Ancestral Medicine Drop #1: Musings on Love, on Protection, on Resistance.

Ancestral Medicine Drop #1: Musings on Love, on Protection, on Resistance.

Today's ancestral medicine: lead with love. Bare your teeth. Dig your heels in.

On the night of the inauguration, I have a dream. I got new tattoos - three. Three ancestral herbal allies, all tied to my three latest matriarchs. They come to me with a message, each on certain areas of the body - Rue to watch the back, Rosemary to support the right, Rose to support the left.

For years, I have relied on and worked with Rue as an ally. This post is the first time she is allowing me to share some of the things she has taught me.

Rue is my great grandmother's - the one who pinned little red breve bags to the insides of her grandchildren's coats, who used rubber to chase away snakes in the garden, who knew what dishes to cook and when. She was the last known folk practitioner in my family, who lived in Italy for most of her life and who was left behind with her three daughters while her husband went and worked in America.

When I grieve, I feel her arms holding me and the weight of her presence. For the most gentle of my ancestors, her plant ally is the fiercest - full of the power of the sun burning skin, invoked into every protection spell, grown into a ward in my backyard and loved the most dearly. Rue rarely asks things, but when she does, it is asking you what you need and how she can provide it.

She appears on my back - the area we least tend to, our area of blindness, where we can anoint oils to protect from mal'occhio, negative intentions, and more. Our backs hold our spines, our troubles, our worries, and oftentimes our pain. They are a space of vulnerability.

I think of this particular dream in the context of the 10 of Wands in the tarot and the due de denari in the scopa. The ten of wands - a carrying, dragging, representing the ways in which we hold things that may not be ours to hold. The due de denari - a card representing eyes, sight, oftentimes clarity or the evil eye, letters, and documentation.

This area of the body protected by rue asks us not only to protect against the evil eye and what we cannot see, but to tend to what we are shouldering that may not be ours to carry. She asks us to recognize that protection is not just about ourselves and our energy, but protection of our most vulnerable, protection of our communities. The due di denari tells us to be mindful of what is said in writing - to move in a way that will not come back to us. Be vocal, but be cautious. Keep your eyes open, stay vigilant. This card also sits in the area of seeking clarity, seeking truth. Rue, associated with Diana, asks us to pursue this in a way that is resistant to the dominant narratives of mainstream media. Diana, the patron of women, of the poor, of the enslaved, calls us to be the energy of both the hunter and the healer, to decenter privilege, patriarchy, and empire. 

Rue sits at the back of my house for a reason - her protection is fierce, but best not to be seen or discussed. Rue speaks to the ability to tap into a ferocity that is not just quiet, but led by the energy of the Sun*; warm, inviting, life-giving, burning, fiery. How can we move to protect without calling attention to the most vulnerable spaces of ours and of our community?

A rue sprig hung around the neck, like a cimaruta charm, above the bed, or placed in a bag of red fabric can be carried with you for protection. Pin a Contro il Malocchio bag to the back or inside of your jacket, spray your head, hair, and shoes with a rue water or spray. 

Rue protects the vessel.

Rose is my nana's and the symbol of a specific matriarchs, who only is known as "Mother". Nana learned how to make biscotti for us, gluten free, and prayed the novena that I know now can remedy any situation. She was stubborn and closed off, and when she died I remember falling to my knees and screaming, again and again and again, without knowing why I was doing it.

Rose knows my grief, intimately. It offers me what I need every time I approach it - creativity, energy, a hand to hold. For my nana, who loved me so deeply, there is rose - the ally I turn to when nothing else makes sense, who cradles my heart, guides my hand, and assists me in whatever obstacle may approach. Rose asks us what we are holding that is not ours and what we are holding that is communal and important. Rose carries us through our mourning, holds the heart, provides nourishment when needed.

Rose sits on the left side, our side of receiving. This side is ruled by what is given to us. Rose is the Flower of Love, Venusian in all ways, but also a flower that was commonly used in funeral rites. She is Holy in all ways with her associations to rosary beads and La Madonna. Rose attracts, rose holds, rose asks us to feel.

When we receive through rose, we receive love and grief. Not just a receiving, but a recognition is needed. Rose calls for a time for processing, for carrying our hearts that sit heavy and deep. Rose asks us to be intentional about what we are receiving and attracting. Her protection is subtle, and gentle, and for my Matriarch who loved quietly, Rose represents her continued support and love as an ancestor. 

I find Our Lady, Untier of Knots in the thorns of the rose plant. They can be added to protective bags, sprays, or oils to represent the protection of the plant. Our Lady, Untier of Knots represents a powerful force to remove ties that no longer serve us, unbind ourselves from systems and ways of being that are not helping us create a better future or be a better ancestor, and to demand better not just for ourselves, but for our communities. Our Lady the Undoer can untether us from people, places, or habits that will not continue to assist us - a necessary ally in her protective and banishing abilities in the years to come.

