Upcoming Book.....Unlocking the Spiritual Power of the Plants

Unlocking the Spiritual Power of the Plants

      Plants sacred to our Afro-Caribbean Traditions from a Palero’s Perspective

Over several years, we have been working on a in-depth book on using plants in Palo.  The book looks not only at certain key plants that we use every day in the munanso, but also at plants that grow outside of the Caribbean which are powerful spiritual plants.  In our munanso, we do not want to be reliant on botanicas for our plants, and have turned to the natural environment that we live in here in the diaspora for local options.  The book includes history, cultural notes, plant energies, and uses in palo.  We expect to be completing it in the new year (2019).

A walk through the Conucos: Evolving Ancestral Manifestation

The "Conuco" was sacred to our Taino Ancestors.  It was the source of abundance, and home of the sacred Yuca plant, as well as the sacred Tobacco and many other plants.  Our Ancestors cared for their Conucos very carefully, bringing in nutrients and organic mater in the form of Bat Guano and other sources of fertility.  They understood that the World of the Dead feeds the World of the Living and we today see the truth to that principle multiply profoundly in the here and now.  They understood that healthy plants start with healthy soil, soil that is vibrating with the life that is inside it.  

As time passed, the word "Conuco" came to be used all over the Caribbean and South America to mean small, diversified, family farm or garden.  Conucos were a means of survival and thriving, and the spaces wherein the Ancient food crops could be protected and passed on generation to generation.  The bloodsuckers of our lands brought in their monocultures, designed to maximize profit at the expense of Mother Earth and our Ancestors, as well as at the expense of our Ancestral ecosystems and the multitude of animals and plants.  These monocultures continue today to accelerate the Earth Changes (Climate Change) that we are experiencing in devastating ways today.  These monocultures are threatening the plants, the animals, birds, insects and precious soil micro-organisms and fungi.  Without this healthy web of life, the human thread in it cannot survive, not spiritually, mentally or physically.  

We shared videos a year ago, showing our Conucos.  Here we follow up a year later, showing the progression of those same Conucos.  In healthy gardens, there is always shift and transformation.  Year to year they shape shift.  For us it is always amazing and constantly a source of wisdom to watch the gardens in their ever changing dance.  



The first part begins looking out from one of the Munansos.  We look at the various plants in the Munanso gardens and speak about the trees surrounding and in the Munansos.  



Part 2 continues as we walk out and look at the long, snakelike raised bed Conucos that also function as swales, catching and absorbing water.  These Conucos grow fruit, flowers, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, elderberries, medicinal herbs, garlic, grain, corn, melons, tobacco, sage, sweet potato, peppers, artichoke, cotton, and hundreds of tree and shrub saplings.   

Part 3 moves into the forest, where we discuss the care taking of forest.  We then move into the north facing field which will be undergoing a process of transformation as we plant trees and shrubs  to create forest pasture for our sheep and goats, allowing us to raise them in healthy, harmonious ways.  Here we see our milking goat "Venus" who has allowed us to stop buying milk!

In part 4 we move into our son's "magical forest and magical garden", which is a food forest, as well as an extensive garden designed to be a place of appreciation and exploration for the children (and adults), with lots of berries (raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, currants, strawberries, elderberries), hardy kiwi, paw paw, hop vine, native flowers, roses, grasses, lilies, and many medicinal plants such as lemon balm, echinacea, skull cap, feverfew, lavender, osha, rue, and yarrow as well as self seeding parsnips, cilantro, mint, fennel, hibiscus, catmint.  We look at our quail who are taking care of the guinea chicks.  Finally we look at the Rain Garden, which has really expressed itself this year with its abundance of plants and some of the plants surrounding the house.  

The diversity of the Conucos continues to increase as we continue to meet new plants and develop relationships with them.  They become great friends and helpers in our lives, spiritually, physically.  The children can explore and play, eat berries, taste herbs, and nourish their innate love for Mother Earth.  We have a excellent source  for the many plants we use spiritually, and we continue to be immersed in the greatest University of all time- Mother Earth herself! 

Healthy Herbal Drinks for the Summer

Healthy Herbal Drinks for the Summer

 The Palero's garden is especially abundant at this time of year.  Leaves, flowers, roots and fruits are all available as plant medicines for both spiritual and physical issues.  We make healthy herbal drinks on a daily basis fresh from our gardens which the entire family enjoys.  Many plants are cooling to help us with the summer heat.  Here we share 3 herbal drinks that we recently made.  They are simple, yet healthy, and a much wiser choice than the highly sugared beverages that are aggressively marketed to us and which aggressively compromise the immune system and vitality of the body, contributing to obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and the like.  

