Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Sami Attitude Poster To Share

The wildfire near us is no longer a threat, progress continues on outdoor projects, and we are rushing to get conference tasks done while preparing the conference book, Plant Healer Annual, and the next Plant Healer Magazine… leaving only a little time for gathering wild plants to our hearts’ delight, and with scant time to write blog posts.  Soon we will be announcing the release of the Medicine Bear novel, with the first of several excerpts we will share here, but for now I thought I would spread a little further this delightfully insulting poster made for the last Plant Healer issue.

I have always found fascinating the indigenous Sami culture of northern Norway and elsewhere. While Sami artists like Mari Boine have explored a wide range of wondrous music, their traditional song form is the Joik (pronounced “Yoik”).  This land-based people have been as screwed over as the Native Americans, but as this Sami woman’s face seems to indicate, they are anything but crushed.   –JWH

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Sami Attitude Poster - from Plant Healer Magazine

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Canyon Updates:

Nourishing Time, Wildfire Progress, Equal Opportunity Offender, and Medicine Bear Novel Sent Off To Printers

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Greetings to you all, and Solstice blessings.  It will soon be the longest day of the year again, and the official first day of Summer.  We hope you are all planning on vacations or at least focused hours doing the things you love most… ideally out of doors, with the internet and cell phones turned off.  Remember, you not only need it, but most likely deserve it as well!
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We don’t take vacations ourselves, partly due to the daily requirements of running  magazine and conference, but also because there is nowhere we would enjoy visiting more than the mountains, canyons and desert surrounding us.  What we desire is to see ever more of the Gila, and so we will be nourishing and rewarding ourselves with day long jaunts to the high alpine meadows along the Black River, in Arizona to our east.  To the Frisco Box with its lower elevation riparian plant life.  And to the confluence of the Frisco and Gila rivers, said to feature swim holes deep enough to dive into from atop jutting cliffs.  We also want to go up Silver Creek above the historic mining town of Mogollon, near where the flames came so close to our friend Denise’s home, and to the edge of the burned out areas up Whitewater Creek… the watershed from which the Whitewater-Baldy Complex wildfire gets its name.
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Wildfire Progress

The fire grew yesterday by another thousand acres, to 300,000 burned, but the USFS has established containment lines around 80% of its perimeter, and the growth has been to the south rather than towards us.  Fire progress through the previous burns has been faster than expected, but we’ve also been extremely blessed, in that the winds have generally blown the fire in every direction but ours.  We won’t be hoping for more fire-related donations after this week, as it is unlikely we could get enough money together for protective foil wrap for the guest cabins, your donations already ensured that the sprinklers would be installed and working, and most of the remaining expenses affordable.  Daniel will be making final installments and adjustments, including a “frost free” outlet we can use for watering the small native plant beds of the “Oasis” when no fires threaten.  Thank you all so much.  The latest scientific reports I’ve been reading indicate that wildfires will be hotter and more frequent each year in the West, as a result of accelerating climate change… and so the added peace of mind you’ve made possible cannot be over-exaggerated, knowing that even if or when a blaze moves through here we will most likely still have a sprinkler-soaked shelter standing in which to continue this important work, and a home from which to tend the scarred but resurgent land.

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Equal Opportunity Offender

While expressing our gratitude, let me add my thanks for your many letters and comments following the “Supergirl” blog.  The amount of support from strong women meant a huge amount to me personally.  It is seldom use of a single word chosen for its humor value that offends readers, but it does seem important to rattle cages, to challenge assumptions and prejudices, and to try to show all sides over any issue or idea… at the risk of discomforting well meaning people, ruffling ruffle-able feathers, insulting sacred cows, debunking much-loved illusions, and showing  ourselves to all be imperfect and in-progress.  It also seems that we need to be as willing to discomfort or aggravate the folks who share most of our values and views, and not just piss off those people we consider “on the other side”.   You can count on the blog and school being an Equal Opportunity Offender, with nobody deliberately hurt, but none of us exempted.

