A sample of what goes into my #patreonrewards medicine boxes every solstice + equinox for patrons who pledge at the Holon + Holobiont levels: hops wreaths with local plants, silk, + fiber from @waverlyknots • dried local morels • bath + ritual late summer salt blend with citrus, cedar, clove, rose + herbs • desert incense and tonics from @marybethbonfiglio • local soap samples . . A #holon is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. It is evolving, self-organizing, relational, and open-ended. Holon-level contributors are invested in cultivating the conditions for an artist to fully realize and live into her medicine, which includes the creation of a book on #MagicalRadical living in a dying culture on a damaged planet. . #Holobionts are assemblages of different species that form ecological units. Holobionts are technically defined as the host plus of all its microbial symbionts, including transient and stable members.  All plants and animals can be understood as holobionts, and this in turn can help us re[member] ourselves as less of a separate atomized entity and more as a place. This idea contextualizes us within a framework of intra-active communities. Holobiont-level contributors are invested in an artist's work as an intimate energy exchange with the goal of learning together. . Patreon.com/rachaelrice https://www.instagram.com/p/Boh2OAZHQui/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1nanh91gbkw05

It’s been a wild summer of huge changes, big moves, deep grief, real pleasure and recalibrations. My tiny backyard studio is finally set up and lots of new pieces are in the works along with new writing and and slow but steady progress on a #magicalradical oracle deck. Later today I’m going to deactivate FB again and delete the Instagram app off my phone to press pause on my social media addiction and refocus on my #deathdoula services, and on creating new work that attempts to reflect the times in which we find ourselves, not just decorating the slaughterhouse. There’s a kind of “stories” feature on the @Patreon app called “Lens” that I’ll be using on this hiatus, and it’s public if you want to check it out at Patreon.com/rachaelrice. . Thank you to everyone here who has gone down this strange rabbit hole of WTF with me these last several months, I see you grappling and trying and failing beautifully which is what learning actually means. . Lots of grief critters, cry eyes and more coming soon — it’s not too late to get a pile of handmade visual medicine from me for #fallequinox at the #holon + #holobiont pledge levels on #patreon. All new work will be posted there first. . If you need to get in touch, please email [email protected]. 🖤🦋 https://www.instagram.com/p/BnjaPwrnIKx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=12kjgas1tek64

On this full moon I offer a new #magicalradical interview on human culture and Elderhood. Earlier in 2018 I talked with culture activist, teacher and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson about the role of an artist in our times. Stephen is the author of Die Wise and most recently, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. From Come of Age: "The day will surely dawn when young people will come to you – as they have begun to come to me – and ask what you did about the troubles, and whether you knew how bad it was, or whether you handed over to them a diminished world with a shrug of compassion fatigue and a vacant wish of good luck, or whether you stood up for them. Until that day, you and I are - we must be - elders in training." We begin with: Do humans make culture, or does culture make humans? The conversation fans out from there: • How we don't inherit wisdom but we do inherit prejudice, and how it takes a surprisingly and heartbreakingly short period of time to undo culture: two generations. • How spirit work shows up in each generation, and what happens when it's not undertaken. • Why we might not recognize Elderhood when and if it actually occurs. • The dangers of discrediting age and tradition. • How the capacity for ambivalence and diminishment are signatures of Elderhood. • Why we should be worried about the idea of growth in general and personal growth in particular: "There's something about personal growth that's contrary to learning. "To what extent do you think it benefits or beautifies the world for you to continue to self improve? How are we ever to rely upon you to undertake the extraordinarily hard work of of caring for a very troubled world in a very dangerous time when you are continually working on yourself? "And meanwhile, what happens to the world? "What self improvement is in a troubled time is a kind of dereliction of duty. In that way Elders have no interest in self improvement, as they have no interest in the self. "Because the self is an identity, and Elderhood is about function." Hear the interview at Patreon.com/rachaelrice

Recently someone asked me about animism, and I was also wanting to try to explain it to my littlest, in the #magicalradical manual I’m writing for her (and for all of us, really) . An excerpt here from On Ancestors and Animism: . So what you are called to do, I think, is to find ways of being in deeper relationship with the world. To understand that things aren’t always for you; they happen to be with you, and that is something to notice and honor. It takes a lot of labor, actually, to be with the world in this way. It takes a lot of discernment, even “judgement,” to know not just what you need from the world, but what the world needs from you. This kind of knowing can also be called your medicine. . Your medicine is what you were born to do. Some have described this as “acorn theory.” The acorn has the essence of an oak tree inside it: that is its destiny. It cannot be a silver maple or a sequoia. Humans are more complicated than acorns, but it’s a useful idea. It can help us situate ourselves as part of a lineage of beings that gave rise to us, which we can call our Ancestors -- a word that literally means “go before.” Sometimes, like Dr. Estes says, we call them our “wayback people.” The conditions for you discovering your medicine were passed down to you the way oak trees make acorns which make oak trees. The conditions that breathed your Ancestors into being can also be known as Ancestors, as they were the ones that also “went before” you. . In this way, the land itself and ancient living groups of organisms such as fungi and microbes are also your ancestors, as well as organic and inorganic compounds like rocks, minerals, gases and such. . I’m not sure if this means an 18th century chaise is your ancestor. . I think it means that the relational conditions that existed prior to your arrival aggregate into agential forces that bring forth things like chaises and children. . Read the full post at Patreon.com/rachaelrice or click the #linkinbio . . . Photo by #NikoPekonen

My partner @tkdave is selling the house we live and work in, where so many workshops and songs and readings and other arts have been made. I have a lot of feelings about white people owning and selling property; we aim to do this in a way that betrays conventional home buying processes. But check it out::: the staging folks used some of my paintings, which is a real hoot. I trust our next home will have workshop and retreat space for more #magicalradical togetherness. . This mid-century Portland home is 2 br/1 bath with amazing finished basement and outdoor patio space. RLNS number = 18484842 • bit.ly/pdxmidcenturyhome • link in profile! (at Southeast Portland, Portland)

featured on @saperlipopettemagazine w @uv_bee @livihoran & @ag1ordano view full story at saperlipopette-magazine.com/ #35mm #magicalradical #streetsofphiladelphia

Some scenes from #MagicalRadical

Some scenes from #MagicalRadical