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Listen to: Atacameños by Marcelo Vergara

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Flute photos: http://elderflutes.wordpress.com/

" The word 'Elder' comes from the Anglo-Saxon word aeld. In Anglo-Saxon days we find the tree called Eldrun, which becomes Hyldor and Hyllantree in the fourteenth century. One of its names in modern German - Hollunder - is clearly derived from the same origin. In Low-Saxon, the name appears as Ellhorn. Æld meant 'fire,' the hollow stems of the young branches having been used for blowing up a fire: the soft pith pushes out easily and the tubes thus formed were used as pipes - hence it was often called Pipe-Tree, or Bore-tree and Bour-tree, the latter name remaining in Scotland and being traceable to the Anglo-Saxon form, Burtre.

The generic name Sambucus occurs in the writings of Pliny and other ancient writers and is evidently adapted from the Greek word Sambuca, the Sackbut, an ancient musical instrument in much use among the Romans, in the construction of which, it is surmised, the wood of this tree, on account of its hardness, was used. The difficulty, however, of accepting this is that the Sambuca was a stringed instrument, while anything made from the Elder would doubtless be a wind instrument, something of the nature of a Pan-pipe or flute. Pliny records the belief held by country folk that the shrillest pipes and the most sonorous horns were made of Elder trees which were grown out of reach of the sound of cock-crow. At the present day, Italian peasants construct a simple pipe, which they call sampogna, from the branches of this plant."

-- Mrs. Grieve's A Modern Herbal

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A plant-inspired free form jam recorded in the basement of Goats Head Manor, Portland, OR. 9-6-12. Alex Geer on guitar, Jay Simpson on electronics, Jonah Lee on djembe, Leah Bee on synth keyboard. 

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Nature as Wholistic Guide to Healing

"To see things in the seed, that is genius." -- Lao Tzu

      This contract has led me to a space of understanding health and healing in a  way that encompasses all of life. Micro- and macrocosmically, achieving a state of centered balance within the self -- a state of being that is firm and rooted like the Red Cedar, though fluid and adaptable like the fungi that grows through the Cedar snags -- is key to understanding that health is not a personal achievement found in a solitary moment, but rather, health is an ever-changing symbiosis with the environment around you. Within the point of infinity that is you or that plant or that rock, exists the universal vital force, identical in all, whose expression through you creates your karmic duty and your medicine. 

In Ayurvedic medicine, there is an idea of one's natural state of being, when born and healthy, and one's current state of being, likely off balance with the first, called Prakruti and Vikruti respectively. According to http://ayurveda.iloveindia.com, "Prakruti is the science of nature which determines the innate character, physical constitution or disposition of a person." This is one's baseline balance of the three doshas, Kapha, Pitta and Vata. This balance changes over time, and through understanding one's Vikruti, or current state of imbalance that leads to dis-ease, one is able to addition the correct medicines to achieve a state of true balance, closer to one's Prakruti. In working with the plants this summer, I have been given clarity on the state of my own Vikruti. A huge teacher in this unveiling was the Aspen tree in Colorado. With this organism's emphasis on the eyes, I have found myself on a journey towards healing my eyes naturally. I have been wearing glasses and contacts since the third grade and for the first time in my life I am making a conscious decision to walk the earth without the crutch of glasses or contacts. This alone has brought to my awareness many of my other imbalances, such as my posture, the way I place my feet on the earth, the rhythm of my breath and particularly, how I psychically perceive the world. If I am unable to decipher particular visual details in the world around me, my other senses must wake up to compensate. My sense of smell and sound have heightened significantly, along with the my non-physical awareness of any given situation. My ability to "feel" the energetic architecture of people and situations is becoming a guiding force in moving through the world, while my habitual visual translation of the world is taking a back seat. 

