🍄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.

🍄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.

🍄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!