EntheoBotanica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUt54zPk9_o

I'm very happy to finally share my presentation on Entheogenic herbalism at the 2022 EGA in Melbourne. It's only about 30 minutes, and I'd love for you to tune in to and have a watch.

Thank you to the volunteers who edited the talk together, and for the opportunity to share my work and understandings.

Entheogenesis Australis and Kahpi - Planting Psychedelic Seeds

Rachel Maree - A prescription of neurognostics: entheogenic herbalism Please subscribe, like and comment on our videos to show support for EGA, the free way to say thanks for our special charity 😊🍄🌵We also invite you to visi...

EntheoBotanica July Newsletter -

EntheoBotanica July Newsletter Hey there Plant Tribe, The cabbages are growing, the carrots are ready, we can rise the sourdough in the sun again. Lately I am enjoying the slowness of life, and homesteading with the family. Overall, it's been a pretty nasty Flu season this Winter, and I trust that everyone has plenty of Andrograp...

Working at this little haven of beauty brings so much love to my practice of herbalism.

Thanks

The beautiful veins of Acacia phlebophylla

THE SAP ::: I have wisdom within

The sap/resin of a plant is the water canals that run through the entire organism, a force deep within the body that permeates all. These solid feeling structures that make up our bodies are animated by water. Without it we become dry & lifeless.

Water can put out fire, move earth, uproot wood, & wear metal. It has lunar qualities, embraces darkness, can sit in stillness like an ocean cave or motionless lake, can roar like a raging rapid or crash like a tsunami. It has a way of finding the deepest channel to run through whilst moving as one body that can segment into infinite bodies. It can take the form of solid, vapour or liquid. The water is a shapeshifter; the most mysterious of all.

The quality of water available will dictate our health. Like the sap of a tree or the blood of a body, if the water is clean, health will follow as water delivers nutrients to where it needs to go. Water also delivers toxicity to the organisms & landscapes that purify such as the ocean’s bottom feeders or the kidneys & bladder. In this way, water is a vessel of receptivity to be filled with life.

When life split from the origin of source the Monad became the Dyad. Yang is a primal & original expression of Fire, whereas Yin is Water, 2 elements forever entangled in a balancing act. Water is the container & river of blood itself, fire is the heat & warmth of energy pumping through that blood from the heart. Fire is the attraction of the sexual organs & the yearning for life to create, Water is the container of the womb that life grows in, the inherited Jing or genetic life force buried within our DNA.

In the I-Ching Water is the inverse of Fire, with hollow edges and a solid centre, called ‘The Abysmal’, characterised by the drawing of energy inward & downward.

There is a holographic aspect to the Water - it holds the vibration of the entirety within it. The health of the river IS that of the ecosystem. The health of the ocean IS that of the planet. The egg & s***m of a human hold these qualities as well.

When I look at the surface of the Water I see a reflection, but when I dive below the surface there is another story of whale song below.

M A P A C H O

The jungle to***co - not to be breathed in just to be breathed through. The roots are so deep and grounding. The rich brown leaves ages and cured. When worked with as smoke the space clears, the mind clears, the path forward presents and can be read like a book of knowing. Offerings are made to the elder trees and at the places we meet and sit for ceremony.

And everywhere we go, the to***co smoke has been whisping through the airs. At which point were we human separate to our relationship with plants? It is not a thing.

Out breathe, I let go of there
In breathe, I arrive here

Available from the online store

Art by

***co ***co

THE FLOWER ::: I am abundant

A flower is a self contained collection of reproductive material able to seed the future. It’s role is to attract. It does this from an ancient primal place where the origins of beauty live. The dance of creation is an expression of Fire, where life is sparked from within, and birth created out of an incantation.

The primordial fire is the light that reaches back to the birth of the universe. Spirit cast into motion. It expresses, it moves, it enchants, it desires, it loves. This is the function of a flower, and it can be likened to our own sexual organs, but even more so to our hearts and the seat of consciousness within us. When life split from the origin of source, the Monad became the Dyad and yin & yang birthed. Yang is the primal and original expression of fire, whereas Yin is water.

The fire dances and enchants, it beats our very hearts. It is through this warmth that our bodies are animated with spirit, blood and rich redness. The fire is our culture and expression - the very act of engaging in it creates more of itself. It is the songs we lose ourself to and the dance that dances us. Without it, I wonder why we are here at all? What’s it all about if not for the pure expression of our creative life force bubbling out of us? Fire wakes us up in the morning. It is the child yearning to grow up & discover. It is the initiatory rituals that burn lessons into us & make us who we are.

