“THE LIGHT MOTHERS” AND “THE DARK MOTHERS”

Two forests blends for pleasure, ritual, and healing

 

Created by Be-en-Foret, Esprit de la Nature

 

  As the cold settles on the land, I make an incense I call “The Mothers”.  “The Mothers” is a forest blend that honors the women and plants from deep time.  The women sanctified their lives by entering into communion with the natural world.  The experience was healing and transcendent.  From their experience they spun stories, that wove together communities to blanket the land with civilizations.

 

  This year, to explore my own experience with wild nature, and the concept of incense as both interior and exterior landscape, I have made two versions of “The Mothers”.  I call the versions: “The Light Mothers” and “The Dark Mothers”. The Forests are our ancient home, whose breath breathed us into existence.

The Forest is well known for its ability to heal body, mind, and spirit.  Just like human communities, the non-human ecosystems that make up the Forest, each have their own vibe and their own way of healing.

 

  “The Light Mothers” brings you to the forest canopy to soar with the tree Mothers.  To feel the wind on your face and have far-seeing visions.  The blend is composed of plants and resins that smell fresh and buoyant.  A fragrance that is uplifting to the body and soul, with the effect of helping you to breathe deeply and center, to reach a calm, that is not afraid to sway in the storms.

 

“The Dark Mothers” brings you to the coniferous, forest floor.  A place to cocoon at the base of a grandmother tree, to snuggle into a thick cushion of deeply-piled mosses, mycelium glowing beneath you, covered by a blanket of conifer needles.  “The Dark Mothers” is composed of plants that are darkly radiant with hints of amber, animals, and berries.  A fragrance soothing to the mind and spirit.  “The Dark Mothers” is an incense that is excellent for contacting the ancestors and doing deep soul work.

 

       

  I intentionally create "The Mothers" incense using a technique to produce a rough and wild-looking incense to hearken back to deep time and wild spaces.  The plants and mushrooms that I use are some of the oldest species in the world.  Plants that were readily available to our ancestral, human mothers.  They have prehistoric fumigation, healing, and shamanic uses that are still associated with the "The Mothers" of legend and the winter solstice. “The Mothers” incenses can be used to purify and connect to the spirit world during the dark days around the winter solstice but also at any time you want to summon help and protection during the thread of your life. You can use the incense as is or crumble it between your fingers before putting it on the heater.

 

“THE LIGHT MOTHERS” INGREDIENTS: Balsam Fir resin, Larch wood, Juniper berries, Cedarwood, Larch Needles, Balsam Fir Needles, Cedarwood, Mugwort, Sweetgrass, Tree Mosses, Pinyon Pine resin, Pinus sylvestris resin, Mastic resin, Galbanum resin, Camphor flakes, Amanita muscaria mushrooms.  Extracts of Balsam Fir, Juniper Berry, cedar. Bound with ash-berries in clear hydromel and organic honey

 

“THE DARK MOTHERS” INGREDIENTS:  Red Spruce resin, Balsam Fir Resin, Labdanum resin, Myrrh resin, Spruce bark, Cedar foliage, Agarwood, Juniper berries, Red Spruce needles, Tramates mushroom, Polyozellus multiplex mushrooms, Labrador Tea leaves, Angelica root, Costus root, Tree Mosses, Patchouli leaves. Extracts of Castoreum, Hemlock, Black spruce, Poplar buds. Bound with rosehips in dark cherry wine and organic honey

 

MOTHERS IN DEEP TIME

 

  From where do the symbolic Mothers come?  The re-enactment of the birthing process is at the root of all transformation rituals. The practice of going back into the womb of Mother Earth to make prophecy, heal, and connect with the ancestors is ancient.  The people of deep time believed in the cyclical nature of all existence.  They saw the dead as seeds going underground to wait to be reborn.  Caves were an obvious place to go when our ancestors wanted to try to pierce the veil that separated the living from the dead, in order to gain knowledge or favor.

"She holds dominion over death, the cold darkness of winter, caves, graves and tombs in the earth...but also receives the fertile seed, the light of midwinter, the fertilized egg, which transforms the tomb into a womb for the gestation of new life"

The Civilization of the Goddess  Marija Gimbutas

 

 

The oldest known womb caves are located close to Nice in France and their use has been dated back 25,000 years. There are other womb caves found throughout Europe.  Many of the caves were designed so that the Sun’s rays could penetrate the cave entrance around the winter solstice. Many caves were also illuminated by hundreds of flickering torches of plant material attached to the ceiling with mud.  Recent research into the cave paintings has suggested that the cave artists deliberately sought out psychedelic states to create visionary art and that up to three-quarters of the artwork in some of these caves has been shown to have been done by women.  It is likely, that the rituals performed in these caves were the source for the belief, in ancient Europe, that there were three women who looked over birth, life, and death, ruling the destiny of both gods and humans.  Three watchful mothers better known as The Three Fates.  These women spun the threads by which we could find our way out of the caves and created the destiny of human fate.

 

 

  Threadmaking and weaving were originally a mystery within woman's sphere.  Worldwide, among the Gods, only women are weavers.  In the Egyptian language, the word for weaving has the same root as the word "being".  Impressions of woven flax strings, nets, and fabrics have been found impressed into Palaeolithic pottery.  The thread/rope is a symbol that is a metaphor for the umbilical cord and the life itself which connects back to our ancestors.  Woven ropes would have been used in order to navigate in large caves.  The idea of using a string to move in and out of the winding darkness is used in the transformation myth of Ariadne, Theseus, the Minotaur, and the Labyrinth.  Ariadne gives Theseus a string to be able to find his way in and out of the Labyrinth after killing the Minotaur.  The labyrinth is an ancient symbol representing a journey to our center and back out into the world.

 

Many thousands of years have passed since the first women descended into the caves to enter other states of being, heal, and make art.  Hardy and healthy, living deeply embedded in their natural environment.  These women would have been highly creative and natural shamans.  Smelling the fragrances of the same plant parents that they knew, we can reach back and touch them through our own rituals.

 

 

This price is  for .5 oz  "Light Mothers" in a 2 oz gold tin