Emma's Sheep House Teaching along Milky River
Ever since the opening ceremony of Valeriana at the deer house I was looking forward to further teaching about the plants and animals regarding herbal medicine within the tradition of bardic nationalism, as westernkind. Many of the things I began to learn much earlier, and had to voice them far from my own. There was one thing central, I was taught to disavow the regime narrative of erasure, and instead embrace white well being. Where ever a deep abiding love for a secure existence of our people and a future for white children, there would be the unfolding of healing within the nation. Just as the plants exist outside of any narrative, so do we, and so it is.
That there are nations is not surprising, not a nation of boundaries and lines drawn on a map, not an evolving economic zone, but instead a nation of people and place whose lines are walking mountains, flowing rivers, and walking people, friends who create the nation. A nation of plants growing on the shady side of mountains by the work of tiny medicine deer who reveal their presence by their gardens, and a nation of people. We live there without explanation, because that is the nature of well being. White well being unfolds according to the biospirit within the people of western civilization, just as a seed, kind after kind.
I had many questions. I realized I needed a testimony. Much of what I learned was beyond explanation. I had left the narrative of guilt. I was proud of my own skin. I realized according to the teachings of the small and large medicine deer at the deer house that Valariana was just an opening sealing and many other ordinances and blessings would follow. Above all it was living the nation of place, maintaining the people through the plants.
Just before leaving deer house I was informed by one of the small tiny medicine deer that in a few weeks time there would be a weeklong herbal medicine conference along the milky river with big horn sheep and I should make myself available to attend. The last thing I heard from the deer at deer house was that I was to proceed to the milky river and wait the message from the osprey nesting in the ponderosa pine. So I did and what follows is a record and report of the endowment along milky river. I was blessed to travel milky rivers going free, as you will too.
I would like to thank the teachers especially Merril, the ram and patriarch and Emma, a perfect plural wife celestial, for the teaching done by the Rocky mountain bighorn sheep living along milky river. I was happy to arrive at the Upper Sheep house on Milky River. 
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| Garden of the Valerian Kiss |
I had many questions. I realized I needed a testimony. Much of what I learned was beyond explanation. I had left the narrative of guilt. I was proud of my own skin. I realized according to the teachings of the small and large medicine deer at the deer house that Valariana was just an opening sealing and many other ordinances and blessings would follow. Above all it was living the nation of place, maintaining the people through the plants.
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| Merrill Ram patriarch and prophet |
Just before leaving deer house I was informed by one of the small tiny medicine deer that in a few weeks time there would be a weeklong herbal medicine conference along the milky river with big horn sheep and I should make myself available to attend. The last thing I heard from the deer at deer house was that I was to proceed to the milky river and wait the message from the osprey nesting in the ponderosa pine. So I did and what follows is a record and report of the endowment along milky river. I was blessed to travel milky rivers going free, as you will too.
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| Osprey father bringing crayfish |
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| Milky River |
I was happy because arriving at sheep house indicates a good although often unexpected circumstance. This circumstance is called 'lifting up'. Lifting up refers to bending down and listening. Listening to the plants and animals directly without an interpreter. Hearing their own stories in their own voice.
Many ordinances, sealing and blessings were held regarding the plants growing along milky river and things difficult to explain. 'Lifting up' or 'bending down',is called 'an opening' and refers to a body of pre-existing knowledge that is understood related to the plant medicine road. It is heard like a small voice, like the sound of wind high above the clouds, above the sky. To cherish and be open to that still small voice is the journey, the destination and the process. It is leading in its own way through our mouth, our navel, our heart, whatever is there is there. We find it in its own way because we like them are wild and wanting.
I found myself arriving frequently at sheep house for teaching, so I was
sure that I had lifted under good circumstance. As I said, lifting is similar
to bending down, we put our ear to the ground and hear the sky, I was given an
obsidian stone to translate the teaching into words. Obsidian is usually black,
dark and cold. If held to the light this obsidian was translucent, it was
opaque yet fluid, open. If my words are murky and unclear regarding the
teachings of Merril the patriarch and Emma the celestial plural wife, regarding
plants it was not because their teachings were cloudy, but because I am a
poor tabernacle. I have come here by fits and starts, hesitant and
stumbling, yet proceeding on none the less.