In the I-Ching, the Fire trigram is also called The Clinging, and represented by solid outside lines, and a hollow centre for the air current to fuel the fire that must cling to the wood. For Fire to thrive, like a flower, it needs others. It needs to resource itself from the bees & insects, from the wind & wood, and requires an attractive quality to summon its needs.

Flowers are pure beauty & attraction that ignite feelings inside our hearts. They motivate healing. They encourage loving. And through this outward expression volcanoes erupt & the genetic information of life itself recreates and re-experiences itself. Life wants to live another day, & through a flower a plant will invest everything it has left to enchant us with the spell of life.

PART TWO...

So what’s the secret money saving answer to healing that will make you rich?

We trade our time for money, and we trade our money for other people’s time. But other people can’t make us healthy no matter how many supplements we buy, no matter how many massages we get. It’s not the otherness that’s doing the heavy lifting here - you must participate in the process. Which means you need to invest MORE than just money that was once your time, so now it costs you MORE TIME. And your participation in healing is so integral that if you slide more money across the table expecting it to solve your problems, you end up further and further from the goal posts.

When you invest into right relationship with yourself, it begins costing less and less money. Healing is more commitment than it is about investment, and that’s why sometimes when you pay a lot, you are so invested in the process that you have to show up because it actually became about commitment. If you give value, you create value. If you take value, you lose it. And remember, since money has no value you have to give MORE THAN MONEY for this to work.

You can’t outsource your health anymore than you can pay someone to go for a jog for you. It just doesn’t add up.

So my wrap up is.. invest your time into direct healing practices that you yourself develop and master over many hundreds of hours of practice and dedication and even sacrifice, and you might be closer to you positively geared health budget.

And that practice can be as simple as gardening, playing the guitar, or doing what you love from a truly authentic and vulnerable part of your heart.

PART ONE...

I like having money and I like spending money and I’d generally like more money. But more than that I like being healthy, I like feeling strong and I like thriving in a state of easeful embodiment.

So naturally I spend my money on things that lead me towards greater health. But the reality is, it just doesn’t always add up, and sometimes I’ve felt like it requires a huge financial investment to fund my pursuit of wellness. And that’s because… we just can’t outsource healing.

You see, money has many flaws, and one of them is its false sense of its value. It doesn’t actually have inherent value, but the more you pay, the more you expect it to be worth. And you know what they say about expectations! In fact, if you don’t pay enough, you don’t really give a sh*t, and if you pay a sh*tload, you act entitled. Both don’t equal healthy.

When money is traded for health services, it doesn’t mean those services will actually work. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that they won’t work alone and that they will ask more of you, like one of those apps that you bought for $7.99 and then it said you need to upgrade to the $19.99 package to use any of the functions. And since you already paid $7.99 and its practically unusable with the sheer amount of ads, you pay for the upgrade but now you don’t even really like the app. That’s you and your relationship with paying for the endless cost of healthy stuff. It adds up, and you constantly feel like you’ve never really healthy.

Health chasing.

In modern health you have to pay the entry fee in money, and then pay the surcharge with your time and effort. The trick is, that surcharge is the real deal saucy stuff we want. The hard won healing of effort.

So what’s the secret money saving answer to healing that will make you rich?

Check the next post...

What healing really feels like..

I work with people in varying degrees of sickness. Something I often hear my clients say is that they are…

“Ready to heal this!”

As a definitive statement. Stamped with a full stop. As if it’s a demand or a fact or something able to be wrangled into a sentence. Healing isn’t anything that can be commanded into a line. It’s one of the most non linear experiences you’ll ever grow through. It’s all consuming and sometimes completely invisible. It wakes you up at 3am and happens in the background of a dream rich sleep. It peaks and troughs in unbearable pain and insurmountable wisdom. It’s rich and precious and solely yours to learn. It costs you everything.

Another statement I hear is that someone is..

“Ready to let it go!”

What even is letting go? I think people focus too much on the go part of that statement and not enough on the letting. Go go go. They like the shortness, the one syllable, the rush of movement. Whereas the letting, well that’s a lot softer isn’t it. Allowing, surrendering, letting - It doesn’t have a lot of action or sharpness. So really it’s a process, of allowing and softening into a movement. And to be honest, that’s not what I’m feeling when I hear that statement being said to me.

If someone is really ready to soften, the whole body says it, the tone of voice certainly isn’t proclaiming it abruptly.

Often, when I hear these words said to me I feel inside myself a great void between the true reality and the mental noise in front of me. How can I guide this mind to dive into the chasm separating their optimism from their acceptance, their ideas and desires from nature’s truth? Are they really willing to hear the true cost of healing? That it’s a worldview, a pathway that never arrives, a practice, a process of infinite layers…

We’re going to need time. Thankfully we have so much of that, but only when you stop thinking about it.

