Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Introduction: The following is a recounting of the work being done by an Animá lifeways student, enrolled in what is admittedly a grueling Mentorship process. Before progressing with who she wants to be and become, it felt crucial that she first re-explore herself, plumb her needs and vision fully, and let go of whatever no longer serves. The Animá Burden Basket Ceremony is intended for exactly that, not a mere ritual but an actual emptying of even the most vital things in our lives, positive and negative, followed by a conscious re-collection and reintegration of what best serves our authentic selves, feeds our passions and furthers our purpose. If you are interested, we can post a Burden Basket essay here… and in the next couple month an entire 8 week Burden Basket course will be available. Jenna is brave in her changes, and in sharing them here… and I feel certain would appreciate your support and comments here. -JWH

My Burden Basket Ceremony
by Jenna
Animá Shaman Path Student

With my husband recently deceased and my four children grown, married and looking for their own life adventures that bring them happiness, it is my time too to engage in a search — for a way to live my life that expresses my natural rhythms and talents and brings me joy! This quest has led me, in part, to the Animá Center and its Shaman Path, drawn to the Center by the important work being done there and the beauty of the magnificent Gila.

I began my first Burden Basket ceremony at the request of my mentor, Wolf Hardin, who gave me some ceremony materials to read. “Sure!” I thought. “I can do that.” The emptying of a burden basket sounded like fun and I enjoy ritual, so I set aside one whole week-end from Friday night to Monday morning to complete it. But, I discovered the ceremony to be far from fun for the first 48 hours! I kept very still in the beginning, ate little, drank tea, slept, and dreamed a lot. I waited quietly for stuff to come up, and up it came! More than I expected.

I cried a lot during my Burden Basket ceremony and eventually laughed some, too, and emerged more fully aware of the direction I want my life to go as well as what I want to take with me on the journey and what I want to leave behind.

Things I took out, and am leaving out of my basket:

Owning my house – Represents comfort, safety, privacy, peace…but, the payment is so high that I have to work 40 hours per week to pay for it, and really can’t enjoy it that much. Also, it is not in the area where I want to live…I want to step off the grid of suburban life. Plan to rent upstairs – mother-in-law – apartment from my kids if they move here, and sub-let it when I want to travel. This will also cut my payment in half, so I might be able to quit job and live on my husband’s Social Security (higher than mine).
Job – Definitely not what I want to be doing in this last half of my life…done with 9/5 life and doing work that does not tap into my passion and deepest creative urges. I do appreciate this job and the time it afforded me to help my husband die. It also gives me time to move into the next phase of my life without too much stress now that I know the processes of proposal writing. But, I am making plans now to leave this job through writing and alternative living arrangements besides home ownership.
Having to live close to my family – I will take this out and look at it with an objective eye. Other than a few people, I really don’t see that much of my other family except at birthday parties…which I am giving up completely. So, the idea that I have to live here is erroneous. I don’t see that much of the others due to our schedules, so I could visit them or they could visit me wherever I live.
Birthday parties – I spend way too much money on these (seems like we have two birthday parties every week-end), and am quitting the practice of giving everyone something monetary this year (I don’t even believe in that kind of consumerism!). I will try to make something of beauty for people, but if I can’t or don’t get the time, I will not feel guilty about it.
My negative feelings about my body – My body will respond to love greater than self-criticism. I do have a lovely body that has supported me through much in these 62 years, and for that I am grateful
Undervaluing Myself– This does not serve me in the least
Being the Selfless Mother – This does not serve either me or my kids. Being a loving mother who listens and offers helpful advice and help when possible and for the highest good for all concerned is acceptable, but I can not direct the course of my kids lives. I need to let them to work through their problems, using their own skills (which they do for the most part quite well…it is just my guilt that makes me think that I should always be jumping in there and trying to make things right for them).
Guilt – Ill serving 100 percent!
Time wasting – This must go…I have too much to accomplish in the next twenty years
Procrastinating – Goes along with time wasting. I am going to work diligently to do the things that I know must be done without waiting until the last minute…that causes undue stress in my life, and it is not good for my health.
Safety in the suburbs – This idea has to go…it is bullshit
Negative Head Talk
Victim Thinking
Eating out a lot
Catholicism/dogma – and the guilt, sinfulness, patriarchal spirituality, Big Cheese in the sky stuff that goes along with it
Being a “People Pleaser”
Aging fears – I’m getting older and into my elder years; that is a given…live it joyfully and gracefully as a Medicine Woman. It is living and loving fully each moment that matters…what lasts in the minds and hearts of others.
Staying indoors too much – Vow to get outside more in the coming years for my happiness and health
Living in my head too much – This has got to go!
Abandonment Issues – Working to shift direction of thinking from external to internal, self-love
D – Oh my…can’t believe D showed up. Let him go!
Resentments/Soap Opera View of Life

Things I put back into and choose to bear in my basket:

