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

How sweet it is to tiptoe between the baby oaks sprouting up under the skirt of the grandmother tree to harvest #mugwort as an offering to the dreams of the next group of sisters who will arrive in November to turn the wheel of the year and traverse the spiral path with us! We are so grateful for all who hear the call to come together to place individual passion, creativity and authenticity in service of each other and the earth. Interested in learning more? Visit us online (link in profile) for info about our new rolling admissions process! #greenmagic #greenwitch #elementalmagic #servantofgaia #wisewomantradition
No sting, no honey! We are honored to be learning about the ancient practice of bee venom therapy with our guest facilitator and mentor @shonagh.home If you are interested in hearing more about what’s happening here, check out our video over on our mothership account @activeculturefamily ’s IGTV this week titled “Stinging Nettle Intitiations and Bee Venom Therapy…Blessings!
Summer in the temple☀️ #farmtotemple #lughnasadh2018 #greenmagic #livingthewheeloftheyear
Today @elderfarm and @nazdiracuevas started the epic task of making squash pancakes for our August gathering. It takes about an hour to make a batch of 10 #gapsdiet friendly pancakes from scratch and they are making 80! We do not serve retreat food. We serve extremely hearty, nutrient dense foods that are home grown, home cooked, fermented, cooked in ghee and otherwise layered with the very best of what mama Gaia has to offer as fuel for our apprentices journeys into the depths. Thank you to all the kitchen witches past present and future for making the journey SO delicious!🙏🏾
Pausing on the path for 15 minutes of breath work lead by 2018 apprentice @breathofblake #imbolc #sistersonajourney #livingthewheeloftheyear #greenmagic #farmtotemple #becomethemedicine
Beginners mind is so important. In our year long apprenticeship, we come humble to the fact that we are all, each one of us here a child of the earth and of the great mother. What better ritual tool than a rattle, powerful enough for to rely on for medicine in the depths of healing ceremonies yet gentle enough to hand to a child, for us to work with to begin or deepen our journey of catching our own healing songs? We are honored to announce that once again @amaradreamer will be joining the line up of guest facilitators for the year long program, sharing her path with rattle making (with ethically harvested and hand tanned hides) and Medicine Song for the 3rd year in a row. Many thanks to you Amara for bringing your presence and your medicine to this circle!
Second year apprentices of Medicine Mandala learn to run The Cauldron, providing support, nourishing herbal infusions, bone broth, meals and mini lessons within their areas of professional expertise as needed to their first year sisters as they continue to receive instruction from guest facilitators and a space to practice the tools we share as well as serving as roll models on the path of sisterhood and service to Gaia. Many thanks to @iamrainbowheart for providing restorative yoga in evening ritual and support for our on site medicine making. First year apprenticeship graduates interesting in exploring pathways to continuation email us to discuss options💚
There are so many ways to be of service in community! Many thanks to Kerem @playbeautifulsounds for providing that extra level of safety and containment that only sound can offer for our temple time during the apprenticeship, and to @mmiyrazha for your all of your cauldron keeping/ flight attending flexible big sister support this year. Early bird Registration is now open for the next group of year long apprentices. Explore more through the link in our profile.(📸 by @erin___leigh )

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BANNER IMAGES BY JAMIE STREET

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