Herbalism and meditation. Discovering balsamic time
At the end of July, when Milan begins to empty out and slowly all that is left are the deserted streets and the sound of the shutters dropping, even our Nicola felt invaded by the desire to leave the city. For this year he had in mind a particular destination in the central Apennines, there where an invisible line divides Marche and Umbria.
The program included four intense days to be spent at the Fonte Avellana Monastery on the slopes of Mt. Catria, where a workshop on herbalism and meditation would be held.
Class in a thousand-year-old monastery
Besides the curiosity to learn something new about the inexhaustible world of medicinal herbs, it was really impossible to say no to the opportunity to stay in one of the few monasteries still active in Italy today .
A hype that grew even more with the discovery that the hermitage of the Fonte Avellana monastery is mentioned by none other than Dante in his Divine Comedy, probably because he too was a guest there just 700 years ago.
Conducting the Experiential Herbalism and Meditation Course is Karin Mecozzi, a Merano-based herbalist with specializations in botany and anthroposophical naturopathy with a Goethean and Steinerian approach.
A rather complex introduction that we like to simplify like this: to follow the idea that human beings and the world around them are not separate entities, but one and the same cosmic becoming, where human beings and their thoughts are but a part of nature in perpetual change.
A new awareness
During the days great space was reserved for walks in the shade of the forests on the trail of the hermits who lived in these places. Together we learned to read the landscape around us, to know and recognize the plant species that make up the flora and to read the developmental stage of a plant by observing its leaf shape, architecture, color, texture to the touch and scents.
Every step, every glance, every word has been part of a path to a deeper realization: human beings are nature.
We ourselves are landscape and can relearn to recognize ourselves as nature. A concept all to be recovered where, without being afraid of our vulnerability, we can return to feeling nature and experiencing the wild.
What balsamic weather means
Every plant has a moment when its properties, its essential oils, its beneficial power reaches its peak. Observing the vegetation at different latitudes, as the seasons pass, allows us to slowly develop a dialogue with the plants, that is, to enter a state of empathy at the culmination of which it is the plant itself that suggests being harvested. This is a moment of pure magic that herbalists call balsamic time. A golden moment in which we can feel even stronger our connection with the ancient peasant knowledge that has passed it on to us.
Experiencing the wilderness within us
This experience made us remember why Wilden.herbals was born and what spirit we want to convey. It is important to be able to carve out and live time to dedicate to study, to observe, to search for the wild in each of us.
Only in this way can we share our healthy and sincere imagery of knowledge and tastes with everyone.