Breath of Peace Meditation With Pine

When times are tough, I turn to the plants.

They’ve taught me so much over the years.

They are always there to nurture and guide me.

Maybe you’ve found this, too.

Pine has been a great teacher for me.

These wise old beings have been on the planet for at least 150 million years, much longer than us.

They have a presence like no other.

They instill in us a deep sense of acceptance, a profound sense of peace.

In the following meditation, I guide you through a connection journey with Pine, the Tree of Peace.

May you feel and carry the peace of Pine.

Rosemary Bath for Loving Clarity

Water is a conduit for healing. And water has memory. The waters of our body hold deeply stored emotions, and when we let them flow, we can have a healthy relationship to these emotions.

One way to get in tune with this flow is to spend time with water. Study a waterfall. Listen to the dripping of a melting icicle. Imagine being a piece of driftwood or a fallen leaf floating down a river. Get in the water!

Baths are one of my favorite restorative rituals. I start with an herbal infusion. Rosemary is a favorite! This herb is fantastic for the skin and hair, but what’s more – Rosemary is restorative. Rosemary stimulates circulation, bringing mental clarity and awakening our hearts. Like water, Rosemary helps us remember.

After I make an infusion (steep the herbs for about 20 minutes or more), I like to draw a bath as hot as I can stand. Strain said infusion into the water. Turn off all the lights. Get in the tub. Completely submerge myself in the water. And then I tone - loudly - allowing the vibration of my voice to course through the water and penetrate my cells. It is an herbal-water-sound bath. It is one of the most powerful practices I know.

Out of the darkness I allow images, messages, and sensations to arise. It’s another way of dreaming. And btw, Rosemary is also a great dream herb.

I haven’t been practicing this bath ritual much since the pandemic has kept everyone at home and I’ve had little privacy.

So instead I’ve been spending time with the ocean, swimming in the icy cold salt water. And even though Rosemary isn’t in the sea, her name means “dew of the sea.” Rosemary originally hails from the Mediterranean and is linked to Aphrodite, love goddess born from the sea. And I would say Rosemary would be connected to other ocean goddesses, too, as all oceans are one.

Mama Ocean, Goddesses of the sea, and Rosemary - they all stimulate feelings of love and of clarity - reminding us that We Are Love.

In the following short video, I share how to make a Rosemary infusion for the bath. I highly recommend it!

If you liked this video and would like to experience a deeper connection to the plant realm, you’ll love INFUSE. Doors are open for the spring season. We begin March 3 with Cleavers (Galium aparine)! Learn more and register.

Dream With Rose to Enhance Inner Vision

The earth has disappeared beneath my feet,
It fled from all my ecstasy.
Now like a singing air creature
I feel the rose keep opening.

— from What Do White Birds Say by Hafiz

Rose is a mystical creature. She is the embodiment of pure love bliss. Rose inspires states of ecstasy and devotion. She’s an unattainable beauty that gives us something to strive for. She teaches us surrender to All That Is, to the undeniable truth of the Universe – that all is born, lives, and dies only to be born again. And upon that she is decked in thorn-like prickles – a reminder of the ache of love, the care with which we must handle our hearts, the preciousness of our fleeting lives.

It is in this way and in others beyond words that Rose enhances our ability to see. Unlike the naïve optimism evoked by the phrase “seeing through Rose-colored glasses” – to see with the help of Rose is to see the Truth. Rose blinds our human eyes of our self-invented perceptions to see the truth at the heart of the mater – the Mother, the matrix, the dark & fertile womb from which we are all born and to which we all return. And that this Mother of all of us is Love.

Dreaming is another way of seeing the truth and Rose makes a wonderful dream ally.

In this video, I show you how to partner with Rose to make a dream “pillow” or sachet.

I’d love to know if you choose to partake in this simple ritual and what your dreams speak to you after you’ve done so! Feel free to leave that in the comments below or on YouTube.

And if you enjoyed this video and would like to experience more healing plant collaborations, check out INFUSE, a monthly immersion to deepen your relationship with healing plants. Registration closes Wednesday, December 1 at 11:59pm. Sign up by 11/17 to receive special bonuses: a copy of my book and discounts on future installments of the course.

If I say your voice is an amber waterfall in which I yearn to burn each day, if you eat my mouth like a mystical rose with powers of healing and damnation, If I confess that your body is the only civilization I long to experience… would it mean that we are close to knowing something about love?
― Aberjhani, Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black

Strength Through Challenge Meditation (Video)

We call on the plants as our allies, for energetic, physical, and emotional healing. Hawthorn is a deeply protective plant that I’ve shared about before, as a great healer of the heart. She has such potent energy stored in her sturdy twisted and often gnarled branches, covered with woody thorns.

In this meditation, we call on Hawthorn to help us see a challenge from a new perspective, to strengthen our position and approach it from a place of personal power.

