Bloodroot Medicine.

BLOODROOT MEDICINE

7 years ago, I seeded bloodroot in my garden and patiently waited two seasons for the seeds to awaken from cold stratification. When the first seeds finally began to emerge, they were so tiny, that the juicy red stems and creamy green leaves were barely two inches. No matter, I was instantly in love, and received so much joy and calm, just sitting and watching them unfurl and grow.

Last spring, as the red stems pushed through the dirt, hidden in the sheath of the leaf, I saw that the leaf was cradling their first tiny white flowers. 6 years after seeding, the bloodroot bloomed for the first time. In that same moment, I was brought to remember the birth of my child, who I carried in my belly the same spring I first planted those bloodroot seeds.

I was brought back to the memory of her crowning into the earth world, leaving the constellation world, and our ancestral tree, a ready and ripened fruit. As I looked down and saw my childs face for the first time, I was overcome with the sweet ache that comes with cradling so much aliveness and impermanence all at once, as I watched thousands of faces flash before me as they passed into her soul.

Just like bloodroot, my child entered this world, a small delicate flower, unmolded, full of creations possibility, and the wisdom of our ascendant's lessons, acting as a shield, to carry, cradle, protect and hold her.

To capture these instructions, I made an essence for the stories to live. I use this essence to encourage a space to begin/strengthen connection, relationship and healing with our ancestors, cultures, and histories. For me personally, bloodroot essence holds up a mirror to explore/reflect/heal ancestral traumas, diaspora feels, or shame related to our lineage. In my experience of working with bloodroot essence, it has been a significant medicine for those who carry intergenerational trauma, and for folks who lack connection, relation, or narrative to their most recent living blood family but who are seeking to explore and deepen their relationships to their elder ancestors (ancestral constellation.)

This medicine has been a soothing balm, as I face the many feels this pandemic has nonconsensually brought me to have to deal with. I take this essence to feel the comfort of having my ancestors close, but also as a reminder that I too carry their medicines and legacies within me.

I carry the bravery and strength of my grandfather, as he traversed the mountains of Kurdestan at just 17 years old. I hold the joy of my family picnicking on a beautiful spring day, the laughter, music, poems, food, and tea suspended within. We have all of this and more inside us.

Bloodroot leaf-cradle hugs to you all.