Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Intro: The following is an article appearing in the Sept. issue of Northern Arizona’s much loved culture and entertainment paper “The Noise.”  Adroit author Sarah interviewed Wolf and myself for this lengthy article on folk herbalism, Wolf’s powerful new novel The Medicine Bear, and the 2012 Medicine of The People conference Sept. 13-16…. meant to inspire people of all ages and cultures, far beyond the hard core herbalist community.  Thank you Sarah!  And thank you friends… for reposting and sharing. –Kiva

MEDICINE OF THE PEOPLE – BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE
The International Herbal Resurgence Learns and Celebrates In Arizona

by Sarah SuperNova

“To Omen, they were not just wondrous sunshine-eating entities, without whom humans and most of the life on Earth would die. Plants were proof of miracles, and reason for hope.  The inspiration for a good and balanced life, and examples of how to live it.  They were her ever growing, ever reaching truth.  They were the medicine she would need.” (Excerpt from The Medicine Bear by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

It’s nice to think it all began with a dream or a vision, but more likely than not, it began with providing a solution to a problem.  The world is full of so-called problems, and, thanks to healers of all sorts, the world is also full of solutions.  The particular solution in question here is this: medicine for the people.

In the mid-1990s, for a variety of reasons, a once-thriving community of herbalists began seeing a decline.  Herbal medicine – and the informed and practiced people who put the plants to use – were in trouble.  Plant medicine schools were losing students and many herbal conferences were closing down as large corporations began to enter the world of selling herbal supplements.  Jesse Wolf Hardin, author, plant lover, and co-founder of Herbal Resurgence, formerly the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference (TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org), recounts: “We’d witnessed political infightings and been saddened by what was often an air of conformity, resignation and even quiet desperation in what should by all rights have been a practice and community that brings great joy.”  So Jesse, and his partner, Kiva Rose, an herbalist of both traditional folk and modern clinical pedigrees, decided to launch the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference (TWHC) in order to, in Jesse’s own words: “assist in the reinvigoration of the ‘people’s medicine.’ Our major focus is on making herbal knowledge available to everyone in these times of increasing government regulation and corporate monopoly.”

2012 marks the 3rd year of the event, which runs from September 13-16, and takes place at Mormon Lake, near Flagstaff.  In previous years, the conference was held at Ghost Ranch in New Mexicom but what’s now called Herbal Resurgence – Medicine Of The People , By The People, For The People – quickly outgrew that venue and Jesse and Kiva found just what they were looking for right here in Arizona.  Jesse explains: “We were won over by Mormon Lake’s old timey cabins and classrooms, its rustic yet comfy facilities, and more than anything else, its lush landscape and the awesome nature trails leading in every direction from the site.”  The conference site is nestled in a vast conifer forest, featuring incredible local plant diversity, much of which is quite similar to the plants of their home at the Anima Sanctuary (AnimaCenter.org/site), just over the New Mexico border, east of Springerville.  He and Kiva live in what he describes as a “restored riparian wilderness, and a botanical and wildlife sanctuary, seven river crossings and several bends of the canyon from the nearest pavement.”  It’s the perfect place to forage for native foods and medicines and deepen ones study of what is freely offered by the land.

This conference focuses on Western herbalism because, although Eastern systems such as Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine are highly regarded and quite beneficial, focus on those exotic traditions has led to a neglect of herbal systems native to our own continent and bioregion, causing people to ignore plant medicines that often grow right beneath our feet.

And what is “folk herbalism” anyway? Strictly speaking, it refers to non-professionals using handed-down knowledge to treat illness.  But, Kiva believes that, realistically, folk herbalism is “any practice not currently recognized as valid, acceptable, or popular by conventional medicine and mainstream culture.”  In the United States, that means just about every herbal practitioner, professional or not.  Therefore, this revival of interest in folk herbalism stems from a pure desire that healing with plants be by the people, and for the people.  Kiva thinks everyone has a right to “sustainable, inexpensive remedies that actually work, without worrying about academic theories or even government endorsement.”

Jesse has noticed, with much excitement, that the demographics of people interested in herbalism has been rapidly expanding.  “It’s no longer just turtle-necked ‘health nuts’ or New Agers that show up, but rather, moms and pops, college students, street kids and the elderly who are literally sick of the pharmaceuticals that regular doctors routinely prescribe.  There is a new and rising wave of herbalists of all ages, insistent on learning the old ways and the new twists.”  Herbal Resurgence attracts esteemed clinical PhD’s as well as excited novice herbalists.  There is something for everyone, including classes especially for children and teens.  Most of the classes will be taught in a lecture format, but there will be plenty of hands-on medicine making, and plant identification walks along the trails surrounding Mormon Lake.  And the conference is not all about study; there will be time for fun too!  Evening concerts feature Arizona’s own Big Daddy D & the Dynamites, and from Los Angeles, the very danceable gypsy rockers AK & her Kalashnikovs.

