Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Greetings students, sponsors, friends and fellow wilders.  There continues to be a whirlwind of activity here as our Canyon Spring slides swiftly into Summer.  Deadlines for magazines and curricula are being met, while working hard on the conference, reworking web content, and continuing to seek someone among our students and readers who might take on some of the responsibilities of media contacts, promotion and outreach.

Most notable of late, was our friend John Gallagher’s arrival to film a special herbal project with Kiva.  In several days of lengthy audio and video recording, they developed material for John to do his editing magic on, intended for release through the leading herbal education site LearningHerbs.com.  LearningHerbs is a major Sponsor of our Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference, and now a producer of dynamic Anima herbal tradition materials.

John is a real gem, a huge heart and able champion with a brilliant mind for synthesizing and recombining, whose talents would be making him a ton of money if not being applied to his nature awareness and healing arts priorities.  He has far reaching vision and the ability to recombine elements to create something more than a base result, making him a modern day alchemist in the true sense of the term.   I hope an opportunity will be made for me to give to him in the ways I am known for best giving, in turn for all the amazing help and sweet caring he has gifted to us.  I know that the canyon spirit was working to slow him down enough to soak up the rewards offered and so deserved, even as he inspired Kiva and I into overdrive on a number of exciting new ideas.

Among the upcoming changes he instigated and empowered, will be the largest reorganization of online Anima materials and offerings yet.  It was explained to us the whys and hows of using routinely freshened content driven sites, and the dramatically reduced readership that general or multi-focus sites get in comparison to tightly focused niche sites.  Since there are so very many different areas we address and audiences we seek, a single combined sight was deemed practical but now seems counterproductive.  If Kiva is able to master a number of new software systems, we will before long be managing up to 9 distinct but interconnected websites.  For the longest time I’ve tried to isolate some of my work like articles on arms and hunting from the so called treehugger and spiritual or shamanic work and readers, and my nature awareness and self growth pieces have had a different tone than the earthy, sometimes humorous and always opinionated work I do for Libertarians and homesteaders.  Increasingly I am using a single whole voice in everything I write, and it is time to integrate all elements even as we give each element its own portal to our School, free materials and valuable practice.  All sites will be increasingly dynamic and interactive with new content moved to the top of the first page like on a blog or magazine, and will include the main combined Anima “mother” site as well as content sites devoted to the Medicine Woman Herbalism Tradition, Anima Healing Arts, Nature Awareness and Shamanism, Traditional Foods and Cooking, ReWilding and Libertarian, and so forth.  Each will have distinct personalities and yet have a similar feel and related appearance to the others, and all will be interlinked to one another as well as to the mother site.  The sites will be easier to navigate, with more features including rolling headlines, video and audio files, and forums for enrolled students to interact.

In addition, each of the Anima sites will have its own newsletter, in lieu of blogs.  Even posting 2 to 3 times a week here, there is a large and growing backlog of new writings, sharings and intimate canyon tales waiting for their turn in the sun.  In the future you will have the option of subscribing to only those targeted newsletters that you are most intrigued and served by, or else subscribing to all of them so that you get everything that we publish.  Pieces on canyon wilderness life will go on the Nature Awareness newsletter, for example, pieces from the one on Revolution to the essay on the zen of Tracking would appear on the ReWilding related newsletter.  Much of what appears in these newsletters will later be added to the related website, in a way that will get them more attention than being swallowed up in the seldom utilized Blog Archives (found at right, in case you didn’t know that all previous posts are stored for you there).  There will be a thorough explanation and introduction at the time of launch.

There was a bonus to John’s welcome visit, his son Rowan.  Called after the myth imbued tree of that name, Rowan exhibited a respectful desire to learn and grow, to seek some magical element in life and find a way to prove himself filling a special role.  Our daughter Rhiannon found him an excellent, considerate and bravely adventurous friend, and she had a better time with him than any visiting playmate her age so far.

Seeing his potential as well as heart, I presented him with a hand made skinning knife that I put in a neck sheath and marked with his name, a pair of Rowan tree boughs, and three words that I hope he will strive to live by.  The definitions or explanations I gave for each are not typical, so I will paraphrase them for you here:

Honor: Doing what you feel is right in spite of the costs and in the face of consequences… not what other people or the law expects of you.  Promising to what is honorable, and honorably keeping your vows, with no excuses, no whining or slacking.

Love: Acting out of a deep love, whether fiercely battling to protect what you care most about, creating, or sweetly tending to someone or something.  If you do things out of love, you will never do anything half heartedly or half way.

