Hello everyone and welcome to the Awaken Together podcast. I'm Kat and today we have a very special
guest on the show. This special guest is a dear friend of mine. Her name is Courtney Mirage.
Today we're going to be talking about plant friends, plant consciousness, and it's a real treat
because Courtney is an incredible, reformed lawyer, turned community, and folk herbalist and ritualist.
She's a creator of the Well and the Wheel where she serves as a period keeper and womb tender.
So without further ado, welcome Courtney! Hello, hi, thank you for having me. Of course,
thank you so much for being here. It's such a treat. I feel like we've been talking about
having you on the pod for a really long time and it's just all come into fruition.
Yes, super exciting. Thank you. Yeah, of course. So I love everything you do. Would you mind sharing
with our audience like what exactly you do? Sure. So I work with people, especially women in
womb carriers, but people in all bodies to support them on their healing journey by using
herbal and ritual medicine. So what that looks like is it could be as simple as making a cup of tea.
It could also be more comprehensive where I'm making sort of a herbal ritual protocol for
people to follow and infuse into their daily life for maybe three or six months or more
to support them in whatever physical, mental, emotional, spiritual healing path they're on.
One of the things I love about this medicine is that it's a form of like complementary alternative
medicine, which means that while it's ancient ancestral and super foundational for our species,
these days when we rely more on like modern western allopathic medicine, it's considered
quote unquote alternative and they go so well together. So the people that I work with can be
seeing a doctor who went to modern medical school and the work that I do can support and
compliment the medicine that they receive from them. I also offer red tent circles, intuitive tea
ceremonies, and tea leaf reading. So we get into some of the more the shorter ritual medicine,
bringing in herbal allies to those experiences as well. That might not be a three to six month
ritual. It might be like a powerful one day ritual. Similar to like a psychoactive plant medicine
ceremony, those types of experiences without psychoactive medicine. Yeah, thanks for sharing
all about that and I'm such a fan of your work, clearly. I mean, I attended your red tent circles,
which are just incredible and such a magical space for women and womb carriers to come together and
just be vulnerable and share truths, what's going on with our cycles, with our hormones, with
anything else that's feeling present and you just offer such beautiful and dynamic ways to process.
And it was such a treat having you at Myra Treats in April and that was just such a highlight.
We created beautiful herbal blends with oils and it gave some self massage and screamed at mountain
and sacred rage. So yeah, I mean, everything that you offer this world is so needed and I'm just
really grateful to have you as a friend as well as in this space. And something you mentioned
was the difference of the psychoactive and the non psychoactive plant medicine friends.
And on this podcast, we have had, I think, two separate episodes with guests who have shared
about the psychoactive kind of plant medicine. And so I thought it was really important for us to also
have you on the show to share about the non psychoactive kind because like you said,
they're a beautiful compliment to things that we're already doing in our everyday lives and they can
be a lot more gentle but still very powerful. Absolutely. So just different ways to access
nature, what's already around us and fill in gaps and use them as tools and friends. And so
really excited to dig into that more with you today. Me too. Thank you. Yeah. And you created
this beautiful tea blend for us that we're sipping on. Yes, this is my sisterhood circle tea blend
that I brought for us today with a lot of divine feminine energy and womb and cyclical support and
then also a lot of like nervous system energy so that we can be calm and in the flow of conversation.
So we are allying with rose, raspberry leaf, catnip, holy basil, calendula,
spearmint, ladies mantle and vervein today. And the blend is delicious and relaxing and
yeah, also smells really wonderful. That rose is really coming through. Oh yeah. Just like a warm
cup of tea that tastes so yummy. It's just very grounding me right now with that. Me too. We all
know I always need it. Me too. Bring us back down. Yes, down dirt. Definitely. Yeah. Well,
I'm excited to get into some of the properties of these plant friends. Yes. But I figure before we
hop into that, if you wouldn't mind sharing like you have had such a journey in your life to get
to this point. Yeah. And I think there's so much power in your story. So I'm wondering if you'd be
open to sharing that. Sure. Yeah, my pleasure. So the short version is that I used to be a
lawyer and I hated it. And it took me going to the tippy tip tip edge of the world in West
Cork, Ireland to finding my connection with the plants. So that's like the log line for it.
The much longer version is that I actually don't know if you know the beginning part of the story.
So when I was born, my mom and I were very, very sick. And she thought we were both gonna die.
I did not know this. Yeah. So when I was born, we were exposed to some very toxic
building materials, some chemicals that were at the time legal and accessible in like carpet,
paint, glue, that type of thing. And the house had been that we were living in and at the time
was getting remodeled. And we were both super sensitive because we were in the postpartum phase.
So we got really sick. And so my mom ended up raising us with a very sustainable, naturally
minded lifestyle to save her lives. Wow. So I was raised with that mentality, which I'm very,
very lucky to have had the impetus for that luck is sad. But we made it, you know, not without some
long term health challenges. But luckily, my mom brought us into awareness of all the other types
of medicine available to us. And we got to access that healing long term, which was great. And then
I have had endometriosis as partly I have a guess we don't really know where endometriosis comes
from it's a disease where the endometrial tissue in the uterus grows outside of the uterus. And in
some people, unfortunately, including myself, it can cause tremendous pain with the menstrual bleed.
And so a lot of guesses around that are environmental toxins are potential causes. And
then there's also some genetic elements that I most likely won the beneficiary of. And so
I have had to sort of seek alternative, quote unquote, alternative medicine to support my journey
there because the only solution accessible to me in allopathic medicine has been either a very
invasive surgery that is not even really proven to be helpful and can actually cause more scar tissue
and pain in the long term or birth control, which as you have talked about on this podcast,
can be an amazing ally for some people and can also mask a lot of challenges and cause
um, cause hormonal imbalances, et cetera, um, as well. So, um, I had to fend for myself. And when
I went to law school, I was so out of sync with my cycle that the pain was the worst it's ever been.
Um, a little TMI, but I remember driving home after class one day, um, barfing in my car because
the pain was so bad and that was so, it was awful. Um, so after law school, um, I was with a partner
who was living in Ireland and, um, the pandemic hit. And so we were living in the really, really
remote, um, village in like Southwest Ireland, kind of on the edge of the world, um, overlooking
the Atlantic, getting away from everything, very lucky to be there, very, very lucky to have gotten
to spend time there. Um, and that's when the plant started, uh, reaching out to me to build
relationship. Um, because there wasn't much else to do. You know, things got quiet and so I was
able to hear them and have them invite me in. And, um, I got to a point where I started working with
them every day and cooking with them, foraging and building a little bit of like a emotional
relationship with them and getting to a point where I was like, wow, I really don't want to
practice law. This feels so out of alignment for me. And then the moment, um, that I like, I had my
business set up to practice, the moment I decided to quit when like one of my good friends asked me
to, um, help them out with something I really wanted to be working on in my law practice, it hit me
that like, oh, I actually don't want to do this. I think I'm supposed to want to do this. So I quit
and 48 hours later, this incredible ancestral herbal apprenticeship landed in my lap for me to
apply to and it was the biggest hell yes I've ever gotten in my life. What a magical moment. Yes. I mean,
talk about just clarity and like closing of one chapter to open anew and I mean, you're such an
intuitive being. You always have been. I've always, we've always connected in this way. And you, I
think like that was a massive time where you listened to your gut and it, it showed you the way. It
did. It was painful, honestly, to let go of all the hard work I had done. Um, meant to step out of
the capitalist, um, you know, wheel of feeling like I needed to climb the ladder of success
and that I really wanted to be helping people and then I found, you know, once I got further into my
apprenticeship, I'm helping people so much more than I ever would have with law. Like so much more
deeply, so much more authentically and thoroughly and, um, it's so much more fulfilling for everyone
involved, including the plants. You know, they were ignored. What I was doing before. So they get to
participate now and it feels so much more enriching, um, and human, frankly, to get to spend my time
like this now. That's incredible. Yeah. So something you said that I wanted to kind of circle back on
that I just thought was so beautiful and, um, I was like starting to visualize it, but I'd love just,
for just to hear more from your perspective on is you shared how the plants started talking to you.
