Nana Catherine's Apothecary

next month to 6 weeks, I'm taking steps to transition: out of heavy engagement with / through instagram into a yet-to-be known space, from my studio in west philly away from emphasis on 1-on-1 client work... into winter always, always continuing to exact and define how i want to, and how I'm called to, show up in this moment. changing with the change. so this feels a lot like focusing on: working on the anthology (#blacknowmemories), personal relationship building, communal living and group work, deeper intimacy with the land, welcoming the ways grief transforms me, expanding out of current paradigms of "healing," working to distribute more free plants / plant medicine to more black philly folks. and resurrecting the black quality of life survey and system of care. we need to better account for each other. come whatever. can y'all help me stay connected, even without the gram? my email: [email protected], but you can also hit the "message" button on my profile. website / listserve will also stay updated. (shout out to @atticapothecary, for our recent convos around connectivity outside of the internet, plant medicine distro, and reimagining...damn near everything.) to my niggas: y'all have my number, y'all know where i stay at. my struggles with communication are very real, but let's keep working energy together. [photo ID: black person's hand cradling a newly unfurled, bright green #philodendron leaf. white text overlaid reads: "new changes."] #blackancestralmagic #somethingmoredaringisrequired #8thhouseshit

**limited quantities of both kits are still available. link in bio. fam with mobility needs, hit me up for drop offs! shout out to everyone who donated and offered support ** from the email:... Your order will be ready for pick up, at the day / location that you choose--pick your slot using the link provided! PLEASE NOTE: I'm so sorry, but I'm not able to hold kits for folks if the pick up day is missed. BUT! The kit will be automatically restocked, you can try to order again, and select another day to pick up. If you'd like to pick up for someone else as well, shoot me an email with their name and order number: [email protected] Much love, Desiree -- [photo ID a bit later, when I have the spoons ] #blackancestralmagic #plantmedicine #somethingmoredaringisrequired

consider the concept that: your calling is like your light house, your north star.... it's an energy that informs your decision-making; how you spend your time, and with whom. it's not the work, really. -- we are spiritually and ancestrally wired for LIFE / LIVING, not just for survival. and if those two states sometimes overlapped, it was largely due to the insistence on FREEDOM and PRESENCE, versus endeavoring simply just to NOT DIE. capitalism courts immortality. over-work. schedules over stillness. even, altruism as sacrifice. non-profit and entrepreneurial fatigue. it centers *you* as the necessary tool to deliver services, when really, there are entire ecosystems that support that work. such that. if you were to transition, folks would (and do) mobilize to continue in service to the mission. capitalism courts the illusion of exceptionalism, at the expense of your own health or quality of life. it wants you to feel well-meaning in your complicity. reject this. your calling will never ask you to be depleted. maybe, just try, to see what it might take, to seek to live a free life, not just a long life. -- [photo ID: slides 1-8, autumnal panoramas of reds, greens, brown, a lake, an 18th century grain mill, convered bridge, historical marker, and #hemlock trees, featuring my 11 year old son, Imri.] -- #blackancestralmagic #wisdomoftrees

this is for you. (deck by @thehollowvalley) [photo ID: two monotone, square oracle cards arranged one below the other. the top card reads: prove them the fuck wrong. the bottom card reads: i am a witch and i am full of magic.]... -- #blackancestralmagic #sayless

journal entry, 10/5/2019: learning more about how reality is physically constructed; the codes, mathematics. ... how everything is occurring simultaneously. and we can work with the architecture of our reality, by removing the information we DON'T need. it's not about addition, it's more about removing the unnecessary information in any given moment. that's working the alchemy. i played around with it, with body temperature, sensations, and emotions, in real space-time. but it takes a deep level of discernment and honesty to know what's needed in any now moment and what is not. or rather, why a thing exists in your architecture; why you would want to include it on the blueprint. so it's not about forcing away things that we interpret as painful. my trauma is a cloak that i wear to teach myself about how to build / make new connections in my brain. i'm making a new mind...or, probably, reconfiguring the code for its consciousness. but that only becomes physical in this reality by working this way with my mind / consciousness *alongside* aspects of my trauma. if i removed it all at once, it would be harmful and less compassionate to my physical body / human experience. i made new memories during my trip; new ways of being and seeing. so i now have / experienced the codes for them. so i can play around more with my energetics in the present, without forcing my brain or my body past it's limit. which is what folks do when they get on that positivity, manifesting, overly righteous, or circle jerk activism, tip. yeah shit appears to be happening, but it's like miming the action of baking a cake. you're moving and stirring, with no real ingredients. a lot of this was about the continued integration of my spirit into this body. not ascending OUT of it, or beyond it. i played my body like an instrument. or like it was a finger. and my expansiveness as a being was...is...everything else. [photo ID: big bunches of #goldenrod laying on a wooden table, in the sun.] #blackancestralmagic #mushroommedicine