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Plant Healer Articles Appearing Here

We hope you enjoyed this weekend’s post on Spirals in Nature.  It is an example of the kinds of articles we have been including in Plant Healer Magazine.  Though not specific to herbalism in any way, these kinds of pieces draw a deep connection between the wondrous and healing processes of nature with our own paths and lives, celebrating beauty while furthering thought.  Because not all of our thousands of blog readers are interested in subscribing to Plant Healer, we intend to continue posting here excerpts or full length articles we imagine you’ll enjoy or benefit from, borrowed from the pages of the “magazine different.”  The deadline for Fall article submissions is July 1st.  Subscription and Submission Info available by clicking on: www.PlantHealerMagazine.com
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The Anima On-Site Helper Experience

Hosting helpers that volunteer through the WOOF program has been one of the most satisfying programs we have run.  The help that the sanctuary has received from folks in the last year has been huge, no doubt about it!  Mattie, Gina, and now the wild Evangeline are currently doing an incredible job of clearing dead brush from the property to make us safer from fire, burying the sprinkler plumbing, and using new carpentry skills to turn our bus porch into a lovely bedroom for Rhiannon.  Rhiannon has been more than happy to sleep in her little treehouse in all seasons, but she has literally outgrown it with her recent growth spurts, and she is incredibly grateful to Daniel, Trail Boss and the above enthused helpers.

What’s interesting, is that even though WOOFers ostensibly come to learn practical skills, nearly all who have been called to Anima Sanctuary have also been looking to be empowered, to increase their self knowledge, to study and evolve their identities and purpose or roles.  One of the many ways that this land serves, is as a point of rediscovery and redirection, often dashing illusions and inspiring growth and action.  And what Loba, Kiva and I like to contribute, is support for this process of becoming, orienting… and accelerating.

Greg Sanford was one such recent helper, coming determined to invigorate his vision of re-wilding self and planet.  Go for it, Greg!  At all costs, and with due rewards!  We recommend you read his well written telling of his experience and perceptions here in the canyon by clicking on: Greg’s Blog

If you are perchance interested in giving one or more months to an On-Site Commitment, write us for an application.

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Medicine Bear Novel Off to Printers!

I’m excited to announce that my new novel The Medicine Bear has been proofed, illustrated, laid-out and now uploaded to our printers.  Due to the speed of efforts by proofreaders and helpers (thank you again Kiva, Lauren, Asa, Resolute, Inga, Danika, Traci and Katie!), it is possible we will be able to begin shipping copies of the preordered book out on July 1st instead of the 15th.  This makes makes it much less stressful for us, being able to release it a little sooner, before we get into the crazy 2 month long pre-conference crunch period.

None of the Medicine Bear announcements have mentioned the number of full page (6×9”) illustrations, because we kept adding more right up until the last minute!  I originally didn’t plan to include any at all, leaving it to the text to paint a picture of the world that our characters interact in.  When Kiva suggested lots of art throughout, I agreed to draw only portraits of the Medicine Woman, Omen, Eland and the Curandera, Doña Rosa… but then things kinda snowballed, Summertime or not.  What we have now is now only several drawings by me, but also photos of the canyon and its plant life, the decor of Omen and Eland’s cabin, and historic photos I found that amazingly look like how I envisioned my characters at different stages in their lives.  The result is a total of 75 drawings and photographs, illustrating what we now know will be a 376 novel of adventure, healing and love in the old Southwest.

“The Medicine Bear is an unabashedly magical, sensual, and yes, romantic tale of love and loss, of longing and renewal. It is a paean to wildness within and the southwestern wilderness that Eland and Omen are married to, along with each other, and whose exquisite beauty we are drawn into through the soulful eyes and language of Eland. The plants, the mountains, and the medicine bear sing to us, calling us each to full aliveness. While the old west is fading and the grizzlies are dying, love inspires, even beyond death itself.” –Robin Rose Bennett (Wise Woman Healing Ways, author of the upcoming book “Green Treasures”)

The Medicine Bear is being serialized in Plant Healer Magazine, and selected excerpts will be appearing here on the Anima and Medicine Woman Roots blogs very soon.  You can preorder personally signed copies for your selves and as gifts for your friends by going to:
www.TheMedicineBear.com

Regards, indeed. –Wolf

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Daisy Spiral

(Spirals have great spiritual and mythical significance, a graphic show of limitless unfolding drawn directly from the natural world….  The harder we look, the more examples we see of the great spiral, and the more we may see our personal place within it.  You can download the original article in the Summer 2012 Issue of Plant Healer, the “Magazine Different”. Click here for more info.)

