Dream

(I awoke around 7:30 in the morning with this in my head… those of you who know me know how bloody early that is for me…)

I
was at a Gathering with my Family.  I didn’t recognize anyone, but did
not feel out of place.  After a good bit of things had gone on, we were
apparently reading from a new book that was outlining a new way of
doing things, and were taking it seriously as though it were The Way We
Were Going To Do Things Now.  When it got to be my turn to read, I read
one short section and then lost my place.  Lady Rhiannon asked me to
read “numbers … to …” and I was not around those numbers.  I asked
her what page we were on, and she asked me instead how I would make
“bartholemew wine” for a ritual.  Having never heard of an herb called
“bartholemew”, but assuming it was an herb, I could think of a couple
ways of making a decoction of it and then mixing it with wine, or just
adding the herb beforehand to already-made wine (I did not think of
making the wine originally with “bartholemew” in the dream), but was
still lost in the text.  Lady Rhiannon indicated that it was in the
text, but would not give me the page number.  I gathered she was asking
for me to use my special knowledge as an elder, and was flustered by
not knowing about this particular herb but not particularly put out, as
I know Lady Rhiannon is not book-bound in real life and would use this
type of question to anyone.  I awoke from my dream, and am typing this
prior to doing a Web search for this herb, if indeed it exists.  If
not, well, it was a dream, and if it was a Significant Dream it might
be saying that it is time for me to increase my knowledge of herbalism.

Results
of Web search:  There is no herb called “bartholemew” … but there was
a wine in 2003 in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, made of blending 23
different local vintners’ 2003 vintage Pinot noir.  One of the
vintners, Bryce Bagnall, came up with the idea when he found out he had
ALS; the different vintages were donated and blended, and the result
was bottled and sold at $25 per bottle with all proceeds going to the
Bryce Bagnall Fund, which (along with other later fundraisers)
purchased a wheelchair which allowed Bryce to continue working in his
winery in 2004 and donated funds to ALS research.  Details may be found
at http://www.willamettewines.com/wineries/barts.shtml, which also
included the following Background Story:

“The first St.
Bartholomew’s wine was a single barrel (25 cases) of 2002 Gamay Noir
from Brick House Vineyards, released Memorial Weekend 2003.
Owner/winemaker Doug Tunnell got the inspiration for the label when he
was leaving an SOB gathering at the Dundee Bistro one evening and saw
Bryce and Marcia Bagnall pulling out of the parking lot in their little
white Miata convertible with ‘Bart’ on the license plate. ‘Who’s Bart?’
he called after them. ‘The patron saint of neurological disorders,’
they called back, waving over their shoulders as they drove off towards
the vineyards. Doug described the scene to a friend, artist Jane
Russell, who created the label depicting the saint himself driving off
in the little red Bart car as her contribution to the Bryce Bagnall
Fund.”

Ordering the wine is confusing — the page says $135 for
a 12-bottle case but is only selling 6 bottles for $150.  All proceeds
other than shipping costs (by UPS) are given to Bryce.

This being the case (ooh, unintentional bad pun), I certainly hope this dream did NOT mean that someone in my Family has ALS…

[Edited to add:]

I
just did further research, and found there is “St. Bartholemew’s Tea”,
which is another name for yerba mate tea… which is good for,
according to
http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/cuisine/p/yerbamate.htm,

1. induces mental clarity
2. improves digestion
3. regulates appetite
4. increases endurance
5. sustains energy levels
6. boosts the immune system
7. helps relieve allergies
8. detoxifies the blood

There is more medicinal information at that website.

Certainly less alarming than the thought of ALS, but in the dream it
was MY idea to make the tea first… Lady Rhiannon asked me how to make
the WINE…

Hugs,
Moss