Maintain loving relationships – commitment to my children, family, close friends (some establish better boundaries with some), develop a wider circle of relations through volunteer work in the community and with the earth, water, air, animals
Caretaking of an elder friend– Help her granddaughters see through her aging and illness and help her transition into death
Healthy Lifestyle – This is something I want to commit to…exercise, fresh air, eating healthy foods, giving up coffee except one cup in the morning…Yoga and
Embracing Healthy Solitude in my life – I’m a relational person and do need people, but I need a level of solitude as well.
Honoring my natural rhythms – That means creating a certain amount of solitude, creative and relationship time – writing in the mornings, meditation, prayer, exercise, outside time, play and fun, volunteer work.
Moving through grief – I have been grieving the death of my husband and other losses in my life, and not enjoying my life as I normally do
Dream work
Need to find satisfying volunteer work – Satisfying, people centered work that I enjoy and can share with others – and hospital work at All Children’s Hospital…reading to the young children would be nice and something I’ve enjoyed in the past
Books/Reading – Yes and no. Always will keep books in my life, but will let go of using them to fill time.
Movies – Only a few (of the most meaningful and helpful)
Finish Culminating Project/Thesis – And turn it into a book!
Animá Path Mentoring – Love it so far.
Active in the “WomenBecoming” group – Yes, I’ve learned a lot from this group of women over the past six years, and have grown to love them.
The Synchronicity Forum – Still hosting for awhile, but I need to inform the group that I’ve turned it into a Creative Project, so they are off the hook for follow-up questionnaires and exit interviews
Sexuality – I hope to always express my sexuality healthily and with appropriate partners
Another relationship with a man – We’ll see…leaving it in the basket, but it will have to be the absolutely RIGHT relationship for me, and I’m not sure what that looks like at this time…no rush.
Need for Beauty – Yes. But it doesn’t have to be in the form of baubles…it can be the wild, something I’ve created, my lovely children and grandchildren, and acts of inner beauty.
Writing – That is one my joys and part of what I am committed to do
Stewardship of the land – I would like to learn this and take part in it with the folks at the Gila Canyon
Taking care of Casey (my dog) – It’s a contract to the end
Practicing Mindfulness – Have made a commitment to this in all areas of my life
Savoring life – Yes… and living on purpose with passion
Expressing my beliefs about US and Corporate Policies – Continue to send emails and letters to congress and companies like Monsanto to oppose war and other policies that are destroying the earth and peace on this planet
Charitable donations
Volunteering at Pet Pal Rescue
Grandmother Wisdom Sharing – with my own granddaughters and other young and adult women…dream sharing, synchronicity journaling, quilting, initiation and rituals around menses/motherhood/menopause and other transitional times in life
Self-love and Empowered Choice – Yes!
Telling the truth – even when it makes myself and others uncomfortable
Maintaining inner harmony – living with a feeling of well-being
Protecting my sacred space – maintaining healthy boundaries with family and friends
Nurture pleasures in life – swimming, dancing, music, art, quilting, playing
Sharing stories with others – for fun and healing
Forgiveness of self and others for mistakes of the past
Learn to trust my inner instincts and intuitions
Acknowledge my own and others feelings

I understand more fully since my Burden Basket ceremony how parts of my current lifestyle are in direct opposition to the harmonic lifestyle I alluded to in the beginning of this post, so those things had to be taken out of the basket… for instance, continuing to work merely for the cash.

I completed the ceremony as thoroughly as the time span would allow, but I now know that I could have devoted a much longer period of time to the process. I was just getting into the swing of it after two and a half days. Besides, I had waited so long to even look inside my basket that it had become laden with many things that no longer served my life. Now that I’ve experienced the Burden Basket ceremony, I know that it will never be done “once and for all.” It is a living part of me that is changing as I change and choose what I want to keep and what I want to discard in my life.

I have been thinking a lot about the process and trying to stay with the integrity of what I decided. The funny thing is that the birthday parties are currently the main issue…I really didn’t know how to tell my close, extended family that enough is enough. I’m not a “shopper” by nature, and we all have enough junk to last us a lifetime. So, I came up with a plan (right before the next b-day was to come up that week-end – as you can see, I have a LARGE extended family) to let everyone know that I will donate money to the birthday person’s favorite charity in their name (when and if that is feasible for me). That way, I get to make charitable donations to the organizations that need it and honor the person whose birthday it is. Luckily, my niece, whose birthday was the first birthday that came up after my decision, deferred to my judgment about where to donate. I got to choose Partners in Health – one of my Burden Basket choices to donate to for relief in Haiti – and give her something for her birthday in way that is in line with my own beliefs. I call that a win/win situation!

Thanks for sharing with me.

-Jenna

(To enroll in an Animá Lifeways or Herbal Correspondence Course, go to the Courses page of the website at www.animacenter.org)

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Please Download, Print & Share
THE NEW COLOR POSTERS

for the

TRADITIONS IN WESTERN HERBALISM CONFERENCE

Your help is kindly requested, sharing the new trifold brochures for the conference, and making time to put up some of the matching posters.  TWHC CoDirector Jesse Wolf Hardin spent nearly 20 hours designing and creating them, with his logo framed by a selection of his and my medicinal plant portraits.  The background earth-tones are from his photo of volcanic cliff-rock near the Animá Sanctuary, but was picked for its ability to evoke the earthen pastel tones of the beautiful hills surrounding the Ghost Ranch conference site.

