Nettles and Mountain Lion: A Conversation about Aligning with the Living World and Healing the Human/Nature Split [Episode 2]
Speaking with us from Apsaalooke (Crow) territory, in what is currently known as Livingston, MT, astrologer and Ayurvedic practitioner, Kristine Backes, gifts us with her knowledge and living experience of what it means to align with the natural rhythms all around us.
Here are the highlights:
(5:59) Everything is medicine.
(10:24) Kristine’s dream of a star-shaped cell phone with a broken interface the night before her first official astrological reading and its message that she already contained the language of the stars within her; she was just in a process of remembering.
(12:05) The planets and their energy patterns live in us and we can find them in our bodies.
(15:35) Touching in on the fields of Astroherbalism, the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, and
*Spagyrics (an alchemical preparation of herbs meant to be in a more potent form, made in sync with the astrological cycles.)
(24:08) “All models are wrong but some are useful.” When we remember that we are using imperfect models it brings us back to our lived experience and inner-knowing.
(33:00) It's a holographic universe; all of life exists within each of us.
(37:38) Digestion is the way we turn earth consciousness into human consciousness.
(39:28) Ritual as everyday opportunities for intentional action.
(43:38) Relearning how to put our thanks at the beginning instead of the end, especially in any acts of taking, consuming, or gathering.
(50:48) When asked how she finds joy and love in the place where she lives, Kristine responds: “The Mountains feel like me, and vice versa. The Mountains are the medicine I carry.”
(52:29) A story about Mountain Lions on the Leo New Moon.
(56:10) Kristine’s offerings to the world.
Relevant Resources:
The School of Evolutionary Herbalism
