I walk through the woods searching for a good place to harvest Devil’s Club, Oplopanax horridum. I investigate the root connections looking for a spot where the stems have grown tall and fallen over making new root junctions. If you can find a mature root in between two well-rooted nodes, you can take the central piece while doing minimal harm to the above-ground portions of the plant.

I make prayers and offerings and ask for permission to harvest. As I am cleaning and clipping the roots I’ve removed from the stand, I have a sense that something is not right. I know that something is going to happen. All of my senses activate. I move into a state of complete alertness. Devil’s Club has been teaching me many things about protecting my boundaries and about having a keen awareness of my surroundings. When I am with him I am able to work with a 360 degree view sonically, energetically, and visually, and though I feel strongly that something or someone is near, I am not able to hone in on just what it is that is attracting my attention. I just know that something is up. (more…)