Animal Magic And More

October 10, 2009 at 8:00 am (Harp, Magical Nature, Tree Of Tales)
Tags: , ,

acorns

I’m experimenting with form, can you tell?  Yes, Jane’s Medicine Tree has a new look!  What do you think?  Amri helped me choose the template.

The Tree Letter

I’ve started a Full Moon — and occasionally New Moon — ezine.  Eventually you’ll be able to subscribe to it (for free) on my website and here, but for now, I’ll just link you to Tree Letter – Leaf 2.  In this issue I write about Samhain and how I’ve celebrated Samhain in community, El Dia De Los Muertos (though I’ll write more about this festival next time), and the “northwest” energy of this time of year — a brief discussion of that quality.  Let me know what you think of this incarnation of The Tree Letter (I’ve had several others!)

Animal Magic

I Hear The Wolf And The Fox And The Weasel

I Hear The Wolf And The Fox And The Weasel

In The Tree Letter I write in detail about a divination offering that I am making for the month of October (I’ll be making a very different one for November).  This offering isn’t about predicting the future — it’s about connecting with the spirit or quality of a particular animal and discovering what it has to tell you in your life right now.  I’ve specifically designed my Animal Magic offering with children or the child in you in mind.  It’s a fun romp into the forest of our imagination with a particular animal who appears (via drawing a card from an animal deck or by flipping “at random” in my Peterson’s Guide To Mammals).  My email response is a bit like one of my Forest performances in print — mixing story, song, folklore, and the nature of the animal — written especially for you.

Read more about Animal Magic here!

Forest

Forest - by Knodel & Valencia

Forest - by Knodel & Valencia

And speaking of Forest.  This is a shameless plug for my CD of that name, recorded with my harp duo partner Deb Knodel..  Perfect for Autumn, FOREST is a musical journey through a magical forest, where we encounter the mythic Green Man, attend a village harvest celebration, a Scottish Ceilidh, and more! This album is great fun and filled with enchantment, and is a favorite with children of all ages. I’ve had teen and pre-teen girls tell me they’ve listened to Forest over, and over, and over ….!

Immerse yourself in the myth and magic of the autumn-into-winter season with this CD!

Podcast No. 2 ~ Bardic Nature

What is a bard? What do bards have to offer for the 21st century? 21st century bard and Wheel Of Wonder radio show host Ray Simkins shares his thoughts regarding these questions, as well as bardic lore (and an anecdote!), his journey into his bardic nature, and three of his lively and rich poems. Go here to listen or download this podcast.

On his blog, Ray writes about his experience being interviewed by me.  Read it here!

Enjoy!

Leave a Comment

Tune In Sunday: Upcoming Radio Interview

July 7, 2009 at 7:24 pm (Harp, Magical Nature, Tree Of Tales)
Tags: ,

I’ll be featured on an upcoming interview with Radio Ray on his weekly series Wheel Of Wonder on KAOS, 89.3 FM, Olympia, Washington.  Yes, you can also listen via the magic of the Web.  This show presents a musical journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year, as well as offering forays into earth spirituality and other related realms.  The interview with me is first in a series entitled “Bardic Byways”.  Topics we’ll explore include:  What is a Bard anyway?  Is there a place for Bards in the 21st century?  What is my particular vision and approach to being a Bardic Harper in modern America?  And: Discovering your own Inner Bard.  Tune in if you’re up and around this Sunday, July 12th, at 8AM (or fairly soon thereafter) PST.  (Yes, bright and early here on the West Coast!).

Some of my tools of the trade: My wire-strung harp, a Caswell "Bard", a Native American drum with a trio of horses painted on it, a Guatemalan rebozo, a glimpse of my singing bowl (in the basket), and a watercolor rainbow, painted by my daughter Gwynne - a reminder of the joyful vision I caretake for our planet

Some of my tools of the trade as a 21st Century Bard and Bardic healer: My wire-strung harp, a Caswell "Bard"; a Native American drum with a trio of horses painted on it; a Guatemalan rebozo and a Celtic knotwork cloth; a glimpse of my singing bowl (in the basket); and a watercolor rainbow, painted by my daughter Gwynne - a reminder of the joyful vision I caretake for our planet.

