HERBS + WOODS + SMOKE + WATER
Preface
For many of us, the idea that we’ve lost culture, or cultural belonging and meaning, is easy to believe. It’s because of this that we so often search for meaning from outside ourselves; whether cultural practices, aesthetics, or stories. We see this in every corner of society from spirituality, health, and wellness to beauty, fashion, literature, and art.
But we all have our own stories and histories that shape us; even when we don't know our origins. And it is by design that those origins are altered and obfuscated, to hold up the foundation and the armature of white supremacy—for those of us identified as white, it's especially important to note that whiteness is the forfeit of ethnicity. This is a precarious situation, because if left unchecked, our misplaced attempts to associate with any form of culture can lead to cherry picking, even from our own traditions. This selective mistreatment and disrespect is dangerous precisely because of the ambiguity of information out of context to its origins. At its worst, this cherry picking leads to false notions of ethnic purity, a harmful myth designed by white supremacists to uphold whiteness and gatekeeping through false ideologies of “blood lineage”. Blood and DNA are not culture. DNA does not define ethnicity. Ethnicity does not equate homogeneity and is not reflected in phenotype. Culture and cultural belonging are complicated; defined by a community's sovereign self-determination of identity, and expressions that describe it such as art, music, folklore, religion, cosmology, language, and storytelling. And none of these have anything to do with nation-states or nationalism. Therefore we must remember, in our own attempts to reshape ourselves in reconnection to culture and cultural histories, to not perpetuate the methods of exclusion, violence, and colonization in our practices.
This is a venture into learning our own stories as a point of departure to decolonize [1] ourselves and unsettle settler colonialism—a term I learned from Indigenous scholars [2]--and dismantle whiteness and white supremacy. Regardless of our spiritual inclinations, it’s the search for the origin and origin story, and cosmology that interests me. The root of our movement through the world begins with us, and our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Essentially, what I've just described is a foundation of ancestor work. Ancestor work is spiritual, but it is also practical. In ensuring we don’t spiritually bypass the hard work of acknowledging, recognizing, and naming our ancestors and our cultural pasts, good and bad, we begin to unravel that work outward in all directions [3]. As someone coming to this work through the arts, I strongly feel those of us working with a vast lexicon of semiotics, symbology, and iconography have all the more responsibility to consider how this work may have a positive impact and tremendous benefit to all areas of our lives.
What follows is a project inspired by a few select Northwestern European ritualistic uses of plants with smoke and water. It is incomplete, but the project itself will cover some speculation on why I think smoke and water are so meaningful throughout the world; my perspective on animism as a way of life acknowledging the interconnectivity of all beings seen and unseen, animal and insect, fungi, vegetable and mineral, stone and soil, air and water; all bodies, spiritual and corporeal; and how that shifts our relationships towards responsibility and reciprocity--a series of plant monographs focused on each plant’s use in smoke and/or water methods; and a little bit about how traditional plant uses can translate to where we are living, today. My interest in this came about over time through the relationship I felt to the land, and the desire to connect to my own ancestral languages and cultures began in early childhood. Somehow I just knew these things were deeply connected, and important, and they have shaped me and my worldview throughout my life. And my connection to herbal uses, histories, and lore began in the early days of my life at the stoves in professional kitchens. The herbs that I have the deepest relationships with, and know the most varied history on, are the ones I’ve been cooking with the longest. But around 10 years ago I started digging into research to find and build a vocabulary of language with which to describe the ways a spiritual or cultural practice can also be a pushback to both assimilation and theft, to relearn the missing parts of ourselves.
