A Wild 2025 Challenge + Lady's Mantle
On New Year’s Day, I dreamed about how our greatest, most valuable currencies are sun, earth, water, air and soil. It was a peaceful, comforting kind of dream, and I awoke to a question posed to me from some portal in between the dreaming and waking state which was: “What does this world need of you right now, Mary Morgaine?”
It’s not a question that I haven’t already asked myself a 1,000 times, but this had a different energy about it and propelled me right into a clear answer: “To invite people to a 2025 challenge of eating something wild everyday!”
The words vocation and advocacy come from the same root meaning- a calling or a summons for our lives. My vocation for the past thirty years has largely been to advocate for earth connection, and it has taken on all kinds of forms: writer, plantwalker, ceremonialist, protester, counselor, earth steward, documentarian, camp leader, journalist, artist, workshop facilitator and more. As I turn the page into yet another calendar year, an unprecedented urgency is fueling my fire. I am summoned to speak up and out more loudly even though honestly I’d prefer to just hide behind a rock. Instead, I devotedly remain consistent to calling us back to our common ground. Both literally and figuratively.
If you’ve followed my work over the years, you may remember back in 2021 when I shared 52 weeks of Fresh Herbal Teas on Instagram. Each week, I poured us all a cup of tea from a different plant growing on the land where I live, and shared about its nutritional and medicinal values. I still receive feedback from folks about how that practice helped them cultivate a regular, healing relationship with our plant allies, themselves and the earth.
So for 2025, I am offering an “Eat Something Wild Everyday” Challenge with the intention of getting folks back online with their real self- their flesh and blood unvirtual self that is directly descended from and dependent upon the elements of earth, water, fire and air, our greatest currencies. It’s a very simple act. And we know deep down it is the simple things that will save us, that make us whole and happy. The simple things that are actually not that simple— try to make or live without water and air and soil and light and see how far you get;-)
Many people in our world are feeling so very disconnected, including myself at times. I noticed I had been drifting from my regular interactions with my plant friends, due to a number of things, so this challenge is definitely for me too, calling me back to center and to the life I love. I think about the first questions indigenous teachers have asked when we become depressed, dispirited or disconnected:
“When did you stop singing?
When did you stop dancing?
When did you stop sharing stories?
When did you stop creating space for silence?”
And I would add to that, “When did you stop eating wild foods?” For we are what we eat. I am saying this as one who was an anorexic at one time and addicted to eating pretty much only candy corn. That is another story for another time, but it was when I began to eat whole foods that my body and psyche came out of depression and disconnection. And when I began to nibble on wild plants, I found the key to my green heart. For when we take the time to eat, chew, nibble or taste things that the elements are voluntarily offering up, communication occurs within our DNA that helps us remember who we truly are and how interconnected everything is.
We also become more familiar with the time/season and place where we are positioned on the planet. Appreciation, connection and wonder of the natural world is cultivated and it leads us to protect our environment while demanding less from it. Consume less. Eating wild, even if just a nibble, has a powerful domino effect in a positive direction!
So without further ado, Here it is:
The “Eat Something Wild Everyday” Challenge:
Wherever you live or are visiting, step outside and find something you can either eat or nibble. Something that is voluntarily growing is what I call wild:-) It is most likely what we would call a weed, but there are many other options too. You can get into mushrooms, insects etc… but my focus will be mostly about the green gifts.
Pay attention to location. Make sure that your wild green friend isn’t too close to a busy road or in a sprayed area or where pets take a leak.
Take the sacred pause and give the plant your gratitude and gift of presence.
If you have (can make) time, lie on the earth too.
Notice how it feels in your body, and any thoughts, sensations or feelings that arise.
This doesn’t have to be every single day, that is not the point. The point is to make it a habit, where you are eating something wild more days than not!
My late partner Frank Cook is the one who introduced this Eat Something Wild Everyday concept to me and to Frank’s spirit, I say thank you.
In next’s week’s post, I will be sharing some examples of what to eat or nibble on in the Northern Hemisphere in the winter. If you are not that plant ID savvy, just eat the same thing daily over and over until you get more confident in your skills. Please do be safe and don’t eat anything that you are not 100% sure of its identification. For every one of my regular Substack posts in 2025, I will also be mentioning a story or tip about this challenge to keep us inspired!
Ready to take this wild challenge with me?
Mary Morgaine Squire
1/4/25
Under a waxing crescent Pisces Moon
~Love Letters to our Plant Allies~
Listen to Mary Plantwalker read her love letter to Lady’s Mantle
Lady’s Mantle
Alchemilla vulgaris
Rosaceae
Dear Lady’s Mantle,
Yay!! I am so happy to be here with you right now in this way, connecting with your essence through praise! I absolutely adore you! You are beautiful in every way, even when your leaves wither and die—what an elegant tapestry you leave behind.
