Winter is on the horizon. Tonight we honor the power of fermentation and the techniques that will allow us to have sustenance through the coming cold. Taking raw food and allowing it to fester and transform is a magic (and delicious) process that everyone should partake in. So many options: pickles, sauerkraut, kefir water, gruit, sourdough pancakes … The possibilities are endless!

This day is ruled by the Animalcule symbol – an old fashioned term for ‘microorganism’. We love these little friends! They represent the raw, unfettered magic all around us.  They also speak to our potential for transformation/inner alchemy.

The act of fermentation is actually the Art of Designing a Home for Beneficial Microbes, then Inviting them In.

You’re constructing a comfortable habitat for millions of tiny living spirits, and manipulating their ecosystem so that the beneficial entities survive and the harmful creatures banish themselves. HOW LIMINAL IS THAT? In a way, fermentation is identical to the act of creating any kind of shrine into which spirits are invited.  Fermentation is a way of refining beneficial forces and inviting them into your life, allowing them to become part of you. Think about your “gut biome,” that living community of microorganisms that each of us carries around under our solar plexus (fancy way of saying that spot above your belly button). Did you know that those microorganisms act like a second brain that can influence everything from your digestion to your mental health? In many traditions, this gut biome is the EXACT AREA of body’s energy center. Eating fermented foods helps to maintain and sustain the gut biome’s health– it’s a way to literally call an entire community of guides and beneficial spirits into yourself!

How does one celebrate All Ferments Day? It’s a lot easier than you may think!