Yeah. Right. And so I feel like I've had those experiences too, right. Um, but I'm curious,
like what did this look like for you? What did this feel like? Yeah. So I think in the beginning,
it was pretty, uh, unconscious on my end. It was more like my eyes would just linger on certain
plants and like I wouldn't be able to look away or I would start seeing them everywhere. And that
could just be confirmation bias and you know, you're in a, I was in a place where like I'm surrounded
by plants, right? But they started to sort of invite me into a multi-sensory meditative experience
with them. So I would, instead of, you know, just like, okay, I'm going to pick some dandelion,
greens and toss that in my salad. Um, I'm going to like sit with the dandelion. I'm going to sit
with the honeysuckle. I'm going to sit with the wild radish leaves and notice that how they move in
the wind. Notice, um, how they smell like when the salt water, you know, is infused on their leaves.
Notice, um, you know, once I do bring them into my food, how do they really taste? And it made me
so much more present with my food and with my experience of cooking. Like really the magic of
um, plants is bringing us into the moment, bringing us into presence, bringing us into our
bodies and into our senses. And um, I'm not a big one for like sitting and meditating.
My brain bounces all over the place, but when I am sitting with plants, I, I've become still with
them and they invite me into that experience. And as I got more and more intimately connected with
them, they did start to speak and like, you know, my skeptical brain, my lawyer brain,
you know, is still alive in some ways and wonders if like this is all just in my head.
And I've come to the conclusion that, okay, if it is, does it matter? You know, does it really
matter if when I sit down, um, with Rose and she says to me, I love you, please pick a flower
I'm ready to share with you today. Is that in my head? I don't know if it really matters, right?
Like this is like rule 101 of psychic mediumships. Yeah. This is in books of like,
step one is getting comfortable with your imagination. Exactly. And what comes and trusting
that and writing it off. Right. Phony. Yes. And, and frankly, even if it is just in my head,
it's such an incredible experience to work through interrelationship, interrelational
experiences in a safe way because the plants have so much more peace than we do as human beings.
And so if I hear a boundary, you know, I'm trying to check in and see if Blackberry is
going to let me tell this story. And she says, no, so I'm not going to tell her story. She's
very boundaries. So I really am good at like making sure I honor her boundaries. She's a huge, like,
she's a hedge plant. So she's like, she's a marker of boundaries. So she's a big boundary plant.
She doesn't want me to tell this story. So I'm not going to tell her story. Um, sorry, that was a
tease, but I love, I love even just experiencing this. It's really special. You know, I do, I listen
to like, I have specific plants, like I have a Blackberry plant in my home, but I also connect
with like the spirit of a plant and how they show up in the world, all over the world, right?
And so there are some times when, okay, with my chamomile and calendula, I've got growing in my garden,
I really wanted to harvest some because I'm drying them to use for medicine later. And I sat down
with them recently and they said to me, not yet, Courtney, not yet, it's not time. And so I had to
listen and like, I often find when they share a boundary, it's actually for my benefit. Because
they're saying it's too early in the day, the medicine hasn't moved to the part of the plant that
you need to harvest or, um, I haven't bloomed enough yet for you to harvest or recently, the
chamomile was saying, please don't take all of me, leave some for the pollinators you're taking too
much lately. So when I sit and listen, like they really show up in English in my head, but it also,
at first, it shows up as like an energetic or spiritual or metaphysical boundary where I feel
sort of a barrier. And then I ask, oh, what is this about? Or if I feel totally open and like,
there's sort of no barrier at all, and there's just air between us and that invitation shows up,
does that make sense? Totally. Yes, yes, absolutely. That's like the closest thing that I have to that
too is when I'm on a hike, I recently learned that this is a big no-no, but picking wildflowers,
right? Just like that's a general rule so that they're still in their habitat, right? And we have
so few in Colorado. I know, yeah. This season was beautiful and this was before I really
learned that. I was picking a wildflower bouquet, going on a hike with that intention, I always like,
on the way back would look around and be like, okay, I would still have that moment of mindful
check-in with each plant of like, can I pick you? Right. And sometimes it was yes. Yeah. And sometimes
it was no. And whenever like an answer wasn't there, I would just like leave it and not mess with it.
