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Tag: wild rice harvest

Harvesting Wild Rice: The Poetry + The Process

September 30, 2013June 25, 2021

The Initial Daydream This August I fulfilled a long haunting dream of mine – to harvest rice in the wild beds of Minnesota. The idea began as a simple seed in my early twenties. I was idealistic, entranced with the world and still exploring the ideas of living close to the land, harvesting the natural nourishment…

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Asia Suler is a writer, teacher, medicine maker and seeker who lives in the blue folds of the southern Appalachian mountains. Woolgathering and Wildcrafting is her grass-stained journal from the hillsides of the living world. It’s full of recipes, musings, plant monographs and poetics. So grab a cup of tea and come on in for a spell. Open up to a page in this shared tome to find a hand-pressed flower, words of comfort, or a small glen of inspiration for your day. Visit Asia’s online classes for more.


  • Illuminations
  • Plant Stories
  • Words for Hard Times
  • Nourishment
  • The Otherworld
  • Mineral Medicine
  • Sacred Entrepreneurship 
  • Travelogues
  • Seasonal Celebration
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Fall

     



For the ancient Daoists, ghosts were anything that For the ancient Daoists, ghosts were anything that haunted you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Past relationships, old traumas, hopes left behind, barbed nostalgia. Within Daoism everything on earth is considered to be animated by consciousness and energy. Unlike in Western culture where we consider the past to be history, in Daoism events and interactions carry their own energy—one that can attach to our own spirits, linger on. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Ghosts are created anytime there is a resistance to what is. When a trauma is too great to bear, when we cannot accept the hurts endured, when a word spoken was too painful to let in. For the Chinese medicine practitioners who work with releasing these energies, the phrase “ghosts of the past” is literal. When something powerful gets to the core of our being—whether it be a belief system, relationship or ache—part of its power is left there. It changes us. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Learn more about the Daoist concept of ghosts (and how to use the power of autumn to release them and move forward) in our online class: Herbs for the Otherworld. 🍂 Sign up now and listen at your leisure (Link in profile)
Matriarchal DNA and the Motherland ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Matriarchal DNA and the Motherland ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It is potent to trace back any of the long webs of your family line, but there is a particular power in following your matrilineal line. If you are someone born with two XX chromosomes then you carry within you the silken strands of matrilineal mitochondrial DNA, a line that can be followed all the way back in time to the first mother.... and the heart of your ancestral landscape. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In Brian Sykes’ groundbreaking genetic work, he found something interesting about the maternal DNA. While paternal DNA, in his sampling range, tends to be less historically rooted in a landscape, matrilineal DNA is deeply placed based. If your mothers line is from a particular place, it is more likely to have been in that place for a long, long time. For most of the mtDNA Sykes tested in The British Isles, the mothers and grandmothers of that family could be traced all the way back to the Neolithic burial mounds. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My mother’s mother’s line is entirely from the British Isles. I am only the third woman to be born outside. Over the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to visit the places where so many generations of mothers birthed and sang, loved and bled. Being there, I felt something deep within me pulling. Like that rope that ties the babe to the womb. A bond that feels as deep and strong as an old yew. . . If you are feeling called to these motherlands, come check out my fall course: Herbs for the Otherworld. The class is an experience designed to help take you into the realm of the ancestors and the Celtic Otherworld. (Link in profile)
Though we pride ourselves in this era on what we c Though we pride ourselves in this era on what we can capture, quantify and see, it’s a simple fact that the vast (and I mean vast) majority of our world is made up of the unseen. As human beings we are only privy to a very small window of experience. Meanwhile we move through a world that is built out of things we cannot touch or hold, or even understand fully. Dark matter, atoms, electromagnetic frequency— what we can perceive is only a very small fraction of the multitudes of worlds within our world. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We are so small and always, and ever, on the lip of exploring the magnanimous world of what lies just beyond our vision. In autumn we are fully invited to let go of the need to grasp or prove, and just fully join the realms of the unseen. Old emotions, memories, the worlds of the ancestors, spirits, the invisible threads that keep our world spun into a single web of being. We, like all beings, are made up primarily of the unseen. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Come learn the contours of the unseen world in my online course, Herbs for the Otherworld (link in bio). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 📷 by @oceanmountainmedia