So while this writing is about plants (for the moment), what it really attempts to describe is the work of beginning a practice of cultural reconnection. It is my express belief that re-rooting ourselves in a better understanding of our multitudinous traditional cultures increases our literacy, respect, and understanding of--and solidarity with—a multitude of others. For these reasons, the focus of my own research has been specifically focused on Northwestern Europe, informed by mostly Irish, Scottish, and English resources [4], but I want to also note that in using the term “European” I am not coding Europeans as white. Europe has always been multi-racial and multi-ethnic; peoples from all over the world have been present in Europe (such as Jewish, Roma, Arab, African, Asian, and SWANA peoples) and European-rooted traditions are practiced by and available to everyone. It’s my hope this guide is inspiring, helpful, and useful to people from any and all places, cultures, and traditions. So many of us from around the world are seeking to reconnect to meaningful cultural practices in the wake of colonialism, and that is good and important work.
Researching this over time has been inspiring, and my hope is that this information does the same for you. Maybe it also sparks some excitement or relief in knowing that yes, these practices do have a longstanding history across all lineages, and we don't need to start from scratch, steal, or reinvent anything. These essays are written for people interested in the cultural roots and reasoning for why certain plants are used, why their various symbolisms mean what they do, and for people looking to tether a spiritual connection to these practices. Knowing that my own access to historical information is limited as an independent researcher, I want to be transparent in the way this project will evolve over time, as a “living document”, revised in subsequent editions to accommodate new information or resources I find (which will all be included in the project). I think this kind of transparency is important, because learning is an evolution, never an arrival.
For many of us, the idea that we’ve lost culture, or cultural belonging and meaning, is easy to believe. It’s because of this that we so often search for meaning from outside ourselves; whether cultural practices, aesthetics, or stories. We see this in every corner of society from spirituality, health, and wellness to beauty, fashion, literature, and art.
But we all have our own stories and histories that shape us; even when we don't know our origins. And it is by design that those origins are altered and obfuscated, to hold up the foundation and the armature of white supremacy—for those of us identified as white, it's especially important to note that whiteness is the forfeit of ethnicity. This is a precarious situation, because if left unchecked, our misplaced attempts to associate with any form of culture can lead to cherry picking, even from our own traditions. This selective mistreatment and disrespect is dangerous precisely because of the ambiguity of information out of context to its origins. At its worst, this cherry picking leads to false notions of ethnic purity, a harmful myth designed by white supremacists to uphold whiteness and gatekeeping through false ideologies of “blood lineage”. Blood and DNA are not culture. DNA does not define ethnicity. Ethnicity does not equate homogeneity and is not reflected in phenotype. Culture and cultural belonging are complicated; defined by a community's sovereign self-determination of identity, and expressions that describe it such as art, music, folklore, religion, cosmology, language, and storytelling. And none of these have anything to do with nation-states or nationalism. Therefore we must remember, in our own attempts to reshape ourselves in reconnection to culture and cultural histories, to not perpetuate the methods of exclusion, violence, and colonization in our practices.
This is a venture into learning our own stories as a point of departure to decolonize [1] ourselves and unsettle settler colonialism—a term I learned from Indigenous scholars [2]--and dismantle whiteness and white supremacy. Regardless of our spiritual inclinations, it’s the search for the origin and origin story, and cosmology that interests me. The root of our movement through the world begins with us, and our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Essentially, what I've just described is a foundation of ancestor work. Ancestor work is spiritual, but it is also practical. In ensuring we don’t spiritually bypass the hard work of acknowledging, recognizing, and naming our ancestors and our cultural pasts, good and bad, we begin to unravel that work outward in all directions [3]. As someone coming to this work through the arts, I strongly feel those of us working with a vast lexicon of semiotics, symbology, and iconography have all the more responsibility to consider how this work may have a positive impact and tremendous benefit to all areas of our lives.
