Winter's Past

Well, as you may tell from the unfurling green and the pink blossoms around town, Winter is over. Though the blog did not record it all, The Medicine Club was busy with our formula workings, plant alchemy, and tincture tasting.

I slacked off writing about each experience for a few reasons. First of which was being busy with my Missoula Floods graphic novel project and the production company I started up in the fall, Craigmore Creations.

The second, and perhaps more important realization was that writing about medicine taking is harder than writing a blog about my personal life (which I did for years on tribe.net). It seemed to me, that if you were not there to experience the workings, then there was no use for second hand experience. Something would be lost in translation. Outsiders may think we were just trying to catch a buzz (if they only read certain posts). Also, this experience is more than just my experience. I conduct the Medicine Club, but it is the participants who make it possible.

Part of every winter meeting we had was the writing component in which people wrote about their connection to the plants and the medicines we were working with. I found a profound value in hearing the writing and readings of everyone involved and feel that was the "gold" of our alchemical workings. As we went deeper into winter, I found that my writings about others writings would simply be diluted versions of profound experiences that were personal in their expression of relating to the medicines we made.

I have kept all of the hard copies of the loose sheets of paper people wrote and drew on and in the last medicine club of the winter, I punched holes in the thick pile and will bind it up into a book for the record. Anyone who becomes a part of the Medicine Club can look at these before or after session.

For the record these are the tinctures we worked with this winter: (participants left each week with enough medicine for at least a week's worth of working...so the regulars were able to create quite a medicine chest by the end of the season)

12/5 California Poppy
12/9 Bleeding Heart
12/16 Oregon Grape
1/6 Devil's Club
1/12 Sitka Valerian
1/20 Nettle
1/27 Willow
2/10 Bleeding Heart and California Poppy
2/27 Devil's Club, Dandelion, Oregon Grape, California Poppy
3/10 Bleeding Heart, Valerian, California Poppy

Thank You all,

See you again when we resume April 29th!