Delving Deeper into Self-Love (plus a FREE online workshop!)

Published: Thu, 02/16/17

Dear ,

First, the announcements!

Next week I am offering a sweet and information-packed online workshop, Herbs for Hard Times: A Plantwitch Approach with the amazing Seraphina Capranos. We'll be delving into consciously partnering with plants to reconnect to and open the heart, mend the mind, engage the spirit and nourish our bodies, focusing on moving past anxiety, depression, grief, overwhelm, and into purpose, passion, and vitality.
This one-hour workshop is a FREE offering... Please join us! Click here for more information and to register.
If you're local or in the Bay Area visiting at the end of this month, I'd love to see you at my first New Moon Devotional: the Alchemy of Plants. More info here...
Save the date! I'm also planning an herbal one-day retreat in West Marin for March 11th, Rosa Mystica Rising: Herbal Self-Care for Witches, Healers, Coaches, Practitioners and Other Revolutionaries. This retreat will blend herbal care, flower essences, yoga, nature immersion, massage, and more into a devoted, nourishing day of springtime renewal so that you can leave the woods, go back to the city, and kick ass.

Now, on to other matters...

Last week, we delved a bit into overthrowing patriarchy through love (especially fierce self-love), and it's something I've been thinking about more and more... most especially, the beautiful quote by Audre Lorde...

Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.

One of the writers who changed my world is Audre Lorde. I read her article, "The Uses of the Erotic," in a Women's Studies class as an undergrad. Reading her words opened up a door in me, like in a dream, when you find a door in your house that somehow you forgot was there but it was there the whole time:

"I find the erotic such a kernel within myself. When released from its intense and constrained pellet, it flows through and colors my life with a kind of energy that heightens and sensitizes and strengthens all my experience. We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.... In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression, self-denial."

As a devout fan, I was surprised in some ways that I had never read her quote on fierce self-love until just the other day, and wished deeply that my twenty-something, desperately-seeking-selfhood-and-wisdom self had been exposed about it so much sooner.

When I look at both of these quotes next to each other, what becomes immediately obvious is a deeper message about how essential it is that we nourish our own vital energy, follow it where it would lead us, and use that vitality and richness to not only live soulful and devoted lives, but to challenge the systems that endanger it within us and cause others to suffer.

Self-love doesn't have to be fluffy, or self-coddling, or something that perpetuates calcified notions of white heteronormative supremacy, although all too often in the world of advertising, fashion magazines, and yoga-bikini-body boot camps, that's what we see-- which can be incredibly off-putting to those of us who are working towards a new paradigm of equality, true wellness, earth-healing, and the awakening of wisdom (Sophia-consciousness) within humanity.

So we have to create our own rituals, models, and retreats devoted to self-love and revolutionize self-care. (That's why you see the offerings, above!)

My favorite astrologist, Chani Nichols, says:

Now, more than ever, we must remind ourselves of the power that we hold both individually and collectively. Now, more than ever, the personal is political. Now, more than ever, we must commit to self-care strategies that keep us right with ourselves and with the world, even when the world feels less than right to us. Now more than ever, we must learn how to, remember to and commit to taking care of ourselves as much as we take care of one another.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I hope you're able to take time to nourish your own self-love this month, and remind those around you to do the same.

Always in love,

Coming Events

February 20th: Herbal Allies for Hard Times, a FREE Online Workshop with Seraphina Capranos. These are trying times. Precarious times. Times of upheaval, and also, times of great possibility and healing.

This online course will explore how our herbal allies can help us move through overwhelm, trauma, anxiety, grief, and apathy, into passion, purpose, and collective healing. We'll delve into consciously partnering with plants to reconnect to and open the heart, mend the mind, engage the spirit and nourish our bodies.

Working with both the medicinal and magical properties of these herbs, you'll walk away with clear steps forward to create your own heart-healing apothecary, daily rituals, and how to begin bringing these potent allies into your family life or professional practice. Sign up here.

February 26th: New Moon Eclipse Alchemy: A Ritual of Devotion, Rose & Pine. At the Terra Temple in Berkeley, CA. This is a devotional evening of exploring the wisdom of Rose and Pine, two plants associated with love, forgiveness, longevity, and magic. We will cast our circle and go into sacred ritual together, opening to their medicine, their voices, their guidance, and their relationships with us and with one another. This gathering is a blend of herbal & energy medicine, intention setting, meditation, and sacred music and prayer. Follow this link to join us....

April--November 2017: PlantWitch: An 8-Month Herbal Apprenticeship with Riyana Rose & Seraphina Capranos. Learn about herbal energetics, moon magic, herbal magic, the healing properties of plants, and the many different forms that medicine can take: essential oils, flower essences, tinctures, and more. This focused, devoted, intense deep dive is for both experienced herbal and wellness practitioners and those just beginning their journey. This program is a combo of weekend in-person intensives based out of Berkeley, CA and bi-monthly online content / video calls... we hope you'll join us from afar.

PS. Here's some amazing Self-Care as Crushing Patriarchy resources:

PPS. I love love love connecting with you folks on Instagram! It's my favorite micro-blogging and connection platform. I post information and inspiration on plant magic, feminism, goddessy stuff, and cute pictures of my baby girl all the time. If I haven't followed you yet, please drop me a DM! You can find me here.