Asia Suler Interview

Hi everyone. Welcome to the Virtual Herbalism Conference. I'm your host, Lindsey Feldpausch, and I am so pleased to be welcoming our guest, Asia Suler.

As many of you may know, Asia is a writer, a teacher, an herbalist, and an intuitive plant person with a deep connection to the natural world. Asia's work guides people into nature connection and plant relationships to co-create a connection. Asia has over a decade of sharing her transformative teachings with the world. Her best-selling book, *Mirrors in the Earth*, reflects her commitment to the plants and the hope for a vibrant, aligned life for all.

In this discussion, "Green Whispers and Wisdom: Soul Lessons from Plant Encounters," Asia will share her insights on plant communications and the lessons that we can learn from listening to the whispers of nature. We'll discuss how you can practice your listening skills and the tools that can support your path to these great plant connections. Welcome, Asia.

Thank you for that. It's a beautiful intro, Lindsey. Thank you for joining us today. We're so happy to have you.

I'm really excited to be back. This is such an amazing event. I'm delighted to be here.

Yeah. Well, let's dive right in. I'm going to ask you a question, Asia, that is hearkening back to the first soul lesson that you remember receiving from a plant.

Yeah, I love this question. This was so fun to think about. And I went all the way back. So all the way back to childhood for me is where this really started. And I mentioned sometimes in interviews that I didn't have a very nature-based childhood. I wasn't exposed to herbalism or ecology or anything like that as a kid. But we had this willow tree that was planted in our backyard. I grew up in a duplex in a development, and we had these little postage stamp backyards. When I was born, my father and grandfather planted this willow tree. It really was convenient for where we lived because it was a place that would experience a lot of flooding and water would build up there. They basically took this low land and put a development there. And so we would get a lot of water that would basically turn into this pool in the empty space behind the houses. And so the willow tree loved it there. It flourished. It was this beautiful weeping willow, and that weeping willow became one of my best friends. And I have so many memories of getting home from school and feeling so just out of place and discombobulated and self-conscious and just parting the branches of this willow and going into the heart of this tree and climbing up into her branches with my journal and sitting there. And in particular, the times that really stand out for me was when I was in late elementary school and I was a pretty early bloomer. I was the tallest kid in my whole grade. And I remember a very vivid memory of laying in her branches with my journal and just speaking my heart out, all the stuff that went down that day, all the ways in which I felt so out of step and out of place. And the message that came back for me really strongly in that moment, I could hear her say this was, "It's okay to not be like everybody else." And I think that especially when you're super young like that, there's so much pressure right to fit in and be normal and just not stick out. And coming from her, it just meant so much to me, especially because in the expanse of this postage stamp backyard universe, she stood out. But she stood out in this way that was so beautiful, actually. All the neighborhood kids would come over and we would play there. It was such a magical kingdom for all of us. During the day when I was at school and I would be feeling just really uncomfortable in my own skin, I would think about that message that I received from her. And that was really what kicked it off for me, this practice of speaking to plants, of bringing my whole self there, and of recognizing that there was wisdom that they had to share with me.

That is such a powerful story, Asia, especially with your connection to the tree and it being planted when you were born. And then that carried over to even One Willow Apothecary, right? Is the name of your Apothecary?

Yeah. I named One Willow for that willow tree that was planted when I was born.

That's really beautiful. When you experience that communication, what form did it come in? How do you think that we, as humans, can experience plant communication? Do you think that everyone has the capacity to hear these whispers and plant wisdoms?