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Walking The Spiral:
Fern Heads, Replicative Patterns, Conscious Participation

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

Anima School and Sanctuary

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We exist in a world of patterns that we are an unending part of.  I don’t mean just the patterns of individual and cultural behavior we call schedules and habits, the patterning of apartments in building or houses on blocks.  Notice or not, all around us are natural shapes and forms patterned according to design repetition and balance, and a thing’s gifts and functions, purposes and propensities, none of which are obeying some “laws of nature” or “laws of physics” so much as inhabiting and playing a part in systems of replication and enhancement.

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Under the intuitive eye of the mystic, the artist, the aesthetic, these patterns have always appeared manifest and childishly obvious, a clearly sequenced repetition of forms that interlock like puzzle pieces, building bridges of content, beauty and meaning between the supposedly dissimilar, and between the micro and macro.  From the scale of the stars in the sky, down to the  repeating shapes that make up the landscape, the balanced eruption of branches from a tree trunk, the mountain and valley texture of its bark and the composition of fingertips and fingernails when viewed really, really close.  They cannot help but sense or assume, that this trend continues down to the invisible, down to fluctuating but largely predictable and wholly amazing arrangements of minute organic cells, sensed molecules and imagined atoms.  And now, these patterns are revealing themselves to the discerning scientific eye as well, as fractals defining the replicative roughness of expanding borders, mathematically measurable, mappable, extendable and therefore to some degree extrapolatable; as natural forms to be copied by human inventors in a process they call biomimicry; as time-lapse captured lightning mirroring the patterns of veins in one’s own hand; and as mysteriously similar galaxies, whether summoned to view through the ocular of an electron microscope. or the polished lenses of a telescope racing through space on the nose a satellite.

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The organic blueprint that all things follow, is that of rivers making their way through the mountains to the sea, the patterns of turbulence witnessed in the roiling of bubble-laden streams and the swirling of sunlit smoke in the morning’s air currents, the topography of coastlines and radiating petals of flowers.  Because these patterns are ever growing, transitioning, evolving, moving, we might better describe their pinnacles and valleys, peaks and drops, their waxing and waning, build-up and climax in the terminology of music, the patterns of motive visual forms themselves being rhythmic.  All rhythm, no matter how complex, involves a repetition of patterns that could be drawn out as leaf shapes and snowflakes, coastlines and twisting vines.

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Rhythm made visible to the eye, is symmetry… the correspondence of exact or similar parts facing each other, or extending from a measurable center or axis.  And is the propensity of energetic nature to symmetrize.  The ubiquitous fractals are geometrically symmetric, as can be mandalic plant blossoms and crystal formations, but there is also a symmetry expressed in curling wisps of cloud, the lime green coils of a plant’s outreaching tendril, and especially in the spiral… the spiral fern head and spiral snail and sea shells, the inner ear’s cochlear nucleus vortices and the spiraling of Earth’s atmosphere as seen from space, all spinning out from a common center “eye”… a mystical “golden spiral” suggestive of a dance with no possible beginning or end.