The O T H E R W O R L D ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Known as the realm of the ancestors, the fairies, and the way beyond death, the Otherworld is a place of deep and life-changing knowledge.  In autumn, the Otherworld draws closer, asking us to develop a relationship with the invisible aspects of this earth. A place of wise guidance, mysticism, and ancient consciousness– connecting into the other Otherworld can bring untold magic into our lives. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Come learn the contours of the Otherworld and develop a unique personal relationship with this hidden realm in our (( Herbs for the Otherworld online class)). Sign up and explore… . 🔮 The shamanic history of the Celtic Otherworld . 🔮Ancestor tending . 🔮How to clear “ghosts” and attachments . 🔮 Samhain (Halloween) rituals . 🔮 Traditional herblore for magic & consciousness expansion . 🔮 The secret story of the Sidhe . 🔮 A shamanic meditation to meet your Otherworld guide . Come receive a whole autumnal treasure chest of practices to enrich your fall. The Otherworld is waiting for you… . Sign up through the link in my profile
Fall is known as a nostalgic season, but sometimes Fall is known as a nostalgic season, but sometimes that nostalgia seems to expand beyond our own personal past. Every autumn I find myself feeling nostalgic for dreams I’ve yet to live. Longing for a world that isn’t here right now, but that I know is possible. The longing and nostalgia of fall are nutriments for the Earth, compost that is just as bright as the falling leaves. Follow that longing and it will lead you in the direction of your dreams. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In the ancient Celtic world, autumn was seen as the richest time of the year to help the energies of the unseen and as-yet-unformed cross over. In autumn, we can glimpse the mythic possibilities of our lifetime and learn how to make them real. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What is the big dream you want to call into being this fall? Leave me a comment below to let me know, and trust that it is possible.
Witch is a term as shifting and volatile as mercur Witch is a term as shifting and volatile as mercury. Over time it has been an accusation, a slur, a fear, a story, a fairytale, and a costume. But in the beginning, a witch was someone who was recognized as working with healing. A person who had a direct relationship to the medicine of those things we cannot immediately see. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The etymological roots of the word witch are mixed, murky and a bit mysterious. But some scholars argue that witch can be traced back to the Indo-European world weid – which means both “to see” and “to know.” Traditional healers knew that the way in which we perceive gives shape to our direct experience of reality. If we wish to change our reality, or the concreteness of loss or devastation that we’ve been handed, we must first begin with what we are open to seeing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And Real Witches see possibility. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ They understand that sometimes the most profound healing does not come from the physiology of a specific medicine, but from the life-changing alteration of our core vision and belief. Where there is pain, there could be relief. Where there is death, regeneration can be leased. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ At the heart, to be a witch doesn’t mean that you manipulate reality to your liking. It means that you can see and call forth manifold possibilities. It means that your perception of reality goes beyond what has been handed to you. And that you can perceive the presence of freedom, and healing, in all things. . . Ready to claim your magic and be a part of the healing this season?⠀Join me in my course, Herbs for the Otherworld, and learn how to journey to the medicine that lies just beyond the veil. (Link in bio)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 📷 by @acupfullofsunshine of me and my dear friend Milla
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  • Illuminations
  • Plant Stories
  • Words for Hard Times
  • Nourishment
  • The Otherworld
  • Mineral Medicine
  • Sacred Entrepreneurship 
  • Travelogues
  • Seasonal Celebration
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Fall



