SUPER excited to share my first ever podcast interview with Maura James of Unbroken Chain. In the interview I speak a lot on my philosophy about poisonous plants as a support in the healing process, plant spirit medicine, and I tell the Persephone myth! I was actually quite nervous to hear the interview but I feel that Maura has a real gift for interviewing and brought out the best in me. If you listen and enjoy it, it would mean a lot to me to see it shared 🖤
If you’d like to go more in-depth into the subject matter I speak on in the podcast I have a few classes on poisonous plant medicine coming up and you can work with me 1:1 as well!
I am now offering an introductory online workshop on the healing magic of poisonous plants. This 4-hour workshop is a good option for those interested in “poisonous” plants that don’t want to take the 6-week course.
In this online 4-hour workshop you will get an introduction to the history, lore, and medicinal use of several poisonous plants and fungi such as mandrake, belladonna, henbane, datura, hellebore, the yew tree, fly agaric, and more. Through the lens of plant spirit medicine you will experience their medicine and messages without having to ingest them.
Plant spirit medicine is the practice of using our intuition to directly connect with plants. This is in diametrical opposition to capitalistic, material reductionist herbalism that dominates the plant medicine world. Instead of asking what you can get from a plant, we ask the plant directly what they want to share. This allows us to experience the healing benefits of herbs without having to ingest or even be in the same vicinity of a plant - something of great benefit when working with poisonous plants. This is a skill that everybody can develop!
“Poison” as medicine is the spine of my work with poisonous plants and what I feel is the overall message these plants want to share with us. What can we learn when we balance the typical “light and love” approach to spiritual paths with shadow integration? What if the majority of the suffering we experience is not from the things we are afraid of, but from our avoidance of those things?
Coming up on May 26th. Learn more through the link in my bio ✨
Pictures here is datura wrightii, a divine poisonous plant ally whose medicine seems to be calling many at this time 🖤
Herbal medicine shouldn’t just be something for the wealthiest among us who can afford expensive jars of rare, powdered herbs that opportunistic business owners bought from faraway countries and marked up 200%. Some of the most potent and nourishing herbs will literally grow through the cracks in the sidewalk to meet us.
Although making medicines from suburban sidewalk dwelling plants is not advised, their medicines extend far beyond their physical components. I experience the strongest, most life changing medicines from *just sitting* with plants. Opening my being to their messages, listening, feeling the exchange between us.
Healing should never be out of reach for anyone. It is my wish (and I believe the wish of all herbalists) that health is accessible to all. Sometimes I struggle with how to best serve my community in this way, and what I keep coming back to is plant spirit medicine. I think this is one part of the puzzle I’m supposed to be filling in. There are many people doing amazing work in educating on things like plant medicine making, plant identification, plant spirit medicine, and clinical herbalism. It’s actually magical to see so many come together for this one (I hesitate to use this word) holy purpose. Being fed and cared for by the earth, and offering that same care back, is our birthright and I hope you find yourself closer to your idea of that every day.
Pictured plants are dandelion, violet, mullein, and baby mugwort all growing on my block.
First lil nettle harvest from the garden feat. Milarepa, a Tibetan yogi who was said to have survived on nettles 💚 Every time spring comes it feels like a miracle 🙏
I will be giving a class on Poisonous Plant Medicine at HERBSTALK this year! I'll be teaching on Sunday at 11am :) Really looking forward to being in a community of like-minded plant-focused folk.
✨I’m excited to share that the dates for the next round of online Poisonous Plant Medicine classes are now official! I have two groups coming up - one starting in June and one starting in August.
Although this course is all about poisonous plants, it is much more. It is about emotional embodiment, integrating and learning from our shadows, & tuning into the messages of our deeper selves through building relationships with plants. It is my hope that this course goes beyond extending your knowledge about plants and is a transformative experience that guides you along a path where you truly honor the voice within that calls us to a greater wholeness.
Week One | Plant Spirit Communication & Poison As Medicine
Week Two | Belladonna & Henbane: Sex, Death, & The Unknown
Week Three | Datura & The Persephone Myth: Healing Through Psycho-spiritual Death & Rebirth
Week Four | Foxglove, Monkshood, & The History of Witches Flying Ointments
Week Five | Yew & Hellebore: Meeting The Crone
Week Six | Mandrake & Amanita: The Lost Wisdom of Shamanic Lineages
Have questions about the course? Ask below or send me a DM and I will answer them in my first instagram TV video this weekend 🖤
Learn more about the course & sign up through the link in my bio.