These transformations have deeply affected my relationship to music in that my perception of sound is being remediated. In the forest, the call of the late night owl and tickling trickle of the stream move through the symphonic harmony of crickets, tree frogs and the wind-blown maple leaves. The sounds complement each other, support each other and even tell stories to the careful listener. Like in the Amazon, where navigational focus is placed on sonic perception due to lack of visual clarity, one can navigate through the shadows of the self by simply quieting oneself to the orchestra of the forest. In listening, I am beginning to understand the effect of music on a place, on a plant, and on a person. I will forever more play music in honor of the balance that exists both internally and externally. Music as medicine, medicine as music.

I feel as though I am being reborn, meeting the truth of my Vikruti eye to eye, compassionately and consciously choosing to see the real state of my being. I am opening my eyes for the first time, using my muscles and walking for the first time, breathing correctly for the first time in my life. The importance of the breath far exceeds any number of words one could give to it -- it is the flow we are constantly engaged with. It is our eternal transaction with the external world, and how we honor that transaction sheds light to the state of our Vikruti. Breath deep, fill your lungs and find balance in that flow. 

Life choses life. Humans, in their attempt to manipulate and exploit the environment around them for profit and pleasure, have fallen out of this delicate dance with the cosmos, and as a result, have forgotten how to be children of the Earth and warriors of the Light. It is about moving up, growing tall and strong with the rest of the forest. Do you think the Oregon Grape questions its existence, or worries about what other plants may think of its growth structure? Or do you think the Oregon Grape simply grows, utilizing its resources, reaching toward the sun, adapting and synergizing with the rest of the forest -- the trees, the sun, the mycelium. We, like the rest of the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, are here on this planet to live and live well. That is all. Live in a way that additions strength to your karmic weaknesses, that supports your physical, mental and emotional struggle while simultaneously benefitting the world around you. The trees have teachings in the way their branches grow around obstacles and the way their roots revive old snags. The wildflowers have teachings in the way they point their centers toward the sun, in the way they drop their leaves in fall, and in the way they retreat into a state of dormancy in the winter. The birds have teachings in the way they use their voice as song and we, as humans, have the honor of participating in this kaleidoscopic phenomenon as care-takers, as healers, as singers and dancers, because it is through these modalities that we re-member the innate balance Nature has instilled in us from the beginning. 

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Veratrum viride and the number three

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Water Spirit by Leah Bee

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Birds on the Wires by Jarbas Agnelli

There is music everywhere -- music to hear, to see, to read, to feel, to know and to touch. Music is Nature. Nature is music. 

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That's what makes you a human being---that willingness to sing another one free.

Martin Prechtel

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Singing Plants at Damanhur

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Picture Credit: http://chestofbooks.com/flora-plants/flowers/North-American-Mountains/Indian-Hellebore-Veratrum-viride-Lily-Family.html

Veratrum viride

"This plant was, and still is, highly respected, for even to eat a small portion of it would result in loss of consciousness, followed by death. It is sometimes known as 'skookum root', this Chinook jargon for 'strong, powerful'. This plant was in important and respected medicine, used by most northwest coast groups. The Tlingit used an Indian-hellebore medicine for colds...There is one report of a Haisla who was cured of tuberculosis by placing a losenge of dried Indian-hellebore root under his tongue for a day. It is said that his face went numb, but her recovered...It was believed almost any disease could be cured with Indian hellebore...Veratrum presumably refers to the dark flowers or blackish rhizome (vera means 'true'; atrum means 'black'). The origin of the name 'hellebore' is obscure; true hellebores are species of Helleborus an do not bear much resemblance to Veratrum species. Helleborus was a supposed remedy for madness."

Pojar, Jim. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing. 1994. Print. 

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Picture Credit: http://songoftheamazon.wordpress.com/resources/

I have begun the creation process of a sacred shamanic musical instrument, the chacapa. My teacher gave me the blessings to go ahead with the process and the guidance from here out has been entirely from the hands of plant beings. In listening with full-body awareness to the subtleties of plant frequencies, both energetically and physically, the process has become a co-creative endeavor in honor of the Earth, the plants and the healing journey within which we all walk. 