Vision: Working hard to see the way all things connect, imagining how things can be made better and more beautiful, and then heeding and following through on that vision.

This is a trilogy of principles that we could all likely benefit by subscribing to.  I don’t know if Rowan is reading this, but if your are, I send you regards and pledge my assistance.

But then, that is what we offer to anyone who can say that they want and will make use of it.

Until next time, remember our many reminders to live deep, notice all, and savor often.

-Wolf

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What a stimulating day, waking up to a strong wind blowing bits of snow on me under the outdoor canopy that is bed.  Waking to freak cold temperatures, I immediately thought about our guest Resolute, who had been bravely sleeping outside as part of intensifying practice of awareness – seeing and noticing more, hearing the night noises and especially owl hoots that can only be enjoyed without muffling walls between, and feeling the vagaries of weather and callings of the heart, the warmth of love and chill of world events.  Yesterday it was warm as we discussed what is required to be a conscious and compassionate hunter, the confidence that comes from increasingly being able to feed oneself apart from the provisions of exploitative and increasingly shaky civilization.  Tomorrow will likely be warm and sunny as well, as New Mexico provides its usual display of back to back extremes.

We are getting closer to catching up with the multiple projects we have in motion.  The TWHC conference blog is updated with class descriptions, changes and Rosalee’s introductory video, and next will be updates to the Anima site.  Kiva has put a lot of time and attention into preparing for being filmed by John Gallagher teaching her first first video courses, a series on herbal energetics for those with little to moderate herbal experience which will be released by LearningHerbs.com.  We are a week away from the filming, simultaneously tending students, writing and submitting articles, and working to ensure the success of the September Conference.  If you plan to register to attend, you might want to do so soon before the cost goes up $25 in June.

Our very dear friends Gioia and Carlos of the performance group FlamencoWorldCompany, have just returned from visiting my old teenage runaway haunts, Topanga Canyon, having spread posters and news of the conference everywhere they went.  We are greatly looking forward to reuniting with them and daughter Gio in September.

We found out late that La Montanita CoOp sponsors Earth Day celebrations in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque, only 250 and 300 miles from the Sanctuary.  I plant to make myself available to speak there next year, but last week conference volunteers Serafina and Dr. Blue made sure their was a TWHC presence, with attractive tables at both city’s events.  Dr. Blue’s photos, above and below, show the beautifully arranged posters and life-effusing plants that attracted many of the attendees… as well as his wife and partner Chance, beaming as usual.

My next challenge will be to get good contact info for the right magazine and newspaper editors, as well as radio show hosts, that we might be able to work with in drawing attention to the TWH conference.  If there is anyone adept at and excited about assisting with media research or contacting, please give me a write.

Resolute is enjoying a magical tea party put on by Rhiannon and Loba, as I watch a pair of woodpeckers playing seductive tag games with each other around a pinon trunk just outside the window.  Working only a few feet from my desk, Kiva has put on her headphones to set her own pace.  While I type all too fast even with mellowing Southern Goth Americana, haunting Balkan melodies and laid back 1930’s blues classics, she functions best with hard driving White Stripes or 16 Horsepower songs that I personally reserve for the open road with a radar detector to temper my pace.  She’s been extra happy lately, sporting a utility belt I got her with a shape suggested by the Lotus plant, oil tanned leather hand crafted into a set of neo-tribal bags for her I.D., botanist’s magnifying loupe and note pad.  I’m working on a trade with the two leathersmiths, barter being a way to continue enriching our lives without having to spend ever more scarce funds.  Much of what we have that wasn’t a gift from some caring person or Supporter, was obtained in this way.  If you would like, I could write an entire post on what is truly the art of barter.

Before long we will have another volunteer crew here, made up of Sky Island Alliance folks and others, with our sanctuary partner Van spearheading continuing watershed restoration efforts.  The focus of the next event here will be planting willow starters on USFS land downstream from the sanctuary, to stabilize banks that need help with the seasonal floods.  Anyone interested in showing up to help, should write us for more information.

Another half hour of blowing snow just whipped through, peeling up roofing paper that I will be forever working to secure.  Like the weather with its balance of cold and hot, dark and bright, I simultaneously carry in my breast the ache of what hurts or has been lost, the satisfaction of a vital mission, the restlessness of the inspired and the contentment that follows the embodying of utter authenticity, the joy and hope that attends inspirited, ever resurgent life.  There is no desperation, as the inner tear both awakens me and is evidence of how much I care… and from the soil of every inner hurt blossoms unrestrained gratefulness and gladness.  In this way, even though there are things I ache to remedy or change there is no empty place in me waiting to be filled, no assertion without honest challenge, no softening without a strengthening at the same time, no light without a shady leaf-darkened place to rest and contemplate in.