Write us to request whatever number of brochures you can put to good use, ideally handed to herbal and health related business owners who may want to participate by sponsoring, vending or practicing there, or left in small piles in herbal stores that will agree to keep them out.  We can send you the files if you would like to print them off yourself, though you would need to know how to print on both sides.

The color posters come in 2 sizes, large 11×17 ones that we hope you can get store owners and health practitioners to commit to keep up in their windows or on their counter fronts from now until the event next September.  We will be selling these as art posters at the event, but will also be happy to give a signed copy as a gift to you along with however many copies for you to post in your region or on your travels.  The smaller version is 8.5X11, and is available either by writing us, or by downloading and then printing the linked poster file.

Ideal places for posting the large and small posters are herb stores, natural health stores, natural food stores, health practitioner waiting rooms, herbal and healing school foyers, university student union buildings, university medicine and botany building bulletin boards, and culturally conscious cafes.  Please don’t feel like you have to take on a load… if a goodly amount of you could commit to posting even 5 or 10 – and to checking back to make sure they stay up and aren’t covered over – that would be a huge contribution!

That so many people want to involve themselves and help, is essential to making this conference a success and to ensure their will be others in subsequent years.  It is also satisfying in itself, the connection we feel in this alliance of purpose.  Thank you dearly from us both.

Kiva Rose & Jesse Wolf Hardin
TWHC
Kiva(at)TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org
www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org

DOWNLOAD SMALL TWHC POSTER HERE

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You may have noticed the change in the Animá Blog banner, with the addition of the words “Nature Awareness, Healing & Rewilding Skills,” a line that will be added to the Animá website splash page as well as soon as limited time permits.  This description is meant to further define our work and in particular what is meant by the term “Lifeways.”  Lifeways are not vaporous ideas or lofty philosophy, but a way and means for connecting with the natural world and our own natural selves, tools of empowerment with practical application in the real everyday world.  Herbal and Awareness courses, for example are made up of not just information and exploratory questions but also extensive assignments for immediate useful application.  When we do our Wild Child course, it will be with hands-on techniques for empowering and growing our offspring and students, the ReWilding course a set of steps to becoming indigenous again, restoring the land as well as our natural beings and dreams.  Our earlier name change to “School” made clear our mission to teach, now at the onset it is made obvious that we are offering, and what we are all about.  Nature Awareness covers not only nature reconnection but using the awareness and lessons that the natural world provides, wild foods gathering and paleo diet, self sufficiency, self authority and activism, plant medicines and natural healing methods.  Skills for knowing, being, and especially doing….

This blog began as a means to share with a growing number of the wide-ranging Animá community, and it continues to accomplish that near as we can tell.  But these days it is increasingly serving to affirm, stir up and provide information to a widening swath of people from all walks of life.

We hope you like it.  Some of you have been with me since the initials to this project were “ESP” and my teachings mainly shared through esoteric, activist oriented “Medicine Show” concerts, and it hopefully feels good to have been a part of and reason for the transformation and growth.  Personal thanks to Kiva for facilitating so much of the valuable shifts in organization, language and packaging, making Animá all the more accessible and effective, and to Resolute and our Supporters for doing so much to make each step possible.  And thank you from the bottom of my heart to our students and readers, for being a part of the work and blessings, inperterbable principles and organic changes of this evolving mission and purpose.

Love and Blessings, Wolf & All

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Depths:
Affirmation River, & Mountain-Style

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

www.animacenter.org

After a series of eastward-blowing storms, it’s been brilliantly sunny again.  Besides the pleasant warming ambiance, it has meant the ritual snowmelt, with the quickly saturated ground giving up its overflow in a convulsion of water.  Migrating in sheets off the steep cliffs and mountains, it breaks up into liquid fingers gurgling down parallel gullies, then plummets from the ledges in 2 feet, 6 feet, or 100 feet drops.  No matter their individual mini-headwaters, their destination is the same, gravity combining with earth’s ecosophic purpose to feed a quickly swelling river.

Quickly, I say, sometimes rising from a foot deep to over 20 feet deep, and from gently moving at a relaxed pace to madly rushing like a herd of bison stampeded by lightning.  Today the Sweet Medicine River varied from 3 to 5 feet depending on its width, as well as on the holes scooped out by the swirling force of eddies.  At such times it would be reasonable and perhaps even wise to stay at home here, in wood heated cabins perched far above all but the most biblical flood heights.  Reasonable, however, does not determine my actions when there is a cause to be championed, an innocent to be defended, a mission to be furthered… mail to be mailed, or cream, butter and treats for the gals to be got.

The adventure begins with taking off my pants and shirt and rolling them up, then holding the bundle of boots, clothes and outgoing mail above my head while stepping off into cloudy swirling waters where I can’t see the bottom.  From the second I touch bottom on sucking sand or bruising rock, the current pushes me hard down the canyon and to the southwest and Arizona and Mexico when I need to remain determinedly pointed to the east.  To compensate I set off 30 yards upriver from my preferred landing spot on the opposite bank, then bounce across in leaps that give in equal proportions to the diverging directions of man and river.

