How ethnobotany helps...
I'm going to start by mentioning what most of us know - modern life is predominantly about interacting with humans and human-made technologies, snugged up in our artificially warmed boxes we call homes, schools and offices. Over the last half a century, there hasn't been much space for nature. But we're beginning to see that's not okay. Revolution is afoot. Schools are creating more outdoor classrooms, we're working with our windows open to better hear the birdsong, we're beginning to break down the walls we've built between nature and ourselves - because we are remembering that we are part of the natural world, not separate from it.
But I'm preaching to the converted, I know this. You all walk and willingly spend plenty of time outside. So, my mission this evening is to encourage you to consider - how tuned in to the natural world are you? Could you be even better connected? I reckon a little bit of ethnobotany and nature-inspired storytelling would be right up your street...
Our ancestors knew what it was for our eyes, ears, skin, tongue, noses, to be ready to respond to the whisper of a tumbling stream, the warning of a flapping form, the minute shift of mood in the meadow, or on the mountain. We were active sensory participants in a world that was exquisitely alive. We can touch that state of 'awakeness' again, it's not out of reach. Getting to know a little more about how humans and the natural world have interacted in the past, sets you on exactly the right path. Foraging, herbalism, natural crafting, dyeing, weaving, animal tracking and trailing, making fire, cooking on fire...all these things wake the brain back up - because you have to find stuff out there - you have to see, hear, touch, taste and smell the sensory world in all it's glory to find what you need for your 'project'!
And it does us so much good! The brain - with all senses firing - is operating at optimal capacity. Not tethered to tech - struggling to remember, fighting to focus - we become 100% actively engaged; grounded in our environment and ready to respond quickly and creatively to whatever life throws at us.
We can't completely disconnect ourselves from modern technology. But we can begin to rekindle a relationship with nature that then helps us to better know ourselves and thrive in a world that's still tricky, as it was for our ancestors, just in a different way. David Abram remind us in his book 'The Spell of the Sensuous that ‘the oxygenating breath of the forests, the clutch of gravity and the tumbled magic of river rapids, distance us from our technologies and prevent us from turning into them', urging us to recognise that 'regular contact with the tangible ground and sky helps us to orientate and navigate the multiple dimensions that now claim us.’
Striving to regain this state of 'awakeness' to the world feels more important than ever. We can reclaim our brains and it's fun and rewarding as well. You'll end up as nutty as me - on a mission to do one thing but on the way asking yourself which tree you can smell on the air and will it balance blood pressure or boost immunity in winter? Where did you put that King Alfred's cake to light later? And, I wonder if I can make string out of this...?
You'll sense nature and she'll sense you. There's so much to be gained from that.
Our old stories can also stimulate the senses and urge us to consider the importance of that relationship with nature. Let me tell you a tale.
A story for the senses: The Curing Fox (click here to read the story)
The story of The Curing Fox fires up our senses - we feel the laboured breathing of the little girl, we hear the crackling of the fire, we watch the fox sleeping in the snow, we reach out to take her in our arms and carry her back to heal the little girl. As the story ends, we remember that we need nature, as well as nature needing us. Our heart beats in time with the tale.
The writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell speaks of humanity's goal in life being 'to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.' What are we doing if it is not this, when we are sharing old stories such as these together?
Stories like this help us remember the relationship we had with the living world. We can have that again.
Storying the world
Just like the switching on of our senses, stories can also 'wake us up' to ourselves and our place in the world. Humans are storytelling animals. 'Story is what brain does' (Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling). We make sense of the world through the stories. I don't just mean writing, telling and reading stories. I mean we're doing it all the time - who stands in the shower replaying interactions they've had during the day, wishing they'd said something wittier? Who gossips with their friends - sharing anecdotes that secretly seek to confirm that their role in the story was the right, not wrong, one to play? Who walks in the woods and wonders what the trees might think of the person wandering past...?
Academics talk of there being an 'imaginal world' existing inside our heads - sitting somewhere between abstract intellect and our sensing of the physical world. We enter into this imaginal space when we do all of those things I've just mentioned. This natural storying allows us to explore ourselves and how we fit into the world. The act of seeing elements of the world as being alive - with agency and intelligence like humans (the woodland walk example) is also particularly interesting for me. Psychologist and author, Sharon Blackie talks in one of her essays about how 'a stone might tell us a story; the wind might sing to us; thunder might be the voice of a god' on a walk. I've a room full of walkers. I think you might know what I'm talking about. It's that allowing of the mind to wander free when you're up high and how the natural world - and imaginal world - allow us to play with what we see in front of us, and what we have going on in our hearts and heads! It's fun and it's insightful.
You never know where these 'imaginal perambulations' might take you. A bit like this next story...
A story for the mind: The Dream Makers (click here to read it.)
In this story, a deer leads us to safety, a cave contains a pool of dreams, smoked herbs flavour our dreams and birds carry our creations away. Tucked up on the mountain with the Dream Makers, we consciously and sub-consciously re-imagine the world, and our place within it. We explore the concept of being lost, found, taught by our elders, offered opportunities to choose our path and change our fate.
We've all been bilberry picking, no doubt. Next time, perhaps you'll be picking and thinking about the personal transformation that can come from one simple story and a walk outdoors. Thank you imaginal mind!
Rekindling our relationship with nature
Both the fox and the bilberry story remind us to value our relationship with nature. And I have another favourite tale that echoes this again, this time with an emphasis on reciprocity and a message for the future. It is a lovely one to share on a walk, with queens eating forbidden flowers, princes fleeing serpents in the wild wood, wise old women appearing from the inside of oak trees...
A story for the future: Prince Lindworm (click here to read).
It takes us on quite a journey. From the safety - and sorrow - of her castle, one woman walks out into the wild wood and make a choice that sets everything in motion.
It's a tale with plenty of empathy, vulnerability and a clear lesson in the power of reciprocity.
We can all understand why the queen might risk that red flower, and why the serpent son would be so angry at everything that has happened to him. We admire the bravery of the young girl who steps up to marry an angry dragon, and wince with them both as he peels off his scales.
But it's obvious to all, that the 'radiant contentment' our characters enjoy at the end, is because their journey finishes with their equal investment in each other, a reciprocity that means equal exchange for mutual benefit.
A lesson for us all when it comes to our relationship with nature.
Just like the Curing Fox story. In our first folktale, the fox needed the girl and the girl needed the fox. In The Dream Makers, the girl needed her elders and they needed her. In Prince Lindworm, both young people needed to commit equally. If there is one thing you take away from this talk tonight, let it be the importance of rekindling that reciprocal relationship with nature. Take, enjoy, revel in the sensory bliss that she gifts us...but give back. Nurture, nourish and seek to know better the natural world we need to keep safe.
At Hay Festival this year, botanist and writer Robin Wall Kimmerer reminded us all that, “action on behalf of life transforms because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
So, sharpen those senses, share plenty of stories outdoors, walk out with the rebuilding of this relationship at the forefront of your mind.
Reading recommendations:
The Science of Storytelling, by Will Storr
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Professor Robin Wall Kimmerer
Listen to Bill Moyer's with Joseph Campbell Myth Series
Botanical Folktales of Britain and Ireland, by Lisa Schneider
Woodland Folktales of Britain and Ireland, by Lisa Schneider
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a more than Human World, by David Abram
If Women Rose Rooted, by Sharon Blackie
Foxfire, Wolfskin, by Sharon Blackie
Gossip from the Forest, by Sarah Maitland
Hag: Forgotten Folktales, by Carolynne Larrington