Favorite Creative Collaborations with Plants – Spring Edition

Love is all around and at every moment we have the opportunity to act from a place of Love. Valentine’s Day is simply one 24-hour period in time where we are reminded to amplify our Love frequency within and without. Self-love, love of family/friends/community, love of the land, love of Life. Everywhere you turn there is someone and something to love, including our own inner landscape. Love every atom and inch of your being and you will know infinity.

Today I’m sharing my love with you — my love for the plants, my love for creativity, my love of discovery and curiosity. In love we slow down to experience a deeper awareness of our connections to one another. In love we see the reflection of our divinity in all around us.

So with love I put together this playlist of my favorite moments from the springtime lessons of INFUSE, a collaborative co-creation with the plants.

---

Crafting Birch Staves

Kick off the springtime with the fresh-start feeling of Birch. I’ll show you how to craft a stave to use for magical purposes or to wear as an amulet.

Dandelion Blossom Tempura

Feed your spirit and body with this delicious spring delicacy that reminds us of the enduring nature of the Sun and the fleeting nature of life.

Chickweed Flower Essence

Open to presence, open to community, open to your connection to the Cosmos — these are some of the applications of Chickweed Flower Essence. Learn how to make your own in this video.

Cleavers Binding Ritual

What or whom are you attaching yourself to? What or whom are you releasing? Learn how to make a sigil to either commit to or release attachments, with the help of Cleavers.

Filé Gumbo Sassafras

Some say the way to another’s heart is through their stomach… And with heart-warming Sassafras, you’ll have even more success. Here’s one delicious way to nourish yourself and those you love. Learn more about the history of Gumbo.

Hawthorn Heal the Heart Salve

Massage and sensual touch is a pleasurable way to experience the love of someone, including your self! Craft a heart-healing herbal oil, salve, and infusion to open your heart to love.

Strength Through Challenge Meditation

Call on the spirit of Hawthorn to help you face challenging moments with love, grace, and compassion.

I’d love to hear from you! Whether you create with these plant allies or intend to, or whether you have a different way of working with and loving the plants, share in the comments below. ❤️❤️❤️

Of Will & Wishes - Working with Dandelion Medicine

Everyone knows this weedy wonder.

Many are beginning to wake up to their healing benefits, despite the lawn cultivating culture that deems this plant public enemy #1 and a primary target of poisonous endocrine-disrupting herbicides.

I say, stop the war and let the weeds win.

There’s a big reward in that kind of surrender.

A reward of health, not just because we aren’t poisoning the soil and water (and ourselves) with chemicals, but because of the nutrient density and medicinal properties of many of the weeds.

It’s interesting that on a spiritual and energetic level, Dandelion affects the solar plexus center, the place of identity, will, and action. I say this because, we have the will to shift our relationship with plants we may not see the value of. We have the will to find the beauty and gifts in these plants.

Dandelion is also a plant of wishes. It is a rare individual who has not blown on a fluff of Dandelion seeds to make a wish. My wish is that we all understand the value and wisdom of the wild and weedy ones. Especially those who make decisions about using weed killer or not!

(You might be very happy to learn that NYC Parks Department stopped spraying herbicides, thanks to a group of elementary school kids’ dedication, wishes, and will!)

I’ve written about Dandelion a few times before.

This is one of the plants that I mark the seasons by, that I feel the turning of the wheel of the year with, that I incorporate into my life on a regular basis.

In the following video I’ll share a bit more about this plant’s magical attributes and we’ll go on a journey with them to our inner sun.

Enjoy the video! Please like, share, comment, and all that good stuff.

Healing Plant Connections - Birch

Birch is such a magical tree - revered throughout the boreal forest that circumnavigates the globe.

The Human-Birch relationship is deep and deeply spiritual.

I’ve written about Birch before, so I won’t give away too much. (Plus in my last post I showed you how to make Birch beer.)

Especially because in the following video I’ll take you outside to meet the Birch tree at the edge of spring.

I’ll share some clues for identification, as well as a whole bunch of the rich symbolic and spiritual aspects of this graceful tree.

And I’ll take you on a journey to Birch to call in a new beginning for yourself or the world.

Enjoy the video, and please share and comment to let me know what you think!

Want to get to know Birch a little better? Check out INFUSE a la carte Birch month – a whole month’s worth of lessons on Birch, including meditations, identification, wildcrafting, medicine making, crafts, lore, and more.

And if you want to go even deeper with the healing plants, you might want to join INFUSE for a season or the year!

Healing Plant Connections - Pine

Imagine you are in a Pine forest.

Take a deep breath in, and out.

Aahhh!

How do you feel?