Finding a baby Lady’s Mantle in the garden gives me a giddy feeling. Your newborn leaves start off so very tiny and delicate and I observe how over the months they gradually stretch into their fully-pleated selves. I marvel at how each one of your leaves is made up of several serrated hearts. Being a member of the loving Rose family, it’s no wonder you have this characteristic!
Another wonder that your leaves contain is how water beads into silver droplets and rests upon your velvety hairs, making it seem as though your leaf is waterproof from dew and rain. The common name of mantle comes from that folded/pleated aspect of your leaf structure and its capacity to repel moisture. Alchemists would gather this precious liquid to make magical formulas and to prepare the philosopher’s stone. Thus your botanical name of Alchemilla. I have made many a prayer then knelt to sip those liquid jewels from your leaf—my ‘everyday’ approach to alchemy. I love our chemistry, LM!
One of your great admirers and an herbal mentor of mine, Gail Faith Edwards, says that you used to be addressed as Our Lady’s Mantle, being a plant aligned with the gifts of the Blessed Mother and other divine feminine figures. During the Protestant Reformation, though, plant names were disassociated from divine feminine forces in attempts to disempower us. But guess what? We still know and remember your power and our connections to you! Hail Our Lady’s Mantle!
Around my birthday in May, your yellow-green lacy-like flowers bloom and dance upon delicate stems while your leaves tightly hug the earth. Oh my heart!! It’s a fabulous birthday present just to sit next to you and be in admiration. Thank you.
The most beautiful patch of you I have ever seen is in the mountain gardens of my dear friends John and Diane. There, you receive partial shade and lots of moisture, growing along reflection pools in dark, rich soil. We can propagate you from seed or root division. The biggest mistakes I see people making when they try to grow you is planting you in full sunlight and not giving you enough water. You are from Greenland and still associated with the Goddess Freya. You are a North Plant, culturally based in old European traditions, and will not grow into your full potential in most of the Southern Hemisphere.
For some, you are simply grown as an ornamental but that is a shame, as the amount of medicine you have to freely offer is bountiful! For one, you contain salicylic acid, a potent organic compound and plant hormone that decreases inflammation and encourages cell regeneration. Your root is a coagulant. Your whole plant you give to us medicinally!
With your aerial parts, we can make a gargle to help cease bleeding gums, ulcers and sore throats. You are a natural heart tonic and enhance muscle tone. We can make an oil or distillation of your leaves and flowers to apply as liniment support. For hernias and ruptured membranes, we can incorporate your tincture into our medical regime. Lady’s Mantle, I see how you tone.
A Yin herb, you are right up there with herbs like Hawthorn, Cleavers, Yarrow and Motherwort as an awesome blood regulator. A star wound healer, your astringent qualities relieve excess fluids from flowing. I like to combine you with Calendula and Echinacea to help alleviate infection while you get in there and do your work of drying up damp conditions.
Culpepper wrote that you were ruled by Venus and here we can get into your gifts for the female bodied. You combine well with Red Clover for infertility treatment. For heavy menses, mastitis, diarrhea, yeast infections and hemorrhage, your ability to regulate fluids returns balance to our system. I wish I had you on hand after my labor when I almost bled to death. You can continue to staunch blood in the days after giving birth and as a postpartum support, you are skilled at coaxing everything back into its place. There are many claims of how using you as a breast poultice firms back tissue after breastfeeding! Every birth doula would do well to call you in!
I have read accounts of how your were used to restore virginity by resealing the hymen with an infusion of your whole plant. Let the record continue to show, Lady’s Mantle, that many have found healing from you when trauma occurs to our reproductive organs. You are known for this. You help us find balance and hold boundaries. Physically and spiritually, you are a Keeper of Integrity. May the ones who need your medicine most find you. May we honor you for the powerful plant ally that you are.
With love,
Mary Plantwalker
I just love when life works this way. I saw vaguely you challenging the eat something wild everyday and I’ve don’t that for a week or so and it’s been a pure delight. Surprisingly so! While Looking around I saw a plant I didn’t know and it intrigued me and was calling me and then just today I read this article and it’s Lady’s Mantle. I’ve heard of it but didn’t know it how to see it before. So, thank you! So fun following and reading your stuff.
If I could just read one thing over and over again , this , must be it. Plant whispers must be what I came here to love more and more 🙏🏼🌙 thank you