Meeting the wild plants of Glastonbury Abbey

Glastonbury Abbey, a peaceful summer haven

Last Saturday I attended the modestly titled Herb Walk led by local herbalist Jenny Gaze. Jenny is wise and accomplished, possessing a clear and thorough knowledge of wild and cultivated herbs.

Jenny gives useful information for collecting, preparing and storing plant materials. All good stuff. And yet beyond the practical something deeper was  illuminated: the hallmark of a truly talented teacher.

In recent weeks I have been exploring teachings around sacred plants, plant medicine and plant consciousness. Meandering with Jenny through the stunning wildlife haven of Glastonbury Abbey during high summer was a perfect means of animating this research. The session highlighted themes and insights that are showing up all around in my life right now, may be this will resonate for you too:

Jenny identifies mullein

The gift of change: Loss as a call to empowerment and re-skilling
The recently enacted EU directive prohibiting the sale of many plant based health supplements upset and angered many friends and therapists within the community.

I haven't felt moved to protest; it doesnt work for me to resist change; I prefer to flow like water and look instead for the opportunity to create something new, real and sustainable.

Surely it is an improved, evolved scenario to know someone personally, within one's community who can advise, teach and provide. And ultimately this is a call to learn for ourselves how to make one's own teas, tinctures, decoctions and ointments.

Humanity's current insanity is a blip in the grand scheme of things
Jenny really helped me shift perspective here as she related how up until the 1940s i.e. within living memory doctors in general practice in this country would rely on herbal medicine as a main treatment modality.

The pharma-scientific-technological-capitalism, the unchecked exponential expansion of allopathic pharmacology was a short, intense phase of aggressive acceleration that is burning itself out (MRSA anyone?) Peace and sanity is being restored TODAY; the old and new systems operating in parallel; one falling away as the other rises.

Return to community living, honouring of ancestral wisdom and tribal ways
Our indigenous ancestors held and embodied the timeless teachings of nature and we will again and it this time it will not be lost. We are interested in Grandmother's remedies. We turn to the wise elders within our community. We have the answers amongst us. We share resources and skills.  We care for each other, we are important in each other's lives. Embodying knowledge, we become living teachers of a practical wisdom that is enhanced and shared through the day-to-day reality of our lives. 

Receiving the teachings in the presence of the plant

Real and direct modes of learning  
I acknowledge and embrace all of the amazing digital technologies that allow me to be present with a master teacher in Hawaii or Skype with a friend in New Zealand. 

I love the vast and growing libraries of interviews and recordings that  humanity is sharing so freely and easily at this time when relearning is vital. Yet right now, for me, nothing beats showing up in a small, curious group and being shown how. 

Shifting to an expanded consciousness:  
As we become alive and sensitive to ourselves we begin to experience the natural world as sacred, alive, intelligent, aware and caring. Higher states known by enlightened masters and advanced spiritual seekers are available to us all. Feeling deep presence, divine healing energies and moments of sacred bliss are our birthright, our soulright.

Moving into heart-based sacred relationship The Earth is our mother who loves us and wants to care for us. Plants can support us in our cleansing, nourishing, healing and beautifying. As we synergise and align with their subtle signatures we receive nurture and increase vitality. It is for us to choose to recognise and accept the great love and abundance being offered. And we can choose to reciprocate with sensitivity, empathy and intuition; gratitude, respect and honouring.

Affirmations and intentions:

I reclaim my relationship with the natural world

I treat myself kindly and holistically with natural remedies

I open myself to receive the wisdom, love and nurture of Mother Earth

I acknowledge the sacredness and beauty of all living beings

Links/resources:

Additional photos from the Glastonbury Abbey Herb Walk on facebook

Further opportunities to learn from Jenny in Glastonbury early autumn 2011 www.jennygaze.com

International teacher Eliot Cowan is a personal plant hero, I recommend his book Plant Spirit Medicine

I am inspired by the programs on offer at the Gaian Institute, New Mexico www.gaianstudies.org

Joanna Harcourt-Smith interviews leading luminaries from the fields of indigenous wisdom, ancestral pathways, Gaia consciousness and related topics www.futureprimitive.org

Bountiful blessings of high vibrational plant love and healing

Jennifer