Wandering Toad

Raspberry (Rubus Strigosus)

Hello friends, we find ourselves again walking together, this time with Raspberry. She can be a rather delicious teacher if we catch her at the right time. For us in the Northeast that is usually somewhere between July & August. The longer the better is my personal feeling. Raspberry is one of my favorites and beloved by many. You can find her in the stores, in neat little plastic boxes, with paper along the bottom so she doesn’t leak, contained, defanged but still delicious. My favorite interaction with her is in the wild. I love to see her in thick stands with her red berries dancing along roadways. She will entice us with her bright eye-popping fruits amongst the green of those intermediary spots she likes to frequent, and her siren song promising those sweet, delicious sun ripened, succulent berries, yum!

You must work for her fruit, because raspberry isn’t without boundaries. She teaches us about awareness, respect, discipline, timing and grace. What! Yes. To interact with raspberry at her peak you must be aware, paying attention to the world around you. Once you identify her, which is a win all by itself, the next step is to develop a foraging strategy (note; use your own discernment if and when you choose to forage along roadways). Raspberry then demands our attention and presence if we are to successfully interact with her without self-harm, wild she is covered in spikes and grows w***y nilly in unruly canes facing several directions. A prepared and self-aware forager will have proper attire! But if you’re like me, you wear what you have on and approach with care ;-).

Raspberry requires presence to interact with and so do we. Our roadways, or the places that we bristle are the energetic pathways of our boundaries. If we approach those boundaries with care, use care when we interact with the boundaries of others then we will get to eat those sweet berries of relationship, communion and understanding, feeling seen, being heard and respected. Raspberry and working with her in the wild, in her state of fullness, provides us with this lesson just by growing as she was intended according to her design. We know when we have overstepped when someone reacts in a negative way or we have reacted in a negative way. Some internal conscious or unconscious spike get tripped, and we must proceed with caution, move with care. This scratch or pain is our cue, both for ourselves and others that if we plough forward, we are going to get cut up. However, if we come into ourselves, into presence and awareness then we can (by leaving ego & seeking understanding) find our way through.

Raspberry asks us:

1. Where do we need to be more present?

2. Reflect on a sticky personal encounter. Did we act from love or ego?
(Ego says; I am right. Love says; How can I understand?)

3. How does the outcome differ when we interact from love and respect v. ego?

Wander well friends and enjoy the yumminess of the season.

Hello fellow wanderers,

It has been awhile. I have been walking in the energies of the world, learning every day but I have not been present with you. So, here we are again. St. Johns Wort (Hypericum Perforatum) showed up unexpectedly. This is one of my favorite ways to remember an old friend, they just drop by or rather I walk by and come to a full stop in their presence. St. Johns Wort holds a rather special place in my heart. It/they were my first “official”, as in ceremony, plant initiatory experience. I am still impacted by that experience and the changes within that occurred. I am going to relay a portion of that experience here, because the plant asked me to.

(Side note on plant initiations; there is a common cultural belief that you can only work with and experience the energies or spirit of the plant through the use of hallucinogenic plants, this is not true. More information on these deep listening plant initiations can be found via a variety of teachers; Pam Montgomery, Jen Frey, Carrolle Guyett and more. AND whatever type of plant experience you are called to is exactly right for you, even creating your own 😊).

Plant initiations are often a death and rebirth of sorts. This does not always happen but most of the time you walk out a different person. The presence and essence of the plant lives within and inside you. When I walked into the St. Johns wort initiation I left a different person. The experience healed a deep rift that I held inside me. That rift was knowing that I was unwanted. I never felt wanted within my family constellation. This was a deep wound and a tender one. St. John’s Wort held my soul and gave me a new perspective in the gentlest of ways. I had the experience of seeing all life, every mosquito, ant, bird being birthed and wanted. It didn’t matter how long that life was on the planet, or the value that I as a human assigned to it. Those lives were wanted and had purpose through their unique expression of their current embodiment. This experience profoundly changed me because that wound inside me healed, I knew in my bones all life had purpose and was here because it came from the creation of love. That change in perspective became a knowing a new anchor to create. So, here we are bearing a piece of our souls in a remembrance and thanksgiving to one of the many green beings that profoundly changed me and all of us, consciously or unconsciously through their existence and being alive.