As I’ve been reflecting on healing, of course I’ve been going through my own. A reminder that if you ever think you’ve got it, you’re at the moment before you lose it.

Health to me is my baseline, my birth rite, my centre point, my true beingness. And I’m constantly oscillating with it and through it. Sometimes I rest at the centre for a while, before another constellation around the sphere of myself returns me to motion. Call it the stars, the moon, the seasons or the Gods; this is actually the journey of Love.

This is what love feels like. At times it’s being held in the gaze of the sacred with such a gravity that one is rooted with that sacred unmovable as if we were the Earth itself, and more often than not it’s a river flowing through all the parts of us that we have abandoned along the way, like walking the shore line collecting flotsam and jetsam from your own ship wreck and carrying them back to camp staring at the pieces as you turn them over in your hands.

Those moments of shame and loneliness that we collect along the way are then refelt, and more than that - they are reimagined into the present with new perpetrators and protagonists and usually the same victim (ourselves). It’s hard to digest, love. It bathes all of us, asks all of us, it does not discriminate. And when we are broken it becomes the golden joinery of the Kintsugi pottery, mosaics of shattered clay sealed with gold in the cracks of ourselves.

And the way love teaches can be just so awfully annoying and inconvenient. I ask, “Why must I love these parts of myself”, when I am strangled in the grips of shame. Love highlights not just the shame, but the avoidance, the blame and ultimately if you look long enough, love softly enough, the untruths you tell yourself. Shame is more than doing something regretful, it’s being someone regrettable. It is the heavy anchor sinking in the middle of my chest preventing me from speaking to how I feel, believing I am the problem rather than facing the problem. It brings me to the floor pleading for another body to inhabit.

Thankfully, with the right amount of Love, we can bit by bit begin to digest who we are, and realise what we are made of. It’s important to bathe in the sunlight for those precious moments of stillness and perfection, before continuing on the Long Walk Home, for there will be many pieces we find abandoned along the way.

This is me, walking home, and remembering how very lost I’ve been.

THE ROOT :: I am grounded & connected

The root represents connection to the inner world. It is 1st principle medicine; I am. Do you even know what you are? The roots do. They are positioned deep in the Earth, bringing stability and balance. Roots are thoroughly involved in their placement, connection, and alliances with community. They play this boundary of Self; interweaving root tendrils with fungal hyphae. Making alliances with bacterial allies & trading information & resources all to the betterment of themselves within a greater network. Plants are good at getting their needs met through interdependence with others, working together & working as one.

Darwin believed the root brain theory, where the vegetal world ‘thinks’ through its roots; a mind with no one organ. The root hairs might be likened to a swarm neuronal network. 13 million roots. 14 billion root hairs. 6000 miles of ‘thinking’ territory. Each root hair acts as an individual neural organ, utilising a plethora of senses to map the terrain & signal in real time with the major neurotransmitters. Collectively the roots act as a data processing centre analysing gravity, temperature, humidity, light, electrical fields, pressure, sounds, toxins, chemical gradients, oxygen & carbon dioxide. Roots then make decisions on their movements based on the findings.

The root overlays with the element of Earth, ruling our middle jiao burner, appetite, stomach, spleen & pancreas; key sources of nourishment for our bodies. The transformation & transportation of chi. Earth energy is yin by nature, cool, feminine and still at the centre. However there are more masculine/yang expressions of the Earth in its structure and stability.

In the I-Ching it is represented by the trigram of 3 broken lines; fully receptive. As Earth is caring towards all, having a healthy sense of self and not being overly sympathetic can be a lesson of this element. The song of the Earth is sweet in flavour, and melodious in sound. It may cling to things when feeling unstable. But we can only cling to gravity pulling us down to a deeper knowing of who we truly are. The colour of the Earth is golden orange, and at the middle of it all.

The time of the lone wolf is done
🐺
Come in gentle fire, find the sun
🔥
Rites of passage take us home
♥️
Hey mumma yay mumma yo

~ nick mulvey

THE LEAF :: I am powerful and growing

The leaf represents power. Growing up and reaching out into the world. This part of the plant (along with phylloids which are stems acting as leaves) photosynthesise. This is a function that evolved some 3500 million years ago. Enter the algae, turning sun rays into plant Qi. They were so busy photosynthesising that 90% of life forms on Earth died to oxygen toxicity.

