Annual Tree Festival (ReGreen Altadena)

Second Annual TreeFest

This is a Call to Action for Los Angeles. AltadenaWILD.org (@altadenawild), Altadena Green, and CSUN/California State University Northridge’s Urban Forestry Project continue their commitment to regrow the tree canopy lost in the Eaton Fire by hosting the second annual ReGreen Altadena Community TreeFest.

TreeFest includes

• Giveaway of 300 five-gallon citrus trees and 200 California native live oak and Englemann/Pasadena oak saplings for Altadena residents. (First come, first served; limit of two total per household)
• Giveaway of native toyon berry shrub, and a variety of orange, lime, and strawberry trees
• Public demonstrations and talks (schedule on flyer)
• Exhibit booths staffed by representatives from many environmental organizations

Event is FREE TO ALL (except ICE agents who must pay a severe toll and face public ridicule, protest, and hissing)

• Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, 10:00 am-2:00 pm
• Odyssey School
• 725 West Altadena Drive
• Altadena, CA 91001 (MAP)

LA Mayor Karen Bass fired for incompetence

Parking info: On-site parking on Odyssey's main campus will be limited; however, the parking lot at Odyssey South (575 West Altadena Drive) will be open. Drivers encouraged to consider parking near Loma Alta Park or the Altadena Community Garden and enjoy a treelined 2-3 block walk to the festival site. Drive into Odyssey main campus parking lot to load trees.

Exhibitors

Firestorm (Jacob Soboroff)

301 Organics AltadenaWILD Altadena Bicycle Club Altadena Farmers Market/Eco Hub Altadena Green Altadena Historical Society Amigos de los Rios Angel City Reciprocity Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy CAL FIRE Urban & Community Forestry California Botanic Garden Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates Friends of PUSD trees Kounkuey Design Initiative LA County Youth Climate Commission Los Angeles County Fire Department Los Angeles County Fire Department Forestry Division Mott Restoration Landscape Company Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains Santa Monica Mountains Fund Soul Force Project The Foothill Catalog Foundation TreePeople UC Master Gardener Program of Los Angeles County

Enjoy a day of community celebration as the community takes the next steps toward regrowing Altadena’s trees. Want to help? Sign up here to volunteer! SPONSOR A SAPLING OR TREE.

This Community TreeFest and Tree Giveaway is part of our ReGreen Altadena initiative. Join email list to keep up with the latest information. Active

• AltadenaWild.org; Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q. (eds.), Ananada (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

'We Are One' (Ekaterina Sky)

Meditate in pure silence to still the heart

This painting says one quiet thing, and it is the same thing the whole prayer opens with: WE ARE ONE.

I painted it in complete silence, start to finish -- following the Buddha's advice to practice noble silence for the purification of the heart and mind -- no music, no talking, only the prayer already waiting to be sealed beneath a gold disk in the center.

It is a spiral of gold turning inward to a single, silent center. Every line finds its way home to that single point.

We Are One

What is gold good for? It is good for sacred art!

If this work speaks to viewers, I would be delighted to share more details. Inquire at Cohart. A photograph can show the composition, but it cannot do what the gold does in a room.

Gold is alive. It changes as one moves, as light moves, as day moves. The painting will look different from where one stands and from where the person beside one stands, and that difference is the whole message: two true views of one thing.

Cymatics reveal the waves producing form

Many are expressions of the One, the way countless waves are all actually the one same Sea.

My deepest hope is simple: that before thought arises, the body exhales, then, underneath that beauty, there is a kind of remembering (sati, smrti).

Our Earth is not "scenery" we pass by. She is a living being [Mother Earth, Mat Zemlya, Mother Nature, Goddess Tierra] we belong to.

Ekaterina Sky is an artist working in watercolor and sustainable 24K gold leaf on archival paper. She calls her practice "impact art," work where the painting and its effect on the living world are inseparable. The paintings are the center. The murals, the conversations, the stages, the trees and the book all extend outward from them. Here's a map of that reach: beyond-the-studio

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We Are One is now available to view on Cohart or to acquire by inquiry. This is a painting with a public history: It was exhibited at Coral Gables Museum during Art Basel 2024, and it carries that provenance into whatever room it next enters. It is one of a kind, watercolor, with 24K sustainable goldleaf, the universal prayer sealed beneath the gold, and a chip to hear it aloud. It also comes with a certificate of authenticity and Earth-conscious packaging.

