Greetings Plant Lovers, Mystical Creatures and Friends,
This last weekend was a deeply moving one. At our home in Italy, Ca’Inti, we open up the space not only for fun gatherings with music and pizza, but we also host workshops and ceremonies. This summer we have had four temezcals with our friends who are initiates of the Camino Rojo, we hosted a family of Tz‘utujil Mayans from Guatemala who offered a Mayan calendar ceremony, this last Friday we had a temazcal followed with a Four Tobaccos ceremony with Huachuma, a sacred plant of the Andes on Saturday into Sunday.
I personally love the cacti wisdom plants, the ones who help to open the connection with the divine. In my personal practice, I pray to Goddess, the feminine principle of the universe, though, I also honor and love her sacred counterpart. It is She who I turn to in my happiness and sorrow. This weekend we honored gran espiritu with a 4 Tobaccos ceremony, a long (12+ hour) journey, working with fire and tobacco as the portal to our prayers for our communities, the water, the earth, and the plants and animals. The guide, a Chilean man who carries the traditions from his elder woman teacher from Ecuador, working in a specific rhythm of story, song and altar creation with the coals of the fire, the medicine itself and the symbol of the arrow, condor, eagle and heart. I really love this medicine, out of all the wisdom plants, this one is my favorite. Magic mushrooms always give me a stomachache, the vine of the soul just traumatized me too much, and tobacco is just so abused. So to pray with tobacco felt very healing for the industrialized system that perverts this plant to the state of addiction, farmer death, global commoditization, and ecological pollution. I love the scared fire, to me, it has always felt like an acupuncture point on planet earth, a moxa to move the congested energy we humans have created from our greed and trash.
Before a ceremony I always have a feeling of resistance, probably rooted in anxiety and fear. Yet, I know this plant, and I know how she behaves in my body. My connections during ceremony aren’t usually major ah-has or insights, often they are feelings of complete emptiness, a silencing of the mind chatter, I feel I become a true hollow bone for the medicine to work through. I did have an intention though this weekend, it was a prayer for the safety of a friend suffering from domestic abuse, and all humans suffering quietly from harm in the home. I know I am not educated enough on how to help people in this situation, as I am so very blessed to never have really suffered it. I was spanked and slapped as a child, but never abused. I have never suffered from sexual violence and I have never felt fearful for my life in the presence of one who is supposed to love me. I sadly may be a minority in these cases. And the knowledge that wars still use sexual violence as weapons, that misogyny doesn’t seem to be going anywhere at all, that femicide even has a statistic to be ashamed of, and that those in power chose to listen to abusers instead of victims… my prayers remain even though the weekend is over.
I ask you all to light the sacred fire in your homes, and along with me to learn how to be a better support for those suffering. Let’s learn how to make safer spaces, gather and give resources where needed. I feel me own lack of ability here, I would love to hear from you, what are some resources you recommend that can help women, children and families escape violence.
This Lunar Musing I spent writing on Saturn in Pisces. Taking a look at the archetypes of the Big Daddy figures in the sky, the masculine archetypes that influence our astrological charts, and what happens when one is seated in Pisces. I look at certain eras in modern history, two of which I lived through, and how the history seems to repeat itself in how we act and react socially, culturally and technologically during these times.
I very much appreciate the feedback I receive on my writing, and I am excited to be working on my book alongside my dear sister Lala Palmieri… more on that to come next musing…
I recently made an account with Buy Me a Coffee, while I don’t actually drink much coffee, mate fueled in our family with planty of garden and tonic teas, this is a platform in which you can send, for lack of a better word tips of various sizes. I will be vulnerable and transparent, but working as an herbalist and teacher isn’t always financially abundant. Granted, I have abundance in sooooo many ways, from the garden to my friends and family, but I am often just getting by. So your support when ever you feel called is always helpful, welcomed and soooo appreciated. And, regardless of tips or not, my musings and teachings will still come to your inbox and social feed, because this is what I love doing :)
Clay, the Wheel, and the Tea Cup:
When Saturn Dives into Pisces, History Repeats
Excerpts from this Lunar Musing:
“Father figures are critical to human development, obviously they are one half of us, whether we knew them or not. Some people were dealt really hard hands when it came to the father in their lives. Abuse, misogyny, aggression, patriarchy or maybe complete absence is the reality for many folks. For some, fathers were supportive, nurturing, encouraging, and present. Father can represent a religious figure (human or deity), head of state, or even the state itself. Many leadership roles in our modern human history are male centered, with mother left out as the weaker, less valuable, or most disposable in society and family. If you are reading this musing you probably are keenly aware of the damage caused by the patriarchy, the male centered system of power which is a pervasive and invasive reality we and all our past ancestors have known…
…I believe it is important to take a look at who the male archetypes are in our lives and how they affect our individual and collective psyche. One of my favorite books on masculine archetypes is not the reductive King, Sage, Magician, Lover square box that men are placed in, but the deep and heretical work of Matthew Fox, excommunicated priest, turned philosopher and commentator on the nature of spirituality and the church, political and social activist, and thoughtful writer who has deeply influenced my own relationship with the masculine. In his book The Hidden Spirituality of Men: 10 Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, Fox explores the nuanced relationships men have with the natural and spiritual world, as fathers, lovers, creators, sacrifices, warriors, leaders, and thinkers. He helps to expand the conception of who men are and what their capacity is in a holistic and compassionate world. Not ones manipulated into conscription, celebrated for their rapaciousness or their ability to generate...
