Fruits of the Land

I’ve been working on an interesting multi-year “Aspirant Program” with Page Bryant that was custom designed to help me fill-in missing pieces in my spiritual education. (Page offers such programs to interested persons for a modest fee.  To learn more, see her website at www.pagebryant.com.)  As part of this teaching, I’ve been working through a series of “modules” where I’ve been journeying to learn from particular goddess archetypes, totem animals, and star spirits.

My current lesson involves work with the Hawaiian Goddess of Fire and Volcanoes, Pele, and I’ve learned and done some fascinating things as her student.  One of the most interesting is a “lesson” she gave me a few weeks ago.  Pele explained that every land has a sacred fruit or berry that grows on it.  This fruit  is literally imbued with the strength, character, and healing energies of the spirit of that land and, much like a patron saint, you can call upon it to imbue you with these energies.  It was such a surprising and beautiful lesson that I thought I would share it with you today.  In her own words, this is what Pele told me:  

“In every land, there is a sacred fruit or berry, and maybe also a nut or flower.  Learn what that is for the land where you live, for there is great power to behad,and a powerful way to tune into the energy of a land by eating (after blessing) the sacred fruit.  It represents the blessings of that land, and contains the goodness of the land and its spirit protection…not just the energy of the diva of that plant.  Ask the land itself, and if you are sincere and you listen quietly, the land and its spirit will show you and tell you where to find it.  It may be a plant in cultivation or a small plant in the woods, but it will always carry the beauty, and sweetness, and bee blessings of that land.  And it may be different not so far away.”

Yes, she did say “bee blessings,” so apparently not only do you benefit from the energies of the plant and the land on which it grew, but gain additional blessings  from the pollinator insects, which spread pollen while drinking nectar from the blossoms, thereby fertilizing the plant and ensuring genetic diversity is preserved.  Learning that gave me pause to think of how “bee blessings” likely impact flower essences, herbal remedies, and the plants we eat directly.  And that, in turn, made me wonder about the even broader consequences of colony collapse syndrome on our world.

I was intrigued to learn that this sacred fruit differs from one location to another, and that land not much distant may have an entirely different species as the receptacle of its blessings.  When I asked how to approach the plant once you know which species it is, Pele had this to say:

“It is appropriate to approach with great respect and honor the plant for what it really is, and ask it if it will bundle the blessings of the land into one piece of fruit that you might be allowed to pick and eat.   Once you get a yes, make an offering.  It is most appropriate to give of your own body.  And then savor the energy (of the fruit) and ask that it fill your body, mind, heart, spirit with the blessings of the land.”

The offering (a giveaway in indigenous traditions) is a way of giving thanks for the gift of the blessed fruit and represents an attempt at an energy exchange between humans and the other energies involved.  The easiest gift is some saliva (given respectfully as the water of life from your own body), but a strand or two of hair, a drop of blood, or even some urine (which can be nourishing to the plant) will do.  In some traditions, a pinch of tobacco or cornmeal or even a small crystal you have been carrying on yourself is also deemed an appropriate gift of thanks.

When I journeyed to the spirit of the land on which I live, I was told that the area’s sacred fruit was the sour cherry (Prunus cerasus). I suppose this should not have surprised me, as I live on a remnant of an old fruit farm, and indeed I have many cherry (as well as apple, pear, and peach) trees growing there.

By the time I learned about each land’s sacred fruit, my cherries had stopped bearing.  However, next June I will do my best to approach them respectfully.  I look forward to enjoying the taste of that one very-special and blessed cherry.

(C) 2010  Copyright PeggyMalnati   All Rights Reserved.

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