I love coming across words that immediately extend our capacity to explain the world. There is a unique power to them. Sometimes they can travel just as fast as memes if they catch on. It seems though, that most of the time they lie dormant until we are meant to find them. The Anishinaabe word puhpowee has been the latest for me.
For those of you Braiding Sweetgrass lovers, I’m sure you are already familiar—or for those of you who have gotten on your hands and knees to read Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life side-by-side your search for the forgotten kingdom of Fungi; he mentions the word and references Robin for turning him onto it as well. The word puhpowee translates into English as “the force which causes mushrooms to push up from the earth overnight.” This is not only an unprecedented power our fungal allies have, but a power we have as well (it also hints at “morning wood” I am told).
What most of us often miss about fungi, is that 99% of their body is unseen. It is the mycelial webs that are the majority of the fungi, the mushroom is just the ephemeral fruit. These webs also extend into other Kingdoms where mycorrhizal relationships are forged with plants in what Merlin calls the “wood-wide-web.” Millions of years ago a symbiotic alliance was born, thriving to this day in lichens, in the roots of plants, and even into our own, human world. It’s all to say, that when the fungi finally fruits, it is the end of the life cycle, and then makes its way to our plate for dinner or for some special tea. It’s a perfect analogy to how transits seem to work. It’s true for ideas as well.
For the majority of my astrological career, I feel like I’ve been beneath the soil. Every once in a while a podcast or a post like this will fruit and disperse, but the majority of my work has been in decomposing the sheer amount of information I have taken in. One of the best examples of this is with my relationship to the Jyotish technique the Vimshottari Dashas. I’ve used it since the beginning, yet because there is so much material to digest around it, because there is such depth to the roots of the tradition it comes from, I never felt ready to share what I have learned over all these years. Well, that is until last night when I decided to begin a 10-month exploration of this timelord technique. It went well. It was a fruit. And it is my deepest prayer that it spreads its spores far and wide. There truly is nothing like it in my opinion as far as astrological techniques go. It’s got puhpowee!
If you’d like to watch the class, you can do so below. And thank you for opening. I hope you enjoy the new word. And if it’s not new to you, then consider you and I two mycelial arms now interlinked linguistically, with obvious similar interests.
-adam
You can watch the Vimshottari Class by clicking the snake below:
I’ve also got a couple of slots to take on students one-on-one; if you are interested, you can learn more about the Apprenticeship HERE; You can also just watch the classes and learn. Certification isn’t required:
My latest writing HERE:
Here’s the latest podcast with Jenn about TNP’s and Uranian Astrology:
The Trans-Neptunian Planets with Jenn Zahrt
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JAN 29
I also threw together all my Chiron classes into a package for you. If you’d like a new perspective on Chiron, these are the classes for you:
and a package for the Aspect Series as well:
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My latest writings:
Snow Drop Reminders
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FEB 14
A Stoic Approach
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FEB 8
Tricksy Wisdom
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JAN 17
Recent Podcasts:
A Trinity for 24' "Endless Inquiries"
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DECEMBER 31, 2023
And my latest podcast on the Astrology of Dreams:
Being Dreamt: An Astrological Observation
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NOV 28
And the latest pod with Amanda Walsh about the Maui fires and AI:
Turning Points with Mark Jones
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JUL 26
I loved both of those books and have given both of them to my son for various birthdays or Christmases along with Finding the Mother Tree. Phupowee is a word he might have made up as a toddler... 😁 but I've never thought about it in terms of ideas that stay underground for a long time before burst forth and disseminate. I like it. Often we are impatient with ideas and want to bring them out prematurely - and then they wither in the light of day.