Welcome to Module 4 of our journey: healing our power. During this module we call on the energy of the sun to literally call back our power back into its rightful seat: manipura. We will work intimately with what blocks our light from shining, the fear of our own power, our imbalanced relationships to power, to hold that we can be in our power, in our strength, in our capacity to materialize our dreams without causing harm to others. As bipoc folx living at the intersections our power has been something that white supremacy fears, that we have been taught to fear, and believe that we are not powerful or GOLD. Manipura calls us to remember our gold that adorned our ancestors and still can adorn our healing journey if we choose it. This is your golden hour: shower your gut with ancestor foods, stoke your fire, and live your light with laughter, courage + the ancient warriors that HAVE YOUR BACK!
Plant Ancestors this month
Week 1: Lemon balm [Melissa officinalis]
Week 2: Epazote [Dysphania ambrosidiodes]
Week 3: Dandelion [Taraxacum officinale]
OPTIONAL Week 4: Ginger [Zingiber officinale]
Week 2: Epazote [Dysphania ambrosidiodes]
Week 3: Dandelion [Taraxacum officinale]
OPTIONAL Week 4: Ginger [Zingiber officinale]
Week one
Distance Gathering 1
MONDAY July 5, 2021 7-10p EST
WEDNESDAY July 7, 2021 7:30-10:30p EST
To prepare for session 1 gather
Prepare your space in front of your altar
[minimum have a bowl of water + candle lite]
Journal + writing/drawing tools
Herbal tisane: LEMON BALM [Melissa officinalis]
To prepare your herbal tisane bring 1 quart of water to a boil then add the herb material
[fresh or dry] inside the pot of water, allow to simmer for 15 mins minimum without the lid on
All handouts
Download or print the following handouts:
Manipura/Solar Plexus Chakra
Lemon Balm [Plant Profile]
Healing our power [Botanical cards]
MONDAY July 5, 2021 7-10p EST
WEDNESDAY July 7, 2021 7:30-10:30p EST
To prepare for session 1 gather
Prepare your space in front of your altar
[minimum have a bowl of water + candle lite]
Journal + writing/drawing tools
Herbal tisane: LEMON BALM [Melissa officinalis]
To prepare your herbal tisane bring 1 quart of water to a boil then add the herb material
[fresh or dry] inside the pot of water, allow to simmer for 15 mins minimum without the lid on
All handouts
Download or print the following handouts:
Manipura/Solar Plexus Chakra
Lemon Balm [Plant Profile]
Healing our power [Botanical cards]
Access Access our distance gathering session 1 via Zoom link: MONDAY, WEDNESDAY
You are encouraged to log on to our Zoom meeting 5-10 minutes before our set gathering time
Monday
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89319948212?pwd=bUhDdGt1NFYvdkZqMEMzaTBSRkNMQT09
Meeting ID: 893 1994 8212
Passcode: seed
Wednesday
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81379949106?pwd=bmZnU0xVVWc2NUpnQ3VmRzJCL29sUT09
Meeting ID: 813 7994 9106
Passcode: seed
July Gathering Recording #1
[link will be available here up to 36hrs after the gathering date via email and on your respective WhatsApp thread]
You are encouraged to log on to our Zoom meeting 5-10 minutes before our set gathering time
Monday
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89319948212?pwd=bUhDdGt1NFYvdkZqMEMzaTBSRkNMQT09
Meeting ID: 893 1994 8212
Passcode: seed
Wednesday
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81379949106?pwd=bmZnU0xVVWc2NUpnQ3VmRzJCL29sUT09
Meeting ID: 813 7994 9106
Passcode: seed
July Gathering Recording #1
[link will be available here up to 36hrs after the gathering date via email and on your respective WhatsApp thread]
Self-Healing Practice #1
Maintain an intimate + committed partnership with your nourishing herb 1 quart a day.
Open/close each day with a blessing herb
Optional: Work with 1 quart of an herb from the body system or chakra that we are journeying with to strategically nourish yourself
Open/close each day with a blessing herb
Optional: Work with 1 quart of an herb from the body system or chakra that we are journeying with to strategically nourish yourself
REVIEW
READ
REFLECT
Describe your relationship your solar plexus chakra. Who + what lives here for you?
What is your relationship to your power, feeling empowered and confidence? How has this shifted from conception to where you are now?
Finish the statement, I feel empowered when...
What can you do today to bring nourishment + strengthen your solar plexus
[aka my sense of power, confidence, capacity to alchemize my reality]?
*
Return to the Manipira meditation. Allow your intuition to guide to what is true for the collective.
What lives in the solar plexus of the collective?
What does the collective solar plexus need right now to heal the wounds we hold here?
*
Share your reflections + questions on our WhatsApp thread
What is your relationship to your power, feeling empowered and confidence? How has this shifted from conception to where you are now?
Finish the statement, I feel empowered when...
What can you do today to bring nourishment + strengthen your solar plexus
[aka my sense of power, confidence, capacity to alchemize my reality]?
*
Return to the Manipira meditation. Allow your intuition to guide to what is true for the collective.
What lives in the solar plexus of the collective?
What does the collective solar plexus need right now to heal the wounds we hold here?
*
Share your reflections + questions on our WhatsApp thread
EXCERCISE
After connecting the Manipura/Solar Plexus handout and Ch 8 from Opening to Spirit, choose 1-2 practices to nourish meaningful connections with your power.
OPTIONAL: Embodiment of the Solar Plexus* [body movement]
black femme facilitator
[TW: not gender inclusive language, such as "guys"]*
[TW: not gender inclusive language, such as "guys"]*
Self-healing practice #2
PLANT CONNECTIONS
All healthy relationships grow from self-reflection and open communication. Before our next gathering:
Ask your NOURISHING HERB
Ask your BLESSING HERB
Ask your DIGESTIVE HERBS
Ask your HEART
if you would like to continue the journey working with them.
Allow tension to exist. Some times we need to work with the emotions, energies, plant ancestors that bring us the most discomfort, for here lies the medicine of our psychic surrender and deep physiological realignment.
If you have a clear INVITE AN ANOTHER plant ancestor to nourish your journey welcome the change. You will have the opportunity to do this at the end of each month. The intention is to commit to building an intimate relationship with at least 1 nourishing herb and bless herb. Nourishing herbs can only do their work through long-term commitment, our physical body takes a bit to acclimate, purge, and then assimilate nutrients
Ask your NOURISHING HERB
Ask your BLESSING HERB
Ask your DIGESTIVE HERBS
Ask your HEART
if you would like to continue the journey working with them.
Allow tension to exist. Some times we need to work with the emotions, energies, plant ancestors that bring us the most discomfort, for here lies the medicine of our psychic surrender and deep physiological realignment.
If you have a clear INVITE AN ANOTHER plant ancestor to nourish your journey welcome the change. You will have the opportunity to do this at the end of each month. The intention is to commit to building an intimate relationship with at least 1 nourishing herb and bless herb. Nourishing herbs can only do their work through long-term commitment, our physical body takes a bit to acclimate, purge, and then assimilate nutrients
Commit
Blessing smoke to open/close the day [daily]
Drink 1 quart infusion of a nourishing herb + digestive herb-STRONGLY SUGGESTED [daily]
Blessing smoke to open/close the day [daily]
Drink 1 quart infusion of a nourishing herb + digestive herb-STRONGLY SUGGESTED [daily]
Plant Journal
Spend 10 minutes journeying with the spirit and physical [make an herbal tisane/tea, see instructions above] medicine with one our nourishing herbs. You are welcomed to replay my the guided plant meditation during our last session [go to the recording, available on your WhatsApp thread], journey with your own instruments or silence. Spend 5 minutes writing your downloads, messages, images, and the places the plant ancestor went in your body.
At least 1x a week, if you are on that disciple game: 3-6x a week
Spend 10 minutes journeying with the spirit and physical [make an herbal tisane/tea, see instructions above] medicine with one our nourishing herbs. You are welcomed to replay my the guided plant meditation during our last session [go to the recording, available on your WhatsApp thread], journey with your own instruments or silence. Spend 5 minutes writing your downloads, messages, images, and the places the plant ancestor went in your body.
At least 1x a week, if you are on that disciple game: 3-6x a week
REVIEW
[Feel free to come back to this after next week's material and throughout this moon]
Return to each week on this online portal, in your notes, your journal entries, and in your heart. With much compassion, practicing less judgement about what you were not able to get to, really hold, read or practice, come to experience the journey. There is no shame between us. I, like our community holds that the world is spinning, it's difficult to feel into the healing spiral these moments are bringing. That's okay. Let it take as long as it needs to take. Return to the places you want to deepen, the practices you want to nourish, and with much honor to yourself, honor your capacity at this moment.
if you are ready + eager to dig into some of the themes that have arisen during this month, check out the additional resources below.
Return to each week on this online portal, in your notes, your journal entries, and in your heart. With much compassion, practicing less judgement about what you were not able to get to, really hold, read or practice, come to experience the journey. There is no shame between us. I, like our community holds that the world is spinning, it's difficult to feel into the healing spiral these moments are bringing. That's okay. Let it take as long as it needs to take. Return to the places you want to deepen, the practices you want to nourish, and with much honor to yourself, honor your capacity at this moment.
if you are ready + eager to dig into some of the themes that have arisen during this month, check out the additional resources below.
ANCESTOR + COLLECTIVE CONNECTIONS
During the next week return to your sacral. Enter the root through any embodiment practice, earth laying, tea sipping, dreaming, and calling in the red of your earth.
Feel free to share your transmission with us on the WhatsApp thread
Feel free to share your transmission with us on the WhatsApp thread
Research (by asking living ancestors, connecting to ancestors from the diaspora, reading, watching videos, listening to the music, eating the foods, call on ancestor spirits while meditating of ancestors who are familiar):
What ancestor foods, dances, colors + music centered or express pleasure?
What are some of their rituals around love, pleasure, union, or commitment?
What is your/ancestor relationship with sacred sexuality?
What is your/ancestor relationship with sexual trauma + healing?
How were genitourinary imbalances treated?
What are maturity rites given to the youth in your ancestral + living
communities?
Gather photos, food, + object that represent your ancestors in this energetic
center to add to your altar
What ancestor foods, dances, colors + music centered or express pleasure?
What are some of their rituals around love, pleasure, union, or commitment?
What is your/ancestor relationship with sacred sexuality?
What is your/ancestor relationship with sexual trauma + healing?
How were genitourinary imbalances treated?
What are maturity rites given to the youth in your ancestral + living
communities?
Gather photos, food, + object that represent your ancestors in this energetic
center to add to your altar
EXERCISE
After your ancestor research, prepare yourself and your ancestors a meal. This is a meal that is to be shared with another person or eaten with your altar if connecting with another person is not within your capacity/accessibility at the moment.
Your meal should include:
1 ancestral ingredient
1 digestive plant ancestor
tons of love
Let us know the meal you cook to nourish yourself and the collective!
Your meal should include:
1 ancestral ingredient
1 digestive plant ancestor
tons of love
Let us know the meal you cook to nourish yourself and the collective!
remember to share any love, update, or ask for any support you are needing from our collective over the next few of weeks we are apart.
Week Two
Distance Gathering 2
[both cohorts]
MONDAY JULY 12, 2021 7:30-10:30p EST
To prepare for session 2 gather
Prepare your space
Journal + writing/drawing tools
herbal tisane/tea: Dandelion ROOT [Taraxacum officinale]
A representation of what helps you feel, be in your power
blessing herb [the homie you have chosen to open/close each day]
a glass of water for drinking + snack
gather: an object that represents or supports your embodiment of POWER.
this may be a representation of people, ancestor foods, affirmations that help you feel in your power, etc
All handouts
Download or print the following handouts
Dandelion [Plant Profile]
Access Access our distance gathering session 1 via Zoom link: MONDAY, WEDNESDAY
You are encouraged to log on to our Zoom meeting 5-10 minutes before our set gathering time
Monday
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89319948212?pwd=bUhDdGt1NFYvdkZqMEMzaTBSRkNMQT09
Meeting ID: 893 1994 8212
Passcode: seed
July Gathering Recording #2
[link will be available here up to 36hrs after the gathering date via email and on your respective WhatsApp thread]
[both cohorts]
MONDAY JULY 12, 2021 7:30-10:30p EST
To prepare for session 2 gather
Prepare your space
Journal + writing/drawing tools
herbal tisane/tea: Dandelion ROOT [Taraxacum officinale]
A representation of what helps you feel, be in your power
blessing herb [the homie you have chosen to open/close each day]
a glass of water for drinking + snack
gather: an object that represents or supports your embodiment of POWER.
