The Ghost Pipe Reliquary

Description

Delicate and ethereal, Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) emerges from the forest floor. Around it, trees reach down through the musty layers of decaying leaves, into rich, dark soil, where their roots intertwine with mycelial networks whose fruiting mushroom bodies spread spores, expanding the web. The fungi pull water and minerals from the soil, feeding them into the trees’ roots, and the trees pull them up into through their bodies which branch out and form leaves that use the sun’s energy to make sugars that feed the tree and flow back through the roots into the mycelium, feeding the fungus. This is a healing plant, both physical and spiritual and is said to bring light energy back to a soul helping one to become grounded and centered.

Never ever in all my wildcrafting have I ever seen this magical plant in person. I came across 8 big separate clusters of this magical plant in 2020 while taking some me time in the forest. I truly believe it does not show itself to you unless you need it and I did ethically harvest some and felt it was ok since I found so much growing in the forest. In 2021 the family of Ghost Pipes made themselves known to me again in the same spot and sadly in 2022 the area in the river valley that which they lived in was being completely dug out by the city of Edmonton and destroyed due to erosion issues on the river bank. When ghost pipe finishes its life cycle it dries out and becomes a very dark colour. If you know where it is you can still see it even though it becomes more hidden. I decided to pick some of the dried out Ghost Pipe and turn it into reliquaries in case its family decides to not return to its home next year. I truly hope this is not the case and that they return.

Ghost Pipe seems to offer an aligning, re-regulating, reordering, and soothing of a chaotic mind or unmanageable pain both physical and mental.

David Winston writes that Ghost Pipe is “not your normal analgesic.” Many people report the experience of taking this herb while experiencing strong physical pain and, while the pain does not go away, the individual is less attached to the pain, able to tolerate it, often feeling that they are standing beside it and watching it happen. Winston says this is called “antinociceptive,” meaning that the herb “reduces sensitivity to painful stimuli” and “raises the threshold for pain.” The same is true for emotional or psychologically painful situations, in which the person suffering is able experience relief from the intensity and to examine the experience with a little bit of spaciousness, a degree of separation. Sometimes, an individual experiences chronic or regular nervous dysregulation, either through painful autoimmune situations or extreme psychiatric states.

+ Intense pain that interferes with ability to sleep 
+ Painful conditions in which the individual needs to remain awake, grounded, present 
+ Physical or emotional pain that is overwhelming 
+ Pain that is paralyzing due to overload of sensory information, psycho-emotional shock 
+ Anxiety or panic attack due to emotional or sensory overload 
+ Headaches caused by traumatic brain injury 
+ Acute psychiatric states, PTSD

Ethically Wildcrafted Alberta Ghost Pipe

Few exist when they are gone they are gone.