Maybe your heart feels lighter, your lungs clearer.

Maybe your perception has shifted.

If you are able to get out and spend time with a Pine tree in person, you may experience these effects and more.

Pine helps us connect in with our hearts, and deepen our inner peace. And Pine helps us to understand how – no matter what is happening personally or in the world – that everything is okay and unfolding just as it is meant to. This isn’t to say that we should bypass or ignore the difficult realities of the world. And it doesn’t mean we should not take action or initiate change. It is, rather, an infusion of deep acceptance, as a means to restore peace within, so that one has the power to step up and lead in the ways they are called to do in this lifetime.

In this video, I’ll share a bit about the medicine of Pine and then we will journey to restore peace within. Enjoy, and if you’d like to share your experience you can do so in the comments below or on YouTube.

Sign up for my weekly newsletter to learn about more ways to engage with the healing plants, including my monthly herbal immersion program, INFUSE.

Breath of Peace Meditation With Pine

When times are tough, I turn to the plants.

They’ve taught me so much over the years.

They are always there to nurture and guide me.

Maybe you’ve found this, too.

Pine has been a great teacher for me.

These wise old beings have been on the planet for at least 150 million years, much longer than us.

They have a presence like no other.

They instill in us a deep sense of acceptance, a profound sense of peace.

In the following meditation, I guide you through a connection journey with Pine, the Tree of Peace.

May you feel and carry the peace of Pine.

Healing Plant Connections - Oak

Each month, I walk with one healing plant.

What does that mean? To walk with a plant?

It means connecting with the spirit of the plant, and getting to know this plant from many angles. It’s becoming familiar with the medicine of the plant through direct experience, spending time with the plant, meditating with them, ingesting them, and doing research on them.

Whether I already know this plant or not, it is always the same. In putting my attention on this one plant I deepen my awareness of them and strengthen my connection with them.

Like developing intimacy with a very good friend.

I share what I discover in all of the courses that I lead, from the Dream Circle to INFUSE.

I also share the wisdom of these plants in the MINKA Self-care Portal, which I highly recommend!

By joining you’ll get exclusive access to workshops and first looks at content that MINKA practitioners share – and there are a lot of great offerings on there, including Breathwork, Yoga, Reiki, Meditation, and more from amazing practitioners.

Last month on the platform, I shared about Oak medicine.

In the following video, you’ll learn about Oak’s connection with:

• doorways and portals

• thunder gods

• druids

• healing wounds

• and much more

You’ll also get to journey with the spirit of Oak, the warrior tree of the primeval forest.

I’d love to know how it lands for you. Please share your experience in the comments below or on YouTube.

If you enjoyed this video, you’ll love INFUSE. Each month we walk with one plant, developing our own unique relationship with them through meditation, creative collaboration, ethical wildcrafting, medicine making, and more. Join for the season or for the year.

Inner Sun Meditation With Dandelion

We are within the darkest months of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Although our shared modern culture does not always honor it, this is a time of going within and rest. It is a time to reflect, to dream, to create inner landscapes and plant inner seeds to be birthed with the return of the light.

And though the daylight hours are less, the intensity of light seems concentrated as the Sun dips down closer to the horizon. Hat brims seem useless. It’s almost as if the Sun is lowering down to look us straight in the eye, to remind us that that giant star is always there for us, even in the midst of the approaching winter.

If you can get outside to greet the Sun at this time of year, I recommend it. Go on a walk to your favorite park, get to a hiking trail, find yourself at the edge of a river, or just open a window and let the sunlight stream in unfiltered. (I also lead plant walks in Prospect Park every month on the third Friday via MINKA Brooklyn. Come on out if you are in the area!)

Whether you can get outside or not, we all have a Sun within us to connect with. In this following meditation, we meet with the Dandelion flower, a rooted embodiment of the Sun. Journey to your innermost dreams and desires and let the seeds be carried on the wind to manifest your vision.

Dive deeper into the Magic & Medicine of Dandelion in INFUSE, a la carte, a month long immersion with this wonderful plant ally!

Strength Through Challenge Meditation (Video)

We call on the plants as our allies, for energetic, physical, and emotional healing. Hawthorn is a deeply protective plant that I’ve shared about before, as a great healer of the heart. She has such potent energy stored in her sturdy twisted and often gnarled branches, covered with woody thorns.

In this meditation, we call on Hawthorn to help us see a challenge from a new perspective, to strengthen our position and approach it from a place of personal power.

I hope it serves you well! I gratefully welcome your comments if you’d like to share your experience.

Go deeper with the Magic & Medicine of this amazing plant ally in INFUSE a la carte, a monthly immersion of intimate connection with healing plant allies.