Culture, Dignity or How to Become Native European
As you may be aware, the art of ritual smoke cleansing is highly contentious at this moment. Native American peoples have spoken out...
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love.bound
Grown on our native soil, restoring nature's beauty and diversity in the process.
We intend to listen to these plant teachers. May they teach us the rituals to honor them and set us free.
As much as we appreciate the inspiration other cultures have granted us, we no longer wish to be dependent on a foreign culture to understand ourselves and our world. Our desire is to experience and research these matters ourselves, to open ourselves up to the plants that surround us and listen to those who speak to you. We want to excavate the remains of our native culture: her ideas, her traditions, her soil and her unique natural phenomena. We wish to experience the places where our ancestors found magic, before science explained them rationally. We wish to learn from the consciousness of the plants and how they guide our evolution— That's why we chose these three plants that have their roots deep down in our own culture and soil, as our main ingredients for our bundles and products.
We’re honored that love.bound is one of the many portals on earth that will help us
reconnect with these ancient teachers:
(GREEN) SAGE
salvia officinalis
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the sage we work with is harvested from Regenerative Farm Bodemzicht
ARTEMISIA
artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia might be one of the oldest incense plants in Europe, it was arquably one of the most important ritual plants to the Germanic people.
the artemisia we work with is harvested from Regenerative Farm Bodemzicht
YARROW
achillea millefolium
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the yarrow we work with is
wildcrafted with care by ourselves.
These three plant allies combined are an excellent alternative to the sage imported from the west, and may indeed be a better choice for centering, clearing and grounding, since it incorporates the spirit
of our home soil—and speaks to our roots.
No product
Why do we only work with green sage instead of white sage?
dive even deeper into our more personal journey
around this subject, by visiting Sjir's journal entry down below.
Endangered and over-harvested.
The plant Sage, or Salvia, grows all around the world in different colors and variants. However, what most people are referring to when they talk about the popularized practice of burning is white sage.
White sage grows naturally in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico and is particularly found along the coast of Southern California and in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. White sage is by far the one most frequently used and sold by the wellness industry. It’s also a sacred herb to several Indigenous communities.
During our first months of birthing love.bound into the world, we realised that the burning of white sage is problematic for a few reasons, the biggest being cultural insensitivity and environmental unsustainability. With the wellness world hopping onto the energy-clearing benefits of this sacred plant, white sage is becoming increasingly endangered and over-harvested. From sage bundles found at pharmacies to local markets and online webshops, everywhere we go we see white sage bundles being sold. The increased demand fort this sacred plant has worsened it's once-sustainable cultivation practices.
So, what is the sustainable and ethical way forward?
The most sustainable way to use sage would be to grow it yourself – this ensures you know that no being was hurt in the harvesting process, that multiple hands make a fair cut, and that the plant was sustainably harvested in a loving way. With this knowledge Sjir and I stumbled upon a local regenerate farm called Bodemzicht that's just a bike ride away from our homes. With regeneration on top of their minds, Bodemzicht is all about using earth-friendly harvesting practices and making a positive impact, while also collaborating with lots of other regenerative initiatives to build a close-knit community around the farm. So of course, we couldn't be happier to have found such a beautiful group of happy framers, apprentices and overall earth-lovers to work with and get our plants from. (Read more about Bodemzicht here).
Locals Only.
Clearing energy is a practice that spans different cultures, time periods and even continents. By using sacred plants to effectively clear out the old and bring in the new, populations have connected with the Earth and given thanks during these rituals for hundreds of years. By using Earth-friendly harvesting practices while honoring the greatest source of all
– Mother Earth. we can still maintain the reverence and dignity that sage represent without bringing about devastation to the plants’ natural habitats.
Pictured: a white sage bundle.
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