When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
—Wendell Berry
Meet the Midwife
Venessa Greenheron was born and raised in Washington state: in the forests, on the beaches, and in the in-between spaces. She has always had a deep connection to the Otherworld, and in 2022 began to piece together the deeper meanings of those experiences, beyond the folk magic she was accustomed to practicing. Venessa is a Queer, mystical, practicing Diasporic and Anti-Zionist Jew, with a familiarity with the traditions of Jewish Death rites and a desire to reclaim a connection to those traditions for the Radical Jewish community she is a member of.
An artist and hedge-witch, Venessa works from the woods on the Ancestral Snohomish land of Tscha-kole-chy, now called Whidbey Island. As the current steward of one small piece of land, she carefully maintains a relationship with the Ancestors and Spirits hat reside there, in recognition that we are all connected through our roots.
Venessa is also a maker, a mother, and micro-farmer. She is deeply committed to helping guide her fellow humans to make beautiful returns to the stars, from whence we all come.
To read more, follow the light…