The Apothecary of Belonging
Seasonal Rituals and Practical Herbalism
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An invitation to reconnect to the land, our bodies, and our communities through the seasons, helping us find our way back home to our own embodied rhythms.
The Apothecary of Belonging is a magickal journey through each of the four seasons with plant allies as our guides and companions. Alexis J. Cunningfolk explores how to know ourselves as land and as beings who deeply belong to the land and one another. Learn about the energetic foundations of traditional western herbalism that flow through the seasons within and around us and explore ways to map your inner landscape. Throughout, you will find methods for combining seasonal herbalism for physical vitality alongside magickal practices to support personal healing and community empowerment.
Along with chapters exploring traditional western herbalism energetics, working with plant allies, and creating your own oracle of belonging, each seasonal chapter includes:
- An indications-based guide to plant allies for common ailments: twelve main seasonal allies and over seventy additional plants and herbs to build your seasonal apothecary
- Herbal remedy suggestions for community clinics and household apothecaries
- Simple tea recipes to support your energy
- Rituals for solo or community practice, including divination techniques
- Opportunities for sacred inquiry through divination, journaling, and group discussion
- Lunar blessings to support your remedy-making throughout the year
Speaking to the common yearning for kinship and connection, The Apothecary of Belonging is a practical seasonal herbal, a book of magick, and a love letter reminding us that we can always find our way back home to each other.
About this Author
Alexis J. Cunningfolk is creating plant-led spaces of healing because none of us are meant to do this work alone. Practicing as an intersectional herbalist for over fifteen years and as a witch for nearly three decades, her work has led her around the country, presenting at various magickal, herbal, and academic conferences, as well as facilitating rituals for groups ranging from a handful of folks to hundreds. Alexis focuses on evidence-based and embodied plant healing while drawing on her experiences as a lesbian, a woman of mixed ancestry, and a third culture kid to create practices that help folks re-enchant their world and call themselves back home to their bodies. In addition to working with plants, she has been reading tarot since she was twelve, teaching since she was nineteen, and sneaking off to places in-between since she could walk. Alexis offers much of her work for free or low-cost, wild seeding wisdom as an act of gratitude and a spell of collective liberation. Find her work at www.wortsandcunning.com.
Reviews
"Alexis teaches us that everything is woven together, from the herb and plant allies, to the psyches of those calling on them, to the community at large moving around and through them, to the land that nourishes and grows them. This book is a wonderful treatise."
--Arin Murphy-Hiscock, author of The Green Witch
"There are countless herbals to be found, many drawn through historic reference and tradition. This one has a broader sense of rootedness that gives it value. Described from the integrated perspective where human and nonhuman are simply part of the fabric of nature, it allows for a vision and experience of healing that is deeper and fuller than human intelligence allows. Offering that reforming embrace within nature, Alexis's book is worthy of immersion."
--Emma Restall Orr, author of The Wakeful World: Animism, Mind and the Self in Nature
"This is a great book for both the lay person and practitioners wanting to deepen their connection to their land and the cycles of nature. The four seasons are broken down into practical information, meditations, stages of life, and much more. Creating an apothecary of belonging is a must in every household. Highly recommended."
--Elisabeth Brooke, author of Traditional Western Herbal Medicine
"The Apothecary of Belonging is no ordinary herbal manual. It is a beautifully written journey of exploration through the seasons and has a profound understanding of the intimate relationship between body and land and how that relationship--when nurtured and listened to--can offer us healing and a deeper sense of connection and embodiment. Alexis has a wealth of herbal knowledge but also an acute sensitivity and wisdom that offers new insights, not only into the plant world and the gifts of these extraordinary allies but also into those deeper layers of healing that come when we recognize that we are not only of the land in a bodily sense but also that the landscape is within us at every level of being."
--Philip Carr-Gomm, author of Druid Mysteries and The Druid Plant Oracle
"With The Apothecary of Belonging, Alexis invites us to a relationship with ourselves, each other, and the land that holds us unerringly. Within this invitation, you will find yourself more than well-resourced with recipes, rituals, and remembrance. We are reminded that we are not separate from the land, that in fact we are land-bodies that yearn for reconnection with the natural 'outside' world we falsely separate ourselves from. Reach out confidently to plant allies with Alexis's expert guidance that reminds us that the outside world belongs within us as well, that the separation was always a construct meant to fall away, that we belong to each other in reciprocity, and that this work of love may actually save us all."
--Asali, creator of Asali Earthwork
"I didn't expect The Apothecary of Belonging to bring me to tears, but it did just a few sentences in. Alexis J. Cunningfolk writes 'by being of the land, we have always belonged.' The wisdom and rightness of those words made my shoulders drop, my breath deepen, and my eyes well up. In this moment when so many of us are feeling disconnected, isolated, and afraid, Alexis offers a profound gift, helping us remember our belonging--to the earth, to each other, to our ancestors that came before us, and to the generations to come. This book is both balm and grimoire, guiding readers to practice embodied relationship with the seasons, our plant allies and kin, and by extension, all to whom we belong. I'm deeply appreciative of how Alexis weaves herbal remedies, rituals, and spells, for both individual and collective healing. Written with exquisite clarity and warm humor, this book offers myriad insights for both new and experienced herbalists. It will be a treasured resource on my bookshelf."
--Tamiko Beyer, coeditor of Poetry As Spellcasting and author of Last Days
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