• See it or become its keeper: We Are One on Cohart

And I would love to know, Where have you felt that oneness most clearly? Reply and tell me.

With love,

Ekaterina Sky (contact)

P.S. See We Are One @ekaterina.sky.art

Website: ekaterina-sky.com

• The Roots of Buddhist Romanticism: Oneness

We are all one, but this is hard to understand

(Ven. Thannisaro) Many Westerners, when new to Buddhism, are struck by the uncanny familiarity of what seem to be its central concepts: nondualism, oneness, interconnectedness, (Thich Nhat Hanh's) interbeing, interdependence, wholeness, transcendence of a selfish ego. But what they may not realize is that these concepts sound familiar because they are familiar. To a large extent, they come not from the Buddha's Teachings (Dharma) but from the gate of Western psychology, through which the Buddha's words have been filtered for us for decades. They draw less from the root sources of the Buddha's Dharma than from their own hidden roots in Western culture: the thought of the German Romantics. The German Romantics may be dead and almost forgotten, but their ideas are still very much alive. Their thought has survived because they were the first to tackle the problem of how it feels to grow up in a modern society. Their analysis of the problem, together with their proposed solution, still rings true. More

• The true nature of existence (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

SUTRA: A Cosmology of Oneness

Lokayatika Sutta (SN 12.48 PTS: S ii 77 CDB i 584) translated from Pali by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu; edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What is the true nature of existence?

The Buddha was once staying in Savatthi when a Brahmin cosmologist [1] went to see him. When he arrived, he exchanged courteous greetings, and after an exchange of friendly greetings and courtesies, he sat respectfully to one side. Sitting there, he said to the Buddha:

"Now, then, Master Gotama, does everything [2] exist?"

"'Everything exists' is the first form of cosmology, Brahmin."

"Then, Master Gotama, does everything not exist?"

"'Everything does not exist' is the second form of cosmology, Brahmin."

"Then is everything a Oneness?"

"'Everything is a Oneness' is the third form of cosmology, Brahmin."

"Then is everything manifold?"

"'Everything is manifold' is the fourth form of cosmology, Brahmin. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata [the Buddha] teaches the Dhamma [the Liberating Doctrine, in this case Dependent Origination] down the middle:

1. From ignorance as a requisite condition come formations;
2. from formations as a requisite condition comes consciousness;
3. from consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-and-form;
4. from name-and-form as a requisite condition come the six sense bases;
5. from the six sense bases as a requisite condition comes contact;
6. from contact as a requisite condition comes feeling;
7. from feeling as a requisite condition comes craving [3];
8. from craving as a requisite condition comes clinging;
9. from clinging as a requisite condition comes becoming;
10. from becoming as a requisite condition comes rebirth;
11. from rebirth as a requisite condition comes aging and death, disappointment, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and despair.
12. Such is the origination of this entire mass of disappointment and suffering.

1. "Now from the remainderless fading and cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of formations;
2. from the cessation of formations comes the cessation of consciousness;
3. from the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-and-form;
4. from the cessation of name-and-form comes the cessation of the six sense bases;
5. from the cessation of the six sense bases comes the cessation of contact;
6. from the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling;
7. from the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving;
8. from the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging;
9. from the cessation of clinging comes the cessation of becoming;
10. from the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of rebirth;
11. from the cessation of rebirth comes the cessation [the end] of aging and death, disappointment, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and despair.
12. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of disappointment and suffering."

Final liberation is possible here and now!

"Magnificent, Master Gotama, magnificent! It is just as if a man were to set upright what had been overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see forms, in that very way has Master Gotama — through many lines of reasoning — made the Dhamma clear to me.

"I go for guidance to Master Gotama, to the Dhamma (Teaching), and to the Sangha of monastics. May Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for guidance from this day forward as long as life lasts."

NOTE 1. The cosmological (lokayata) schools of thought reasoned from what they saw as the basic principles of the physical universe in formulating their teachings on how life should be lived. In modern times, they correspond to those who base their philosophies on principles drawn from the physical sciences, such as evolutionary biology or quantum physics. Although the cosmologists of proto-India at the Buddha's time differed on first principles, they tended to be unanimous in using their first principles — whatever they were — to argue for hedonism (sensual enjoyment as the highest meaning and) as the best approach to life.