I have been intrigued with Veratrum viride, False Hellebore, since my trip to Glacier National Park and it continues to surf the waves of my existence. I sketched it's flowers out, vibrant greens and yellows, while driving to Mt. Hood National Park. We stopped by a lake to stretch and breath, harvest some huckleberries and connect with the Earth. I found False Solomon's Seal, who has made known its preferencial title as Dragon Root or Smilascina racemosa, right off a sidewalk and was called to sit with it for a few moments. I knew the leaf structure needed for the creation of the chacapa, but was unsure which plant wanted to have the honor. In sitting with Dragon Root, sensing its structure with my eyes and fingers, I was given the process of how to cut the leaves up to create the leaf rattle. I made offerings, harvested the plant, and took it back to the car where I sat in the back seat and proceeded to cut the leaves as they guided me to. When I was completed, I looked at what I had created and it was unmistakably representative of the Hellebore flower I had drawn only moments before. There is a kinship here both in energetic presence as well as scientific classification. Both plants belong to the Lily family, Liliacaea, and have the signature parallel-veined leaf structure with gentle evocative flowers bursting forth from the green.

The Dragon Root leaves have dried and it seems as though I will need to try again. I believe Madrona will It is valuable learning to continue this process, knowing what the outcome needs to look like and unwilling to compromise for this result. 

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Picture credit: http://www.myspace.com/kmkweenspade/blog/532184970

Plant Consciousness and Humility

There comes a point when one has been sitting in Nature with an open heart and being, when the reflections of one's thoughts are visibly and sensationally perceived as externally existing in the surrounding world. Life is sentience through which all questions are answered. The Oneness within which we are all cradled is a song, a harmonically motivated collection of infinite melodies and frequencies. Life as song in motion. And there comes a point when you realize perhaps "you" are not actually any one thing or point, but that this illusion of "you" is a collection of interacting vibrations emitting from all life at all times. Ever-changing transience. Osmosis. The key then, is to harmonize with the eternal exchange that permeates all of life at all moments.

The question of what "plant consciousness" truly means has come to the forefront of my imagination in the past few weeks. What does it mean to be conscious? Or perhaps a more fruitful question to investigate is what does it mean to not contain consciousness? Enough studies have proven a plant's ability to respond, surprisingly quickly, to changes in the environment that allow for even a system of plant neurobiology to be legitimately configured and understood, but somehow the mentality of Nature as inanimate permeates our cultural awareness. This mentality alone is detrimental to the well-being of this planet, this living organism from which all life awakens.

In Peter Tompkins', The Secret Life of Plants, he exposes a multitude of plant experimentation that leaves little space to ignore the obvious. Cleve Backster's infamous galvonometer experiments opened the way for the experimental science to take root. The galvonometer is a lie-detecting instrument used in interrogation to pick up frequencies emitted by the human being. One night, Backster decided to hook up the electrodes to the plant, Dracaena massangeana, also known as Dragon Tree, and test its response to various stimulus. He basically found that the plant responded almost immediately to thoughts he was having (burning the plant's leaves, for example) and furthered the study to show that the connection between human and plant symbiosis extends beyond spacial limitations. After working with a plant for some time, Backster decided to see how it responded to his state of being while away from the plant. He went to the market, had various human interactions, some triggering anger, others inducing calmness. He wrote down the times and locations where various significant changes occurred and went back to find that the plant had also been experiencing dramatic shifts in electromagnetic output at those same times. He furthered his experiment over thousands of miles and found the similar results. 

If such a connection is possible, perhaps this can help us understand the non-spatially dependent use of plant medicine, seen in Amazonian (and other types of) shamanism. Once that relationship has occurred, between plant and human, it remains a living relationship, perhaps until death. This may be the basis of calling in plant spirits and allies into the healing spaces of ceremony.

This brings to question the origin, if any, of this interaction; is the human effecting the plant or the plant effecting the human? Does the human imbue special forces into plant or does plant imbue special forces into human? Either way a shifting in behavior is occurring that can be described as reflective and receptive.