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| Beautiful Emma Celestial Plural Wife |
Teaching is very much in line with the teaching of the tiny medicine at deer house. Yet it is slightly more precise. I would compare it to the song of the western robin in the spring sometimes heard at night during a waxing gibbous moon, near full. It is not quite the same as the robin's song heard bright and early morn. Yet it is there mixed with night and day in the between time. Neither day or night, neither true nor false, neither self or other, just so.
I found myself arriving frequently at sheep house for teaching....
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| Premortal world New Heaven and Earth Milky River |
The whole teaching of Merril and Emma can be stated as, in the premortal world Jesus Christ was chosen as the Savior. We were there with the Savior. We came to agreement. We were there not only as people, but the plants and animals too were there with us together in one accord. We came to this earth to obtain a body, to gain knowledge and overcome by faith. They too came to this earth, one among many, to obtain a body. We are together with them sometimes over coming, often overcome by faith. Not of course faith alone, but faith with works occurring at the same time.
The sheep residing at the sheep house on Milky River were holding special goings on regarding the spring planting of the Monarda,
Hops, Poleo, Clematis and many other plants along with other topics of importance to them. Now I call them sheep residing at sheep house, but you could call them to your liking and experience, singing frogs or dancing mountains. How they reside is as much rooted in how you reside. The truth is we must reside at milky river's edge.
The teaching of the rocky mountain bighorn sheep along milky river has both a practical work aspect, and a theoretical framework, all interlinked with fieldwork and experiential knowledge. Apart from a peculiar endowment with Emma, a big horn sheep ewe, all teaching was non verbal. Most involved scouring the canyons and watershed on hands and knee, often with a loupe. The only truth is serve your people. Do no harm. Believe an do. We can no longer inhabit their narrative. Our story involve all the saints celestial. Some days I would find myself watching the ponderosa pine nearly bend down to the ground in the wind, yet around me was windless calm and stillness. Only the sound of a spring western robin singing with Emma nearby planting monarda and chewing on grass. It reminded me of years gone by deep in the Laurentians with Anne Marie Lavoie, who spoke no english and I who spoke no French. I lived in a tent on the mountainside, watching seasons change. Yet we communicated in our own way with no conflict, knowing that just as we met suddenly, we would separate never to see each other ever again.
This seven day herbal conference is held annually in the spring after the first hatching of osprey eggs. There is a connection between the osprey, the sheep and the plants. There is a connection with everything. If you turn and out of the corner of your eye you see dappled sunlight, or hear wood peckers lightly tapping on the the ponderosa pine, this then becomes the teaching. If something else occurs then that is the teaching. The teaching is everything occurring in a place. We occur in places obedient to the time and season, not forcing occurrences but blending, lifting, bending. |
| Tiny just planted Monarda Milky River |
Hops, Poleo, Clematis and many other plants along with other topics of importance to them. Now I call them sheep residing at sheep house, but you could call them to your liking and experience, singing frogs or dancing mountains. How they reside is as much rooted in how you reside. The truth is we must reside at milky river's edge.
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| Humulus lupulus wild hops |
The teaching of the rocky mountain bighorn sheep along milky river has both a practical work aspect, and a theoretical framework, all interlinked with fieldwork and experiential knowledge. Apart from a peculiar endowment with Emma, a big horn sheep ewe, all teaching was non verbal. Most involved scouring the canyons and watershed on hands and knee, often with a loupe. The only truth is serve your people. Do no harm. Believe an do. We can no longer inhabit their narrative. Our story involve all the saints celestial. Some days I would find myself watching the ponderosa pine nearly bend down to the ground in the wind, yet around me was windless calm and stillness. Only the sound of a spring western robin singing with Emma nearby planting monarda and chewing on grass. It reminded me of years gone by deep in the Laurentians with Anne Marie Lavoie, who spoke no english and I who spoke no French. I lived in a tent on the mountainside, watching seasons change. Yet we communicated in our own way with no conflict, knowing that just as we met suddenly, we would separate never to see each other ever again.