Speakers include big names in herbalism like Matthew Wood and Paul Bergner, with class topics ranging from the clinical, like Musculoskeletal Health and Clinical Skills, to the esoteric, like The Heart as an Organ of Perception.  Sean Donahue will speak about entheogens in the treatment of trauma, and curandero Charles Garcia will speak on death and dying for caregivers.  Other topics include disaster preparedness, aphrodisiacs, discerning plant properties by taste, roots midwifery, and social and political activism among herbalists.  The list of classes is long and inspiring, and can be found on the Herbal Resurgence website.  This is truly a special event!  Check the website for camping details for out-of-towners; for locals, day passes will be available at the gate.

There is much to learn from the constantly growing and changing world of nature.  Among wise herbalists and responsible wildcrafters, there is a general philosophy that requires inner and outer silence while gathering herbs and plant material.  One must quietly be with the plant for a time, and not simply rush in and start hacking away.  Part of this contemplative slowness is to feel the energetic quality of the plant, and express gratitude.  Jesse clarifies: “We recognize its [the plant’s] needs, as well as its gifts, honor, and integrity.  If and when we harvest or snip from its limbs, we do not ask permission to cause it pain or take its life, but rather, we acknowledge that it feels pain and has a desire to live and thrive…and then give thanks.”

And plant medicines affect us not only physiologically, but energetically as well.  Jesse explains: “Plants have been given credit for contributing to a spiritual sense of interconnectedness, or ‘oneness,’ the sense of accessing a transglobal body of collected terrestrial wisdom.”  And the spiritual and energetic medicine of plants can change our lives.  “Herbs are an affordable way to manage our own health,” Jesse states, “and they can also lead to realizations that are deeply personal, emotional, even spiritual, and inspire us to make lifestyle changes that result in us becoming more self-sufficient, as well as healthy.”

Together, Jesse and Kiva publish Plant Healer Magazine (PlantHealerMagazine.com), a quarterly journal of the folk herbalism resurgence, featuring articles and artwork by leading herbalists in the field.  This comes from their passion for the plants, and their usefulness on all levels: that they are nourishing, medicinal, oxygen producing, and beautiful.  “And we teach that it is personal familiarity and deep intimacy with the herbs that can make us more intuitive and effective herbal consumers and practitioners,” Jesse expounds.

Kiva has been interested in plants and their medicines since early childhood, learning about gardening and wild food foraging from her mother.  Her decision to follow herbalism as a life path was inspired by reading Michael Moore’s Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West.  “From there on out,” she says, “it’s been constant study and immersion in botany, botanical medicine, physiology, and the history of our healing traditions.”  Kiva reiterates that although not everyone may choose herbalism as an occupation, everybody “can benefit from the empowerment and usefulness of foundational plant-based self-care.”  Herbal medicine is democratic, freely given by the Earth, and truly a medicine for the people.  “The more that we learn and teach,” she continues, “the greater the reclamation of our natural human heritage, the vital threads tying us to place, plants, and the healing of ourselves and our world.”

One of Kiva’s herbal passions is what she calls “weedwifery.”  In disturbed lands all over the world, plants we call “weeds” prevail, and with good reason!  Weeds are the tough, resilient pioneer species that populate disturbed soil and prepare it for future, more long-term plants.  And in the meantime, these weeds provide us with a great deal of food and medicine.  For her, the common, generally ignored plants can be just as important as the exotic ones that are harder to come by.  Kiva speaks more about this on her own website (BearMedicineHerbals.com).

Jesse’s intimate relationship with plants began as a child, though he grew up in the suburbs.  He had always been drawn to the authenticity of the natural world, “it’s diversity and oddness, enchantedness and eloquence,” as he proclaims.  He was fascinated by the simple suburban weeds, many of them edible and medicinal, and even his mother’s houseplants, and his fascination with the plant kingdom only continued to grow throughout his life.  He now considers himself an herb interlocutor and agent of the plants.  “I am helping grow and deepen the herbalist community while promoting herbalism’s values, aims, and aesthetics.  My work in this field naturally follows my years as a naturalist and ecological activist.”

