Earth Medicine Temple is an earthen home built from the Earth, for healing with the medicine of the Earth. It was built with prayer, with the soil and water of the land it’s part of, and with the helping hands of community, with the intention of co-creating a future with the Earth in right relationship. At its foundation, it’s a place to be in service to bringing healing to people, empowering the health and resilience of our community, deepening relationship to the Earth, and bringing that healing back to the Earth. 

It started with offerings to the Earth, a medicine wheel honoring the directions,  and orientation around the ways the elements of the land move - the rains, the winds, the sun, the ecosystem this home would be a part of. Stones were placed for foundation, the Earth teaches us to have a strong foundation to allow for growth from a grounded place. Wood formed the outline like guardian trees to hold the Earth in place. We dug up clay soil from the land - in places we could make compost toilets - mixed with water that came up from a well beneath the ground, and straw for the fibers. The earth and water mixed together by community hands and feet to mold into a form that was firmed by wind and sun. 

Earthen building is an environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional construction with eco-friendly materials that can co-exist with and go back into the Earth. It’s constructed with natural climate resilience - earthquake-proof, fireproof, and eco-friendly. It’s empowering with sovereignty to build shelter with what is around you, in the way all of our ancestors have done. There is something about building with the elements with your bare hands and feet that connects you to the creation of life, the way the material world manifests through the balance of the Earth, Air, Wind, Fire, and Ether. Molding the shape of walls outside of a conventional structure that Westernized capitalist society says things have to be, shaping the form of a dream. 

Piece by piece was molded in community gatherings where we learned the ancestral art of earthen building. Every gathering began with grounding in the land in collective intention to listen to the Earth, and think and speak and move with beauty and reverence as we created with the Earth. 

My heart is full of gratitude for Earth tender and natural builder Abudu Tauo, who taught us Earthen building and led the construction project in resonant collaboration with the intentions, sharing this ancestral practice to encourage the movement of building with the Earth. My heart is full of gratitude for every single community relative who offered helping hands and hearts, and continues to do so, in collective intention for the new world we want to bring into harmonious relationship with Mother Earth.