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“It is only slightly overstating the case, to say that physics is the study of symmetry.”
-P. W. Anderson, Nobel Laureate

The “known” universe is also repeating a pattern, as exhibited by its discernible elements, and moves or unfolds in a spiral orbit, with repeating patterns resulting in ever greater superstructures that apparently repeat themselves infinitely (Joseph, 2010).  The search for a “theory of everything” could be likened to the search for a unifying symmetry, in which repeating, spiraling patterns help connect us to, thread us into and propel us through an infinite universe that may well prove as eternal as it is limitless.
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The perceiving and experiencing of this micro and macro patterning can lead to a feeling of rooted connection, of a kind of immortality by extension.  It can help us recognize the motion and direction of individual and species’ intent, and to find beauty and purpose in what might otherwise have been dismissed as ordinary and purposeless.  It can be a tool in our healing of ourselves and others, by helping us recognize and visualize patterns of constitution, energetics, gifts and challenges, perception and direction.
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For several years now, Kiva and I have been developing our Anima Medicine Wheel for use in energetic understanding and diagnosis.  More like the Chinese five-element model than the Native American Wheel, it features not only the four cardinal directions or “sources” but also a fifth in the center.  While it makes perfect sense to us conceptually, when I’ve tried to draw it out on paper there has always appeared to be something lacking.  Everyone begins their life embodying the energies, gifts, challenges and propensities of one of the five “directions” or points, yet usually we are moving at one speed or another towards or through other directions as part of our integration, growth, and becoming whole.  This motion, we realized, might be best conceptualized as a three dimensional spiral rather than a two dimensional circle, in which form and being are forever reaching back to their source point, origins and earth, and simultaneously reaching outwards in progressive or widening arcs that weave together as they encompass.

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Ancient Mogollon Spiral - Anima Sanctuary NM

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We naturally exist in and are inevitably factors in the patterning of the world.  And it is impossible for us to remain securely immobile and unchanged no matter how much we might try.  If we are not integrating and moving forward on the spiral, then we are sliding down it.  How much better it is, then, to walk the spiral consciously, deliberately, purposefully, taking in the lessons and crafting our effect, not only participating in but helping design our contribution, a song worth repeating, a pattern worthy of being extended beyond not only our immediate beings but our finite lives.

It is to honor both spirals and plants that we share with you these photographic images of natural, human and botanical spiraling, visual reminders of that beauteous pattern of corporeal as well as energetic continuation that no amount of dying can ever remove us from.

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Supergirl, Reverse Sexism and Glad Primitives

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

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

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

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Hi Anima:

Hello Amelia, from all of us here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All ass backwards.  Please update yourselves.

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

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

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

in light,
amelia

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

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Gina, Mattie & Dan team up

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Canyon Updates

Daniel With His Supergirl Crew
Fire Darn Close But Holding

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As most of you know, we try to post more original essays that inspire and inform, than we do announcements and news… but with so many concerned letters coming in about the nearby wildfire, it has felt necessary to write additional updates.  This is the second year in a row that fire has threatened our restored riparian sanctuary and backwoods school, coming within 7 miles west of us last June, and now only 4 miles away.

Yesterday the winds kicked up again, fanning the flames, though fortunately blowing then towards the southwest and away from us.  The latest infrared map show over 3 miles of spread on the southern perimeter in the direction of the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  That’s further than than the norther spur is from us, covered in a single night, though we also have a deliberately burned out buffer now between us and the fire’s edge that will impede its progress if the winds were to shift our way again.

It would cost nearly $5k to purchase the foil wrap to protect the lower guest cabins, so that remains out of reach, but a few more fire fund donations have come in and will be gratefully applied to the construction of a trailer for the water pump and our small contributions to Daniel for all his faithful and able help. Thank you everyone who has helped.  The sprinklers are installed and the pipes are being buried, and at least our crucial home and office space is very likely safe from this or future fires that may come.  Hurrah for that!

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Mattie, Gina, Trail Boss and Daniel cover the new water tank for homestead and fire

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We’ve had trouble answering emails and sending out attachments this week, after getting punished yet again with severely reduced download speeds for having exceeded the satellite internet company’s miserly limits.  Sorry if we haven’t gotten back to you about something.  There is a faster program with the same company but it requires we order a new dish and find an installer who will come all the way out here.  As soon as we get caught up from the magazine release and other deadlines, our dear ally Nick will be helping Kiva get the faster system ordered.  The internet is obviously what makes it possible for us to affect and help the world from here in our fantastically remote wilderness, making it a huge blessing even with all its drawbacks.  I well remember when I typed everything I wrote on a manual typewriter and all changes were done with white-out, carting the pages to town for snail-mailing to the magazines I wrote for, struggling to answer my readers with the hand written postcards that were the Twitter of the day.  We dislike many of the effects of computer culture from vicarious Facebook living and armchair avatars to the ways in which we are monitored, marketed to and controlled.  But oh how we appreciate being able to type on these laptops while surrounded by calving elk and circled by hawks, able to impact this society and assist many of you.