Besides co-producing the Medicine Of The People conference, Jesse is a writer, and a selection of his articles, mostly exploring spiritual life in the natural world, can be found at AnimaCenter.org.  He has recently published a richly-narrated historical novel called The Medicine Bear (TheMedicineBear.com), which follows the story of a wild-woman herbalist named Omen (in many ways inspired by his lovely Kiva!), and an adventurous writer, fascinated by the animal and mineral world, by the name of Eland.  The archetypal Medicine Bear follows them along the way, over the course of decades, from the end of the 19th Century, well into the 20th.  The story takes place in the historical Southwest and Jesse describes some of his process: “I, like the Medicine Bear, am a product of the fertile milieu of the Southwest’s inspirited places and Indian, Hispanic, and Anglo cultures.  As a denizen of this place, the book’s accurate history of this area is my history, and its characters are amalgams of my neighbors and loved ones, from native traditionalists to cowboys to those folksy, big-hearted purveyors of herbs.”  Jesse is the author of 7 books, including Old Guns & Whispering Ghosts: Tales & Twists of the Old West (www.OldGunsBook.com), and entries in The Encyclopedia of Nature & Religion, with The Medicine Bear being his only novel.

Most of the premise and narrative arc of The Medicine Bear came to Jesse all at once, and the writing of it was more challenging emotionally than technically.  It is a tale of transformation, and the writing of a tale almost always takes the writer along the same journey.  Within the scope of the novel is Omen’s fascinating apprenticeship to a curandera, which would speak to anyone interested in folk healing arts, and into the Mexican Revolution, with Pancho Villa’s retaliatory raid on a town in New Mexico, of interest to those who wish to learn about suppressed Southwestern history.  The Medicine Bear is written from the eyes of a naturalist, each landscape – and the plants that inhabit it – described in great and loving detail.  The book is richly illustrated Jesse’s original drawings and relevant historical photographs, which create a sense of place and weave the reader deeper into the history of the era.

Ultimately, in all that they do, be it the conference, private clinical work, writing, foraging, and any other way of working with the plants, Kiva, Jesse and their family feel the need for self and community care skills to be a task of utmost importance.  Herbalism is one way to go about this.  “As the price of pharmaceuticals goes up and their dangers become ever more evident,” says Jesse, “herbal knowledge is becoming once again as essential as it was in the days before the advent of ‘modern’ medicine.”

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The next Herbal Resurgence conference will be held

Sept. 19-22nd, 2013

www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org www.HerbalResurgence.org

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Supergirl, Reverse Sexism and Glad Primitives

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Introduction: Every so often we get a blog comment or email from an irate reader, usually reacting to something Wolf wrote, since he likes to “stretch” us as he says, but also sometimes they are aimed at me.  The difference is that I can take it personally and have my feelings hurt, and Wolf only hurts when he’s been wrong.  The more reactive comments and emails are usually from either ultra-conservatives or ultra-politically correct, as Wolf mentions in our reply to one such letter, copied below.

As a woman who has been physically abused by men in the past, can credibly say that what we teach at Anima is not perpetuating a patriarchal paradigm, but challenging all paradigms, systems, and dogma – including that of herbalists, environmentalists and feminists… with what we hope most of you recognize as healthy humor.  –Kiva Rose

(The italicized lines are what was sent to us, what we sent to her appears in regular font.  The easily offended may wish to forego…)

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Hi Anima:

Hello Amelia, from all of us here.

Really enjoy receiving all of your e-mails, whether regarding the fire or the school and teaching.  However, I’d really LOVE to see you grow up…

Not in our lifetimes, we have to say.  Why?  Because adults are often uptight and self righteous, whether pushy right wingers or pushy politically correct left wingers, and apparently can be devoid of humor… attached to being regularly mortified, disgusted, aghast.  Non-adults are more often playful and full of mischief, taking themselves less seriously, finding things to laugh about no matter how sober the subject, with little time for convincing or appeasing.

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Instead of “Supergirls and Daniel” how about WOMEN embodying their natural selves?  You know, it seems odd to see an allegedly progressive place like yours still refer to women as girls.  None of those pictured in your pictures are “girls.”  Oh, yes, there ARE girls, those under around age 13 and/or before menses.  The rest of us, however, are adult women and I would appreciate you coming into alignment with those facts.  A bit nauseating.  Does Daniel OWN the girls like chattel or animals?  Are they his servants as in ye days of old patriarchy?  Is that what you promote?

Apologies for having stressed you out so.  We hope you have been able to calm and ground some since writing, assisted either by your karate chopping through two-by-fours at practice today, or else simply sipping a good nervine tea.

Dan is acting as foreman and teacher, giving the instruction that WOOF volunteers come for.  If it was a female foreman/forewoman/foreperson with young men working for her, they would still be her “crew.”

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This daniel/supergirl stuff is all worn out.  Okay?  Cringe.

