The Way of the Cauldron

 
 
 

A JOURNEY OF Kitchen EMPOWERMENT

We started out really wanting folks on there healing journey’s to know what it feels like to be nourished and provided for, and so we set out to feed apprentices as they have never been fed before. It was delicious. It was healing. And, what we found is that those who received the most from our medicinal kitchen where the ones cooking the food, and sharing with their sisters about the farms and relationships and stories behind the process. Throughout these first few years we have heard the message again and again that kitchen empowerment is one of the greatest skills we can commit to if we wish to be of service to community, to women, to children and to others on their healing journeys. We have turned out kitchen structure inside out again and again in attempt to listen more closely to the feedback and spirit guidance and align with what is being asked of us, and are excited to introduce the new direction we have been moving in.

Medicine Mandala Collaborative Kitchen

 

In Person Trainings Include:

 

• 3 Meals per day of gluten free locally sourced, seasonal traditional nutrition

• Nourishing herbal infusions, ferments, and medicinal broths provided at every meal

Together we will take a journey towards kitchen empowerment that begins with being provided with a seasonal, medicinal ritual feast at our first gathering and ends with apprentices providing an educational healing feast for their sisters at Graduation weekend.

 

 

 

 Traditional Nutrition

 

Many mystics and seekers ask themselves after years of wild experiences, "Yeah, but what's the point?" We have found meaning, purpose and happiness in the pursuit of serving Goddess by embodying Her. We have found that in many shamanic traditions the practitioners die young, the energies they work with exact a great toll on the body. Inspired by Director Yaya Erin Rivera Merriman's personal healing journey, our Food Sadhana (daily support practice) aims to enculture an evolutionary approach to the role of Healer/Priestess/Practitioner, and we will have no martyrs for the Goddess on our team. Goddess desires that we be well and serve in joy, and on the level we desire to play on, radical self care and commitment to nourishing yourself and providing for your own very unique and specific needs as a Healer/Priestess/Practitioner is of primary importance. Being in right relationship to our food then becomes our primary practice. More than just providing apprentices with nourishing meals, we are passionate about sharing our best practices in the kitchen that create the solid foundation on which our local mystical community rests. In addition to enjoying 3 meals a day of locally sourced nutrient dense foods, we will have daily mini lessons on the medicinal properties of meals and how they relate to the seasons, Goddesses, themes, and other energies of each in person training module.

Some may simply enjoy the exquisite amount of care, creativity and love woven into our meals. Others through our time together may find their path in the kitchen, discovering the ways that growing, preparing, and sharing medicinal foods can serve as a pathway to Liberation complete unto itself. In all cases, we promise a special opportunity to look deeply at and evolve our relationship to nourishment over the course of our time together.

Sample Menu

Our seasonal and local menu is subject to change based on availability of ingredients and the intuitive, creative whims of our team of dedicated kitchen witches.

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Saturday Breakfast

  • Good morning infusion

  • Deer Bone broth

  • Papaya Kefir probiotic

  • Seasonal greens scramble with eggs from chickens raised on site

  • Grilled nopalitos with goat cheese handmade from goats raised on site by land steward Carrie Lou Arnold.

  • Lactofermented red salsa

Saturday mid morning nourishing herbal infusion:

Restorative, nervine and nutritious Oatstraw

Saturday Lunch

  • Seasonal Botanical Water

  • Squash soup

  • Almond flour Muffins

  • Cheese butter floral spread

  • Medicinal honey

  • Chopped raw veggies as garnish

  • Probiotic juice

  • Herbal ice cream

Saturday Dinner

  • Chicken Bone Broth

  • Afternoon warm horchata

  • Chicken tinga

  • Local greens salad

  • Probiotic vinaigrette

  • Salted herbal pepitas

  • Pumpkin pie with almond flour crust

Late night sleepy time infusion:

Valerian, passion flower, lemon balm 

 
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PAST Apprentices are Saying

Featured
Elena

“Stepping away from that world where the tension between seen and unseen, the acknowledged and ignored forces runs so high, and into the nourishing vessel of Elder Farm, gave November’s gathering a flavor of celebration for me, a lightness, a break, a festivity, and feast for the senses.  Being together in sisterhood, in prayer, in medicine space, was joyful and easy and I was aware of a grace that seemed to be passing too fast no matter how sincerely I endeavored to savor it.  

