Transcripts
If you want to pull through some of the wisdom of your
Speaker:ancestors,
Speaker:one of the most richest and vividus ways to do this is to
Speaker:practice ancestral plant medicine.
Speaker:Hello and welcome back to Remember Why You're Here,
Speaker:a podcast for seekers and sensitives where you can relax, receive,
Speaker:reconnect yourself, and remember the most important thing of all,
Speaker:why you're here. I'm Asia Suler, author,
Speaker:earth intuitive. And in this episode today,
Speaker:I'm going to revisit one of my favorite topics,
Speaker:and that is ancestral plant medicine.
Speaker:So I actually had the intention to record a new video
Speaker:podcast for this week. And instead,
Speaker:my daughter and I, as well as my girlfriend,
Speaker:we all got super sick with some sort of virus,
Speaker:some sort of viral thing, and we just got absolutely laid out.
Speaker:You might still hear it in my voice right now. And it felt like,
Speaker:well, A,
Speaker:it felt a little early to have this kind of vibrant virus in the
Speaker:season. I know we're entering flu and cold season,
Speaker:but it still felt a little bit unfair to immediately jump into
Speaker:full-blown fever virus mode.
Speaker:But it also felt like, I don't know, in some ways,
Speaker:a very fitting beginning to this month of October where there
Speaker:is just this opportunity to see what's going on
Speaker:underneath the surface, to peel back the veil.
Speaker:There's something about being sick that is quite psychedelic,
Speaker:especially when you are feverish,
Speaker:and it's been giving me the opportunity to practice
Speaker:ancestral herbalism.
Speaker:So every time I've gone ahead and reached for the elderberry
Speaker:syrup, that's exactly what I've been doing.
Speaker:Every time I've made me or my daughter a cup of sage tea to help clear
Speaker:our sad little sore throats, that's also what I've been doing.
Speaker:And it just feels like such a potent time to reconnect
Speaker:in this way. And in this audio recording that we're about to revisit,
Speaker:I talk about three specific ways to start working with the herbs that
Speaker:your ancestors were connected with.
Speaker:I also talk about why ancestral herbalism in particular is
Speaker:so potent.
Speaker:I'm a really big fan of working with the plants exactly where you are,
Speaker:but there's a special magic to working with the plants that were near and dear
Speaker:to your ancestors.
Speaker:And it really feels like that magic comes online in such a
Speaker:particular way in this moment of the year,
Speaker:especially for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere as we are entering fall.
Speaker:Whether we realize it or not, a lot of us are actually already practicing.
Speaker:We are already having some ancestral plant practices.
Speaker:I remember realizing this at some point.
Speaker:I grew up in a very suburban environment and I loved the decorations of
Speaker:the hay with the decorative gourds on it and the pumpkins and
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:And it really wasn't until I got older and I started having my own garden and
Speaker:harvesting things and bringing them in that I realized, oh,
Speaker:there's a reason why we have these decorations of pumpkins and apples and hay.
Speaker:It's because this is the time of the year when you are making sure you have
Speaker:hay for the next season, hay for the winter for your animals.
Speaker:It's when you are harvesting the apples,
Speaker:it's when you are taking the pumpkins from off the ground and you're bringing
Speaker:them close to your house or just right within your house or wherever it is you
Speaker:store them.
Speaker:And so these things that we think of our decorations are actually ancestral
Speaker:plant practices. And I just absolutely love this,
Speaker:that it's almost like this time of the year we don't even realize that we are
Speaker:engaging in these practices that bring us close to our own ancestors,
Speaker:that bring us close to...
Speaker:And what I talk about in this audio is bring us close to the ancestors who had
Speaker:really deep, meaningful,
Speaker:harmonious and profound relationships with their environment.
Speaker:So that's who I'm talking about when I talk about connecting with the ancestors.
Speaker:And I have seen basically every year,
Speaker:my entire life, that when the veil starts to thin,
Speaker:as I explored in the last episode, our ancestors just come close.
Speaker:They're in our dreams. We sense them around us.
Speaker:We start doing these things that we don't even think about like brewing
Speaker:chamomile tea or putting more cinnamon when we're baking and we don't even
Speaker:realize that we are touching this deep root in time.