Because of this, your contributions of whatever kind – not needed to make up for some shortage or deficit – can go directly to fueling what we have to share with others and give to our purpose and cause.  And thus whole,  your interest or support, learning or love means all the more to me.

Thanks and wild wishes always.

-Jesse Wolf Hardin

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At long last! –– the release of the greatly anticipated

COURSE 1

of a 5 course program for the village herbalist: From the Ground Up: Grassroots Training in Traditional Western Herbalism

FOUNDATIONS IN TRADITIONAL WESTERN HERBALISM

Written & Taught by Kiva Rose Hardin

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After years of preparation, the essential first course in Kiva Rose’s comprehensive 5 course program has just been released, with openings for a select number of committed students.  Foundations in Traditional Western Herbalism provides information and tools that are important for understanding and getting the most from the 4 other courses in this groundbreaking series.  Kiva’s attention to the basics makes the practice of herbalism comprehensible for a beginner, while her unconventional perspective and innovative approach ensure that even experienced herbalists will find themselves learning new concepts, in lessons that not only inform but stretch and challenge, inspire and delight.

Lessons arrive as PDF files, with beautiful, illustrative color photos scattered throughout.

To register, go to the bottom of this post and click on the Application link.

The Course Work

Each lesson consists of a core topic, accompanying definitions and terms, a section on Materia Medica with an in-depth profile of a single herbal ally, and another featuring a description and complete directions for foundational medicine making techniques, with questions and assignments for every section. Course 1 includes 4 lessons:

• Lesson 1: The Roots of Traditional Western Herbalism
  Materia Medica: Nettles (Urtica spp.)
  Medicine Making: Tisanes, Infusions & Nourishing Infusions
• Lesson 2: Healing as Wholeness & The Tonic Approach
  Materia Medica: Mullein (Verbascum spp.)
  Medicine Making: Infused Oil
• Lesson 3: Vitalist Herbalism & The Anima
  Materia Medica: Evening Primrose (Oenothera spp)
  Medicine Making: Decoctions
• Lesson 4: The Matrix – Healing & the Material World
  Materia Medica: Goldenrod (Solidago spp.)
  Medicine Making: Herbal Baths & Hydrotherapy

Students can take as long as needed to complete work, which includes studies and readings, the answering of questions and the fulfillment of assignments.  It is these assignments that are in some ways the most crucial of all, placing the focus on the immediate, practical utilization of each idea and skill that we learn here.  “This is not so much about memorizing information,” she explains, “but about experiencing the plants and their effects, and learning to understand and integrate those effects in a practical and effective way.”  Once the coursework is completed and emailed back, Kiva reviews it and then writes a single detailed, personal response providing any helpful clarification or correction, further suggested assignments and advice where needed.

Once your Foundations in Traditional Western Herbalism questions and assignments are complete, you may then want to enroll in each of the following, soon to available courses:

• Course 2: Elements in Energetic Herbalism
• Course 3: Human Ecology: Physiology & Organ System Energetics for the
  Traditional Herbalist
• Course 4: Reading the Terrain: Practical Diagnostics for the Traditional Herbalist
• Course 5: Restoration: Pathophysiology & Diagnostics for the Traditional Herbalist

Course 1 will provide the groundwork for beginning or furthering herbal healing practice, and anyone taking all 5 courses can be confidant of having been given the essential information, means and tools needed to be a highly effective herbalist… whether treating one’s self and family, or giving one’s life to helping heal others.

About Your Instructor

Kiva is the cofounder of the distinctive sense and common sense based Anima Tradition of Herbalism, author of the acclaimed Anima Healing Arts Blog (formerly the Medicine Woman’s Roots), and the village herbalist of the rural community near her lush botanical sanctuary in the wilderness of Southwest New Mexico.  She’s become known for her intuitive understanding of plants and their properties, leading her to discover – or in some cases rediscover – novel uses and treatments, as well as for her evocative, easily understood explanations of energetics, and she and her school’s bioregional emphasis.

Kiva writes: “My focus is firmly on accessible, grassroots herbalism that educates the individual and serves the community, both the human component as well as the larger earthen community. I strongly believe in restoring health at all levels and approach healing from the understanding that the body is a diverse and intelligent ecology, integrally connected to the planet as a whole.”

