Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Dan'l and Avraham get the water tank ready to roll.

Eureka!  Water To The Cabins!

Imagine everyone’s excitement at the Anima wilderness school and sanctuary, when the final bits of plumbing were finished and – for the first time in 35 years of inhabiting this land – water rushed from a pipe all the way to our cabins on the mesa!  Loba squealed in delight, and Rhiannon jumped up and down in celebration.

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Dan'l with much valued first Anima on-site helper, Jason.

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When deciding if these exclamations of glee were exaggerated or not, consider that generally the term “running water” here refers either to the river running 200 yards distant, to rain running into our barrels, or to one of us running to get some whenever we run out.  Getting water for our drinking, washing and plant watering needs has and always will be a conscious effort.  Living in a place that no well-drilling rig could ever get to, has ensured that we would always be conscious of our water use and supply, and thus always in touch in the deepest ways with our elemental sustenance.  Loba has always enjoyed siphoning the grounding motions of siphoning and carrying pails, and accepted the difficulties of chipping through a layer of ice in the barrels to get the water she needed each Winter, but in recent years her back and knees have been suffering from it.  It is surely reasonable, then, that she can’t dampen her enthusiasm for the 1500 gallon storage tank now sitting on a concrete pad, the pipes buried below freeze level and extending to the kitchen, through its wall and over the sink, with only a valve to turn to have a steady stream of precious fluid filling her washbasin anytime we are fortunate to have our tank full.

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Dan'l mounts the fire fighting water pump to a trailer that friend Ryan gave us.

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The inspiration and motivation for all this was not our personal needs or convenience, needless to say, but the Wallow wildfire that for over 2 months raged and blew to within 7 miles of this canyon preserve last Summer.  It was donations to our fire fund from you, that paid for the tank and plumbing we now have installed and working.  With the fire fighting pump purchased at the same time, we can drive protective sprinklers around the structures for as long as we have water.  When it comes to fires in the Southwest, the saying is that “it’s not if any certain area will burn, but when”… and whenever one burns in our direction again, we will have a chance of saving the structures we’d live in while undertaking the healing and planting of the scarred land.

To those who contributed to the fund, please join us in feeling accomplished to at last have this system in place, and well before the next fire season.  And to everyone, please share in our delight.

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Irene, Loba's homestead apprentice, has been here every weekend assisting, and learning skills like grinding on an ancient Indian metate.

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On-Site Helpers

The nearly finished water system, along with storage sheds, a covered outdoor “kitchen” area and more, are largely thanks to the vision, hard labors and sure ramrodding of Dan’l and Trail Boss.  They were here day after day during fire preparations in June, and Dan’l has been down here every few days lately to bring more of the canyon projects to fruition.  A number of you met him as he was working and filming at the 2011 TWHC, and at the 2012 conference in September he’ll be running the sound system as well.

Dan'l guides the construction of an overhang for an outdoor kitchen, which will have a stove and shelves when complete.

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We still could not possibly be progressing the way we have, without the addition of “On-Site Helpers,” a succession of volunteers looking to learn all they can about homesteading and land restoration while being of service and getting a taste of a truly meaningful life.  Tim and Jason were first, and will always have our thanks.  Just today saw the arrival of young Seirra and Nick, who immediately and happily dug in to the daily tasks.

And none have been a greater assist than Avraham, a young man filled with energy, open to experience, and desirous of being helpful to Anima and the world.  He’s been not only been psyched to learn about and help with things like carpentry and concrete work, but also been pleased to learn about bread baking and campfire dutch over cooking, as well as some about medicinal herbs in the little time Kiva could spare.  All this time, the canyon is working on him as well, assisting his realizations, quieting, clarifying and visioning.  Our hope is that the sum of what he learns here will fundamentally aid his vision of creating EcoTerra, an earth honoring social model so needed in the coming troubled times.  We are grateful for his fervent labor on Anima projects, and even more so for his commitment to a life of meaning, purpose and service.  We’ll have his assistance through the end of March, at which time he’ll be settling for awhile at least back in upstate N.Y.

Folks come to Anima Sanctuary for its gift of wildness and beauty as well as to help with important projects.

In the next few weeks, we will be also welcoming Alexandra and Aleah, ecology focused women with lots to offer.  Expect to hear more of them in future posts.

If you are perhaps interested in being a resident aide yourself, you can fill out and return the:

On-Site Helper Application

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(Repost Freely)

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LIVING THE EARTH:
Anima Homesteading & ReWilding
Apprenticeships With Loba

A 1 to 3 Month Long Wilderness Residency Program at
The Anima School Botanical & Wildlife Sanctuary

Gathering and preparing wild foods, splitting wood and transferring rain water, tending and helping to restore a wild place is a  daily process of learning and accomplishing, connecting and celebrating.  Fortunately it is not something one takes care of in the spare hours after work, it IS the work, the ancient and still vital work of living in the natural world, highly response-able, students of the magic in the mundane, in touch with the literal and palpable elements of raw existence.   If your desire is to rewild or simply intensify your life, to immerse yourself for a time in a truly wild place, and to develop the extreme rural or wilderness homesteading skills conducive to survival, you may be interested in applying for an on-site Anima Apprenticeship and residency.

Apprenticeships Include:

• Residence in a most special and wild place, the Anima Sanctuary, most likely a camping space with group use of a riverside cabin, or lodging in a cabin in some cases… with half of each day discretionary so you can take walks, write or work on personal projects
• Assisting with food gathering and meal preparation, eating whole and often wild foods
• 12 hours or more per week of hands-on instruction and guidance, primarily from Anima cofounder and homestead coordinator Loba, with the possibility of occasional counsel and instruction from Kiva Rose or Jesse Wolf
• 4 hours or more per day of learning and practicing as you help, taking care of whatever needs to be done to make this rewilded lifestyle work… sometimes guided, sometimes not

Because we are too busy with projects to provide much casual social interaction, we will be looking to take on no less than 2 Apprentices at a time, with an upper limit of 4.

What You Will Learn:

• Food gathering and preservation skills
harvesting wild plants, canning, preserving with salt, oil, vinegar, pressure canning, processing wild meat (somewhat seasonally dependent)
• Fire and firewood skills
building and tending fires, fire safety, the uses of different kinds of wood,     gathering wood, kindling and tinder, wood chopping
• Trail building/maintenance
• Water collection and conservation
• Backwoods Cooking and Feasting
enjoying wonderful and often wild meals, cooking on a wood stove, cooking over a campfire, using a solar oven, using a smoker and more
• The concepts and means for rewilding your lives when you are away from here

…and, depending on gender, interests and needs…
Other Possible (& Optional) Activities Include:

• Sweat lodge construction
• Participation in a Medicine Sweat
• Emptying Your Burden Basket personal work
• Freeing Our Voices:
developing resonance, letting go of self-judgment, voicing anger, grief and joy, listening for melodies, singing with the canyon, letting a place sing through us
• Wild Art:
drawing and painting out in nature, using natural materials to make art, honoring the land with earthen altars, creative journaling
• Honoring our bodies/The Magic of the Mundane:
rhythms of the day, tending to our needs, self-love, developing our core strength & flexibility, water medicine, belly breathing, inhabiting our senses, Practices for     Presence, finding beauty and pleasure in “ordinary” moments
• Other Important Personal Work:
dealing with expectations, obligations and response-abilities, recognizing and letting go of unhealthy dynamics, habits and patterns, engaging our challenges, honoring ourselves, cherishing solitude, embracing our calling or purpose, and recognizing, utilizing and sharing our gifts
• Medicine Stories:
using story as medicine in daily life, seeing ourselves as the hero (or antihero!) in our own worthy story, living and sharing from that place

Note that herbal instruction is explicitly not offered at this point,
though Kiva hopes to eventually be able to accommodate herbal Apprentices here.