I’m very warm blooded, but snowmelt anywhere above the thighs is stunning to say the least, a jolt that arrests all thought even as it so loudly reminds me through every sense that I am alive.  Getting out onto largely muddy ground with clean feet is a trick best accomplished by holding onto railings of exposed Alder roots, and then squatting and dressing in atop its foundation of shore-clutching arms.  The climb to the waiting vehicle starts out at a 30 degree incline, and any thought of being cold is gone within the first third of the ascent.  Sitting for hours writing articles, books and emails is poor exercise and preparation, and my legs begin to complain.  When I was in my 20’s, I made it a practice to run as fast as I could without stopping for the entire 2 mile climb, carrying a pebble in my mouth because I had read the Apache ensured breathing through their noses that way, causing greater stamina.  Now I considered a satisfactory feat just to be able to scramble up its sides on deer trails that for a deer would be a relaxed pace.  And while the snow lay only in patches at the bottom of the canyon, with the first 500 feet of elevation increase the snow had thickened to a 18 inches or more, obliterating any sign of the winding way up.  With familiar landmarks draped or obscured and the ground appearing but a single precipitous angle, I was likely seldom if ever actually a trail, making headway by thrusting the sides of my boots into the snow for each step, and proceeding more sideways than forward myself.

Increasingly aching legs and ever more slippery and indecipherable terrain inspired even greater attention to each committed step.  A slip could mean plummeting at breakneck speeds checked only by collisions of flesh against bark, careening pinball style off one ponderosa tree after another.  The Winter is found no less lovely by the trekker, knowing that growing stiff and weary, or stopping and taking too long of a rest could mean never getting back up again.  There is only continuing as an option for life, as it is with all life forms empowered by this force and will to live, the anima.  And less dramatically, there is never any stopping and giving up for me.  Older and less exercised limbs showed no sign of giving out, but only signs of continuing to give their all.  In fact, the aching actually eased for the most part at the point when the climb was most difficult, and in that I found great encouragement.

The microclimate shifted with each few hundred feet of ascent, such that near the 7000 feet level I found myself walking into a cloud, a strata of airborne strata so pronounced that for a moment I could see my boot clearly while everything at head height was covered by mist.  Like the entrance to Avalon, all magic seems to be veiled for protection by a cloud of unknowing.  But for me then, it was a knowing instead, the knowledge that once in the cloud I was essentially at the mountain’s top and a waiting snow-tucked vehicle.  As always, the cream in our coffee will be made all the more enjoyable by the means through which it was obtained.  The books sent out will have an extra story to go with them, recounting their untypical journey.  And the where and why of our lives is yet again reaffirmed, not by the ease of our admitted paradise but by what we are willing to do for and because of it.  Affirmed mountain and river-style, instead of through its vista and sparkle we come to know its measure by its depth.

(Post and share freely.  Photos (c)2010 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

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Intro: Our Animá school is situated in isolated Catron County, New Mexico, only 2 percent private land and a populous nationally famous for their their anti-government, libertarian, and sadly but understandably anti-environmentalist views.  Even as they have embraced a tree hugging ex-biker philosopher named “Wolf” as their own, they are terrified of the real wolf introduction program and angry over the ways the program has been operated.  For all its twists and complexities, we are very fortunate to live in a place where individual liberty is a paramount value, wide open spaces treasured, wild food eaten, medicinal herbs appreciated, gardens grown and human bonds strengthened.  Folks jump to help us and each other, and are disappointed if we don’t stop to visit.  If you ever make the trip here you will expect to see the disparaging sign about spotted owls in our landmark Uncle Bill’s Bar, but you may be surprised at the friendly greetings of folks walking or driving your way.  There is a reason why I may be calling my upcoming “straight shot” book of rural humor and land based insights “The Town That Waves.”  This will likely be its opening chapter.  -JWH

The Town That Waves

by Jesse Hardin

I will never forget rolling into my home country for the very first time, awestruck by the sheer physical beauty, giddy with excitement as Sonoran desert gave way to vast stretches of piñon-juniper, then into thick stands of ponderosa pine bearded with dangling usnea.  The continental divide.  The exposed cliffs near the village of Aragon, with that inviting cave within sight of the road.  The bright green meadows fed by generous springs, the twist of the Tularosa river, the view to the north of the Frisco box.  Elk feeding at the edge of the pavement.  Bald eagles circling.  A fox dashing for cover at the sound of my engine.  The vast distances seemed to cast a spell on me, soothing my beastly youthful impatience.  And the land… the land felt animate with the ghosts of the past, its human and natural history somehow still alive for us to sense, learn from, and give thanks for.  Call it the presence of God if you will – or call it the power of the Great Spirit as previous generations of awestruck natives did – but the land seemed to me then and still seems to reflect, embody and vibrate with a divine force, appearing magical even to a hardened modern mind.  The closer I got to what would become my lifetime home, the closer I felt to heaven.  Blooming wildflowers and a buoyant northeastern wind worked in consort together, easing me into a timeless state of mind steeped in reverie on that long, long drive.

