The Singing of The Nightshades
Mandragora Mother by Nadia Turner
About a week ago I had something I wanted to share and I wrote myself a note to help me remember. I wrote ‘The First Hour’ as a prompt to later remind me. Yesterday when I sat down to write I could no longer remember the flow so I just started typing and wrote what came to me but I was fairly certain that it was not the subject I initially was trying to remind myself of. Today I woke up at 4:30 am clearly remembering what ‘The First Hour’ was actually supposed to be my prompt for because life and even working with these plants can be funny like that
I often mention the importance of trying to quiet our minds as much as possible during that first hour and how if we dont give that quiet space to the truffle and are busy focusing on other things we can miss much if not all of the experience because we are so distracted. Given the nature of my running Emporium Black I end up consuming truffles pretty much daily as I have to constantly taste them with every new batch I make. I also sample half truffles daily after they are dipped to monitor how they feel on different days and that the overall experience, flavors, and freshness of each one is still of a consistent level with the other varieties. This said, I can eat a lot of truffles where this is my main intent because I do not have time to then sit down and just quietly be for the next hour with the experiences. Sometimes after I do some of this quality control and jump into a task that requires quite a bit of my focus I notice I get a slight headache. I’d wonder if something was wrong with the sample at first but I quickly realized that it was just the plants trying to get my attention. When I get that headache, I now stop what I’m doing, I stop concentrating on what I’m working on and have the awareness that the plant medicine has something to tell me and as soon as I do this the headache is gone and I feel serene and relaxed. Every time.
I’ve come to realize that the headache happens when I try to control the experience by working instead and refusing to sit and listen. It amazes me that the truths of how these plants work with us really are truths. The more time I spend with them and share them the more those same truths keep rippling back with the same calmness, clarity, and tranquility. Their beauty is sublime and their teachings are like the clearest crystal, like the purest water…Illumination that nourishes the soul.
