Sobonfu Some: The Natural Way - i-WE Project - Natural Way: Indigenous Voices

Sobonfu, shares how her tribe, the Dagara People of Burkina Faso, view the relationship between the youngest and oldest members of the village. 

She describes how that relationship between the very young and the very old forms a vital bond, a container of sorts, that creates the space to hold a healthy community. Within that container, each individual villager's spirit can be recognized; each person can be free to express his or herself fully.

With her actions, Sobonfu shows us how "community" is more than just a trendy word.  With wisdom from the other side of the world, she demonstrates how community is a necessity for all humans; it lies within us, in the realm of the heart. Around that fire, we all are held by the space between the youngest and the oldest; we became a community.

  

Sobonfu Somé, whose name means "keeper of the rituals," was destined from birth to teach her ancestors' wisdom, ritual, and practices to Westerners who seek a deeper connection with the sacred rhythms and essences of life. She travels the world on a healing mission as she shares the rich culture of her homeland.

Life in Sobonfu's village would likely appear impoverished and primitive to the "civilized" observer. Meals can be meager, there is no privacy, children wander about from hut to hut. But while Burkina Faso ranks among the world's poorest countries economically, it remains one of the richest in spiritual life and custom.

In Sobonfu's village, everyone lives in direct relationship with the Spirit that is alive in all things. Rituals that ensure harmony and balance are woven daily into the fabric of life. Frequent ceremonies, some very elaborate, are conducted to mark life passages, a celebration of Belonging and of Home.

For example, everyone in the village joyfully anticipates the unique gifts a new child will bring the community. They honor that uniqueness through life and into the time after death, when the unique gift will continue to contribute to the well-being of the people through a Dagara Ancestor.

Sobonfu offers precious gifts of healing, communication and community. Read more about her work at www. sobonfu.com , including her leadership of Wisdom Spring, a not-for-profit that seeks to provide drinking water and resources for education to various villages in West Africa. 

Shamanism is ...

"Shamanism is a path of knowledge, not of faith, and that knowledge cannot come from me or anyone else in this reality. To acquire that knowledge, including the knowledge of the reality of the spirits, it is necessary to step through the shaman's doorway and acquire empirical evidence." 
  — Michael Harner

MICHAEL HARNER

"What Yogananda did for Hinduism and D.T. Suzuki did for Zen, Michael Harner has done for shamanism, namely bring the tradition and its richness to Western awareness," say Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob, in their recent book, Higher Wisdom.

Michael Harner, Ph.D., founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, pioneered the return of shamanism, the shamanic journey, and shamanic healing to contemporary life. He has done fieldwork in the upper Amazon, western North America, Samiland (Lapland), and the Canadian Arctic. His books include The Way of the Shaman, Hallucinogens and Shamanism and The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls.

Elephants hold vigil for human friend

By Jess Zimmerman
14 May 2012


Elephants travel to the Anthony home.
(Photo by Thula Thula Game Reserve)

In case you needed another reason to care about wildlife, here’s one: If you devote your life to elephants, they might come to your funeral. Or anyway that seems to be what happened for conservationist and “elephant whisperer” Lawrence Anthony, who died in March. A few days after his death, two herds of elephants filed through the bush to their friend’s home, where they appeared to stand vigil for two days, according to Anthony’s family.

Anthony had spent time living with the elephants, in order to care for traumatized animals who were considered violent and unruly. But at the time of his death, of a heart attack, Anthony was living in a house on the Thula Thula game reserve in South Africa. The park’s elephants hadn’t visited the house in a year and a half, but Anthony’s son Dylan says that the herds traveled 12 hours to arrive shortly after his father’s death.

If you’re scoffing instead of sniffling right now (BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO SOUL I GUESS) consider this: Elephants are well-known for their grieving rituals when family members die. If they thought of Anthony as a sort of tiny, weird-nosed cousin — and why wouldn’t they, since he lived with and cared for them? — then it makes sense that they would give him the same treatment. And if animals can truly consider us a part of their family, it can mean only one thing: We owe a lot of elephants a lot of birthday gifts.

http://grist.org/list/elephants-hold-vigil-for-human-friend/

Knowth River-Sun

Spring Equinox Sunset on the River Boyne viewed from the Great Mound at Knowth

View of the River Boyne and sunset from Knowth Neolithic Great Passage Tomb, Bru na Boinne, World Heritage Site, Ireland. The Sun mirroring in the River Boyne causing a River-Sun just after the Spring Equinox 2012. The effect is from slower, still water on the inside of the bend. This also mirrors the myth of The Dagda-Elcmar-Oengus (triple god of the Sun) who all have a relationship with Boann (the River Boyne).

 

The River Boyne and Knowth are in Ireland. I was at Knowth in October 2010.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxztnyYdZA4

Sweet Woodruff in the Herb Garden

A fragrant vanilla substitute.

By the MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors
May/June 1984

Sweet woodruff can spread to make a nice ground cover. 

ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF

Lately, more and more people have begun to understand just how limited — in both variety and nutritional value — our “modern” diets have become. This realization has sparked a new and widespread interest in the culinary and therapeutic uses of herbs ... those plants that — although not well known today — were, just one short generation ago, honored “guests” on the dinner tables and in the medicine chests of our grandparents’ homes. In this regular feature MOTHER EARTH NEWS will examine the availability, cultivation and benefits of our “forgotten” vegetable foods and remedies ... and — we hope — help prevent the loss of still another bit of ancestral lore. 

If you enjoy fragrance, you’ll probably like sweet woodruff (Asperula odorata or Galium odoratum), because its scent has been likened to that of new-mown hay or vanilla. A perennial that thrives in moist woods in temperate climes, sweet woodruff has, for centuries, been gathered and dried for use as — among other things — a strewing herb (the old-fashioned equivalent of today’s air fresheners), a perfume and potpourri ingredient, a tonic tea, and a special addition to the May Day wine (“Maibowl”) with which Europeans celebrate the return of spring. Furthermore, on St. Barnabas’s and St. Peter’s days, bouquets of woodruff, sweet box, lavender and roses were placed in churches.

Sweet woodruff’s pleasing scent only becomes apparent after the leaves have been dried ... but then it lasts for years. The odor is due to coumarin, a chemical also found in tonka beans, sweet clover or meliot, and some other leguminous plants. In potpourris, given it not only adds a fragrance of its own but acts as a fixative for other scents, woodruff’s contribution is twofold. Sachets of the dried herb can be laid among the household linens; in an earlier age, the leaves were even used to stuff mattresses. (In addition to perfuming the bedclothes, the sachets were reputed to repel insects, which must have made the herb a popular commodity in the days when regular bathing was a luxury!)

Teutonic warriors believed that sweet woodruff promoted success in battle, and therefore tucked its green sprigs in their helmets. The origin of this belief isn’t clear: Perhaps it stems from the fact that woodruff leaves are mildly anesthetic and healing when applied externally (thus helping a soldier to ignore his wounds) ... or perhaps it derived from the leaves’ ability to “make the heart merry” when taken in wine.

Be that as it may, this charming little herb can be a vanilla substitute in various sauces and beverages. Marilyn Hampstead, whose Fox Hill Farm is one source of Asperula plants, reports that sweet woodruff can be steeped in milk —overnight or for several days — to make a refreshing drink that’s especially enjoyed by children ... or, to impart a vanilla taste, soaked in whatever liquid is required in a given recipe ... or, to make a delicious glaze for tarts and turnovers, steeped in currant juice and strained out before the juice is thickened by cooking with sugar.

Woodruff grows to an average height of about eight inches from a slender, creeping root-stock. Whorls of six to eight slightly shiny, somewhat rough, pointed leaves surround the square, glossy stem. Small, starry flowers appear in May and June; later, the seeds ripen into little rough balls covered with hooked bristles that cling to passersby. The plants can be propagated by seed, but since the germination period is so long (sometimes 200 days!), more satisfactory results can be obtained by root division in the spring and early summer (right after flowering). The herb prefers moist, slightly acid, humus-rich soil in a semi-shaded location. Woodruff is quite finicky, so its conditions must be met for it to survive ... but once established, it spreads to make a good ground cover. The leaves will be most fragrant if harvested during and directly after blooming. Chop them up and dry them immediately in a warm, shaded area.

