For so many, raised in communities that instill feelings of separation and alienation, the secret wisdom of nature goes largely unnoticed. For sensitive individuals like myself who sometimes retreat into protective energetic postures to keep from being overwhelmed, we may feel like there is something very wrong with us. But what happens when we remember the existence of our deeply grounding energetic root systems as we surrender ourselves in vulnerability to the seas of ecological intelligence that flow all throughout this world and beyond? How can botanical allies such as Quaking Aspen, Devil's Club, and Yarrow help us appreciate this gift of sensitive interconnectivity as we reclaim our intimacy with life and more fully participate in creating conditions for the thriving of all beings on this planet?

Presented at the Fairy and Human Relations Congress July 23, 2021

The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Plants for Opening Sensitive Perception

We are, we are, we are, we are
We are, we are, we are, we are

We are walking in the noon day light
Praising all this vibrant life

Singing under starry skies
Dreaming through these moonlit eyes

We are children of the ocean blue
Flowing with the phasing moon

We are standing tall in our green truth
Firmed in branch in leaf in seed and root

We are, we are, we are, we are
We are, we are, we are, we are

We are, we are the ancient ones
We are, we are the newly born

We are the force that moves through all life
The fecund dark, the guiding light

We are the tears that fall as our world dies
The voice inside that asks us why

In this silence may we feel
As these horrors are being revealed
Let us sing now for the life that’s gone
Grieving for the forgotten ones

We are, we are, we are
We are, we are, we are
We are, we are the forgotten ones 
Remembering the ones who are to come

We Are The Forgotten Ones

On this path of pain and misery
With so much suffering still to come
It is the turning of our world
We are returning to the world
On this path of sorrow and suffering
The Time of Remembrance has come

Secure in our respect for natural law
In forces of transformation and change
Everywhere we turn
We find renewal and rebirth
Death is not denial of life
It is life remembering to prepare for another bloom

If we cannot look inside ourselves
Will we ever truly see?
We find our true beauty
Reflected in this mystery
Turning our gaze to the moonlight
We find the flowering of what wants to be

Through acceptance of our circumstance
Understanding forms and flows
All one heart your guiding light
From the depths of the eternally wild
Into the dark, toward the unknown
What is emerging may yet come to be

Shaking, quaking, releasing let go
We commune with the community of life
In the whispering of her leaves
In the dancing of her trees
Remembering ourselves individually
And collectively in who we must be

As our world falls apart
We are remembering who we are
The singers have sung their songs
It’s time for us to sing along 
In the memory of our bodies
Lives the wisdom of this living Earth

The Time Of Remembrance

Someone once shared with me that they enjoy studying with me because I don't just talk about plants, I become them. This animistic practice which we might call plant spirit mediumship permeates the soils of all the work that I do as a holder of space and in my estimation forms part of the foundation of our human capacity to learn. As we explore empathetic relationship and shared embodiment, how can we dispel the culturally imprinted shame of sharing intimate psychic and energetic space with plants and other of our nonhuman kin? And how can we create conditions for mutually enlivening interspecies cohabitation? We will call upon some of our botanical allies to answer these questions and more as they help to orient us on this path of presence and fluid being.

Presented at the Fairy and Human Relations Congress (https://www.fairycongress.com) July 24, 2021

Image by Holly Wilmeth (https://www.hollywilmeth.com)

Becoming Plant: Embodying Vegetal and Archetypal Energetics

(JM, 2011)

Down going down
Take me down
To the brown
To the murk of my birth
Where we float underground

Where your buds of promise lie
Where all words slip away
To the silt and the snake
Where your hands wrap me in

So that I may bloom again

Pond Lily

Presented at the NW Herbal Fair August 21, 2022

Restoring Relationship With Our Wild Sensitive Selves

Presented at the Gaian Congress (https://gaiancongress.org) January 22, 2023

Opening ourselves to Gaia—the organizing intelligence that guides the formation and dissolution of mountains and forests, the migrations of animals across the globe, and the timely emergence of leaves and flowers—offers us opportunities to release our grip on human-centered orientations to life.

As we commune with and invite this wisdom into our beings, how might we better understand the fullness of our human existence and more actively participate with the prayer of the lands in which we live? Who might we become if we cultivate these relationships and align ourselves with these forces on a daily basis? In what ways might we bow down to and rise up in service with these intelligent forces as we allow these living expressions of Earth’s wisdom to infuse our beings?

Please join us as we gather in a space of experiential unknowing to find our way into a deeper and more broad understanding of these questions and what it means to inhabit our greater ecological selves.

The Prayer of the Land: Aligning with the Emergent Wisdom of Time and Place

We are all mediums to one degree or another. Many people drawn to working with plants are quite sensitive carriers of energy. When the gift of mediumship is not understood and the responsibilities are not fully accepted, many discomforts and challenges may be experienced in life, but by cultivating relationships with the spirits of the plants, we can bring ourselves to a place of balance where our sensitivities are no longer a hindrance. As we offer ourselves as vessels to carry and transmit the healing energies of the plants, we collaborate with them to effect the deep healing of others. Join me in imagining a community of healer mediums dedicated to manifesting the spiritual and energetic medicine of the plant kingdom.

Plant Spirit Mediumship

Presented at the 2016 Lost Secrets of Renaissance Medicine Conference...

Offering their support to humanity, representatives of the plant kingdom, each an embodiment of deep spiritual and practical wisdom, are calling out for our attention. Gain a deeper understanding of the nature of plant--human relationships as we discuss and experience practical steps for developing and strengthening relationships with these wild, Pacific Northwest native plant allies.

Communing With Plant Teachers: Wisdom from our Allies in the Wild

Presented at the 2015 Lost Secrets of Renaissance Medicine Conference...

Juniper, as the living embodiment of the Christ energy, shows us avenues of awakening via acceptance of and alignment with the Divine Will and surrender to the Universal Light. We will call upon Juniper to illuminate our study of the initiatory and healing power of the Christ as portrayed by the Gnostics, Renaissance Christianity, and Rudolf Steiner.

Juniper and the Christic Initiatory Impulse

My Father is the Sun
My Father is the Mountain
And my Mother 
Is the waters of the sea

We are the people of the Alder
We are the the children of the trees
We give and we receive
For the generations that will be

My Mother is the Moon
She guides and cares for me
Oh my father
Please align and protect me

The People Of The Alder

Presented at the 9th Annual Portland Plant Medicine Gathering Nov. 12 2017...

Even though many in our culture do not cultivate relationships with or honor our ancestors or the spirits of the lands in which we live, the ancestral forces are making themselves available to guide us through these turbulent times. Many of our current challenges, including an understanding of who we are or of how we relate as humans to the greater web of life is, may be attributed to a lack of relationship to these beings. In this class we will discuss ways to make these connections and the Plant Teachers who can help facilitate the renewal of these relationships. We will focus on the teachings of Alder who initiates the restoration of devastated land and inspires us to repair the inner devastation wrought by the dominant industrial culture. Come join me in singing songs of remembrance to make way for the spirits of renewal.

We Are The People Of The Alder: Restoring Ancestral Roots in a Clear-cut Culture

Presented at Planting the Future, a benefit gathering to celebrate the 25th anniversary of United Plant Savers on June 15 2019 in Williams, OR...

How are rising temperatures, extended periods of drought, erratic seasonal transitions, and other factors of the Earth's changing climate impacting wild plant communities and the ecosystems in which they/we live, and how as wildcrafters will we adapt our harvesting practices to reflect this new reality? As we bear witness to the increasingly evident human-caused planetary crises spurred on by techno-industrial civilization, is it enough to simply alter the way we assess and plan for the long-term health and vitality of ecosystems from which we may potentially harvest wild plants, or might we simultaneously practice wildcrafting as a way of transforming the fundamental ways we relate to wild nature and the community of all life? And how might engaging in regenerative wildcrafting practices call forth expanded, intensified, and embodied modes of perception that will allow us to more deeply connect and intimately engage with local and bioregional ecological intelligence, consciously develop relationships of mutually beneficial reciprocity with the living world, and be present to the Earth community in more enlivening ways as we increase our understanding of and participation with inherent processes of bio-system rejuvenation?

Wildcrating In A Warming World: Towards Regenerative Practices for Life in the Anthropocene

Our ever-present birth
Whispers in the wind
I'm your ever-present birth
Hear me whisper in the wind

The renewal of all life
Is dancing in the wind
I'm the renewer of all life
Feel me dancing in the wind

Singing songs of joy
Vibrating with all life
We are the song of joy
We are vibrating with all life

I'm always here with you
Everywhere you go
Reflections of our heart
The shining of our soul

We Are The Song Of Joy

Honoring, listening
Step by step we pray along
Bowing down to meet the ground
In remembrance we walk

Arms up high, raised to the sky
Praise the stars and Mother Moon
Calling the crystal tears of the ancient ones
To bless these lands we walk

In Remembrance We Walk (Sagebrush)

Yarrow, Hey, Yarrow, Ha (4x)
Hey Yarrow, Hey Yarrow, Hey Yarrow, Ha (2x)

Yarrow Clearing Song

Dig-ah-wah-nee-day (4x)

I am a child,
I am a child of yours

Dig-ah-wah-nee-day

I sing to you
To remember everyday

Dig-ah-wah-nee-day

Redcedar Song

In the splendor of these forests
Find your love and find your light

Find your place, find your way
The time it has arrived

We are here to assist you
To make a new life

Trust your body, it remembers
It is wise and will lead the way

These are the teachings of the forest
Gather strength from this good ground

Everybody pay attention
Firm yourselves in the new life

The Teachings of the Forest

Your roots anchored deeply
Your head in the sky
Bring us your comfort
Holy peace of the mind

The Balsam of Heaven
Rains down from the sky
To heal every wound
With it’s divine light

Waves of change, waves of change
Wash over me
Strengthen my heart
And wash me clean

Earth, water, fire
The wind’s song to bless
Held in your arms
We will pass every test


The Balsam of Heaven (Cottonwood)

We sing to you in the night
We sing to you in the wind
Just listen for us, we are always with you
When you sing you are never alone

When you sing you are never alone
Hear the voices, they’re calling you home
My child we are here, there is nothing to fear
Find us dancing with joy in the wind

We Sing to You (Aspen)

Here they come, here they come
Here they come, here they come
Here they come gather ‘round the Tree of Life

Riding in, riding in on the wind
Riding in, riding in on the wind
Riding in on wings of light

Here They Come

Grandfather
Watch over me
Grandfather
Give me the strength to see
Give me peace and give me light
Forever to watch over me

Grandfather, hear my call
From the desert I’m calling your name
Grandfather, please hear my call
With great love I call out your name
Guide me and show me my way
Forever a child of yours

With the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
In the presence of this Holy Light
With the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
I present myself to the Holy Light
May the power and the force of the Earth
Forever invigor my heart

Grandfather Juniper

I am the Forest, I am the Water
I am the fluid, you are the blood

Give me your love, receive my love
Receive the forest, deep in your heart

I am the Forest

(Kathryn, 2010)

White Owl, White Owl 
Flying in the moonlight
Through the ancient forest
You bring me sight

White Owl, White Owl
Flying through my dreams
Grandmother you protect
And guide me

White Owl

(Amy, 2011)

Beautiful, beautiful
Queen Mother, Queen Mother

Beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful, Queen Mother

Beautiful, strong and tall
Dignity you shine

Dogwood, Queen Mother
Dogwood, you shine

You are here, standing tall
Exuding light before me

You are here, Queen Mother
You are here beside me

And I am here standing firm
Centered by your side

I am here by your side
I am here, Queen Mother

Beautiful, Dogwood
Queen Mother, you shine 

Beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful, Queen Mother

Beautiful Queen Mother (Dogwood)

(Sommer, 2012)

Sun, River, Cedar, Snow
I am journeying to the Center

Balancing; life’s challenging
I am returning to the Source (through)

Hey nah, wey nah, hey nah ho
Hey nah, wey nah, hey nah ho

When I don’t know I just let go
And press my spine against her bark

She tells me to be quiet now
Breathing in and praying out

Hey nah, wey nah...

And she receives me as I am
A daughter of her Forest Clan

Hey nah, wey nah...

Sun, River, Cedar, Snow

Ashusha, you are radiant beauty floating here (3-5x)

May you be blessed
May you grow strong
May you guard the forest long

May your spirit
hold our hearts here
In the arms of our forest dear

Ashusha Radiant

(JM, 2011)

Greetings Father Sun
May you rise and complete me
Beginning this day
I humbly thank you

Greetings Ancestors
Who guard all this land
We honor and serve you (praise you)
Please be with us (smile on us)

Ancestor Song

I sing in the forest
A song of red, gold, and green
Singing praises to Ashusha
Bringing light to show the way

Once forgotten, you are remembered
May your children bless this land
Returning to the journey
Finding you, we find our way

Ancestor spirits of the forest
Of the mountains
The desert, the sky, and the sea
We call you here now
Bring us your teaching
We call you here now
Bring us your healing

I Sing in the Forest

(Sommer, 2012)

Lifeblood
Dogwood
Mother Crone

Maiden Mother
Flowering Illuminatrix
Flowersing!
Maiden Mother
Flowering Illuminatrix

Illuminatrix
Flowersing
Illuminatrix
Flowersong

Full moon Sun bright
Forest Queen
Pure Light
Guiding mother
Rooted Spirit
Heal us all

Guiding mother
Rooted Spirit
Heal us all

Esqueci (Dogwood)

Ashusha
Protect the holy places
Defend our healing grounds
Liberate us from our sorrows
Liberate us from these devils
That want to bring us down

Ashusha
Anoint me with the Queen’s love
Restore my faith in love
Liberate me from my worries
Liberate me from these weary thoughts
That want to bring me down

Ashu, Ashu, Ashu
Ashu, Ashu, Ashusha

Ashusha (Devil's Club)

The School of Forest Medicine provides people with opportunities to find and connect with their plant allies and brings people to places where they can remember their living bond with the elemental forces of nature. By working to restore authentic initiatory rites we are doing our part to prepare the way for our children and grandchildren to live in an intact culture, fully attuned to the cultural and spiritual matrix of the earth so they will know who they are and what they are here to do.

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