Autumn daze: Smoker, Salt blends & Sylvatherapy⋆☕︎
How is Libra feeling for you so far, eclipse season? & blessed spirit of Equinox! A season of observation through our senses.. listening.. breathing a little deeper.. taking note of the leaves and how they let go so gracefully..without struggle..
How are we days away from October already?!.. Tis' the season when I most long to stay (home), to tend the hearth and lean into all feels of pumpkin spice, cosiness & crafting. Instead, I’m preparing to up root again, carrying my hearth with me upon my back out into the crisp & changing autumnal air.. I'll be visiting Vancouver & the east coast for the first time before I set forth over seas back to the motherland~Until then, I’m gathering my things slowly, processing the last few ingredients, and soaking in the gentle rhythm & comforts of this space that's been my Summer home..
Little life Update:
I was invited to a local walk & tea in the woods here in light of BC's National Forestry week, guided by a lovely new friend, Cornelia, who held the space by gently inviting us to connect with the land through our senses, to simply notice & explore what we notice. She gave us space to just .. be there. be with the trees. be with life ~ listen~ offer the land some tea..
I’ve taken the dive into a training in Shinrin-Yoku, a form of therapy originating in Japan, aka Sylvatherapy, also known as or translated to, Forest Therapy. It has been on my radar for a while, circling back into mind recently, then, serendipitously on the recent new moon eclipse, finally called me in.
This particular afternoon in the woods was just the dose of remembering medicine I needed that day (everyday really)..the healing & encouraging messages I received from a practice so simple, so accessible, so natural.. Our DNA doesn't forget what we are (even though our minds often do)..what soothes & heals us to our core~ it's in our nature to remember the simplicity of this.
It’s not so much that I feel I need this training in order to practice what we practiced or to hold forest sessions; I already carry a lived experience of receiving the medicine of nature & trees in my own body (we all do, to a degree).. I'm just curious to receive further guidance on how to curate sessions rooted not only in my own lived experience but also in the origins of this practice and the growing body of scientific research as a therapy, feels very resonant.
Forest communion is something our ancestors have practiced for millennia, what is now named therapy was once simply relationship with the land: the timeless human kinship with trees and wild places. Learning more about how this ancient practice came to be recognised and studied as a therapeutic modality in our modern world feels like a way to bridge both the ancestral and new age. I feel it a way to strengthen, deepen, and refine my ability to guide and hold space in the way my heart calls me to.
In other news:
Things have been getting smokey over here - the cherry & maple wood kind!
photo one: The Little Chief Smoker | photo two: scrumptious smoked beetroot salt made from beetroot skins & sea salt smoked with cherry wood chips| photo 4: a collection of herbal salt blends. (beetroot & pink currant flower & rose, yam skin and paprika, lacto-fermented habanero & wild blueberry, mixed mushroom, chilli pepper)
The smoker has been a new venture in experimentation & sensory exploration~The smell of the smoker caught travelling the wind, the scent of a sweet, smokey maple combined with salmon and earthy beetroot skins.. A freezer burnt Sock-eye Salmon was truly transformed with a simple spiced maple over-night marinade and a good ol' smokin' in the little chief.. what a great way to avoid wasting what would otherwise be thrown out.. (freezer burn who?)
I’ve also been tending to a growing obsession with crafting salt blends and sprinkles — dehydrating and powdering herbs, vegetable peels, and even fermentations, transforming them into little jars of ready-to-reach-for, flavoursome goodness to scatter into all kinds of creations.
The possibilities are truly endless, thou hath no limits!
Anyway.. I'll leave this letter here, lots swirling and whirling in the air of Libra season.. endings and movement and new horizons call forth.. the trees remind me to trust the natural process, my heart, throughout all.. I'm heading back to the UK for our 4th gathering of Dadeni end of October.. closing out year 2 of our 3 year spirit school I'm journeying through with a bunch of lovely kindred folk fam ~Dadeni, means Rebirth in old Welsh. We revisit teachings & wisdom rooted in Brythonic tradition, a multi-faceted Celtic mythological landscape. Magick grounded in Welsh land & song.. an ancestral branch of mine. We're going to be working closely and co-creating ceremony in light (& shadow) of our ancestors this time. More on this later <3
Giorgia Lamola Glenville