Yeah, yes, absolutely. I really believe that this is our birthright as human beings, that we would not be alive if we didn't know how to speak with, communicate with plants, that this is an essential part of all of our ancestral wisdom and knowledge, and that it's something that I think just is innate to our psyches, to our nervous systems. I think that we have overlays growing up, including this cultural story that plants aren't alive, that plants aren't sentient, that plants aren't conscious, and that can block our ability to communicate. But what I've seen over and over again is that once you start leaning in again, it just starts happening. It's actually not that hard to undo any of these blocking patterns or conditioning because it's just so innate and essential to who we are as human beings. And I often We're going to bring up the idea of the clairs. So "clairs" is the term, it's about clarity. It's about clear knowing, clear seeing. And so the different clairs correspond to how you receive receive information in a super sensory way. So a lot of people are familiar with clairvoyant. You know something because you see it, right? People who actually have visions or see auras around plants. A lot of times people who are clairvoyant might have really strong dreams even or just strong daydreams. Then clairaudience is you know something because you hear something. That could be literally hearing a plant speaking to you. It could be having a song come on the radio at just the right time or a song come into your head to sing. These are all ways to be clairaudient. I tend to be very clairsentient and claircognizant. So clairsentient is you know something because you feel it. You literally have feelings, sensations, emotions come up within you. A lot of people, especially sensitives, I find are clairsentient. And because we are people who tend to have a lot of big emotions from a young age, we might have also learned how to curtail or curate those emotions. So a big part of this journey sometimes is also learning how to really read your feelings again and let your feelings be there and know that they're containing information. And then claircognizant is you know something because it's almost like a download. You just receive almost like a packaged understanding in your head. And so if you've ever had an aha moment, that's claircognizant. And I mention this because everyone's going to receive in different ways from the plants, depending on where your natural strengths are and how you receive information and receive clarity in your life. But these two, the clairsentient and the cognizant are ones that often people write off and don't realize that that is a very legitimate way to receive this information and these messages from the plant. So when you are sitting with a plant, don't disregard a feeling that comes up inside your body. Don't disregard a random sentence that might plop into your head or something that just feels like an aha moment or a download about your life, because that might be the way in which you are receiving what the plant has to share. I think it's really helpful when talking about speaking with plants or communicating with plants to describe how this feels in the body. So I'll talk about how it it feels like in my body, that when messages come through from plants, no matter how they're coming through, there's often this sense of peace, neutrality, non-judgment, curiosity, and non-attachment. I think this is true with any intuitive downloads that we receive, intuitive information. But I also think plants are just really naturally in alignment with this wavelength, that they exist on this wavelength of peaceful neutrality and non-judgment. And so really looking for those feelings, looking for a feeling of settledness and expansiveness and flexibility inside of your body. And so those will be good, like hints or tips or tools to help you orient to these messages that are coming through.

I love having names for the different ways of hearing or listening to plants, Asia. I wonder if you have experienced or are hearing any collective lessons that are coming from plants, and is there any way that they're trying to guide us as a collective?

Yeah, one thing that I'm really hearing strongly from the plants right now is I think it's a lesson that is super helpful for all of us, but especially any of us who feel stuck in our lives or stuck in this period of time. So there's a big message for me coming in around making peace and finding acceptance around where we are, personally in our lives, but also in this collective time on this planet. Plants can't move in the way we can move. If a seed lands in a particular place and that place has the conditions for the plant to grow, that plant will grow and that plant can grow there. And of course, most plants have different ways of migrating, traveling, seed dispersal, all of that. But in a plant's individual life, it will often be spent in that one singular place. In this way, plants are really masters at learning how to bloom where they're planted. They're masters at learning how to make peace with the hand that they've been dealt of where they are in the world, what's available to them in that moment. And so it feels like a really important message for us at this time on the planet where it seems like we keep coming up against these crises of becoming where many of us long for a different life, wish that we had sprouted in different soil in a different place at a different time, that there's this really big profound lesson around coming to a space of peace and acceptance for where we are right now and where you are. And knowing, too, that I think there's a big story that a lot of us have that the... The lack of what we received, maybe the lack of nourishment or the lack of ideal growing conditions that we received or the things that happened to us in our life that they've damaged us beyond repair. And plants will literally show you if you watch as they move through their life, and stuff happens to them, too. Windstorms move through, they get munched down by a deer. That all of these things is just a part of your growth, and it's a part of the story of your growing and unfurling and your growth pattern, and that ultimately there is a way for you to flourish exactly where you are. There's a way to flourish with the exact hand that you have been dealt, the ground where you sprouted from, and that you're growing on this Earth at this time for a reason, because I think that especially when we look around at the reality of hardship and change and intergenerational trauma, it can feel like, why am I even here in this scant bare soil where it feels like it's so hard to bloom, where I'm doing so much work on behalf of my lineage and my culture. And I think that there's a really strong message here from the plants that you are here on this Earth for a reason. It's not an accident. Where you are isn't an accident. Plants not only come in and bloom in all different kinds of niches, but then even in the places where it's difficult for life to take root, plants can come in and create more life there. They create soil, they create potential, they create diversity in food and all of that. And we also have the ability to do that. When we can touch and access those spaces of peace and acceptance within our lives and within where we are in our lives. And to know that it really is not about the destination. It's about us being, companioning ourselves, being with ourselves as we unfurl. I just think plants are such amazing teachers in that regard.

I love that so much, Asia. There's so many beautiful ways in which science and indigenous knowledge are intertwined. I feel like putting them together is such a beautiful way to experience the world. And I think, you know, *Braiding Sweetgrass* with Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is one of the best ways. And I love that braiding has come up so much in this. And there's another book called *Thus Spoke the Plant* by Monica Gagliano. And it's science and it's spirituality and it's the proving of both to be intertwined. And I love that so much. So thank you for sharing. I would love to ask you what are the lessons that you feel we need to hear in regards everyday reciprocity with plants, and what does this look like for you in your life?

Well, I love that you brought this up and that we're talking about reciprocity and how essential this is at the heart of existence. I recently finished Robin Wall-Kimmerer's new book, *The Service Fairy*. And I mean, this is just so much of what that book is about. It's about how reciprocity creates relationship. And relationship is what all of life is built on. I think what I see the most in my audience and the people that I work with is a large majority of us are sensitives. And so what I often see is not this paradigm where people aren't wanting to give back or don't think plants give us enough, but actually this different paradigm where there's this anxiety and concern that plants give us so much that it feels overwhelming overwhelming to know how to return the favor. And one of the things that I really like to share with folks when that comes up for them is that I don't think in my humble perspective that plants are expecting us to give to them in the way that they give to us. It actually would be pretty impossible because our lives are literally built on the fact of their presence, and the same is not true for plants. They don't need us in the way that we need them. And yet what I really hear from the plants is that just thinking about the fact that they, plants, give to us food, shelter, air, just by being their natural effortless selves. And that there's this level, and this is actually what the world is asking for us in our own reciprocity. And so it's one of those things where it's a whole lifetime of work just to be yourself, but it's also the most effortless thing of all. It's this dichotomy. But I see when this anxiety comes up around, how do I give back? That it's not about actually fitting yourself in a particular mold of, well, I need to become someone who plants or shirts. Or whatever it is, but that actually there's a way through which stepping more into your natural self, you will find the ways in which it makes the most sense for you to give back, whether that's writing letters to your representative or educating people about climate science, whatever it is that comes through for you, making flower essences and giving them to your neighbors. So I think there's this piece where reciprocity, it is an important practical action. The practicality helps us bring us into relationship and into the moment, but it's really more of a heart energy than an actual motion. So if you've ever received a gift, for example, that has strings attached to it, you know what I mean, where you're like, "That didn't feel like reciprocity. That felt like pressure and like something was being asked of me." And so from my perspective, any outward movement of reciprocity, whether that's singing to a plant or giving a plant water, planting seeds, as I mentioned, taking political action, that any of these things should simply be an of what you're already feeling in your heart. And I think that in a lot of ways, this is how we heal the world. Just coming back into this heart-centered reciprocity, moving from that space, and that's ultimately what creates real relationship is that reciprocity that comes from our hearts, comes from being our natural selves. And when we are in our heart in that way, we naturally just start thinking in terms of relationships and community, not just what benefits me in this exact moment, but what benefits the whole and what are all of us needing in relationship with one another? And I think Learning how to develop reciprocity with plants, especially coming from my background, a culture where plants were just there. We weren't thanking them, we weren't giving gratitude for them, but learning how to access in our heart this sense of gratitude. And naturally from there, moving from the space of reciprocity, I really think it's that heart energy that the plants are so nourished by receiving, and that just automatically creates relationships and communities of care.

That's such a beautiful message. It makes me feel like if we're living in harmony with ourselves, it's easier to live in harmony with others and the world around us. When we're experiencing dissonance in ourselves, in our heart space or in our environment, it's hard to create that or beyond that wavelength of reciprocity. Asia, I wonder if you have any other plant communications that are coming in that are surrounding collective grief and climate anxiety. We touched a little bit about this in your earlier messaging that I would love to hear if you have any other words to share.

