INGATHERING - RHYTHM & RITUAL FALL 2021
- Jennifer Jewell
- Oct 6, 2021
- 5 min read
Native evening primrose greeting the Autumnal Equinox sunrise, somewhere near Cathedral Valley, UT
Ingathering – I like this word – its connotations of both harvest and pulling ourselves together - inward and yet still communal. Reflective and contemplative, but still gathering together. It's a word that was shared in the two episodes of CP recently exploring the role of religion and spirituality in our garden lives - the first with photographer and artist Kristin Perers in the UK and the second with Rabbi Arthur Waskow around the significance and rituals pertaining to the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, celebrated in fall.
All of this brings me to a story from my summer travels – to Southern California recently for a lovely day of history and garden conversation at the Chumash Indian Museum with photographer Caitlin Atkinson (co-creator with me of Under Western Skies), with the museum folk including Garden Coordinator Brianna Rotella, Director Barbara Tejada, Visitor Services Coordinator Dayle Bingham, and finally with Hupa Elder and plantswoman Kat High. Kat’s home garden and plant work along with the ethnobotanical garden at the Chumash Indian Museum are featured as visionary gardens in UnderWestern Skies.
Kat refers to her garden as a "gathering garden".
Full moon setting before the Autumnal Equinox; September 2021, photo by John Whittlesey
To get to the event, John and I drove the 7 hours down the I-5 corridor, a long straight and often flat drive on this stretch through the central valley of California, essentially bisecting California from North to South .
What was once a vast expanse of native valley plain and grassland – dry in summer as now and damp in winter, is now a landscape layered (littered) with the history of settler mentality, overlaid with years of booming big agriculture, overlaid with water reality both past and present, and seasonal, as well as the consequences of the longer term drought we are in. All told, the result is miles and miles of abandoned orchards - rows and rows of standing dead trees, and this interspersed by a now industrial transport mindset resulting in outposts of large distribution centers for Fed Ex and UPS and Amazon - behemoth lifeless concrete things.
While the contours of the land is still visible – rolling golden hills to the west as you drive south and the craggier silhouette of the Sierra across the great valley to the east, the details tell a tragic tale to my eyes.
As we drove we noticed that the roadsides and fields of disturbed soil were often covered with Sacred datura (Datura wrightii) mounds of deep bluish-green foliage spiked with their blooms. The white trumpets making their presence known even from a distance and no doubt filling the air with fragrance each evening and then folding back into themselves by mid morning. A buzz with bees and hummingbirds and pollinating moths come nightfall when they are open in full.
I mentioned the abundance of these white flowers – datura well known as being poisonous but also a longstanding powerful medicinal and culturally significant plant for Indigenous peoples of the American west, including the Chumash and Kat’s own people, the Hupa.
Kat turned to me and asked: "you know why there are so many right now don’t you?"
Seasonal sun reflected on the Pacific, Tacoma, WA October 2021
I thought for a moment, and guessed “because they like disturbed land and the land is so very disturbed right now?"
And she shook her head, "Because the world needs more ceremony - they are trying to tell us that we need more ceremony."
"More meaning making Through rituals and offerings and praise songs and gratitude. The kind of ceremony that is the source and foundation of our religious and seasonal rituals in sync with the natural world all around us. We need more ceremony."
What does that mean to me - or you? Specifically what does that mean to people like me who have long been outside of a traditional cultural context, long outside of their own ancestors' traditional cultural ways, rhythms, rituals?
I am not sure. I know we we will all/should all have our own answers.
I also know that our gardens and plant companions - wild and cultivated - offer us the structure for incorporating the idea of ceremony and these sacred cycles into our every day turning to night, into our every cycle of the moon across the month, every cycle of the sun around the year across the seasons of our entire lives. Every seed planted, pot watered, flower plucked, vegetable or fruit savored, every seed saved, every weed weeded, every tree appreciated, every tree planted or pruned with the loving care and eyes of a gardener are ceremony and ritual worth taking time for, worth being thankful for, and worth sharing forward one way or another.
Our gardens, our houseplants, our neighborhood trees and shrubs and parks and trails are sites of sacred exchange. How lucky are we?
Jennifer & The Cultivating Place Team
LINKS to August & September 2021 CULTIVATING PLACE PROGRAMS
(just click the live link that is the green title of each program to get to the audio file and listen in....)
Fall bloom and fall compost - in the form of seed laden bear scat. October 2021
Cultivating Place is made possible in part by listeners like you and by generous support from the American Horticultural Society. Soon to Celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, AHS has been a trusted source of high quality gardening and horticultural information since 1922.
Today, AHS’s mission blends education, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship with the art and practice of horticulture. Members of AHS receive the award-winning flagship magazine, The American Gardener, free admission and other discounts to more than 345 public gardens with the Reciprocal Admissions Program, plus discounts on books, seeds, programs and more!
Listeners of Cultivating Place can receive a $10 discount on the annual individual membership of $35, by visiting www.ahsgardening.org/CP For your annual Membership to the American Horticultural Society for the special Cultivating Place rate of just $25 a year, head over to www.ahsgardening.org/CP.
WAYS TO SUPPORT CULTIVATING PLACE
SHARE the podcast with friends: If you enjoy these conversations about these things we love and which connect us, please share them forward with others. Thank you in advance!
RATE the podcast on ITunes or wherever you get your podcast feed: Please submit a ranking and a review of the program on Itunes! To do so follow this link: iTunes Review and Rate(once there, click View In Itunes and go to Ratings and Reviews)
Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio.
To make your listener contribution – please click the button below.
Thank you in advance for your help making these valuable conversations grow.
Or, make checks payable to: JewellGarden
with Cultivating Place in the memo line
and mail to: Jennifer Jewell, Cultivating Place
PO BX 37
Durham, CA 95938
All contributions go to the production of Cultivating Place and its educational outreach efforts and endeavors. Thank you for the value you find here and your support of it!
INGATHERING - RHYTHM & RITUAL FALL 2021 beautifully captured the essence of seasonal transition through movement, music, and community. The blend of tradition and creativity made it a truly immersive experience. Events like these remind us to stay present and connected—and having a fully functioning device helps capture those moments. If your phone’s screen is cracked or unresponsive, a Google Pixel 9 Pro screen replacement can make all the difference. Don’t let a broken screen stop you from documenting life’s most meaningful experiences.
"INGATHERING – RHYTHM & RITUAL FALL 2021" beautifully captures the essence of reflection, connection, and seasonal renewal. Just as rituals bring structure and meaning, navigating regulatory challenges requires a thoughtful, strategic approach. At [Company Name], a trusted regulatory consulting company, we provide expert guidance to help businesses stay compliant and focused. Our team supports you through every phase of the regulatory process with clarity and care. Embrace structure in both life and business. Choose dependable regulatory consulting services that align with your goals.
Absolutely love the theme of rhythm, ritual, and gathering—it’s so powerful how intentional practices can ground us and create meaningful connections, especially as seasons change. These concepts of structure and harmony resonate beyond personal rituals too. For instance, in a fast-paced real estate market like Dubai, maintaining legal and financial harmony often requires expert support. When disputes or regulatory challenges disrupt your investment rhythm, relying on Real Estate Litigation Services in Dubai can help restore order, protect your assets, and keep your financial future in tune. Here’s to building rhythms that nurture both personal and professional well-being!
INGATHERING – RHYTHM & RITUAL FALL 2021 beautifully captures the essence of seasonal transitions through art, community, and intention. The theme encourages grounding ourselves in meaningful rituals and shared experiences, bringing warmth and connection to autumn. It’s a reminder that energy flows not just through wires, but through people and purpose. Much like Integral Energy, which powers homes and lives with consistency, these gatherings recharge our inner worlds. A truly inspiring seasonal reflection.
For businesses with multiple locations or branches, QuickBooks Desktop allows for location-based tracking. Users can https://paygration.com/ assign transactions to specific locations, making it easier to monitor financial performance across different parts of the business and generate location-specific reports.