Bardic Radio/Summer Solstice Sap Rising
Caroline welcomes Seán Pádraig O’Donoghue
Poet — Herbalist, author of “The Forest Reminds Us Who We Are (July 6, 2021) “speaks to the hunger people feel for connection with the natural world, and offers a new way to connect with nature wherever they live.”
“Seán Pádraig O’Donoghue is an herbalist, writer, living in the mountains of western Maine. Prior to becoming an herbalist, Seán was a political organizer in movements for peace, human rights, and global economic justice, and a freelance journalist documenting the human and ecological impacts of U.S. policies in Latin America. He grew up near Boston, a short distance from where his great-grandparents first landed when they arrived from Ireland. Since childhood, he has been an avid student of Irish history and folklore. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1996 with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
Seán is an exemplar of a modern successor to the Draoi of pre-Christian Ireland, weaving magick and science, poetry and physiology with plants and charms, thus creating radical possibilities. As Carl Jung exhorts, learning the traditions of other cultures can enrich us, but we gain power and insight from aligning with the deep roots of our own heritages, particularly, in this case, the folk traditions of Europe. Known by specific indigenous names in each culture, they are distinguished by initiated lineages, offer a panoply of medicine and magick, and are the ones who provided medical care for most folks throughout history. Looking back, it becomes all too evident that there is a big hole in our medical history. If classical physicians of the past were treating only the elites, who was providing medical care for most of the population, especially in the rural areas, hamlets, and small towns where most people lived? Hidden between the “educated” physicians and the unnamed of family self-care, they would gather and prescribe herbs, use enchanted psalms, counsel with astrology and divination, clear curses, invoke mates, and help with a variety of problems of family, home, and farm.”
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