Marcel Vogel is famous for his work with psychic influence on plants and crystals. From his research, one can come to understand that perhaps the plant is simply reflecting the emotional, psychological, physical or mental state that the person of interaction is embodying in that moment. His studies explored the power of words and thoughts on plants. He conducted a study where he picked two leaves of the same plant and the same time of day and placed one by his bed and the other in another room. Each morning and evening he would concentrate his mind on the health of the leaf in his bedroom, sending it positive energies. The other leaf he intentionally ignored. As one may expect, the ignored leaf shriveled up in a few days while the other one stayed alive and even looked as though it had healed the scarification that occurred from taking the leaf from the plant. 

What this suggests is quite startling at first, though seems to settle into a realm of liberation-consciousness. If the content on our minds can be measurably recorded as affecting the well-being of a plant, the attitudes with which we approach all of life should be of such a nature that abundance, love and healing flow from us at all times. Each time you address a tree with an attitude of arrogance or disrespect, that tree is affected. I think it wouldn't be a stretch to say that this transmission of energy is applicable anywhere from a daisy to a computer, from a pebble to a cougar. There exists a flow between all life that can be intentionally (or non-intentionally) directed. From the two endpoints, which are only endpoints momentarily, there becomes a tension between, creating the balance of three, the sacred unity of all things. 

So perhaps there is not such a thing as "plant consciousness", but rather consciousness in action -- as receptor or reflector -- found in all things on this planet. Plant consciousness is life consciousness is human consciousness, all in transaction with other expressions of conscious awareness, always in relation. Nothing exists alone. Have some gratitude for all the beings that make your life possible. Hold awareness for those whose lives have been taken so that you may place your feet where they are in this moment. Have patience and be humble in the truth of the infinitesimal place you hold on this ancient living being, our Mama Gaia. 

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Vision encourages projection into the world, occupation and control of the source of experience; whereas sound encourages a sense of the world as received, as being revelatory rather than incarnate.

Luce Iragary, cultural theorist

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Mr. Vogel asked me to relax and project myself into the philodendron. Several things took place as I began to carry out his request. First, I wondered exactly how I could get inside a plant. I made a conscious decision to let my imagination take over and found myself entering the main stem through a doorway at its base. Once inside, I saw the moving cells and water traveling upward through the stem, and let myself move with this upward flow. Approaching the spreading leaves in my imagination, I could feel myself being drawn from an imaginary world into a realm over which I had no control. There were no mental pictures, but rather a feeling that I was becoming part of, and filling out, a broad expansive surface. This seemed to me to be describable only as pure consciousness. I felt acceptance and positive protection by the plant. There was no sense of time, just a feeling of unity in existence and in space. I smiled spontaneously and let myself be one with the plant. Then Mr. Vogel asked me to relax. When he said this, I realized I was very tired but peaceful. All of my energy had been with the plant.

Debbie Sapp's written description of "going into the plant" during one of Marcel Vogel's plant/human consciousness experiments

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Because [Marcel Vogel] knows that, among all humans, children are the most "open-minded", he has begun to teach children how to interact with plants. First, he asks them to feel a leaf, describe its temperature, consistency, and texture in detail. Next, he lets them bend leaves and become aware of their resilience before going on to pet the leaves gently by stroking their upper and under sides. If his pupils take pleasure in describing to him the sensations they feel, Vogel asks them to take their hands away from the leaves and try to feel a force or energy emanating from them. Many of the children instantly described a rippling or tingling sensation. Vogel noticed that these children who felt the strongest sensations were wholly engrossed in what they were doing. Once they felt the tingling, he would say: "Now completely relax and feel the give-and-take of the energy. When you feel it pulsing, gently move your hand up and down over the leaf." Following his directions, the young experimenters could easily see that, when they brought their hands down, the leaves fell away. By continued repetition of this motion, the leaves would begin to oscillate. With the use of both hands, the experimenters could actually get a plant to sway. As they gained confidence, Vogel urged them to move further away from the plant..."

The Secret Life of Plants, by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird