Initiation by the Plants

Today I want to share a bit about my sacred plant medicine journeys into the realm of the plants in 2014 which feels like lifetimes ago by now...

I haven't talked about my training with the plants too much, in fact, I didn't have the courage to share about the wonderful jungle medicines I discovered years ago and have been working with until recently, when the spirit of one plant in particular asked me to work with it more deeply and share it with YOU (which is kinda a big deal...because THIS PLANT IS SEEKING YOU...)

I just shared a video about it here:

Here's the story...

I was first introduced to the highly medicinal resin from Dragon’s Blood in 2014 during my studies with the Shipibo people, the indigenous tribal peoples of the Amazon Jungle outside of a remote village a few hours travel (via car and then jungle hike) outside of Iquitos, Peru.
 
I’d been working with plant medicine shamans for a few years and kept being led, sycnhronistically to shamanic students and practitioners who’d learned from Don Miguel and Don Enrique from this particular village in Peru. And it somehow felt as though the plants from the jungle were calling me to the rainforest, more than the indigenous peoples themselves. So upon invitation from one of my teachers, I embarked on what would later prove to become one of my most challenging journeys—and most rewarding—that I’d ever been on.
 
And of course it coincided with the peak of my Saturn’s Return, a challenging planetary transit that happens for all humans between 28-30, so it’s no surprise that this journey into the realm of the plants would prove to be so challenging. But not without great reward.
 
I worked with a myriad of plants there, from poisonous beans that made me go blind and required quick wit and me to binge drink water to expel their toxins (and parasites!) to plants that would visit you in your dreams in spirit form and bring you in connection with your divine purpose and light. And while most of the other students on our journey sat with a few medicinal plants in between days of relaxation and meditation, the shamans warned me that my training would be different…more intense…and require more medicine than the other travelers on our journey.
 
Because I was the most sick. And I needed the deepest treatment while I was there.
 
I’ll never forget that meeting I had with Don Enrique and what he said to me.
 
“You’re different then the others,” he said. “You have a special relationship with the spirits of the plants. You can see them and you can talk to them. You have a gift to work very deeply here.”
 
And so my plant medicine initiation began. And it sure as hell wasn’t easy. Some of the medicines literally kicked my ass and I was flattened out on the maloka floor for days on end, unable to sleep, eat, or stand. I remember the laughter of the rest of the group outside who opted out of some of the more difficult medicines, the same ones I took 3 times because that’s what the shaman had prescribed to me.
 
While I was wide open from these experiences a woman on the retreat who had some drama with my ex-boyfriend verbally attacked me and put a curse on me that took years to unravel, and came with it’s own plethora of lessons I later realized my soul had contracted into learning. I’m grateful because these same lessons inspired me to learn and share energy protection methods with others and create an online course to help others lift curses, clear their energy and learn easy and effective methods for protecting themselves throughout all situations (Check out my free online training for How to Protect Your Energy here).
 
And by the end of the trip Don Miguel, one of the Shipibo shamans, offered me several gifts from the plants and sat me down for a heart-to-heart discussion.
 
“It’s very clear that you’re a curandera (the indigenous term for a female plant medicine shaman) and you have to power to help many people. I feel the spirits of the people in North America where you live who are very sick who need your help. They need these medicines and many of them are too sick to come to the jungle. They will never make it here so you have to bring it to them.”
 
With that Don Miguel handed me bottles of medicine.
 
“This is a gift,” he said. “For the people need these medicines and you are their carrier. Bring the medicines to the people.”
 
Then he reached into his pocket and brought out a wooden ring, crafted from one of their most sacred plants, the flying tree called Noya Rao and he put it on my wedding ring finger.
 
“It’s a gift,” he said. “Because I see who you are and that you are a curandera. I know one when I see one,” he said with a smile as he gifted me the plants.

 ******************************************************************************************************

It took me many years to be open to these messages. When I got home I worked with the medicines. I shared them with some of the people closest to me, and many of them were very difficult to work with outside of the jungle.
 
North America, and New York City in particular, are not always conducive to the energy of the plants. And many of them can be tough on the organ systems, and difficult to integrate in such an energetic, bustling city.
 
But out of the many medicines I was given, and some that I bought from the center, there was one medicine that stood the test of time. One medicine that I found I’d go back to time and time again…even while I was living in Brooklyn…
 
Stay tuned for my next blog post to learn what this one, versatile, safe, medicine was.

Until next time!

Xoxo

Kristen Von Foxx