Requirements

• A strong desire for a wilder, more intensely experienced life, for a deeper connection to nature, or for the homesteading skills and knowledge to live an extreme rural lifestyle if you ever choose to or have to
• A solid commitment of preferably no less than 1 month, for a period of no more than 3 months in succession.  We would occasionally make exceptions for highly motivated individuals already quite knowledgeable about many of the things we teach, who were mainly looking for a place to practice and enrich their skills
• An intense desire to learn, and to make real what you learn every day
• Being open and not resistant to instruction, and sincerely grateful for what is given
• A willingness to put a lot of effort into every task and project, making even rest and recreation deliberate and focused
• An ability and willingness to do sometimes difficult physical work, such as splitting and carrying wood
• Being satisfied working in small groups and alone, and able to enjoy and benefit from solitude time
• Eating a partially paleo diet if sharing meals, either omnivorous or flesh friendly (vegan and vegetarian welcome if taking care of all your own food needs)
• Being non-politically-correct!  And not fanatic purists of any kind!
• A $400 yo $600 monthly sliding-scale donation, or other arrangements as needed

To Apply, Download, Fill Out & Return The Anima

Homesteading Apprenticeship Application

(Thank you for posting and forwarding this announcement! –Love, Loba)

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2010 Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference

a Resounding Success!

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

“The TWHC is the new nexus of a folk herbalism resurgence.”
-Paul Bergner, North American School of Herbalism

After 14 months of non-stop preparation, and 4 days of classes and celebration, the first annual TWH Conference can be considered a resounding success!  At a time when many conferences are contracting, an event staged 3.5 hours from the nearest airport managed to completely sell out.  Presenters and registrants joined in bringing not only energy and enthusiasm but also experience and knowledge as we learned, connected, networked and brainstormed together… establishing a root system for a growing TWH community, planting the necessary seeds for the re-propagation and reinvigoration of Western folk herbalism today.  We are currently enjoying the many written responses from those fortunate to attend, often describing the TWHC as a movement, revival, revolution or resurgence instead of simply a conference… and we are considering what if might mean to serve this larger process.

I am so glad to have been a part of this gathering. I appreciate being there for this new endeavor and watching old and new hands join forces… I hope that we can bring what we learn and share and teach to a wide range of people in need. Thank you Kiva, you are creating a legacy.
- 7Song, Northeast School of Botanical Medicine & Ithaca Free Clinic

We departed our beloved canyon on the 15th, and didn’t get home until the 19th, not easy when one is accustomed to a home with no vehicle noise, electrical appliance buzz, asphalt or freeway speeds.  It was all more challenging given the 16 hour work days leading up to the trip, our continuing responsibilities to the students and associates who need us, the course materials and new books in progress… and especially my broad range of intense and relentless liver-prodding emotions since what was a painful death in the family, how much I would miss Loba and Rhiannon, how terribly homesick I already felt in leaving the canyon’s forests and beings behind, and also the excitement and inspiration and calling that is surely the gift of such connection to people and place.  If I was to be able to communicate the depth of my hurt, caring, love and hope for the natural world, medicinal plants and herbalists at the impending conference, I knew even then that it would be due in part to the ways that the hurt and healing, needs and gifts of both our selves and the land are so wholly related and inseparably intertwined, their roots in common ground.

From the start there had been magic in the air, a crazy dream of stirring together the diverse traditions of Western folk herbalism and the most place-based, experience-based, insightful, stirring, innovative, groundbreaking, convention shaking teachers in the field… in the Western U.S. where most needed, in outlaw New Mexico the “Land of Enchantment”, and in striking natural environs where the power and beauty of the land would itself be a vital accomplice to the essential opening of both perception and heart.  We’d begun with no money and not even a credit card or rating, just Kiva with her herbal vision and wisdom, connections and charisma, along with myself and the amazingly tireless and organizational Resolute.  It was almost eerie, the way we had more requests from teachers than we had slots for, within 2 weeks from the time we first announced the 2010 event.  And it seemed nothing less than storybook perfect, to be joined early on by Rosalee de la Foret and enjoy the support of John Gallagher, resulting in our first financial contributions from Mountain Rose and LearningHerbs.com just at the point that it was needed to progress.

The “mojo” that our herbalist friend Jim McDonald speaks of, could be felt every step of the way, not the kind of magic that hands us great miracles without work but an energy that makes it possible for great efforts to prove maximumly effective.  The TWHC poster didn’t appear with the mumbling of a mantra, it required my many late night hours designing and creating an overall visage evoking the power of an event we felt called to create… but a different kind of poster mojo was evident from the moment it was released.  Folks wrote to say that they were caught by a glance of it, and that even if they weren’t herbalists or never wanted to go to conferences they suddenly felt drawn to this one.  Same with the thousands of emails, the plethora of illustrations I did, Kiva’s tons of hours on the website.  It was more physical than metaphysical, for Resolute to juggle accounting, proofing, presenter transportation and then event management, but to have such a person come into our life borders on the paranormal.

It was inexplicable, that we were able to make it all work without any previous experience in running large events, the only tips coming from having witnessed some of the problems organizers dealt with at the hundreds of conferences and festivals that I was brought to speak at over the decades.  And the word “magical” comes up when I think about Kiva as well, a wounded and private, particular and focused, distrustful of machines and uncomfortable in crowds, bashful and barefoot bear-medicine woman… suddenly opening up to a great weaving of webs, engendering online community, fostering reciprocity, promoting the works of others, tending not only FaceBook flashes but complex and time consuming human relationships, committing hours to emails that she might have liked to spend drawing faeries with bad attitudes instead.  How to explain the steady sales of tickets in the midst of a continuing economic recession, or even the fact that Kiva and I would opt to do such a crazy, improbable, and nearly impossible thing?  FlamencoWorldCompany donating their show, to make the conference a go?  Finding performers as soulful as Tina Collins and Quetzal Jordan as close as Taos, and at the last minute?  Or Rising Appalachia spending more on transpo than we paid them, blowing people away in a night of sparkle and heart, then committing to being the official TWHC house band for the coming years?  Featured Presenters like Paul Bergner, Phyllis Hogan and Phyllis Light donating part of their fees or costs to the conference, and every one of the regular Presenters in the first year donating their time and knowledge, happy just to be a contributing part of this seeded event and reemerging folk herbalism movement?  And how to explain, the building sense of the event before it happened, the giddiness of participants, or even the drive up the valley from Española and Abiquiu and into the orange, buff and crimson landscape surrounding the fabled Ghost Ranch conference center?

