Green Soul: A Year of Visionary Plant Medicine To Transform Your Life

We may not all admit to having a proverbial “green thumb," but each and every one of us has a Green Soul. 

We live and breathe plants just about every moment of life.

We eat them, we care for them, we tend gardens, water houseplants, burn incense made from cinnamon and sandalwood, anoint our wrists with tuber rose and jasmine, wear clothing made of cotton and hemp and flax. We drink tea and coffee. We smoke ganga and tobacco. We send arrangements to funerals, on anniversaries and for celebrations. We hang wreaths on our doors. We put up holiday trees. We argue with the weeds in the heirloom tomato patch. We slather coconut oil on our bodies. We clean with dishwashing fluid that smells like lavender and geranium and lemon-lime. We take castor oil when we cant poop and peppermint when our bellies hurt. Our dining room tables are made of oak and mahogany; our floors are made of bamboo and cherry. We eat cereal laden with high fructose corn syrup and put Maple syrup on our pancakes. We light fires with newspaper made from trees and keep those same fires going with even bigger pieces of trees. We put aloe on our sunburns. We take Bach Flower Remedies for emotional healing and homeopathic remedies to draw out the underlying cause of our imbalances. We battle allergies caused by ragweed. We take chamomile and valerian and wild lettuce when we can't sleep and isolated molecules of plants like St. John's Wort in prescription medications when we're depressed.

And on a visionary level, we literally embody plants on an energetic, subtle, quantum level. We dream in the colors that plants have taught us. We talk in plant-speak (what is the "root cause" of a disease; watching our ideas "flower"; or "watering the seeds of desire"). We depend on the rain and wind and the sun to make us blossom, to challenge us, to lead us into the now. We exist perennially. Whether we're in the seed stage, the flowering stage, or the decomposing stage, we are guided into and through the alchemy of our lives by the example of the plants around us. We know deep down - by witnessing plants - that there is no birth or death, just a continual re-emergence into the spiral of life.

In other words, we are a part of this bigger, cosmic, universal Green Soul. We can't help BUT be a part of it.

This is why I believe that our awareness of plants can radically change our consciousness. This is why I believe that we can heal so deeply by having a relationship with the natural world. And, this is why I believe - as an herbalist - that plant medicines truly do heal on a deeper level than we may have ever known possible.


When we take a plant as a medicine - whether that is via a tea, tincture, capsule, or powder - we enter into a sacred contract. We, in essence, become the plant we have ingested. And it becomes us. A true but esoteric form of yoga begins to take place - a union of the outer and inner worlds, a union of the plant and human consciousness. And when that happens, some wild evolution begins. 


The same can be said for the union of man and plant that takes place when we weed the garden, light the incense or eat a potato. For a moment, take this idea in. Look out past the wholeness of your life and see one day that was not impacted by your relationship with plants. For that matter, see if you can find one meal - in the preparation, cooking, cleaning, and eating - that did not involve a immense amount of plant-human interaction.


And then, imagine what your life, your consciousness, your health could look like if you began to wake up even more to this relationship. Imagine what it could all look like if you took on the "listening" role, and - as in every healthy relationship - began to truly listen without judgment to what the other participant in the relationship had to say. Envision a life where you could heed the information that a certain plant has to convey, where you could glean peace of mind through a very intimate relationship with the Green World.


I believe that part of the reason why so many clients come to me saying they feel sad, anxious, alone, angry, confused, is that we as a culture haven't been taught the immense value of plant-human intimate and psychic connection. It simply has not been highly valued in our Western culture. Kids don't go to school and learn how to listen to plants, how to "sense" which plants are best for them to eat, or even how to care for a house plant with the idea that perhaps that plant has a Soul too. Adults aren't praised for having an overgrown lawn that is full of "weeds" and is an excellent bird and spider habitat. Grandfathers don't, as a rule, take their young ones out to the forest and converse with trees or identify edible mushrooms.

Because of this, our relationship with plants has become largely a one-sided one. We use plants the way we want to, and when they don't comply, we blame the plant. We feed and water our lawns until the grass grows too high and breeds a whole new host of teeming partner plants and we spray chemicals and weed whack. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that everyone's lawn should be a free-for-all (like mine is, but that's another story...). All I'm advocating for is to consider that there might be more here to the plant-human connection that typically meets the eye.


For example, in the book, The Secret Life of Plants, authors Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird cite a pretty amazing experiment: In one study, a scientist wanted to determine if cacti grow needles primarily for the purpose of keeping themselves from harm. Safe in a greenhouse, the scientist talked to numerous cacti assuring them they were protected and even that he cared about them, encouraging the plants to feel even more safe by playing soothing music for them. Within several months, the cacti dropped all of their spikes. The offspring of these bare cacti were even born without needles. After a year of being without quills, the cacti suddenly began re-growing bristles and new baby sprouts were born with needles again.


What does this have to do with us, with you? If we realize how incredibly much we interact with, eat, look at, live with, and depend upon plants, we can't help but realize that our internal world is one that vibrates at the exact same frequency of the plants we consume and otherwise co-create with. If we are, at our core, a Green Soul then we, too, can begin to drop our quills and needles. We, too, can begin to trust in a world where something larger than us is caring for us, offering us the soothing and safe environment that we've always known was there for us to survive and thrive. We, too, can remove our veils and be open, porous, and ultimately healed by our experience here on Earth.


Anyone can be a visionary. Anyone can heal. And anyone can transform their own life - and the world around them. That means you. When you begin to take plant medicines that you can connect with, learn from, listen to, and heal alongside, then you're entering into a totally new realm of possibilities.

If this topic is as exciting to you as it is to me, I invite you to come and be a part of my Green Soul world. Through an online Green Soul inspirational journey: An online year of Visionary Plant Healing To Transform Your Life. 12 whole months of information, inspiration, and mentorship via the internet, with phone support when necessary, and embodied experiments to do with plants, making plant medicines, seeing the Green Soul way. You will also receive three separate snail mail packages of actual plants, herbs, Ayurvedic formulas, and tactile plant wisdom to balance the elements of the current season - one for the Vata Season (Fall/Early Winter); one in the Kapha Season (Later Winter, Spring); and one in the Pitta Season (Summer!).


Essentially, this is offered as one written, inspiring module per month, for a year ~ as well as online email conversations with me to discuss your deepening relationship with plants. Each module opens your understanding and commitment to using herbs and Visionary Healing for your own inspiration and evolution. Each module is intended to change your consciousness and vault your own self-healing as well as begin a solid foundation into Visionary Healing (which includes components of Ayurveda, Yoga, Meditation, Nutrition, and Self-Care) and Herbalism. We follow the Ayurvedic calendar which is composed of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha seasons (don't worry, you will learn more all about that!) This online version includes an in-person day-long Visionary Healing immersion and visit to my farm and herbal apothecary in Thorndike, Maine (if you're close-by or plan to travel to Maine for vacation). This online version is a condensed, remote version of the intensive year-long Transformational Visionary Healing Mentorships (see below) offered for those who may wish to learn hands-on and in-person.

Investment for this online opportunity: $325 one-time payment; two $175 payments; or 12 recurring monthly payments of $38. Contact me at siri.temple@gmail.com to sign up at any point (admission is rolling and you will begin when you sign up!) so that we together may tap into the many plant relationships that offer the future of healing, the past of healing, and the eternal now of healing.