California Poppy is a Rebel

Today I wanna shoutout one of my greatest friends and collaborators, Eschscholzia Californica.

Okay, I know you probably wanna bless me because it sounded like I just sneezed but that’s actually just the latin name for a very familiar and friendly plant known as California Poppy! It also goes by ‘Sun Cup’, which I think is ultra cute.  

California Poppy has been a HUGE plant ally and helper for me during this most recent eclipse cycle’s fuckery. Most people think that it has opiate qualities like other poppies, but alas it does not. That’s the red poppies. These are the orange ones.

E. Californica root  is a nervine, and helps to calm nerves and soothe stress. It’s also awesome for sleep and also for pain. It stimulates our GABA receptors, which can inhibit a sympathetic nerve response.

Anyways, I grew up with poppies growing all over the grassy hills of the SF Bay Area. We were never allowed to pick it them, though, because they belonged to ‘the state’.

This made the plant even more intriguing to my little rebel heart, and I often get a little thrill when harvesting it’s roots, even on private property. 

California Poppy brings out my peaceful rebel.

In fact during my time working with Amazon Watch on the ‘Clean Up Pay Up’ campaign against Chevron Texaco and their nasty cancer causing oil spilling reptilian ways, I had the honor to walk through my home forest in California with Ecuadorian tribal leaders to show them the plants and trees that I grew up with.

It was so cool to see the way they immediately recognized Artemisia for it’s ability to soothe bronchitis without ever seeing it before. It was incredible to watch them recognize the magick of mugwort flowering by the stream inherently. 

I remember this Kichwa man pulling me aside and pointing to the mugwort like WHOOAAAA.

And I’m like, yeaaaaah. ‘Para los sueños’.’ ‘wink wink’

Little did I know then that this forest walk would forever alter the way I work with plant medicine. 

These are people who can speak directly with plants. The humans we walked with that day still remember how to listen and speak with plants directly. I learned so much simply through their modeling of relationship with nature.

And I’ll always remember the Sapara Nation Grandma’s excitement for seeing the California Poppies for the first time at my most favorite place in all the forest, and then how all the women gathered around these flowers in joy.

 They began picking the bright colored poppies and placing the stems through the holes pierced in their septums. 

Our translator remarked, ‘Oh, you can’t pick those! They belong to the park’

‘The park?’ the Elders replied. ‘This is a forest. Not a park.’ 

Good point. Haha. 

But I suppose  that’s why these indigenous elders were in my home forest in the first place. Chevron mistook their home jungle as a ‘park’ and started polluting it without consent. 

In fact why don’t we call these Sun Cups ‘Ohlone’ Poppy instead, since California is just a name for occupied indigenous territory?! 

Is this even my home forest, when my ancestors walked in woods and along streams now oceans away?

Anyways, no one stopped the Grandmas from donning those bright orange flowers from their noses that day, and this memory has become a big part of my relationship with Poppy. 

Poppy is wild. People think they ‘own’ poppy. But they don’t.

Cuz in truth, there’s no such thing as ‘private property’. 

That said, let’s not pick flowers just because. 

Let’s not harvest herbs unless we need them.

Let’s not take without consent. 

Let’s stop acting so entitled.

Like we white people know its all.

Let’s remember how to listen to the Earth like the Ecuadorian Grandmas do.

And when we do listen, sometimes, Ohlone Sun Cup will call us to her roots. 

And that’s okay, because her seeds are many. 

And when we listen, when we ask, it’s amazing the peace nature so generously offers.

Ohlone Poppy helps me right now because it’s hard to reconcile with the World that’s built on top of Earth. 

It’s so hard to feel peace when there’s this much war.

And that’s why I find it essential to work with poppy. 

So i can carry that bright flower in the nose of my heart.

So I can remember that we’re all  free and wild.

So I can remember when i say ‘my’ home forest, that i’m speaking of ‘my’ as a relationship , not possession.

So I can remember how lucky we are to even have a forest to walk in anymore. 

And I’m reminded how one day, none of us will have a home forest to walk in and wonder about our dreams and tell stories of jaguars in and laugh at the acorn woodpecker in, or put flowers in our face or marvel at the waterfall if we keep remaining bound by the laws of a system that aim to oppress us. 

Poppy helps us to continue marching to the oligarchies’ front door covered in flowers and feathers. 

With Beauty

Poppy reminds us…

We’re protected by our positive

We’re protected by our joy. 

So today, stick a flower in your nose and smile.

Keep your joy at all costs.

Eat some Ohlone Sun Cup.

Stick it to the man.

💖

EmRa