this may be a representation of people, ancestor foods, affirmations that help you feel in your power, etc
All handouts
Download or print the following handouts
Dandelion [Plant Profile]
Access Access our distance gathering session 1 via Zoom link: MONDAY, WEDNESDAY
You are encouraged to log on to our Zoom meeting 5-10 minutes before our set gathering time
Monday
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89319948212?pwd=bUhDdGt1NFYvdkZqMEMzaTBSRkNMQT09
Meeting ID: 893 1994 8212
Passcode: seed
July Gathering Recording #2
[link will be available here up to 36hrs after the gathering date via email and on your respective WhatsApp thread]
Week three
At your own pace engage with each part of the exercises that bring us to the physical manifestation of the solar plexus: our digestive system. This is the site of our power. Here our foundation [the root, home of our home, home of our ancestors] and our creation [the sacral, the home of our relations, relationship to desire, pleasure + creation] come together to ancestorfest our reality. Here we meet the ancient wounds that have kept us and our people from feeling their power, from realizing the sacred worlds we deserve to live in. Breathe deep, and eat well.
Each time you engage with each exercise, prepare your space [this assures
A bowl of water or fire to protect you
An herbal tea
Journal + writing/drawing tools
Sitting before your altar whenever possible
All handouts
Download or print the following handouts, they are also included in the corresponding section below:
Digestive System
Digestive System Herb List
Epazote [Plant Profile]
A bowl of water or fire to protect you
An herbal tea
Journal + writing/drawing tools
Sitting before your altar whenever possible
All handouts
Download or print the following handouts, they are also included in the corresponding section below:
Digestive System
Digestive System Herb List
Epazote [Plant Profile]
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Check-in
Check-in
Before we gather next, please show this community some love.
Send us a note, photo, video of how your heart is, what's moving through your these moments, and any medicine that needs to be witnessed!
You're welcomed to send more than one update!
Send us a note, photo, video of how your heart is, what's moving through your these moments, and any medicine that needs to be witnessed!
You're welcomed to send more than one update!
PLANT MEDITATION
Epazote [Dysphania ambrosidiodes]
Epazote [Dysphania ambrosidiodes]
Prepare
Herbal tisane: EPAZOTE [Dysphania ambrosioides]
To prepare your herbal tisane bring 1 quart of water to a boil then add the herb material [fresh or dry] inside the pot of water, allow to simmer for 15 mins minimum
this is a BITTER + somewhat pungent plant ancestor, take it slow, the longer you let it sit the more intense the experience will be
Herbal tisane: EPAZOTE [Dysphania ambrosioides]
To prepare your herbal tisane bring 1 quart of water to a boil then add the herb material [fresh or dry] inside the pot of water, allow to simmer for 15 mins minimum
this is a BITTER + somewhat pungent plant ancestor, take it slow, the longer you let it sit the more intense the experience will be
LISTEN
Feel free to follow our plant wisdom share on mugwort by using the materia medica (also known as a plant profile) below side by side as you listen.
HOLISTIC ANATOMY + PHYSIOLOGY
Digestive System
Digestive System
LISTEN
....
MEETING OUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Choose 2 of the following ways to engage with your Digestive System
READ
*written by a cis white women, you are NEVER required to read white authors on this journey.
WATCH
*these creators + organization are non black, indigenous, API, person of color
REVIEW
Remember that these herb lists are cheat sheets with more technical herbal action terms you can find in your herbal action glossary
from week one module one
from week one module one
SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS BRUJERIA:
Body Positivity, Ancestral Food Ways + the Digestive System
Body Positivity, Ancestral Food Ways + the Digestive System
Trigger Warning: There is dialogue about eating disorders, ancestral trauma, and intergenerational wounds in these pieces
CHOOSE 2 of the following
REFLECT
Describe your family’s general relationship with digestive health.
Describe your community’s general relationship with their digestive health.
Describe your relationship with your digestive system.
What does food, ancestral food, and power mean to you?
How are they different, similar?
Describe your community’s general relationship with their digestive health.
Describe your relationship with your digestive system.
What does food, ancestral food, and power mean to you?
How are they different, similar?