We are sorry, again, to make you cringe.  We prefer to only do that deliberately, not accidentally, though indeed usually only to people who need to loosen up, and not to reasonable correspondents.

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In fact, in pre-history (which simply means BEFORE men wrote down their ideas of things), Women, through their spiritual higher evolvement and wisdom, directed the activities of males in constructing what was necessary for the higher evolvement and good of the whole.

Wow.  If we substitute “Aryans” for “Women” and “NonAryans” for “men” in your sentence above, this could be a quote right out of Nazi eugenic propaganda.  Women come in all types, from “highly evolved and wise” as you say, to greatly unwise and utterly unjust, always a mix of strengths and weaknesses.  Sounds kind of like men in this regard… or more accurately, humans, people, folks…

Hearing such an angry case for “higher evolvement” truthfully makes us all the gladder to be evolutionary throwbacks and earthy neo-primitives.

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Your presentation lacks that knowledge.  Really disappointing to see you re-inforcing the idea that males make the plans and “supergirls” just obey the directives of males.

The term “Supergirls” comes from an old comic book that for some inscrutable reason didn’t name its heroic, butt kicking lead character “Superwoman” instead.  We used the term to acknowledge two gals (pardon the term) who are out away from the comfort of their parental home for the first time, breaking stereotypes and bravely seeking real life experience here in the wilderness, and whom Dan taught to use power tools and empowered to build a roof all by their selves, on a day he wasn’t here.

All ass backwards.  Please update yourselves.

We will never downplay the very serious issue of women being trivialized in this society, but nor will we start capitalizing “Women” and not “men” like you do, being a clear case of reverse sexism.

Not sure how I can recommend you if you do not.

Then we fear we shall have to do without your recommendation,

in light,
amelia

There can be no form, nor art, if there is only light without dark.  Thank you for providing some of both today.

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For the past year we have been receiving monthly donations from a huge hearted woman named Amy, who makes handcrafted body care products in Texas.  She continued making small contributions even after we canceled the Animá membership program and set the Supporter minimum at $50 a month, another person like Philip Dahl (see earlier profile) who insists on giving even though they have little to give.  I determined to profile her generosity here, and asked for a photo of her even though I’d noticed she didn’t have any pictures of herself on her Harley’s Delight website and used her daughter as the public face of their enterprise.  Sensing the degree to which this indicated longstanding self-doubt and self-criticism more than simple shyness, I persisted and got the following very inspiring letter back.  We share it here with her courageous permission, as the start of what we hope will be a continuous opening up and coming out… complete with the photo she was afraid to send, doctored by myself to emphasize this woman’s magic and wonder.  This is her tale, and for many of you it is your story too.  -JWH

“You did not make me self-conscious, I was already there.  Truthfully, I started hiding from cameras quite some time ago.   You see, I lost myself.  I know the day it all began and how it happened.  I spent years hiding locked inside myself, protecting myself from the eyes and criticisms of the people who now called themselves my family.  I did it mainly to keep the peace.  It was easier to go along to get along, but what a price I’ve paid.  It made me very unhappy, self-conscious, and closed off.   It is a long story and I’ve tried to put it to paper several times and it just doesn’t come out with any coherence.  Maybe someday I will be able to articulate clearly.  But the simple fact is that when I saw a picture of me the eyes were filled with regret and resentment and I didn’t like it.  So I simply didn’t allow anyone to take pictures of me.

“I found the Animá website while searching through links on another website.  I’m not really sure what made me click on the link, but I did.  I read EVERYTHING, every word, on the website and then went to the blog and read everything on there.   The words from you, Loba and Kiva really spoke to me. It was as though you were talking directly to me.  As though you knew who I really was and that I was hiding.  I could see the truths that I already knew but had been denying for so long.  Those writings told me it was okay to be me and that I didn’t have to go along to get along.  That I didn’t have to pretend to be happy living life by someone else’s rules and values or let someone else tear me down just to build themselves up.  They told me that I was worthy, that it was okay to take care of me and my happiness.  That I didn’t have to pretend that all those things that I was being told I wanted were important to me, because they weren’t, and that while caring for and helping others is definitely part of who I am, I don’t have to sacrifice my happiness and my self-worth in the process.

“I admit I’m a bit scared.  I’ve lived this charade for so long that I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how to be free, to be happy, to be me.  Change is never easy, but I suspect it isn’t supposed to be.  I am a work in progress.  I still have people around me who try to throw obstacles in my way, fill my home with angry energy, try to guilt me into living the life that they want me to live.  I do my best to be gentle but firm in letting them know that I now answer to know one but myself and that I would not be being true to myself if I let them control me.  They are free to live as they see fit, but I cannot live in a situation that requires that I be someone or something that I am not just to please others.

