Medicine Stories - 8. Planetary Intelligence, Ancestral Resonance, & the Perception of the Heart - Stephen Harrod Buhner

8. Planetary Intelligence, Ancestral Resonance, & the Perception of the Heart - Stephen Harrod Buhner

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01/30/18 • 110 min

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Medicine Stories

There is a vast intelligence in Nature, which both precedes and envelopes human consciousness. By opening our doors of perception- the heart, the senses, the nervous system- we can engage in communion with this field and come to know the world in which we are embedded as sentient, responsive, and ever-adapting, just as our ancestors did.

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an earth poet and the award-winning author of twenty books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He teaches about the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.

In the intro:

The attentive noticing of the soul
An herbalist's perspective on cold & flu
Empowerment & herbalism
Giveaway!

In the interview:

Stephen’s memories of his physician great-grandfather, and how DNA carries more than just physical information down through the generations
The tendency toward high sensitivity in plant people
Sensory gating channels & discerning meaning from the touch of the world upon us
The doors of perception & how psychedelics, or “neurognostics”, effect them
Plant perception and the neural networks in root systems- humans do not have a monopoly on intelligence
The function of psychedelics in the ecosystem, apart from and long before human use
The birth of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory and how real innovation & paradigm shifts can only happen outside of institutions
How we can recover the intelligence of the heart in the direct perception of nature
Visionary plant encounters & knowing plants through dreaming states
Aisthesis- the exchange of soul essence between two life forms
The misunderstood nature, vast intelligence, and ecological necessity of bacterial & viral life forms
The age of miracle drugs is over, just as so many people are stepping into the world of herbalism
Herbs are much better able to deal with infections and disease than technological medicine is
Stephen’s opinion on whether or not humans, and the earth, will survive
What happened in the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918: “The thing we haven’t learned is the dangers of our hubris”
True self-empowerment v reliance on outside medical knowledge
The paradigm shift that happens when you realize that all around you are plants with exceptional medicine that you can learn to use
The process of eldering and the point when the inevitability of dying becomes predominant
Herbal lineage, the march of generations, and young folks as the torch-bearers for the future of herbalism

Links:

The Foundation for Gaian Studies (Stephen's website)
Stephen's books on Amazon
Extra Potent Elderberry Elixir
My video An Herbalist's Perspective on Cold & Flu
Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz
Medicine Stories Facebook Group
Medicine Stories Patreon
Music by Mariee Sioux (from the song Wild Eyes)

In the intro:

The attentive noticing of the soul
An herbalist's perspective on cold & flu
Empowerment & herbalism
Giveaway!

In the interview:

Stephen’s memories of his physician great-grandfather, and how DNA carries more than just physical information down through the generations
The tendency toward high sensitivity in plant people
Sensory gating channels & discerning meaning from the touch of the world upon us
The doors of perception & how psychedelics, or “neurognostics”, effect them
Plant perception and the neural networks in root systems- humans do not have a monopoly on intelligence
The function of psychedelics in the ecosystem, apart from and long before human use
The birth of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory and how real innovation & paradigm shifts can only happen outside of institutions
How we can recover the intelligence of the heart in the direct perception of nature
Visionary plant encounters & knowing plants through dreaming states
Aisthesis- the exchange of soul essence between two life forms
The misunderstood nature, vast intelligence, and ecological necessity of bacterial & viral life forms
The age of miracle drugs is over, just as so many people are stepping into the world of herbalism
Herbs are much better able to deal with infections and disease than technological medicine is
Stephen’s opinion on whether or not humans, and the earth, will survive
What happened in the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918: “The thing we haven’t learned is the dangers of our hubris”
True self-empowerment v reliance on outside medical knowledge
The paradigm shift that happens when you realize that all around you are plants with exceptional medicine that you can learn to use
The process of eldering and the point when the inevitability of dying becomes predominant
Herbal lineage, the march of generations, and young folks as the torch-bearers for the future of herbalism

Links:

The Foundation for Gaian Studies (Stephen's website)
Stephen's books on Amazon
Extra Potent Elderberry Elixir
My video An Herbalist's Perspective on Cold & Flu
Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz
Medicine Stories Facebook Group
Medicine Stories Patreon
Music by Mariee Sioux (from the song Wild Eyes)

Previous Episode

7. The Motherline: Embodied Ancestry & Feminine Magic - Lara Veleda Vesta

The scrolls are in our bones, and an embodied relationship with our ancestors can bring countless rewards and reveal things a merely intellectual path cannot. Through myth, ritual, and creative expression we can remember the feminine magic of our grandmothers and reap their blessings.