I was amazed on that fortuitous initial visit, however, not just by the landscape but also the people.  First, that there were so very few of them, with me seeing only a handful of trucks in the final one hundred and thirty miles.  And second, amazed that the drivers waved as they passed by!

I don’t think that a roadside iguana race hosted by hula dancers would have have been any greater a surprise to the 23 year old me.  Having been a teen runaway in the harder neighborhoods of several cities, I’d grown to expect a “dirty finger” flipped in my direction, or an occasional beer bottle being tossed at me by someone with an aversion for “long-hairs” or chopped motorcycles.  And even in the nicer parts of town, I could expect stiff indifference, pedestrians as well as drivers understandably going by without making eye contact, with me largely anonymous and irrelevant to them.  But waving?  I was dumbfounded.  Nonplussed.  Flabbergasted.  And I might add, deeply touched.

For the first few weeks here I felt guilty, like an impostor, worried that they were confusing my vehicle for someone else’s they knew.  Surely if those folks realized I wasn’t a local, they’d resent the effort.  And up until then I still preferred being ignored to being resented.  But that’s all changed in the decades since, and it’s gotten to where I’d rather be actively disliked than ingloriously ignored.  At this stage, I only feel guilty if I get so distracted with changing the music on the stereo that I fail to wave back.

For all those who wave, needless to say, I’ve noticed there are a few who never do.  These include the occasional stockman, too John Wayne-like stoic to do anything so ostentatious and undignified.  The nearly blind, who drive ten miles an hour and can barely see the yellow lines, let alone make out a raised hand behind the glare of an opposing windshield.  The teens scarcely old enough for a license, who are characteristically way too cool for such things.  And those who are both extremely old and stubbornly willful, working with white-knuckled determination to keep their thirty year old pickups on the road, justifiably afraid to take either hand off the wheel even for a second.

The above are the exceptions, while the majority of my community faithfully continue with this valued practice, going through the motions because we care.  Being a county of individualists, however, no two of these waves are exactly alike.  The personal variations demonstrate both the degree of emotional investment and the current mood of the waver, such as:  A single pointer finger lifted.  The same finger lifted, but wagged.  Two fingers doing the same.  The whole palm lifted, with the heel still on the wheel.  An entire hand raised and held still in the air, like pinto pony-riding Plains Indians meeting up in a flat stretch of buffalo grass.  The whole hand raised and waved back and forth, like a bobbing dashboard hula-dancer.  And there is both hands momentarily off the wheel, flapping wildly in the air because the driver happens to be truly excited to see you.

Such waves are about bonding, affirmation and membership in a way, about being genuinely pleased the other fellow is out on such a good day to be alive!  About fellow county residents sharing a common place and history, and a number of values and hopes.  But the wave is also about recognizing each other as fellow human critters only temporarily boxed up in ironclad machines on wheels, no matter our fellow driver’s place of origin… as sister and brethren sharecroppers working in a fractured economic system, breathing the same air, struggling with the same issues of growing up or parenting, of aging and health.  The same prostituted politicians and freedom-robbing legislation.  And similar purpose and belief, hardship and hope.

That said, my rural neighbors and I aren’t any too bothered if some tourist or house hunter motors by without giving us the courtesy of waving back.  We understand.  He or she just doesn’t know any better yet.

(Post and forward freely)

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When the familiar and welcome sun came back out, our batteries were so low that the panels surged to 34 amps and freaked out our charge controller.  As of last night we had already stored enough juice to be back up to 80 percent.  While dealing with the natural ebb and flow of electricity here in the canyon, we had no idea that the entire county had been suffering an outage for 4 whole days, with gas stations shut down and only the clinic, courthouse and little grocery store running on generators.  It was a reminder of how fragile even “self sufficient” minded communities are, large or small, that a storm-dropped tower can render it helpless, with houses unlilt, cars parked for lack of fuel.  And it was encouraging, to realize again not only how blessed – but how truly possible – it is to depend on oneself and alternate technologies instead of on a system that makes us dependent.

Today I walk out, wading the thigh deep ice melt river to get to Resolute’s Owl Rover vehicle and on into town for vittles and mail.  For the first 3 years I was here I walked the entire 10 miles to the village, so these days a short walk to a warm car due to washed out crossings seems like nothing but a minor adventure and opportunity to trade hours on the laptop for awakened senses, a gratified heart and chilled feet.  I start by following the rabbit tracks in the snow, bounding as best I can through the entrance to life’s Wonderland.

Whatever your own adventures today, we hope you make sure they serve you as well.

-Wolf

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Preface: Thank you for the dozen requests for my recent piece on the topic of authority.  I hesitated to run it here only because it was written in the intemperate tone I relax into when writing from a rural or general audience, rather than the less expletive ridden and hopefully more professional tone and language of our Animá articles and books.  I would like it if you not only learned and were inspired by the following, but if you were to enjoy it as well.  -JWH

Because It’s Good For You:
Insurgent Thoughts On Authority, Certification & Law

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

My advice is not to trust all authority, but to find the authority in ourselves
to know who and what to trust!