“I have no idea if any of that made any sense, but it is a start.  I have attached a photo of me.  Not one that I am particularly pleased with, but again, it is a start.  I will be finding myself in front of the camera more often from now on.  You see, I look at pictures of Loba and her eyes are filled with the most unadulterated love, happiness, confidence and peace.  When I can once again look at a picture of me and see those same things, I will know that have truly shaken off the facade that I have been living behind and am truly letting my light shine again.”
-Blessings, Amy

(Amy doesn’t know it yet, but we are sending her the gift of an Animá self exploration and empowerment course, to use if and as she likes.  Please leave your supportive comments for her here… and share this post freely.  And to check out Amy’s soaps and other products, go to the Harley’s Delight Herbal Products Website)

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Pledges of regular donations, regardless of the schedule or amount, are crucial to this place and work.  But besides the core financial benefactors present and past, Animá, this family and sanctuary have also had the unpredictable and unexpected assistance of a small number of entirely unconventional Supporters.  These have included Silver, who has talked about donating half of her garden harvest, self described redneck mechanic Ryan who has kept us in vehicles, and Marc and Diane who have helped keep those vehicles working as well as traded us deep cycle batteries for our solar systems and done more and odder favors than you can imagine.  Not all of these characters have been stereotypical nature lovers, healers, activists, empowered women and followers of the Red Road that Animá more typically attracts.

Of these unique and wonder-hearted individuals, none is more loveably archaic, anachronistic, untamed and thus far untrammeled than our old compadre Steve Sale.  He is proof that you can’t stereotype folks, pigeon holing them into black and white categories.  Too often I hear my artist and conservationist friends dismiss everyone who disagrees with them as mindless wife abusers and Bambi killers, voicing as much prejudice (prejudgment) as a Limbaugh ditto-head lambasting longhaired tree huggers as effeminate communists.  Steve might not have the appearance of college grad extrapolators, but he can figure out and re-engineer nearly anything he lays eyes on, finds nearly everything in the world of interest, can’t stand a day where he doesn’t learn something new, and has an impeccable wit.  Imagine that he is anything like the norm, and you will be neglecting to take into account how he lives by an honor code worthy of Geronimo or Ghandi, adheres to core values like truth and loyalty in spite of being a part of a culture of delusion and lies, and respects the ways of spirit.  It was this, in fact, as much as his caring ways and unimpeachable honesty, that had me bonding with him when he was a fellow resident of this outlaw N.M. county.

Steve showed up down the river here for the first time a decade or so ago, after hearing only slightly exaggerated behavior about my lifestyle and comportment, the same stories that had kept plenty of local folks away had somehow served to call him in.  He felt like a brother long before helping with things I couldn’t fix or figure out, and donating wood timbers that still hold up the roof over our grounded-for-life school bus.  It was like the Jerry Jeff Walker song that Linda Ronstadt and others recorded, “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” except that neither of us had been much into waiting.  When he showed back up last month with his sweet earthy gal Val, I should have been surprised… but for some reason I wasn’t.  It was as if I had been expecting to roll up at any time, if just a mite longer than a reasonable person might expect.  Fortunately neither he, nor we, are ruled by reason.  Hence the glad reunion, in which I broke away from important tasks to revel in the reconnection.  Steve and Val don’t have to send checks to be Supporters as well as friends, supporting with not only love but gifts, showing up with needed and tasty food, shipping apples when he couldn’t visit with them, and then spending hours gathering fruits for Kiva’s medicinal elixer as our hand-picked-elderberry Supporters.

In the old days we might call someone you feel so familiar with a “kindred spirit,” no matter how many other ways they might be different.  Where we met, perceptually, was a place between solid projections, where the fields are always shifting and time has no say.  Indeed, when I think of Steve, a defining memory is of him walking with me on or near his land long ago, and how this mechanically inclined cowboy looking feller slowed to take in the sparkle of every crystal studded rock, let the talk fade away in order to take in the visage of the setting sun, then halted walking and speaking altogether in response to a sound or feeling that no progressive ecologist or new-age philosopher could have given any more more heed to, out of respect for something as subtle as it was plaintive, the implorings of the ancient ones atop whose long backfilled pithouses we then stopped to revel and rest.

“Did you hear that?”, he asked in a whisper, gesturing that he meant more than the incessant singing wind.  “Yes I do,” I told him, and that was enough said.

