Greetings Plant Lovers, Mystical Creatures and Friends,
I am writing to you from my home in Italy, at our little rustic farmhouse and permaculture homestead Ca’Inti. Happy to be reunited after two months apart from my sweetie!
LUNAR MUSING: New MOON IN cancer
This dark of the moon finds me in grounded space, seeking connection with the land. I did not have time to write a full musing this cycle, yet I spent the day musing with the land. I have two friends visiting and we went off on a wild crafting adventure this morning, collecting wild Helichrysum, Yarrow, and St. John’s Wort, harvesting our Lavender and Linden.
This lunar energy for me is one of honoring the blossom and the medicine of the temporal reality of life. Flower medicines require a lot of presence, because just like that, a day has passed and they have withered, fallen, or gone to seed. Flowers don’t allow us to put off what needs to happen today for tomorrow or the next. There is a motivation in flower medicine that, like the business of the bees feeding on their nectar, says, “Now sister, now! What are you waiting for?”
I appreciate that reminder with the energy of the Chariot VII present. That drive toward what we really dream to become reality only happens when we take steps toward it… not leaps and bounds, but one foot in front of the other. And slowly-slowly, what looked so distant is right before you.
Let this New Moon be a motivation for you to take the steps toward your heart’s desire, toward your dreamscape. Let the medicine of the flowers remind you that there is no better time than right now to shift, in all the small ways necessary to make big ones. Just like one little bee collecting pollen influences the entire food system!
la bella vita 💚 La Pura Vida
What’s Happening at Home
I have recently returned to Italy. This migration pattern has been a regular for me over the last five years and is the realization of a long-time dream. While I love traveling and experiencing new places, I also need grounding. I have never been a good butterfly, but have always felt like a great bird—one who loves and needs to set a nest in a rhythmic, bioregional dance.
I arrived just days before the Summer Solstice to the preparations for the fourth year of our sweet little festival, Origini Future. I love this event mostly because I love seeing my beloved shine in his embodied power. It feels really nice to know and witness him doing something that brings him great joy.
The event itself was really cute. For folks in Italy, these concepts are quite new—things like breathwork, regenerative herbalism, mycology, and social design. It is nice coming to a place with fresh eyes and open hearts. I will admit, in Costa Rica, it’s a bit saturated and easy to feel a little cynical at times… or maybe just kind of over it. Coming here is a reminder that everyone is somewhere on the road to awakening, personal discovery, and feeling that dire need to unlearn while simultaneously relearning.
I taught a class about the energy of the Summer Solstice, where I didn’t just talk about seasonal rhythms, but also the energy of the 4th house of Cancer and the Chariot VII—the reflection and critical look at where we come from, where we want to go, and who we want to be in life. Away from the expectation of the status quo.
I spoke about power-over systems of oppression and the ease with which many of us acquiesce to the normalcy of what is. How hard it is to question, and the actual cost of ignorance. I encouraged folks to begin imagining a life divested from systems of harm, spoke to the power of bioregional sovereignty, and the social crisis of our times. I also brought to light the fact that the people I was speaking to are the descendants of the original monoculturists and colonial oppressors, and that the legacy of Rome is the war machine and the republic. I acknowledged and spoke to the current world situation of the United States as the heart of the evil empire.
I did this in my mother tongue, translated by my friend Emilia Cianci. I very much appreciated being given the grace to do so as I learn Italian piano piano.
The following day I offered a plant walk and talk on the nature of bioregional awareness and the relationship we have with living creatures. I was very happy to have so many open to the teachings of the land and saw many ah-ha moments of ancestral recognition. For me, being a person of mixed ancestry growing up in the States, I never really knew what my identity was or where home was. It really was, and still is, the plants that bring me home to myself.
Classes in Europe
In just two weeks we begin the Elemental Herbalism class at Ca’Inti, please reach out if you would like to learn about the plants and come make art and medicine with us!
Day 1: Fire
Opening circle followed by a tour Ca’Inti and explore the Energies of the Astral bodies around the fire.
Day 2: Earth
Early morning plant walk, followed by a ceramics workshop making a Copalero & Tea Cup. Learning about Herbal Energetics in the afternoon.
Day 3: Water
Morning plant meditation, leads into medicine making with honey and oils working with St Johns Wort, Lavender, Calendula, Helichrysum. Make water extracts, self care and prayer offerings for the water, with time at the river and a Nettle tea ceremony.
Day 4: Air
Morning plant walk, then medicine making with Colts Foot, Mullein, Mugwort for smokes and blessing wands. An afternoon of medicine making tinctures with Linden, Sage, Artemisia and Yarrow.
Day 5: Spirit
Visit the artist’s residence and agriturismo of Valdericarte to make plant fabric stamps, woad dying, and tour of the color garden.
Herbalists & Alchemists
Portugal, October 3 - 12
For witches, alchemists, herbalists and all those interested in the magic of herbalism.
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.
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Elemental
Herbalism
Italy, July 3 - 8
Foundational skills in herbalism and regenerative living that nurtures the green witch.
We will make medicine, ceramics and plant dyes in this six day visit to my home Ca’Inti in the Le Marche region of Italy. Where is Le Marche?? On the Adriatic Sea right in front of Croatia. Away from all the tourists, this is a truly authentic cultural experience you will not find in Tuscany nor Rome!
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Tarot Readings
I have space for readings these next weeks and months
Sharing the Tarot brings me so much joy, and I will toot my own horn and say I am really good at it! This is my magic and this is my craft.
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