Profound openings came for me through the voicing my prayers inside the container of group intention and sacred space.  I recall a certain new feeling of cohesion emerging, a blurring of the lines of identity into a deeply shared experience of sisterhood, not an erasure of uniqueness but a lack of emphasis on individual personalities that was comforting to me.

As we sat gathered again around the ancestor altar I spoke my prayers aloud, offering gratitude to the shrewd survival strategies of my forebears and asking to be released now of any patterns of hiding that no longer served my soul’s highest truth, so that I can come into the world shining the light that I have to shine.”

- Elena

 

Lisa

"My body is feeling quite different since the beginning of this. I know without a doubt that it is the most important work I could possibly be doing right now...My body actually feels full of vitality. I am becoming healthier and richer on the inside."

- Lisa

Teren

“ Thank you for everything you have offered to my path this year. i purposely did not take another class i was looking at bc i thought it would be “too much”. “herbs”, i thought. “nice and gentle”, I thought. lol! little did i know that this apprenticeship would take me right to the place i was trying to avoid. because you can’t avoid it at a certain point. i’m learning this. and honestly, i can’t imagine a better set up to assist me through this transformation. this group reinforces my ability to feel safe. you guided us and gave us tools to help us create that safety for ourselves and i am so grateful for that. safety doesn’t just exist in this world. you can’t depend on others to make you feel safe. but what i’ve learned so far is that i can step deeper into my responsibility to myself and learn how to communicate and negotiate what makes me feel safe and with whom…”

- Teren

Blake

“Every plant we work with, every teacher, and herbal infusion offer an intimately new and unique depth and lesson for my soul to break down… The chakra work and exploration helped not only my own work, but has also shifted the way I work and assess clients as I am sharing breath work with.  My communication with guides and spirits has dramatically changed and I am finding it easier to clearly hear the messages and know what is being communicated.”

- Blake

Myah

" I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude for being a part of this Apprenticeship.  It is such a blessing for me to feel like I am a part of something that exactly speaks to what my soul wants to see being propagated in the world.  I feel seen, heard, supported, and understood more than I ever have in a group setting before.  The topics that are in each module really build on each other and touch a deeper part of me that inspires growth…. I have felt some definitive shifts since being introduced to Yaya’s teachings.  I feel like I now have more resources to go to when I am feeling lost.  Just the nourishment protocols alone help tremendously and I can feel the difference when I  follow them…  All of the wisdom that is being introduced to us is exactly what I am yearning for. 

It’s perfect!"

-Myah

Malika

“I am so grateful that I am a part of this group… Women in circle, healing ourselves, Sitting under the tree canopy, letting the dark creep in around us.  Nothing to be afraid of in the woods.  Doing the simple, needed, gracious work of forgiveness.  I feel aware that for hundreds of years, women weren’t allowed to sit in the woods together in this way, to make magic together, to be whole together, to work with the earth and the plants like this.  I am so grateful for the simple joy of doing this, and that we are safe here, now, to open those portals of healing together.  For being held, by each other, by the darkness, by the earth under us and tree’s canopy around us.

I don’t want to do healing work indoors anymore!  My body and spirit likes being outdoors.  I enjoy the air, the breeze, the ground under my feet, the aliveness and dynamic nature of everything; the presence needed to keep an eye out for snake and other unknowns; the remembering emerges and is beyond my mind’s ability to put into words.  It is so soothing and precious to my being to have those days out on the land.”

