The healing journey may begin with ourselves, but unless it extends outwards towards our homes, our communities, our ecosystem, and our biosphere any healing we achieve can not last….–Harvest McCampbell

I can’t remember exactly how it was I came across Harvest McCampbell’s inspiring book (which is also a very helpful resource) Food Security & Sustainability: For The Times Ahead, but I am sure glad I did, became her friend on facebook, and had the opportunity to meet her last year. Her extensive knowledge of all kinds of plants and their medicinal abilities for healing both humankind and the earth, and her open nature have really given me a lot of hope and inspiration over the past couple years. Whenever I have a question about soil, compost, healing and even history she is available. I personally don’t know how she does it, as I know she has a large following on facebook, and that she manages to keep up with all of us!

I asked her if I could cross-post one of her notes here, it was a tough decision which one to post, but I quite like this one as I think it gives a nice sense of who she is and how she is holding the space for the Green World of her grandmother to be re-created. Please follow the links given to find out more about Harvest and the work she is doing.

Medicine Rattles and Our Future

by Harvest McCampbell March 4, 2009.

Last night I had a most interesting dream. A spirit being came to talk to me. She expressed how dangerous classrooms full of innocent children wielding fake medicine rattles can be. She said that when we make a rattle and send its sound into the air, it is like spending money. Money creates more of whatever it is spent on. Sound vibrations create more of whatever they have been made from.

When we use our money to purchase goods and food that was produced in ways that cause pollution, we guarantee that more pollution will be created, and that it will affect our own life and the lives of our descendants.

Similarly, in my dream, it was explained that the sound, the vibration that goes out from our rattles, shakers, and musical instruments carries a sustaining vibration into our world. If that vibration is formed from plastic and trash, we send a vibration out that supports the creation of plastic and trash. If the instrument is fashioned from raw hide made from factory farmed cattle that have lead miserable lives and that have been maintained in a way that damages ecosystems, we send a vibration out that supports misery and destruction. If a turtle shell was taken for a rattle in a way that does not support the healthy, natural, and sustainable lives of turtles, we send a vibration out that supports illness, artificial lifestyles, and the unsustainability of life on earth.

The spirit told me that it would be better to organically grow gourds, without using garden products sold in plastic containers. The process of growing gourds would help weave children and adults back into healthy ecosystems, and it would help connect them to creation—as it was meant to be. The vibration from organic gourd rattles, whether used in healing, ceremony, or child’s play—would help correct the energy on the planet and move us back towards a sustainable future.

In the dream, the spirit went on to talk to me about how to obtain seeds, how to treat those seeds, how to talk to them, how to grow them, and a lot more. I woke up in the early hours before dawn, and she was still whispering to me. She wouldn’t let me go back to sleep, and she insisted I should share her words. (Maranka gourd photo courtesy of bluerockgourds)

So, here I am telling you about my dream on Facebook. If you want to know more about what she told me, please ask. I actually need to be working on something else right at the moment, but the spirit kept telling me that this is important, so if anyone wants more information I will certainly share it.

Fully awake I kept trying to define this spirit. She wore a long green skirt, green blouse, and had green hair. Studying the skirt I saw that it was a partially open gourd flower, decorated with twining tendrils hanging from the waist band. “Oh,” I thought, “She is the Spirit of the Gourd. No wonder gourd rattles are so important to her.”

I used to grow gourds, but I haven’t grown them for a few years, and my seeds are no longer viable. The last couple of years my son has been asking me for gourds to make rattles, and I haven’t had any. Then I decided that I wasn’t going to grow gourds, because they are bitter and tough and they can cross with my squash. I see now that the spirit of the gourd has other plans for my garden. In my dream, I even talked to her about this, and she told me how to keep the gourds going and not have them cross with my squash. So I am officially in the market for some gourd seeds!

Please feel free to ask for more about this dream—if you are really going to seek some seeds and grow some rattles . . .Read the original note here