we are shaped
by WYRD
“from the proto-indo-european root wert (*uerth) arose verbs of turning, being, and becoming. from them came the name of the Norns, as well as words for Fate in Germanic languages, including Anglo-Saxon Wyrd and the Three Weird Sisters. Other descendants are weorðung (later weirding) ‘honing, reverence, and weorð, “worth”, from which came weorðscipe (later worship). Weird figured in names for women of power and divination. Scottish weirdfu parallels the formation of English worthful. But in modern English weird (‘destiny’) shifted in meaning to ‘eerie’.”
“rather than progressing in a straight line, the Norns spiral through revolutions of Time. What ‘was’ must lead to what ‘shall be’, which inexorably turns into ‘what was’. In this philosophy, time as well as space curves, turns, spirals…a cyclical arrangement of time.”
Witches and Pagans; Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100 M. Dashú
It was only when I began to work with plants
I saw Spirit with new eyes.
After spending the first half of my life in a religion that didn’t reflect back to me what I knew in my heart, communing with Nature was the most rewarding relationship I’ve come to know with the Spirit of Nature, and the unseen realms.
A Spirit who saw my nature as a woman as a strength, not a hinderance.
A Spirit untouched by the conditioned egos of illness and trauma.
It knocked my socks off when I started putting the pieces together.
Of course Divinity lives in the
innocently innovating exuberance
of this cosmic orbit
of time and space
There was something so much bigger than the church of my youth could ever name. The problem I faced then was, an age old fear of being an outcast, or ridiculed. Being "weird". Yet, I can’t abandon my truth. And then I came upon wyrd…
the word wyrd essentially means a
woman healer
and they have always been
inextricably linked
to the Spirit of Nature
So, instead of being ashamed of being a wyrdy-weird, I decided to name myself after it and see if there was anyone else out there interested in finding their wyrd way too?
And as it turns out, the more I learned about my own wyrd ancestors from Ireland and Germany, the easier it was for me to connect the Indigenous way of this land to the way of the wyrd. Same perspectives, murdered on different continents.
The Indigenous way mirrors the wyrd path—land, body, and spirit as one.
I walk this road with the guidance of my ancestors hand-in-hand with Indigenous healers and writers, who’ve gifted me ways of seeing my own ancestral wyrdness, as a way of seeing and being with the world. They granted me permission to accept this perspective as a true and soulful path. I was born to unceded Lakota land and my ancestors were wyrd - so from where I stand there is a natural alignment with this way of being in the world, land and body being made of the same Earth.
More and more I find my spirituality laying in between the sheets of my garden bed. Freely offering so much love, and care. Gentle daily guidance through observation and experience. True observation and experience only happen with complete presence of the here and now. Intuition only inhabits the present. When you are present with your life you are engaged, interacting with all the bodies before you in ways that can transform the collective and support our co-arising as an interconnected community. And in this day and age, that makes us wyrd.
Indigenous healers, artists, doctors, and advocates have been the most influential teachers in my life. Life changing people whose lives and work(s) have and continue to guide me, influence me, and support me in decolonizing my perspectives: Dr. Lewis Mehl-Medrona, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, Robin Wall-Kimmerer, Joy Harjo, Dr. Lyla June Johnston, Serene Thin Elk, Edgar Villanueva, Tiokasin Ghosthorse.
Selected Worked from inspiring leaders:
Lewis-Mehl-Medrona; Spirit of Healing
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés; Women Who Run with the Wolves; Joyous Body; In the House of the Riddle Mother; Mother Night; The Gift of Story; Dangerous Old Woman, The Creative Fire
Robin Wall-Kimmerer; Braiding Sweet-Grass and Gathering Moss
Joy Harjo; Crazy Brave
Dr. Lyla June; featured guest on A World Apart podcast by Eric Garza
Serene Thin Elk; Decolonizing Your Mind from Collective Healing Conference by Thomas Hübl
Edgar Villanueva; Decolonizing Wealth
Toikasin Ghosthorse; featured guest on podcast Point of Relation: The Intuition of Earth with Thomas Hübl
The Hopi Survival Kit by non-native Thomas E. Mails (written with permission from Hopi elders)
Malidoma Patrice Somé; Of Water and the Spirit; Ritual
John O’Donahue; Anam Ċara
And for more on the etomology of wyrd:
Max Dashú; Witches and Pagans; Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100
ecological reciprocity
Nature shows us that beings all participate in ecological reciprocity. Nodes in the web of life resourcing each other in different yet equally crucial ways.
Violets specialize in resourcing food and larval shelter to butterflies, bees, and ants.
Elderberry are naturally resource a wider variety of creatures because they produce berries and are bigger. Their reach includes both food and shelter for the butterflies, bees, and ants and reaches out to myriad variety of birds, and furry friends with four legs like rabbits, squirrels, foxes, woodchucks. In the areas where they roam, elderberry is also a favorite of bears.
Oak is said to be able to resource up to 2,300 different species with all the creations they naturally produce or procure; insect, arachnid, bird, animal, fungi, and human creatures all benefit from food, water, shelter, and friendship from the mighty oak.
Each plant is vitally important to their ecosystem, and yet each is able to resource in different ways. And so I offer humans the same ability. To see who and how they are currently resourcing in their life and to pick the plant that resonates the most in the heart.