We trust that the Palero will be interested to note that many of the herbs that we use are also utilized for spiritual purposes in our Traditions!

Above in the 3 jars fresh herbs are collected.  

On the left:

Mint

Sweet Basil 

Ceanothus americanus (New Jersey Tea Shrub)

In the Center:

Hibiscus flowers (large scarlet flower and smaller pink flowers)*

Pineapple Mint

Purple Basil

(Raw local honey)

On the right:

Echinacea flowers

Lavender flowers

Lemon Balm

Tarragon

Cat Mint

* The Hibiscus that we use is our local shrub hibiscus and herbaceous hibiscus.  Our children are especially excited about the hibiscus in the drinks because of the flamboyant flowers and bright colors.   They are delighted to discover that something so beautiful is also edible.

In particular the Hibiscus-Mint combination is very cooling for this hot season.  Great with ice or just chilled from the fridge.

The recipe is simple.  Add boiling water, let cool, add honey if desired, chill.  (We leave them overnight, but it only takes a few hours).  Then enjoy.  It can be fun and educational to watch the color changes that occur as the hot water pulls the magic and spirit from the plants!  The children love to see this alchemical process manifesting in front of their eyes.

It is no secret that our Ancestors had a more varied diet that the modern diet.  The bulk of their plant food was perennial- such as shrubs, trees, herbaceous plants or self seeding annuals.  The modern plant diet is primarily annuals grown on highly chemicalized and devitalized soils.  Because of their long term stability, trees and shrub food tends to be very mineral and vitamin rich.  Their roots stretch deep into and around the Earth, pulling a specific set of nutrients depending on what tree or shrub we are talking about.  So called weeds (especially those with tap roots) also do this.  What is truly magical and deeply spiritual is that two plants, growing next to each other can pull vastly different nutrients from the Earth, Sky and Sun!  At the Heart of Ancestral Traditions is the wisdom of the Ancestors who were able to understand this magic and bring it into practical uses of healing and creation.

It is concerning that contemporary spiritual practitioners, whether they be Paleros or Tainos (or of any other tradition that is directly tied to the Ancestors and is not a so called "new age" abstraction), are apparently estranged from the direct and daily relationship with the world of the Mysterious and Magical Plants.    There are those "medicine people"(beikes, shamans, boitu etc.) out there who know only to rely on drugs for even the most simplest ailment.  It is the proverbial issue of being thirsty at the edge of a river, hungry in front of a lush garden.  Their spiritual deprivation leads them to sickness and dependence, all the while, Mother Earth and Ancestral Wisdom are offering vitality and empowerment.  Many have the audacity to talk about "medicine" but resort to the quick and easy fix (which is not a fix but a tratado for debilitation) of Frankenstein's laboratory.   Others use the popular god ($) as the reason to choose chemicals and perversions (GMOs) over the plants that Mother Earth freely gives us.  Caring not that this choice ensures the destruction of Mother Earth, yet the next minute they are singing a song to her, with feather and drum in hand!   What hypocrisy and how could the Ancestors give their blessing for this?

Compared to the Ancient (and even not so ancient) Ancestors, we are children, with much more ignorance concerning plants than wisdom, however, there is no shame in humbling oneself to seek out some basic spiritual wisdom concerning the most common plants.  Many powerful plant medicines can be found at the corners of gardens, parks, along roads, abandoned lots, in hedgerows, and riverbanks.  Most of them we overlook everyday, sometimes even aggressively attacking them as a "weed".  Viciously spraying out powerhouses of nutrients such as the dandelion and violet from the lawn.  Trampling over the pile of weeded out plantain to get to a drug to deal with the bee sting we got weeding, not realizing all we need to do is chew a leaf of plantain and apply it to the sting!  

Many prayers are made for divine intervention, ironically, this Sacred Intervention that is required, is right in front of so many of us.  Mother Earth herself is in the process of requiring us to once again respect her and her Sacred Medicine.  The Earth Changes we are experiencing, which are sure to become more intense, require that we do so.  The overblown egos, and delusions cannot survive her Sacred Response to the vicious and greedy attack that has so undermined the vitality of the Web of Life.