Reconnecting with the Earth
by Robin Rose Bennett
Excerpt from:
Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living
HEALING MAGIC IS rooted in the earth. Its basis and foundation is the realization of immanence, which is the recognition that the Great Mystery that gives life to the earth and universe is within the earth, as well as transcendent.
It (God-Goddess-All-That-Is) exists within us and within the land and is expressed through everything—every tree, every animal, every pebble, and every so-called “inanimate” object.
We tend to think of the “everyday” as all that is commonplace, un-remarkable, and even boring. Yet, the most seemingly ordinary aspects of daily life on the earth are alive with Healing Magic. To call something unremarkable simply because it happens every day and is commonly available, is harmful to the enthusiasm and depth with which we can live. This perspective affects how we see the earth, too, influencing us to consider the possibility that medicinal herbs from the rainforest might be valuable, but to ignore or scorn the healing treasures that grow wild and are commonly found in our own backyards and parks.
I am going to take a moment here to further clarify how I am defining and using the words that make up the title of this book.
HEALING MAGIC AND CONSCIOUS LIVING
MAGIC IS THE extraordinary reality that dwells within every aspect of the mundane, material world. Healing Magic is the art of living a heartfelt life and engaging that extraordinary reality—whether you call it Magic, Spirit, the Goddess, the Universe, God, The Great Mystery, or All-That-Is—in everything you do. Being aware of and celebrating our unity within the web of life is Conscious Living.
GREEN
ABUNDANT, ALIVE, AND growing . . . creative energy . . . sexual energy . . . open-hearted love . . . the life force . . . healing herbs, plants, and trees . . . innocence . . . wonder . . . Mother Nature . . . the Green Woman.
WITCH
A WISE WOMAN, sometimes a wise man.
“Witch” shares etymological origins with the words “wit” and “wisdom,” from root words meaning “to see” and “to know.”
Witches see all life as one in infinite forms, and practice magic in ways that respect the sacred spiral of life/death/rebirth.
GREEN WITCHES
GREEN WITCHES HAVE a special love for the plants and trees of the earth, and are often gifted in working with them as gardeners, herbalists, artists, and teachers.
GUIDEBOOK
THIS GUIDEBOOK IS a map made up of words, stories, songs, rituals, recipes, instructions, invitations, meditations, trance journeys, warnings worth heeding, and heart-centered teachings.
To wake up to the magnificent beauty of the earth, even for a moment, is to know that you are alive in an abundant, magical world. It is to be humbled and inspired by true power, power that nourishes, supports, and sustains, not the abusive use of power that consumes, depletes, and violates. No matter how much power a corporation or government may wield in one moment, for good or ill, the earth’s power can change that utterly, in almost no time at all. And nature’s destructiveness de-structures and restructures by innate design.
There is an ancient, complex intelligence at work in the earth’s natural catastrophic events such as earthquakes and volcanoes—destruction leads to renewal and creation. For example, there are raging forest fires in the northwestern United States that seem terrible in their devastation, and they are for some creatures. Yet, fire is a necessary part of the evolutionary plan that leads to the germination of certain tree seeds, including Sequoia tree seeds, which grow to be the largest living beings on Earth.
Gaia, our ancient mother Earth, is alive and unwell. Yet she can and will heal herself when we stop actively harming her and when we go back to the “business” of taking care of one another, and ourselves, with compassionate, loving kindness.
Numerous natural life forms exist that are remarkably adept at helping the earth heal herself. Scientists are using modern technologies to apply them to our ecological challenges. Many people suffer from the mistaken belief that the earth cannot heal, that too much irreversible damage has been done.
Renewing our connection with the earth allows us to see and take heart from the abundance of regenerative substances and systems that exist on our planet.
For example, in one experiment, tall and (naturally) radiant sunflowers were planted in a pond one kilometer from the Chernobyl disaster site. The Nuclear Energy Institute reported that the sunflowers absorbed through their roots all the radioactive cesium and strontium that was present. They pulled the radiation out of the water and land into themselves.
This “technology” is very inexpensive by our current standard of resource-exploitative economics. The cost to the sunflowers, however, is radiation poisoning and death.