Much could be attributed to the astounding colors of the cliffs and spires where the road winds up and through the cuts, but even those who arrived after dark spoke of a tingly sensation that got stronger the closer they got to the event site.  Teachers felt pulled to move their classes outside under trees and in range of the glowing mountains and skyclad spires, and participants ended their late night concert revelry to hike the hills in the moonlight.  And likewise, the earth’s stories came out extra clear through the voices of most teachers, regardless of the title of their class, the important evocations of the bioregions they herald from and champion, and also the nourishing and imploring, provocative and compelling message of the land around the Ghost Ranch, of New Mexico and the mythic Southwest.  Much, also, must be attributed to what each of these presenters brought, diverse healing traditions, healthy differences of approach and opinion as well as new amalgamations and advancements of ideas, and what can prove to be lasting alliances of educators and inspiriteurs, activism and art, purpose and action.

The combination of Presenters made for a magic potion, but we might just as accurately think of it as a pot of formidable and almost  New Mexico chili or somehow transportive wildcrafted stew, in which every ingredient is somehow essential to the overall balance of elements and overall taste experience.  So too, did every registrant make for a unique addition, not just peace loving hippie-hearted types but a decidedly politically incorrect urban guerilla and critical eyed free-clinic practitioner, law-stretching wildcrafters as well as regulation promoters and at least one ex-lawman, not just middle aged care givers but also herbalism obsessed young ravers and skateboard healers, politically active business-folk and a self proclaimed green anarchist, an inspired electrician and dozens of family practitioners with their wild children, conservationists and gardeners, suppliers of the best in cultivated organic herbs along with illustrators of a new way of being and various nature-drunk poets of plants.

(Sat. Band: Chloe, Leah and the Wolfette)

In the end, the gathering overall had taken on a clearly Western, folk identity, consciously rough edged and unapologetic, reeking with sincerity, insisting on hope, bucking the norm, combining self reliance with neighborly cooperation, rooted in experience as well as tradition.  In the end,  the conference was not so fae as feral, with a touch of norm-busting new science, the flair and attitude of cowpunk, true to and in keeping with the down home, dirt grounded, earth honoring, grassroots, self authorized, community building, alternative offering, chance taking, magic making and oft celebrating Folk Herbalism Revival.

“Sending tons of love, oodles of hugs and endless praise for hosting such an outstanding herbal conference. I feel we are creating a network across the country that unites us all in this grassroots movement… helping to heal the world in our small and great ways.”
–Rosemary Gladstar

We have only been home a few days as I write this, getting the first sleep in a week, and most importantly grounding and centering in our wild Gila, giving needed attention to family and home, to our own personal healing and recharging as well well as the bigger mission.  Every quiet wordless moment here that we are able to attend to, feeds our reservoir of energy and inspiration for what always – gladly – lies ahead.

-JWH

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Below you’ll find important news about the 2010 Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference that just happened, and also valuable updates regarding the upcoming TWHC 2011!

2010 TWHC Music and Class Recordings

Thanks to the recording efforts of Don, Henry, Patrick and Marissa, Dr. Blue and others, audio CDs of many of the classes will be available beginning this Fall, including 7Song’s well attended “Adventures in Wildcrafting”, Mimi Hernandez’ “Mountain Roots: Appalachian Root Remedies”, Matt Wood’s “Clinical Skills For The Herbalist”, and “The Ecology of Healing” by Kiva Rose and Jesse Wolf Hardin.  This will be your opportunity to hear any presentations you may have missed.

It will be awhile before we get to see and edit the volumes of video shot by Marissa and Patrick, John Gallagher and others, but we expect to have plenty of material for YouTube release as well as a future folk-roots herbalism documentary.

Audio recordings of the Friday and Saturday night concerts with FlamencoWorldCompany, Tina Collins and Her Pony, and Rising Appalachia are gratefully in the hands of composer and master engineer Issa, with the hopes of getting some quality mixes for release this year.

Subscribe to the blog or newsletter for announcements.

“I so loved getting to see Gioia of FlamencoWorld.  It’s great to see a woman so full of power, comfortable with her age, and at home in her body!”
-Chance

(Jesse “James” Wolf and Chuck “Pancho Villa” Garcia plan their next raid)

Camera Missing – TWHC Photos Invited

We misplaced our Fuji digital camera, possibly at the conference site, if anyone has seen it.  We may need a replacement if anyone has an extra, quality camera, though the photos of the event cannot be replaced.

If you have photos of the conference that you would be willing to share, please send them on CD to us at: PO Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830

2010 TWHC Book

Somehow, all 300 of the 96 page long 2010 TWHC books with class notes found homes at the conference, so we are having to do a 2nd printing!  Copies are available for $9 plus $5 priority shipping, and free to any registrants who may not have gotten theirs.

“Wow! Ghost Ranch was magical, and the conference itself was packed full of great people, information and energy. I learned a lot, and left inspired to work harder and do more. This is a great conference for anyone interested in grassroots herbalism. Very empowering, with something for everyone.”
-Heather

THWC 2011

We already look forward to the 2011 TWHC, Sept. 15th-18th, and also welcome your involvement and assistance with this enlivened movement between now and the conference.  To stay hooked up, subscribe to the free TWHC newsletter as described on the website.  And you are also invited to subscribe and submit articles to the TWH’s exciting upcoming quarterly, Plant Healer Magazine:
www.PlantHealerMagazine.com

“Amazing and wonderful! I’ll be there supporting you, for as long as there is a TWH Conference…”
-Phyllis Hogan, Winter Sun Trading Co.

(Margi Flint and Jim McDonald)

2011 TWHC Teachers, Classes and Proposals

We’re adding up to 5 more teachers/presenters in 2011, offering an even wider variety of topics and skills, and giving you even more for your money.  Just as in 2010, the 4.5 hour long intensives will be included in the registration, and you will not have to pay extra to attend them as you do at most other herbal conferences.

Even with the added class slots, teacher enthusiasm has been so tremendous that we’ve already received 4 times as many class proposals as there will be room for!  This makes for a large field of topics and personalities for us to choose from, though it’s also painful for us to have to turn anyone down.  As always, our criteria for choosing will be not only teacher ability and registrant preferences, but also the kinds of class topics being proposed, gender balance and ethnic involvement when possible – and most importantly – the crucial overall balance of conference topics and approaches, information and practical skills… with the advantage going to those grounded in Western folk traditions, the most inspiring and empowering, land based and bioregionally focused, practicable and immediately applicable.  We’re most moved by proposals that are unique, non-scripted, personal and edgy, feral and multidimensional, that present primal or traditional indigenous approaches to healing, stir new ways of thinking, challenge accepted assumptions, inspire action, rattle cages or otherwise stretch the proverbial envelope!  Those that aren’t selected this time around, will be happily considered again for 2012 and beyond.

Already promised to, are first time TWHC Featured Presenters Ryan Drum, Bevin Clare, David Hoffmann, Juliette Blankespoor and Robin Rose Bennett.  Enticing new classes will also be offered by 2011’s returning Featured Speakers 7Song, Paul Bergner, Phyllis Hogan, Charles Garcia and Jim McDonald, and we have a couple of other big surprise in the works!  Proposals for the other 15 or so regular Presenter slots have been especially tantalizing, and a list will be released by December at the latest, after most of the selections have been finalized.

“Make plans for next year! This conference felt like the beginning of a new herbal era. I honestly believe it will be looked upon as an historical moment.” -Rosalee de la Foret

(Henry made sure Rosalee’s class was recorded, showing some of the many uses of plants)

2011 TWHC For Kids

We were surprise by how many facilities the Ghost Ranch has for use, including an (unsupervised) playground for children, a family center, even a telescope for star watching!  And in 2011, we are excited to announce 2 special classes: one will be for Mothers about treating children with herbs, and turning kids onto the basics of herbalism; the other will be FOR kids, with herbal activities for them to learn from and enjoy.

2011 TWHC Music

“The conference was totally awesome!  We’ll be back every year… you can count on it, partners!”
-Chloe, Rising Appalachia

As you may have already heard, audience response to Leah and Chloe of Rising Appalachia was so great that they have been made the  TWHC “House Band”, and will be the musical core around which we build each year’s diverse entertainment.  And Tina Collins and Quetzal Jordan were so into it, that we simply have to bring them back to play for us again in 2011, and they may be enticed to do a longer set that involves them playing together with the gals from Rising again.  It will be hard to find an ethnic band to equal Gioia and Carlos of FlamencoWorldCompany for that slot, though we have 5 other groups wanting to play including Arborea who couldn’t make it this year.

“Thank you for putting together such a wonderful event. Good vibe, great people, intense classes, the flow was perfect and the setting is also perfect. I am so amazed at the vision you and Wolf had, and how for a first year, it was damn near flawless.”
- Kristena

2011 TWHC Lodging

The Ghost Ranch Conference Center is in charge of lodging as well as the prepared meals at the TWHC, but we have decided to take the risk of renting all the available rooms and camping sites for next year.  It should prove much less confusing if you can pay for your Ghost Ranch room or camping site at the same time as you pay for your event registration.  It is still likely that all the available lodging at Ghost Ranch will fill up, and later registrants may have to stay at nearby motels and campgrounds instead.

(7Song  had the best seat for Paul Bergner’s rabble-rousing song “I Am An Herbal Rebel!”)

2011 Meet & Greet

In order to get everyone acquainted quicker next year, the conference will officially begin with a Confluence (Meet and Greet) on Thursday evening, Sept. 15th, complete with live acoustic music.

“All my blessings to this conference, may it last for many, many, many years!”
-Rosemary Gladstar

2011 Registration

Registration for 2011 opens October 15th, 2010.  Prices for 2011 are 3-tiered depending on when they are purchased, with Early Sprout discount rates:
Tickets purchased before January 1, 2011: $255
Tickets purchased between January 1, 2011 and June 1, 2011: $275
Tickets purchased after June 1, 2011: $295

Day Passes

This year there were a lot of folks who badly wanted to attend 1 or 2 days of classes, but whose jobs or whatever made coming for the whole 3 days impossible.  Day passes will be sold for 2011, though for the higher price of $150 per day.

“There were more of us young people here than any other conference, feels good!”

Work Trade

There is only 1 work trade role available at this time, which is Sponsor, Vendor and Media outreach, involving lots of research and phone calls, and a financial incentive is included.  Write for an application if interested.

Our most enthused assistants this year were those who hadn’t even asked for their registration in trade, but were instead acting solely out of a desire to help make the event work – extra thanks going out to Resolute, Don, Henry, Marissa, Patrick, Mary, Kristen and Avonda.  With that in mind, shortly before the 2011 conference, volunteers will be selected from among the paid registrants to assist with various tasks at the site.  Each on-site volunteer will then be given a special discount code good towards the following year’s 2012 registration costs.

Scholarships

If possible, we will include a place right on the registration form, for you to be able to contribute an additional amount towards scholarships for select applicants who could not afford to attend the classes otherwise.   We would make those selections based on their degree of passion and commitment as well as their need.  Another option will be for your organization or business to sponsor a number of scholarships for applicants from specific ethnic, economic or other target groups according to your agenda.

“You and Wolf created one of the most amazing and transformative events I’ve been part of.”

-Sean

(A barefoot Kiva and Cowboy-hatted Wolf introduce “The Ecology of Healing”)

Staying Involved

If this conference and movement is to continue to grow, flourish, and serve us all, it will need your personal, active and committed support – including:
• Telling everyone about next year’s event, posting the new 2011 posters, and forwarding any emailed announcements sent out between now and next September
• Linking your website or blog, if you have one, to the TWHC site:             www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org
• Posting your conference experience and stories on your blogs, forums and FaceBook pages
• Posting your photos of the conference and Ghost Ranch landscape
• Submitting your 2010 conference stories to us for publishing in the TWHC Newsletter, Plant Healer Magazine, Anima and The Medicine Woman’s Roots blogs:
Kiva@TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org

For more suggestions, go to the Spread the Word Page

“Amazing conference, resurrecting the spirit of Western Herbalism.”
-Paul Bergner, North American Institute of Medical Herbalism

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All photos (c) 2010 their respective photographs (see Facebook for lots more).

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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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Call For Help with Conference Sponsor/Vendor Outreach

Free Registration, Acknowledgment & Unending Thanks Offered to Volunteers

doing outreach to potential event Sponsors, Vendors & Practitioners

and

Any Amount of Help Welcomed from Anyone

willing to send a Sponsor or Vendor Invite and Application to any business or nonprofits you personally know of

The TWHC is getting huge amounts of buzz on the internet, participants are already arranging rides here from as far away as New England and Canada, and we received so many requests to speak that we filled all the spots the first week.  There will be a deep ecological and conservation element, with the help of United Plant Savers. Flamenco dancers and musicians volunteered for free, and two earthy bands were so honored to be involved that they signed on from the east coast without our being able to pay their transportation here. The website has been upgraded, a special blog built just for conference announcements, a first batch of flyers and brochure went out, and more are in the works.  And finally, Mt. Rose Herbs and LearningHerbs.com made the first good sized sponsor donations.  That said, we have a number of tables/spaces to fill, and we could use more financial sponsors to ensure the event’s success.

There are 3 essential elements to this work:
-researching related businesses, nonprofits and health practitioners in NM
-Sending materials email, or snail mail when necessary
-making followup calls to be sure they got the material, encouraging them to commit

We could especially use more help contacting places BETWEEN NOW AND FEB 1ST , the deadline for Sponsors to be included on the first 1,000 20″ posters, in the first 1,000 revised color trifold brochures, and in our Sponsor Drive Director, Rosalee’s slide show video due to be made available through YouTube and through herbal and healing portals.

And those of you who understandably can’t commit to filling a Volunteer Position in this way,

we would still welcome your help sending out to any business, nonprofits and health practitioners you know:

a) TWHC Sponsor Invite

b) TWHC Sponsor Application

c) TWHC Vendor Invite

d) TWHC Vendor Application

You can click on any of the above to download them, the send them yourself and let us know you contacted.  Or alternately, simply send us  the contact name and email and phone, and we will get ahold of them ourselves.  Please try to think of what business, healers, educators and advocacy groups you know of that might value an opportunity to be involved with this conference and promoted as its essential supporter.

Thank you ever so much!  As with all of this work, it is only accomplished with the help of you, the larger Animá tribe.

Click here for more information on the TWH Conference

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Announcing (please post and forward):

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

for the Sept 17-19

TRADITIONS IN WESTERN HERBALISM CONFERENCE

Expanded to 3 Full Days of Classes!

Discount Early Sprout Registration: $250

The first 100 Registrants to request them (just email Kiva) will also receive the following bonus gifts:

Signed Limited Edition “Medicine Woman” color art print by Jesse Wolf Hardin ($35 value)
Foundational Elements in Traditional Western Herbalism Ebook by Kiva Rose ($15 value)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

Featuring:

Rosemary Gladstar • Kiva Rose • Paul Bergner • Phyllis Hogan • Jesse Wolf Hardin • Matthew Wood • Jim McDonald • Howie Brounstein • Phyllis Light • Charles Garcia • Donna Chesner • CoreyPine Shane • Pam Hyde-Nakai • Darcey Blue French • Monica Rude • John Gallagher …and more!

Friday & Saturday Night Concerts

Two nights of deeply inspirited music and heart-welling celebration featuring

Arborea & R.I.S.E. (formerly Rising Appalachia)

Location

The TWHC takes place N.W. of Santa Fe, New Mexico at the enchanting Ghost Ranch, onetime home of artist Georgia O’Keefe and now a relaxed conference center surrounded by beautiful open spaces and sculptured crimson hills.

Classes & Schedule

There will be 3 FULL days of 30 or more in-depth classes Saturday and Sunday, presented by the 20 or so teachers, each 1.5 to 4 hours in length, including hands-on workshops and native plant walks. Specific conditions will be addressed, as well as energetics, diagnostics, preparations and formulas, cutting edge discoveries, ethics and spirituality, the role of the community healer, and plant and habitat conservation.

For more information go to the

Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference Website

or

REGISTER HERE NOW

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Introducing the Music of

Arborea   &   R.I.S.E.
the Awesome Groups performing at the Sept, 2010
Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference

We are ever-so-excited to be featuring Arborea & R.I.S.E. at the first annual TWHC in Fall of 2010, promising two nights of deeply inspirited entertainment and heart-welling celebration.

With their commitment we’re now sure to have the ideal soundtrack for this amazing first-time event, music that evokes the wonder as well as healing capacities of nature, and stirs the wild hearts of the awakened human audience.  Their selection and invite, however, followed dozens of hours researching and considering every possible genre of music and known group.  We went through not only our own literally thousands of digital albums representing styles from around the world, but also volumes of Google searches, and nearly every page of offerings on CD Baby, iTunes and Amazon.com.  All of us here in the canyon are way into music, and thanks to my years of performing we know a vast pool of intensely competent artists from an oud player and ashiko drummers to unrepentent rockers and rapt reggae rastas, including some eco-troubadors we would love to host in the future like Alice DiMicele and that soulful baritoned advocate of wilderness Walkin’ Jim Stoltz.  I wanted to get in touch with songstress Jenny Bird whom I enjoyed playing with years ago, or to find a way to reach the semi hermetic flamenco master Carlos Lomas and his dancing partner Joya.  Rock would lift conference goers out of their seats, Fado could evoke the depth of passion that lovers of nature and practitioners of healing feel, the full on mix of the pain of loss and the nearly unbearable ecstasy of connection and purpose.  Native American flutes could summon the feel of New Mexico, true Land of Enchantment, and the ancient energies that seep through the living land then and now, Hispanic guitar would describe without words a community of land based seekers, and the Celtic pipes could raise the pitch on each listeners heeding of their personal calling.

The first need was for acoustic music, a presentation of meaning and soul that can be driving and danceable as well as sensitive or relaxed, in keeping with the vibe of the event as well as resonant with the energies of the Ghost Ranch and the high desert mountains it lies nestled in.  The second was for styles that bring to mind and heart traditions – of music and cultures just as of ways of healing – while demonstrating and inspiring in others personalized expression, melding, re-forming, adding to and breathing new life into textures of time and sound.  The third need was for music that either lyrically references and reverences or instrumentally suggests the natural world, green beings or the processes of helping and healing.  Fourth and last, was for musicians who would be as thrilled to be performing for this special audience, here in this special place, as we are thrilled to have and hear them!  And with both of 2010’s groups, all four needs have been magnificently filled.   We hereby welcome not just performers, but new extended TWHC and Animá family, sharing heart and the larger cause and vision.

For Friday Night, Sept 17th:
R.I.S.E.
(formerly Rising Appalachia)

Leah and Chloe are the heart of R.I.S.E., sisters with individual ideas and unique expressions of a shared gift, in agreement about employing music as a vehicle of awakeness, personal growth, social and environmental action, building community and celebrating tribe.  Their rhythmically propelled performance has the intent and energy of an Ani DiFranco show, though instead melding tweaked rustic Americana with global sensibility and world beat grooves.  Incredible and incredibly potent vocals stir more than soothe, while delighting and rewarding the fortunate audience.  As so often with our favorite new acoustic tracks, the lyrics are underpinned with minor-key banjo, played by Leah more like the old South actually feels than the ways we’re used to hearing that instrument used in traditional mountain music.  And the fiddle, the instrument that closest mimics the sound of the human voice in all its range of emotion, milked for all its worth by the intense Chloe.  Crowd pleasing acoustic rocker RISE songs include their “All Fence & No Doors” and the infectious Miles Davis tinged “Castle to the Barracks,” but they also turn all too often redundant covers of classics like Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” into distinctly RISE arrangements, with an almost North African hand-drum back beat and their trademark tingle-producing harmonies.

