“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” – Carl Jung

The Poisonous Plant Medicine course is a six week investigation into the meaning of “plant spirit communication” with an emphasis on “poisonous” plants (plants that push against the biological thresholds). Through topics like medicine, cultural mythos, and psychological healing, we will explore the METAPHYSICAL truths that are found in the conscious meeting of our subjective world with the objective world, and how this understanding has been fractured by the current dominant paradigm. 

Every week we begin class with a guided inner journey in connection with a plant. These journeys will be a time for you to explore your personal relationship to the messages of these plants.

It is my hope that together we will rediscover lost understandings, redefine new understandings, and help humanity heal its fractured relationship to the magical world that has always been there, growing around us. 

"I signed up for this class thinking I was going to get a more thorough understanding of how to work with the mystical and secret world of poisonous plants… and I did get that! But I also got much more than I could have imagined. This class set me on a course that has me feeling more in touch with my intuition and the needs of my soul. Kathryn conveyed the information in a gentle and unconditionally loving way... I would recommend this class to anyone interested in herbalism, folklore, mythos, psychology, healing, or spirituality."

Read more reviews from past students here

Week One

Plant Sentience Communication & Poison As Medicine

Week One will introduce the cornerstones of this series. If you can only make it to one class, make it this one!

Plant sentience communication is the practice of using our inner perceptions to directly connect with plants. This is in diametrical opposition to material reductionist herbalism that dominates the plant medicine world. Instead of trying to figure out what a plant can do for you, we intuit the plant directly and what it is inherently sharing about its own nature. This process allows us to experience connection with plants without necessarily having to ingest or even be in the same vicinity of a plant. This is a skill that everybody can develop!

“Poison as medicine” is the spine of my work with poisonous plants. Why do so many consciousness shifting plants make us feel physically ill? What can we learn when we balance the typical “light and love” approach to spirituality with exploring the fears that hide in our shadow? 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?

Week Two

Belladonna & Henbane: Sex, Death, & The Unknown

Our unconscious relationship to sex, the concept of death, and the unknown in general have a profound influence on our human existence yet they are rarely explored. Poisonous plants will lovingly take us right into those oft avoided places. Almost all the poisonous plants we discuss through this series of classes have aphrodisiac qualities. What is the link between plants that threaten to push us beyond our biological thresholds towards death, and the sexual impulse towards life?

Belladonna, aka deadly nightshade, literally means “beautiful woman,” her latin name Atropa comes from the Greek fate “Atropos” whose job was to decide when each human life was to come to an end. 

Henbane has many myths associating it with the Underworld, including its use in the wreaths that crown the souls of the dead as they descend to Hades. In European folklore it was used to attract lovers, and is still used for divination in communicating with the spirits of the Underworld.

Week Three

Datura & The Persephone Myth: Healing 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 gifted her 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 worshipped as a God by tribes of Western North America and the Huichol of Mexico, to being one of the ingredients in the famous witches flying ointments.

We will also briefly discuss Brugmansia, a close relative of datura sometimes referred to as “tree datura” heralding from South America. Brugmansia’s ethereal, pendulous bell-shaped flowers have historically been added to ayahuasca brews and is grown commercially for pharmaceutical medicines.

Week Four

Foxglove, Monkshood, & The Implication of Historical Witches Flying Ointments

Did you know that the image of witches flying on broomsticks is said to come from a psychedelic folk practice from the middle ages? Unfortunately, we have lost all documentation from the folk herbalists using this type of revelatory medicine during that time period. In this week’s class we will talk about the possibility of rediscovering this ancient practice - free from false dogma!

We will also discuss the lore surrounding foxglove and monkshood - two very deadly ornamental plants with long histories of both injurious and life-saving use.

Week Five

Yew & Hellebore: Meeting The Crone

Meetings with the Crone are inevitable on the poison path. The Crone is a threshold guardian who has wrathful wisdom she wants to pass down to us… but she does not allow for anything less than authenticity from our ego (think Baba Yaga.)

Several winters ago 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.

Week Six

Mandrake & Amanita: The Lost Wisdom of Shamanic Lineages 

Mandrake and amanita muscaria are perhaps the most mythologized beings of the natural world. 

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 the most easily recognized symbol of psychedelic plant medicine 🍄 Much of our Christmas lore is thought to be rooted in amanita muscaria lore. It is said that 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 forgotten shamanic lineages and plant medicine lineages.

Winter 2025 Dates

Week One - January 5th

Week Two - January 12th

Week Three - January 19th

Week Four - January 26th

Week Five - February 2nd

Week Six - February 9th

We will meet on zoom at 1pm CST. Each class lasts for 3 - 3.5 hours. If you can’t attend the classes live they are recorded and will be available online for six months after the class date.

Payment plans are available. Payments can be made in whatever amounts you’d like, I just ask that the total be paid before our first class meets. Email me at k.solie@me.com if you’d like to set up a payment plan.

I try to make pricing as accessible as possible but I understand finances can still be a barrier. If the cost of this course is out of reach for you there are a limited amount of partial scholarship spots available. You can apply here. Applications close on December 14th. If you applied and haven’t heard from me by December 15th, please send me an email.

Please note that I will not be teaching how to ingest any of these plants - ingesting is an unsafe practice. We will not be going over formulas or recipes for oils or ointments, as I believe it is an advanced and unpredictable process. 

Learn more about Level Two here.

You can learn more about Levels Three + Four here.

See me answer some FAQ about the course here.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions! 

About tier pricing: Accessibility is deeply important to me and I always offer sliding scale for all my classes. Simply choose the amount that feels appropriately suited to you

$355 is the normal price for this class

Lower tiers are intended for those who have difficulty paying for their basic expenses. There are a limited number of spots for lower tier pricing

Higher tiers are for those who feel financially abundant at this time and would like to offer a little extra support

Refund Policy:

I cannot offer full refunds after 1 week before the first class date. Half refunds are available from 1 week before our first class until a week after our first class. After this point there are no refunds.