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| Clematis ligusticifolia, White western Clematis |
The osprey return to their nests each year along the milky river, in early spring. Where they go during their time away from milky river I do not know. Their nests are used year after year and are located in the tops of Ponderosa Pines snags along the milky river. While you could ask, 'Where do osprey go when the snow falls?', it would be better to ask, 'Where does the snow go after melting?'. Osprey come and go according to their own laws and rules. Some say they return beyond the sky into another celestial sphere beyond our understanding. Like asking where does the lightning go, when it is not flashing? We see lightning flash, we hear snow melting, that is enough. It does no good to seek thunder or run away from sorrow.
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| Osprey of the celestial sphere |
The osprey or fish eagle eats a diet of fish. Based on their fish catching they can lay, no eggs, or two to four eggs. Abundance determines the narrative and scarcity tempers the condition. This year was a good one, of abundance and the female osprey decided on three eggs to lay and hatch. The male and female osprey can be seen perched on rocks, one on the rocks catching fish, One in the nest on the eggs. Osprey work together. One always waits in the nest with the newly hatched osprey baby and the two remaining unhatched eggs. They bring small trout, cray fish or frogs to the nest and the female feeds small pieces to the baby osprey chick. It's well known that the osprey baby chicks enjoy most of all the tender meat in the cray fish tail. You can see cray fish claws below the osprey nest.
Osprey mate with osprey. You will not see a deer in the nest. You will not see sheep climbing trees. You may see a black raven circling above the nest hoping for an opportunity to steal the eggs. Yet you will not see the osprey and raven together in the nest. Osprey respects their destiny of osprey-ness. They don't protest the comings and goings below the nest. They are nesting, making osprey babies. This defines their obligations and describes their action.
The osprey this spring, laid three, milky cream white eggs flecked and swirled with the color of red slick rock.
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| Eggs creamy white, color of slick rock |
The color of the eggs, reminds me of the copper bearing soil where yerba santa grows. When one thing occurs another follows. Their nest is a woven basket, a circle of sticks lined with moss and usnea. I was taken above their nest one night in a dream. Lifted high on a shooting star, I hung onto the moon perched above their nest. In the dream one egg has already hatched signaling the beginning of the conference at sheep house. The male and female Osprey mate for life and both of them sit on the remaining two eggs in the nest taking turns back and forth. The eggs don't all hatch at one once. The osprey eggs hatch one at a time. Each hatching of the Osprey egg is spread out over several weeks. This was the first hatching and the tiny Osprey baby will not be able to fly for several weeks. It is after the hatching of the first egg that the conference begins. Sheep and osprey work together to put together an educational conference. I was invited by the Osprey to the sheep's conference. Being invited to a conference is like walking across a meadow deep with snow then having the snow melt, walking again across the meadow. Is it the same meadow covered deep with snow and another meadow covered with yellow potentlla flowers? These kinds of questions divert from the fundamental point which is walking across a meadow. Meadows are neither different nor the same, whether covered in white snow or covered with yellow potentilla flowers. If you see yellow potentilla flowers walking, and water moving in streams to the clouds you will arrive shortly.
I do not know why I was invited to the sheep teaching conference. In some sense I was asked to go and in another sense I was told to go. I do not know which is more true, asking or being told? Yet I knew and was known by both deer and sheep, plants and sky as having to go. Knowing and being known are two aspects of the same thing, neither much different than the other. I have always wanted to be well known and respected, now rather than wanting to be known, I would rather know. To be recognized is pleasant yet it has its issues. Our concentration is limited, better to focus on knowing than to be diverted into being known.
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| Emma, "Let her enter" |
One day mid morning, around noon,I could see the osprey flying along the river, up the ridge circling past the meadow where a group of 21 big horn sheep noon up for water. They were waiting. Whether they were waiting for osprey or waiting for time to pass more slowly, I don't know. They knew the osprey had returned and were awaiting word of the first hatching. The male osprey spoke with the sheep and the conference was set to begin during the next day of waxing gibbous moon. The osprey continued to fly scouring along the milky river for places to place the Monarda, poleo, clematis, Alum root, Hypericum and other plants for which the sheep are responsible.
I awaited word from the osprey who returned to the nest after consulting with sheep in the meadow. The female sitting on the nest was happy to have her mate return. They flapped their wings together. It was good to see them, yet sad for I knew it was also time to go toward something for which I did not know. When I take off for something new and uncertain it is invigorating yet also disconcerting. It is one thing to be deep in the Laurentians at 18, and another to be bleached grey with the sun and traveling to an unknown place with an unknown destination. Yet we are drawn and pulled and move slower and more deliberate as time goes on. When we are young we have no doubt that our story can be told, later we live regardless of the telling. Telling the story becomes living the story.
