Spiritual-Social Medicinal
Apothecary
calling forth the medicines of our times
Deepening, reclaiming and restor(y)ing our relations
SSoMA convenes artists, healers and knowledge-keepers as apothecaries who are devoted to studying and protecting thriving life in all forms. Our projects and collaborators offer medicinal responses to the current climate, nature, social and spiritual emergencies. We support the movement of spirit-into-form by bringing together translations and applications of ancient wisdom traditions, artistic practice, queerness, decolonial social analysis and research, deep ecological knowledges, and work with land-based medicines.
As an apothecary, SSoMA places the unity of spiritual, ecological and social life and the expression of that unity at the center of efforts to restore balance and health to living systems in dis-ease, crisis and collapse.
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Grounded in unified reality
Our collective survival depends on the inseparable relationship between spiritual, social, ecological and political life. SSoMA works to revitalize this relationship while interrupting the divisive forces that tear spirit, relationships and the earth apart.
Spiritual—from Latin spīritus, or ‘breath’—refers to the unseen and invisible forces that animate and sustain life; the whole of reality. Disconnection from these universal principles is at the root of our current nature, climate and social emergencies.
Social, a word with roots in ‘companion,’ speaks to how we organize collective life: norms, economic and intimate relationships, and cultural institutions. It includes how humans relate with the earth, other beings, each other and the consequences of modern/colonial violence on what we value and discard, who lives and dies.
A medicinal orientation to change
Our work is grounded in ancient, anti-colonial and queer wisdoms that articulate the spiritual-social relationship and that are, historically and ongoingly, targeted for destruction by the modern/colonial project. We especially engage with the study of sacred inquiry, queerness, and ecological knowledges.
Health—from Old English hǣlth or whole—involves both conditions for experiencing wholeness (including its complexities) and strategies for moving towards greater physical, psychological, emotional, social & spiritual wellbeing.
We need medicines—substances, preparations, knowledges, and practices that have healing properties in different forms and scales—which address modern crises of separation.
SSoMA is part of a worldwide movement to restore the health of our climate, ecosystems, and bodies that are being destroyed by colonial systems of separation.
Apothecary as approach
SSoMA carries on the tradition of apothecary both as a person and a transdisciplinary, queer gathering place for medicines and medicine-making. Part magnetic field, part queer dwelling, part creative laboratory, part refuge, it exists to generate and protect the vital medicines for our times.
The word ‘apothecary’—from the Greek apothēkē, or ‘storehouse’—once meant both a healing practitioner and the place where they make, protect, gather and share medicines and medicinal knowledge.
Historically, apothecaries worked with plants, herbs, minerals and other medicinal elements to support the health of individuals, communities and their local ecologies. Today, herbal medicine, medicinal farming and traditional ecological wisdoms are under attack.
Partner with SSoMA
Are you a spiritual-social thinker, artist, healer, wisdom-tender, activist and/or benefactor who feels aligned with our principles and efforts? Get in touch to arrange a chat!
Support SSoMA
SSoMA’s work is sustained through the generous funding of individuals and organizations who support us. We accept one-time and regular donations and are grateful for every gift.