Unlike many bands, they have a cause, a reason beyond making incredibly enjoyable music.  You will find it in the lyrics of some of their cuts, and unabashedly in their between-songs insightful banter.  It is their cause to inspire people to waken to their gifts and destinies, to become empowered in the face of an in some ways repressive political and economic system, to reach those born to care with the motivation to act on their sentiments, to stand up for whatever it is that person believes.  And what R.I.S.E. would seem to believe in is an equality of spirit, in balance with a diversity of form and expression.  Justice for women, for the dispossessed and unheard, for tribal peoples, for wildlife as well as those green growing beings threatened by insensitive development.  They have chosen a path of working with grassroots organizations and activist groups, performing for less income than they would get elsewhere at women-centered and herbal and healing focused events, including the much loved S.E. Women’s Herbal Conference.  In their live performances it becomes impossible to sit motionless, our hopes and spirits lifted, answering the music’s call for us to rise.

Get their music.  Go to their shows.  Hear and enjoy!

For more information about R.I.S.E., please go to:
www.myspace.com/risingappalachia
To download their songs or order their CDs, we recommend CD Baby:
www.cdbaby.com/artist/risingappalachia and ALSO:
www.cdbaby.com/artist/RISErisingappalachia

—————–

For Saturday Night, Sept 16th:
Arborea

Arborea is a very much in love couple, Shanti and Buck.  They are, as we know through their original music, in love not just with each other but with an archaic sense, with dark art and light hearts that carry the stories of mountains and glens, human history and natural history intertwined, destinies inseparable, individual callings waiting to to heard and responded to.  If there were a soundtrack for the Appalachian country healer bending to gather her wild herbs, or the Ozark Granny-Woman handing out healing tinctures with hard to hear and much needed advice, this would be it, with a natural nod to the heaviness of life and purpose that somehow helps carry us forward to the healing and wholeness, to the impossible to resist lift of birds and bliss.  And if it is the classical and Americana dreamtime instrumentation that captures our attention, that paints the landscape for our every wakened feeling, it is Shanti’s siren vocals that tell the story we are called to such an enchanted place to hear.  Trading off on guitar and banjo, they each do their mated part to enchant us with modal moods, ebbing and lifting in organically structured cycles of composition dynamics, a conscious provocative intercoursing of feet-moving tempo and then relaxed pace, rhythmic heartbeat accentuated by the precious moment of silence, of depth and height, from the dream of a white victorian dress in a shadowed grove, to the truth of bared shoulders bent to touch the fertile soil in new day’s light.  If there is a haunting in the artisan efforts of this many times blessed pair, it is only the necessary application of aural fairy dust, the bewildering/bewilding of the too oft distracted human mind, the musical inspiration for each person’s reenchantment.

It can be read in their very name, Arborea, the green energy of this Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference, oak wise and sprout hopeful, reaching out with leaf dressed limbs while rooting securely to the truth of the earth and willingly taking in its nutrients.  It is a tune-built green arbor beneath which we ache and laugh, help and heal, where we stretch and grow into a self that is somehow more vital, intentional, responsive… and thus real.  We trust to follow their trail of seeds, to a vine and tendril draped portal not unlike Alice’s fabled rabbit hole opening up for the adventurous listener, enticing us into the always personal experience of a more natural and authentic, nature-informed and sensory filled, wholly attended and vitally realized life.

We highly suggest you check out Arborea’s enchanting recordings, you won’t be disappointed. For more information about Arborea, please go to:
www.myspace.com/arborea2
To download their songs or to order a CD, we recommend CD Baby:
www.cdbaby.com/artist/arborea

—————————

Note: Musicians make very little income from their work, and we encourage you to support them with direct sales as well as spreading the word about their efforts to your contacts and friends.  Thank you… and enjoy!

For More Information on the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference go to:

www.traditionsinwesternherbalism.org

-above profiles and intro by Jesse Wolf Hardin

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 (Note from Wolf: The following is a letter we thought you’d enjoy reading, by Shaman Path Intensive participant Henry.  I sensed and felt good about his energy and huge heart as soon as he came into the Canyon, and we were all impressed with his gentle but energetic tending of whatever needed doing that weekend.  He is the epitome of the word caretaker, meaning to care about, and take care of, that which matters most… land, a relationship, a project or cause.  What I believe he discovered here was the degree to which he had long been doing this laudable service, the importance of focusing his efforts and not mis-allocating them, the possibility of making it wholly conscious, deliberate, purposeful and directed.  “Am I out of mind doing this?,” he wondered.  Yes, out of the tape loops of self doubt and the habits that bind… and into your self in a clear, present, active, focused and beautiful way.  We’re hoping Henry will be able to assist Resolute with some of the logistical efforts around the 2010 Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference, and welcome his help as well as the opportunity to continue helping him.)

I recently “found” and made contact with the Animá Learning Center, and attended my first-ever event, all of which occurred within less than a month.  Considering my current nomadic state of disconnectedness from modern technological society, the circumstances surrounding my last-minute decision to attend the July Shaman’s Path Intensive weekend were, in my opinion, nothing less than miraculous, far too many “coincidences” to review here.  However, my personal journey that brought me to the canyon began many years ago.  For the past 10-years, since I took the proverbial leap leaving life as I had known it for 58 years behind, I have felt adrift, looking for my path, my higher purpose, asking many questions of the universe, looking for answers.  And although during these years many questions have been answered, the most burning of my life’s, or better yet my path‘s questions seemed to remain unanswered, or so I thought.

There was no question that the decision to attend was right, but the angst and confusion that I think we all experience, the WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!, was with me all along, even as I drove the last few miles from the town of Reserve, even as I began the last 1½ mile walk to the Sanctuary.  And somewhere during that walk, probably past the second or third river crossing, my shoes came off and most of the angst disappeared as the canyon, the river, and ALL of creation welcomed me, and I knew that this was where I was supposed to be.  I was welcome.  I was safe.  I was home!

I arrived 1-day early to give myself time to settle in a bit.  After finding my campsite and setting up camp, I began to explore the canyon.  And immediately, upon officially meeting the river of the canyon, I was beckoned by the river to come and play, in what turned out to be a formal welcome and cleansing.  From that moment it was clear that my being here was no mistake, and I knew that spirit knew what it was doing.  As if there is ever any question that spirit knows what it’s doing.

As the weekend evolved there were many opportunities for introspection and spiritual movement.  It didn’t matter where I was, who I was with, or what I was doing.  Each time I was with one of my fellow students or one of our hosts, we became teachers for each other and questions were answered and guidance given.  I felt compelled to take off my shoes and get to know the earth more intimately.  I walked barefoot for much of my week in the canyon.  I danced with the wind.  I was cleansed by the river.  I was warmed and cleansed by the fire, and nurtured by the mother herself.  I was healed by the primordial sounds created by Wolf’s drumming.  I was beckoned to sit down in the dry creek bed and just be, and fall asleep, something previously unthinkable.  I melted into that gravely wash as if wrapped in the softest bedding.  The ancient volcanic rocks lining the dry wash called to me to come sit and visit, and together we sang and shared stories.  The trees, the flowers, the herbs, the birds, all available, all welcoming, and very excited to be recognized and to have their stories heard.