I hope it serves you well! I gratefully welcome your comments if you’d like to share your experience.

Go deeper with the Magic & Medicine of this amazing plant ally in INFUSE a la carte, a monthly immersion of intimate connection with healing plant allies.

Start a Slo-mance With Herbs

(Plus, a Recipe for Love Tea)

Image: Kranich17

Loooving you,

Is easy ‘cuz you’re beautiful…

You, yes, you. I’m talking to you!

I dare you to gaze at yourself in the mirror and sing this song.

Not feeling it?

(I feel for you!)

How ‘bout some help from a few friends first?

They’re totally legal (aw, no fun!) and yet they are potent mind- and heart-altering friends.

Ready to meet them?

I’m talkin’ ‘bout herbs.

Herbs to enhance love… for you.

And for others, if you so choose.

Recipe for LOVE, herbal blend

What you’ll need, dried herb, in parts by weight:

• 1 part Rose (Rosa species) petals

• 1 part Agrimony (Agrimonia species)

• 1/2 part Rose hips (Rosa species)

• 1/2 part Hawthorn (Crataegus species) berries

• (technically not a berry, but a pome, like an apple; aka, haw)

• 1/2 part Damiana (Turnera diffusa syn. aphrodisiaca) leaves

• 1/4 part Ginger (Zingiber officinale) rhizome

Be sure to acquire organically grown or ethically wildcrafted ingredients, please. For the love of you, and our Great Mama.

Weight out your dried herbs and mix well in a bowl by hand. Keep the blend stored in an air-tight glass container out of the sunlight.

Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of herbal blend per cup of boiling water, or 1/2 to 3/4 cup to 1 quart of boiling water. Cover and let steep for at least 20 minutes.

Strain and sip. Add honey to sweeten if you like (I do!).

You can also use this blend as a bath tea. Oh so good for the skin, the aura, the heart!

Simply strain a bigger batch (like a quart-sized one) directly into a tub of hot water and get in. Feel free to sing to yourself in there (I do!).

If you want to get more intimate with herbal allies – what I call having a Slo-mance with herbs – study them one at a time in my new course, INFUSE.

Love the plants to love yourself!

Healing plants are great teachers and great mirrors for us. They open us up, expand our awareness of the world, while also healing our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits. Simply sitting with them has great healing power.

Steep yourself in the Magic & Medicine of the healing plant allies in INFUSE, a monthly immersion to deepen your relationship with these Wild Wise Green Ones.

Herbal Allies for the Uprising

Hello Every Body, Every Heart, Every Spirit!

I’ve been thinking about how I could be of service right now and I was reminded by a friend of what I could share during this time, and what she suggested was this: Are there any Northeast plants that we can draw healing and wisdom from at this time of uncertainty and uprising? In other words, which plants can help us sustain our minds, bodies, and spirits through the long haul of doing The Work?*

So how can the plants help? Our green allies offer us guidance, nourishment, and healing so that we can show up in the ways we are needed while also reducing the risk of burning out. They help us stay grounded and allow us to better perceive universal truths.

I believe that it is essential to know and partner with the community of plants growing in our own backyards. These plants contain information for us about the land where we live.

And the plants we need also often grow close to us, showing up just when we need them. So I’m sharing plants that grow where I live, in northeastern North America. All of them can be found in Northeast Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 111 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness (Timber Press). Many of these plants grow in other parts of the world, too. If you aren’t in the Northeast, seek out the plants that grow near you, find the plant folk who live in your area, or look for related species to the plants listed here.

Agrimony (Agrimonia species)

The leaves, flowers, and burs of Agrimony in tea (infusion) or tincture from, as well as the flower essence, bring relief to those who hide their pain beneath a cheerful disposition. Agrimony leaves can be burned as an agent of cleansing and purification, to remove any energies projected onto us.

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

This beautiful flowering plant is closely related to Echinacea and has similar immune stimulating properties. The flower essence allows our old trauma and shadows to come to the surface so that we may process them with compassion. Jordan Pagán of Ostara Apothecary describes it as an “anti-repressor,” making Black-eyed Susan a very fitting essence for the times.

Black-eyed Susan

Borage (Borago officinalis)

Borage for courage! Both Borage leaf infusion helps restore the nervous system when we become depleted and exhausted. The flower essence instills courage while lightening our hearts when we experience heaviness and grief.

Burdock (Arctium species)

Drinking a daily Burdock root decoction or infusion for several weeks at a time has the power to clear deep seated anger and toxicity in the blood. According to herbalist-yogini-doula Sokhna Mabin Burdock can bring healing to deep ancestral wounds. So deep your great-great granny will feel it.

Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)

Have you seen this prickly plant? Pretty fierce looking. The funny thing is, it’s a signal to us that this plant relieves pain. The leaves and roots in tincture would be beneficial for this. The flower essence helps those who are being bullied or are in conflict with authority figures stand in their power.