What follows is a project inspired by a few select Northwestern European ritualistic uses of plants with smoke and water. It is incomplete, but the project itself will cover some speculation on why I think smoke and water are so meaningful throughout the world; my perspective on animism as a way of life acknowledging the interconnectivity of all beings seen and unseen, animal and insect, fungi, vegetable and mineral, stone and soil, air and water; all bodies, spiritual and corporeal; and how that shifts our relationships towards responsibility and reciprocity--a series of plant monographs focused on each plant’s use in smoke and/or water methods; and a little bit about how traditional plant uses can translate to where we are living, today. My interest in this came about over time through the relationship I felt to the land, and the desire to connect to my own ancestral languages and cultures began in early childhood. Somehow I just knew these things were deeply connected, and important, and they have shaped me and my worldview throughout my life. And my connection to herbal uses, histories, and lore began in the early days of my life at the stoves in professional kitchens. The herbs that I have the deepest relationships with, and know the most varied history on, are the ones I’ve been cooking with the longest. But around 10 years ago I started digging into research to find and build a vocabulary of language with which to describe the ways a spiritual or cultural practice can also be a pushback to both assimilation and theft, to relearn the missing parts of ourselves.
So while this writing is about plants (for the moment), what it really attempts to describe is the work of beginning a practice of cultural reconnection. It is my express belief that re-rooting ourselves in a better understanding of our multitudinous traditional cultures increases our literacy, respect, and understanding of--and solidarity with—a multitude of others. For these reasons, the focus of my own research has been specifically focused on Northwestern Europe, informed by mostly Irish, Scottish, and English resources [4], but I want to also note that in using the term “European” I am not coding Europeans as white. Europe has always been multi-racial and multi-ethnic; peoples from all over the world have been present in Europe (such as Jewish, Roma, Arab, African, Asian, and SWANA peoples) and European-rooted traditions are practiced by and available to everyone. It’s my hope this guide is inspiring, helpful, and useful to people from any and all places, cultures, and traditions. So many of us from around the world are seeking to reconnect to meaningful cultural practices in the wake of colonialism, and that is good and important work.
Researching this over time has been inspiring, and my hope is that this information does the same for you. Maybe it also sparks some excitement or relief in knowing that yes, these practices do have a longstanding history across all lineages, and we don't need to start from scratch, steal, or reinvent anything. These essays are written for people interested in the cultural roots and reasoning for why certain plants are used, why their various symbolisms mean what they do, and for people looking to tether a spiritual connection to these practices. Knowing that my own access to historical information is limited as an independent researcher, I want to be transparent in the way this project will evolve over time, as a “living document”, revised in subsequent editions to accommodate new information or resources I find (which will all be included in the project). I think this kind of transparency is important, because learning is an evolution, never an arrival.
|
|
1 ] I need to acknowledge the education I received about what decolonization concretely means—and especially the cautions about settler moves to innocence in doing this work—from this paper by Eve Tuck and K Wayne Yang, Decolonization is not a metaphor, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol.3, No. 2, 2014, pp 1-32
2 ] Again this is a term I learned from Indigenous scholars; and specifically, a term I read in the paper by Corey Snelgrove, Rita Kaur Dhamoon, & Jeff Corntassel, Unsettling settler colonialism: The discourse and politics of settlers, and solidarity with Indigenous nations, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol.1, No. 1, 2012, pp 1-40
*Subnote: There is no consensus as to whether or not people identified as white may engage the process of decolonization to any degree, let alone fully; hence why term and the work of "unsettling settler colonialism" was devised by Indigenous writers, scholars, and other leaders as a way to identify and determine the work ahead for white settlers. I'm uncomfortable with a few things. One, I disagree that white settlers can fully decolonize. As settlers, we're indoctrinated into a system that is ongoing, and therefore as largely unaware perpetrators of colonial systems, our work to decolonize on Turtle Island is only possible to a point. But it's complicated. For example, like many people, parts of my lineage include people who were colonized, and that I am in many ways a subject of colonization myself, and that unthreading colonialism is part of my work. However, decolonization as defined by Indigenous scholars is not solely about internal dismantling work. It is a tangible, concrete action of restitution and rematriation of land and sovereignty; which, white settlers are not beneficiaries of. Two, I'm uncomfortable with the recent overriding of the term "unsettling settler colonialism" by predominantly white people to coin phrases such as "desettling" or "dissettle" (I have yet to trace an origin for dissettle; desettling appears to come from white scholars in one paper I found referencing critical race theory with no mention of the works I cite above) when Indigenous scholarship has already paved this path for us and we are only just now beginning to come into this work, broadly. Unsettling settler colonialism is entirely about unsettling and the feeling of being unsettled; it should be disruptive to perspective, thought, what we say, how we act, how we position our bodies and ourselves in society and on stolen land; unsettling is precisely what it sounds like—unseating ourselves is to become dislodged and dislocated. Therefore unsettling work should situate us in a constant, and continuous, place of disruption and between-ness that allows us to then do the work that is parallel and adjacent to—and supportive of—decolonization work.