During my week in the canyon in July, and upon my return to this other place commonly referred to as “the real world?”, my life, my value, my gifts have been unquestionably validated again-and-again.  The so-called confusion surrounding my path and my higher purpose has mostly evaporated.  Turns out I had a better sense of purpose than I could see.  I just needed to get away from the mundane, and into a more nurturing environment to help me see myself more clearly.

I ended my canyon week with a personal counsel session with Wolf.  It was during this session that the true nature of my reconnection with our mother became apparent.  I shared with Wolf the incredible impact the land, and particularly the river, had on me.  My daily cleansing and healing bath in the river was so impactful that I cried as I told Wolf that I wanted to do whatever it took to find places to bathe in unfettered waters.  Wolf spoke of my challenges being relationship and commitment.  Wolf, you’ll be happy to know that with the exception of a few days in the city where I truly had no option, I have sought out and found free-flowing waters, rivers, streams, and ditches, lakes and ponds, to continue my daily ritual of reconnecting and reaffirming my relationship with my home, and my commitment to my self to continue seeking.

To my new found family, Wolf, Loba, Kiva, Rhiannon, I say thank you.  Thank you for your intuitive spirits.  For knowing and trusting the process.  For tending and caring for such an incredibly sacred piece of land, and for making it available to the vulnerable spirits of those like me who come looking for answers and guidance.  For sharing ALL of your gifts, ALL of the time.  Individually and together you provide magic the likes of which our vulnerable world needs so much more of.  I love you, and I’ll see you again.

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Shaman Path Intensive 2009
Participant Experiences

From MaryAnn, artist and re-maker of her life:

This was the second time I had been to the Canyon. For six months prior to my arrival, a battle had raged within me. My inner voice insisted I needed to go again. But something else inside me was against the idea. It wasn’t until a week and a half before I was supposed to leave that I finally decided for sure, yes, I am going. I was baffled by this battle within me. Usually when I make a decision I move forward  with it. I finally decided to look for guidance on how to approach this trip and received some simple advice. List my fears concerning the trip and set intensions for my experience while there. I did these things and even though I was still a bit nervous, I felt better and the battle subsided. What I didn’t realize at the time is that the “theme” for this trip was fear. From my first night in the  Canyon and over the next several days I had plenty opportunity to face those fears. Some on a daily basis. Some were more difficult than others. Some just fell away while others I still need to work with. Upon my arrival back home there were new ones to face. But now there’s one difference. I know how to step back and look at the fear, talk to myself, calm myself, be kind to myself.

By facing my fears I was able to experience presence and connection to the people and the place and take in the many lessons offered. I feel such joy to know that the intentions I had set were fulfilled and more. My experience in the Canyon was much deeper this time. I came out of the Canyon a different person or perhaps just more myself. I look to the future with anticipation at how this experience will color my world. I thank you all again.

Just as a side note, it was palpable, the pull back to the whirlwind of daily life. However, I am resisting the fast pace as much a possible. That was the first fear upon my return home, losing touch with what I had gained.  One of the most wonderful parts of coming back home, besides being with my Honey again, was realizing a stronger connection to this place I call home.

Note from Wolf:  Thank you MaryAnne!  Thank you for your depth of feeling, willingness to hear, and insistence on making shifts in your life that better honors the spirit that you are.  And thanks for the photos of the event pie (yes, the food is notable!) and a departing load of participant gear… with a Resolute owl perched atop.

From Elisabeth, PreSchool Teacher Extraordinaire:

“Thank you for the intense and movement causing experience during the shaman path workshop.  It was very inspiring to watch how all of you worked together lovingly, using your own gifts of spirit to orchestrate the weekend.  All of you are models for lives of passion and fullness.  I felt blessed to witness and partake in it. While the whole experience was extra special, some occurrences stand out more than others for me.

1.  As you know, or noticed, I love your book I’m a Medicine Woman, Too!  As a teacher AND a child that struggled with “gifts”  that were belittled or ignored I recognize the need for such a book that offers joy and appreciation for being who we are.  In my class last year, I had a child that talked about her imaginary friends and it frustrated me so much to know that she will be teased instead of recognized for being special.

2.  I mentioned already at the closing that it was lovely to see two women (Kiva, and Loba) that embodied a rich femininity and proudness of being women.  Thank you to both of you and I love so much how you talked about your belly Loba.  That was so sweet.

3.  The drumming experience in the canyon really pushed my boundaries because I went through a whole series of emotions from being scared, being very angry, to finally just giving in and flowing with it.  Thank you for that sacred experience and your drumming was magnificent, Wolf.

4.  The food was really yummy and beautiful. The care, appreciation, and thanks giving shown for food was delightful.

5.  Finally, I enjoyed each time any of you “appeared”.  You all glow, and the singing, howling, music, (or blending with trees, Wolf) was exciting!

“Thank you all blessings to you from Tucson.”

Note from Wolf:  It was moving to see you open up, start sharing more, confront your imagined limitations, and begin to see yourself in a new light.  You have many gifts to share not just with the kids you teach, but with everyone you meet.  Thank you for coming, and loving.

From Resolute, capable and devoted Animá Apprentice:

“This is my third Shaman’s Intensive — and it was as fresh as the first one I attended.  After these years of applying what I have learned, the basics took on a deeper intensity that was inaccessible to me previously.  And the new material covered has me delving even deeper into place and power.

“Of particular delight was the afternoon floating in the river to the accompaniment of bee song, coming upon their sweet clover along the bank when I finally opened my eyes.  As we returned to the lodge the magic of the bees stayed with me, as all around me the Canyon shimmered as in faery light, a shift in perception which had me seeing the Canyon as if for the first time.  And now this shift continues as I practice Animá in the City, a totally possible way of being wholly myself and connected to our Earth and the greater Animá, wherever I am.“

Note from Wolf: Everytime we see you here you are more in your being, more manifest, stronger and less anxious, and in MaryAnn’s photo you can be seen bravely embodying your owlish magnificence like never before.  Thank you for sharing about the bliss of the bee experience, and please do write something for this blog about the challenges and fears that made the embrace of the magic so much more powerful and amazing.  The story in its entirety is inspirational testament and enchanting to hear.

From Lissa, dream worker and courageous seeker:

“As I sat in a hidden place among the willows next to the river, journaling about the combination of Animá teachings and my dreams, I felt a subtle shift in myself take place, an opening up and settling into myself in a way that wasn’t there before. I am still awed by the memory of the feeling of that shift! As Barbara Kirksey puts it, in her “Hestia: a Background of Psychological Focusing”, I brought my ’soul into a state of dwelling’. Spaciality, in it’s divine aspect, is psychological reality. I finally found my connection to myself and my centeredness: I came home to myself. There, within the sheltering protective walls of the Canyon, I found my boundaries and my foundation.
And I finally ‘got’ how Loba is ‘at home’ in the Canyon, Loba, the strongest archetypal example of a woman at ‘home’ I’ve ever met. I needed to find myself in my own homeness, before I could appreciate hers.