Beautiful. So I at least had that moment of check-in. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not going to do that,
but even still like in my backyard or whenever, whenever plants are around and there's,
they're speaking to me, they're calling to me. If I want to have a moment often with sunflowers on
walks, right? I just, ugh, every day that's like the one that speaks to me most because I don't
know, there's so many reasons, right? Yeah. I have a tattooed on me now. Right. We have the same tattoo.
Same artist. Exactly. Same artist. Dany did our tattoos and so it's the same location on each of
us. Shout out to Das Colors on Instagram. Das Colors. Yes. If you're in Denver, check her out.
She's freaking incredible. It's like a spiritual experience, honestly. Absolutely. And that's
like, I think that's one thing that is helpful, you know, if I may segue into this, so helpful to
know that we don't need to like take plant medicine into our body to connect with it. Yeah. Because
what we're really talking about here is sovereignty and consent, right? And animism, knowing this
concept that it's a spiritual theory, and we can use that word, it's a spiritual framework for
recognizing that all things are sentient, all things are sovereign, all things are alive in
their own way. And in our capitalist patriarchal society, we have this mentality of I need to
have, collect, take, even dominate in order to connect. And that's not true. Yes. Like just
sitting and observing and breathing on and with another plant, because we are plants in our own
way too, which we'll get to in a minute. But you know, we have this relationship of carbon dioxide
and oxygen. It's such a beautiful symbiotic relationship. Just sharing air with a plant
can be a spiritual, powerful, medicinal experience. And we don't need to possess a plant in order to
receive the medicine. And when we have consent, the medicine is so much more meaningful and powerful,
not just from a spiritual perspective, but from a place of like, I feel good about taking the
medicine in. You know, like my nervous system feels good about receiving this, so I'm going to be
calmer and my body is going to actually be able to like, absorb and alchemyze this medicine better.
Exactly. And that makes me think of an idea that I learned from Braiding Sweetgrass, which is a
book that you love as well. You brought it here today. And it's a whole idea of reciprocity.
Yes. Right? It's like getting away from just that capitalistic view of taking and understanding our
place and all things with nature of there's a giving and a taking or a seaving. And it's always
going back and forth in like really symbiotic relationships that are respectful and held
with reverence and... Yeah. We are part of the ecosystem. We are absolutely part... And we don't
think about it that way. We think we're above it, but we are absolutely part of it. We are the earth,
you know? We are absolutely part of the earth. And I think one of the things that
Robin... Wall Kimmerer, I think it's how I say her name. She talks about it so beautifully is
right relationship. And that's essentially what we're talking about too is consent, right? And
having that right relationship. And then also knowing that like, even if you get a yes and it's
not in your ancestry or if it's an endangered plant, that might not be a yes to follow. It might be
like, I could ally with you right now and I could really help you, but is there another plant that
can offer the same or similar medicine that isn't going to cause harm in the process? Exactly. Like,
for example, I don't work with Palo Santo or White Sage anymore because of both the endangered status
of that medicine and the cultural appropriation involved, especially White Sage as a closed
practice. It's working with White Sage as smudging, which I use the word sacred smoke because
smudging is a specific term for that ritual, was illegal until the late 70s. And so it's,
to me, it feels disrespectful of the sovereignty of the plant and the sovereignty of the ritual
and the people that engage in the ritual to work with White Sage. It doesn't mean I don't work
with sacred smoke. I absolutely work with sacred smoke. I use plants from my own ancestry, like
rosemary and even clothes. I'm Persian and Jewish, so I connect with plants from the Swana region,
Southwest Asian North Africa. Yeah, instead of Middle East, I learned that from one of my teachers,
Sarah Corbett, and from Rowan and Sage. She's one of my favorite herbal teachers. I don't know that
she came up with the term, but she uses Swana because it takes away the political charge of the
term Middle East. And it also recognizes more of the cultural symbiosis between the region
of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Very cool. Yeah. So that plant medicine, and that's also like
one of the areas where, if not, some people say the area where herbal medicine was really
discovered and honed is in the Swana region, especially Iran, which is where my family is from.