The leaf overlays with the element of the Wood, ruling the liver, gallbladder and our ability to make big & small decisions respectively. The Wood energy wants to reach out, it is yin (form) expanding into yang (formless). It is a pulse finding rhythm turning into a song that others can hear. It takes up space. The general. It rules over Spring time and correlates with the colour green.

The Wood reaches up and out, yang rising to the heavens from where it came. It comes up with lots of ideas on the way up and this can feel hot & stimulating. Sometimes there isn’t enough water to grow all the thought saplings into trees and depletion & dryness appear as a ‘burning the candle at both ends’ presentation. When too many ideas form at once, this can be followed by a cemetery of unresourced creations, like a swampy land of overgrowth.

Functional Wood must be like hollow bamboo rather than rigid tree trunks that snap in the wind, and that’s because life will have its way with you. Be flexible and clear as you reach towards your goal - the Light. Ensure you are serving a communal purpose - the Forest. A leaf registers the direction of light changing and moves towards its goal with focus.

In the I-Ching, the Wind is the movement of air and comparable to the Wood. It is called the Gentle as it is a great invisible power from above (the mind) that impacts the earth below in a gentle progressive movement.

There is great power here in the land of leaf and Wood. The leadership of a leaf takes risks as it moves into unchartered space, seeking that which it desires to serve the self at large. Remember that growth for the sake of growth, is the mentality of a cancer cell. So align the yearning of the Wood’s expansion to the earth beat.

THE BARK ::: I am protected

The bark of a plant is responsible for keeping a separation between the inner and outer worlds. In the body of a human this correlates to the skin, microbiome layer of the lungs & gut (inner skin) and immune system. Whilst the bark’s edges are sharp and defined, its function reaches out into the space around itself transceiving information just like our own immune systems do; working through the bioelectric field around 30cm outside our body interacting with the landscape we live in. It is called the Wei Chi in traditional Chinese medicine, and would be compared to the element of the Metal.

Rather than growing like the leaves, or connecting like the roots, the function of the bark is around protecting. The image of a fierce warrior with a shield protecting his village, or the barrier that the edge of a great forest creates as a wall of trees meets the grasslands. These landscapes conjure up imagery and feelings that can help to understand the role of the Metal element and the bark.

Metal has a conductivity to it, a magnetism that can feel, smell and sense. This is how we can quickly discern threat from ally, through sensing - which is a necessary skill when pursuing the mastery of Metal.

To master the “I feel”, requires a clean and clear system, constantly letting go and returning to a sate of emptiness. An empty state, free from the past and expectation, is the clearest state to digest the outside world and intimately understand the space one finds themself in. This allows one to then make a clear and concise choice about how to respond to life.

Thank you for the design process together. We have all the elements of the plants to showcase in this Plant Being Series.

What does it really mean to heal?

I have a series of writings I’m working on that look at this question from a few angles. Working with sick people wanting to not be sick means I have to ask myself this question and I continue to find new answers to it.

Sickness and health. Health and sickness. The two cannot be separated anymore than joy can be found free from pain. I know that joy and pain aren’t thought of as synonymous, but they are intrinsically linked in closer ways than you’d like.

To explain health is to explain the relationship between health and sickness. It’s certainty not a sum, like A+B=C. It’s not a progression that leads you from one to the other, even if it can appear this way. They are not spectrums, or sea saws of opposing concepts.

Oh no.

They are embedded within one another and responsible for one another’s governance. If you chase one, you find another. Being healthy might be your very sickness.

Health and sickness are one and the same. They take up the whole space and teach you from inside out.

So… Invest more into getting to know yourself. Spend money on it. It won’t buy you your health per se. At the very least start considering this topic worth spending coin on. Cause this journey you have been called on, won’t let up.

Your ship has scraped something on the bottom of the lake, even though you can’t see the wound, you can feel the leaking. Maybe you can sail on for a time, or patch it up, but you cannot stash your fears away at the bottom of the boat without eventually capsizing to its weight. The boat may be mended. There are great craftsmen and women out there. You need to pay them.

Ps. I made my first meme. 🥹😂

Still making herbs 🌿 Still growing & learning. Fresh batch of sananga eye drops out. 💦

“Hearing about Rachel's trip to Gabon in 2018 to visit the Bwiti and be initiated into their iboga tradition is what initially sparked my interest in writing her story. As she told me about being fed disgusting balls of iboga mixed with other bitter pulverised juicy plants, gagging on them, surrounded by stern women who she could not communicate with in words but from whom it was clear that vomiting was not an option, I knew there was a great story to hear.

As we sat down for the interview and I asked if she could start at the beginning, from when she first became interested in plant psychedelics, it became apparent that there was so much more to the story, which is about a brave, self-taught medicine woman, who in words of the late great Terrence McKenna, 'hurled herself into the abyss and discovered it's a feather bed'.”

My dear friend Ben recently interviewed me about my trip to Gabon in 2018 - a gruelling rite of passage into initiation. When we started this interview 6 months ago, I had no idea how he would manage to create such an emotive and authentic article out of this story. I’ve been blown away with the feedback.

If you’d like to read the full story, to learn about Iboga and an example of a traditional initiation ceremony, then please sign up to the mailing list and I’ll send you a copy.

🙏 So much gratitude and wonderment, Rach

www.folkmedicinetribe.com

“Bad aspects are better than no aspects”

This lesson has been ringing through my head over the last 6 months whilst I’ve been studying astrological herbalism, also known as medical astrology.

Not to over-simplify things by saying ‘bad’, but let’s not pretend there aren’t things in our lives that we DON’T LIKE, points of contention in each of our lives that we will always be working to make peace with. This stuff feels negative, it feels bad, it’s undesirable, and we want it to go away.

Embedded within this negative experience, this point of contention that won’t exactly find peace, there is a charge. There is energy. And where there is energy there is power. Power that can be utilised for transformation! And this will always be more powerful than no energy. No aspect means no communication. No exchange of ideas. And this is really hard to utilise as fuel when it comes to healing.

There are aspects of light within us that are full of conflict and contrast. And they are interacting with aspects of light around us that are facing one another off, illuminating jealousy, anger, embarrassment, judgement and lots of stuff that can feel really… well bad… And this is can be a good thing! A welcome thing. A powerful thing full of charge that can energise us quite literally if we learn how to work with it.

There is an invitation to lean into the contention. When it comes to healing, we need to lean into and call upon all of the sources of energy and vital life force we can to transform the body from one state to another. These firey bits might just be the place to start up a conversation with.

Artwork by Frayed-Symphony

The water nymph, your secret female lover

Nypmphaea is gender fluid & moves hearts towards love

She embodies

She arouses

She enters your dreams and opens your heart

Floating in the somatic lake, she sings like a siren, beckoning you deeper towards her muddy feet

She is wyld at heart and an activist for diversity and queerish vitalism

One day she is female, one day she is male, all-ways whole & wholesome

Sexually agile & adaptive, capable & confident

There is movement & tone to the intricacies of the sexual organs of her flowers

She is highly receptive

Moving across the water-terra, flowers capable of mobility that enchant you

She has charm

Grounded & fluid, rooted & mobile

Thousand year old cells; cloning, passing on the ancient wisdom of er***sm and love

So otherworldly, that she becomes profoundly earthly

Something hidden in plain view

What does the water nymph have to teach you?

Water lilies foraged from this year’s season available from the online shop { link in bio }.

Art by

D R A G O N ‘ S . B L O O D

Sangre de Drago.. the sacred blood of a dragon. Red, thick, oozing sap drips from the skin of the Croton lechleri tree.

The affinity to blood speaks to where it will act. This sap seals wounds so they might be protected from the world. So that our blood may remain free from infection.

Sometimes we need someone to hold space for us to heal, to be our thick skin over our vulnerable parts. Dragon blood is a liquid bandage internally and externally; incredibly astringent, sealing, and healing.

Available from the online store

Art by

S A N A N G A ; the plant who opens your eyes.

What does it mean to have a clear vision?

We can become so fixated on manifesting our future dreaming, that we overlook the responsibiliities of clear sight; remembering the way we came.

And this is not just our own footsteps, but the footsteps of our family, our ancestors and our culture. We can only see forward, as far as we can see back. How far back can you name your ancestors?

Clear vision is a type of time travel that gives access to the past within our present bodies. By hearing and even singing with the song of grandmother and grandfather, our movements forward are informed with care. Your dreaming and Earth's dreaming aren't so separate in the end.

I have a few bottles of super strong fresh made sananga to clear your vision. Available on the website.

Thank you to the custom art for us made by

Our sessions together will explore your health, mind, and your relationships with nurture. The plants are certainly a part of the process, but so is the compassionate understanding of being whole and embodied in your way.

We will explore which ways you are not standing in your wholeness and can strengthen your willpower to lean into the shadow and understand your innate gifts.

Together, we will be connecting in with your spirit and where necessary creating ceremonies and rites of passage that allow you to initiate into the next version of yourself.

I draw on my depth of experience in rites of passage, ceremony, ZenThai Shiatsu body work therapy, herbal medicine and coaching.

I am working in Nimbin, NNSW, and online via Zoom. If you would like to work together please book in via [email protected].

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