One of my favorite poems by Joy Harjo.
Remember
Salvia rosmarinus, Rosemary, Dew of the Sea, the Mediterranean native, aromatic evergreen in the Lamiaceae (mint) family has long been associated with enhancing memory and recall. Scholars in ancient Greece wore wreaths of rosemary around the brow to help recall facts while sitting exams. Rosemary is also an herb traditionally used in weddings, often to grace the bride’s bouquet, headpiece, and dress—in effort to help her further memorialize the special occasion. In addition to the bride's adornments, it was also once common to add rosemary to the couple’s wine to help them remember their sacred vows to each other! I remember as a young student at Raworth College in London diffusing rosemary essential oil while studying and then dropping a few drops of the oil on a hanky to bring into the exam room praying it would help me recall what I had studied the day before! Rosemary stimulates the pineal gland and improves energy levels; it is a nervine, rejuvenative, stimulant.
On the first day of the herbal apprenticeship I often tell my new students that I am not teaching them something new, instead helping them to remember what they once knew, what is in their bones. Many people experience a deep resonance when studying herbal medicine, a cellular memory of a way of life and a belief system their ancestors practiced. According to the Wise Woman tradition, we are all healers. Although doctors, shamans, and medicine men have more prominence in our cultural history, it was the everyday healer who kept/keeps communities healthy. The women who attend to pregnant women and sick children, and who nurture the beginning and the ending of life. The matriarch who cooks a nourishing soup for her family at the beginning of Winter throwing in extra handful of herbs to build the immune systems of those around her, or who collects wild greens at the beginning of Spring to build the blood and get rid of lingering Winter stagnation. She is the one who makes sure that there is always enough fire cider or elderberry syrup in the pantry, and sauerkraut in the fridge. We are the wise women, we are the wise woman tradition. Remember. Part of the reason that wise woman ways are so often overlooked is that much of this work is invisible, quietly done within the home or community.
to re·mem·ber
verb
have in or be able to bring to one's mind an awareness of (someone or something that one has seen, known, or experienced in the past).
Herbal medicine was practiced somewhere, and sometime by our ancestors. It’s just a matter of re-accessing that information. There is a Sanskrit word for it: smarana. You aren't just remembering what you may have forgotten from your own life, but many lives before you. You are remembering the wisdom that the earth and universe held long before you arrived: the ancient knowledge of the earth, seasons and planets.
(note to self to re-read Platos theory of Recollection)
I’m truly excited for todays featured artist. When I look at Caro Arevalo’s work the word “Epic” comes to mind, larger than life, smarana in a progress, an ancient wisdom of the earth, seasons and planet. After completing the Evolution of Plants (see above) Caro decided to embark on a truly epic undertaking to paint the “Eukaryotic domain”
Eukaryota, whose members are known as eukaryotes, is a diverse domain of organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms are eukaryotes.
Upon undertaking this vast project she paused, realizing that she knew little about the fungal kingdom. In order to continue there was study to be done, books to be read, a full on immersion into the world of fungi which they say includes 1-5 million speicies of fungi. Two years later, the “The Evolution of Fungi Painting” was born. The detail on this 40 by 40 inch mandala divided into 5 equal sections each one for each phylum of the fungal kingdom, each phylum divided to showcase each subdivision is magnificent!
(I have linked to a time lapse video of Caro painting the “Evolution of Fungi” You will want to watch it to see all the detail of this work)
When I asked Caro Arevalo “why she paints?” her response was “I paint to remember.” For her the process of painting these biological processes helps her to understand, take in and deeply learn the material, through the muscle memory. By painting in this way Caro is really becoming one with nature and integrating the information into her being. Now whenever she wondering the forests and she stumbles upon “new” mushroom, it’s a matter of recalling its place on the painting.
Please enjoy this conversation between Caro Arevalo and myself
I asked Caro about her plant allies, whether there were specific plants she held near and dear. She talked about her love of Cacao (painted at the top left of her evolution of plants) which is Native to Northern South America, including Caro’s home Peru. Theobroma cacao is a tree in the Malvacea family, other common medicinals in this family include Marshmallow, Hibiscus, Linden and one of my own allies Cotton. The first time I met Cacao in person was when I was in Ecuador studying spiritual healing with Dr. Rocio Alarcon at the Iamoe Center which is located at the foothill of the Andes, where the mountains connect to the Amazon near the Yasuni National Park.
At the time the cacao trees were in flower and I was absolutely blown away by the beauty and delicacy of the orchid like flower, energetically so different than the cacao pods. The tree itself is an evergreen with shiny, leathery, egg-shaped leaves that start red and turn green. The young red leaves droop to deter herbivores and protect the buds. The beautiful pale pink flower is cauliflorous, meaning that the flowers grow in clusters directly from the trunk and large branches ( as seen in the photos above).
