Another gorgeous day at the Sanctuary

I just finished processing the last nettle that I dried, it turned out absolutely fabulous. I will be harvesting more this weekend, in addition to the red clover blossoms that I have harvested and that are now drying. From my own extensive apothecary of herbs here, I will be carrying a line of herbs that are from Sekhmet's Sanctuary itself. Everything here is organically grown. Anyone that knows me, knows that I interact with chemicals with much hissing and spitting. In the Twleve years that I have owned the property, not one bit of incecticide has ever touched this land, and I know the former owner, Lee Mallicoat, was just as nutty as I am about leaving things pristine and natural. As I told someone just this weekend, it would not matter if I won the Power Ball, I would still live here, this is my home. I would however buy up every available square inch of property around me in hopes of keeping this area undeveloped and as a natural preserve. That is my dream anyway. Maybe someday I can actually do that, with or without the Lotto. ;)

It has been a wonderfully productive day. I think maybe that the visit to Kashi Ashram may have actually been far more inspirational than I had originally thought. I have been in this wonderful place since the trip and I think it was just what I needed to inspire me and move me forward from the stagnant position that I was in before the trip. The mullein is just starting to come up and the comfrey is beginning to flower. I think I still have a little time to get in some more rosemary and sage. If anything, this weekend will serve as finally getting through the obstacles that have been around for the last few months.

The herbal progresses, and I am actually putting together the correspondence lessons and a class materials for an herbal intensive to be given at Tawy House. I intend to teach people to be much more self sufficient, as well as get them started on making their own medicines at home for themselves and their families. In this day and age it is becoming increasingly important. I am also working on a possible class for herbal magic, again to be given at Tawy House. I am hoping to generate at least a little bit of interest in that direction. It would be nice to be paid for doing what one loves, rather than having to slog it out at a job that one hates.

Slowly but surely

The reconstruction of our online community site, Pan Historia, is coming along very nicely. We basically got a new server and started over again from the ground up. We are a bit like a phoenix rising from the ashes. I just got Fanny Fae's home and webpage re-created. The novels for Ile de Torture and Pirates of the Caribbean: Clash of Steel have been recreated, and so has the reference book, The Mystery School. Now if we can get all the publisher's tools and staff functions to work we will be really cooking!

I went and stuck my hands in the crazy again over at pagan_skeptics. Someone had to bring up the subject of "Native American Sprituality" and "Totem Animals" in the same sentence. The whole thing is just a major annoyance. Growing up American Indian, you hear the buzz about keeping the traditions safe from the exploiters. For my own ancestors, alot of what we had is pretty much been sold out anyway. The Anayunwiya, aka the Cherokees, were one of the so-called civilized tribes. The Cherokees, especially, tried to emmulate the European settlers in almost all things. Whether it was mode of dress, religion or even having large plantations and owning African slaves, the Cherokees did everything possible to try to "get along". The gifts we got out of that were the Cherokee Alphabet, courtesy of Sequoia, and the Trail of Tears, courtesy of President Andrew Jackson.

I don't practice Cherokee "spirituality" because it is mostly Chrstianity, and although I respect that faith and those who practice it, it is not my religion. Kemetic Orthodoxy was the religion that called the most to me, and I don't regret that. I do know that there are those that are called to the Lakota way, or the Mohawk way, or the Chumash or even the Zapotec practices. Years ago, about 1993, there was the Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality. I am in full agreement with Valerie Taliman and her response article. We have 500 years of exploitation and indignity that has been suffered. People are rightfully a bit skittish, because many of us grew up hearing the horror stories, or even during the civil rights era, like when I ws growing up, it just wasn't cool to be an NDN. For many of the First Nations Indigenous people, their cultural spiritual practices are all that they have left and they get a bit testy when these things are appropriated without their being asked. It is sad, very sad, when people try to commandeer those things for their own and make a quick buck.

Please understand thatI am not at all accusing all non-Indigenous people of wanting to do this to exploit First Nations people. I do believe, in fact, I know, that there are many who want to know these things out of respect, and out of really wanting to connect to the Divine, to the Earth, to themselves and to their ancestors through finding out more. How will they learn about that part of themselves that they desperately are seeking to find peace with and connection to if the keepers of that knowlege refuse to teach them? It is frustrating all around and you have to be ever so careful when dealing with this issue because people get overly sensitive on both sides of the equation. I will say it outright, most of what passes itself off as so-called Native American Spirituality is a hodgepodge of new age beliefs overlayed with some Lakota terminology and language. A very large portion that is mass marketed at Barnes and Noble etc. is alot of bullshit that is about as "Native American" as baseball and plastic beads to make up those stupid little "headresses that people put on their rearview mirrors. They symbolize how plastic and commercial the whole thing has become. There is a great deal of emotion on both sides and both sides need to heal and move forward if we are ever going to get together and save this planet. I do believe that this is what the Creator / Netjer / God/dess intended. Only through mutually respectful dialogue can we achieve this.