Updates, Offerings, and Requests

This morning we are roughly halfway between Midsummer and Lúnasa, and a week away from my birthday. The Lady’s Slipper and the Trillium have shed their flowers and Ghost Pipe and Amanita are emerging. And tomorrow it will have been thirteen weeks since the surgeons reshaped the caverns of my heart.

I’ve been a bit scarce around here of late, so I wanted to update you on what I am working on and what is to come – and put forward a few invitations and requests.

-- My physical healing has been nothing short of miraculous – and along with my medical team and the gods and the ancestors and the plants, I have all of you to thank for your spiritual and material support that got me through this passage. I am now in the best physical condition of my life. I continue to walk seven or eight miles along forested dirt roads most every day, and am back at the gym now beginning to lift more weight than I was lifting before the surgery (at some point I need to write a bit about the magical dimensions of my physical training and my unlikely journey into weightlifting.) I have access to breath that I never knew was possible.

My blood pressure does continue to be a concern. It is managed well with pharmaceuticals right now – more easily than it was before the surgery. But I am having to face the reality that, like many Americans, I am likely to lose access to medical care in the coming year (something that played a small but significant role in the timing of my surgery.) And, while I am grateful for these synthetic molecules that help maintain my blood pressure, I would much prefer to be working with my beloved plant kin. So in the course of the coming year I hope to find both the right combination of herbs and, equally importantly, the financial security to be able to have consistent access to them. At the moment I am a bit of a shoeless cobbler when it comes to access to herbs for myself aside from the ones I can gather in the forests and fields here. (Also, while I know herbal suggestions from readers come from a place of kindness and generosity, please do not offer them to me unsolicited unless you are someone I already have conversations with about herbs and my health.)

-- My birthday will also be the birthday of my most recent book, The Silver Branch and the Otherworld. I have been so moved by the response the book has evoked from those who have read it – and I would love for it reach more people. If you haven’t bought a copy yet, please do – or else ask your local library to. And please encourage friends to read both The Silver Branch and the Otherworld and my earlier book, Courting the Wild Queen. I also remain available to do podcast, radio, and print interviews about both books and about the rest of my work --- contact me at otherworldwell@gmail.com or pass my information on to your favorite interviewer.

-- Speaking of books, I have a few more in the works. I am putting the finishing touches on a poetry collection – and could use the help of someone who has a bit of Gaeilge to take a look at the smattering of Irish in the book. (E-mail me at otherworldwell@gmail.com). I also have a book on psychedelics and animism in the works right now – an overdue manuscript that will require a lot of my attention in the coming weeks.

-- Never the less plan to write more here in the weeks to come. Besides sharing a few poems from the coming book, I plan to write an essay or two about Donn and about Crom Dubh/Crom Cruach as Lúnasa approaches, and perhaps a few more about plants. And without a doubt the shower of bastards who think they have the right to run the world will have me writing a screed or two in response to their atrocities. I plan to make all of these upcoming pieces free – and paid subscriptions do help me continue this work.

-- With so many of us out in the forests and fields this time of year, participation in my weekly online classes with the Otherworld Well Hedge School tends to drop off in summer – but the classes continue! Every Sunday night at 7pm Eastern time we gather to talk about some dimension of herbalism, animism, magic, myth, healing, and transformation. You can register for classes one at a time – or take part in them all by becoming a Hedge School Subscriber (separate from my Substack subscription.) And while participating in the live classes gives you a chance to ask questions and engage with the community, if you can’t make it live you can watch or listen later – all registrants receive a link to a recording a day or two after class.

-- I am once again offering one-on-one consultations, primarily by phone or Zoom, primarily on Mondays or Tuesdays. Consultations paid for now can be scheduled now – or any time in the future when you may need one.

--- I am excited and honored to once again be teaching at the Good Medicine Confluence at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico this August 17 – 20. This annual gathering brings together people with open hearts and curious minds to share in our love of the living world, and features classes by some of the most brilliant herbalists I know. I also have a few tickets available for sale at a discount to help pay for my own travel – e-mail me at otherworldwell@gmail.com

-- I hope to do more in person teaching in the fall and in the spring (winter travel is too unpredictable in Maine.) Plans are in the works for a series of weekly worksathops in Norway, Maine and a weekend workshop on the coast. I am very open to other teaching invitations as well, whether in Maine or beyond. E-mail me at otherworldwell@gmail.com

Thank you all for your continued kindness, generosity, support, and inspiration!