Image is by Helen Stratton
👋 There seems to be a lot of new faces around here and I haven't done an introductory post in over a year so I thought I would say hi! I’m Kathryn, a thirty year old artist and educator living in a tiny house (that’s not actually a tiny house) on the coast of Rhode Island.
🍄 At this point I'm probably most known for being a "poisonous" plant educator. Part of me is surprised that this has ended up being my career and it makes total sense to another part of me. My first weekend at herbalism school when prompted to find a plant on the property to connect with I was drawn to a hellebore, not knowing what it was. While sitting with this hellebore I had images of being pulled down into their roots, down deeper underground, deeper still into the Underworld. There I met a crone who kept saying the words "This is where you will do your work." And since then I haven't been able to shake my love of poisonous plants. Poisonous plants are the main focus of my studies, spiritual life, and work. I teach workshops both online and in person on the topic of poisonous plants, including a 6-week course (I’ll be posting new dates coming tomorrow!). When teaching I focus primarily on plant spirit work, poison as medicine, and the myths & lore (especially the Persephone myth!) surrounding these plants. See my saved story “Intro to Course” to learn more about what that means.
🌑 I was born in New York City, grew up in southern Connecticut, moved to Boulder, Colorado when I was 18 and lived there for ten years. Since the age of 17, I’ve been dedicated to remembering non-dual awareness - which sounds really serious when I see it written out but I’m still just a regular human living in this world. While in Colorado I went to Naropa University, a Buddhist school where I studied painting and permaculture. I started studying kriya yoga, non-duality, metaphysics, and mysticism with my teacher when I was 19. I studied herbalism with the Gaia School of Healing in Vermont and finished a training in Hakomi (body-centered psychotherapy) early this year.
📚 I wrote and illustrated a lil book called “Here You Are”, which is a collection of original minimalist tantric paintings and straightforward non-dual writings designed to help bring you into the present moment, into your body, and into your heart. You can purchase a copy through my website. I am working on my second book now, titled “Persephone’s Path”. It will be a meditation on the journey we take when we allow ourselves to fully feel difficulties, traumas, and our shadow selves. There will be a brief introduction to the Persephone myth, my understanding of its meaning, a meditation designed to recreate the cyclical journey to the Underworld, and a section about poisonous plant allies. Hopefully it will be complete by the end of the year!
🔥 I’m a Virgo sun but almost every other placement in my chart is in a fire sign, which seems to surprise most people. Fire signs can be introverted and quiet too… right?
🔮 I am deeply in love with the symbolic language of the subconscious. The first classes I ever taught in my early 20’s were about dream symbology. I still incorporate dream work into most of the classes I teach. I believe in the healing (and cutting) magic that is tarot and use it as a way to hear the messages of the subconscious. I offer intuitive tarot readings online and occasionally at events in person - you can read reviews and more about this through my website.
🥁 Through the use of ritual drumming, staving (using a staff in a similar way to the way one would use a drum) and singing I lead Shamanic Journeys both online and in person. I’m currently working on putting together a Patreon where I will offer journeying, herbal medicine, mini-classes on different topics, and tarot readings to patrons.
🌸 I sell flower essences, tinctures, elixirs, and crystals through my website. I work lovingly to create medicines that are full of healing properties that go beyond the plant constituents.
✨ It’s hard to summarize myself in just a few paragraphs but this feels like a good start. It's nice to meet you :)
I have a deep admiration for the wisdom of the holly tree. I find these ancestral allies to be portals of sorts between this world and the others. For many of the mystical experiences I've had in my life there was a holly involved. They've lovingly encouraged me to do what I am afraid of, while reminding me not to take it all SO SERIOUSLY. They say that working with my fears is the way to understand Myself more deeply. Holly points out the path before me but reminds that ultimately I have to walk it myself. I am responsible for my own self. Holly says "we get the medicine we need when we need it." Holly is patient. Holly is protective and peaceful and expansive.
Holly is also toxic, eating the leaves will leave your digestive system seriously distressed, a large handful of berries can kill a small child.
As with all "poisonous" plants, essences are the safest way to work with them. I have a holly essence on my website that I crafted from the flowers of the tree I am standing in front of in my profile photo. That tree was in the backyard of my previous home and was the most glorious holly I've ever seen. ~40 feet tall, bushy as hell, with the sweetest smelling blooms. I miss it so.
🍄Poisonous Plant Medicine 🍄
Week 6 | Mandrake & Amanita: The Lost Wisdom of Shamanic Lineages
Mandrake and amanita muscaria are perhaps the most mythologized of all plant world beings.
Mandrake even makes an appearance in Harry Potter (yes, those screaming mandrakes are based on real plant lore!)
The red and white caps of amanita muscaria, also known as fly agaric, are perhaps the most easily recognized symbol of psychedelic plant medicine 🍄Most Christmas lore is actually rooted in amanita muscaria lore. Shamans of Northern Europe would wear red and white capes, going door to door to bring divinatory messages during the winter months - sound familiar? Reindeer are known to eat these little mushrooms, hence the mythology of flying reindeer and Rudolph’s red nose.
In the final class of this series we will speak about the forgotten shamanic lineages tied to these plants and discuss as much of their endless lore as we can fit in!
I'll be teaching this class tomorrow at @animamundiherbals and online on March 31st and April 28th.
I wrote and illustrated a lil book about 2 years ago. It's essentially a meditation that guides you into the present moment, into your body, and into your heart. I put (channeled, really) my authentic Self into it and it is one of the things I feel most proud of in my life. #hereyouarebook
A bit from the introduction:
"By putting enlightenment somewhere in the future, you’re missing what is right in front of you.… It doesn't have to be so hard. It can be as easy as noticing your breath, the scent of a flower, the passing clouds above your head, the eyes of a friend, or truly feeling an emotional response without trying to figure it out."
🍄Poisonous Plant Medicine🍄
Week 5 | Yew & Hellebore: Meeting The Crone
Meetings with the Crone are inevitable on the poison path. The Crone is a wise elder archetype who has wisdom she wants to pass down to us… but she does not allow for anything less than authenticity. Think Baba Yaga. I seem to meet her most often when I’m hanging around with hellebore or yew. Today we’ll talk about what to expect (the unexpected) when working with The Crone.
Last winter a fence fell on top of my yet to bloom hellebore plant and I wasn’t able to fix the fence for 6 weeks. I assumed it was a goner. But to my surprise when the fence was finally lifted, that little hellebore not only sprouted new leaves but had over 10 new flowers blooming - all whilst in near complete darkness! If that isn’t the most beautiful metaphor for the human experience, I don’t know what is.
The yew tree is thought to be the mythic Yggdrasil, or World Tree. They can live to be thousands of years old and are among the oldest of all living organisms on the planet. They are often found in old cemeteries where their roots intertwine with the skeletons of the dead.
I'll be teaching this class at @animamundiherbals this Thursday night, and online on March 17th and April 7th 🖤✨
I updated my shop yesterday with a few new medicines (see my stories today to get a peak at them all.)
This "Loving Boundaries" elixir is the one I am most excited about. My entire life seems to be a lesson in building strong yet permeable, loving yet firm boundaries that are compassionate to both myself and others. It has not been and is still not an easeful journey for me. I look at others who seem to have been born with their roots firmly planted in this earth, preventing them from experiencing the regular overstimulation/exhaustion I experience almost daily and I am truly envious. I’m grateful for the gifts that come with being so open but I know that I have arrived at a point in my life where I need to level up my energetic boundaries.
I am currently in the midst of unlearning some very young conditioning around things like - other peoples happiness is not my responsibility, people that love me will love me regardless of whether or not I can anticipate their needs, focusing on myself first is not selfish... facing these conditionings brings along with it many fears and these fears have had my nervous system in a quite a state.
These last few months I've been learning how supporting my nervous system is the most important thing I need to support my healthy psychic boundaries. That's why I've included a lot of nervous system support in this blend. It can be taken like an essence - a few drops on the tongue or in a glass of water, or more as a tincture - 1-2 dropperfuls. I'm really grateful to this medicine for its support and lessons at this time in my life.
Ingredients: Extracts of St. John’s Wort, Rosa Rugosa, and Yarrow in Vodka. Rosa Rugosa Glycerite. Essences of Pokeweed, Hellebore, Bleeding Hearts, Rose Rugosa, and Black Tourmaline.
🍄Poisonous Plant Medicine🍄
Week 4 | Foxglove, Monkshood, & The History of Witches Flying Ointments
Did you know that the image of witches flying on broomsticks comes from a psychedelic folk practice from the middle ages? Unfortunately, we have lost all documentation from the folk herbalists using this type of divinatory medicine during that time period. The only written accounts we have are survived in court records of witch trials where one of the main ingredients of witches flying ointments was said to be the fat of Christian children… sigh. In this week’s class we will talk about how we can recover and reclaim this ancient practice - free from false dogma!
We will also discuss the lore surrounding foxglove and monkshood - two very deadly poisons whose extracted alkaloids are used in some of our modern Western medicines.
If you are local to Brooklyn you can drop into this class this Thursday at @animamundiherbals, otherwise I am teaching it online on March 3rd and March 24th.