St. John’s Wort or St. Joan’s Wort helps us to see the world in new ways. It changes our lens. If you look through the leaves into the light, you can see through them because of the oil glands present in the leaf. Most plant leaves are rather opaque. One of the many lessons of St. John’s Wort is receiving a new perspective because we tend to hold our viewpoints and beliefs tightly. These views and beliefs will determine what we experience in our world and creative lives. Plants like St. Johns Wort gently allow us to put down the ego, and self-righteous of our previous knowing to lay down our old stories. Our stories are our personal Jesus on the cross, the experiences we come back to over and over. We are always right; our brain waves and thoughts will create our reality. This plant helps us to see past and through those limitations of previous trauma and experience to bring in something new, through changing our orientation and lens thereby creating a new experience in our worlds. This is a profound medicine, and St. John’s Wort is asking us some tough questions.

1. Where do you keep getting hung up?
2. What do you need to step past this current sticking point?
3. What would life be like with this new lens?

Wander well friends.

Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) (Part 2)

When I first walked with this plant almost 11 years ago, I was a brand new to the energy world. I had just started exploring this path and had not yet achieved my plant legs or plant chops 😊. Here we are an entire +++ cycle later and returning to our roots or more aptly spores. Horsetail chose to be my ally and picked me. It was a profound experience, and you never forget your first loves. Firsts contain the most beautiful type of magic. Now, I am sitting into a new cycle so very many years later, exploring newness and firsts again, how amazing. First moments with new friends, adventures, loves, they are all special. First are important because they can determine if you go back to the well for seconds or thirds. Firsts can make or break a relationship or moment, but that is not always the case. Firsts can also be the steppingstone for seconds, or thirds, into deeper relationship if we are unsure and need more time to settle into a new possibility. Horsetail is our ally here, helping us to remember to step into each first with intention by asking ourselves:

What do I want to experience?

What is my intention in this space?

What can I claim?

From here Horsetail can scrub a dub dub what is in the way of holding and centering into our intention that we desire and called forth. We are reminded that all moments are actually new, every breath is a full cycle of living, including the release (death). No moment is every exactly the same, no day, no person, not even the air. We are being encouraged to consciously own our moments. Remembering that, I, we, have the power to choose our experience by claiming it and the power to walk away if the environment cannot support that experience. To claim something, we must be clear about what we want and be able to support the intention. This is the first steps in sacred creation, the awareness the desire, intention, and support, equals creation.

Horsetail is our structural teacher. The environment and elemental make-up cannot be ignored, because if they are out of balance then we cannot hold what we claim, it will fall apart. So, claim from love and sacred longing, a place of substance so there is a well of energy that can be fed to make manifest what we desire. We will not have the internal strength to be present for long enough for our desire to unfold if we cannot feed, sustain or support the “what”.

Horsetail grows in sunny ish places, it requires light, light is awareness and warmth, this is the starting place. Then we need structural supports, minerals, Horsetail brings up minerals from the deep and shares them, then utilizes them to grow upright and fulfill its sacred purpose. We are water and must center ourselves in a place where we can receive from the emotional well but not swept away by it. Just enough water to feed and fuel our growth bringing the desire through ourselves but not drowning in it. Air to voice and disperse our longing, find the right place for us to achieve our desire. Location is key. Horsetails often can be found along the edge of fields, near water, along the banks of a sunny water way, in a ditch. Horsetail shows us how to grow along our own inner roadways of flow, finding the right spot inside of ourselves. Encouraging us to pay attention to where our desire lives and grows.

Horsetail is offering both transmission of sorts and extending a welcome to you. You may choose to invite horsetail in to ally with you during your day, to support you in the act of conscious co creation. Ask Horsetail to be with you and present with you throughout your daily experience by inviting them in, there is myriad of ways to do so, tea, tincture, intention or say: “I wish invite horsetail into my life to support me during this day to …”. The iteration of invitation doesn’t matter, intentionality does.

May you create from joy, may your day grow in beauty, wander well friends.

Horsetails are an old plant (https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/field-horsetail-a-plant-as-old-as-time), ancient even, and this is important because it remembers its various iterations of experience on this planet.

Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) (Post 1)

Hello fellow wanderers, Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) is our ally today. It is interesting and profound how flow works. I had a beautiful post all geared up and ready to be released but I heard, felt the need to pause because the medicine was still unfolding. This is often how medicine, wisdom, flow works, it winds its way into and through our pathways so we can understand more fully its many faces.

This will be an exploration of this unfolding because Horsetail works that way in the collective, its age helping us remember that truth, discernment and wisdom take time, the wind blowing is just a moment, the gale passes, the flood recedes, or our essence spirit remain. Our purpose is to remain centered in the knowingness that discomfort passes and be present with ourselves. The purpose of centeredness is to allow us to find our truth within the experience and act from our truth. Horsetails environment gives us a clue on how it holds its center because it is often found along banks, ditches, fields that are often overflowed or boggy. These growth locations are a teaching on all their own:

Where can you grow?

What is your ideal environment to thrive?

What do you need to remain centered?

In the right environment, centeredness is easy because we have all the elements we need. The environment supports the release, the growth, the occasional unpredictability which is life. When the environment doesn’t work for us and we are thrown off center or simply outgrow it we disperse. Here Horsetail shows us how to do so. It is a sporous plant, not a flowering plant. This wisdom of the spore is to move, jump, fly and burrow. Allowing movement and relocation in order to grow. Not every spore will survive and thrive because not every environment is suitable for its growth. This is true for our thoughts, that can be like spores, not every thought is life affirming. Not every emotion is meant to be responded to or should be allowed to grow and take root. We choose what we allow, we choose how we respond and that takes time, truth, wisdom and discernment. Feeling something out, allowing yourself to experience the environment, action, person, once the emotion and newness settles back into its banks. What remains? What is true?

Enjoy this horsetail spore video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaIUd6nUzwE&t=149s

Wander well friends.

See the spores that walk and jump Like ferns, horsetails (Equisetum) do not produce seeds. They produce spores instead. The spores are produced in a beautiful structure called the strobilus. ...

Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) comes to us today as our fellow wanderer in transformation. She assist us in remembering how to push through our own toxicity – transforming it into life.

There are times that we need a bit of help. We get stuck in our own toxic patterns and ways of being that do not bring us joy. We have a hard time getting out of our own way and stew in our failed habits due to ineffective pathways. Or we hit our head against the wall over and over instead of taking a step back and looking for the door. We have all been in this place and there is always a better way with some space and some help. One of the most amazing ally’s in this space is Japanese Knotweed, this is a plant those doesn’t stew. She gets right into those edges and takes in all that toxicity and transforms it. In the Book “Invasive Plant Medicine” by Timothy Scott he discusses at length the amazing benefits that Japanese Knotweed provides in the environment. She bioremediates massive amounts of toxicity on the edges of roads, ditches and other places that tend to accumulate toxins. This is such an important indicator of how Japanese Knotweed can work with us as medicine, she helps us to keep our edges/roadways/pathways clear of toxins so they don’t drain poison into the larger system. Japanese Knotweed takes this funk and grows, remediates and transforms it into something inert and usable. Then, creates the most beautiful flowers and feeds the bees through her flowers further supporting transformation by calling in the vibration of yet another being that takes flight, and transforms nectar into honey (sweetness) through a collective conscious co creation. At the same time bringing new life to the plants through pollination so they may continue their cycle. This process is a full cycle of creation, and if left undisturbed each being helping the other thrive. When can invite in the help of the spirit of Japanese knotweed to soak up what has poisoned us in the past, keep our roadways clear to allow new patterns to emerge to find our own joy. This healthier process provides us the clarity to step into and embrace our fullness, our creative cycles and expression.

My teenager was stuck in this cycle today. She got some disappointing news, she wanted to go into a depression, which is her pattern and pull in. I stepped into the energy of Japanese Knotweed and we chose a different path, a pathway of movement and transformation a pathway of choosing what to allow in, how she wanted to be in the world, and what to do in the moment to take control of her internal environment. We all get to choose how we want to engage internally and externally. Yes, the toxicity was there but she had a choice to use the disappointment as fuel or allow it to sink her. She chose to use the learning experience as fuel and moved through into a new pathway of potential. This is the power of choice, we get to decide how we react to an experience, and how we want it to shape us.