Asia Suler is a writer, teacher, medicine maker and seeker who lives in the blue folds of the southern Appalachian mountains. Woolgathering and Wildcrafting is her grass-stained journal from the hillsides of the living world. It’s full of recipes, musings, plant monographs and poetics. So grab a cup of tea and come on in for a spell. Open up to a page in this shared tome to find a hand-pressed flower, words of comfort, or a small glen of inspiration for your day. Visit Asia’s online classes for more.




For the ancient Daoists, ghosts were anything that For the ancient Daoists, ghosts were anything that haunted you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Past relationships, old traumas, hopes left behind, barbed nostalgia. Within Daoism everything on earth is considered to be animated by consciousness and energy. Unlike in Western culture where we consider the past to be history, in Daoism events and interactions carry their own energy—one that can attach to our own spirits, linger on. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Ghosts are created anytime there is a resistance to what is. When a trauma is too great to bear, when we cannot accept the hurts endured, when a word spoken was too painful to let in. For the Chinese medicine practitioners who work with releasing these energies, the phrase “ghosts of the past” is literal. When something powerful gets to the core of our being—whether it be a belief system, relationship or ache—part of its power is left there. It changes us. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Learn more about the Daoist concept of ghosts (and how to use the power of autumn to release them and move forward) in our online class: Herbs for the Otherworld. 🍂 Sign up now and listen at your leisure (Link in profile)
Matriarchal DNA and the Motherland ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Matriarchal DNA and the Motherland ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It is potent to trace back any of the long webs of your family line, but there is a particular power in following your matrilineal line. If you are someone born with two XX chromosomes then you carry within you the silken strands of matrilineal mitochondrial DNA, a line that can be followed all the way back in time to the first mother.... and the heart of your ancestral landscape. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In Brian Sykes’ groundbreaking genetic work, he found something interesting about the maternal DNA. While paternal DNA, in his sampling range, tends to be less historically rooted in a landscape, matrilineal DNA is deeply placed based. If your mothers line is from a particular place, it is more likely to have been in that place for a long, long time. For most of the mtDNA Sykes tested in The British Isles, the mothers and grandmothers of that family could be traced all the way back to the Neolithic burial mounds. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My mother’s mother’s line is entirely from the British Isles. I am only the third woman to be born outside. Over the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to visit the places where so many generations of mothers birthed and sang, loved and bled. Being there, I felt something deep within me pulling. Like that rope that ties the babe to the womb. A bond that feels as deep and strong as an old yew. . . If you are feeling called to these motherlands, come check out my fall course: Herbs for the Otherworld. The class is an experience designed to help take you into the realm of the ancestors and the Celtic Otherworld. (Link in profile)
Though we pride ourselves in this era on what we c Though we pride ourselves in this era on what we can capture, quantify and see, it’s a simple fact that the vast (and I mean vast) majority of our world is made up of the unseen. As human beings we are only privy to a very small window of experience. Meanwhile we move through a world that is built out of things we cannot touch or hold, or even understand fully. Dark matter, atoms, electromagnetic frequency— what we can perceive is only a very small fraction of the multitudes of worlds within our world. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We are so small and always, and ever, on the lip of exploring the magnanimous world of what lies just beyond our vision. In autumn we are fully invited to let go of the need to grasp or prove, and just fully join the realms of the unseen. Old emotions, memories, the worlds of the ancestors, spirits, the invisible threads that keep our world spun into a single web of being. We, like all beings, are made up primarily of the unseen. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Come learn the contours of the unseen world in my online course, Herbs for the Otherworld (link in bio). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 📷 by @oceanmountainmedia
The O T H E R W O R L D ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Known as the realm of the ancestors, the fairies, and the way beyond death, the Otherworld is a place of deep and life-changing knowledge.  In autumn, the Otherworld draws closer, asking us to develop a relationship with the invisible aspects of this earth. A place of wise guidance, mysticism, and ancient consciousness– connecting into the other Otherworld can bring untold magic into our lives. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Come learn the contours of the Otherworld and develop a unique personal relationship with this hidden realm in our (( Herbs for the Otherworld online class)). Sign up and explore… . 🔮 The shamanic history of the Celtic Otherworld . 🔮Ancestor tending . 🔮How to clear “ghosts” and attachments . 🔮 Samhain (Halloween) rituals . 🔮 Traditional herblore for magic & consciousness expansion . 🔮 The secret story of the Sidhe . 🔮 A shamanic meditation to meet your Otherworld guide . Come receive a whole autumnal treasure chest of practices to enrich your fall. The Otherworld is waiting for you… . Sign up through the link in my profile
Fall is known as a nostalgic season, but sometimes Fall is known as a nostalgic season, but sometimes that nostalgia seems to expand beyond our own personal past. Every autumn I find myself feeling nostalgic for dreams I’ve yet to live. Longing for a world that isn’t here right now, but that I know is possible. The longing and nostalgia of fall are nutriments for the Earth, compost that is just as bright as the falling leaves. Follow that longing and it will lead you in the direction of your dreams. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In the ancient Celtic world, autumn was seen as the richest time of the year to help the energies of the unseen and as-yet-unformed cross over. In autumn, we can glimpse the mythic possibilities of our lifetime and learn how to make them real. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What is the big dream you want to call into being this fall? Leave me a comment below to let me know, and trust that it is possible.
Witch is a term as shifting and volatile as mercur Witch is a term as shifting and volatile as mercury. Over time it has been an accusation, a slur, a fear, a story, a fairytale, and a costume. But in the beginning, a witch was someone who was recognized as working with healing. A person who had a direct relationship to the medicine of those things we cannot immediately see. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The etymological roots of the word witch are mixed, murky and a bit mysterious. But some scholars argue that witch can be traced back to the Indo-European world weid – which means both “to see” and “to know.” Traditional healers knew that the way in which we perceive gives shape to our direct experience of reality. If we wish to change our reality, or the concreteness of loss or devastation that we’ve been handed, we must first begin with what we are open to seeing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And Real Witches see possibility. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ They understand that sometimes the most profound healing does not come from the physiology of a specific medicine, but from the life-changing alteration of our core vision and belief. Where there is pain, there could be relief. Where there is death, regeneration can be leased. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ At the heart, to be a witch doesn’t mean that you manipulate reality to your liking. It means that you can see and call forth manifold possibilities. It means that your perception of reality goes beyond what has been handed to you. And that you can perceive the presence of freedom, and healing, in all things. . . Ready to claim your magic and be a part of the healing this season?⠀Join me in my course, Herbs for the Otherworld, and learn how to journey to the medicine that lies just beyond the veil. (Link in bio)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 📷 by @acupfullofsunshine of me and my dear friend Milla
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