NOTE 2. "Everything" may also be translated as "The All." Concerning this term, SN 35.23 says, "What is The All? Simply the eye and forms [the thing that sees and the seen], ear and sounds, nose and fragrances, tongue and flavors, body and tactile sensations, intellect and ideas [mind and mind-objects]. This is termed "The All." Anyone who would say, 'Repudiating this All, I will describe another,' if questioned on what exactly might be the grounds for this assertion, would be unable to explain and furthermore would be put to grief. Why is this? It is because it lies beyond [our] range." For more on this topic, see The Mind Like Fire Unbound, Chapter 1.

Is that right? Is that why? I never knew that!

NOTE 3: This link in the causal chain of Dependent Origination, often translated "desire" (tanha, "grasping," lit. "thirst") is where the Buddha found an opportunity to unravel the trap of samsara, the Wheel of Endless Becoming (Rebirth). But in translation it has led to a great misunderstanding that the Buddha was against all desires. This misreading does not occur in the Pali (Magadhi), Sanskrit, Prakrit, and other ancient Eastern languages that distinguish between positive desires (goalsetting, ardor, intent, motivation, etc.) and the endless sensual craving (grasping, obsession, addiction) being referred to here. Any pleasant experience might become the object of craving and obsession, but even in minor degrees, it perpetuates the chain. How could it ever, even temporarily, be stopped?  Not by an act of willpower or moralizing, but rather by directly seeing things as they really are (insight, knowing-and-seeing). This is achieved by anus-sati (contemplation, recollection) and sati (mindfulness, memory, bare attention). One need not will it because reality is such that when we are free, even temporarily, of the "perversions" (vipallasas), that is, the inverted views of seeing the impermanent as permanent, the disappointing as able to someday fulfill, or the impersonal as self (personal, real, independently existing, able to exist independent of an entity's constituent-factors that compose it, such as the "eternal self" that is, in fact, composed of the Five Aggregates clung to as self and not an independent phenomenon independent of those impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal constituents), or the repulsive as beautiful. The wandering ascetic Siddhartha (Siddhattha) did not make reality this way; he awakened to the truth, was thereby able to let go [of craving and clinging], and was freed from samsara, becoming the Buddha, the "Awakened One," a samma-sam-buddha or "supremely awakened complete Buddha able to effectively teach others and establish the Dhamma and Sangha in a world that has lost them.

"LET US LOVE " by Ekaterina Sky | COHART

Vassa: What is Buddhist Rains Retreat?

What is the Buddhist Rainy Season or Rains Retreat (Vassa)? What is the Rains Retreat or "Buddhist Lent"? Understanding the Vassa and Kaṭhina ceremonies

Each year, Theravāda Buddhist monastics all over the world make a determination to stay in a single monastery for a three-month period of the Rainy Season also known as the Vassa, the Rains Retreat. This year it begins July 10th.

One will hear the term “Vassa” often in this article, so please bear it in mind. Traditionally, it starts the day after the Full Moon Day in July or the day after the Āsāḷha full moon as it is known in the Pāḷi language.

If monks move around a lot and one needs to rely on a teacher, one can at least expect monks to stay at a single monastery for a full three months without moving around. Some make determinations to practice harder, while others who already follow a steady practice simply continue their daily routine as usual.

In this article, let's look at the origins of Vassa, the different types, the allowances to leave the Vassa on business or emergencies, if it affects the age of a monastic, and what happens at the end of the Vassa.

The Origins of Vassa

During the Buddha’s time, monastics (samanas or "wandering ascetics") wandered on foot between different monasteries (viharas), forests, groves, and villages. They would wander during all times of the year, even during the period or season of heavy rains. However, laypeople—especially farmers—began to complain:

“How can the Sakyan [Scythian, Saka, Shakyian] monastics go wandering in the winter, in the summer, and even during the rainy season? They’re trampling down the green grass shoots, oppressing one-sensed living being, and destroying many small creatures. Even the monastics of other doctrines (religions), with their flawed (imperfect) teachings, settle down for the rainy season. Even birds make a nest in the top of a tree and settle down for the rainy season. But not so the Sakyan monastics.”