As her partner in this life and work, I couldn’t be more proud of her efforts, or more impressed with this life-empowering and life-enhancing course.

Donations

All courses are offered on a donations basis, with a $200 to $400 suggested sliding scale depending on your ability to contribute and how much you value what is offered.  Those unable to donate the complete amount at once, are invited to contribute over time as able.

Apply Now

To apply, click on the link below, then download, fill out and return the:

Course 1: Foundations in Traditional Western Herbalism Application

Spread the Word

And please make the time to spread the word about this exciting series of courses, by pasting and forwarding this message to your mailing list, or reposting this announcement on your blog or in  appropriate forums you frequent.  Thank you for your patience in waiting for this course to be released, and for your commitment to healing, the plant world and this School.
-Jesse Wolf Hardin

Anima Lifeways and Herbal School
www.AnimaCenter.org and www.AnimaHealingArts.org

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Recommended to watch:

SEEDS OF CHANGE VIDEO

There’s been a video on YouTube for some time now that we’ve wanted to recommend to our Anima School and Anima Healing Arts blog readers.  Produced by the creative visionary Bruce Weaver, “Seeds of Change” uses video, powerful stills and artistic editing to tell the story of an earth in need of and ready for a major shift.

This production is about changing how we view the world as well as how we live and act on it, the necessity of bonding with nature and re-engaging land based culture and tradition.  Anima’s own Jesse Wolf Hardin is featured along with a powerful collection of diverse teachers and inspiring quotes… from Father Thomas Berry to the indigenous Momos truthsayers…. creating a living tapestry that tells the story of our times… a vital wake up call.

To View the Video

CLICK HERE

And to read more about the larger movie project to which this is a part, please go to the:

Dances With Destiny Site

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Spring will be official in a few days, but he canyon didn’t wait and is greening and blooming like crazy.  Perhaps it the relatively quiet nature of the Winter that Spring seems to reveal itself in a series of “firsts,” not the nose tickling releases of pollen from our year round Junipers, but more like the reappearance of birds whose voices have been for several months absent, the bursting forth of the first of each beloved annual plant species.  This week we saw the first mole poking its head up through the soil, looking for the next food to chomp rather than for its shadow a’ la the proverbial groundhog.  The first bears seen after their low profile Winter lethargy, spotted by visiting herbalist 7Song and Kiva while on a walk to wildcraft Lycium. The first ducks moving back north on their hereditary routes.  The first tremendous gusts from the South that usher in nearly three months worth of dramatic winds.

Among other kinds of firsts, have been the release of new Anima correspondence courses, a newly revised website, and now a new form for our most involved associates and supporters.  Now with us redefining Anima Apprentices as seasonal on-site students here for seasonal classes, we needed a new position for Resolute, our only full Apprentice under the old definition.  She is now the first inductee of what we are calling The Anima C0uncil, an honored position that will be made available only to accomplished individuals serving simultaneously as Anima Student, Sponsor, Assistant and Adviser.  I hope you will congratulate her, for her induction into this inner Council, as for the inner work and project efforts through which she has earned her position.  For another glimpse of her brave growth and developing wisdom, we recommend her following blog post.

Our kind guest 7Song braved the high river with a sore back, in order to have his brain picked for herbal information by our always enthusiastic Kiva, and was hopefully blessed by his time here with us as well.  It was a relief to be in the presence of a decidedly non-PC practitioner with unconventional perspective and snarky sense of humor, further indication that the presenters at our Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference will be anything but predictable stereotypes.  7Song is the experienced director of the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine, and director of Holistic Medicine for the Ithaca Free Clinic in NY, as well as volunteering his services for events where he can help.

The river can be expected to remain high for another few weeks, and the bottom may still be too plowed and loose for crossing with a vehicle for even longer.  For now, trips to town twice a week involve the 1.5 mile and 2,000 feet climb up the mountain to our secondary parking area in the forest.  The up side, is that is downhill for packing heavy groceries and mail in each time.  Even with all that’s going on, Kiva has managed to bring our comprehensive herbal correspondence course to completion, and those of you who have so long been waiting can prepare to register in the next week or two.  Our other priorities will be our outstanding student lesson exchanges and health consultations, before the next big wave of conference promotion and organization.  Wish us well, and thank you for your support and love.  If we are of inspiration or assistance to you in any ways, we are well rewarded.

