Working with Plants to Overcome the Fear of Death: Exploring the Roots of the Underworld Myth
Once upon a time, we allowed the plants that feed us to also teach us how to live and live well, because we did not fear giving our bodies back to them.
In this workshop we will learn how to let the Goddess guide us back to regenerative models of living and dying where ecstasy is so much more readily available and rooted.
We will listen and work with the soul of the earth to feed ourselves and walk in alignment with the cycles of the natural world, rather than insisting on dominating out of fear.
To set the stage for our work we will explore ancient poetry and myths to excavate and alchemize the roots of our culture's obsessions with creating scarcity and "strong man" law as a means of domination.
We will begin with the first essential break from humanity's Goddess-worshipping roots in ancient Sumer during the totalitarian agriculural revolution. Totalitarian Agriculture forever changed our culture's relationship to the growing green world through the toxic masculine impulse to dominate rather than allow the Earth goddess to shape our minds and world. This led to slavery, never-ending war, and ecocide.
We will trace the shift from Pastoralist and Horticultural people to Totalitarian Agriculture through story as well as image and artifact. Our guides in this work will be Willow, the World Tree who was cut, and the sacred Wheat and grasses who were exploited and hoarded. We will meet these plants in meditation and through journey work, so we can overcome our fear of death and instead look forward to giving back to this earth who so generously gives.
When: 10am to 1pm, October 17th
Where: Montgomery College Food Forest
Corner of Philadelphia Ave & Chicago Ave
(7719 Chicago Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, 20910 map here)
(map here)
Cost: $15
All ages welcome and children under the age of 16 go free when accompanied by a paying adult.
We have limited number of free spaces for those who can’t afford the ticket price. Please reach out to info@foodforestcollective.org for a discount code.
About Crystal:
Crystal is a lineage Appalachian witch, clinical herbalist, Hellenistic astrologer, yogini, and poet who has guided hundreds of students and clients to heal themselves from chronic illness, become more fully embodied, and begin living in the enchanted realms that are our birthright.
She has 20+ years of somatic and yogic studies, 17+ years of herbal medicine study, and 11+ years of committed ceremonial study with indigenous and folk medicine carriers from around the world.
She has been teaching her craft full-time for over sixteen years from international universities, to yoga studios, to her own wellness center and ceremonial center, and finally to the world-wide web, where she co-directs The School of Heaven and Earth with her husband Matthew Merlin.