Speaker:So if you want to pull in,
Speaker:pull through some of the wisdom of your ancestors,
Speaker:these earth-based, wise ancestors,
Speaker:if you want to pull that thread through into your life now,
Speaker:I think one of the most richest and vividus ways to do this
Speaker:is to practice some ancestral plant medicine.
Speaker:So let's go ahead and drop into this audio now and
Speaker:we'll explore these three super accessible ways to start working with the
Speaker:medicines of your ancestors.
Speaker:Autumn is the classic time of the year to connect with those who've passed on
Speaker:from the Day of the Dead Festival in Mexico to Obon in Japan
Speaker:or the Celtic holiday of Samhain. In autumn,
Speaker:we have the ability to communicate with those who came before us.
Speaker:As someone of European settler descent,
Speaker:I wasn't always connected to my ancestors until I was,
Speaker:and I found that there's actually a direct link between my herbal practice and
Speaker:my ancestors. If you're anything like me,
Speaker:this topic of ancestor work might come up and you might feel a little bit of
Speaker:resistance. So I know for myself,
Speaker:as someone who is of European descent and is really distanced at this point in
Speaker:time from the lands that I'm originally from,
Speaker:I had a lot of feelings around ancestor work.
Speaker:Mix in there the history of oppression and colonialism that took
Speaker:place throughout much of the colonized parts of the world and as part of the
Speaker:Western imagination,
Speaker:it can feel really intimidating to want to connect with those who came before
Speaker:us. So I want to be specific here when I'm talking about this idea of ancestral
Speaker:herbalism.
Speaker:When I'm speaking of the ability to connect to those who came before us to
Speaker:deepen our herbal practice,
Speaker:what I'm talking to is the idea of connecting into those from your lineage
Speaker:who were deeply connected to the plants,
Speaker:those who had really vibrant,
Speaker:intact communities and knew how to speak to the plants and how to work with
Speaker:them for healing. All of our ancestors worked with plants. If they didn't,
Speaker:we wouldn't be here,
Speaker:but some of our ancestors were more connected to plants than others.
Speaker:So when I speak of doing this kind of ancestor work to connect to
Speaker:those who came before you who really know how to work with the plants,
Speaker:what I'm speaking of is connecting with those who really were plant
Speaker:medicine people,
Speaker:those who lived in a culture where they saw the world around them as
Speaker:alive. Now,
Speaker:some of us might be farther away from this mindset than others.
Speaker:I know for me,
Speaker:I'm probably at least a thousand years away from ancestors who are truly living
Speaker:in an animistic viewpoint. That said,
Speaker:it's in all of our blood.
Speaker:All of us have ancestors who were indigenous of a place.
Speaker:And when we learn how to connect to them during this autumn time where the veil
Speaker:is thin,
Speaker:we can actually ask for their help and their guidance to deepen our practice
Speaker:with the plants and our life path in general.
Speaker:When we can connect with our well ancestors, we can receive their blessings,
Speaker:their knowledge and their wisdom. But for me,
Speaker:it's been a very essential viewpoint to actually start to see ancestors as
Speaker:a way to connect to plants and plants as a way to connect to the ancestors.
Speaker:So I've had the privilege now of being able to visit a couple places in the
Speaker:world that my family are actually from,
Speaker:and I was amazed when I actually got my body on that landscape,
Speaker:how much I resonated with those places.
Speaker:And I was also amazed to see that some of the plants that I had an innate
Speaker:connection to were growing there in proliferation and were actually ancient
Speaker:parts of the culture that had lived there for thousands of years.
Speaker:For example, when I went to Ireland and I met the hawthorns that lived there,
Speaker:it was like I understood for the first time why I've always been so deeply drawn
Speaker:to this plant,
Speaker:this plant that is known to be a gatekeeper to the realms of magic and the fairy
Speaker:realm, a heart healer and a grief assuager.
Speaker:When I met the hawthorns there,
Speaker:something deeply clicked into place inside of me. That said,
Speaker:you don't have to go to your place of origin in order to make these connections.
Speaker:You can do a simple research project to find out what were the important plants
Speaker:of your ancestors, your land-based ancestors.
Speaker:So this could be ceremonial plants, food plants, or medicine plants,
Speaker:and try connecting with these plants, this autumn,
Speaker:to open a gateway to communicate with your ancestors,
Speaker:the ones who are very well vibrant in spirit,
Speaker:who knew how to live in harmony with the earth so that you can start actually
Speaker:bringing this knowledge back into existence now for yourself and the lineages
Speaker:to come.
