The world speaks in a language of weeds, flowers, ancient trees, new saplings, gardens, wild spaces, deserts, forests, and mountains. To hear its poems, songs, and words, all we must do is listen. This blog is an ode to my allies. During my three-year Herbalism, Wise Woman Healing Ways, and Green Witch apprenticeship with Robin Rose Bennett, we were required to partner with an individual plant that would become our ally each year. We discovered this relationship through meditation, and, throughout the year, studied, visioned, dreamed, and worked with this plant. My allies during this apprenticeship were Oak, Cedar, and Pine.
As an undergraduate at Kalamazoo College, I spent a summer writing as a fellow at Pierce Cedar Creek Institue, where I could stay with fellow researchers and lovers of the world who were working on different projects (Massasauga Rattlesnake Conservation, the Thermoregulation of Dragonflies, etc.)s. I crafted poems to Voice the Natural with my mentor, Diane Seuss. Although this project was one of solely poetry, inspired by The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck, its threads weave into these essays now and are why I’ve included poems in each of these meditations and are the lifeblood of the title: Voicing the Natural.
And that’s what these pieces intend to be: meditations on place, poetry, and plants. In this blog, you can expect a piece on a Tree and a Witching Herb each month. Through writing, I encourage myself to stay connected to my allies, and the herbs, trees, and potent plants that create a framework with which I can view the world. These thoughts are offerings. They are not intended to be medical advice or offer one-on-one counsel; they come from a forever student. I offer them humbly.
In addition to my apprenticeship, my formal education at both Kalamazoo College, and MFA at Sarah Lawrence, these essays are fed and inspired by my countless hours of study through Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine (Herbal Immersion) and Kathryn Solie’s Poisonous Plants Level I and II, and the many books, podcasts, and articles I’ve read, and every Green Witch, wise woman, crone, or queer educator I’ve had the blessing to study under or from via the Witch Wide Web. I will source any book materials I use consciously in the articles, and the source materials, however, I also acknowledge that after years of study, I cannot know where all the teachings originated. I honor the lineages I’ve learned in both consciously and unconsciously. And am grateful to everyone who has carried this knowledge or story, place, and plants.
I hope you’ll weave your own thoughts and reflections about these plants (take these musings as a jumping off point), perhaps a poem in your journal, a blog of your own, or a simple hello to the Oak that lives outside your window (as I was taught, plants love to be noticed and given compliments like people).
Go barefoot if you can. Find a dappled place of shade to sit in a park. Find stillness and listen. Put your ear to the earth. What voice do you hear?