-Wolf

(Photo is of a bear skull found in the dry wash here, along with one of 1000+ year old corn cobs preserved under rock ledges since the Sweet Medicine (Mogollon) people grew and husked them… part of the archaeological legacy of this wildlife and botanical sanctuary)

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Glad Greetings from the Canyon!  I haven’t posted in awhile, it’s been one of the busiest Springs ever, and even without a lot of Winter retreat guests my time has been well taken.  A first priority, always, is helping Rhiannon with her home schooling each morning, from about 7 to 11.  And for past month we have been catching up on the homestead and sanctuary chores that had been neglected during the cold months.

Thank you for the caring comments that have come in about our Sponsors post here, it means a lot especially from folks who can’t afford to give financially.  For others of you, a monthly amount equal to a Netflix subscription or a nice dinner for two could make the difference in our meeting School expenses and continuing to expand our offerings.  To apply to be a Sponsor, fill out and return the Sponsor Form

Visitation is on the increase with the warmer weather.  Today the herbalist teacher 7Song is arriving for a few days of canyon magic, exploring the early season plants just now sprouting up in this botanical refuge, and talking plant medicine with Kiva even though the river is high, fast and cold enough to really test his “want to”!  If not dissuaded by having to wade the formidable waters, there could be a retreat guest here Wednesday, as well the sky watcher Ron who helped secure this property from development.  Once the river drops back down we’re hoping we’ll get to get to see our dear friend and sponsor Mark, who has been working 6 days a week to try and keep his business rolling.   He gives so much to his projects  and his family, and he gave so much to us when he was still able, no we are rooting on him being able to do things are that are good and nourishing for him!  We then look forward to other herbalists dropping by this remote canyon, the sweet and astute Julie McIntyre, followed by John Gallagher of Herbmentor.com who will be filming a video course taught by Kiva.  If we’re lucky he will be bringing his nature loving little boy as well, and Rhiannon will get to study and play with him.  Dates for retreats are starting to fill May and June up, so anyone planning a sojourn here would do well to schedule with us in advance.

There are just the tiniest patches of snow left up on the mountains around us, and every time I gaze at them, I bid Winter a bittersweet goodbye. What a wonderful Winter it was!! We were so blessed by all the lovely snow and storms, all the cozy days of baking by the fireside, drinking acorn tea and shelling the very last of the precious acorn supply! We’ve been savoring acorn butter on the last of the winter squashes (Thank you Silver for the delicious bounty!), on chocolate brownies, and even on our scrambled eggs, when we’re feeling really indulgent! Thank you Kiva for such an incredible idea!

The dock has been poking its little leaves up from several of our wild garden areas for weeks now, and is now big enough to harvest for the first spring salad! We’ve already been harvesting lots of wild mustard greens and eating them with everything! The so called “dry wash” is running with snowmelt, and the river is steadily still rising too, and has turned that special grey-ish color it gets when it’s full of freshly melted snow.  Right now it is rushing and loud, with the depth of the crossing varying from thigh high to waist high in the channels next to the banks.

One of the things that we’ve been busy doing is a major Spring Cleaning! It’s been going on quite a while! We’re working our way through the kitchen/bus and will continue till all the homestead structures, sheds, and guest lodges are happily settled into better order. It’s so nice having Rhiannon’s enthused company for all this kind of work. We are both so blessed that we so love all the little joys that come along with all the scrubbing and sorting– finding lost treasures, reading memorabilia, petting lovely cloths as we fold them, decorating in new ways, making the windows shine and greasy kitchen shelves seemingly come back to life as they’re scrubbed with a scrub brush! Of course there are times when it does seem a bit overwhelming, and we help each other keep it all in perspective, singing as we work! We’ve been working on learning a bunch of new songs– our newest favorite is The Maid of Cullmore. We’ve listened to Rising Appalachia’s (who will be playing at our conference) beautiful version of this song at least 50 times by now!

Today was balmy-warm most of the day, and Rhiannon and I grilled buffalo burgers outside over oak coals and roasted whole onions and garlic heads and red peppers in the fire and had so much fun out in the wind poking the fire and moving all the food around in it as the sun sank down– and we ate supper with Kiva all wrapped in ponchos getting our hands messy peeling off the burnt outsides of the onions– aahh, heaven!  Or as our self proclaimed redneck neighbors in the county like to put it, “If heaven isn’t a helluva lot like this place, I don’t wanna go!”

Time to get ready for the evening rituals of tea and hot water for washing, maybe settling into a good book for a while before bedtime. Sending you all our love and warmest wishes, dear readers!