“I did recall dreams almost every night I was there, a definite improvement over times in the past when I couldn’t settle down enough to remember my dreams. They spoke to me about issues I wanted to address while I was there, like my fear of my own mortality. I discovered the connection I hold between sex and death; nightmares about death (which I’ve had since then) still have me gasping and groaning when I wake up, so there’s more work to do! When I can consciously face death, then I will be able to consciously evolve.

“I treasure the notes I took while I was there. They seemed to just flow out of my pen; as I look at them now, I am impressed with the intensity and succinctness of Jesse’s teachings, like ‘inauthenticity is rooted in insecurity’.

“I’ve been to the Canyon often enough now to feel like I’m swimming in familiar waters, while I’m there. I even took in the shamanic drumming under the cliffs with my steady strokes, wildly enjoying the night rhythms…When I get back to Albuquerque, that’s when I realize how deep I’ve gone!

Note from Wolf:  Beautiful, Lissa!!  And so crucial…  The dream and reality must come together, like life and death, not as opposites but as components.  That is truly being home, and whole.  And your compliments, and your being open to being taught and helped means extra to us knowing what all you have been through in your life, and what you have come through.  We are genuinely proud of you, always tickled, often amazed, and determinedly in your service.

Darcey Blue, persistent Animá Student & Longtime Friend of the Canyon

It was a gift I gave myself this July, near the time of my yearly celebration of my birthday, to attend the Shaman’s Path Gathering at the Anima Center.  I’ve been returning to the sacred canyon over and over for years, each time taking in more of the beauty, more lessons, and more feeling.  But it seems this time was different than any other.  I came to the canyon finally free, and more full of myself (as Wolf likes to say) than ever before.  Finally empowered to make real changes in my relationships this year, I was free from the worry, concern and distraction of a relationship that was draining my focus and energy to be fully myself.  There was a strange lack of resistance to what changes might be wrought in the crucible of the canyon; finally, free to make the changes that insisted on being heard.  Feeling open and willing to hear, to feel, and embrace. There is a certain magic about the gatherings in the canyon, that is unique from my many days spent alone in the canyon.  There is the deep sharing, the opening to each other in a vulnerable, powerful and special way, and the way we can witness each other in our growth and challenge.  Having spent so many years neglecting to write down fears, feelings and challenges, speaking them aloud to a group of held such deep power and strength.    And of course, there is the gift of the magical transformation of random foodstuffs into delightful, sensuous meals, shared together, under the song of wind in the cottonwoods.

One of my favorite ways to really ARRIVE and BE PRESENT in the canyon is to get into the water of the beloved river.  Something about shucking shoes, and all protection from the wild elements, and flopping face first into the nearest beaver pond is the most delicious and enlivening action I do each day in the canyon.  Naturally, it was the first thing I did when I arrived and set down my heavy pack after the long walk in from the cars. And something I did each day, at least 3-4 times,  to bring myself back to the here and now, to inhabit my body and relish in the sensations of sun on bare skin, the silky, silty feel of slow water behind a beaver dam, or the chilly flowing water shaded by the alders in the first hours of the day.  And what a beautiful sight to see so many of my sisters floating in the water, rubbing themselves with river mud, enjoying and fully being in their beautiful bodies as Loba and I sang a haunting melody to the cliffs.

Wolf has a knack for asking just the right question at the right time, and we had a circle in which he asked each of us, “What was your childhood dream, and how have you or have you not fully lived that dream?”  What a poignant question for so many of us, but for me especially powerful, because my first dream as a child was to make song- to sing.  Somewhere along the way I lost my voice, in more ways than one, and I abandoned the dream I had as a child to make beautiful songs that touched hearts and souls of people around me.  Admitting that I had willfully abandoned that dream, thinking it not “worthwhile”, and had pursued others was difficult and powerful for me.  I’ve long been working towards reclaiming my voice- both to sing, and to feel empowered to speak my truth, and Wolf reminded me how very valuable my voice is.  He posited the question, “What would the world be without the bird songs?”  The croaking of the blue heron overhead, the squawking of the crows, and the melodies of the song birds- all unique, some more melodic than others, but all equally valuable in enriching the world with sound and song.  And like a flash of lightening, or the breaking rays of sun at dawn, I felt deep in my heart what my song could be, in addition to an expression of my deepest feelings and desires and unique self, it is a manifestation of the song of creation, that is underlying everything, known by the Celtic term  “Oran Mor,” the Great Song.  The canyon has a special magic in allowing that song to be heard by those open to it, and I found myself standing on the same rock that overlooked the beaver pond, the cottonwoods and the standing hills climbing towards the peaks of the Gila Mountains, and singing- croaking, wailing, howling, and feeling.  And most importantly I gave little thought to who might be listening at that time, which in the past has been a point of contention for me.  I am so grateful for the songs that the canyon shares with me, and the gift and lesson of being able to sing my song, and speak my truth, no matter if it sounds a squawk or like the sweetest lilting melody.  I am grateful for the ability to feel my strength and my vulnerability, and to begin to feel the inherent value my unique gifts and feelings and songs have for myself and for the world.  I am grateful to the canyon for its ability to call me home again and again.  I am grateful to the canyon dwellers who consistently offer their guidance and insist on my continued growth and becoming more “full of myself.”

Note from Wolf:  How long as it been now, Darcey?  You have sometimes slowed, other times lurched ahead on this path of re-becoming, but you have never stopped, nor pretended things were other than what they were, and now you have come so far!  Our encouragement of your literal music, is encouragement and even insistence on so much more — that you explore, embody and manifest your true whole self, love that self enough to share it honestly and purposefully with all.  The world would indeed be poorer without your intentional, whole-being, multi faceted and full hearted song.  

As tuned “instruments” of something beautiful and meaningful, thank you all for the part you “play.”

-Wolf & Family

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(Our next event is only a little over a week away now, a good time to please copy and forward this invite to your list)

WILD FOODS WEEKEND: August 28th-31st
Collecting & Feasting On Plants Of The Southwest
(for men, women & families)

Join the delight-filled Loba, Wolf and myself at our enchanted wildlife sanctuary, for 2 days of deep presence and connection to nature… learning to identify, gather, preserve and prepare some of the many wild foods of the mountainous and riparian Southwest. You’ll arrive Thursday Noon and leave Sunday, sleeping in riverside tents and cozy cabins, and feasting on wild fare that you help to gather and cook.  Learn about ecological restoration and sense of place while becoming intimate with the spirits and uses of plants like stinging nettle, dock, clover, lamb’s quarters, dandelion, acorns, wild grape leaves and grapes, and wild olives.  Learn to dry, salt-cure, and grind on an ancient stone metate as the herons croak and eagles soar overhead!  Sliding scale donation, with no one turned away for lack of funds.

For more information, read Wolf’s inspiring Wild Foods article.

To attend, please download, fill out and return the event Registration Form: wild-foods-weekend-reg.doc

Thanks Much!   -Kiva Rose

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