“Because I told you so!” was the answer I often got as a youngster, when – from parents and teachers alike – I’d routinely ask the reasons for what it was I was being told to do.  If the adults in charge had simply explained the reasoning behind the order, custom, protocol,  tradition or rule, there’s a chance I would have a considered it the beneficial and honorable thing to do.  But telling me “because I told you so” is like saying “because I’m bigger than you,” “older than you,” “better connected than you,” or “better armed than you.”  This is the limited reasoning and self justification of bullies, whether it be an expansionist empire or playground antagonists.  Having such advantages might mean that they can make us do something, but that doesn’t mean it’s right to force us to bend or conform, nor does it mean that the ways they want us to behave are necessarily good or just for us, the human spirit, the things we cherish or the larger world.  I wouldn’t buy it back then, I’m not buying it now.  I would have much preferred the exhortations of the wise and caring mother, the caretaker, the healer: “Because it’s good for you!”  And even then, I would have wanted to know exactly why, how, and under what circumstances and amounts any medicine or course of action might be best for me.

I was willing to heed, but not heel.  And what I most readily heeded was counsel and direction from people who clearly knew more than me, who were more experienced and appeared to have grown or learned something from their experiences, who acted out of a deep sense of caring and strong set of principles, with allegiance to truth and to justice.  As a teen runaway, I took advice from old bikers on which year Harley-Davidsons had the coolest ride, and I had no objection to coming to a stop when ordered to by a life-saving traffic cop.  I kept the counsel of well meaning hobos who had “been around the block,” trading normalcy and security for a life of minor privation and immense freedom.  I took to heart the lecture of a drawling rural Sheriff who kindly counseled me not to do stupid illegal things I didn’t even believe in, and from a confirmed outlaw who talked about it being just as important to break those laws that we know to be “wrong-headed” or unconstitutional.

That I could respect and listen to individuals on both sides of the law, is an indication of how little significance I placed on costume and insignia.  Then as now, I couldn’t understand the military expression “salute the uniform, not the man.”  A person who was worthy of being respected, listened to and followed seems just as worthy to me whether out of uniform, off duty, retired or fired!   Conversely, those unwise or unworthy in character remain ignorant and unworthy regardless of what official clothing they might don, or what agency or administration finances and directs them.  And just because something is either mandated or banned in one of the hundreds of thousands of laws that govern every aspect of our civilized lives, doesn’t make it right… nor make it honorable for us to obey.

Authority is simply not something that a government or agency can give someone.  Genuine authority cannot be “vested” as they say, it can only be earned.  And because it has to be earned, it can also be undermined through unfair application, squandered away on superfluous regulation, and overturned if based on or upheld by false premise and manipulative lies.  It’s not authority without the weight of truth, it is only base imposition and oppression.  And the problem with exercising power over someone or something, is that it only works so long as enough pressure can be put on.  Somewhere, sooner or later there is a break, a lapse or loophole through which not only truth and liberty but all kinds of trouble can arise.  The wife-abuser is only really in control until he falls asleep, as a number of angry men have found out to their horror.  The schoolyard bully can hold you down with a head-lock for only just so long, the second he stops to rest there’s nothing except possibly fear or self doubt to prevent you from retaliating or remedying.

If there is authority in a truth, standard or directive, it retains its influence without mandates, manipulation and control.  It rings true when we are alone and our acts unwitnessed, as surely as when we are being closely monitored or working under the gun.  When such is the case, we do not need the force of law to rein in our actions nor compel us to act.  As herbalists, it isn’t certification that determines how effective we are, it’s our actions, means and results, and government inspection of plant medicines will never be the reason why we seek to use the finest quality and teach the safest methods and amounts.

We’re unlikely to ravage and steal even though no one is watching and there may be no price to be paid, if we feel deeply that rape or theft are wrong.  And hopefully, we don’t obediently toe the line, surrender our rights and liberties, compromise our beliefs and march to the orders of the established powers… just because they happen to control the military and the most awesome weapons ever developed, will soon have video surveillance cameras on every street corner, have planted informants among every activist group and provocateurs in every citizen militia, wield a court system that functions to protect the elite and punish the independent, can count on the connivance of “new world order” strategists and the support of multinational financiers, and have made the building of new jails and penitentiaries the fasting growing industry in America.  I agree with the prickly ex-Colonel in the movie Legends of the Fall, and his feelings regarding this nation’s ruling administration and its morally compromised minions: “Screw ‘em,” he said in a voice slurred by a powerful but obviously not debilitating stroke. “Screw ’em!”

The origin of the word “authority” is from the Latin auctoritas, from the word auctor which means both “originator” and “promoter.”  Our authority is our ability to affect and influence, as parents and teachers, craftspeople and gardeners, artists and healers.  It is a result of what we put forward and promote, and as such, it can only originate with us.