These Mac laptops we use are truly extraordinary, being worked 10 to 16 hours of every day with almost never a problem, not only emails but responses to students, creating and writing for Plant Healer Magazine, submissions to other magazines, and our books.  Loba uses a Mac to progress every day on her cookbook, Kiva manages Facebook as well as cranks out new work on her PowerBook, and I have just now used mine to complete the layout of The Medicine Bear novel for printing in a week or so.  Daniel installed a DC power cord in the outdoor garden “oasis”, and now we only need a router to be able to sit out there under the veranda and write instead of having to be indoors!

Preparing to build a roof to protect the almost finished horno mud oven

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Daniel is always coming up with some way to make things better around here, and it seems to give him great pleasure to do so.  He has also been enjoying his “supergirl” crew of young WOOF volunteers, as much as they’ve been enjoying his hands-on instruction.  It’s great to hear Dan, Mattie and Gina laughing as they continue completing the sprinkler plumbing, gathering and removing the dangerous brush piles around the land, and chopping wood for the stoves.  Dan was especially proud of them framing the roof over the horno mud oven by themselves on a day when he was gone, showing what they’d learned and proving their oomph and mettle.  And Loba has found them to be a delightful presence in the canyon.

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Gina and Mattie screwing on the roof for the water tank

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Upcoming blogs will include posts on traditional horno construction and use, composting latrine construction, excerpts from my novel The Medicine Bear due to start shipping by July (orders now being accepted at www.TheMedicineBear.com), and new and classic essays on healing, awareness, deep living and purpose.  As always, we hope you’ll find the posts useful, not so much entertaining as inspiring, empowering and instigating… time out of our lives, given specially to you.

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Celebrating and Protecting the Oceans

by Rhiannon

(age 11)

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Hello, I’m back. Today is June 8th, World Ocean’s Day! A event that happens each year, celebrating our ocean and spreading the word that our oceans need our help and how we can do it.
Lately, I’ve gotten into ocean stuff, and I think I would like to be a Marine Wildlife rehabilitater when I grow up. I made a poster this morning, for World Oceans day. Wear blue, tell two. Is the motto for this event. Which basically says to spread to the word and celebrate!

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It is very sad, what is happening to the oceans. Pollution from the oil and trash is horrible. Recent studies have been showing that many of the animals in the sea when cut open, bits of plastic and trash are found inside them. It is very sad, and I think that the animals from the sea really need our help right now. I began getting interested in this stuff when I first read Gaia girls Way of water by Lee Welles. I really love her stuff a lot and that got me interested in the oceans, and wondering how we can help them.

I’ve been learning a lot about dolphins, sharks, whales, and sea otters.

I learned that Dolphins have something called echolocation, that enables them to tell the difference between a golf ball, and a ping-pong ball, based solely on density. Dolphins also “speak” using squeaks, whistles, and trills. Each dolphin has it’s own signature whistle. Dolphins are wonderful harmonious creatures but we must remember that all animals have some kind of wild side no matter how sweet and loving they may seem to be. They say that particularly bottle nose dolphins can show aggressiveness, bullying younger males. Killing young that are not their own, abusing young females, etc. So dolphins are not just sweet loving animals, much as we may idealize them.

Since the 1960s, the American military have trained the dolphins to do things like attaching explosives and such things to the bottoms of enemy ships or searching for mines using their echolocation. I do not agree with the military for using dolphins for these things, but I still think it’s amazing that dolphins have the capability to do so. The navy started using manmade sonar, but scientific studies have proved that this is harmful to the marine wildlife, for it distresses the animals and sometimes causes them to beach themselves or they get internal bleeding.