Japanese Knotweed asks us:

What will you choose?

Wander well toads, may your roads be clear and your steps merry.

Exposure! Ugh, gross, no thank you anddddd, keep it moving buster.

We are going talk about exposure. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is our friend in these spaces. They can find even the smallest crack to grow and will sprout from their long tap root if not dug up entirely. On my city scape walk I found a beautiful example of exposure, around the base of a tree, the top of the roots had been exposed. We are so used to seeing dirt up to the trunk or mature roots overcoming their bonds in the city, this was jarring and appeared to be a deliberate intervention. I felt the exposure viscerally as the most sensitive parts of this being were starting to be uncovered. The outlier was this one Dandelion blooming within this soil disruption holding space for others to come in and join, to transform.

This soil disruption, such a simple thing, brings us to the universal experience of being exposed in our lives, through the sharing of secrets that have come to light or our deep fears rearing their heads. Some hidden part of us was uncovered and brought into the world for inspection. This is often accompanied by vulnerability and shame. We, as a species, love to project, judge, cast out, blame, other and pretend we are different from one another. But we all want belonging and community. We perpetuate separation by saying “we are not like them”, and putting ourselves in groups based on preferences. While there is nothing wrong with hanging with your homies, Dandelion, like toad, is always in a wider community. You may see a field of Dandelions, but they are never alone, never by themselves. When you see a lone Dandelion they are not alone for very long, they like company and variety. They share space with the collective and they wander, they walk, they fly and travel all over. Dandelions left to their own devices are a universal connector species in the places they grow. They make way for others and for more of themselves, they can be big or small. When they arrive at a new location they bloom and announce their presence. They wave their yellow heads and say: “here we are, and we are amazing”. You can’t miss a Dandelion in a field of green. Dandelion is always in community and continues to create community without shame. Dandelions show us how to be present in ourselves and our bodies without shame. They show up in perfectly manicured lawns. They show up relentlessly. So relentlessly that people have resorted to pesticides, flame throwers and every other manner of extraction and eradication. We do this too, we try to hide our shame, secrets through projections, actions, covering it up, disassociating, so many tricks to mask what we deem unworthy of love in ourselves, what we do not want to be exposed.

I felt that level of exposure when interacting with this tree, and it sat on those places where I judge myself to be unworthy. Where I have secrets, desires, or places that I don’t share with the world for fear of judgement. Judgement is such a powerful tool of separation from ourselves and from others. It is a universal experience and deeply embedded within the human collective. So many people are controlled by systems, families, through the use of shame and judgment, being found unfit, the natural progression is to then cast out and other (i.e. punish). Ugh! No wonder this is such a difficult experience to talk about. We can reclaim our truths by owning these experiences because they have allowed us to grow, learn, and become better versions of ourselves even if they were painful or didn’t fit the norm. Dandelion again is our ally here, to bring about not only the universal grace of belonging but the grace to release the shame that we keep locked within that keeps us in the binds of judgement. Dandelions bitter root serve as medicine to release those places within that need to be brought into the light, exposed and transmuted. This doesn’t have to be a public process. It is as simple as sitting with a Dandelion and seeking counsel. Asking Dandelion to show us how to grow in a new environment, maybe you’re sick of getting mowed down (or mowing yourself down) and blooming near the earth. Maybe you want to be big in the world, in your life. Maybe you simply want to outgrow the confines of judgement to allow for something new. Dandelion will fly you there.

Dandelion asks us:

What are you holding that needs to be transformed?

Where do you want to grow?

What do you need to allow yourself grace to let it go?

Happy wandering friends and much love.

Wanders 😊

It has been an interesting experience to watch the flow in the world. Mugwort our dear friend (Artemisia Vulgaris) is walking with and toward us again. As the world is shifting, we shift. The seasons shift, environments change, that is part of the process of growth and destruction. Systems collapse and are rebuilt. Sometimes by intervention, sometimes they have reached the end of their life cycle, but no system is stagnant, and no environment is never ending. As we are in the process of change and are part of the human collective we are reminded by Mugwort that the earth does not tolerate a void. She covers herself from when change occurs it doesn’t matter what the cause is, she is always seeking rebalancing. There is a community of rebalancers that we see in cities, you know them well, they are scorned and stepped on and often outcast. We, humanity, often attempt to degrade and desecrate them for defying our ego and determining what of we deem important to belong in a space or environment. How dare a Chicory or Dandelion grow from a crack. How dare Mugwort cover this area where I want, desire to plant, grow, and contain another living to this patch of ground. This may not be your thought process, but this is the reality for large parts of the human collective. Interestingly this is a human problem because the earth, the plants, don’t care, they grow where they are called. The earth calls them in. One of the most amazing books ever written on this subject was “Invasive Plant Medicine” by Timothy Lee Scott.