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Note: Not everyone thinks of retreats as being life changing or even particularly challenging, given that a lovely cabin is provided and no instruction or assignments given.  The fact is, however, that many who come here for a retreat experience end up – intentionally or surprisingly – dealing with deep issues or reconnecting to themselves and earth in deep ways.  An excellent example was the recent visit by Becky, a sensitive, self-directed and grateful woman who did most of her work and play here by herself.  Her letter of thanks and sharing follows.  -JWH

Hi, Loba, Wolf and Kiva,

It’s hard to put into words what I experienced at Animá last week during my quest … but I want to start and give it a try.

First, thank you all from my heart for providing the environment, for being such good stewards of the wild, sacred place.

Loba, thank you for your helpful suggestions that always took me deeper than I would’ve thought to go on my own.  Thanks for helping me remember the power and delight of being barefoot, for your generosity of spirit and heart-filled support, and for the delicious meals filled with nourishment and loving intentions.

I realized that what I received at Animá was just what I needed:  a warm, welcoming, loving place to remind me I’m truly home here – here and everywhere.  I now have the deep, experiential knowledge that I am home.  Literally, I = home. I’ve been embraced by this place, I embrace my place here, I embrace my true self, me.

I also realized that I don’t “leave” anywhere – I keep my roots in each place, in each person I meet.  Visualizing my roots – a piece of me extending all over, the roots of everyone and everything extending all over – a marvelous web of connection and interconnection!  We are one in the sense of when someone or something moves, acts, grows or dies, the whole web is affected, we are each moved/impacted in some way.

During my time at Anima, I felt a full range of emotions.  Surprisingly to me, I mostly felt at home and peaceful with myself and my surroundings.  As I left, I felt such exhilaration and joy!  Then the day after I returned home, I experienced the pendulum of emotions swinging hard in the other direction.  Without knowing the “why” behind it, I just let myself curl up and cry.  I spent the day like a turtle with his head tucked in, with only the hard shell exterior exposed to the world.  I reminded myself that emotions are meant to flow, that the more I felt the true joy, the deeper I’d feel the sadness.  And, I was relieved to see that my sadness doesn’t last when I can express it and let it be.  I’d like to learn how to stay connected to others when I feel sad, instead of withdrawing into my shell.  Ahhh – more to explore!

I look forward to returning to Animá and seeing you again in the future.

My love and gratitude to you,
Becky

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Thanks again to everyone who filled out a Reader Survey, it was great to hear from you.  Two more have come in recently, that you may enjoy reading as we did.

To Christine and Yael: Having the impact on your lives that we do, makes all the work of sharing a delight.

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YAEL

3. What is your work, path or purpose? I am a mother of many, three that I have given birth to. I am a healer and feel very drawn to the Medicine Woman. My purpose, this I am currently learning about. I earn an income as a preschool teacher. I love learning with and from the children.

4. How did you find this blog, and what causes you to keep reading (or stay subscribed)? I first read about you in Sage Woman, which I happened upon at the Barnes and Noble two issues ago. I was so drawn in by Kiva’s writings; I felt she was writing to and about me. I can’t seem to get enough, I just keep reading. I am going through the archives, I have read all of Rhiannon’s posts, I have read the history and I still keep reading.

5. How has this blog influenced how you think or act? I feel a deep peace since I have been reading. Strangely enough the writings made me uncomfortable at first, but still I kept on reading. I have been searching and searching all my life, for what I could not have verbalized to you. But I feel a peace amidst the pain and chaos. I am learning to open my eyes, I am learning that pain is not ‘bad’. I a learning that to heal another does not mean you have to heal yourself first. I am learning more to respect myself , the earth, and others. Can you describe any particular instances of something you read here affecting the quality, tenor, depth and meaning of your day to day life? There was a recent article I printed out on “Hard Choices…” It was very painful to read, but I felt I needed to print it out. There is something I must learn here…something that is calling to me deeply.

6. Are you a subscriber? Yes

7. Which of the categories do you enjoy posts from the most? So far I am working my way through the archives. Rhiannon’s writings were wonderful, and I could not stop reading about the history of the Center. I enjoy Kiva’s writings very much also.

8. What topics might you like to see written about from an Animá/nature perspective, that haven’t appeared here already? I really enjoy reading about the canyon and I love the pictures.

9. What else might you like to see more of here? I am hungry for it all, so at this point whatever you post, I am going to read. Anything else that you’d like to tell us? Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I have been in such pain for so long and for the first time in a long time I feel like I am waking up.

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CHRISTINA

What is your work, path or purpose?  In the material world, I work at UNM’s School of Medicine, in the Human Patient Simulation lab.  I hang with manikins all day – it’s actually quite cool.  But that’s my income-work.  In my personal life, I’m an herbalist, a shamanic practitioner, and a Pipe Carrier in the Native American Tradition (Lakota, Cherokee, and Ojibwa).  My purpose, and the declared purpose of The Feathered Serpent Lodge (my teaching lodge here in Albuquerque), is the education and enlightenment of all peoples through intimate spiritual connection to the Mother Earth and honoring of the Sacred Feminine in each of us.