So, I made my way to the meadow and for seven days. There we planted tiny Monarda, poleo, st john's wort, Lycopus, and skullcap along the river. Really, if some one asked I don't know if years, weeks or hours went by. Time was motionless, circular, an in between celestial time. The time of stars not the planets. We can tell the time of planets. This was a time of rocks and stones. Watching mountains walk, I'm not sure how far they have gone. I can't tell you if the mountains walked in small steps or leaped and jumped. Yet I can tell you mountains walk, and somehow this is a report of their walking.
Many of the teachings done by the medicine deer at the deer house are complementary to sheep house teachings. It is not that the deer teachings are different than the sheep and osprey teachings. Also it is not that their teachings are the same. The deer are small and move quickly. They can disappear and all you see are their lightning white rumps. You are not sure if you saw the flashing white deer rump or a small puddle of water glistening in the dappled sunlight through the alligator juniper trees. The sheep move differently. The sheep move slowly and remain together in groups. They move as a bunch. They are more leisurely and relaxed. The teaching of the rocky mountain bighorn sheep are more accessible and work more with the fundamentals of the plant medicine teaching. Sheep like Merril and Emma, have a more approachable teaching. Still fantastic and unbelievable yet more convincing. Although neither use words with frequency, the sheep teaching is more substantial. Both teachings help us to understand our relationship with plants and formulate a background to understand herbal medicine.
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| Prunus americana |
The large ram whose name was Merril did much of the teaching during the gathering. Merril was never angry or hurried. It was obvious that a big horn sheep ram teaching a man was a rare interaction for Merril. The basic teaching of Merril is that all beings were alive before they were born. After their physical body dies they continue to live after. Merril "spoke" through the use of stone which he gave me. It was black obsidian, yet when held up to the sun it was transparent The stone was activated by holding to the right breast, the left breast, the navel and the right knee. It was through the black obsidian stone, that I was able to understand. No words were spoken. At one point he said, "Any and all living things—men and women, animals, and plants—were spirits before any form of life existed upon the earth." First and foremost duty is to seek the plant until we open the path of communication from plants to our own soul. These were the only things I heard, everything else came through Emma in relation to the stone which I wore in a leather pouch around my neck.
Merril used the example of the osprey, who mate as a pair for life and himself, with many wives, as doing the same work. They both enter into a celestial marriage, that allows for a continuing revelation of the news. Merril also quoted from a type of "book". He was able to communicate using a transparent black obsidian stone. In that way I was able to understand:
- Moses 3:8-9 "8 And I, the Lord God, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there I put the man whom I had formed. 9 And out of the ground made I, the Lord God, to grow every tree, naturally, that is pleasant to the sight of man; and man could behold it. And it became also a living soul."
- Gen2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew:
All the sheep gathered in a circle around us. If some one looked from a distance they could not see us within the circle of sheep. Since we were kneeling it would appear the sheep were nooning up for water. Yet within the rocks they together performed a sealing between us. We washed first in the icy cold water of the milky river. After washing, I was given a whitish grey brown woolen garment made from Big Horn sheep coarse wool of one piece and a green bib made of Rocky mountain juniper(Juniperus scopularum), tied in the front with cord made from Prunus, wild cherry bark. Emma wore a fragrant veil that covered her entire body made from the flowers of Prunus americana, wild plum blossoms. The scent was sweet and strong enough to smell from a half mile away. So I couldn't see her face or expression. I could smell the smell of her body, warm and sour, red and warm blood mixed with wild plum blossoms. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter all the tastes were there. We were both given new names to accord with our new experience, which we could never share. I never knew Emma's name other than Emma. When conditions change names change.