1 Comment

At The Heart Of My Nature

February 12, 2009 at 4:49 pm (Harp, Hearth Tending And Cottage-Keeping, Song)
Tags: , , , ,

Welcome to the heART Party Celebration! Please be sure to visit others in this progressive party. And now, I invite you into my heART!

At the heart of my nature

At the heart of our nature

At the heart of my nature es mi casita de mis abuelitos–a house that my maternal grandparents had built in 1936 and in which we lived for six years before moving to Vashon Island, WA. It remains the quintessential home in my heart.

Mi casita de mis abuelitos

Mi casita de mis abuelitos

At the heart of my nature is the redlands, the desert canyon terrain of my paternal grandparents near Grand Junction, Colorado. I roamed these rocks with my loving extended family–grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins–and with my immediate family year after year while growing up. My father’s family has lived in this land of dinosaur rock and desert valley for seven generations.

Redrock at the Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction, CO

Redrock at the Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction, CO

I composed a piece for Celtic harp and fretless bass in honor of this ancestral landscape. It appears on my duo album The Harpers’ Masque. You can download the mp3 here: Redlands .

Of course, the magical Vashon Island remains at the heart of my soul geography–it is where I truly experienced my imagined terrain of Forest Halls in my everyday life, in community celebrations and ritual, in the cycles of the seasons, and the glory of the herbs and trees, and in the island’s incredible, heartful community.

California poppies, calendula, lemon balm and more, oh my!

California poppies, calendula, lemon balm and more, oh my!

My herb garden began as an herb labyrinth. Then I let it go wild! In my heartache at deciding to leave Vashon, I sometimes lay done in the heart of this garden, taking comfort in the lemony scent of the crushed lemon balm, the silky delicacy of the California poppies, the damp, welcoming Mother Earth supporting my entire body, as I stared up in the endless blue-and-white expanse of sky.

The mythic land of Wales nourishes imaginative soul, my Celtic greenfire, my nature as a harper and bard.

Carn March Arthur near Llyn Barfog--The Bearded Lake--in mid-Wales

Carn March Arthur in mid-Wales

At Carn March Arthur (photo here), you can see a depression in a rock that was supposedly made by King Arthur’s Horse.

Visiting this Stone Circle back in 1996, I ended up with a piece of the center stone (read An American Harper In Wales to find out how that happened.) I ended up giving the tiny stone to an ancient maple tree on Vashon. The tree took it and said ‘thank you’ — really! A story for another time …!

Here is a traditional song from Wales, which translates to: “O Blackbird Of Silken Wings”, which I sing with harp on RoseGarden. You can download the mp3 here:
Aderyn Du A’i Blufyn Sidan
Lyrics:

    Oh Blackbird of silken wings
    and golden beak, and silver tongue
    will you go for me to Kidweli
    to ask how my love is.

    One, two, three things are difficult for me
    Counting all the stars when it’s freezing
    Placing my hand so that I can touch the moon
    And knowing the mind of my loved one.

Here in the Wallowas of N. E. Oregon, I experience the heart of mountain essence. The Lake and Mountains murmur to me deep, strong, words of ancient, flowing being.

Spiky frost on a little tree

Spiky frost on a little tree

The crystalline and sweet nature of this community of Joseph offers a new beauty to my soul. I delight in the magic of snowy winter–the first I’ve ever experienced–and look forward to experiencing the full feast of the the Year here in the Interior Northwest.

Heart Medicine Tree - art by Jane

Heart Medicine Tree - art by Jane

Thank you for entering the HeART Of My Nature!

    ~Blessings,
    Jane-Singing Deer


5 Comments

« Older entries