How did you find this blog, and what causes you to keep reading (or stay subscribed)?  I don’t remember how I found your blog/web site, but the exquisite posts I get from you – all of you – are what keep me coming back.

How has this blog influenced how you think or act?  Can you describe any particular instances of something you read here affecting the quality, tenor, depth and meaning of your day to day life?  Jesse’s posts on wild/wilding/re-wilding spoke to something very deep in me – I heard a psychic echo the first time I read one of his pieces – and I’ve been chewing on that subject ever since.  I’m an audial person, it’s all about how things sound (rather than look) for me, and it’s difficult for me sometimes to advance my thinking on a particular subject until I’ve found a hook to hang it all on.  Jesse’s writing often provides that hook.  I can only describe it as “nibbling around the edges of a subject” – the way you eat hot tomato soup, you know? taking little sips from around the outside of the bowl? – and then I’ll read something of his (and it’s not just him, really, you all do it in different ways) and suddenly I’m right in the hot middle and it’s all clear and I can proceed.

Are you a subscriber?  Yes.

Which of the categories do you enjoy posts from the most (see the Archives category list on the left side of this blog page)?  I’m interested in virtually everything you communicate – life in the Canyon is particularly appealing, and I LOVE the pictures.  You are living the life I began dreaming of for myself back in my 20s.

What topics might you like to see written about from an Animá/nature perspective, that haven’t appeared here already?  Nothing that I can think of.

What else might you like to see more of here?  Anything else that you’d like to tell us?  Just that I think you are grand, and have the greatest respect and admiration for you and what you’re doing “out there.”  I wish I could support you more regularly (I work at UNM, and you know what that means in terms of salary…), and I hope one day to visit in person.  “Seven rivers to cross…”

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Hello on a SO lovely sunny Winter day, with the last of the snow quickly melting… it’s time to celebrate the second year of the Animá blog!  When we started posting we imagined that it was only for the close friends, students and supporters who we otherwise wouldn’t have time to write regularly about our work and lives.  It’s certainly filled that purpose, making it possible for us to share details that wouldn’t be possible without a blog, but it’s also surprised us by being subscribed to by people we have never met or talked to, who somehow share with us a sensibility or intent, and find inspiration and community here!  You’ve watched as we expanded to include posts of new and never before published essays, recipes from my cookbook in progress, Wolf’s latest artwork, inspirational tales from our 8 yr. old daughter Rhiannon, and all kinds of things!

It admittedly takes many hours each week to keep the posts coming, especially for Kiva and Wolf who do the bulk of it.  For this reason and others, we’d sure like your help in making this effort as relevant and helpful to you as possible by answering the following Blog Reader Survey that they wrote up for you.  Even if you are too busy or shy to leave comments here the rest of the year, we would LOVE to hear about you now, your preferences and your suggestions!!  You can answer all of the questions, or just focus on a few.  We sure do appreciate hearing from you, and will do all we can to give all we can!!

-Love, Loba

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Animá Blog Reader Survey

1. Your name
2. Email address (private, and optional)
3. What is your work, path or purpose?
4. How did you find this blog, and what causes you to keep reading (or stay subscribed)?
5. How has this blog influenced how you think or act?  Can you describe any particular instances of something you read here affecting the quality, tenor, depth and meaning of your day to day life?
6. Are you a subscriber?
7. Which of the categories do you enjoy posts from the most (see the Archives category list on the left side of this blog page)?
8. What topics might you like to see written about from an Animá/nature perspective, that haven’t appeared here already?
9. What else might you like to see more of here?  Anything else that you’d like to tell us?
10. Do we have your permission to excerpt from your responses, for printing on the blog (by first name only, without your address)?

Please post your responses by clicking on the Comments button, or else download, fill out and return via email the attached Blog Reader Survey document:

anima-blog-reader-survey.doc

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The Nick Morgan family have been Core Supporters, bedrock even, since the late 1980’s.  Nick and Sloane are tickled-pink parents and community organizers, with Nick an early Greenpeace firebrand and concert promoter for bands like String Cheese Incident… a dear and sweet component of the Animá family, community, Sanctuary and mission.  They live on the West Coast at the center of an intimate neighborhood and wide ranging circle of activists, artists, musicians and visionaries.  As seldom as we get to see them, it has felt great to be an Uncle to the outstanding boys Paris, Jeremy and the hard rockin’ little Django.  It was their loving need to give and be of service to the world that first made us feel okay about accepting the involvement and help of others in manifesting this vision.  And we still can’t do this by ourselves, without them, and without all of you.  Thank you from the core of our hearts, from this place and all those helped by what we offer.  There is never anything “extra” to give, but we join you in giving our all.