Grief is a really... It's an important feeling, and it's important to feel. There's this level where we know from a neuro-scientific perspective that grieving, it's a process of learning. It's a process of recreating the maps inside of our brain, of helping us to bring us new information to orient to new environments. This is part of the neurological gift of grieving. And grieving shows us how deeply we loved, and shows us how deeply something was precious to us. And so with actually embracing grief, we are helping to rewrite the maps of existence that we have been handed. We literally know that when we lose a loved one, the research has specifically been done on people who've passed, but that when we lose a loved one, part of what makes the grief so disorienting, and it's such an intense brain experience, is that we map our world based on relationships. And so when a relationship changes, we have to rewrite the whole map. And that's a really big process. And grieving is the process that helps us do that rewriting. And so grieving the world and being in our grief is actually a really important thing to feel, to be with, to allow to move through you. And this is the thing about grief is when it moves through us, it's able to do its work of rewriting the landscape and the map so that we can orient to what is and really show up to be active agents of change in this world. And to me, grief and anxiety are a little bit different. And so from my perspective, the feeling of anxiety often comes up when we're not able to feel the full range of our feelings. It's too overwhelming to feel the full range of our feelings. So to feel the grief or to feel the rage, or to feel the despondency. And it makes sense when that comes up. And anytime I have anxiety come up in my body, I often ask myself, what is the feeling underneath this? Because there's a level in which anxiety isn't actually its own feeling. It's in reaction to the groundswell of feelings within me. And so I think that this is a big piece around what the world is asking of us and what the plants are asking of us is to feel our feelings. Like human beings, we have big feelings. It's part of our landscape. And I really think human emotion, it's a pretty precious thing. It's like a weather unto itself. And there's this ways in which the climate crisis that we're in, in a lot of ways, has come about from humans who have not been able to feel their full emotions, right? Like whatever it is, creating these outward goals in their life that they think will bring them, like the peace or the belonging that they seek. But really, it comes down to not being comfortable sitting with their feelings, to sit with the weather patterns inside of themselves. And so I actually think it's a huge service to the world to feel your grief around what is happening, to feel your rage, to let those feelings actually have the processes that they're here to to ignite within us. Grief, as I said, it's a process of learning and reorientation. Rage is so good at helping us get clear, at helping us understand where the boundaries are, knowing what we need to protect and what's important. And so we are going to have big feelings come up right now because of how deeply we love and care for this planet, for our communities, for our own lives. And it's It's a good thing to have come up. It's a good thing to feel. And at the same time, it's okay to know that there's moments where it might feel too overwhelming, where it is just like, I feel responsible for the entire world. To remember that actually what you're being asked to be responsible for right now is the weather that's moving through you and the way that that will open up these channels of possibility in which you can plug in and and create change in this world. And I think there is this level in which, and this might not be a popular thing for me to say, but I think there's this level in which plants are at peace with what is. And I'm not saying that plants are being condoning climate change or anything like that, but I just think the way that plants live, they live in the moment. And they, like the Earth, are just always orienting towards growth and not dwelling in the past, not projecting into the future. And the plant kingdom has lived through many cataclysms on our planet. And this is another Earth-created cataclysm because we are part of the Earth. And as much as we sometimes are super down on ourselves and think that we're somehow separate and somehow this really destructive force that is anti-life and anti-Earth, we are life and we are Earth. And so this is another cataclysm in the long story of the Earth and in the long story of the plant kingdom that they are living through. And I really think that there's a deeper meta message here in terms of us being with the inner weather weather patterns inside of ourselves and allowing that to be the thing that ultimately is able to shift our interaction with the world. And plants have survived many different iterations of weather patterns and catastrophe. And I really believe that we have the ability to as well. And so there will be gems of learning that come out of this cataclysm, not only for us, but for the whole world. And I really think for the soul of the Earth, there's a bigger story being played out here that we don't have access to in our little human consciousnesses. And that's okay, but all we're being asked to do right now is to be with the beauty, actually, of the feelings that are moving through us, because that's what opens us up to meeting these times that are to come.

The zooming out, Asia, of your message and this bigger picture take really makes me feel like a sense of peace and calm about the times we're living in. So thank you. I'm sure this and much more guides your sense of consent and boundaries when you're working with plants and places. How do you utilize the communications from this feeling that you've espoused, like when working to harvest or engage with plants as an herbalist?

