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Plant Meditation Club
Connecting with plants through meditation and sharing experiences gives us insight into how herbs want to help. Receiving others' meditative experiences is a valuable gift! As a group we can contribute to the body of knowledge about plants. New and/or lost information will be discovered.
Ready to transform smoking? We are here for you whether you want to break up with tobacco, smoke socially with less risk, or just enjoy experimenting with smoking natural herbs.
What are you health, life, and emotional vibrancy goals? Explore our herbal teas, tinctures, oils, and flower & gem essences. Want to work one-on-one with our founder Lily Arati Michaud? With 15+ years of experience in herbalism and medicine, she here to support you on your wellness path.
PMC gem/flower essence code:
This week we will be meditating on an unknown gem or flower essence.
What's an essence? Water that holds the energy of a flower, gem, land, animal, etc.
If you have a subscription, the reveal date should match the date on the post: 8/1. Please meditate and share your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual observations in the comments.
A summary will appear here when I reveal the flower or gem essence :)
If you would like to subscribe, we'd love to have you. Check it out here.
Some areas of observation during your meditation and the day/days thereafter:
-energetic shifts -mood/attitude changes -thoughts that arise that aren’t things you normally would think about (like you might normally be thinking about cooking dinner (so skip sharing that), but after taking the plant, you are also thinking about an old relationship and felt remorse, or forgiveness, or new awareness—share that) -images that come to mind -songs that come to mind -messages and/or phrases and their meaning to you if not the same for everyone-bodily changes (physical)
This week we meditated with Mài mén dōng, 麦门冬, Japanese hyacinth, scientific name Ophiopogon japonicus.
Mài mén dōng, areas for further investigation include: use for restoring yin, emotional validation and resurrection, therapeutic elegance, the male end of the spectrum emotional experience with this herb, use of this plant as a flower essence.
Pre Meditation:
Sweet aftertaste. My mouth feels more moist, but I feel a sense of dryness inside. I feel my left more than my right. This reminds me of another herb. A comforting taste and feeling, perhaps like a nurturing, motherly embrace.
Meditation 1:
Me: I feel elegant circulating energy in and in front of my nose up to the crown of my head (bai hui? bi way or the high way). It feels soothing in its elegance. I can let go of some drama that had been on my mind. I see faint purple lines running up to baihui, the center point at the top of my head. It looks like a flower bud/closed petals. My tooth roots came to mind, they do look similar to the tuber.
My Daughter: It was a QVC infomercial, this herb was being sold in a flask, as an essence of the herb. The sales pitch: "Well, let's take this broken down plane for example." They applied some of the herb's essence to a leaf, and then they smeared it across where there was smoke coming out of a plane. Then the plane was fine. The people on the infomercial said that it was more rare than Chanel, so "You should buy it immediately. It is really expensive and really rare, you should buy it immediately because it does the trick."
Meditation 2:
Me: I feel pleasant energy move from my mouth, to nose, forehead, and baihui. I find the energy moves to my shoulders. The movements are all elegant and symmetrical. At my shoulders the energy moves in an infinity loop from edge to edge. I sit up straighter and the energy moves smoothly to my heart level. Now the energy is pale pink and diffuse, gently illuminaing my torso. Then energy had been pale purple and felt more physical (like petals). The pink is energetic and is soft and peaceful.
My daughter: I didn't experience much, but my butthole kept getting unnaturally warm. I saw the butthole had a fire in it and it was spreading through the tuby things inside my body, it wrapped around my heart, and then went out through my mouth. The heat wasn't uncomfortable it was just warm. Now I feel peaceful and relaxed.
Summary and Traditional Use:
The above images shows the herb in flower. It has tiny flowers and it is not known for them. It matches my head experience and color.
This herb gave varied experiences. It is considered cooling, sweet, and neutral. This herb is known for use for a variety of dry conditions associated with the stomach, heart, and lung channels. Some examples: periodontal disease (supportive when dry mouth is a factor), some evidence of support for oral cancer; a dry cough, with thick mucous that is difficult to expel, or coughing up blood, and constipation due to internal dryness with emotional irritability (Bensky, Materia Medica, 1986, p 520). This herb is known to pacify the heart, decreasing feelings of restlessness. This short summary reflects some of our experiences including images and feelings of warmth and dryness (airplane and heat in the digestive tract), and images of teeth.
Generally speaking this herb moistens and supports yin. Yin is associated with the water element and emotions. Both Alyssa's experience of witnessing emotions that she doesn't normally like to dwell on and my pink heart energy experience related to emotions (in Western concept). Honoring emotions (even if the cultural demand is to be mature and productively power through) is supportive to yin. The herb is said to bring happiness with long term use, and even turn white hairs dark again. Is this the power of being able to sit with emotions til they clear? I was so intrigued by the elegant quality of the energy flows of this herb. It has grace about it, like a dancer. It reminds me of the body as an art form. I feel there is so much more to understand about this herb. I look forward to working with it more. Stay tuned for whether my white hairs change. I have had this happen before and I find joy in seeing dark roots on white hair. In the past I couldn't decide if it was divine intervention or juicing. This time I will have a better idea.
Shepherd's purse is a wonderful herb used for the reproductive health women and nonbinary folx. Historically it has been particularly helpful for uterine fibroids, uterine prolapse due to muscle weakness, and trauma. Menstrual blood that is dark and has clots can be an indicator this herb will be supportive.
Learn more by reading our plant meditation club experiences here.
Take it Easy herbal smoking blend that I formulated to support folx during the early stages of tobacco withdrawal. The herbs in this blend are organic mullein, lobelia, skullcap, catnip, and rose. This blend is also good for work breaks and work frustration, and can be helpful for headaches related to neck issues.
Astral in Body is an eccentric social smoke. For personal ritual is helps connect with the moon and other energies while feeling grounded. This video discusses the nature of full moons in general and in particular the full moon in Capricorn.
Astral in Body is made with organic mullein, mugwort, yarrow, and blue vervain.
The astrology during the month of May 2024 is full on for enjoying your body (Taurus is living in the moment, except for their background financial planning, lol). There will be four to five planets in Taurus this month: Sun (until 5/20), Moon 5/6-7, the new moon is on 5/7, Venus (through 5/23), Mercury (5/15 through 6/3), Jupiter (until 5/23), Uranus (begins its transit through gemini on 7/7/25). That's a lot of Taurus energy which is normally a bit conservative. However with Uranus, planet of new thought and freedom, in the mix and the eccentric energy of Pluto in Aquarius being highlighted as Mars in Aries sextiles it, the energy is there to invite new ways of being sensual into your sexual world. It's the May vibe.
Smoking Herbs to enjoy:
Sexy Smokes herbal smoking blend, with organic damiana, blackberry leaf, rose, hibiscus, and mullein is wonderful for tapping into the sensuality within and releasing negative ideas or experiences that are holding us back. With rose it keeps the heart engaged. Astral in Body herbal smoking blend, with organic yarrow, mugwort, blue vervain, and mullein, helps connect us to non human energies like the moon, fairies, and other worldly energies, all while keeping us in our body. It is a little eccentric! Calea came up in this discussion, it is an herb that is still considered experimental. It is a dream herb traditionally used to uncover the source or path to resolve for an illness or to locate a lost loved one. It can be used for other serious dream quests or to connect with the elements.