squash. In the British Isles she was celebrated almost to the present day as "Cerealia, the source of all food."

Honoring grain as the staff of our life dates at least as far back as Ancient Greece. Nearly four thousand years ago, the Eleusinian mysteries, which were regarded as ancient mysteries even then, centered on the sacred corn and the story of Demeter and her daughter Kore or Persephone. Initiates, after many days of ceremony, were at last shown the great mystery: an ear of Korn. Korn dies and is reborn, traditionally after being buried for three days. Corn and grain are magic. The one becomes many. That which dies is reborn.

Many Native American stories repeat this theme of death and rebirth, but with a special twist. In some origin of corn stories a woman is brutally murdered, in others she demands to be killed. No matter. Once she is dead, she is cut into pieces and planted. From her dismembered body, corn grows. Again and again, everywhere around the world, the story of grain is the story of humanity. The sacred symbolism of grain speaks loudly to the human psyche. To the Ancients, the light in our lights is the Kore, the core, the soul, the seed, of each being.

Real, whole grains sustain us. Real, whole grains are sacred. Real, whole grains reconnect us with our human lineage. When we eat them, we feel satisfied in a deep and fundamental way. When we eat them, we ground ourselves, we nourish ourselves in multiple ways.

But bleached and enriched grains do not sustain life, nor are they inherently sacred. Grains that have had the bran and the germ stripped away do last longer, but have little to offer us physically or spiritually. When we eat them, we feel empty. Thus, many of us have come to equate bad news weight gain with carbohydrates, specifically, grains. Grains are the Goddess who sacrificed for us; they aren't to blame. It's the processing that does us in.

August is a good time to make peace with the Corn Mother. Switch to organic corn chips; some supermarkets carry them. Try out whole wheat pasta; my simple recipe below makes the best lasagna you ever ate; you won't believe it's whole wheat. Explore millet, kasha, quinoa, teff, kamut, spelt, wild rice, brown basmati, and my dietary mainstay: Lundberg organic short-grain brown rice. Cheer Ceres. Throw your own whole-grain Carnaval!

Grains are medicine, too. Corn silk is an important remedy to help bladder woes. A handful of rice or barley boiled in several quarts of water is a folk remedy for anyone who lacks appetite or who has digestive woes. We're all familiar with the heart-healthy effects of eating oats. And oat straw infusion, made from the grass of the oat plant, is considered a longevity tonic in India.

Celebrate the Corn Mother any way you can. Invite Her into your life as food, as medicine, as decoration. And don't be surprised if you feel happier and healthier than ever before. The green blessings of the grains are special blessings indeed.

As seen printed in Mystic Pop Magazine, www.mysticpopmagazine.com
Copyright © 2008 Susun Weed

Herbal First Aid: The Wise Woman Way

Open Enrollment - Eight week online course with Susun Weed includes: lessons and assignments in pdf, two pre-recorded teleseminars, and personal mentorship with Susun via online classroom. Plus a bonus
gift from Susun to you: two full length audio lectures: “Herbs for Injuries” and "Using Herbs Simply and Safely" (value $32)

Most of us suffer small injuries fairly regularly: scrapes, cuts, burns, bruises, muscle aches and swelling, insect bites and stings, and itching. Antibiotic ointments can delay healing. Getting stitches is not always the best response, even to a large gash. Learn how to identify, prepare, and use the common, abundant plants that grow near at hand as spit-poultices, healing ointments/oils, tinctures, compresses, and baths to soothe, ease, and heal these injuries, including surgical wounds. Then extend your herbal first aid for everyday aches in the teeth, stomach, head, and uterus, even treat food poisoning.

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