I was walking in the city, where I live, and I noticed a piece of dirt. You have all seen it, the patch of dirt near the edge of the sidewalk that a tree is occasionally squeezed into and some grass is allowed to grow, maybe, and only if the conditions are right. But to my delight I saw the rebalances in their full glory. The community of Mugwort, Dandelion, Plantain, crabgrass, yellow dock and whoever else could find room. They all have their biological and spiritual purposes; they all fill a role and work together to help reweave what has been shifted. My ego would like to assume the earth never agreed to the terms that we impose upon her. However, humanity is part of the earth collective and belongs. So, I spend more time pondering my relationship with these systems and living beings. What is my responsibility as a person living within a system that I participate in but didn’t create.

Mugwort embraces the opportunity for change because there are moments of exposure where the original foundation wasn’t good and change shakes up and brings to light that which has been structurally unsound. Most systems fail because they are out of integrity, somewhere along the way they started to rot. This may in fact be part of nature’s process just as a you will find a tree rotting from the inside and eventually falling over. The structure is no longer in service to the whole. Or as we watch a forest evolve from one species of tree cover to another. It is out of FEAR we try to hold to what was, try to prevent that natural evolution that is part of natural law. There is always a rebalancing that occurs, but the system will be forever shifted.

Mugwort is encouraging us to spend time in the bittersweetness of this death and rebirth cycle. Asking us to be gentle as we watch what has been turn into what was. She also reminds us that the earth, natural law does tolerate a void and her and the other rebalancers will be there to stabilize the system as it evolves.

Mugwort asks us what are you holding onto out of fear?

What do you need to let go and allow?

And gently suggest we get by with a little help from your friends and lean into our supports.

Happy wanderings.

Time for Something New!

For the last several years I have been granted the beautiful opportunity to harvest Nettles (Urtica dioica). Sometimes it happens late in the season and sometimes earlier. As I move into the Nettle space again, I am being reminded of its medicine, presence. If you have had the opportunity to work with, sit with, ingest or generally spend time with this plant you know that you have to be present, in the moment, and aware. Nettles has little stingers on it, very much like a bee. A person can handle nettles without gloves, but in my experience, you wind up with numb hands. It is quite possible I have not yet achieved the level of enlightenment, 😉presence and awareness necessary to interact without being stung.

Why is the sting important? What does nettles do? On body level so many things, anti-inflammatory, full of minerals, etc. But we are not here to just speak about its amazing physical medicine but its spiritual one. While presence cannot be overlooked and maybe its primary action, the underlying structural changes it brings forward on a spiritual level are equally important and contribute to its overall effect. Nettles runs, much like Mugwort and can overtake her if the patches compete side by side. Nettles not only reproduces by runner but also by seed and has beautiful miniscule flowers. Why is this important? Because when we are trying to change deeply entrenched patterns we need to be,
1. Present
2. Supported
3. Nourished
4. Repattern / Reseeded

Presence brings awareness, changing the pattern requires a new plan or blueprint, we must call in support to walk forward, and finally a new way of being must grow through our actions. Nettles is down for that. That is their jam.

They are asking me to share a bit, and I am reluctant, very reluctant, too much vulnerability terrifies me, and this is about them and not me. But we learn through story so here it is…I recently chose to start exploring a new relationship, into the process I realized that my picker was off, the people that I was tuned to and chose were in alignment with an old pattern. Hence, I am in pause and a recentering in my life to shift this pattern. This is Nettle medicine. I took an action, became aware that what wasn’t working and chose to change the pattern.

There are so many ways to work with Nettle in the body which supports the soul so, if you want to explore, and get your hands dirty than the website Grow, Forage, Cook and Ferment has a great post you can find here: https://www.growforagecookferment.com/stinging-nettle-recipes/

Nettles asks us:
What do you need to be present in this moment?

What isn’t working right now?

What baby step can you take to create a new path?

Happy Wandering friends :)

Nettles updates: After harvesting I was drawn deeply to the roots, to work with Nettles to create medicine from the roots alone. This approach is not one that I would normally consider because I feel like the whole is important. The isolation of the root was a learning about pulling up patterns entirely, moving Nettles out from some of the gardening areas required this level of excavation. I am being called to make medicine from the roots, add it into salves for things that run, add it into tincture formulas to help support systemic change. I am still in the process of exploring these teachings, but we were asked to add this new awareness in. Nettles can work in conjunction with or as part of a support system to create change in our lives.

Magic and Miracles

We are here today to talk about Magic and Miracles. Blood Root Sanguinaria Canadensis called. Oh, she called. We saw her last year hiking in Lake Windwing, big patches of her. Which, is totally unexpected. Most of the time you only see one or two if your lucky. She has a very specific environment, you will find her in dappled light near and in between stones, often growing around wells. Her habitat is endangered and she has long been in retreat. But in those magical protected spaces untouched and left alone, if the circumstances are right she will flourish. Her flourishing brought us out, on a cold April day with snow still on the ground, in the rain, but in reverence to honor and be present with her flowering. We were determined to see her and not miss the magic of the moment.

We tracked through the woods following the trails until a tug took us off path and led us exactly where we needed to be. There she was, in this old stone cabin that was nothing more than a foundation. We stood in that magical half circle in wonder and awe, not only was she growing in abundance but flowering. We bowed in recognition of this small miracle. The miracle of the set of circumstances that led us to be in the container of her presence.

She wants us to define a miracle - It is not complicated - the harmonious functioning of a system in flow with its purpose. We make it complicated because we shut down so many things for a variety of reasons and too many to list. The magic was the sequence of events that led to this small miracle, and there were many, this is was the recipe;

Women were circling a week before the hike, having coffee and enjoying each other

Blood root called us in our group conversation

We made a plan to find her

We remembered where she was

We chose to follow that pull in hopes of catching her in flower

We showed up

We followed our intuition, off roaded, and landed up squarely where we were meant to be

There are so many things that could have gone wrong or gotten mucked up but we followed the call of our souls in a collective honoring of another. All of it was a miracle. The Magic was the sequence of events leading up to the Miracle. The Magic was each piece in the sequence co creating a collective container where this even could take place. This led to a release of resistance, allowing us to honor what we wanted, needed and were being led. We could have diverted due to the weather, the rain, so many things but we didn't.

There is so much medicine here. We are being reminded that we can get caught up in our beliefs and idea of perfection. We could have waited for a sunny day, or not gone because one in our group was unable to attend. So, many opportunities to say no. The yes, was so strong that the idea of turning back never crossed our minds. Part of the medicine is the pilgrimage, the loosing of the resistance, not the discounting of it, but putting it ins its rightful place. The soul level nutrition of presence with ourselves and another. The support of the community, carrying each other, collectively nourishing the group container. We found ourselves full, full of spirit, full of miracles, full of wonder.

Lets speak about magic for a moment. Magic is a recipe. It is the inputting of life affirming idea, desire, intention and action into a container with the intention of expressing it. The best magic happens in harmony with our desires, our wants, needs, and clear intention. If we are in alignment with all of these things the magic expresses itself easily through the event (miracle/creation) in the moment. It is the union of will and spirit into form.

We can get mucked up with magic too, get all in our heads and not in our hearts, our joy, our desires. We forget our life force, our expressions are precious. The environment you need to express yourself must be protected and tended. Blood root has so much wisdom for us. She asks us:

What do you need to flourish, to express your souls desire in this moment?

What is the next step in your magical recipe?

What can you allow to come into form that will feed you? Nourish you? Sustain you? In honoring of the miracle that is you.

May all that you create bring you joy. Happy wandering.

(More Blood Root info below)
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/bloodroot-sanguinaria-canadensis/ #:~:text=Bloodroot%2C%20used%20medicinally%20by%20Native,across%20open%20in%20early%20spring.