SOOTHING SORE MUSCLES BATH
Whether your muscles are aching from raking the yard, shovelling snow, or sitting at a desk for far too long, this healing plants bath can help relieve sore muscles and joint aches.
ACKNOWLEDGING BIAS: WHAT ARE YOU CLAIMING AS MESSAGES FROM SPIRIT?
What are you claiming as messages from Spirit? How is your bias shaping your "intuitive hits"?
WALK WITH ME
Walk with me.
The apprentices within my Mystery Mentorship program are not students, and I am not their teacher. Rather, when an apprentice signs up to walk with me each Sunday, week in and week out through a single module or all 5 that spans over a year, we are stepping into an ancient commitment of personal alchemy.
WHY ONLY HONOURING THE DIVINE FEMININE IS NOT ENOUGH
In a recent session with apprentices from my Mystery Mentorship program, while we were discussing the qualities and medicines of the Elements, I went on one of my tangented rambles, this time being about the Divine Masculine. I received an overwhelming response for sharing it, and hence why I am sharing here, too.
THE AGE OF LOW CALORIE SPIRITUALITY
We know that the wellness / spirituality industry has a racism problem. But within the same wellness / spirituality circles, there exists another problem (that isn't unrelated to the former). I'd like to call it spiritual diet culture. The predominating wellness consumer wants a low calorie, low commitment, nutrient and culturally stripped healing experience that has everything to do with appearance and very little to do with the traditional spiritual practices and the peoples where they are taken from.
THERE WILL BE MESSAGES TONIGHT
The other night, when I was lying in bed with the lights out and eyes closed, about to drift off to sleep, I intuitively smelled one of my ancestors, the covers ever so slightly felt more snug around my body, and then felt a gentle warmth on my head. This is the first time I can recall this happening with the spirits, as I was being tucked in by my Ah Zoh (my great Grandmother)! And at 41 years of age, there is something rare and precious about this. To be cherished as a child in the mundane activity of going to bed.
WHAT IS SHAMANISM?
Shamanism is the oldest recorded spiritual practise found in cultures all over the world, including my own (Chinese Taiwanese). Through entering into a non-rational mind space via a number of tools such as altered breath, ecstatic dance, chanting, rattling and drumming, and the consumption of specific plants (in my case, non-entheogenic plants), the practitioner can tap into a reality (and set of brainwaves) that is broader than the mundane and access the Unseen and the Otherwordly to receive beneficial messages and then deliver them to those asking for help.
THE ROAD TO HEALING IS NOT THROUGH A SAVIOUR, BUT THROUGH A DEVIL
We must become reconciled to the shadows within before we can be reconciled to the shadows in the outer world. Only the acknowledgment of our own fears, triggers, narcissism, hate, and every other appalling, rejected, or denied part of ourselves can prevent the same reenactment of pain. Enough of “love and light” spirituality. Stop forcing the light. It’s about giving space for the darkness to be seen and heard. That’s why the darkness has been relegated there in the first place, because she wasn’t received with acceptance.
THERE ONCE WAS A WOMAN WHO SWALLOWED A FLY
Judging the title, you probably think I'm about to recite a nursery rhyme, but alas, there is nothing fictional about what I'm about to share, as I was the woman who once swallowed a fly— during a meeting when I was pitching to a prospective client while I was still working in the clean tech industry.
SPIRITUAL MYTHS ABOUT COVID-19
I don't subscribe to the various spiritual theories of why Covid-19 is happening.
I DON'T think Covid-19 is the way the Earth is "taking revenge".
I DON'T think the old paradigm is ending.
I DON'T think it's a global awakening.
I DON'T think it's happening FOR us.
I think we create these reasons because humans crave meaning. We crave meaning because we are spiritual creatures who need context to feel safe. But the virus exists for itself. Are we so self centered to think that everything exists for us (be it as a gift, as an act of revenge, or otherwise)?
RECOMMENDED BOOKS AS WE PRACTISE SOCIAL DISTANCING
As promised, here's a shortlist of books I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed (note that many of these titles are not new), but I should preface that what I deem as 'enjoyable' may not be evergreen. I am human, and I am pulled into stories, into fact, into information based on how I am feeling, the alignment of the stars, and other influences. With that said, as I share this list, I still would definitely read these titles again (and again).
MORE MEDICINES DURING SHAKY TIMES
The photo of me taken by my friend and fellow witch, Jessie Robertson (photographer and co-director of The Witches of Vancouver documentary) says it all. Life is messy and shaky, sometimes a little more, and other times, we get the reprieve of a little less.
When life is shakier, it affects us energetically and physically. I find that when I am overwhelmed, depleted, and exhausted, these are my favourite go-to allies:
THE TWO TYPES OF IMMUNITY
Our bodies as well as the compositions of all pathogens (bacterial, fungal, viral) are complex, and to claim that one herb functions like an "easy button" that is a one size fits all solution would be very misleading. In my work, I see that on a physiological level of plant medicine, there is as much of a defensive measure and an offensive one.
PLANTS AS PERSONS
They are not products.They are not plant extracts, essential oils, resins, compounds, or other human-made rendering.
INTEGRATION
I've been resisting the integration of two very real sides to me: One side is the mystic, the shamanic intuitive, the witch who works with plants and hears their whispers. The other side is the "science geek". The one that biohacks and loves what technology can offer for humans. The one that is a neurofeedback practitioner. Both expressions of me are to support you in your re-membrance, in your re-awakening, in re-plugging into your source of power. I am a healer and teacher in both expressions. Yet, I've kept them mostly separate.
SMELLS LIKE TEEN GOSSIP
I smell things. Some describe this as extra-sensory scent, clairolfaction or clairolfactance. Others simply call it psychic smelling. My first time was when I was in junior high. A “mean girl” spread some rumour about me (eye roll — I was talking to her boyfriend — correction— her boyfriend was talking to me), and she claimed the rumour was started by someone else. It was the usual adolescent cocktail of hormones, drama, 'territory', and insecurities. The scapegoated girl denied the words, but didn’t want to point fingers either because it meant her own reputation was liable, and in high schools, reputation is everything.
HEALING FOOD PATTERNS WITH CORE SHAMANISM
One aspect about shamanism is that the craft is about RELATIONSHIP. I can speak to plants, to animals, to the elements, to the dead, and so forth. In my work, I also speak to what is seen as “objects” and when I am in relationship with those things, there is medicine to be found there as well.
INVOKING THE CRONE
The feminist says every woman (and all who identify as) is unique and beautiful in her way, with her personal stories kept as sacred scriptures in her body, her temple.
There are feminists EVERYWHERE, in all professions. Females represent an immense pool of economic buying might, yet, it perplexes and pains me that older, naturally aging women are so little represented and embraced within media, within art, and within visible society.
TEA AS PLANT MEDICINE
Tea is a plant medicine. If you’ve consumed it today, how did she hold you? What did she share with you? What did you say to her? How were you changed after you invited her essence in?