Hugs and wild canyon winds to you!
Loba
What I’m reading right now:
Wildwood Dancing (Julliet Marillier)
The Lively Art of Ink Painting (Ryozo Ogura)
Painting Nature in Watercolors
Honey from a Weed (Patience Gray)
Hot Sour Salty Sweet :A Culinary Journey through Southeast Asia (Jeffery Alford and Naomi Duguid)

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We’d like to take this time to publicly thank Chris P. for the many months that she served as a devoted Anima Sponsor… or “supporter” as we used to term it.  It was also an honor to be allowed to aid her process and growth, while encouraging her brave changes.  She steps down in order to invest in regional activities and causes, with our deep gratitude and blessings.  And her departure creates a need, position and mantle that we have to hope you or someone you can recommend will feel called to fill… joining folks like Resolute and Nick as Anima’s most intimate and dependable assets.

Becoming An Anima Lifeways & Herbal School

SUPPORTER

To be an Anima Sponsor is to be an honored and integral part of this place and purpose, a committed financial supporter essential to the functioning of this School as well as the continued protection and restoration of its botanical and wildlife sanctuary.  Your regular monthly, quarterly or yearly donations can help determine if the land and school not only survive but thrive, touching, inspiring, affecting, empowering and aiding ever more people.

Unlike with most schools, Anima gets no grants or other means of funding, and there is no charge per se for Anima opportunities and products.  All Anima on-site and correspondence courses, personal counsel and herbal consultations, retreats and books are offered on a sliding scale donations basis… with a majority of students only able to offer the minimum amount, and with some having no money at all to contribute in return.  It is at the very core of the School mission, that its teachings and tools be a gift to the world, with no person in need ever be turned away because of a lack of money.  What makes it possible to continue and further this work with such low funding, is the fact that the school property has already been paid for, that the School staff live primitively and inexpensively… and that Anima has been able to count on a degree of continuous contributions from a select, evolving family of Sponsors.

Donations that come in because of courses and services are valuable, yet unpredictable.  What’s great about contributions from Sponsors, is that the amounts arrive at about the same time every month, quarter or year, making it possible to anticipate when the School’s most crucial expenses will get covered.  A commitment of as little as 50 to 100 dollars per month can do wonders for reducing the amount of stress and worry there… helping make sure that Anima continues to be developed, spread and shared to the benefit of the world.

It is thanks to faithful support, that the Anima websites and blogs have been upgraded again, with many more free articles and resources, and an ever-more dynamic interface.  This expanded internet presence has greatly increased not only the amount of student applications but also the number of first time readers, as the general public increasingly accesses and learns through these online portals.  Several Anima Lifeways and Herbal Correspondence Courses are being created and released annually, featuring both fundamental conceptual lessons and skill based subjects – with courses on Tracking, Field Botany, and Grassroots Activism currently in progress.

In precarious financial times, it is even more important that everyone carefully consider where our precious assets are spent, and what we feel are the most meaningful, helpful, fruitful and personally satisfying.  If at any point, supporting the work of Anima feels more important and fulfilling to you than the many other contenders for your finite dollars, a commitment from you would be greatly appreciated… and never forgotten.  And if you want to help out but can’t afford any size commitment, please consider if there is anyone you know who might relate to the work of this school and feel called to be one of its champions and pillars.

To read the details of the Anima history, sanctuary, teachings and programs, go to the:

Anima Lifeways & Herbal School Website – www.animacenter.org

To pledge, click below, download, fill out and then return the:
Anima Supporter Form

Thank you so much for helping in whatever ways you can, whether with donations, assistance with outreach and networking, participation in courses and events, or simply providing encouragement and alliance.  And just by opening to and benefiting from what is given, you are each valued adjuncts to this school and way.

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The day after our last white-out, most of the snow had already disappeared and a warm wind began blowing clouds of golden, nose tickling juniper pollen through the air… yet another sign that dates be darned, Spring is here!  Precipitation continues to blow through, each time preceded and followed by temperatures too warm for keeping a long sleeved shirt on.

The photos are of the wild currant leaves bursting out from what a couple weeks ago were still bare stems.  Already they have a deliriously sweet smell, like drops of honey mead from the licentious halls of Valhalla, or the enticing flower garlands of magic canyon faeries.  Or more accurately, it could be said it is the rest of the universe that seeks in its own individuated ways to be as hardy and eager, fresh and fine, aromatic and alluring as the canyon currants’ new March leafage.