Lara Veleda Vesta is an artist, writer, and educator with strong, well tended ties to her Northern European ancestors. Her works and offerings focus on folk spirituality, archaic magic, mythology, ritual, and women’s remembrance. Our conversation runs deep and meanders from the cultural legacy of the burning times to the language of symbol to the nature of fate to the illusion of linear time and its effect on our modern lives to mold toxicity to snake medicine. And so much more!

-In the Intro:

Garden Party Giveaway!

The status of the podcast

Healing the Witch Wound

Herbal Tip: plant recognition & the human brain

-In the Interview:

The Motherline- intergenerational trauma, we’re all descended from survivors, and we are never separate from our ancestors

“Things are real and not real simultaneously”

Ancestral connection as an embodied path: connecting with the ancestors via direct information from your intuition, art, and ritual

The scrolls are in our bones: the ancestral dream that changed my life

Listening to the language of symbol

Hyndla- goddess of the bloodlines (let's bring her back!)

The woven web of Wyrd- the matrix of existence

Fate is interactive, time is non-linear, everything is happening simultaneously

The Disir- support, guidance, and blessings from the sacred grandmothers of your lineage

Go sit on your ancestors graves (for real tho)

Collapsing time and shifting consciousness

How linear time separates us from nature, the ancestors, myth, and indigenous ways of knowing

"Get off the grid of your thinking"

The multiplicity of reasons you are never alone

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, mold toxicity, and invisible disabilities

Disregarding cultural expectations: exhaustion, trauma, and illness in women (especially at midlife)

The ancient Northern myth of Golveig- “Thrice burned and yet she lives”- and what it can teach us about feminine power, magic, surviving patriarchy, and healing after pain and trauma

Snake medicine & feminine magic

-Links:

Lara’s website

The Wild Soul School

Lara’s Patreon

Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz

Max Dashu and The Suppressed Histories Archives

Jung and the Ancestors by Sandra Easter

My blog post Ancestral Voices, Women's Weariness, & the Illusion of Linear Time

The New Midlife Crisis for Women on Oprah.com

Next Episode

9. Know Thyself: Weaving Myth & Magic Into Everyday Life - Ariella Daly

Here's the secret about magic: it's not elusive, it's not hard to find, and it's everywhere. Magic happens when we follow the mythic threads that call to our soul and travel ever deeper into ourselves. We court magic when we take our inner yearnings seriously- by paying attention to dreams, symbols, old stories, ancestry, etc.- and more & more meaning and synchronicity become woven into the fabric of our daily lives.

Ariella is a beekeeper, musician, and storyteller. A student of the Path of Pollen, she has studied honey bee shamanism and the way of the Melissae for the past 8 years in the United Kingdom. She developed an interested in earth wisdom at an early age, creating her first herb garden and herbal remedies at the age of 15. Plant lore and an affinity for traditional folk music led her to study the myth and folk wisdom of her Celtic ancestry. As a result, she has over 25 years experience designing, leading, and participating in Celtic and earth-based practices and ceremony. She believes in the power of body as guide and nature as ally, and is committed to fostering relationships between the human and non-human world. She employs her skills with group facilitation in a number of workshops and classes focused on beekeeping, dreamwork, and women's embodied wisdom.

In the Intro:

Dreamwork
Me, my birthday, my dead mom, & something meaningful that happened
Herb Learnin’- the myth of precise dosage
Finding plant resonances

In the Interview:

The beautiful stories behind the meaning of Ariella’s name
How the tales her father told her as a child planted a seed that started Ari following the mythic threads of her Celtic ancestry a decade later and inspired many pilgrimages to her ancestral countries
Reclaiming the lost indigenous and women’s wisdom from your line
The grief of displacement and how our animal bodies recognize our ancestral homelands
Ariella’s devastating miscarriage and the lessons and healing that followed (including how her lost daughter brought the bees into her life) and how our biggest traumas are what we weave our gold out of
Ari’s initiation into ancestral, shamanic beekeeping
Folklore & magic of place: that feeling when the fae folk/spirits of the land appear and offer you entrance to the Otherworld as you’re standing at midnight on a sacred hill at Glastonbury that centuries of lore say is a powerful portal (a true story)
Raven meaning & medicine
Spontaneous, heart-opening healing: “the piece of me that left came back in”
“My whole life has been led by listening to the animals and plants”
Embodying your ancestry through story, music, the land
How to study and work with Ari