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Come back to this page each day to read another entry from Cathie Katz's beautifully illustrated journal, "Nature a Day at a Time."
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The patterns of communication that indigenous peoples created to communicate with these forces, they called ceremony. Of those patterns that were developed for relationship with Gaia, some are the ancient patterns of behavior that I call sacred plant medicine. Stephen Harrod Buhner in Sacred Plant Medicine Amaranth (Amaranthus), also known as pigweed, grows wild along roads and in fields. Its importance as a food source is often overlooked or ignored, perhaps because it's just another inconspicuous weed. The nutritious seeds are eaten by birds and humans. Centuries ago, the Aztecs made a paste of ground amaranth seeds and shaped it into idols; these cookies were later eaten during rituals as a way of celebrating the spirit of nature. When the Spanish invaded, the banned growing amaranth so the Aztecs wouldn't be able to make the biscuits any more, which they considered sacrilegious.
All things have awareness and all things are made from the fabric of Spirit. Because of our common birth, from the fabric of Spirit, we can communicate with each other. With non-human inhabitants of Earth the proper form of communication is ceremony.Stephen Harrod Buhner in Sacred Plant Medicine |
Cathie Katz, the author of several books on natural history, also co-founded The Drifting Seed, an international newsletter about rain forest drift seeds. In her engaging Nature a Day at a Time, published by Sierra Club Books and Random House, Katz interweaves fascinating facts about familiar creatures, pen-and-ink drawings and quotations.
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