I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Berenice Dimas, a reiki practitioner, full-spectrum doula, medicine maker, body worker, workshop facilitator, and owner of Cantos De La Tierra.
She is based in Bay-Area and Los Angeles and has worked extensively to provide healing justice to communities of color. We had a beautiful conversation about the role that healing arts plays in social justice movements and community care.
Check out part two of our interview!
She is based in Bay-Area and Los Angeles and has worked extensively to provide healing justice to communities of color. We had a beautiful conversation about the role that healing arts plays in social justice movements and community care.
Check out part two of our interview!
What are some herbs you turn to for grounding and protection? When you are doing a lot of energy work, there is always this need to give yourself the care that you need to avoid burnout.
Another thing that I do is that I go to a tree trunk and put my forehead to the tree. I always like to be around earth and put my hands in the earth and do grounding exercises. Recently, I have been exploring more with burdock. Burdock has a really bitter taste so you have to use just a little bit of it. I actually made a bark tea with cinnamon, burdock, astragulus, and reishi. When I do energy work with folks, people often get a little spacy after the session so I make either a calming tea or some kind of bark/root tea to help them ground. I also use dandelion root and yellow dock and add more cinnamon and reishi too it since I like the taste better!
For grounding, I also think about lemon balm. I love lemon balm! It is the one herb I like to use as a introductory herb in community workshops. I really love how it makes me feel and how it takes care of other people. I use it mostly for people who are not really listening to their body so I always like to use lemon balm for spiritual grounding.
For protection, I use palo santo for smudging. I bought an essence of it and I am going to use a spray. I also like cedar for protection. Whenever I am doing healing work and I am setting up the altar, if I feel I need extra protection I bring cedar. Then, of course, copal and sage.. they have to be on the list! Yarrow is another one that I have been exploring a lot with. Yarrow is good for helping us set healthy boundaries with ourselves and with others. If I find it fresh, I pick it and let it dry and put it on my altars.
How does self-care manifest itself in your life. Any spells, remedies, elixirs or potions you would like to share?
Yes! One of the last classes of I have had with Atava who mentioned that the flu virus keeps evolving. The flu shot is not working and people are still getting sick. She told us to use different medicines and explore instead of taking the same medicine over and over again. The virus is really smart! It’s a virus, it has been around longer than we have!
This time around, I’ve been using more roots and barks. I was really drawn to go back to oregano. For coughs or any funkiness in your throat, I started making a strong cinnamon tea and then add a handful of oregano and let it boil 5 minutes longer. Then, I squeeze half of a line into a cup, three tablespoons of honey, and then add the cinnamon-oregano tea.
I recently made an elixir. I crushed pomegranate seeds for the juice, cut some red apple, hibiscus flower and cinnamon and let it boil. Then I added honey and goji berries. You can also add rum or brandy if you want to make a holiday drink! I’ve actually been thinking about starting an herbal elixir bar!
Any updates, upcoming projects or premonitions you would like to mention?
Definitely the herbal elixir bar, maybe we can do something together! I’m down!
I will be co-teachign a class with Atava starting March through the Ancestral Apothercay school that she has started. I also want to travel more with my workshops outside of California. I have been going up and down LA and the Bay. I want to go to the East coast. Im already booked to be in Washington, Missouri, and Texas this Spring. I really want to take this type of knowledge and create a curriculum on herbal support for folks. I also want to support students more because I know how difficult it was for me to learn how to take care of myself with the demands of academic work. I’ve been there so I hope to be a resource to people and share how herbs can help them get through all that we experience in the academy. I was asked to do a workshop for pre-teens in Oakland Early february so I'm excited about it.
As more of a long term yearly goal, I am in the process of writing a children’s book and a book about some of my journeys surrounding healing work.
This year, I specifically want to support people of color and share with people of color. The other dynamic is that I do not want to feel like the subject of someone’s study. So when I received your invitation I was like, "oh the Universe heard me! This is exactly the kind of way that I would like to share with folks the work that I am doing.
Be sure to follow Berenice:
IG : @cantosdelatierra
Twitter:@ _LaBere
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