So I feel strong pull to work with that medicine because it's so important and meaningful to me
spiritually. And then my body can absorb it so much more readily than something that came from
a different region. And that my nervous system doesn't feel good about because I feel bad
working with that medicine. So it's, you know, that's not a healing experience. And even if you
just look at it from that way, and you know, if you don't feel bad, then maybe, you know,
you can look at it a different way. Yeah, I'm really paying attention to how it shows up in
your body. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Get me deeper and deeper with it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well,
I know that there are some herbs that in plants that you work with a lot. And I'm curious,
before we hop into each one of those, and their amazing medicinal properties and everything,
how did you go about forming those bonds with these plants and specific? Yeah, so
it's different with each plant, just like it's different with each person. So one of the ways
that I frame this, I think I've heard other people discuss this as well, is that it's sort of like
dating. Some plants are ready to make out on the first date, right? And you're gonna make me spit
my teeth. You're making out with the plant. That's what you're doing right now. That's amazing.
That's, I mean, you know, we're joking, but that's part of it. Like, some plants are ready
for you to connect with them with your body inside right away. And some plants need time. So
you might work with them by sitting with them. You might work with them by carrying a dried plant
as like an amulet in your pocket for a while. The best way to work with plants is with our
senses, right? But taste is not the only way. It could be meditating even with a picture of a plant,
slowly court them and allow them to court you. I found so one way that I started my relationship
with with some plants is one of my teachers, my apprenticeship mentor, Tanya Rikely,
who was my teacher. She had us journey. She guided us in a journey on our first day of our
apprenticeship together into like our inner psyche to meet our herbal ally for the year.
Wow. And I had three show up. So overachiever. Yeah, that lawyer part of me still alive in some way.
Yeah, but the plant that really showed up for me that I didn't know, like I saw the visual,
but I didn't know who it was. So Tanya helped me identify it and link with her was ladies mantle.
I brought her today. She wanted to come and hang out on the table with us. There she is.
Yeah, she's beautiful. Do you want to smell? Yes, we can have a little sensory experience. Oh, yeah.
She's ready to play. So what do you smell? Oh, smells florally. Almost oregano-y. Yeah.
Yeah, and then like a little woody. That's so interesting and wonderful because it shows up
a little bit differently for everybody kind of like drinking wine. It's like that sensory experience.
So for me, I sort of get green tea and a little bit of tannin. Yeah. And I smell the woody bit as well.
Yeah, I love her so much. She's special. And she really made me work for it. Yeah. To get into
right relationship with her. So it took me ages to see her in the wild or in my neighborhood,
even though she's a pretty popular plant out in the world. And it got to a point where I realized
I had some internal work to do before I could allow her in. So she really took me on a journey of
understanding my self-worth and that I didn't have to pedestalize her in order to be in relationship
with her. She was teaching me about equality and not needing to experience idol worship. She was
allowing me and inviting me to be unequal with her. And once I was able to understand that,
it was showing up in my relationships with people too. And once I was able to understand that she
showed up everywhere. Yeah. You know that happens. She was trying to teach me a lesson, which I'm so
grateful for. So beautiful. Yeah. And so once that happened, and I could see her everywhere, then I
started feeling consent and her willingness and even eagerness to connect with me beyond just an
amulet in my pocket that I got from my teacher. And more in tea, in anointing oil, even as like a
poultice and a salve. And she's an incredible ally for fertility and women's and womb support. So
she's exactly right for what I need. But I needed to get in right relationship with her
before she was going to be able to offer me that medicine. Get that foundation nice and right.
Exactly. And build a beautiful bond on top of that. Exactly. And now it's such a spiritual
experience connecting with her and I feel like I'm receiving medicine on so many different levels.
Yeah. I love that whole holistic view on the medicine, on the plants and her properties and what
she can do for you and all the lessons gleamed. Yes. So powerful. To me, this is how I want medicine
to feel. And this is how I want my clients to experience medicine is a holistic experience
that isn't just take a pill and call me in the morning, which can work, right? We know it can
work and we know that sometimes we need it. But I always come to, you know, we are multifaceted
beings. We have somatic needs as well as like digestive needs, you know, like they all go
together. All of our organ systems are connected. So if we can get all of our systems aligned in
our healing process, it's going to be so much more effective. And so I always come to herbal
medicine first. And then when I need to explore allopathic medicine, like a surgery, for example,
herbal medicine can help you recover, can help you prepare. But just ladies mantle can't hold a knife.