— Paul 🌿Manski (@PaulManski) April 11, 2017
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| Emma's veil of plum |
Merril instructed me in a grip, to place my index finger down her front leg at her hoof, which was her forearm. We did many other things which I can't reveal. There were marks and tokens given on the left breast, the right breast, the navel and right knee. We through this would both receive health in our navel and marrow in our bones. We both knelt in the meadow and agreed if we spoke of any of this our throats would be slit, our heart torn out and our belly would be ripped open. Lastly I was told to say, "Let her enter.", and she entered and in that entering I was allowed to come inside. When we enter we are also entered, sealed to a new situation. Whether you have read a book or not the teaching holds the same. All the sheep then said something which sounded like PAY LAY ALE, said three times.
From then on through the rest of the conference I was near to Emma and communicated solely through her with the transparent obsidian stone.
Teachings of the Ewe Emma:
Plants can grouped and understood in many ways. Plants can be understood by their relationship in pre-existence composing botanical families. as an example she used Monarda pectinata or purple monarda, Poleo Mentha arvensis, selfheal Prunella vulgaris all growing nearby as being related- knowing plants together in this way is helpful. Often families have similar qualities. Mint family square stems, sweet hot flavored aromatics, warming stimulating qualities. Juicy wet leaves, favoring moist stream side riparian zones. Plants organize themselves in these categories, we are only recognizing their associations. You will see Lycopus growing near Mentha arvensis, We do not place them, they place themselves with their own kind. In this way herbal formulas are made by association in place. Laying on the wet moist creek bank they come together in this way, beyond description. The important thing Emma taught me was that, plants describe themselves. Plants are always describing themselves by their color, their scent, their taste- this is where they grow, this is what they do.
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| Emma laid in a bed of Poleo, Mentha arvensis |
She also pointed to various plants growing together closely sharing the same space. There was Valeriana acutiloba , white clematis Clematis ligusticifolia, Pink alum root Heuchera rubescent, Viola canadensis, white violet, Hops Humulus lupulus- Plants can be known for the niche where they grow, the place. It is not so much that the plants are growing together, it is that the together is growing according to its place. We are plants, persons, and places. They too are persons in a place.
In that way by knowing the place you know the plants. In that way by knowing yourself as a person, you are knowing the place. Knowing the person you know the place.
Just at that point i felt a headache coming on from the continuous drying, dusty wind, that had been blowing all day. I chewed on some clematis leaves climbing up the gamble oak, and placed dried leaves in my nose. The headache went away shortly. The leaves have a peppery sharp taste, slightly burning taste reminiscent of placing your tongue on dying nine volt battery. Not as sharp as pulsatilla, yet there. Taste is a way of understanding plants. Like many Ranunculacae, clematis have powerful acrid peppery-hot alkaloids. The plants of the buttercup, crow foot family have emerged from pre-existence already containing this medicine. We came together to this place for similar reasons, to engage with one another in a good way. Speaking together in a good way, expressing good news to one another: is our destiny. We knew one another previously. We are recollecting, remembering, renewing pastly made promises.
Plants growing nearby also group themselves by taste as in bitters: estafiate, horehound, hops- all bitter tasting herbs, stimulating gastric secretions, encouraging movement. All these plants growing adjacent to one another along the milky river. Plants organize and elaborate speaking to our condition by their vital inherent quality as taste. It's fundamental to visit the plant in their house and taste them by tongue, smell them by nose and look at them by eye. Something occurs when a fresh plant is tasted. If you take this step then you will be aware that it was where you needed to go. I asked Emma, 'Was it possible to find plants in books?' She said, 'Yes, plants may be found in books. Yet the plants found in books are flat attached to the pages. Plants in books are also dry. They are not moist when found in books.' When you find plants growing along a stream as opposed to finding plants in books you will encounter danger. Plants in books are not dangerous. Yet learning to mitigate and navigate danger is inherent to the teaching of sheep house. It can be called a dangerous teaching and it is dangerous in many ways.
Plants also group themselves according to their action in our bodies, by action in a body- astringents tighten tissue, geranium, alum root, potentilla- this is another way of understanding. Chewing on alum root will stop diarhhea and loose stools, tighten the gums holding the teeth, tighten the mucous membranes in a sore throat. This is the drawing tightening action of alum root in our body. The plant is performing an action, this another way of understanding plants. Plants for themselves, plants for other.
When we take a plant into our body there is an action. There is self and other. Within bodies there is self and other. Self knows self and self knows other. Self determines self and self determines other. Self is a bounded whole. Boundaries exist to create diversity.
When a plant is taken into the body there are actions and consequences. Yet at the same time it is important to recognize that plants like us are spirit beings with a life of their own. So whenever beings encounter one another there is an element of danger which could be described as unintended consequences. The unintended consequence could easily be called change. As beings we tend to avoid change, even by hanging onto states or conditions that could be called disease or illness.
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| First flower potentilla |
Emma and I then went through each plant one by one, nibbling on leaves. Listening to the taste of the plant. Hearing the sound of the taste. Looking at the plant where it grows for itself. Being with the plant in silence. Gathering the voice of the plant as bards of this nationalism of place. All the while concentrating on celestial work, planting young Monarda shoots in the sloughs of the river. Planting poleo and St John's wort and learning about how the plants can be used and understood. We use plants and plants are using us. We have purposes and plans, they have purposes and plans. There is mutual work being done. This is exactly how human tabernacles are filled. This is celestial marriage and the work of Gods. Before birth we are above the clouds seeking a place to be born. Seeking a body and circumstance for our journey. Plants likewise are hovering above seeking birth. Our celestial marriage is our blessed life. Blessed and blessing we go further.
She advised the law which admits a plurality of plants and the pre-existence of plants before they exist on earth in the celestial kingdom. The plants have existed before time, before they embraced their earth bound life. Emma taught me to embrace the doctrine of celestial plurality of plants and a celestial marriage arranged before time. The plants like our wives are bound and sealed to us before this earth was born. The plants and animals, all of creation is available to us ordained before time. Our way is joyful to be alive fully and totally committed to this plant medicine road. The road is simultaneously leading us and testing us. Every experience is a challenge and test. Our way with plants is courageous and confident. It is informed and informing us, which way to go and how to proceed. This is obtaining a body, gaining knowledge and over coming by faith.
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| First light of moon brings songs to western Robin |
Plants live move and breathe both body and spirit in the world before, the world now, and the world to come. She advised to avoid and consider carefully the belief that plants, begin to live about the time that the plant is born, peeks through the ground in the spring. When you see the plant in this world, as appearing visible whether by seed or root; know that then is not the beginning of their life. They as we, have existed in previous worlds.
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| Fragrant plum, the Veil of the Celestial White princess Emma |
Emma and the sheep and deer, believe and teach that plants are possessed of both body and spirit, by the union of which they become a living creature. In one of the few times she spoke Emma said, "We have ascertained that plants have had previous existence just as we ourselves and you too." Know that there are Gods, male and female. God is the Father of our spirits, likewise another female God is also the mother of our Spirits. God is the father of the plant and animal spirits. As important as the father is so is the mother. Without a father and mother nothing can come into being. All things you can see belong in some way with and to a family. They come through good and holy parentages, to fulfil certain things. Things that should come to pass, from before the foundations of this earth.
It has been chosen and determined that these spirits should come here male and female. We must respect and understand them as self and other. This is salvation. This becoming for self and others a good news. We encounter plants, places and persons to comfort and cure in a good way. These forms they take are tabernacles in which they are contained with leaves and stems. Tabernacles and forms of roots and branches. Know it is by a certain law, through a certain channel; and that law is the law of marriage. Just as you are married for a time here, the plants too are male and females. They marry in celestial marriage as with a valerian kiss shown at the deer house. They marry and give birth to flower and plant children. Although they come to fulfill the new revelation in healing and soothing, they are also here of their own accord. The Lord ordained marriage between male and female plants as a law through which spirits should come here and take tabernacles, and enter into the second state of existence.
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| Heuchera sanguinea, coral bells, alum root leaf |
We are told the object of it; it is clearly expressed; for, said Emma and Merril, unto the male and female, I command you to multiply and replenish the earth. I will tell you. I have already told you that the spirits of plants, all had a previous existence, thousands of years ago, in the heavens, in the presence of Gods.
This is the teaching that I heard and spoke itself to me by deer, osprey and sheep. Together and alone it is the bardic journey of nationalism. My nation is not a nation of lines on paper. It is story told by place, person and plants under a blue sky that penetrates everywhere and everything. Bardic Nationalists will continue until the cultural narrative is won and all those imprisoned for living celestial marriage be freed and join with patriarch Merril and Emma at their home along milky river.
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| Heuchera sanguinea, coral bells, underside leaf |