Out of compassion and to match the culture of the time, the Buddha responded with a new instruction: Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, vassaṁ upagantun'ti. “I allow you, monastics, to enter the rains residence.”*

This rule brought the monastics the Rains Retreat period of three months that met the expectations of the lay communities during the time of the Buddha. It now inspires the practice and striving of monastics, as it has for generations, all the way to the present. Moreover, it inspires laypeople in the present.

Two Kinds of Vassa

The Buddha allowed for two entry points into the Rains Residence: Dvemā, bhikkhave, vassūpanāyikā: purimikā ca pacchimikā ca: “There are two entries, the earlier and the later.” Purimikā (First Vassa) begins the day after the Āsāḷha full moon. Pacchimikā (Second Vassa) begins one month later.

Sometimes referred to as “Second Vassa.” This allowance for two Vassas shows the Buddha’s practical wisdom and compassion because not everything goes right the first time, as will be discussed later. It should be noted that the determination to stay in one monastery for three months is actually the day after the full moon day. This is when the new month starts.

Although most monasteries have the Vassa ceremony on the full moon day and it is a time for a large gathering, that is just for laypeople because they have that day off. Monastics really make the official determination the next day. Most of laypeople will probably never know it really happens on the next day.

Leaving during Vassa: seven-day business rule

Monastics are expected to remain in their Vassa location for the full three months. However, issues may come up where a monastic needs to leave. The Buddha allowed what is called, Sattāhakaraṇīya or “seven-day business.” Some of the many valid reasons include: More

• Bhante Subhuti (US student of Pa Auk Sayadaw), American Monk.org, July 10, 2025; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Guided Loving Kindness Meditation 💖

Guided Loving Kindness Meditation | Buddhism in English

(Buddhism) Mettā (Sanskrit maitrī) means loving-kindness [2, 3], friendliness [3, 4], benevolence [1], amity [4], goodwill [5], and active interest in the welfare of others [4]. It is the first of the "Four Sublime Abidings" (Brahma Viharas) and one of the Ten Perfections (pāramīs) of the Theravāda Buddhist school. More

• Mahamevnawa Bodhignana Monastery
• Hewagama, Kaduwela, Sri Lanka
• +94 112 571471
• info@shraddha.lk shraddha.lk

• © Shraddha TV. Join on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram
• Shraddha.lk, 9/24/22; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Moss People: real forest-dwelling fairies

Hi, I'm Kate Moss. I just love green; there's no relation.

Kate MOSS, yes, she sounds familiar and related to us, all waifish, skin all lichen-like (crepey).

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Don't look at me. I'm not a Moss!

Trees are greening, flowers are blooming, birds are nesting – why? Spring is in the air! Despite the happy days this brings, be wary of what else may be lurking in deep, dark forests. From German folklore, let's explore the world of the moss people.

In German folklore, moss folk resemble dwarves (called kumbhandas in Buddhist cosmology and gnomes in much of Europe), nearly the size of human children. But they are covered in green moss, with skin that looks gray, and a lot of hair like lichen.

The mossy frog of Vietnam shows off its moss camo

I may be small and love green...

Their arms and legs appear as “knotted maple bark.” Centuries ago, humans considered them part of the fairy realm dedicated to trees and the forest in general.

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For unknown reasons, the moss people population consisted mostly of females. These “fairies” were known to borrow things from humans and, at other times, ask for help from them.

Maiden (Kettle Quill/Deviant Art)

Occasionally, they would ask humans for breast milk to feed their own moss babies. They repaid their benefactors with good advice or bread.

However, one had to be wary of their quick tempers. If one gave them caraway bread, for instance, they would become very angry and cry, “Caraway bread, our death!”

Some tales describe them as behaving like changelings in that they would sometimes steal very small human children. Female moss people, called Mossfraulein (“moss women”)... More: Moss People creeping out of forests

• visitcryptoville.com; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterlycosmology

Int'l Day of Forests (March 21)

The call of the wild, the lure of the quiet, what causes city people to venture into the woods?

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Forests welcome the spring

It must be the first full day of spring because we are honoring the proudest members of Nature, the trees. Since the original towering tree, which mycologist Paul Stamets is sure was a giant mushroom on a primordial earth, trees have been the charismatic megaflora of the world.