———–

(Share and post liberally.  To learn more, go to the Writings and Correspondence Course pages of the Animá School website at: www.animacenter.org)

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Since I last posted, a second and third storms did indeed come through, one of the few times that the internet weather reports have been right for this area.  Perhaps it is the remoteness and thus economic irrelevance of this area that results in the scant nearby data and poor forecasts, and at times we know it is the canyon’s micro-climate, as there can be storms all around us with an eye of blue above us.  Not this time however, with each subsequent front coming through on barreling winds that shook the house like a toy in a cat’s mouth.  There has been many instances of my regretting how well I nail things together, the often bent-over nails making renovation difficult, but at such times we are all amply glad that the humble little pine board cabins are so securely held together.

Judging by the snow sticking on the roof, we got over four inches of fluff the second storm, and a good 6″ on the third go-through.  The rain barrels were quickly filled, along with the outdoor tub, making us wish we had more food-grade barrels, or at least more heavy duty rubbermaid can that can be used to hold the precious fluid.  Given the increasing periods of doubt, saving the bounty of the storm events will be ever more important.  We have long though about getting a very large container and using a 12 volt solar powered pump to move water into it, but the fact that a first flush is ashy and for washing, and additional flushes for drinking, requires a system of smaller containers that can be rotated, as well as easily accessed and cleaned.

The second storm was as much cold rain as anything else.  And thus, yesterday we awoke to the sound of a river, choppy with whitecaps, overspilling its banks.  But by last night it was already back down to thigh deep at the deepest, since there was no store of previous snowpack to be melted by the rain and sleet deluge.

Rhiannon was already sledding when I got up early this morning, knowing that impending blue skies would quickly melt her boon.  Sure enough, a few hours of even Wintertime New Mexico sun was enough to strip the trees of the piles of white briefly held there.  I did get these photos for you before it was gone, proof that we know what the stuff is even if – unlike the Eskimos with their dozens of word for snow – we have can find only one word for it: amazing.

It doesn’t take long to miss the sun, however, for its warmth, the way it cheers and emboldens us, and the vital electricity that it puts into our solar system, converting brightness to power the satellite internet that this school and its projects depend on, the writing we do, and the music that we listen to and our inspired by as we write and do our other tasks.  In the 4 days of thick cloud cover, we ran the large bank of batteries down into the “red,” but were still able to power up long enough to download and send off emails, and never lacked for lights at night thanks to the energy efficient LED bulbs in the cabins.  It wasn’t possible to run a high-drain appliance like the coffee grinder, so Loba and Rhiannon ground my treasured Ehtiopian beans with an ancient stone mano and metate I discovered when I first moved to this Mogollon village site so many years ago.

Students can expect to get more lessons back in the coming weeks, with us getting close to caught up with all the Animá conference and other project needs.  Kiva is close to releasing the first of her Animá Herbal Tradition correspondence courses, on herbal energetics.  And I have kept up with magazine article deadlines, while putting together a full color 11×17 Traditions in Western Herbalism poster that we will introduce here in a few days.  Hope you love it…  The conference has turned into a huge project, but with the help of Resolute, Rosalee and our other motivated volunteers, we will make this miracle happen.

I’ve been asked to post my latest column for general audiences, on the topic of authority… and resistance to others having authority over us.  I hesitate to run too many non-Animá specific pieces, but may share it here if sufficiently provoked.

Everyone sends their best, on this truly lovely January day.

Love, Wolf   (www.animacenter.org)

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A snowy greeting to you all, from a canyon finally fully blanketed in fluffy white.  While other parts of the country were reporting freezing weather, we were enjoying warm sunny afternoons and worrying if the land would get the moisture it needs this Winter.  Then a few days ago a front moved in on powerful winds, rain and sleet at first accompanied by deep muffled thunder such as we usually only hear in the Summer.  A day of mixed sun, and then a second storm hit. This time the winds have been slight and clouds a heavy dusky gray, and we awoke to 3 inches on the ground and more steadily falling.  Being light and relatively dry, Rhiannon has found it perfect for both sledding and making bizarre Calvin and Hobbes inspired snowmen.  I cannot hardly slip out of the cabin without getting nailed by an increasingly accurate barrage of otter-tossed snowballs.

No power for the batteries of course, so we are only turning on the satellite internet for long enough to download and send off.  This makes it impossible for us to do the vendor and sponsor research that we need to be helping with, as Rosalee and our volunteers work hard to cover all the geographical areas.  Arizona, in particular, needs more attention and outreach, and hopefully we will have sun by the weekend in order to get on it.  No internet means Kiva has fewer competing tasks bugging for her attention, and can switch for a day or two to long waiting herbal consultations, her first herbal 8 week correspondence courses, and her Animá herbal book.  Apologies if we prove slower to respond to emails this week.

Today I will be working with our daughter to create a historical timeline, to give her perspective on the flow and patterns of human and natural events.  She is very anxious!  Somehow I must also meet immediate magazine deadlines, reply to students, and begin planning the conference posters before driving Loba to town in our street legal Jeep.  The offroad jeep, raised and snorkeled, is unfortunately in the shop waiting for a thousand dollars worth of repair to its water damaged rear end.  Loba would as always, prefer to stay home… but she was enticed to make the trip by renowned herbalist Susun Weed for an interview on Susun’s acclaimed women’s radio show.  The interview will be on the subject of rewilding, sense of place, and the connective power of voice and song.  We will provide a link for you to hear it as soon as it is released.