-W,L,K&R

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We’d like to take this opportunity to formally welcome Lee Hurwit as a core Animá Supporter, after years of surprising us with enexpected periodic donations.  Thank you, Lee, for your commitment to continue assistance, and letting us acknowledge and thank you here.

We first met Lee when he was freshly on his own, after having been a member of a close-knit community in Boulder.  He was unsure of what to do with his independence at that time, a result of not yet understanding his real gifts, needs and desires.  This explains why for so long, the greatest blessing we could be to him was simply to be “the first to see and value” him for who he really is.

It was only later that he wrote us about fully exploring our teachings and writings, realizing the significance of supporting this vital work as opposed to simply being generous to the people who recognize and care about him.  In the decade since, we have been witness to him create a business, take pride in his work skills, plumb his spiritual self, establish healthy boundaries, and seek ways of not just beautifully functioning but heartfully serving.

Lee’s sensitivity and vulnerability are in actuality his strengths… retaining the playfulness, curiosity, love and joy of a child as he embraces the responsibilities of what it means to be an aware adult in this world.

-Wolf & Family

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If you are inspired to become a needed Animá Supporter, at any financial level large or small, please download, fill out and return the Supporter Application: membersupporter-form.doc

  Thank you.  -Kiva Rose

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None of our supporters and allies are conventional in the sense of being average or uninteresting, but generally it would be easy to pick them out as the kind of people who might associate with us or seek us out, who would be likely to go out of their way to help this project out.  Highly driven seekers, at the cusp of a major change in their lives. Bird watching, river running, tree climbing eccentrics.  Activists seeking rest and replenishment, and herbalists deepening their understanding.  Nature loving Buddhists, Franciscan monks, and students of teachers like Thomas Merton and Thomas Berry.  Passion filled ecofeminists choosing to make a monthly cash tithe to further the work of Animá, and anachronistic old timer mountain men wanting to commit what they can out of their poke in order to further this old time way of living, and to protect this rare bit of unspoiled river canyon land.  There are others, however, that we might not have thought of as potential allies and friends, who miraculously appear in times of celebration or times of need.  This includes some rural conservatives who put “No Wolves” on the back bumpers of their trucks, but who refuse to take money for their garden produce, for welding a needed part or helping tow a broken rig for a guy they call “Wolf”.  The woman who works at the courthouse, who arranged for me to speak at the local school board meeting.  And now Marc and family, who first came into our lives by selling an offroad utilty vehicle meant for our use, and showing not only the highest degree of professional integrity, but also as much compassion and concern as we have seen in a man in awhile.

Our file with him was marked “7 river crossings” before he knew our names, but already he was going to extremes to get our original vehicle canyon-ready, adding a snorkel for deep water crossings, and now giant tires to handle the loose sand.  Finding out that we host retreats, he suggested a trade for weekends here.  The time was meant for rest, but the first trip he worked on the rig, and the second visit he and the mechanic he counts on showed up with 4 cords worth of fallen logs from a burn, spending their moring cutting them up to the exact size for Loba’s wood stove.  On the same trailer with the wood was a special lightweight vehicle, left in trade for our blue jeep which could have been hard to sell since it came to us with no title.  Not only did he ensure that we have a high mpg way to bring supplies into the Center until our other rig is ready, but he made sure we would love it by having it custom painted using real leaves and branches as stencils.  Even Kiva, who is generally set against internal combustion contraptions of every imaginable kind, couldn’t help but be won over by the patterns of plant foliage gracing its once garish fenders.  Last we spoke, he was researching solar powered freezers and no doubt scheming some way for it to happen for us.  We have been looking for every way possible to give back to him, as part of the great cycle of reciprocity.  Certainly the time here and Loba’s cooking, and whatever herbal or cooking instruction they and their employees might want.  A portrait of their daughter, wood carving if he has anything he can stand having butchered for the sake of art and the joy of giving.  Articles on their business, if they can work it out with any newspaper editors.  He never asked for counsel, as males seldom do, but I can still give a few insights to make compromising his needs and dreams even harder.  I’m not sure he knows “what to make of” all this, but we can’t help but believe that he knows he is helping more than an archaic backwoods family, that he is aiding not only a friend but also a way and a cause.  Here’s to Marc and Diane, unconventional supporters of the proudly unconventional Animá project.  My hat’s off to you… literally.  Wear it well pard.

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