The river is finally starting to rise more, pregnant with snowmelt.  We can tell not only by its growing size, but also its shift in color from clear or blue to a shimmering silver like the sides of salmon or Pacific fog as the sun first hits it.  Kiva had difficulty getting out today, with our specially lifted Jeep still waiting to be repaired and returned.  Soon enough though, we may well find there are weeks where we again have to carry all our supplies in on our backs, intermittently skirting and wading the serpentine swells.  Her purpose today was to upload from town her myriad additions and improvements to the blogs and website, which we will no doubt be ready to announce to the general public soon.

The Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference posters arrived and came out great.  We’ve begun sending them out to anyone who can expect to find herbal or health stores that will agree to keep them up until the event.  Printing costs and postage to mail them is high, but if any of you have places in mind for them please don’t hesitate to write and request a given number.  Already some folks are asking for a signed copy, apparently so that they can be hung as art on their own home’s walls.

We have a number of new articles written that are suitable for magazine publication, so if you can suggest any periodicals in your region to submit to, we would very much appreciate it.
This photo of my in-house bamboo gives the impression that it would like to go outside and play.  It embodies the spirit of growth, change, resilience, and insistence… traits that I can personally relate to.

Below this post you will find our daughter Rhiannon’s latest missive, with a new twist.  Along with the entire text as she wrote it, you will find an audio file that you can download if you would like to hear her read some of it aloud.  We would like it if you could let us know if you’re able to do this or not, since if it appears useful for a percentage of readers I will start posting Audio Tales direct from the canyon sanctuary on a regular basis.  First though, I thought you would like the opportunity to hear this amazing 9 year old girl’s voice, and some of you we know have long been waiting.

Blessings to all, from us all, and from this special place.
Wolf

(photos (c)2010 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

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Wildscaping, Brief Storm, Turkey Tracks, and the First Hint of New School Programs

Greetings on a truly lovely day.  This morning we awoke to snowfall featuring giant fluffy flakes, that quickly covered the trees and ground.  We hurried Rhiannon from her schoolwork and into warm clothes for sledding before the equally quick melt.  I stepped shirtless into the swirls and gusts to take photos, just as a flock of wild turkeys ambled up the opposite hill like old women moving slowly in a line through a Fall field, hunched over in rhythmic waves as they gather the harvest into clutched baskets or aprons.

If we were farmers with wonderful peach or apple trees rather than being assistants to a wild bounty, we would be afraid that an early budding might be followed by a freeze, and would thus be struck fruitless this year.  The uncultivated currents and willows, however, are unfazed by the crazed fluctuations of temperatures in the mountainous Southwest, and its buds are reddened and encouraged by a freeze rather than being defeated by it.  Such are the benefits of hunting, foraging, and what I call “wildscaping” – a refastening to the wild covenant, helping the proliferation of edible and medicinal native species that are adapted to the area and resilient in the face of local predation and hardship.  Given the amount of water we have been blessed with this Winter past, we can be fairly confident of at least a smattering of gatherable currents, a sizable wild olive harvest, and enough wild mulberries for not only the rock doves, ground squirrels, raccoons and a berry picking Rhiannon, but also for a Loba-baked pie.  And so it is with our work here, our Winter of rooted efforts and flurry of ideas ensuring new growth, new ways of branching out, a fresh flowering, and the sometimes surprising fruits of such loving labor.

Breaking News: In the next couple of days you will see a post describing the new ways in which our courses are being organized.  From now on all courses will fall under new programs identified with mostly traditional village archetypes, including the Village Healer, Shaman, Mentor and parent, Naturalist, Hearth-Keeper, conservationist Earth-Tender and activist Ranger.  There are a number of courses available, including the all new “ReWilding” and “Emptying of The Burden Basket.”  And soon to be released will be the long awaited, in-depth “Foundations in Traditional Western Herbalism” course, the first of 3-parts and long in the making… followed by other skill-centered ones on wild foods gathering and preparation, land restoration, nature-based education, grassroots activism and much, much more.  As they say, you heard it here first.

Also, the amazing artist Katlyn, a longtime friend and ally of ours, has asked for help adapting the “Emptying of the Burden Basket” for a group ritual, possibly incorporated with the building of a cairn.  It could be hard in a public environment to meaningfully discharge all that one carries and is often attached to, or to have the time for unloading of all that needs unloading, but we are committed to increasingly figuring out how to create opportunities including group opportunities that are not only meaningful and symbolic, but that also represent the genuine moving of energy, making real life choices and difficult changes, being remade in the process of remaking our world.  I will let you know what we might come up with.

