Preparing for Imbolc

I’m excited about the upcoming Imbolc holiday and I’ve been preparing my home for the presence of Goddess Brighid. Many people celebrate February 2^nd as Groundhog’s Day but in many parts of the pagan community it is Imbolc. Imbolc asks us to pay attention to home and hearth. We welcome the deities closely aligned with those sacred spaces so intimately tied to our lives. I particularly adore Vesta and am making way for her as well. Since I’ve been sick I’ve really become mindful of cleanliness, especially since it is suspected that I had or have stomach flu. I have been cleaning and sanitizing all morning though I have little physical energy I have plenty of psychic energy. The aromatherapeutic benefits of the types of cleansers I am using are also giving me a spiritual boost. I am doing spiritual floor washes using lemongrass essential oil, while also burning very sweet smelling red and white candles and will finish up with a juniper smudge. Then for a longer term effect, I will light pine incense. I’m not kidding. These herbs are really energizing, even when you are not feeling well! In addition to the cleaning I am also making a humble split pea and veggie soup while baking in honor of the hearth and home goddesses. I have made corn bread and am working on some pumpkin mini-loafs because they are both quick and easy and their grains honor the hearth goddesses. Some years I let the Sabbats slip away but this year I am going to try to be more diligent about celebrating each and every one of them. The Sabbats, so closely connected to the earth’s movements and her ways really speak a sensible language with which I can relate. These special days keep me focused on what is very real but what our society often ignores in its hurry and focus on what is commercially viable. Imbolc reminds us, that in the heart of winter, spring is around the corner and it also asks us to make way for changes to come. That is why I am so excited. With the frozen, tundra-like landscape outside I can relish the time within my home and especially around the hearth. Cooking, clearing, purging, and banishing what is unwanted while welcoming and planning for the moist, colorful, fragrant, verdant days of spring. This image I am posting today is of an ATC that has been traded featuring the Great Goddess. Yeah! A test with a broom straw from my beloved Appalachian besom proves my mini pumpkin loafs are finished--time to sign off for today.

Tree Whispers

Tree Whispers Shinrin-yoku is a complementary medicine modality, designed to up-lift sub-par health conditions, through lifestyle changes that involve immersion in nature, specifically the wildness, we call a forest, where the senses, including our intuitive sense and ability to heal ourselves through it, is ignited. Forest bathing, as Shinrin-yoku is popularly called, has come to our attention, at a time when the scientific community is abuzz about the ability of trees - be it in stands, groves, or forests, to build community. This, at a time, when we as humans, struggle hard to build and sustain healthy in-person communities, in the face of Online communications. Books like “The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate Discoveries from a Secret World,” (Wohlleben 2016) by Peter Wohlleben is a Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post bestseller. It makes readers privy to trees’ communication skills and social networks, that is, it helps us entertain...

Gran Bwa

Gran Bwa is a lwa that helps you connect to ancestral roots or the spiritual home of Vodou. A friend of mine, who is an expert on Haitian Vodou, who has spent a lot of time in Haiti with the artists there, told me I had painted Gran Bwa when I made this spontaneous work out of walnut ink and sumi-ink on handmade paper. I had considered this painting a self-portrait. She now holds this piece in her private collection: Quite a few people are afraid of Vodou but it is an awe-inspiring tradition of bringing together plant energy with divinity, spiritual and personal energy. My friend who is very involved with Vodou, especially the art that surrounds it, is from European ancestry. She is light in spirit and bubbly, with a close relationship to nature and her garden. Vodou affirms the relationships between cycles of life, trees of knowledge and spirit. The Vodou vision of lwa , understands them as the intelligence of energy present in humans, nature and thoughts. ...

Art of Motherland Herbal

Motherland Herbal is my latest book, set to be released June 11th by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins. It is a cross-genre work, primarily an herbal guide, with elements of memoir, and creative nonfiction. It encompasses my passion for folklore and mythology, from the African diaspora. I’m back here to begin a series of posts built around the art within its pages. Today, I share my inspiration for the book cover art. One of my favorite houseplants is our Money Tree. Rich in lore, intimately connected to abundance, prosperity and luck, I adore this plant. It is plentiful, in its growth habit, beautiful in its variety of green leaves and becomes luminous in the morning, when it catches light, hence the yellow-orange negative space around the leaves on the cover. I enjoy the playful way the art director at Harper, inserted the text, showing the title, subtitle and my name. The cover was a wonderful collaborative effort. It is designed to be inviting, informative and lumin...

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