3 ] Ancestor work is complicated, especially for people with no familial ties, or with recent ancestry which has caused systemic and/or personal harm. As someone who falls into these categories, I’m simply inviting an investigation and recognition on a very basic level, to be able to acknowledge some histories that impact the present, even at the broadest scale. I also recommend including cultural, identity, vocational, spiritual, and community ancestors in this work, as well.
4 ] The occasional appearance of some Welsh and Nordic- or Germanic-based traditions do come up but I’m not as well-versed in these as I’d like to be (yet!) I'm working on expanding my research and literacy in these traditions. I'd also like to expand my education on Uralic traditions as well.
2 ] Again this is a term I learned from Indigenous scholars; and specifically, a term I read in the paper by Corey Snelgrove, Rita Kaur Dhamoon, & Jeff Corntassel, Unsettling settler colonialism: The discourse and politics of settlers, and solidarity with Indigenous nations, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol.1, No. 1, 2012, pp 1-40
*Subnote: There is no consensus as to whether or not people identified as white may engage the process of decolonization to any degree, let alone fully; hence why term and the work of "unsettling settler colonialism" was devised by Indigenous writers, scholars, and other leaders as a way to identify and determine the work ahead for white settlers. I'm uncomfortable with a few things. One, I disagree that white settlers can fully decolonize. As settlers, we're indoctrinated into a system that is ongoing, and therefore as largely unaware perpetrators of colonial systems, our work to decolonize on Turtle Island is only possible to a point. But it's complicated. For example, like many people, parts of my lineage include people who were colonized, and that I am in many ways a subject of colonization myself, and that unthreading colonialism is part of my work. However, decolonization as defined by Indigenous scholars is not solely about internal dismantling work. It is a tangible, concrete action of restitution and rematriation of land and sovereignty; which, white settlers are not beneficiaries of. Two, I'm uncomfortable with the recent overriding of the term "unsettling settler colonialism" by predominantly white people to coin phrases such as "desettling" or "dissettle" (I have yet to trace an origin for dissettle; desettling appears to come from white scholars in one paper I found referencing critical race theory with no mention of the works I cite above) when Indigenous scholarship has already paved this path for us and we are only just now beginning to come into this work, broadly. Unsettling settler colonialism is entirely about unsettling and the feeling of being unsettled; it should be disruptive to perspective, thought, what we say, how we act, how we position our bodies and ourselves in society and on stolen land; unsettling is precisely what it sounds like—unseating ourselves is to become dislodged and dislocated. Therefore unsettling work should situate us in a constant, and continuous, place of disruption and between-ness that allows us to then do the work that is parallel and adjacent to—and supportive of—decolonization work.
3 ] Ancestor work is complicated, especially for people with no familial ties, or with recent ancestry which has caused systemic and/or personal harm. As someone who falls into these categories, I’m simply inviting an investigation and recognition on a very basic level, to be able to acknowledge some histories that impact the present, even at the broadest scale. I also recommend including cultural, identity, vocational, spiritual, and community ancestors in this work, as well.
4 ] The occasional appearance of some Welsh and Nordic- or Germanic-based traditions do come up but I’m not as well-versed in these as I’d like to be (yet!) I'm working on expanding my research and literacy in these traditions. I'd also like to expand my education on Uralic traditions as well.
This piece is adapted from a series of courses taught in 2019 and 2020. Acknowledgements and transparency of resources may be found on the home page for this project.