An essence blend by Catelynn of A Tethered God, aiming to dismantle individualism and instead weave the web - of support; of community with self, others, and ancestors; of communal labor and liberation as collective wellbeing. BÁBA is about trust, secure attachment, and opening into relationship.
Contains: vibrational extractions of marigold (Tagetes spp.), quaking grass (Briza maxima), common wheat (Tritcum aestivum) in apple brandy & spring water.
1/2 oz dropper bottle
Please review our policy here for where to pay on the sliding scale
More on the BÁBA essence blend by Catelynn:
Time is deep and sweet.
In this time lies ancestral memory, a not-so-distant past we all have a claim to. Across the plains of pre-Christianized Eastern Europe, the golden dwindling of summer days were filled to the brim with the community-centered work of harvesttime. Grains such as wheat, rye, oat, barley, buckwheat - staples in diet and reverent worship - were harvested for flours and other forms of sustenance. The remaining straw was harvested for a multitude of other practicalities, as well as for craft and decoration. The BÁBA (in many slavic languages, “grandmother”) was a special sheaf of grain that was brought into the home for Christmas Eve supper, placed in a special corner of the room or given a special seat and offering at the table, and later fed to livestock.
As a whole, the work of harvesttime work was done in community. Neighbors joined neighbors to work in fine dress, in accordance to ritual, in reverence, in cyclic time, in jest and celebration, in a tethering of community - plant, human, deity alike.
What does it mean to work hard?
In the western world, we are often told that we are alone - that the value of our selfhood is summed up by the effort of our labor - that the effort of our labor is achieved through personal, individual strain - through HARD WORK.
In the world of dismantling individual and collective oppression, we are told that working through these cycles of abuse and trauma will be HARD WORK.
In the world of clinical mental health we are told that our problems are our own individual struggle, from our own individual cause, with our own individual cure - and their lifting can only be an effort of our individualized HARD WORK.
What if transformation and healing were less about strain, and more about coming into relationship?
In ancestral time, all things are at once beginning and ending without effort. We are held. Ancestral reverence is not new. Ancestral reverence is old, and multifaceted, and if we are willing to listen, tells us a different story than the one in our bodies now: we have never been alone. If we choose it, we can come into relationship with forces (plant, animal, ancestral) that are tethered in something deeper than this present moment. If we choose it, help is there.
BÁBA aims to dismantle individualism and instead weave the web - of support; of community with self, others, and ancestors; of communal labor and liberation as collective wellbeing. BÁBA is about trust, secure attachment, and opening into relationship. BÁBA is your loving, encouraging grandmother; your deep reverence to time and reciprocity; and your invitation to take a breath and feel supported.
BÁBA opens with questions:
How have you been taught to shield your vulnerability?
How have you been taught to turn away from support?
How have you been taught to turn away from yourself?
Marigold - the last golden holders of summer’s sun, a remedy for brightness and fear - comes into combination with the sweet, tender weavings of wheat & quaking grass. BÁBA strokes ancestral memory that resides in the tendings of hands, feet, and fingers. BÁBA is vulnerable and supportive. BÁBA asks for tethering beyond us as a necessary contingency for liberation & health. And what would the world look like if that was different? In the weaving of it all, BÁBA asks us to show up in reverence for the process.
This formula was inspired by a 30-day devotional practice rooted in ancestral reverence & discovery with Megan McGuire and Lara Veleda Vesta entitled ‘Feast of the Three Sisters’.