(other cauliflorous plants include jackfruit, tree fuchsia, papaya, and bilimbi). I couldn’t help wondering why had I never seen a photo of the cacao flower, why had no-one packaged a bar of chocolate with the beautiful image of her flower? A perfect gift chocolate and flowers!
I was soon to find out that chocolate and the beautiful flowers are not the only gift of the Cacao tree, the pulp is heavenly! juicy and sweet reminiscent of a tropical fruit, mango like, rich in antioxidants and minerals. The cacao fruit pulp covers the cacao beans, which are not sweet more bitter, resembling rich, dark chocolate in flavor.
Cacao is not only a delicious drink, but the beans contain the psychoactive ingredient “theobromine”, which translates to “food of the Gods”. Theobromine is a bitter alkaloid which has been shown to be mildly stimulating, giving you a burst of energy while improving focus as well as memory. I love to add a sprig of rosemary to my cup of cacao, integrating one of my ancestral allies. Cacao has been used as a medicine since ancient times to heal physical, mental and spiritual illnesses and has been shown to boost the immune system and lower cholesterol and blood pressure, Cacao also increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain as well as induces the release of endorphins and dopamine, (our feel-good hormones) leading to us being happier and more creative.
As with so many of the master plants we have commercialized the product to something which barely resembles the original gift, a cheap derivative. It is important to remember that cacao is a healing, ceremonial plant that needs to be used with honor and respect. I always struggle when publicly writing about a master plant from another culture because I don’t want to add to the misuse, commercialization or appropriation of the plant.
A cacao ceremony is an opportunity to connect to yourself and open your heart. Because of cacao’s ability to increase your connection to your inner self and your heart chakra, it aids in any transformational shift you are working towards, whether you are looking to deepen your understanding of who you are, release old patterns and traumas, or move into a more self-confident space. Whatever your path, the intention is yours to set, and the cacao allows you to the insight and awareness to move towards that goal. What a gift.
In the last missive Hillary Waters Fayle made reference to the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Hillary referenced the “Honorable Harvest” as an ethical guide to wildcrafting and today Caro addresses the important question “What does the Earth ask of us in return?” or as Robin Wall Kimmerer eloquently puts it '“when we ask ourselves, what is our responsibility to the Earth, we are also asking, “What is our gift?
. . . to remember?
Next year, in February of 2024, Lilian Jackman (friend, neighbor and regular morning coffee guest) of Wilderhill Gardens and Press) and I will be creating and curating a show, “Mind Memory and Mycelium” at the APE Gallery in Northampton MA, a women in the book arts show. I am unbelievable, and uncontrollably excited about it! (maybe we can talk Caro into joining us?) There will be a couple of ways in which other artists can participate - but more on that down the road. I mention it now because in preparation for the show I have been re-reading “Entangled Life; How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures” by Merlin Sheldrakes (which was initially one of my pandemic reads) and thinking more about memory and fungi, herbs and the mind and how its all so intricately connected, as John Muir once said “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
I cannot get the following paragraph on mycelium out of my head. . .
mycelium is “ecological connective tissue, the living seam by which much of the world is stitched into relation.” It consists of fine fungal strands called hyphae that lace through soil like blood vessels through flesh—and also “along coral reefs, through plant and animal bodies both alive and dead, in rubbish dumps, carpets, floorboards, old books in libraries, specks of house dust and in canvases of old master paintings.” In a teaspoon of soil, there might be 10km of hyphae; mushrooms are (literally) their fruit.” Merlin Sheldrake
Mycelium being the ecological connective tissue that which holds it all together. They are inside us and around us. They sustain us and all that we depend on.
Remember
We are all connected
Remember
All beings, including each one of us, enemy and friend alike, exist in patterns of mutuality, interconnectedness, co-responsibility and ultimately in unity.
Joan Halifax
This week I will be snail mailing all my paid subscribers a handmade mycelium zine with the above quote by Merlin Sheldrake, as well as a Cacao Heart Opening meditation based on HeartMath philosophy- click the subscribe now button to get in on the goodies.
Thank you to this weeks featured artist Caro Arevalo for sharing her artwork /images with us throughout this post. You can learn more about Caro Arevalo by checking out the following links
website: www.carolina-arevalo.com
shop: www.carolina-arevalo.com/shop
patreon: www.patreon.com/caroarevalo
youtube: www.youtube.com/cafeinacoli
instagram: www.instagram.com/caro.arevalo
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This week June 19th -June 24th 2023
*Friday June 23rd A Conversation on Nora Thompson Dean, (Lenape Teacher and Herbalist) with Joe Baker and Hadrien Coumans at the Morgan Museum and Library, NYC
* Sat June 24th 12-2pm Botanical Cyanotype class at the Ashfield MA Library Free (This program is supported in part by a grant from the Ashfield Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.)