Get to know the Big Daddies of the cosmic wheel.
…We have two dominant male figures of the zodiac, Saturn, also known as Kronos, Father Time, the titan who birthed the monsters and the gods of the world, and his son Jupiter, also known as Zeus who unseated him through bloody battle. In these two we see an immediate representation of the modern father. The one who creates and the one who takes away. Both figures in Greek mythology were dangerous, jealous, vengeful, egotistical, and unreliable. But for the sake of blogging, let’s get into what they represent in the zodiac wheel, the cosmic clock and story book that influences we tiny humans down here on Gaia…”
…Pisces in Saturn is about dissolving illusions and structures, solidarity, and compassion rooted in suffering and spiritual revolution. Grief fuels new realities and we teeter between compassion and control… explore with me the last times Saturn was in Pisces, from the mid 1960, 90s to today.
…Saturn in Pisces is like trying to hold the ocean in your hands. It is impossible if you physically try, but when you close your eyes, you see you hold the ocean inside of you. When I attempt to understand Saturn in Pisces, I turn to the tea cup. As an herbalist, I am constantly in practice of learning healthy boundaries. Daily seeking to be a bit more compassionate, yet also firm in my values, beliefs and accumulated knowledge. The tea I pour is made from the sacrifice of a plant for my vitality. It is the right temperature and time, born from experience not from a book or graphic that tells me now is the time to drink. I pour the potential into the cup, a tiny metaphor of the boundary of the world, our world, and what we fill it with. How we feed our beliefs, and allow the medicine or food to be metabolized. How we process our experiences and learn how to hold space for our own selves, as we hold it for those we love… and those we don’t. Pisces is the ultimate potential of the formula, the tea stirred in the cauldron, prayed to and visualized as the molecules dissolve in micro vortices…
…Pisces is the clay on the wheel spinning, Saturn is your hands making the form. Saturn in Pisces is the resulting teacup, put through fire, sealed and delivered, filled and refilled again, to not just nourish, but perpetuate the change in the world...”
SACRED PHARMAKON:
Regenerative Earth Traditions
125- hour training
Embrace the Wisdom of
Root, Leaf, Flower & Flame
Crete, Greece
June 12 - July 2, 2026
Following the Verdant Path of the Good Medicine Road and the traditions of Hygeia’s Garden, you’ll gain clinical skills, practice client intakes, and explore the ethics of community herbalism. Each day blends herbal arts with ecology, learning plant chemistry and energetics, the soil–fungi–mineral web, and fire and water traditions for healing. Guided by the elements and the cyclical rhythms of the living Earth, each module honors a different part of the plant, a body system, and a sacred correspondence with an element of nature and tradition.
By journey’s end, you’ll be rooted in the regenerative cycles of land and body, carrying home practical tools, deep knowledge,
and the sovereignty of the healer’s path.
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Special just for Village Witch Readers.
Save an additional €100 off the Early Bird tuition if you register before next New Moon (Sept 21, Autumn Equinox) with coupon code: PHARMAKON
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Tarot Readings
A rich and transformative experience that bridges the symbolic and the practical. Drawing from her deep studies in archetypal psychology, astrology, world mythology, art history, deep ecology, and elemental magic, Sarah channels the Tarot to help clients gain clarity on their life path, relationships, and energetic patterns.
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A Wellness Consultation with Sarah is an in-depth exploration of your health profile, where together we explore the various roots of your concerns, deciphering patterns and imbalances. Sarah will craft for you a custom protocol focusing on your diet, herbs, mushrooms, and supplements, as well as suggestions for movement, adjunct therapies, rituals, journaling exercises and other practices to support your overall vitality. |
Who wants to get witchy with us in Portugal?
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Herbalists & Alchemists Portugal, October 5 - 12
For witches, alchemists, herbalists
and all those interested in the magic of herbalism.
In this immersion, we practice the Alchemical proverb:
As Above, So Below.
As Within, So Without.
As the Universe, so the Soul.
To come back to the knowledge rooted deep within that transcends culture, borders and religions that place us above all other creatures. We are in practice with the plants to be in service to all life, to learn skills and nurture relationships. Through magic and science, ritual and community, we work to mend the pains of the world. Learn from medicine people who have dedicated their lives to being bridges between humans and the green world, as they share their knowledge and experience.
This course takes a deeper dive into medicine making beyond tinctures and teas. Learning about flower infusions making Agua Florida, working with alchemical extracts known as spygerics, sitting with the fire, stones and sweat in the Temezcal and making plant pigments for illuminating your medicine journal.
I am grateful if you have made it this far. I am constantly thinking about the folks out there who this writing may touch. I feel you and I am open to you. It would be so great to hear from you. It isn’t my strongest quality in [fast] responses, but I read all your messages and they mean a lot to me. I would be particularly curious to hear if there are any themes you would like me to muse on.
As always, may the good green world hold you in her abundant arms, may she kiss you with gentle breezes and may her waters wash you clean and run clear.
blessed be,
sarah marie