Cinquefoil (Potentilla species)

Cinquefoil can be used similarly to Agrimony (see above). It also has a history of being used in Hoodoo. It can be used for unbinding. The plant sends a message to those meddling in our lives to keep their hands off. (Its 5 leaflets are reminiscent of the hand shape.)

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

Comfrey is a powerful wound healer. So powerful you must take care when using it topically as it can heal the skin over a wound, potentially trapping in infection. Use comfrey topically only on well cleaned superficial (not puncture) wounds. The flower essence can be partnered with for healing deep emotional wounds. Take care with using Comfrey internally (especially the root), particularly if there is a pre-existing liver condition.

Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)

The Tree of Peace of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Instills peace in our hearts and our nerves. Wound healing. Pine flower essence promotes self acceptance and helps one to release long held guilt. Learn more information on the Bach Pine essence here. Eastern White Pine flower essence, according to Woodland Essences offers “the Foundation of ancient wisdom to help us remember how to ‘put the pieces back together.’ A guiding light to illuminate and support one's re-membering. Stability and balance in thought and action.”

Hawthorn (Crataegus species)

Hawthorn is a guardian tree offering us tender heart healing and protection. Check out those thorns – they are formidable. Birds nest in Hawthorn branches for a good reason. Protection. Also, each thorn has the potential to become a branch – sit with that metaphor for a while. Hawthorn leaves and flowers are gently calming and her fruit gently regulates heart rhythm, helps to move fat through the blood and digestive tract, and balances blood pressure.

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)

This gorgeous wild bitter mint soothes the heart and nervous system. She calms heart palpitations and eases hypertension. Whenever I feel like freaking out, Motherwort cools my nervous anxiety and tension. Tincture form is my favorite way to take this medicine. Take care to use low doses if you have hypothyroidism (the herb is used to calm hyperthyroidism).

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

Mugwort initiates us into the ways of the medicine plants. She helps shift our perception so that we can see the world from a fresh perspective, one more aligned with the natural world. In other words, she help help you get and stay woke. Drinking Mugwort infusion, taking the tincture, or using the infused oil topically enhances our ability to dream (dreaming is happening all the time, dreaming is really waking up). With Mugwort’s help we can dream the new world we know is possible. Do not use Mugwort during pregnancy, it is stimulating to the uterus (which makes it helpful for regulating menstruation and stirring creativity).

Mugwort

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Standing tall like a beacon, Mullein activates and heals the physical and energetic spine. Drinking the infusion or tincture is calming to the nerves and helps us process grief, which is held in the lungs.

Rose (Rosa species)

One of my favorite spirit nurturing herbs. Rose shifts our mood, cools anger, and stimulates our senses. She is a powerful healer who opens us up to our true, peaceful, sensual selves.

Skullcap (Scutellaria species)

If you are looking to slow incessant mental chatter, Skullcap is a good friend to have around. Taking a bit of the tincture before bedtime slows the mental roll and eases us into restful sleep and healing dreams.

Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum species)

Solomon’s Seal is a gently restorative tonic for building the body and spirit back up after illness or exhaustion. The flower essence is used for protection and wise decision making. It is also said to enhance synchronicity. According to Healing Spirits Herb Farm, it helps us adapt to changes that have already occurred.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Everyone deserves a good night’s rest and Valerian does the job, for most people. For a small percentage of folks, Valerian is more activating than relaxing, so do a test on a day where you don’t have a lot of commitments to see if you are one of the rare few who don’t benefit from the relaxing effects of Valerian.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Last but certainly not least, Yarrow is a favorite herb for protection and clearing energy. The flower essence helps us establish and maintain healthy boundaries. The herb in poultice or salve form helps to stop injuries from bleeding. It’s an essential ally for every revolutionist’s first aid kit.

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I dedicate this post to those with boots on the ground, doing the heavy lifting around undoing racial oppression. May you find your favorite green allies, may you find the ones to lean on when you need to nourish and restore your being.

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*From my view, the work includes the reconfiguring of our perceptions, in concert with rebuilding and restructuring the systems and structures to be beneficial to all humans. The work is staying with the awareness of how we relate to the world, staying with the practice of relating to each other with care, and of being vulnerable and open to the ways we relate with regard to the construct of race. For me and other white folks, it’s opening our eyes to the ways in which we benefit from the systems and structures of racial oppression and how we can leverage our privilege to bring more awareness to this raw and gaping wound.

I am by no means an expert on this topic and this post is not meant as an education about the history of racial constructs and white supremacy. So I’m sharing a few organizations and resources to educate yourself on this topic. It is deep and there are many more to explore – this is just the tip of the iceberg to get you started.

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond

Brownicity

The Action PAC

75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice