Remedies from Papa Hanaumoku (Earth) and timing based on Mahina (Moon)

Hypericum Perforatum, St. Joan or St. John's Wort growing abundantly
along the Maxwelton Watershed roadside earlier this summer.
GATHERED: Mahealani

I introduced myself, and stated my purpose.
I asked permission, and waiting for a reply.

She said yes, I said thank you.
A jar of the beautiful yellow blossoms, some stalk and stems and seeds as well went into small clean jam jars. One jar contains olive oil, the other 80 proof vodka.
That tincture (in vodka) and oil began its makings at the end of June, 2015, Mahealani.

In the meanwhile, the forests have been burning. And during the 'Ole Po phases,
this was the color of Mahina through the Tall Ones

The other day, after waiting patiently for at least 6 weeks, I strained the Hypericum, after the 'Ole Pau.
STRAINED: Huna
 

and put the beautiful red oil into a jar.
BEGAN APPLICATION: Huna, Mohala, Akua 

As our 'ohana La'au Nui (the Tall of Growth Trees) burn, the effects 'turn' me into the Masked Woman.
Like Zorro, I step out of my cave occasionally 

The practice of Kilo (observation) becomes intimate for me when I apply the knowledge of moon cycles and phases to my everyday life. This summer as the climate not just changes, but, creates what many call 'climate chaos' I note the changes that take place in my body, mind, soul and spirit.

The physical difficulties trigger crazy thinking (crisis mode), I am a young soul in an older woman's body. Perhaps that is what Hale Makua means for I am a sensitive artist, and I am easily disheartened.

But, I was born into a body with the memories and aka (cords of attachment) to a very ancient Polynesian mother. There is a deep knowing of how to survive. I tap into it. These photos and these few words tell a short story of what can happen when remedies from the Plant People like Hypericum teach. The lessons come slowly. I am meant to learn lessons slowly, changing the crisis mode approach of fast from a lifetime ago's pre-disposition.

After years of learning to count on the moon through naming and knowing her faces over a month, I slowly become Mahina. Seven years. I rub the red oil from Hypericum onto my suffering body (neck and back) and take a tincture of Hypericum mixed with other Plant People to calm my body, mind and soul from the trauma and fear.

Between writing this small story, I have gone outside to chant Ka Ala awake. E Ala E.

When the tea kettle rattles, I walked to the hot plate outside bring it back fill my mug with the boiling water and dig my favorite Ancient Tea (Wild Forest Black) harvested from the Ancestral Home places of my Father and Mother -- Viet Nam, Burma. As I lifted the kettle from the hot burner I chanted Pule Ho'ululu to welcome my Ancestors and ask them for their continued guidance; I cannot and do not want to be alone.

The Masked Woman, like Zorro, had a legacy of help. I start the day and remember that.

The La'au Po

The dry and Tree Tear-filled skies continue.

Light clouds streak the sky

The Wild Hucklerries and Wild Blueberries are coming plump. Delicious

Yesterday while I drove into town for errands I began to chant E HO MAI. I needed help breathing, and knew there were answers La'au (the Plants) might have for me. No sooner had I finished when I spotted a stand of the brilliant herb/weed.

Most of the Fireweed in our area is long past bloom, the stalks turned to fluff. But there they were! 

"Thank you!" I said. I was excited and so grateful. I didn't have my gathering tools: scissors, gloves, jar. I need to carry them with me in the car all the time now. But the spotting gave me encouragement. Yesterday was La'au Pau, the last of the moons good for gathering medicinal herbs, plants. It wouldn't be a lot to go into town, do the shopping and errands to the post office and then go home for my gathering tools. And as well, the time between errands and gathering la'au would allow me to adjust my attitude and tune my heart and ears to listening for the Fireweed's response.*

My intuition is guiding me in this gathering. No where could I find (on the Internet) any protocol or usages tuned to applying Fireweed as a medicine for the effects of Tall Trees raging in fire. But. Fireweed is the first on the scene after stands of forest have burned. Alight with their brilliance these tall stalks with purple flowers fill the land when the ash has settled. It is that natural sequence that feeds my gathering.

Heeding the practices of the Honorable Harvest:

1. I Introduced myself.

2. I stated my intention,

3. I asked for permission to gather Fireweed.

4. I listened for their answer.

5. I heard them answer.

6. I clarified which parts I should gather.

7. I clarified how many I could gather.

8. I said, "Thank you."

9. I gathered.

10. I said, "Thank you."

A small jar of Fireweed flowers and stalk are in the last of the Vodka I bought for making tinctures. The rest of the stalk is hanging under the eaves of our Au Hale. In 6 weeks I will have a tincture of Fireweed. 

While I was finishing up my shopping in town, before I stopped to gather Fireweed I bumped into a friend. She asked, "How are you?"

I told her, "I'm having a hard time breathing."

She said, "My eyes are burning."

I said looking into the sky, "It's the Tree Tears. The forests are burning." 

She said, "IS THAT what this is! I'm so sorry you're suffering."

I said, "It's nothing compared to what they're experiencing."

She said, "Thank you for the consciousness."

On a La'au moon it was good to connect with the grief that I feel. Not so much so I wallow in it, but, so I can remember to gather the practices left behind ... on the way to where we are now. Listen to what Robin Wall Kimmerer has to say (click to link) about this. The prophecy of the Seventh Fire.

La'au pau ... good time to harvest healing (plant) medicine

Not long before the birdsong marked first light the sky was dark enough to see the waning shape of Grandmother Moon, Mahina in her La'au Pau dress. No longer full, she was nonetheless big enough to see clearly through the upright lengths of Trees. Later in the morning, today, Sunday, is Farmers' Market Day at South Whidbey TILTH. We left the woods early to help set-up the tables, canopies and sound system for today's entertainment, Sommer Harris. Pacing my outings as the pollen season was quickly followed by high temperatures and lean breezes, it was nice to see that makani (wind) was present ... pleasant.

I was open to conversations and connections with people at TILTH today. I needed to ask one of the vendors a favor. We had amiable conversation about repositioning her herbal(scented) soap stall when we pitch our storytelling tent a week from today. There were personal invitations I wanted to extend to other TILTH members, reminding them of the HO'OMOKU Open House and Potluck. "We'd love to include you in the chant welcoming the Ancestors." "I'll bring the chips," our friend J.C. May said. I was counting of that. He always brings the chips.

Another friend and African foods vendor and farmer, Dorcas Young is a very busy woman. She has another Farmers' Market to set up on the day of the Open House. But. She knows we will have ceremony for blessing the land, and the Ancestors and will try to make it for part of the HO'OMOKU Opening.

Marc Wilson is also a vendor at TILTH, and has a special connection with Hawaii as well. His parents lived in the Islands (Hawaii), and many of those years were spent in the valley of my childhood, Kuli'ou'ou on the island of O'ahu. We talked about the upcoming HO'OMOKU Opening, and the stories were good for both of us. "As much as anything, the teachings and practices will include the fullness and the limits that are real for me (us)," I said. Marc nodded and said he'd have to keep that in mind.

Before the official opening hour of sales for today's market, I sat at the tables that will be the same tables we use for our HO'OMOKU gatherings. Another of the TILTH vendors was sitting with a scone, enjoying a sit-down before sales. "Frank, " I said easily, "Can you tell me a little about how to plant garlic here (on Whidbey) for the first time?" One of the goals Pete and I have for HO'OMOKU is to collaborate with the Whidbey Veterans Service Corps (WVSC), a project of the Whidbey Island Veterans Resource Center (VRC). The Veterans have a pea patch garden on the TILTH campus, and our hope is to prepare a section of their pea patch for garlic come November 1st. 

A bounty of hand-written notes from Frank, with timely injections from the kitchen as Ed chimed in with additions, questions and visual hand-directions made that conversation a wonderful example of harvesting healing plant medicine information. There is time for harvesting wisdom from those who do the practice ... Frank does grow great garlic! He was not shy to point out that I could buy his book and get all this information. I said, "I thought I'd come to the horse instead." Ed added, "... to the horse's mouth, hah." Exactly!

My notes tell me key things:

Planting
Aim for Nov 1st to plant
Plant garlic you know grows well here
Garlic need rich, well-fertilized loose soil
plant 2 inches deep
8 inches apart (garlic has a deep root system)
don't take the bulbs you're planting apart before planting
Water a lot during the greening; not so much as it bulbs(usually through June)
Fertilize again in mid-February w/ a balanced organic side-dressing (this is when Ed stepped from the kitchen and showed me what a 1-2 inch deep side-dressing trench looks like); don't go too deep you'll disturb the roots 

Harvesting
better to harvest early than late; garlic continues to grow when you harvest and hang them
'read' the plant for harvest readiness

* Frank gave me the names of a few garlic varieties that grow well on Whidbey. I told him I'd be back to talk with him (and probably buy the bulbs from him,too). 

Before we left the market more conversations including one with the day's entertainment, Sommer Harris and her parents rounding out a full morning of harvesting healing medicine stories. Back in the woods to pour out the distillation of a Sunday Farmers' Market morning, I am grateful and filled with enough. More than enough. Thank you. Now our minds are one.*

* From the Onondaga language, The Thanksgiving Address or the Words That Come Before All Else. Thanks to the writing of Robin Well Kimmerer, and her book Braiding Sweetgrass.