My Plant Bewitchment

I was only 6 years old when I first heard the whispering of plants. They spoke to me during my backyard playtime, medicinal stews were brewed with weeds and the rhododendron kept me safe in my secret fortress out front.. The plants and flowers would sing their magical runes, I was enchanted and the weaving began.

My first formal bewitchment was a two month internship 27 years ago at Hollyhock Retreat Center on Cortes Island, BC. Herbs, Reiki and the Five Elements. I was seduced, spellbound and forever altered. My summer love affair quickly flamed into an obsessive infatuation. Intoxicated and love sick, I took every course on herbs and energetic healing I could. 

I moved to New Mexico and then to California studying Herbology, Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture and the Five Elements . I interned with Sharon Feng, apprenticed with Micheal Tierra (in his private clinic); as well as Jeanine Pollack (holy schmoly, I scrubbed her fucking toilets!!!) and with Christopher Hobbs. Overly impassioned, I graduated from Five Branches Institute AND The American School of Herbalism AND Cypress Healing Arts Institute. 

Lustfully I wanted more. I flew to upstate New York and lived the summer with Susun Weed (Yes, I LIVED with that witch). I milked, and herded her goats. I made daily fresh goat cheese and prepared Plant Spirit medicinals. Susun screamed, yelled and hollered all day long while I studied the ways of the Shamanic Wise Woman. She taught me how to listen to the Plants, Trees, Flowers, Land, and Spirits. The shamanic herbal training was intense, frightful, and shadowy. It has taken me decades to integrate those long summer days on Laughing Rock Farm. However, the ways of the Wise Woman found home in my body and my friendships with the plants flourished. 

I finished grad school and was called to my ancestral homelands of Montana. There I planted and tended the BEST, most lovely herb garden of my life. My apothecary grew and grew and grew.. daily infusions, teas and horrible, nasty tasting congees..the plants sang loudly, with passionate urgency… and I faithfully listened.

My creativity ignited like never before. I was drunk with arousal…the scents, the colors, the tastes, the smells. I was receiving daily messages in prose of recipes, formulas, concoctions, and elixirs.

I eventually started my own medicinal herbal tea company, Angel Juice Herbs. I sold every single formula at the local Farmers Market. I even brewed a delicious love potion to entice and charm my husband, he drank a whole 2 gallons and my daughter was miraculously summoned!! (Yes, I am serious).

The North wind eventually blew us to Oregon, and  I founded Good Medicine Tea Company. My herbal tea blends were soon in cafes and stores all up and down the west coast (Even at Mt Hood Ski Resort and on Amazon!).

 My clinical practice of Chinese Medicine thrived and I frequently presented and taught at various herbal conferences around the Pacific Northwest. It was during the Summer Solstice Green Gathering on Camano Island that the spirit of Rose reached out and enraptured my heart. Rose showed me the delicacies of being a strong-independent woman and the complexities of fierce, unconditional Love. The Grace of Rose mesmerized me that day and I will forever be her devotee.

Two weeks later I brought Rose along with me on my Vision Quest in coastal Oregon..3 days we sat together in solitude and silence. Her Grace infused me with raw tenderness. We merged and I became the embodiment of compassion and mercy. I then understood viscerally the beauty of anguish and the exquisite lessons of pain. I was initiated as a Priestess of the Rose, and we have been intimate lovers ever since.  

During this time, my children were small and I had become a ferocious entrepreneur, workaholic: 4 businesses, 2 houses, employees, commercial property, renters, and 2 big gardens. All the while the plants kept singing. My morning meditations were essential, I prayed, I listened. and I slowed the eff down.

I followed guidance of the Plants found my current teacher, Tiffany Carole, an East Asian Shaman with a fever for Evolutionary Studies and 5 Element Shadow work. Enamored and enthralled I have been following her around the world for several years.. Mosswood Hollow, Ojai, Sri Lanka, Glastonbury, Sardinia.. apprenticing, studying, and living with the essences of plants and plant medicines.

My heart expanded, my intuition became stronger and my energetic-shamanic work intensified…and then my descent into the underworld began. Life changed dramatically. It was a loooong dark night of soul. Raw, vulnerable, naked…years of feeling lost, confused, stuck, stifled and suffocated. A full deconstruction of the ego, and with that came loss of hope, dreams, goals and desires. Bloody Hell,  I was a hot fucking mess.

It was with the help of my two loving mentors, powerful Shamans: Joan Jerman and Michelle Christensen, that I was able to crawl slowly out of my cave of self loathing and pity. They held the lantern and guided the way. Years of mentorship and oftentimes weekly phone calls of distant healing, journeywork, meditations, visualizations, and prayers. They called in their spirit guides, angels, teachers, ascended masters and other subtle energies from the outer realms. Their wisdom and reflections were essential for my growth, healing and evolution. I’m humbled, honored and forever grateful for their teachings and healing assistance.

My descent to the soul, also included the use of Sacred Plant Medicines and Assisted Psychedelic Therapy…the  psilocybin mushroom, ayahuasca, wachuma, ketamine, and microdoses of LSD,  I use these sacred plants and psychedelic medicines intentionally, ceremoniously and sometimes clinically. Sacred Plant Medicine combined with intentional prayer and a spiritual mindfulness/meditation practice is deeply profound, transformative and life saving.

Sooo here I am today, standing fully in my power as a Spiritual Mentor, Shamanic Healer and Plant Mystic.