Trying to up my intake of nutrient rich plants via herb-infused ghee. Nettle and burdock infused on the right and reishi, turkey tail, dandelion, and astragalus infused on the left.
I’m currently at the library getting some work done and I remembered a thought I had earlier this week as I sowed my *deadly* poisonous aconite seeds:
How is this plant, called “the most prompt of all poisons” by Pliny the Elder, perfectly legal yet things as medicinally, psychologically, and spiritually beneficial as cannabis, psilocybin mushrooms, and ayahuasca illegal?
Unfortunately, I think we all know the answer to that. If aconite were safely ingestible and consciousness awakening it would be promptly outlawed. Plant can kill - no problem. Plant can cause you to question reality - it’s a danger to society and must be stopped at all costs.
This is not to say that aconite is not a magical plant with the power to shift our consciousness. We can do a lot of deep inner work on the plant spirit level but we have to know how to support that work in ourselves. Learning how to journey inwards without the use of consciousness shifting plants is a skill I hope that everyone has the privilege to learn in their lifetime.
This image is a page from Veneficium by Daniel A. Shulke
Infusing organic, biodynamic red wine with blue lotus, damiana, rose petals, vanilla bean, and honey to enjoy after reading tarot tonight at @bravedaughterspvd❤️ I usually avoid blue lotus because I find it to be *so opening* to the upper chakras that I get overstimulated... and I usually avoid alcohol because I’m a lightweight. But I felt a pull to make this that I couldn’t resist 🤷♀️
Thrift store find ✨ Monkshood aka aconite aka wolfsbane ✨
Experimentations with Amanita Muscaria 🖤🍄🖤
Trying to learn the best way *for me* to work with this ally. The spirit of fly agaric is strong and my normal course of action would be to just work with it on a plant spirit level. But from the first time this mushroom appeared in my dreams it seemed to be encouraging me to ingest. Last week I had an ancestral healing session with @adrienne_sloan where I met an ancestor who showed me images of Amanita tea and asked for offerings of it. I never thought Amanita would be a central ally for me, but here we are.
Today is the last day to sign up for the Poisonous Plant Medicine series. The next time I offer this course, I will be raising prices for it. Tomorrow we will be learning about plant spirit communication and poison as medicine - the foundations for my work with poisonous plants! You can drop into each class individually or take the whole 6-week course. Week 6 is when we will learn from Amanita Muscaria.
So loved sharing the Persephone myth and the spirit of datura last night at @animamundiherbals. I am constantly delighted by how kind, good-natured, and wise the people that attend my classes are. I feel so lucky to consistently have such brilliant students that are ready to show up and do this “Underworld” work! It gives me faith in humanity.
Last night one of my students was my mom. It was the first time she’s come to a class of mine and she took this photo of me. It was sweet to get to share this weeks material that is so close to my heart with my mom.
🍄Poisonous Plant Medicine🍄
Week 3 | Datura & The Persephone Myth: Healing Trauma Through Psycho-spiritual Death & Rebirth
“God’s presence is there in front of me, a fire on the left,
a lovely stream on the right.
One group walks toward the fire, into the fire, another
toward the sweet flowing water.
No one knows which are blessed and which not.
Whoever walks into the fire appears suddenly in the stream.
A head goes under on the water surface, that head
pokes out of the fire.
Most people guard against going into the fire,
and so end up in it.” – Rumi
Persephone is both the Greek goddess of flowers and Queen of the Underworld - what a beautiful dichotomy! After she was kidnapped by Hades, he created a shade garden of plants able to grow in the darkness of the Underworld, filled with the plants included in this course. The Persephone myth is a powerful analogy for what happens when we walk through the fire of our pain and emerge on the other side, newly reborn. In today’s class I will share the Persephone myth and explain how we can apply its lessons to our own lives.
Datura has historical uses that span the globe, from being holy to Shiva worshippers in India, to being included in some of the brews of ayahuasca shamans, to being worshipped as a God by tribes of Western North America and the Huichol of Mexico.
I may be most excited about Week 3 of the Poisonous Plant Medicine series. The Persephone myth is deeply important to me (duh) and Datura has been an incredibly ally and mentor to me over these last few years.
If you are local to Brooklyn you can drop into this class this Thursday at @animamundiherbals, otherwise there is 1 spot left for the February 17th online class, and a few more for the March 10th online class.
If you'd like to take this course in its entirety there are still a few spots left for the second group whose first class is *this Sunday*!
This is your last chance to take the course at this price point. When I offer this class again next I will be raising the prices. Don't worry, I will still be offering sliding scale pricing for those who need it!