Words are the original enchantments - A Charmed Life

One Willow Apothecaries · 21 de agosto

A Charmed Life

Words are the original enchantments. Whenever I feel lost in the static of things, or like the taste has gone out of life, I reach for new words to describe what I’m seeking. A new mantra to call in that intangible longing. And when I speak those perfect turns of poetry, I realize that, just by settling into the precise sweetness of that new phrase, the dream is already arriving. Speaking the hidden worlds inside our hearts is powerful, and delightful. And is the first step to conjuring all the loveliness we so deserve in our lives.

So today, I’m calling in *a charmed life*. An existence marked by small delights and peaceful stream sides. Where I receive the unexpected visitors of wonder daily, like hummingbirds come to gaze at the roses on my shift. A life touched by embroidered edges and fireflies. Where luck has a seat at the table, and we eat maple biscuits together at tea time.

This is my incantation for the day. And it fills me with honey just to speak it. What’s yours??

One Willow Apothecaries · 10 de octubre

There is a thread that runs through the long tapestry of time. A line that connects us back to our grandmothers and great grandmothers and the lineage of womyn who came before. On a loom, each downward string is called a warp. Like time, these warp strings are the backbone that holds the weaving in place. But it is the generations of mothers and aunties, the horizontal weft woven in-between, that fill the loom with life. It is these weft strings, the threads of connection that travels across the space and time, that pulls everything together.

It is from this continuing weft of women that we each come into life.

Connecting back into the power-held lineage of our female ancestors isn’t simply a flight of fancy or genealogical curiosity. To remember the women that came become you, and call upon that distinctly matrilineal magic, is an act of deep reclamation. By calling back we continue the weaving begun from the fingers of our female ancestors, that very first spindle-spun weft.

Though it has been a long time since matrilineal cultures flourished in our world, everything moves in a circle, like the round of a harvesting song or the curve of a well-coiled vase. A world in which we value the power of blood that flows with the moon as much as blood that flows from a wound has already seen its wane and its new moon. Now, we are in the time of the waxing.

It has been many generations since every woman was recognized as the vessel of power that she is, but even now our women ancestors remain close, whispering to us of the waxing to come. Matrilineal magic is a deep and ancient kind of craft. One that will never be forgotten as long as we continue to seek and honor the threads that connect us back.

From: https://onewillowapothecaries.com/matrilineal-magic/

Erin Gergen Halls  · 11 de octubre

There are many shades of magic that come from learning an Ancestral Language.

For instance, some time ago, I posted an article about "the magical vision hidden in the Irish language". Words like "cáithnín" - a speck of dust, husk of corn, snowflake, subatomic particle, smidge of butter, but also, the goosebumps you feel in moments when you contemplate how everything is interrelated. And, the word "scim" - the thin coating of tiny particles, and also the fairy film that covers the land, or a magical vision, or succumbing to the supernatural world through sleep. Or the word "púicín" - which means a blindfold, goat muzzle, tin shade over a cow’s eyes, but can also refer to a supernatural covering that allows otherworldly beings to be unseen in this reality.

That article washed over me and flowed through me like a current, warming me like whiskey from head to toe. I printed it out and saved it as the first pages of my language lessons binder. To drink in and savor. Then, more recently, I stumbled across an interview with a Irishman named Machán Magan, discussing his two theatrical performances. The first, "Arán & Im (Bread & Butter)", is a celebration of the Irish language in which Mr. Magan bakes sourdough bread for 70 minutes, while offering insights into the wonders of the language - exploring potent words of landscape, terms of intuition and insight, and the many phrases that bring to life the mysterious glory of the natural world - then culminates with freshly-baked traditional bread for the audience to slice and spread with butter they've churned themselves from Irish cream.

And, the second performance/installation, "Gaeilge Tamagotchi", where audience members are invited to wind through a labyrinth of raw Irish linen to receive, and adopt, an endangered Irish word from the artist, which they agree to nurture, nourish, and take guardianship of. They each receive a word unique to them and are given the opportunity to print or paint their word on stone, oak-wood, or linen, as a ritualistic covenant. Words like "súghóg" - the stain left by tears. And, "iarmhaireacht" - the loneliness at cock-crow. Or, "sclimpíní" - the light dancing before one’s eyes. I mean, whew. I cried when I read that, and knew I had to connect with Mr. Magan! I emailed him immediately, and went to reference that first article, in my binder, to share it with him,...only to find that HE was the author of it! Well, of course he was! He also was lovely and inspiring in his reply, and it motivated me to add his vision to my language learning process.

So, I scour Irish dictionaries, and dictionaries of Anglo-Irish, and circle words that resonate. Words that spark something in me for any reason. I'll choose a word, and take the word on, take it in, let it roll around in me, and roll off my tongue. I'll work it into sentences. I'll make sketches around its meaning. And, I share the discovery of it with my Ancestors, the ones who inspired this entire endeavor. Keeping the language alive keeps Them alive. It is a gift we pass between us.

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