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07/03/2025  A ‘Sermon of Solidarity’ for our Snake Year Summer: 
First off though, before sharing my offerings, I want to pause and acknowledge the relentless political chaos unfolding around the world. I cannot ignore the escalating harm and intensifying fascism of the Trump administration and the global far-right. We know that even with all the plant remedies in the world, true personal and collective healing cannot be attained without transforming our society from one of harm and exploitation to one of compassion and liberation.   

If you’re struggling—feeling overwhelmed, moving through intense emotions, or reaching your emotional limits—please know this: you are not alone. I don’t believe we were ever meant to bear or process this much harm and information, delivered at such a rapid pace.

I also want to recognize that people across the globe care about your liberation. They are invested in our collective well-being. Resistance is alive—and always has been. It’s vital that we remind each other of this truth, not only through words, but through meaningful action. Let us take time each day to express that we each have a stake in one another’s future and healing. This is especially true for our beloved trans family, our Black and Brown immigrant communities, and for everyone facing heightened fascist violence. To you, I say: I have a stake in your well-being. I have a stake in your future.

After the election in November, I spent time sitting with the fear and anxiety—both my own and that of my chosen family and broader community. I reflected on how fear is such an effective weapon of hate. It plants the seeds of disconnection and separation long before those ruptures actually arrive. But I reminded myself: connection is something I have agency over. I can choose it. I can grow it. It cannot be taken from me. I’ve come to believe that cultivating connection is one of our most powerful ways to resist hate and domination. It’s a medicine—potent and necessary—for this moment.

Throughout a lifetime devoted to activism and liberation, I’ve seen again and again how connection bridges separation. It reaches across borders. Through prison walls. It sends solidarity into occupied lands and across systems of oppression. Connection works like prayer across faiths, like pen-pals linking the incarcerated with the outside world, like protest weaving together struggles, like traditional medicine practices preserving ancestral knowledge and uniting kindred spirits.

As the far-right deploys every tool it can to divide us—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually—I invite you to seek connection in any way you can. Use the bold, outward energy of summer yang to your advantage. Host or attend a chosen family gathering. Carpool to a protest or vigil. Sit quietly with plants and let them hold your heart. Reach out to spiritual community. Share food and water. Start where you are. Start small, or go big. Honor your capacity.

Through connection, we can grieve together, fall apart together, build-up and nourish each other. Post a message of care on social media. Ask for help. Offer it. Even one person contains multitudes. Every plant moves with the wisdom passed down through thousands of years of relationships and ecologies, and we are no different. If it all feels like too much and you don’t know where to begin—begin with connection. Connection and possibility grow like companion plants, their roots intertwined, reaching deep. Historically, when no one else has ‘got me’, it’s often the plants that still ‘got me’, and are a good place to start. 

And so, before more ‘advertising’ I leave you with this metta:

May you be watered by deep wells of connection and kinship.
May you feel the vast ocean of solidarity and the indomitable human spirit.
May peace find you in the midst of chaos.
May you, your kin, and your concentric circles of community be safe, protected, and free from harm.
———

Stay tuned for more herbal announcements and ways to deepen your herbal practice with me (and Madalyn Berg) coming next week via newsletter. 

Sincerely, 
Violet Moon