Many fine nurseries carry sweet woodruff plants, among them Hemlock Hill Herb Farm, The Rosemary House and Fox Hill Farm. 

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/sweet-woodruff-herb-garden-zmaz84zloeck.aspx

Comment: Sweet Woodruff plants can be found at most nurseries. It is a great long lasting herb in the garden that takes little to no care.

Peppermint Discourages Mice in Walls

   

You may be able to get rid of mice in your walls by scattering about cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil.

By Norm Noe
December 2010/January 2011

I live in a 102-year-old house, on a small acreage, which helps explain why I had a problem and needed to know how to get rid of mice in my walls. (It sounded like they were having a party in there!)

The young lady that works where I shop said she had heard from her grandma that all you need are peppermint-soaked cotton balls scattered about, and mice will split!

So I placed small, peppermint-soaked cotton balls all around the kitchen. I unscrewed two wall plugs and carefully slipped some in behind the sockets and, like magic, no more sounds of mice. Twenty-four hours later, no sign of the mice at all.
Norm Noe
Vancouver, Washington

http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/how-to-get-rid-of-mice-zm0z10zhun.aspx

Comment: I live in a 105 year old house and I don't get mice. But in the past I got lots of rats in the walls. It was not pretty.  I can remember banging on the wall in my bedroom to try to scare them away. No, it did not work! When we did some remodeling we put blocking in so the walls and attic space are not one. This keeps them out of the walls, but we have gotten a couple in the attic since then and catch them with a have-a-heart trap. (they like cheesecake)  Then they have to be transported more than 4 miles away so they can't find their way back. I am wondering if the rats would be offended my the peppermint smell. My spearmint and orange mint plants (which I have plenty of) don't seem to keep them out of my yard though).

GRATITUDE

TEDx San Francisco

x = independently organized TED event
Louie Schwartzberg
Founder, Blacklight Films



MOVING ART by Louie Schwartzberg
www.movingart.tv

Plant Spirit Medicine

We all yearn to be connected to our spirit, a community, and the natural world, yet how often do we give ourselves the time to nurture that pure, heartfelt desire? Our modern lives have become so busy and stressful. We know the pace takes a painful toll, which we try to remedy with healthy food, therapy, a yoga class here and there, or morning meditation. All of these approaches help, yet we still wonder, is there more?

Sometimes an illness, a bad break-up, or the death of a loved one will activate our core of inner wisdom, shaking us up enough to open our hearts and commit to deeper healing.

Could the potency and mystery of ancient-wisdom traditions provide a medicine for the spectrum of illnesses and the alienation of modern culture?

Communities once worked and played together around the fire. People felt connected to each other and to the natural world around them. Healers helped with individual maladies and also maintained the emotional and spiritual wellbeing of the entire village. The medicine of the old cultures was deep and effective. It was more holistic than anything we dream of today. Despite all that modernity has undone, the Huichol people of central Mexico have kept alive their humor, their communities, and their profound medicine.

Eliot Cowan is the author of Plant Spirit Medicine, and a fully initiated Tsaurirrikame (shaman) in the Huichol Indian tradition. He began the study and practice of herbalism in the 1960’s and completed a Master of Acupuncture degree with J.R. Worsley in England in the 1970’s. Eliot subsequently apprenticed with Don Guadalupe Gonzalez Rios, an eminent Huichol Indian Shaman. On the occasion of Don Guadalupe’s retirement in 2000, he ritually recognized Eliot as a guide to shamanic apprentices in the Huichol tradition.

Eliot has shared his gift with many all over the world. In 1989, Eliot was my teacher. My year long apprenticeship program was based at Dry Creek Herb Farm north of Auburn CA. It was a wondrous year, opening me up to many life changing opportunities. The journey has continued to amaze and confirm my belief in this profound medicine.

It is only with the heart that you can see, what is essential is invisible to the eye. ~ Unknown