It is economically and ecologically practical to plant many new sunflower seeds in order to be ready with new generations of sunflowers to clean up other radioactive “messes.”
But it is more than practical. It is a sacred trust to plant and tend future generations of the plants that are sacrificing themselves for us now and will sacrifice their “children” for us later. The sunflowers offer their help willingly. Plants are generous medicine beings and they love people.
The earth speaks directly to the heart, whichever part of her draws you—seashore, desert, fields, forests, plains, or mountains. I love nature shows on television, but they won’t do as a substitute for the real thing. Communing with nature is essential to our being well.
We can start when we are already “there,” in childhood. Each child can be “given” a special place that is his or hers alone, to know they belong to Earth and Earth belongs to them. Even cities and suburbs have parks and trees and wildflowers. Everywhere on Earth, medicinal and edible weeds can help a child be hardy—capable of endurance, and hearty—healthy and happy.
The elder races of aboriginal peoples, the sacred sisterhoods, and the trees, plants, animals, and stones have had an invisible, energetic hand in keeping the earth healthy for and in spite of “modern” people. They cannot do it for us anymore. We must all work together, as Buddhists pray, “for the benefit of all sentient beings.”
by Robin Rose Bennett
Excerpt from Healing Magic:
A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living
Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living is filled with green blessings. Don’t wait! Help yourself to a large serving.
—SUSUN S. WEED
author of the Wise Woman Herbal Series
Healing
Magic:
A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living
by Robin
Rose Bennett
Follow the path to physical and spiritual health with this how-to
manual filled with ancient lore and wisdom. Using stories, songs,
rituals, recipes, meditations, and trance journeys, it suggests
more than 100 ways to practice the art of magical healing. Find
out how to reconnect with the earth and draw on its energy, interact
with the power of the seven chakras, make use of moon magic and
women's wisdom, prepare herbal infusions and baths, work with the
medicine wheel, and cast spells for love and wealth. No matter what
your beliefs, this guidebook will open your heart and mind to the
joys of everyday life.
Price:
$14.95 plus shipping
Other articles by Robin Rose Bennett
An Herbalists Notebook part 1
An Herbalists Notebook part 2
Order HEALING MAGIC in our Bookshop
“Robin has been practicing Earth Spirit healing, herbalism and Wise Woman ways for twenty years and is an incredibly gifted spiritual teacher, healer and ceremonialist. Robin's powerful teachings come to the reader through a personal writing style that is immediately engaging, sharing practical wisdom through anecdote and example.”
Jen Prosser, Sunstone Herbs
Nourishing
Traditions
The Cookbook that Challenges Politically
Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.
Revised Second Edition, October 2000
by Sally Fallon with Mary G Enig, PhD
This well-researched, thought-provoking guide to
traditional foods contains a startling message: Animal fats and
cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary
for normal growth, proper funciton of the brain and nervous system,
protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Sally Fallon
dispels the myths of the current low-fat fad in this practical,
entertaining guide to a can-do diet that is both nutritious and
delicious.
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Sally Fallon's book at our bookshop
Or order via mail: Ash Tree Publishing PO Box 64 Woodstock,
NY 12498
include a check or money order for $29.95 (Nourishing Traditions
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HEALING
WISE: AUDIO CD
HEALING WISE ~ Set Three
5 CD's
Susun Weed reads aloud - just for you - her alternative medicine
classic Healing Wise. Her wise observations and warm voice
add special savor to a rich and satisfying feast of ideas
about health and healing.
|
CD 1
Nettle Recipes
Oatstraw Speaks
Oatstraw Uses
Oatstraw Recipes
|
CD 4
Herbal Pharmacy, part 2
Buying Herbs
Making Herbal Infusions, Decoctions, & Syrups |
CD 2
Seaweed, Come Dance with Me
Seaweed Walk
Seaweed Properties and Uses
Violet Speaks |
CD 5
Making Herbal Tinctures and Vinegars
Making Herbal Oils |
CD 3
Violet Facts and Weedwalk
Violet Leaf: Properties and Uses
Violet Flowers and Fruit
Herbal Pharmacy, part 1 |
|
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What's in HEALING WISE ~ 