The pollution and plastic in the ocean is horrible for the animals. A rainstorm can cause trash in a river to be swept downstream to the ocean. Oil spills can ruin eggs of marine life such a fish and sea turtles. Sometimes marine life won’t mate due to noise pollution. Plastic rings in the water can get around animals necks and suffocate them, oil affects Sea otter’s fur very badly.

There is a lot of pollution in the sea caused by cars, the exhaust that comes out of the back of the car and ends up in acid rain. This acid rain rains into the ocean and kills fish and other wildlife.  So unfortunately, we contribute to the pollution in the sea every day just by driving. Driving as little as possible, and maybe taking walks more often can help, as every day large amounts of exhaust is poured into the atmosphere to become acid rain and will kill living things in the oceans. There is a lot of things you can do to help lessen the acid rain, the air pollution, The land fills, and all these things. To learn more about ocean pollution go to http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/ocean_pollution.htm You can subscribe to World oceans day or take the 7 c’s pledge and get free bookmarks and updates on their progress. You can send out Hawaiian lei’s on face book, there is many things you can do to help the oceans. But at the very least you can try not to drive accessory amounts a day, recycle bags and cans, turn off lights not in use, and compress garbage you do send out as much as possible. You can do a lot of little things to help the earth.
So, I have been supporting Worldoceansday.org and subscribing to different events and such.
Happy world oceans day!

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I will try to share my stories, lessons, and interests again soon.
Rhiannon

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Whitewater-Baldy Wildfire - June 7th

Whitewater-Baldy Wildfire Now 4 Miles Away

At 420 square miles, the fire continues growing, with its most persistent spread being towards the Northwest… and towards us.  Fortunately the movement is relatively slow, but its westward movement has now positioned it due south of the Anima Sanctuary and only 4 miles away.  It is impossible to know how much of the new burns (shown in red on the map) were deliberately set, but with the rains still 6 weeks or so away, we will continue to be in danger until then.

Dan’l hopes to be able to show up more often now, and with the help of our two WOOF volunteers Mattie and Gina, the water pipes are getting buried, and the huge amounts of hazardous dead brush are being gathered for removal.

Donations to the fire fund have stopped coming in, though not before enabling us to get the last of the pipe and fire hose needed (thank you Dennis, for making the difference!).  It looks like there will not be contributions to pay for foil wrapping for the Gaia and Gifting Lodges, however, and they will burn with the trees if and when this or a future fire sweeps through here.  At the least, our main home/office structures have a very good chance of surviving a conflagration now, and the work for this land, our students and community will be able to continue unabated.

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Contributions

Thank you to those who have been able to contribute to the protection of the School infrastructure, it would be impossible without the donations last year and now.

Contributions accepted for further fire protection needs.  To contribute to the Anima Fire Fund, either send a postal money order in any amount to:

Gretchen Geggis (Loba!)
PO Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830

or make a PayPal instant payment by going to:
 www.PayPal.com
Enter the amount as a personal “gift” and send to: TWHKiva@gmail.com

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The Music Never Ends: Gioia Tama

A dear friend and creative accomplice of mine, Gioia Tama, has died… and I would like you to take just a moment to share in this celebration of her life.  Even as the Whitewater wildfire continues a slow burn all too near us, we want to take time for the honorings that sustain our collective Spirit.  Gioia and her partner Carlos Lomas performed with me many times in my Deep Ecology Medicine Shows, appeared on one of my first albums, and kicked off the music at the first ever Traditions In Western Herbalism Conference.  Some of you will remember her, a delightfully odd little woman full of spunk and magic, a flamenco dancer who had also championed folk herbalism and promoted clowning, taught students of dance, raised totally cool and fully empowered children in rustic cabins, and once led the priest and entire population of a small New Mexico village on a walking protest against nuclear energy.