The sun is blazing through what is only a thin layer of clouds now, with an increasingly blue tint.  The snow that for a time preserved the turkeys tracks, is now all but soaked into the earth, leaving no evidence of their passage except for my pleasing memories… and this brief telling.

Warm regards,
Wolf

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Many of you have been waiting for the release of this special course for a long time.  Wait no longer!  Registrations are now being accepted, just click on the link at the bottom of this post.  We will be announcing approximately 1 new or revised course per week for awhile, including the upcoming first course in the Anima Healing Arts herbal series.  Thank you for forwarding these announcements, to folks you think could most benefit from the various subjects. -Kiva Rose

Announcing the Anima Correspondence Course

EMPTYING OUR BURDEN BASKET:
Unburdening, Evaluating & Then Choosing The Burdens We Bear

with Jesse Wolf Hardin

Suggested Length: 3 Days to 2 Weeks

Included: Assigned readings, exploratory questions, step by step instructions, and assignments for implementation

The Burden Basket is a metaphor for the load that we carry on our shoulders, including not only unpleasant obligations, restrictive schedules and plans, but also the commitments and responsibilities we are proud or pleased to bear.  The worries and fears we’re attached to.  The weight of what we think we know.  The illusions and preconceptions that limit our understanding.  The dogma and certainty, comfort and assurance.  The career that we are bound to.  The family and other people we’re promised to, and the ways in which we are expected to be with them.

Most of our lives we may choose to just keep adding to our Basket, never taking time to do a comprehensive inventory, to see what has grown or otherwise changed since we first put it in there, to assess what is still real and relevant to us and see which continues to align with our needs and priorities  as well as what doesn’t.  The result of such endless accumulation is often a feeling of being over-promised and overwhelmed, beholding to old promises and intentions rather than responsive to current needs, principles, mission and purpose.

You are sure to benefit from the Burden Basket process and course:

• If your daily activities seem increasingly unrelated to your needs, desires and aims
• If you are spending an every larger portion of your days worrying about what you “have” to do instead of what calls to you
• If your preoccupation is with the problems of the past or fears of the future rather than the challenges, lessons and rewards of the present
• If you feel that you owe a debt to somebody or something, rather than feeling a desire to give back
• If you think of much of what you have promised as obligations, instead of as commitments
• If some of your commitments were made mostly to meet the expectations or demands of others
• If your main reason for sticking with any unhealthful activities, patterns or relationships is that you’d feel guilty if you didn’t
• If you have come to resent any of the ways that you give to loved ones and the world
• If current relationships are based on who you once were, instead of on who you are now
• If your relationships, behaviors and missions have evolved, without reappraising and reframing them
• If your vocation doesn’t serve your purpose, or weaken your spirit
• If you mainly cling to the place where you live out of habit, convenience, desperation or familial expectation rather than because it somehow serves and nurtures you
• If you feel stressed over things you no longer truly care about
• If you are unclear on the order of your priorities
• If you are unclear what is amendable, as well as what is irrevocable
• If you mistakenly imagine that it is “out of your hands,” that others have control and you have no options
• If you are willing (not necessarily “ready”!) to undertake a fresh and radically honest look at your life and how you live it, and initiate the major shifts that will be called for

Your course includes deep self exploratory questions, along with assignments that include not only every step of the actual Burden Basket emptying but also the instigation and framework for making the crucial changes in our lives.  More than a rite of passage, it involves a complete stripping down and reassessing, prompting a thorough remaking of our ways and beings, relationships and promises.

It is only with our baskets scarily empty, that we can see clearly what matters most.  It’s then – clear headed, unmanipulated, unmonitored and unburdened – that we can best decide which weighty ways of being, means of income, behavioral habits and systems of perception, long term efforts and worthy pledges to willingly and happily put back into our basket.  It’s then that we are best able to make conscious choices as to what to reincorporate and recommit to, which people to bring back into our promissory fold, and in what ways we insist on relating to them or being treated by them from now on.
Done well, there will not be nearly as many items in the Basket as before, with the unreal, illusory, outdated, unhealthy or no longer relevant left out.  And even if perchance the total weighs as much, you will then be able to shoulder it again with satisfaction as well as determination on your face.

Through the process of this course, you will no longer do anything out of unconscious habit or unhealthy custom.  And you will no longer feel controlled or a victim of past pledges and circumstance.  You will for a period or periods step aside from all usual habits and ways – then re-enter the larger world you will help create – bearing responsibility but not obligation, carrying forward in your treasured basket what will then be your most welcome burdens.

Click Here to Register:

Correspondence Course Application

————-Thank you————-

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