Release In The Botanic Garden
In a wide open lawn surrounded by tall shade trees, we called to the four directions for our morning ceremony.
With the small drum I had brought to the ceremony, I stood in the second inner ring and banged the drum when we called each direction.
Once on the ground, calling to the Earth, I felt it—a distinct release at the base of my sternum. For the first time in as long as I could remember, that section of muscle and bone where the mountains of the rib cage meet the valley of the abdominals felt free and light and open.
I could breathe with ease and it felt as though light was flowing through that part of my body.
Perhaps it was the blessing with the sacred smoke of the copal.
Perhaps it was three days of being around healers.
Perhaps it was a new setting; that morning we at the Botanic Gardens at the Albuquerque Biopark, surrounded by la tierra Madre.
I think it was all those things.
Plus, I think it was the mullein. A few days before, I had bought a tincture of mullein at an herb shop and had begun putting 30 drops into about a liter of water and drinking that throughout the day.
I had used mullein before, during the first heights of the pandemic when my asthma and long covid symptoms were at their worst. Mullein is an herb known as a bronchial remedy, and has been used since the middle ages.
Since arriving at the curanderismo class, I had decided to stop taking my daily asthma inhaler to experiment with natural and spiritual remedies.
That morning at the botanic garden, the natural remedies worked.
While my solar plexus was open and singing, I also found myself suddenly needing the toilet. My bowels were now too suddenly liberated.
Perhaps it was two days of mullein water. And a few days of New Mexican food—chile, beans, flour tortillas. And the smoke of the holy copal. And the blessings.
And allowing myself—my emotions—to open.
I think it was all of those things.
And that is the cornerstone of traditional medicine. Diagnosis, experimentation, observation, changes, re-tooling, remedy. And again.
All on yourself first, because you are your first patient. You are you own healer, and in order to heal others, you must heal yourself first.
My solar plexus continued to feel alive and open. My digestive tract calmed eventually.
Now, six weeks later, some of the congestion is back. I’m upping my mullein dose once again. I’m incorporating allopathic medicine, too. I’m rolling my ab muscles on a ball. I’m parsing out my emotions. I’m taking care of me. Always me first.
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Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash