Conjuring Wildness #22

On festive fervour, evergreening and mindful protection.

Hi friends,

It has begun. The annual state of spiritual fervour that seems to take hold, and peak in retail spaces. Do you feel the mild sense of panic? The urgency? The ritual spaces accompanied by the repetitive, evocative songs you hear every year at this time? Together we fall into a collective trance and find ourselves behaving in ways that might even surprise us - mostly by spending more money than we intended. Yes, once again it is Christmas in Capitalism.

Don’t get me wrong, I love that we have a deep, shared, public ritual at this time of year. I love that we mark the ending of the shortest days (if you live in the hemisphere from whence these rituals originated) with feasts to invite the return of the sun and gift giving to share the bounties of the summer across our communities. I love that we collectively take days to be with our loved ones and rest. But like most good things in our world, the overarching economic paradigm is hungry to infiltrate every crevice.

My favourite stories at the moment are of the ways folks are adapting their Christmas traditions to deliberately exclude the capitalist urge. Perhaps by insisting on homemade and secondhand gifts and decorating with greenery foraged on winter woodland walks. Rituals like sitting and crafting together give everyone something to do with their hands, which reduces the likelihood of arguments.

I’m sure there are more wonderful traditions across this Wilding community that invite Earthiness and connection into your celebrations. Would you share yours in the comments?

Plants & Kin 🌿

Ivy (with possibly the best scientific name around - Hedera Helix) is a plant that often doesn’t support themself. Ivy makes their way through the word climbing and clinging onto walls, rocks and trees, anything willing to support them. It’s an act of trust, surrender and interdependence that enables Ivy to find themself rising to great heights.

Traditionally Ivy has been used to treat upper respiratory infections. There is some inconclusive evidence to back up the efficacy, identifying the presence of expectorant saponins in the plant. Ivy can be made into a tincture (extraction in alcohol) or a decoration (extraction in water), though be warned this plant is poisonous if taken in the wrong qualities. Do your own research and if you’re unsure, ask a herbalist for advice. These same saponins mean that Ivy can be used as a soap or laundry detergent.

Ivy has two stages of life. It is juvenile for about the first 10 years of life, then matures into a different leaf shape with a thicker, wordier and potentially self supporting stem. This maturing may be why the Greeks and Romans crowned the winners of competition, both athletic and intellectual, in wreaths made of Ivy. Ivy wreaths make a traditional Christmas decoration to this day. As an evergreen it is a symbol of fertility in the darkest days and bringing the good fortune of the returning sun.

Rites & Practice ✨

Even those of us that strive to avoid every public space in the coming month will find ourselves needing to make a trip to some kind of retail space. Personally, I find it stressful and violating. This practice is about creating a protection around yourself that can help you to navigate the intensity of public retail spaces without becoming triggered, overwhelmed or feeling violated. There is no right or wrong, there is simply your experience of what works. To invoke protection before entering a space that might be challenging, try one or more of the following:

• Imagine a line of light connecting from the centre of the Earth, through your body, into the cosmos

• Imagine a bubble of light around you, which might have a specific colour

• Imagine protective guides around you. For example you might have an animal or a specific plant that you connect with. Imagine that animal standing by you, or perhaps it likes to sit on your shoulder, or walking a perimeter around you.

• Carry with you an item for protection. Perhaps this is a specific stone, a piece of jewellery from a loved one, a piece of ash wood or a shell from the beach - something that for you can symbolise protection.

I couldn’t tell you exactly how this works, but I know it does. My hunch is that it is a kind of mindfulness. At the moments where it all feels a bit overwhelming you can mindfully return to the awareness that you are protected. Perhaps mindfully creating symbols and placing them beyond yourself helps to invoke the microbial shield that surrounds our bodies. Or perhaps it is a useful trick that empowers the mind to believe in a protective barrier. Or perhaps I really do have the spirit of a wolf walking by my side. I’m not attached to the truth and falseness of these explanations - they are all helpful for strengthening the power of the practice.

If the idea of knowing your guides and creating a potent talisman intrigues you, and you’d like some support and guidance to go deeper in developing practices like this, take a look at my offerings.

Land & Justice ✊

This week I find myself in Uganda, accompanying my friend Jyoti to make a film about agroecological solutions to the climate refugee crisis. As such I’m taking a deep dive into initiatives that support people in regions most susceptible to climate change.

The Great Green Wall started as a project in response to fears that the Sahara desert is expanding. The project is ambitious, with aims of reforesting 100 million acres across 20 African countries, mobilising funds from the global north to create jobs and opportunities for locals. Ecologists are keen to point out that the Sahara desert is a living ecosystem whose borders shift in relation to weather patterns, and it is now recognised that ‘tree belts’ such as these rarely succeed in the long term. They have also been known to displace local pastoral communities.

Learning from the project over the past 17 years is that a more appropriate approach is to create “a mosaic of landscapes that provide multiple benefits: preventing aridification, combating climate change, and supporting local livelihoods through agriculture, beekeeping, agroforestry and animal rearing.” (1)

Over the coming years the demands on these landscapes will increase dramatically, as expected refugees flee in response to climate related conflict. If not supported by a global community, a wave of refugees will add pressure to communities and landscapes that are in many ways already fragile. Learning from the Great Green Wall might provide insights to help to prepare landscapes and communities to generate abundance with the newly arriving people.

Encounters 🔥

• I’ve really loved the most recent This American Life episode. The second act on wolf pack relationships taught me a lot about my favourite animal companion. The third act - a short story from the future - is so well written and hilarious. Hard recommend a listen.

• Some of you know that I am studying as a Shamanic Practitioner with the School of Natural Shamanism. Over the coming months I need to do case studies using different healing techniques that involve sound and many of my plant and animal allies. I’m offering these on a donation basis and I’m happy to travel if you’ll cover my travel costs. If you would be interested in a no/low-cost healing session please just reply to this email or DM me on Substack. Places are limited!

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