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We often hear people say that so-and-so is “gone now”,  an expression partly intended to spare us the difficult vernacular of death, as if avoiding the word could somehow keep the reality at bay.  But, I say, the amazing Gioia has not left for anywhere, she remains evermore a part of the earth she had no desire to leave, ladled back into the anima soup, the vital elements and miraculous energy from which new people – and even new species – are born.  Her cosmology was as eclectic and diverse as any I’ve known, but in every way it was an embrace of the cycles of existence, connection and devotion to the living land.  In her work to contribute to a new culture, she taught the values that nature teaches, in all its wisdom, diversity and splendor.  And when she danced, she danced grounded, with the power of a sentient, ass-kicking planet in every sure flamenco step.  Gioia has not gone, she is here in the important dark as well as in the tribal fire by which we see the path ahead, hear the duende we call mystery, and the eruptions of wildflowers of her beloved Guadalupita homestead.  Here, undiminished, in the hearts she has touched.  Here in the music and dance of life beautifully and purposefully lived.

My love, sorrow and irrepressible joy extend to mi amigos y amigas, Gioia’s children Giovanna and Joaquin, and her soulmate Carlos.  Her passion feeds us, and the music never ends.

Don’t say “Adios“… always say “Adelante!”

-Jesse Wolf Hardin, Anima Sanctuary, June of 2012

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Culture of Healing by Jesse Wolf Hardin - Free with Subscription www.PlantHealerMagazine.com

www.PlantHealerMagazine.com

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It’s Here!
Now Available For Download:
The Nearly 300 Page Long Summer Issue of
PLANT HEALER
The Magazine Different

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Yes, crazy us!  297 full color pages, stuffed with all manner of herbal medicine and plant wisdom, leading edge practice and the history of healing, art and humor…. the best writers in herbalism today, along with awesome photography and art, covering every aspect of herbal practice and the diverse culture of folk herbalism.

Herbs of The Curandera.  The Art of Plant Spirals.  Healthy Decadence.  Greek Herbal Medicine by Matt Wood.  Mullein, Burdock, Ocotillo, Hawthorn, Mint and Coffee.  Plant Tattoos.  Cannabis During Pregnancy by Aviva Romm.  Differentiating Herbal Actions, and Detecting False Heat.  Interview with Bevin Clare.  Susun Weed on Sweet and Bland.  Phyllis Light’s Four Elements System.  Plant Conservation, Bioregional Herbalism, and Gardening Adaptogens.  Kristine Brown and Jane Valencia for Kids.  Herbal Medicine for Animals, and Traveling Medicine Shows of the Old West…. just to name a few!

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www.PlantHealerMagazine.com

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Get the Summer Issue PDF now, and be sure to Download your free bonuses including high resolution art posters and an hour long audio file of Todd Caldecott’s class on “Energetic Diagnoss For The Western Herbalist”.  Simply sign-in to access your personal page on the
Plant Healer Website

If by chance you aren’t subscribed yet, you can do so by clicking on:
Plant Healer Magazine

The next deadline for submissions of articles, art and photography is July 1st.  For Submission Guidelines or Advertising Info go the appropriate page on the:
Plant Healer Site

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Mullein Harvest Girl by Sandra Crowell - www.PlantHealerMagazine.com

Gaia by Holly Sierra - PlantHealerMagazine.com

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Whitewater-Baldy Wildfire Updates

300 sq. Miles and Growing – Largest in Recorded State History
Under 6 Miles Away From Us – But We’re Nearly Sprinkler Ready!

The growing Whitewater Baldy Complex Fire is now over 300 square miles in size, engulfing 250,000 plus acres as of the publishing of this post.  On the map below, its northernmost spur appears to have crept a little closer still to us, though much of the red on the Northwest edge is certainly indicating backfires set to slow the progression.

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The second map, below, is helpful in showing the dates of burn in each section of the fire, including the most recent activity.

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Whitewater-Baldy Fire Progression Map - June 1

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The winds have been largely blowing out of instead of towards the Northeast, resulting in more smoke in the mornings and more worry about the fire’s direction, though they thankfully remain under 20mph.  The perimeter nearest us and the village of Reserve seems secure enough for the time being, but another day of those earlier 50mph winds could easily push the front again our way.

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The mountain across the river from our cabins, in thick smoke that fortunately moves away by 11A.M. so far. Whitewater-Baldy Fire Photo by Jesse Wolf Hardin

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On the list if more fire donations come in, will be expensive protective foil wrap to enclose the two guest cabins.  If not, all that may remain is to get a small trailer outfitted for the pump so that it can be moved easier, and purchase some kind of fuel reservoir so the pump purchased last Summer will run unattended for more hours, pumping water up and to… yes, you guessed it!….

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Sprinkler Test #1 - Wolf and Rhiannon - Yippee!

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Protective Sprinklers!

There is still lots of adjusting, routing and burying of the water pipes to go, but Trail Boss made sure the sprinkler system was ready to spray water on our main buildings.  What you see in the pictures is the excited first test of the system, with everyone (and even Kiva’s camera) getting a bit of a drenching.

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The walls of our rough built structures have a lot of gaps where the water could get in between the walls and cause problems with rot, so Dan’l will close them up as best he can as time permits.  But already, even unadjusted, the sprinklers up the odds that a wildfire doesn’t take out our funky little home and office.

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Relief! Daniel is Back!

Happy to report that Daniel is home in the Gila, eager to start again on the many projects here, starting with the final fire preparations.  Those of you attending TWHC in September will be glad to seem him return to help Trail Boss keep the event moving smoothly, while filming everything he can.  For the several of you who have written to ask, Dan is doing better than ever.  There will be continued pain around the split child custody of the truly amazing little girl, Cassandra, for the mother as well as the father, but the focus is on creating the most meaningful and intimate life possible for himself and his daughter.  Anyone who cares about him must be tickled pink to see him so much stronger, more self aware, content, forward looking, and simply happier than he has ever been.

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Projects Continue

Having the sprinklers working and close to ready means we’ve been able to think about other things besides the fire’s approach, including release of the recent 44 page long TWHC Newsletter, completion of the new 297 (!) page long Plant Healer Magazine… and the readying of The Medicine Bear novel with dear proofreaders’ help, a historically accurate story of not only the Southwest’s people but the land and lifeforms such as are suffering from the megafires today (www.TheMedicineBear.com).

The flames, for second year in a row, have added to and rearranged our priorities, but they’ve also kept a fire under our arses so that everything that matters most gets done.  We were determined to be prepared for the fire, and determined that the magazine would be both more amazing than ever and go out on time.

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As with life itself, there are mornings when it can be hard to see through the smoke and obfuscation... but always, the glow of the cliffs somehow remains visible, as does our purpose, and the work and love ahead.

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A Positive Side

Being hounded by record breaking wildfires two Summers in a row can seem like nothing but a repeat nightmare, the destruction of plant and animal, the damage or threat to human homes, and the awful image of this sanctuary being torched after such intense and prolonged efforts to replant, restore and rewild it.  Cottonwoods may or may not burn, but the roots they’ve established in our 33 years of protection will live and sprout again.  The giant Ponderosa pine forest facing us on the east slope is unlikely to regenerate under current climate conditions, but sad as that is, there will be a succession of green life forms brimming with the anima vital force and eager to use this home and opportunity to thrive.

And if this canyon happens to be spared yet again from the flames of a record fire, through the efforts of fire fighters, prayers of friends and supporters or the canyon’s own will and purpose, then we will have the benefit of a protective buffer of already burned or reduced fuel-load land now both the east and west of us… with this river canyon being a rich strip of biodiversity acting as the seed bank and mother roots from which new life will spread.

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Contributions

Thank you to those who have been able to contribute to the protection of the School infrastructure, it would be impossible without the donations last year and now.

Contributions accepted for further fire protection needs.  To contribute to the Anima Fire Fund, either send a postal money order in any amount to:

Gretchen Geggis (Loba!)
PO Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830

or make a PayPal instant payment by going to:
 www.PayPal.com
Enter the amount as a personal “gift” and send to: TWHKiva@gmail.com

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