Their diversity is stunning, and their size varies from the time they used silica instead of carbon (and left mountain size stumps all over the world) until today when the oldest and largest are on the Island of California, one a bristlecone pine named Methuselah out near US 395 by Bishop on the way to Death Valley, the other a redwood in Northern California they are trying to fence off from tourists. The exact location of each is kept secret but is said to be possible to find with a search.

• A Journey Through the World's Oldest Forests (Hunter Robinson) Forests have stood the test of time, witnessing millennia of change, (d)evolution, and human history. Some of the world's oldest forests date back millions -- even hundreds of millions -- of years, preserving an incredible glimpse into Earth's prehistoric past. These ancient woodlands are home to towering trees, rare wildlife, and ecosystems that have remained virtually unchanged for centuries. From the towering redwoods of California to the misty, primeval jungles of Malaysia, here's a journey through the world's oldest forests, where nature tells the story of time itself.

Why do Buddhists care so much about trees?

Thai Theravada Forest Tradition

Buddhism is a "forest tradition." It started there with the future Buddha, the Bodhisatta (Prince Siddhattha Gotama or Siddhartha Gautama, soon to become the Buddha or "Awakened One"), under a big sal tree. That is where he was reborn in the womb of Maya, who was on her way to see her parents for the delivery. But it came in a garden grove under a sturdy sal (sala) tree. (Why a sal tree? The lore of the Salabhanjika that might explain that).

Born in a garden grove of trees in Lumbini

That newly reborn child, coming down from the Tusita world to pursue enlightenment, made good on his mission decades later by leaving his palace and life of privilege, taking up yoga and meditation with Yogi Āḷāra Kālāma and Yogi Uddaka Rāmaputta until he set off on his own.

He was followed by a group of Five Ascetics (Kondañña, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa, and Mahānāma), until he left them for a big banyan tree so that he could make his own way alone, which didn't work out but which saved his life thanks to the intercession of a milkmaid named Sujata, who offered the wandering ascetic Siddhartha solid food, mistaking him for the spirit of the tree he was at that time sitting under in the forest.

The Wandering Ascetic Siddhartha, the Buddha

Regaining his strength under Sujata and her servant's care, he abandoned severe asceticism as useless for achieving actual enlightenment and liberation. (They may help in other traditions, but that is because those traditions do not have as stringent a definition as to what constitutes real awakening and freedom). He set off in search of another tree, the now famous Bodhi Tree (Ficus religiosa), the oldest documented tree in the world. Under it Siddhartha strived to enter the meditative absorptions, bring them to perfection of samadhi and then practiced for insight (what Buddhism in the Commentaries came to call vipassana). The combination of calm and insight was the Middle Path of mental purification the Bodhisattva ("Being bent on enlightenment") had been searching for on his quest for enlightenment that had taken nearly seven years.

• Ending six years of severe asceticism, his body emaciated appearance led Sujata to believe he was the tree-spirit (bhumi-deva, dryad) who had granted her wish. She thanked him with enough nourishment to cultivate the Middle Way, develop meditative absorption (jhana), and attain enlightenment or bodhi, thereafter becoming known as the "Enlightened One" or the Buddha.

When 45 years of teaching the Middle Way and bringing the Dhamma (knowledge of the path to enlightenment) back into the world, the Buddha relinquished the will to live on. He decided to hike to Kushinagar, where he found twin sal trees to recline into nirvana, closing out an 80-year-long life after countless rebirths as the Bodhisatta.

• List of places where Gautama Buddha stayed (in the forest): Bamboo Grove, Jeta's Grove, Vulture Peak (surrounded by the Rajgir forest), and so on

Passing into final nirvana between sal trees

For 45 years the Buddha remained a wandering ascetic (shramana), abiding in forest groves rather than accepting other more luxurious lodgings offered to him. When he trained nuns, monks, novices, and lay people, he often recommended they find a quiet place where they would not be disturbed by noise and other people. Here they could cultivate the Middle Path, avoiding extremes. Here they could realize the ultimate truth. Here they could see and experience for themselves that what the Buddha taught did not depend on the Buddha to be considered "Truth." It could be objectively verified. Here, where? The forest, woods, or a pleasant garden under a portable mosquito net.

• Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Plant Spirit Consciousness: Magic Journeys

PlantConsciousness.com

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Emma Fitchett Farrell (Natural Esoterics)

Tibetan Buddhist, plant spirit healer, and shamanic teacher Emma Fitchett is a lineage holder of the White Serpent teachings of the British Isle of Manx and the Pacific Island of Vanuatu, who has been initiated into ancient magical practices.

CIA madman Cleve Backster

How did she gain her powers? They were opened or vivified for her by Iboga, a psychoactive root from Gabon, she claims. The plant spirit sensitized her to our innate human gifts to see and sense beyond the ordinary five senses.

Appearing on Coast to Coast on April 2, 2024, she discusses how to access plant spirit healing through meditation with plants as well as the work of CIA mad scientist Cleve Backster, who gets credit for pioneering the measurement of how plants perceive human consciousness.

Such credit in fact belongs to Indian scientist in England

Great scientist Bose on the secret lives of plants

Jagadish Chandra Bose, who published his observation and was made famous by Paramhansa Yogananda in Chapter 8 of Autobiography of a Yogi decades before Backster.

• Chapter 8: India’s Great Scientist, J.C. Bose - Autobiography of a Yogi (crystalclarity.com)
• The School of Natural Esoterics (YouTube)
• The Secret Life of Plants: A Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man (Peter Tompkins)
• naturalesoterics.org
• plantconsciousness.com
• BOOK: Journeys with Plant Spirits

Journeys with Plant Spirits: Consciousness.

Journeys with Plant Spirits: Plant Healing Magic

Emma Farrell (aka Fitchett), with a foreword by Pam Montgomery, has 4.4 out of 5 stars with 34 ratings.

This is a guide to communicating and working with plant and tree spirits for personal development, spiritual connection, inner peace, and healing.

It presents meditation journeys with specific plant and tree spirits, such as Mugwort (dreams), Rosemary (cleansing), Dandelion (liver), Yew (poison), Elder (healing), and Wormwood (artemisia).

Find details on how to achieve a calm mind, cleanse your energy field, and connect with your heart in preparation for meditating with the plants.

It includes a progressive series of introductory meditations, adapted from wisdom traditions, to lay the foundation for working with plant spirits.

In this book, Emma Farrell explains how to take your connection and relationship with nature to a deeper level and access plant spirit healing through meditation with plants.

Exploring the nature of plant consciousness and how plants perceive, she details how to achieve a calm mind, cleanse our energy field, and connect with our heart in preparation for meditating with plants and trees, showing how the plants can support us not only in the cleansing process but also in teaching us how to sense what is in our energy field.

Offering a progressive series of preparatory meditations adapted from shamanic and indigenous wisdom traditions, the author reveals how to lay the foundation for working, communicating, and developing relationships with plant and tree spirits -- for personal development, spiritual connection, and inner peace.

(Podcast: The Future is Beautiful with Amisha Ghadiali) How do we work with plant medicines in a meaningful and respectful way? In this episode, Amisha talks with Shaman Emma Fitchett, a plant spirit healer, teacher, and author initiated into and trained in indigenous healing and magical lineages of the British Isles and the Ecuadorian Amazon, who is also a Yew Mysteries initiate and a holder of the lineage of the White Serpent from Manx and Vanuatu. This conversation illuminates how we can grow our spiritual sovereignty and balance our inner and outer worlds in co-creation with nature’s medicines. It is a gift for all of those who want to explore more in relation to plant medicines, want to know how, and want to explore to reveal the truth of our existence in this living (animistic) world.

She then presents meditation journeys with specific plant spirits, focusing on the frequencies within the plant’s bio-resonance that will assist us.

For example, the meditation with Mugwort works with the plant spirit’s qualities of alignment and self-awareness to assist us with grounding and developing inner vision, while the meditation with Dandelion helps us break old habits by working with the plant’s qualities of release, reconnection, and fearlessness.

What do forest tradition Buddhist monks know?

Revealing how each plant is an expression of the soul force of Mother Nature and carries a unique blend of her medicine and wisdom, this book details step-by-step how to effectively work with plant spirits for emotional and spiritual healing, enabling us to awaken the eternal spirit, or soul, to become truly multidimensional and whole. More

• British Emma Fitchett, with buffoonish host G-Man Noory, Coast to Coast AM com, 4/3/24; Dhr. Seven, Kelly Ani, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly