A Reintroduction
Before we get into the missions for the year and reasons for being here, a brief reintroduction is due.
Hi I’m Keely and I’m the human being behind this digital space and the container of offerings known as Lume Calumet. I am an artist, animist, and creative about to enter my fourth decade here on Earth as of writing this. I have been an artist and nature lover my entire life. My introduction to animism and exploration of pagan roots began in my adolescence as I faced things beyond the realm of usual understanding. My relationship with plants and herbs began around this time too as I had a balcony to grow them on, and then my study into herbalism began in earnest in 2015. I hold a Bachelors degree in Art from UNA as well, and also spent five wild years as a pet groomer after living in East Tennessee in 2010. I met my partner and love in 2011 and we were married in 2016, and started making incense together in 2017. I’ve been living with chronic pain and dynamic disability thanks to a rare disorder called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome since 2018. I’ve had two major surgeries (in 2019 and 2021) to preserve my quality of life and use of my arms, but there is no cure for TOS. During the great slow down of 2020, and the great slow down of my own life thanks to TOS, I was called by the Monarch caterpillars to work directly with them. I’ve been dedicated to a spirit of reciprocity and sustainability ever since.
As you can see I’ve experienced things that some folks can’t fathom. My experience during this thing called life is far from “normal” and from what the people who know me irl say, I’ve got a unique way of looking at the world as a result. The older I get and the more I see, the more I want to do what I can to help others (plants, animals, and people) to thrive. I’m reactivating this digital space and building online community in hopes of expanding on that.
This place specifically will be where I share creative themes, visions, recipes, plant of the month writing, projects, and processes. Over the years of sharing snippets on IG I’ve had people reach out saying they’d love to learn more about the plants I work with, or the painting techniques I use, or how to maybe grow some things themselves, and this space will be dedicated to answering those questions and sharing about those inquiries. The Patreon is still up and active, and will remain dedicated to pollinator conservation and our backyard habitat building. So if you’re here looking for the butterflies and bugs, head over to the other platform and find us under the same name LumeCalumet.
More writing to come, but I hope this recap of what brought me here serves in the meantime. The overarching theme I’ve felt into for 2025 is Dreaming the Future and so writings for February will focus on dreaming and of course Imbolc and all the seeds (real and ethereal) we hope to plant.