Speaker:So a couple ideas to incorporate this practice into your rituals this fall.
Speaker:One is to actually make a dish for your ancestors to give as an offering
Speaker:based on what would've been their favorite foods, their ancestral foods.
Speaker:Not only does this connect you to the plants,
Speaker:but it helps you connect to the ancestors through this bridge of the plants.
Speaker:You can also look up and find a flower essence made in that land
Speaker:that perhaps you're from.
Speaker:You might still live in this landscape or if you're someone like me,
Speaker:you might not,
Speaker:but you can actually find a maker who makes flower essences on that land and
Speaker:have it shipped over to you and connect that way. In general,
Speaker:this time in autumn is such a rich space for exploring our consciousness.
Speaker:This is the classic time of the year in which the veil between the worlds thins.
Speaker:So if you're intrigued by this idea of deepening ancestor work and connecting to
Speaker:the Otherworld, this place where the ancestors, the fairies, the plant spirits,
Speaker:and the unseen beings live, then come join me for Herbs for the Otherworld.
Speaker:In this online class, we explore some of those potent rituals, plants,
Speaker:and practices for connecting into the medicine of Autumn.
Speaker:The course includes a guided journey into the Otherworld as well as suggestions
Speaker:for how to celebrate this time of the year.
Speaker:So if you are interested in Herbs for the Otherworld,
Speaker:I will go ahead and put that link here.
Speaker:It's been so sweet to see some folks joining that class again
Speaker:this autumn. It's one of my absolute favorites.
Speaker:And if you'd like to go deeper into
Speaker:herbalism,
Speaker:in particular herbalism as a highly sensitive in this season,
Speaker:I am a part of Ecoversity's online Herbal
Speaker:Medicine Making Summit, which is starting this week.
Speaker:So if you are listening this week,
Speaker:this is a free summit live with 38 teachers.
Speaker:It's actually quite special that this is all happening live.
Speaker:And I will be teaching on October 15th,
Speaker:and I'll specifically be teaching a class called Herbs for Sensitive Nervous
Speaker:Systems.
Speaker:This is the class that I wish that I had taken when I first started in
Speaker:herbalism to understand why herbs tend to work different in my body,
Speaker:what needs to be different in terms of the way I interact with herbs, dosage,
Speaker:the kind of plants that work for me.
Speaker:We are going to talk about specific plants that help those of us with sensitive
Speaker:nervous systems in general in our life,
Speaker:and I'm really excited to just dive into this topic that's really been at the
Speaker:core of my practice forever.
Speaker:And it's something I think my own ancestors would be particularly delighted to
Speaker:know that I have been sussing out, figuring out over time,
Speaker:because we know now that sensitivity is an inherited trait that
Speaker:many of us are born sensitive as highly sensitive people, as empaths,
Speaker:et cetera, because our ancestors were sensitive as well.
Speaker:And so this feels like such a big nod to my ancestors to teach this
Speaker:class. And I also find those of us with sensitive nervous systems,
Speaker:we're also the ones who tend to be receiving messages through the veil,
Speaker:interested in connecting with the ancestors,
Speaker:and also here to transform some of what we've been carrying
Speaker:from our ancestral lines.
Speaker:So if you are interested in this totally free
Speaker:class,
Speaker:Herbs for Sensitive Nervous Systems as a part of Ecoversity's Online Summit,
Speaker:I will also go ahead and put that link below.
Speaker:So however you are marking this time with your,
Speaker:whether it's pumpkin spice lattes or you've got your decorative gourds out
Speaker:or you're out there making yourself some elderberry tea,
Speaker:know that this is a time for deepening.
Speaker:This is a time when the life from the upper world goes
Speaker:into the roots where things like the canopy get clear,
Speaker:but also the things within us get clear, our visions of our own lives,
Speaker:of what's possible for us. And may,
Speaker:as this time of the thinning of the veil occurs for you, this time of seership,
Speaker:as we've been exploring this month,
Speaker:may it help you come home to yourself,
Speaker:may it help you deepen into life in all the ways,
Speaker:and may it help you remember that most important thing of all, why you're here.