- Malika

 

Medicine Mandala on Instagram

Flores para Pachamama, Imbolc 2019 . . . #brigid #arawakdeirlanda #irisharawak #fortheancestors #community #prayerismagic
Imbolc 2019: Authenticity, Creativity, Expression and Ecstasy with guest ecstatic mystics @eveladyapples and @artofloving . . Photo by @erinleighalchemist . #greenmagic #wisewomanhealing #imbolc #medicinemandalaapprenticeship
Making Culture! Yes, sometimes it’s hard and gross. And! We see no reason why the healing journey can’t also be delicious, beauty-full and fun. Our 2019 group is so blessed to have @forestbething as our designated BBB (beneficial bacteria babe) creating herbal Jun and colorful kraut for every gathering. Thank you Beth for your presence and this medicine in our Mandala!🙏🏾🌿🌸
The art of joining forces with others in order to eat the most nourishing food possible may just be the most important survival skill! We are stronger and more effective together. Here we have @laluneria @activeculturefamily and @elderfarm, this year’s Food, Content, and Facilities leads for our year long Green Magic Apprenticeship. This is photo taken at the end of our 3 day #Imbolc Celebration this past weekend, at the end of 3 days of cooking, camping, and yes, singing in the rain. •We ate hazelnut flour braided bread, shepherd’s pie with cauliflower mash and almond flour crust, borscht with cultured cream, green salads with wild medicinal greens foraged here on the land, and more. We sat in medicine making classes and seasonal celebration rituals. We warmed our bones with broth made with chickens raised and harvested on site each morning. We are grateful to be able to provide therapeutic education and co-create experiences that will nourish us for many years to come! Midwinter Blessings! . . #greenmagic #elementalinitiation #thewayofthecauldron
The Celts, well let’s just say they got around, and if you are of ambiguous or mixed European descent, reclaiming/ remembering most likely will at some point lead you to the rich well of ancestral earth wisdom stewarded by the Celtic people. On February 1st, 30 of us will gather to celebrate Imbolc, or Oimelc. ( a Gaelic word meaning ewe’s milk, check out @activeculturefamily and @elderfarm stories this week for a window into all the preparations that take place before each gathering ) In the past, this was quite literally when the first sheep’s milk was available after a long winter. . Today, it is often a time where our emotional and material needs for warmth, reassurance, and comfort reach their apex. Take heart, the season says- a new source of nourishment is on the way! . Want to learn more about Imbolc? We had a goal! We wanted to get seasonal guides out to you before each of the traditional Celtic/ pagan fire festivals and we did it! A new seasonal guide is now available on our Patreon (link in profile) that includes history, ritual suggestions, and links to additional resources to help you begin or add to your understanding of working with the wheel of the year for increased empowerment and enjoyment of the cycles and seasons of our lives. If you are celebrating, leave a comment below and let us know what brings the season to life for you! . Also, this beautiful illustration is part of a home study assignment by current apprentice @thewitchstable and Nettles are a great source for the deep nutrition we crave at this time of year! . . #imbolc #greenmagic #Brigid #keeperoftheflame #seasonalmagic
Medicine Mandala is a team effort, a group of local women who share resources, skills, and medicine in service to creating magic that heals our hearts and leads us back into right relationship with each other and the planet. Our Patreon page enables us to get our most requested content (recipes and new podcasts) to you sooner. By signing up to support the space, you will receive regularly updated printable recipes, instructions, meditations and more, (Including this guide to making long steeped, medicinal strength, nourishing herbal brews) allowing you to follow along with us on the journey from home and create your very own Starseed Survival Guide. Visit the link in our profile today to join us! (Photo by @jamiestreetphoto )
“ Being together in sisterhood, in prayer, in medicine space, was joyful and easy and I was aware of a grace that seemed to be passing too fast no matter how sincerely I endeavored to savor it. Profound openings came for me through the voicing my prayers inside the container of group intention and sacred space. I recall a certain new feeling of cohesion emerging, a blurring of the lines of identity into a deeply shared experience of sisterhood, not an erasure of uniqueness but a lack of emphasis on individual personalities that was comforting to me.” ~Elena, Medicine Mandala 2017 . . (photo by @jamiestreetphoto )

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BANNER IMAGES BY JAMIE STREET

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