Right. Like we need both and learning how to have that multifaceted approach to healing
to cushion our experiences of allopathic medicine has been a pretty powerful experience for me.
Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And talk about like side effects, right? Like just the amount of side
effects from like more clinical medications. It's always a need to cross reference and I'm sure
there is a need for that. Every time. Every time. In herbs and plants as well. Yes. Yes. With every
client, I always do my research and homework to make sure that with whatever allopathic medicine
they're taking, pharma or anything else, even supplements and stuff, it is medicine. So we do
have to be careful about contraindications, even like if you've got like lemon balm, for example,
is a plant I work with very often. And you have to be careful with her in hypothyroidism.
Interesting. Yeah. So just knowing that while this is the people's medicine, it's wonderfully safe,
we still have to be careful with how we connect with them when we bring them into our bodies.
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Makes so much sense. And with that being said, I'm sure that some of our community
members listening to this are going to be excited as I am and interested in channeling their inner
which, maybe exploring this path some more. So I'm curious what tips would you have for
our folks who are newer to this line of work and plants and consciousness and building bonds
with this kind of medicine. So I would always start with sitting with a plant. And you can pick
one plant, maybe that you've got in your backyard, in your home, it can be a house plant even,
just learning to build relationship with them. It can be, I've got an oak tree in my neighborhood,
who's young, he's maybe like 12 or 15. He's my buddy. And I always give him a high five or
a little kiss when I pass by, like building relationship in that way. And then my intellectual
lawyer brain wants to do the research. So you can, there's some incredible books and resources,
definitely like Sarah Corbett with Rowan and Sage is one of my all time favorite
resources online, if you want the intellectual side of things. There's so many different ways
to do it. So you can do like the intellectual journey. I really, really, really recommend
like a personal spiritual journey, if you're going to do that as well, starting with sitting with
the plants and then ease your senses, you know, like we've been talking about. I would also say,
if you've got a creative outlet that you like to connect with, like making music or painting or
writing, using that outlet to connect, you know, writing poetry about a specific plant.
And maybe if you're an intellectual minded person, you can do the research about like
ancestral connections to that and ancestral uses of medicine for that plant and leave that into your
poetry. You know, taking baths with plants is another one that I love because while we do absorb
things through our skin and we still have to be careful, especially if we've got like skin-related
allergies, like chamomiles in the Daisy family, for example, so you have to be careful if you're
allergic to daisies kind of thing. But generally speaking, taking a bath with plants is a wonderfully
sensual experience to build relationship with them. I would also say, this is the people's medicine,
right? So look and see what is accessible to you right in your own backyard. There's a reason why
this industry is not regulated in America at least. It's because it belongs to all of us.
And it belongs to all of us because it's right there ready and accessible for us. So the dandelions
you've got in your backyard, we can call them leaves or we can call them medicine. They're
incredible nitrogen fixing plants. They're trying to heal the soil. So leave the dandelions. Oh my
gosh. Yeah, that's a really simple way to connect with them. They're incredibly medicinal. The leaf,
flower, and the root. That's something actually in Greek culture. Yeah. One of my, yeah, I remember
that growing up, we call them horta. Beautiful. And they'll make like a dandelion tea, a dandelion
stew. Yeah, it's a very common dish. That's wonderful. And they're delicious. Yeah. They're
a little bit bitter. Yeah, you got to like treat them right. You got to treat them right. That's right.
Exactly. And they're bitter for a reason. It's because it's part of the medicine.
They have an amazing affinity for kidney and liver support. And like, you know, if you're
in an urban environment, we do have to be careful about pesticides, sadly, like, and especially
plants like that who help heal the soil, they'll absorb those toxins. So you might not want to
harvest and eat the, you know, the dandelions you've got in your apartment complex or something
like that because they likely have been sprayed and that can make you more ill, which we don't need.
