For thirteen moons (twelve months) I soaked up lessons about holding temples and sacred business from Elayne Kalila Sophia Doughty. One of my goals was to learn how to more effectively hold ceremonies in online as I have been doing. 

On my long journey from Wisconsin to Southern California I wondered, “What am I doing with all this training? The time, effort, money?” Doubt was setting in. An unexpected awareness arose. 

“You’re weaving.”

“I’m what?” 

“Didn’t you feel the push, pull, strain? 

The monumental re-shifting of generations taking place? 

You are part of the New Weaving. 

You are feeling the tearing apart of an old energetic weave being ripped asunder.” 

The New Weaving

I’ve wondered, for a long time . . .

. . . how herbalism can be brought back into the pharmaceutical world.

. . . how earth-centered spirituality can be integrated in a modern world.

. . . how Priestesses can exist within a patriarchal, imperialistic society.

How can they both interact and co-exist together?

Through a new weaving. 

I’ll use herbalism as an example. 

At first, I used to think more research was needed to prove to the medical community that herbs have benefits for health and help to remove illnesses.

So, I started exploring what herbal research was already in existence.

What I found was oodles and a plethora of research examining herbal remedies. It already exists.

The research proves that herbs and plants have much to offer the human health dilemmas. And sometimes the research disproves that plants can help. And, also, it contradicts itself all together.  

One reason for the conflicting data is research wants to distill the plant into one or two chemicals in order to pinpoint the ONE chemical that fixes a specific illness. Scientists want to know every detail of the chemical mechanisms that kill, prevent, destroy, or remove illness. 

Though, plants are immensely complex for this distillation. They’ve evolved, communicated, learned, co-existed for millions of years with an epic number of variables. 

So, if one phytochemical is tested it may give a different result in each research trial because the chemical levels vary in the SAME plant species. 

It’s difficult for the scientific method to deal with synergy. 

That’s what’s happening in plants. A synergistic dance of phytochemicals that varies because of where the plant is grown – soil make up, sun and water availability, pest pressures, and so on. Environment matters. 

Trying to fit herbalism into science would mean that herbs are being inserted into a paradigm that doesn’t hold a space for them. 

The analytical methods are certainly interesting. I love reading research. I’ve been part of research projects. It also has holes. Power leaks. 

Rather than weaving into something that already exists . . . I think it’s time for the NEW weaving. 

The NEW weaving

Bringing the old to the now.

Weave it back.

It was always here.

Threads are fluttering in the wind.

Loom them back together.

I sense the plant world is so much more than ways to ingest it to ward off illness.

Not all plants need to be ingested or rubbed on our corporeal body to be useful. 

I think Western culture demands production, outputs, and dominion over other beings. A mentality that focuses on “What can it do for me?”. 

As an herbalist in training, I relied heavily on what was passed down through books and other teachers. During my bachelors and masters degree I adored the analytical. I practically worshiped science. I love data and numbers and rock solid proof. But what about that feeling I have when I’m by plants? When I smell the soil? What is that? 

In order to come back into right relationship with plants I must also ask myself “What can I do for you, plant being? Is there something I can assist you with?”.

That’s why I must begin again. 

Go back to the plants. 

Treat them as sacred beings with a capacity for connection. 

But how do we tap into the world wide web of intuition and plant communion?  

This is where Plant Temples can help us with. 

Click here for Part 3