MEDICINE MAKING
HERBAL PREPARATION:
Digestive Bitters + Vinegars
HERBAL PREPARATION:
Digestive Bitters + Vinegars
LISTEN
"Herbs that help stimulate appetite and digestion by getting gastric juices
flowing and your peristalsis moving. Just a drop of this often shunned flavor
on the tongue is effective in activating the production of beneficial digestive
secretions including saliva, gastric acid, and bile. Helpful for constipation,
gas related cramping, sluggish digestive movement, and to support a
healthy appetite after an illness or while traveling, for example."
-Liberatory Medicine by Toi Scott
If you are called make a DIGESTIVE BITTER with fresh plants.
For a DIGESTIVE BITTER you:
Set an intention before going to harvest
Make an offering to the leaves + blooms collected [being conscious of only working up to 1/3 of any plant or area]
Harvesting with attention. Take the moment to smell, notice the patterns, the elements + what the weather is doing as well as what other beings are there
Fill a jar loosely with your plants up to the top
Pour vodka* or apple cider vinegar until the top
Cover the top with parchment paper
Allow to sit for a moon cycle
*
To make your bitter an easy salad dressing make them as an oxymel or a shrub: instead of vodka use apple cider vinegar, add honey and/or fruit
*
Plants I like to add to my digestive bitters include lemon balm, epazote, mugwort, chamomile, mints
*
Share what you create with our circle!
*
*there are gluten free vodka choices such as Tito's and organic apple cider vinegar can be used as an alcohol substitute
Feel free to review the Herbal Preparations document if you should have any question
flowing and your peristalsis moving. Just a drop of this often shunned flavor
on the tongue is effective in activating the production of beneficial digestive
secretions including saliva, gastric acid, and bile. Helpful for constipation,
gas related cramping, sluggish digestive movement, and to support a
healthy appetite after an illness or while traveling, for example."
-Liberatory Medicine by Toi Scott
If you are called make a DIGESTIVE BITTER with fresh plants.
For a DIGESTIVE BITTER you:
Set an intention before going to harvest
Make an offering to the leaves + blooms collected [being conscious of only working up to 1/3 of any plant or area]
Harvesting with attention. Take the moment to smell, notice the patterns, the elements + what the weather is doing as well as what other beings are there
Fill a jar loosely with your plants up to the top
Pour vodka* or apple cider vinegar until the top
Cover the top with parchment paper
Allow to sit for a moon cycle
*
To make your bitter an easy salad dressing make them as an oxymel or a shrub: instead of vodka use apple cider vinegar, add honey and/or fruit
*
Plants I like to add to my digestive bitters include lemon balm, epazote, mugwort, chamomile, mints
*
Share what you create with our circle!
*
*there are gluten free vodka choices such as Tito's and organic apple cider vinegar can be used as an alcohol substitute
Feel free to review the Herbal Preparations document if you should have any question
OPTIONAL
PLANT COMMITMENTS
Explore
Our immune-lymphatic herb list, do you need to journey with a plant ancestor to support your immune-lymphatic system?
Add this babe to your daily nourishing herb infusion for the next 2 weeks, what do you notice?
Notice if there are any overlaps between your nourishing, musculoskeletal, immune-lymphatic, genitourinary, digestive herbs: are they the same herbs?
Were there herbs that support you in multiple ways?
Continue your commitment
Blessing smoke to open/close the day [daily]
Drink 1 quart infusion of a nourishing herb + digestive herb [daily]
Our immune-lymphatic herb list, do you need to journey with a plant ancestor to support your immune-lymphatic system?
Add this babe to your daily nourishing herb infusion for the next 2 weeks, what do you notice?
Notice if there are any overlaps between your nourishing, musculoskeletal, immune-lymphatic, genitourinary, digestive herbs: are they the same herbs?
Were there herbs that support you in multiple ways?
Continue your commitment
Blessing smoke to open/close the day [daily]
Drink 1 quart infusion of a nourishing herb + digestive herb [daily]
PLANT WALK + IDENTIFICATION
Continue your seasonal plant chart for your region
[documenting the plants you notice by description, drawing + name when known]
Go on 1-2 walks before we gather next
Create 1-2 journal entries for both plants you are familiar + unfamiliar with you met on your walks
Feel free to review our Plant Identification Guide + the common plants growing found in Module 2
[documenting the plants you notice by description, drawing + name when known]
Go on 1-2 walks before we gather next
Create 1-2 journal entries for both plants you are familiar + unfamiliar with you met on your walks
Feel free to review our Plant Identification Guide + the common plants growing found in Module 2