Rose comes to us now as a vessel for our emotions - she will listen, hold, and nourish. Rose pulls us into not just receiving the emotions we are experiencing, but to be mindful of what we are allowing ourselves to receive. She advises us to take a firm hold against dysregulation, overstimulation, and fear, by encouraging us to slow down, find rest as a form of resistance, and love as a tool to create empathy and courage in our lives and actions.

This herb as an ally for self care asks us not to disconnect and distance ourselves, but to recognize that our love for those around us and our communities can lead us. She asks us to be mindful of how much we are receiving and what we are letting affect our energy, our space, and our movement. Take each wave as they come and choose where you place your energy carefully - to choose carefully is to funnel more energy into each channel, pour love through vessels into the hands of those who need it.

Rose is how we are the vessel.

Rosemary is my great great great grandmothers - Carolina. The only ancestor who allows her name to be said to the public. She was "a difficult woman", and I carry her son's name with me. She demands to be placed in my office at eye level. She demands to be put on a separate altar than all other ancestors. She demands. She tells me about how she hates my blinds and the dust in my home, then offers me magic and a way forward. She is stubborn, and difficult, and when I am threatened or feel unsafe, she is the ancestor who steps in.

For my most difficult matriarch, Rosemary is the plant that protects the head. It is an energetic veil, a pathway to talking with spirits, opens the heart, the mind, and the body to become a vessel and receive. Rosemary asks us how to protect our community. She asks us what the people need. Rosemary shows up on top of focaccia, in almost every one of my product recipes. She is stubborn. She sits between rose and rue, a guiding hand in the work we do, a reminder to protect your head, keep your ways clear, and remember who you are. Rosemary is cleansing, protective, purifying. Carolina is the same.

Teachings from Rosemary come from the right side of the body - our spiritually dominant side, about what we place into the world. Rosemary is a plant of multitudes. It aids with memory, thus creating her teaching to me of being a protector of the head. Memory expands beyond us as well, creating a potent herb for remembering our ancestors, the paths of those before us, and for making space for grief.

Rosemary asks what we wish to place into the world around us, the marks we want to leave, and the ways in which we can cast magic into everything we touch. Rosemary purifies, creating space for change. Rosemary protects, holding space for us to process and move through the change that is necessary in the coming months.

Rosemary is another herb that is hardy, often growing in a variety of climates. She is resistant and stubborn, clear in her messages, and opens the paths before us to move. She reminds us to keep the way clear. Keep your hair and head covered, your memory sharp, and remember who has forged this path before you. What can we learn from looking to, not dwelling, on the past?

Rosemary is the tool to become the vessel.

The ancestral medicine is in the practice - I will get these tattoos this year. I will show up in the ways that each matriarch and each plant has instructed me. I will be as fierce as rue, as gentle as rose, as stubborn as rosemary.

Dreams are a portal to our ancestors. 

Each of these allies is a pathway to change - the questions they ask for us in times of uncertainty, how they approach protection and how they tie into the ways of those who came before us.

I tie this dream and it's teachings into a reading I received recently at a Queer Coven meeting (an in person community of queer tarot readers) - one where I realized that, whether I like it or not, I am a community leader. I struggle to take up space, to say yes, I know about this, to be someone that folks see as a teacher/leader - and in this, a friend of mine present said "You are doing it right because you are leading with love".

And in this dream and in this reading, I never thought about it in this way - that I led with love. But I do - I make what I make and write what I write because I love doing it and because I love giving it to folks. I love creating. I love doing magic. I love seeing this magic work. I love the platform I've cultivated and I love the folks that follow me. I lead with love.

For someone who has spent so love leading out of spite - surviving out of spite, doing well out of spite - to recognize that I lead with love and do things out of love is something that was groundbreaking and empowering. 

And now, in this moment where all we see is uncertainty and confusion and anger and rage and grief, I ask you to learn from the plants and lead with love. From rose, the way we are the vessel, how we receive, how we nourish, and how we find empathy as a source of courage and movement towards aiding those around us. From rue, the protection of the vessel, the ferocity that we can find through gentleness and silence. From rosemary, the tool to becoming the vessel, a stubborn resilience in the face of a changing path and landscape. 

Lead with love.

Bare your teeth.

Dig your heels in.

*Information on Rue's energetic influences/planetary associations from "Della Medicina" by Lisa Fazio.

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2 comments

I absolutely loved this! The way you have with words really touched me🧡 I actually shed a couple tears while reading it

Lottie

Lo e it ❤️

Monse

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