But, you know, build relationship with them and enjoy the sunshine that they bring and
allow them to heal the soil. I think they're beautiful personally. I think so too.
Yeah, they're a little like, they're called dandelion and they're also called, they've got a
French name, like teeth of the lion, I think, because of the way that they're shaped. And they
look like a lion because of their, and in Leo's season right now, we're still in Leo's season.
So like relish that. I will also say one thing, another way to connect with plants is, speaking
of Leo season is called astro herbalism. So if you're interested in astrology, there are certain
plants that ally with certain signs and astrology. And so that can be like an interesting opening
that's a passion of yours. So is it called again? Astro herbalism. Astro herbalism, amazing. I'll
definitely check that out. Yeah, yeah. And it's a, you know, it can be as simple as like, oh,
this is a great month to drink dandelion tea, or it could be as deep as I want to know when
what phase of the moon is a good time to harvest this specific plant, you know, in this sign.
You can get really nitty gritty with it. So that's one opening. Let's see. So many tactile tips.
Yeah, I would say another, another, if I may, can I keep going? Please. I will also say,
using sovereign language like we have been doing that Robin Wall camera talks about,
is a great way to connect with plants because it just shifts our mindset about them. We don't use
the word it. We use them, she, he, like it doesn't have to be gendered. Some plants might be gendered,
like some trees are the female part of the trees and are the female species of the tree, some are
male, but really, and that's like botanical, right? It can also be energetic, but they really
transcend gender in so many ways. So whatever pronouns you want to use, the point is to give them,
I hate the word personification because that implies that the only beings that are worth this
language are people and that's not true. But that we don't really have another word for it.
Yes. But to, to recognize their sovereignty by using people language, because that's the language
that we have to recognize sovereignty is around human beings. So inviting them into that language.
My brother has started doing this really beautiful gratitude practice before eating.
And just recognizing the ecosystem that had to be at play, including us and how we cultivated that
food to bring it into our body because food is medicine too. So just a brief thank you to the
food in front of you. It doesn't have to be a spiritual thing, it can just be like a,
you know, or a religious thing, it can just be a, I'm grateful for this food and I,
I bet you will digest a little bit more easily. Yeah, thank you food. I just drink it with my coffee
in the mornings. I whisper my gratitude into my coffee and then we drink it and it just feels
like I'm being filled with the gratitude and the reciprocity. That's so beautiful. That's
symbiosis. Yeah. There's so many ways that we can, and honestly, I bet a lot of us are already doing it.
I think it's about bringing awareness and intention to it,
because that's the spiritual practice, right? Is when we bring intention into it.
Exactly, the missing link. Exactly, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. Oh my gosh, my heart is so full. I'm feeling very spiritually lit up and this has been such a
incredible conversation. This is what I'm going to listen back to and I feel like I'm,
like I'm going to just research things now. Yeah. And, and feel free to share with me,
like absolutely. I would love to geek out with you about it and your listeners can totally,
I mean, this is my jam. I love this stuff. So reach out to me and we can geek out about it
together and I'm happy to share more resources and more ritual. How can our community connect with
you? Yeah. So Instagram's a good way for better or worse. So my Instagram is at the well and the
wheel and is spelled out Andy. And then my website is thewellonthewheel.com and then you can also
email me at Courtney at the well on the wheel. Beautiful. You also have some amazing rentent
circles coming up. I do. Yes. At Nurture, if you're in the Colorado area, Sunday, October 8th,
one to six, it is always infused with plant medicine. And it's a way for us to connect with
the sovereignty of our own bodies and the consent that we all deserve and some sex ed that we
all deserve to know. And then some fun sacred rage practices and some ways to connect with
herbal medicine and with other women in womb carriers. Everyone can benefit. Everyone should.
I don't like using the word should, but like you will leave feeling so much lighter and more
empowered and connected. Thank you. Really with yourself and community. So I cannot recommend
your offerings enough. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. And thank you all so much for listening,
for being with us today. We would love to hear all of your questions and feedback. You can reach
out to us on Instagram at AwakenTogether podcast and please like, follow, share, rate, review,
all the things so that we can continue growing this little heart work. Thank you, Courtney.
Thank you, Kat. Thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time.