Thank you for the continuing stream of letters of support and love, and especially for the recent gifts and donations which are keeping us going and encouraging our efforts.

We are happy to be here for you.

-Wolf

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Skepticism and Hope

A Reason To Feel Encouraged by the Latest Negative Polls

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

As someone who has witnessed again and again the miracles of nature and potential for extraordinary human feats, I am not inclined to be a skeptic.  I do, however, like to expose harmful illusions and challenge manipulative lies.  And in the face of a climate of increasing unquestioning acceptance, adherence and obedience, I’ve actually come to find reasons for hope in periodic eruptions of skepticism among the general population.

For example, I periodically read various accredited national polls, in an attempt to gauge the mood and test the knowledge my fellow citizens.  It can be unsettling, realizing how little most voters know about the issues they help decide, or about the legislation their elected officials sign into law.  I am most alarmed, however, not when there is great fractiousness and diverse opinion, but when a uninformed consensus forms in blind allegiance to dated illusions, or else in knee-jerk reaction to unexpected situations.  Any President getting an 85% approval rating exposes a degree of self serving delusion that bodes poorly for any nation.  And we need to beware any constituency we ever see lock-stepped in near 100% agreement.

It is encouraging to me, on the other hand, whenever both doubts and expectations are reported on the rise, and the poll numbers again indicate a taste of reality if not genuine sober reflection… that it’s just possible we may may as a nation not be as easily fooled as the bulk of evidence would seem to indicate.  I actually found this week’s reported low appraisals reassuring in a twisted sort of way, with folks starting to act like auction goers who too recently thought they’d bought themselves a priceless antique and then finally discovered it was a fake.  People surveyed gave the floundering Republican party a dismal 26% approval rating, while the bankrupting, over-legislating Democrats did only a little better at 39%.  Both earned a failing grade, it should be pointed out, by the standards of even the least demanding school board.

And this at least temporary holding-to-task didn’t end with elected leaders.  In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released a few days later, I was relieved to see that a mere 17% of us trust the health insurance companies.  Only 65% of us reported that they could trust our government to do the right thing even “some of the time,” while 11% reported “never!”  Only 39% have any confidence in the Supreme Court of the land, 24% in the Federal Reserve and 19% in the U.S. Treasury.  The ignoble winner turns out to be the U.S. Congress, with only 15% of respondents trusting their Senators and Congressmen as far as they can throw them.

Not to be outdone, I have conducted a little poll myself, drawn not from anything like a fair cross section of the population but from the thoughtful, heartful, sensitive, radical, passionate, self motivated, questioning, un-bought, tree hugging, adventure taking, home schooling, medicine making, chicken feeding, wild foods gathering, cage rattling, garden tilling, song singing types with whom I have the privilege of mainly dealing with.  I’m pleased to report that only a very few believe in the lies handed out by the powers-that-be or the lap-dog media, and that the 3 or 4% who do, do so not out of obedience but a deep need to imagine the best in everything and everybody.  The folks I know consistently rate the dominant cultural paradigm low, with no gold stars for either low morality wars or half fought efforts.  Less than 5% trust what they read in the papers, the slant that school textbooks put on world events, or the purity and sanctity of a majority of official religious leaders.  And it can be said that only the same incredibly low number have any confidence at all in lawyers or legislators, recent vehicle quality or modern product warranties, advertising claims or flu vaccines, carbon credit programs or weight loss plans, in government action on global warming, tax fairness or hair restoration.

Likewise, a high percentage of these confidants value the very things that modernist techno-culture obscures and the powers-that-be threaten.  As with all polls, the replies would depend on how I phrased the question, but even at that, the folks I know are special and a good portion of them would be certain to come out in support of personal liberties and individual responsibility, at a cost to so called “security.”  Of privacy, as well as the right to express ourselves, and of justice for all just as the Constitution says.  Of the sanctity of home and family, the importance of regional governance, the vital nature of community, and the protection of nature.  Of not just less pavement but more trees, breathable air, drinkable water, habitat for more than simply the human species.  Support of more natural health care, and healthier-lived lives.  Of the old ways and land based traditions, and a lifestyle more conducive to our own truths.  Of more truly precious time with our loved ones, and for a world with both more truth, more courage, and more love.  Of those challenges that inform us.  Of the struggles that strengthen.  And support of any opportunities to distinguish ourselves, tend who and what we most care about, to serve a larger purpose or calling, or to simply savor the awakened moment.

It remains a positive thing, nonetheless, that there will always be a small percentage among my students, friends and readers who insistently think and do the opposite, who buck even what I know in the very marrow of my bones to be right and healthful… who through either rampant optimism, deep generosity, fool hardy acceptance or simple downright obstinacy ensure that I – unlike various corporations and despots, gurus and dogmatists – will never have to suffer from the uniformity and ignobility of unthinking agreement.

(to learn of the ways and practices of Animá, consider an engaging online 8 Week Course, possibly beginning with Orientation, Principles & Pitfalls: www.animacenter.org)

(please do post and share freely!)

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