How well do you know the plants and animals where you live?

November 2, 6:35 PMHouston Shamanism ExaminerKathleen Gresham

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A tiny blue flower, melting in the August sunlight in Houston. Can you name this plant species?

photo ©2009 Kathleen Gresham

How well do you know the plants and animals where you live?

This is a quiz. It will be published in several parts. The point of this quiz is to get you to actually go outside and observe the answers for yourself.

A traditional indigenous person would know the answer to every question without having to think about it. Since we do not live so close to the land, and most of us hardly notice what happens in the natural world around us, write it down.

Get a notebook, preferably a bound sketchbook or sturdy spirial-bound book with blank (not ruled) pages of sturdy paper. Get a waterproof (or water-resistant) pen (easy to find in office supply stores, and you may already have one).

Now get ready to go outside and get answers. We will do this at least once a month from now on but you are encouraged to start noticing thngs and making notes in your notebook every week at least. Make sketches or take photos and glue them into your book. (No one need see them except you.)

Questions

1. What native fruits, grains, nuts are ripe and ready to eat right now?

2. Name 10 natural plant foods native to your neighborhood (within a mile or so of your residence).

3. Name all the wild native mammal species that live in your neighborhood right now.

4. What time are sunup and sundown today?

5. What phase of the moon is it?

6. What edible wild, native fish, reptiles and amphibians live within a mile of you?

7. What poisonous snakes live in your neighborhood?

8. What poisonous plants (wild or domestic) grow in your yard? Your neighborhood?

9. What native plants are blooming right now in your neighborhood?

If you know the answers to all these questions already, congratulations! I would like to hear from you. If not, I would still like to hear about your experiences in getting the answers to those questions.

Remember that a traditional indigenous person would know all those things about his or her neighborhood----and much, much more.

And we should, too.

For more information on classic shamanic practices, see the list of links to shamanism-related web sites near the lower right corner of this page.

Kathleen Gresham has been studying and teaching shamanic practices for 20 years. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/whitecranes and http://www.twitter.com/shamanista and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/whitecranes.

To learn to do shamanic practices in Houston, you are invited to join the Houston Shamanism Meetup group, http://www.meetup.com/houstonshamanism.