Summer Turns to Fall
Retreat Announcement, an Excerpt From the Now-concluded Native American Histories and Healing Cohort, and More.
We’re excited to announce our upcoming retreat: Metamorphosis
Saturday and Sunday, October 14th and 15th
Early Bird Pricing Ends September 18th
After two years of offering this workshop online, Madalyn Berg of Community Medicine Cabinet and Renée Camila of La Yerba Buena Herbs are hosting an overnight retreat grounded in experiential land-based practices.
During this in-person workshop, we will explore the ways themes of self-imposed pressure prevent us from accessing our inherent worthiness and identify strategies to transform that energy into ways of being that prioritize our wellness with a focus on patterns of perfectionism & control.
You’ll be hosted on a 13-acre farm in the company of big oaks, goats, horses, cows, box turtles, lilies, calamus, mugwort, flickers, woodpeckers, and more. We’ll feed you fresh local organic meals, keep the tea flowing, and each person will have a creekside tent site.
Native American History & Healing
with the Suscol Intertribal Council
This spring and summer we hosted a cohort of the Suscol Intertribal Council’s Native American History and Healing curriculum. I was thrilled to bring it to the herbal community. As people who engage with land toward healing, our practices can either be sites of remediation or sites of further harm. I hope that with a deeper understanding of the land we live on and make medicine in partnership with, of the impacts of colonization in northern California, and how they are felt today we can lean toward remediation and reciprocity and mitigate harm.
Language is Powerful: One fact in recent history everyone should know
Gavin Newsom described the colonization of California as a genocide- the first time any representative of the US government has publicly used this powerful language- and offered a public apology to the tribes.
An Evolving Dialogue
Over our five classes, it became clear that language and what is appropriate to share about indigenous histories in California are evolving quickly, there are multiple perspectives, and to hopefully reiterate some information you’re already familiar with, cultures are not monoliths. At this moment when people are gaining more knowledge of previously obfuscated indigenous histories, what indigenous individuals and even communities want are not the same— and can even be in opposition. This can be confusing if you are a settler trying to do the “right thing”.
Our teacher addressed this mutability during our second class, we engaged in a lively discussion around the word unceeded, as a part of a larger conversation around land acknowledgments. There was a lot of confusion about the term unceeded. Like many terms related to indigenous people’s rights in the US, it’s a legal term: “Unceded means that these territories have never been handed over, sold, or given up by these nations, and we are currently situated on occupied territories.”
At the end of the discussion, our teacher left us with this statement:
“There's not one way and, especially around this discussion… in fact, there are starting to be many ways, and those ways are all changing.
And so I always just see life as a river, you know. The rivers flowing. You could stand by the river, but you're not standing by the same water, cause the water's always moving. You can say I'm standing by the river, but it's not the same water. You can be at the ocean, but you're not at the same water.
Do you know what I mean? And this discussion is fluid…
Things are changing, and if the land can't be owned, and we are the earth and the earth is us, we're not separate from the earth. Who is determining the use of the earth has changed, and that has been very harmful for all creation.
And so when we talk about returning to balance.., if we use those terms {like unceeded} then we started to be in conversation with that as we come into balance. It won't be like the Pomo tribes own the land, because they never did in their own perceptions or self identity…
We're all moving towards balance. And I think it's healers and Earth medicine people to. Really, that's the forefront of why we're alive, you know, is to understand and really come to that place of one.
-Charlie Toledo
I love the poetics of my still body alongside a moving body of water: and the water changes as time keeps moving, even if the shore remains the same.
This reminds me of the Alaskan Essence: Tidal Forces
They describe the essence this way:
“The tide is the force of the sea, the rhythm of seasons and life. It is the giver and taker. It persists in all seasons and in weather wild and calm.
This is an essence of rhythm and balance, of loss and gain, of adapting oneself to the swiftly changing currents of life. It helps one release the old and receive the new with constant and unyielding fluidity. It soothes and balances overly emotional, fiery states of being and helps wash away mental resistance to change, and to accepting what is in the present moment.
The Tidal Forces environmental essence is a balancer for extremes–for times of profound loss, times of darkness, times of being pressed against the sea cliffs by the tides of life.”
Charlie offered us an opportunity to find that balance, to explore uncomfortable places, to sit with grief and responsibility, and the unknowns of a path forward. Healing is often this way. This time has often felt like it asks for this medicine. I have been thinking of this essence a lot because of our upcoming retreat that centers around finding balance within transformation, as natural disasters have been unfolding, and people close to me have been in the grips of big pain, change, and loss.
If this is an essence that feels like it could be supportive to you, please reach out to me if you want a dosage bottle or you can get a stock bottle directly from Alaskan Essences.
Finally, an announcement about our 1:1 consultations
I will be putting a little extra energy into the Botanical Bus** for the next few months, so my books are currently closed to new clients (returning clients, I have plenty of time for you and made this decision to keep it that way). I expect to reopen my books in late fall/ early winter so if you have been interested in 1:1 work together, please join our waitlist and we’ll reach out as soon as we can.
** If you’re not familiar with this organization, it’s where I do the other half of my herbal work: providing spanish-language care by-donation to the latine community by way of their free clinic as well as the organization of their apothecary, and training and mentorship for the Bus’ residents and apprentices. Learn more about the bus or consider supporting their work HERE.
I hope you enjoyed this iteration of our newsletter at the Community Medicine Cabinet.
Thank you and take care,
Madalyn & the Cabinet