Yeah, plants have so much to teach us about boundaries. You know what? Well, consent and boundaries, this is essential to existence. We come here to be in bodies, be individuals, to have things that are just ours, to learn what it's like to to individuate. And so boundaries and therefore, consent is a huge part of this. And if we look at what's happening around the world, it's like boundaries are at the heart of climate crisis and human issues. And why is this? Well, boundaries are also at the heart of trauma. Boundary violations are at the heart of trauma, and that's something that we are dealing with en masse in our world in the human psyche. And so there's this way in which learning how to listen to the plants and hear and honor their boundaries is such a powerful training ground for us, especially because from a young age, a lot of us were handed this paradigm of the world is ours for the taking. I can shred all the leaves off this branch, and it doesn't matter. Or dig up this plant just because I feel like in this moment. It's the paradigm that many of us grew up in. And so when we actually are able to orient two plants as sentient, conscious beings who have their own boundaries, then it really rewrites the way we see ourselves in the world, the way we see how boundaries actually create much deeper relationship. When we can honor other beings' boundaries, that being then feels safe relating with us. And so we can create create so much deeper relationship and connection because there's that safety to be sharing and to be in exchange. So with plants in particular, because they have their own ways of communicating, they're not human, so they're not necessarily going to say something out loud or push us away or different ways that humans communicate boundaries. But one of the things that I find is really helpful is to learn how a no no feels in your body when you're receiving a no from a plant. And you can practice this with asking someone to say no to you in your life. And it helps in particular when you ask someone and it doesn't just come up, because sometimes we can have a whole layer of triggers come up when someone says no to us about something. But to be like, okay, we're going to practice. I'm going to ask you for something, and you're going to say no, and then I'm going to witness what I feel in my body. And so the more you can practice witnessing what you feel in your body when you're receiving a no, the more you'll be able to hear when a plant says no. And my experience when plants say no, that there's not anger or the sense of the plant being punitive. It's just a firmness. It's just a reality of existence. No, I don't want that. Or no, not that leaf, or no, not that plant. So for me, the way this often shows up when I ask plants for permission to gather them or to pick a flower or to make a flower essence, if it's a no, I might sometimes hear a no, but more often I'll feel in my body like a sense of contraction, hesitation, or questioning. And if there's questioning, then it's not a full yes. And so to take a moment there to just step back. And then normally I'll pose another question. So if it's like, if it's not this plant, could it be this plant? Or if it's not these leaves, could it be these leaves? And normally what I experience is if I feel drawn to harvest a plant or ask a plant to become a part of my medicine, then normally it's not going to be a no across the board, but I'll get specific nos about specific plants or specific flowers. If you have the due diligence where you're checking populations and you're seeing how many plants are growing in a given area, if you know what the rare or endemic species are, then you already going in with a little bit of this baseline knowledge of what is appropriate and what is not. And that can really help, too. And at the end of the day, learning how to acknowledge the no and say no So it's amazing how much that can free you. And I think a big part of this is because the price of a boundary violation is the loss of connection. And so this happens on an individual basis between us and a person, a human, or us and a plant. But I think it's also happened en masse in our world is that on a cultural or societal level, when we have not been acknowledging the natural innate boundaries that exist in the more than human world, then we lose connection. And so especially if your goal is to come into deeper and deeper states of connection with the living world, you should actually be excited about getting a no, because then it gives you that opportunity to build that connection and build that deeper relationship.

I love that, Asia. There's been so many times where I see us, herbalists, teaching students or people who are new to the practice about asking a plant if they can harvest. Never before have I ever seen this practical offering of practice what no feels like in your body and then recognize it for what it is in communication with a plant. I find that so valuable. We live in a world where there is great biodiversity and access to nature being both in Appalachia, but many of our listeners probably less access to nature and the encounters that they offer. Do you have any accessible ways for folks out there in that position to cultivate plant relationships?

Yeah. My love of plants really exploded and deepened in an exponential way when I lived in New York City. And so this is a topic that's really near and dear to my heart because not only do I think it's possible to connect with plants when you're living in an urban landscape, I actually think that there's a huge potential there for connection and for a relationship. So I want to name a couple of things that I thought was really profound and helpful for me. And at the same time, I also want to name that my experience is that plants in more urban spaces are so excited to connect. They're so excited because they see, literally, you and the other humans make up a huge part of the ecology in which they live. And imagine being a part of an ecology where the vast majority of the beings in that place aren't acknowledging you, aren't interacting with you. So it's actually like, I find that the plants get hugely excited when you do interact with them in an urban landscape. So you actually have such a precious opportunity to make some really powerful connections. So the easiest way to make a direct connection to a plant and to really have a profound relationship is to just grow a plant in a pot. Literally on your windowsill, get a plant, grow it in a pot. If there's a plant you want to learn about that you can grow, put that plant in a pot. Even if that plant doesn't make it past a certain stage, you will learn so much about that plant through cultivating and tending that plant. I had a tiny little backyard when I lived in Brooklyn, and we planted a little garden back there. It was like a Liberty garden, from World War II, we dug it up and dug up all these old bricks, and we ended up planting all these plants there. I didn't know anything about, really, at that time, taking care of garden. I wasn't pruning anything. I wasn't deadheading anything. Everything, basically, we're leggy and wild and went to seed by mid-July. But I learned so much in that process. There's just this sense of when you grow a plant in a city, even if it's just a common house plant or an orchid that you bring into your house, that you are bringing so much beauty into that space. It really ripples out around you. So that's a big one for me. Any way in which you can to actually be in presence with a plant, including growing that plant. I also really love making offerings to plants in public spaces. And this is one that can be edgy for people because you're like, I don't want to be seen, like hugging a tree. But here's what's really cool about it is oftentimes the plants that are the gatekeeper plants for that landscape. There's this concept of gatekeeper plants that are the prominent, it's often trees, but depending on where you are, maybe you're not living in a place where there's trees, but there might be a prominent bush or a prominent vine or a prominent cactus. But to go to that gatekeeper plant, and oftentimes that plant will be very obvious in the landscape. Other people will be drawn to it. So I would go and leave offerings by big trees in the park. And what's really cool when you do this is other people will get so interested. People will stop you and be like, "What are you doing?" This is super interesting and cool. Maybe you're leaving flowers or whatever it is, singing a song, leaving water. As long as your offering is biodegradable, it's all welcome. And people will get really interested in it. And then even after you leave, especially if it's something that's visible. People will be drawn to it. They will come, they'll participate in it. And so not only are you then giving back and then receiving the connection that comes through acknowledging this being, but you're also creating this ground for even more connection in that space, which is really special and a really cool thing to do. I also always encourage people to notice the weeds. So everywhere you are in this world, there's going to be like wild ones who grow in. And so in New York City, it's like the cracks of the pavement. We have dandelions cropping up. Or I remember this one time walking down the street in Williamsburg was this gorgeous Datura plant, and I'm like, oh, my... But even just noticing them, you don't even have to stop or notice them and send them love, and they will absolutely beam back to you. It's one of the coolest experiences that I've had is these incredible warriors basically coming into this landscape and bringing life back to this landscape, these incredibly strong-hearted beings. They are bringing so much medicine into that space. And when you stop and just notice them. Get an ID book. I had an ID book about New York and the weeds there and was learning the weeds there. And I just would see them and beam love to them and be like, "Thank you. I'm so excited. I can name who you are." And then they would just beam back at me. And it was one of the coolest experiences. And one of the things that I hear a lot from people in urban landscapes is like, oh, it's hard because I want to be able to harvest medicine and make tea and tincture, and I can't really in this space. But one of the things I do like to hand to people there is like, okay, it might not be that it's a clean enough place to harvest and make a tincture, but it definitely is okay to make a flower essence. And because flower essences are so highly dilute, that you can make a flower essence pretty much anywhere in a city. And if you're truly concerned, maybe it's something that you think has been sprayed with herbicide, you could always make a vibrational essence by just

Putting that bowl of water out underneath the flower and letting it sit for a few hours and asking for the energy to go into that water. But I find working with flower essences from city landscapes so profoundly consciousness expanding and opening because those flowers just bring so much energy and power and harmony to the landscape where they are and so much beauty. People are just in love with flowers that working with them in that way can really open up a lot, especially if you feel limited by taking more physical constituent-based medicine from your environment. And just in general, any time you want to work with a plant, bring them into your field in any way that you can.

So even if the plant is not growing around you in that landscape, go see, is there a botanical garden? You can go and visit that plant. Could you go to the library and check out books where you get to look at really gorgeous photographs of that plant? Any way in which you can bring that plant into your field, you will be having a deep and profound interaction with that plant. They're going to be coming into your life. It may be you may not see them growing on the street, but someone may hand you a pamphlet, and there's that plant on the cover of that pamphlet. And pay attention to those synchronicities because it's always possible to make these deep connections. And from my experience, living in a place like New York City, it made my connection to the plants that much more precious and that much more potent. I actually started studying herbalism in Detroit. I think that everything that you have mentioned just it feels like such a joyful connection, too, to be in this urban environment and to be experiencing the joy of plants and plant connection in this space. I loved your share about Datura because I remember the first time I ever saw a blue vervain. It was growing in the cracks of a sidewalk in Detroit. I went to the street, and I was just like, "There you are!" What a magical encounter that was. That's so cool. I don't think I've ever heard of blue vervain growing out of a crack in the street. That's so neat. I know. And that was even why it was more so surprising, because it isn't its native habitat, per se. But it was blue vervain, it was Verbena hastata, and it was beautiful.

Asia, we are migratory as humans, and obviously, we have brought many plants along on our journeys. How do you feel like ancestral land and the lineages that we have alongside plants inform the relationships that we build with them? How do we honor those lineages and ancestral lines? Yeah. All of our ancestors were in deep relationship to plants, specific plants. It literally informed our DNA because these are the plants that our ancestors for eating. It's like, so part of how your body manifests itself in this lifetime is due to the plants that your ancestors had a direct relationship with. I consider ancestral plant connection and wisdom to be like a deep taproot. It will stabilize you when you have it. I think there's often this sense, especially for those of us who are disconnected from the places in which our ancestors lived, that there's almost like a grasping, like a vine sometimes. I don't blame us for that because it's like we're trying to rebuild something. We're trying to rebuild this connection. And yet we are in a time right now, actually, where I feel like there's so many resources to reconnect to our ancestral wisdom and our ancestors and their connection with medicine. And so when we do that, what I find, and this is coming from my own experience of not feeling very connected at all to my ancestors for most of my time growing up, not having that be a part of my practice when I started practicing herbalism, and then afterwards starting to have it come in really strongly, I think in part of because I started connecting with the plants, that what I noticed is that when I cultivated this relationship with ancestral plant medicine and with my own ancestors, that it came in as this stabilizing and grounding force that helped me actually open up to more wisdom and more connection exactly where I was.

We don't have to become an initiate in a lineage of ancestral plant medicine. It doesn't mean that we have to move back to where our ancestors are from. That's not even accessible to most of us. But just learning which plants your ancestors interacted with, which plants were important to them. You might actually know which countries or places in the world you are from. Maybe you have done a DNA test, and that's the information that you know. Maybe it's more general. But no matter what lineage or line you can follow back, you can find, and what were the plants that were growing there? What are the plants that are growing there? And how can you connect to them now? And I noticed that, for example, when I did the first trip in a series of pilgrimage trips that I took to put my body back on the land that my ancestors were from in Europe, I arrived in Ireland. It was the first place I went, and I went from the airport to nearby where I was going to stay. I think the Airbnb wasn't ready or something, and I just was walking along this hedgerow, and I was looking around, and obviously, I'd studied herbalism by this point, so I knew plants and new plant names and stuff. I'm looking around and I'm like, there's hawthorn, there's elder, there's nettle. And these are these plants that I had developed these relationships with where I live in Western Appalachia, but that are native to this place that my ancestors are from. And it opened up this whole new awareness for me around the plant's energy and around those plants' medicine. It was very cool. I don't think we need to go to these places. It's a privilege if we can. But I think even just interacting from that lens of these are the plants that literally built my DNA, that informs my ancestors' existence, that when we connect in that way, it can open us up to so many other connections and to the deeper connections of where we actually are.

Place-based relationships are really important. Where you grew grew up, where you live now, you are going to have big profound connections with those places, even if you are not Indigenous to those places. And what I find is that when we have an ancestral plant connection and we have just ancestral connection in general, it literally gives us greater access to the places that we're moving through now. It's almost like having an umbilical where we then are receiving the strength and the nourishment that we need to make connections where we are, connections that might not be ancestral connections, but might be connections of birth or places that really resonate with our soul. And I know that, for example, when I do land blessings here where I live in Western Appalachia, I ask for my ancestors to come and help bless this land where I live. And I noticed when I started doing that, so much more energy came in to those ceremonies and those rituals. And so I think the same is true for any way in which we are interacting with the plants and interacting with healing, that bringing our own ancestral connection and knowledge and relationship in will just exponentially deepen exactly where we are and who it is, the plants and the beings that we're connecting to. I love how that message just connects us so much more to the places we're in and to the plants and to our ancestors and recognizing the possibility of doing so, even if we haven't been on the land for generations, like many of us haven't.

Asia, in your teachings, I would love to hear what practices you share with your students, and of course, in your own work that you feel most reliably deepen plant-herbalist relationships? So I often say to my students, If you wanted to get to know a human better, what would you do? And that is really the guidepost for deepening your relationship with plants. And at its most basic, what does that look like? It's creating intimacy, intimate connection, spending quality time, spending time listening, witnessing someone in their growth. I think growing a plant is almost like, I don't want to call it a life hack because it's not a hack, but it's the easiest way to get to know a plant so deeply. And as I mentioned when talking about living in an urban landscape, it's okay if you don't even see that plant all the way through fruit or flower, you're still learning so much. So any way in which you can physically be with a plant to create that intimacy, to touch a plant, to taste a plant, if that plant is edible, to make medicine out of a plant. Almost like it's like those mundane things you do with other humans in your life that just build connection over time. I'm like, that is the most reliable way to deepen your relationship with plants. And especially if you are in presence with a plant, if you are growing a plant or you have a plant growing around you, or maybe you only have access to that plant, in dried form, you're making tea or taking tincture. But to interact in a physical way, if possible, and then get quiet. To actually just stop talking then and listen. Just listen and receive. I think that it just goes so far of having these physical presencing with a plant and then letting go of doing in that moment and listening. We really discount, sometimes I think we feel like we need to have twelve steps or we need to travel somewhere and have a very intense ceremony with a plant in order to get to know that plant. And that is just not true. Like, literally just having some daily connection ritual with a plant, whether you're eating that plant every day, you're sitting with that plant every day, you're journaling with that plant every day, you're taking a flower essence every day, some practical movement of bringing that plant into your life every day and then creating space to listen. And for me, writing is really helpful in this. And so I often will have a practice where I just sit, take that plant, and just write for a few minutes and see what comes out. And so to me, these mundane daily connections with plants in the of making space to listen is really just the most reliable way to create deep relationship. Beautiful. I love how it can be so simple, right? Yeah.

One of the things that we see often is the disdain that folks have for invasive species. I wonder how you approach them from a relationship lens. If you have soul lessons that have come through that these invasive plants tend to carry. Yeah, I think invasive plants carry a lot of messages for us. They're really potent to be connecting with in this period of time. Here's the thing is plants, they simply grow where there's space for them. They aren't demonic, they aren't problematic, they're just themselves. And invasive plants exist where they do, mostly because of us, because of humans. And so what we do with invasive plants often, what I see in our culture, is that we project onto them all of our issues with ourselves. And so all of the anger and guilt and shame that we feel about the human species, ourselves as individuals, we end up projecting them onto these invasive plants who are really just growing where there's space to grow. They're raison d’être. That's how they exist. I'm not saying this to say that we shouldn't nurture native communities or take steps to create better balance in our ecologies, to invite back in more native ecosystems. But I do think that there's this soul level on which invasive plants come in to help us become aware of the invasive thought patterns that often rule our lives, and we don't even realize it. And what's cool about recognizing these invasive thought patterns is that oftentimes these thought patterns, whatever they are, whether they have to do with anger or guilt or shame, these ideas that we have about ourselves, that we shouldn't be in a place that we don't belong, that we're creating disharmony, whatever those thought patterns are that when we work with those invasive thoughts, what we end up finding is medicine underneath them. It's not just like these invasive thoughts come up because we're just doomed and we have this annoying thing that we have to deal with. These thoughts that come up like this for us again and again are actually trying to point us towards something that needs healing. It's trying to point us towards the truth that we need to recognize within ourselves. The truth is often buried under that invasive thought that is causing anxiety or causing disturbance. And so when we can be aware of the way in which we project onto invasive plants, we can then become aware of these invasive thought patterns that in many ways are subconsciously ruling our world. And obviously, we know that many invasive plants come in with really big, important medicine. These are abundant medicines for us. Where I live, Japanese knotweed is a huge invasive plant that really chokes out a lot of the creeks where I live. It was a really big problem in the creek here when I first moved in, and I had to really catch myself when I first moved into this place, where I'd get in that creek and I just would be getting so angry and frustrated with this plant. And then I'd literally have a moment where I'd be like, Asia, this plant was instrumental to you helping to heal from Lyme disease. And what's been very cool about witnessing the spread of Japanese knotweed throughout this country is that the maps, if you overlay the maps of the spread of Lyme disease and the spread of this invasive, they're very similar. And so I think there's so much medicine here for us, actually, and abundance in that medicine. And so on a physical level, harvesting these plants, working with these plants, eating these plants, but then also on that more spiritual level as well. They are really helping us to see and recognize the field of projection that we live inside of, all the ways in which these invasive thought patterns are coming up and are preventing us from actually having a deeper relationship with the world. And I really feel like when we address these invasive thought patterns, some of these global patterns that we have of disregard that is causing the spread of invasive species will just naturally dissolve. There's a reason why they're there. If we can embrace that, they're here to help us, I think a lot will change. There's so much potency to your message, Asia. I absolutely love that knowledge about Japanese knotweed, and I feel like this gives us so much more to think about in our relationships to invasive species. I will share just how much mimosa, Albizia julibrissin, comes up for me when you were talking about this idea of the invasive nature of our thoughts and the plants we find in our communities, and Albizia being the tree of happiness or collective happiness bark, and just looking at this plant and it's labeled as a highly invasive, which is true, but also the fact of how much we need the medicine that comes from it.

We're going to wrap up, Asia, by offering our listeners one simple daily practice that they can use to attune to plants and why they should. This is, again, very simple, but I have found that it really opens up so much. This is a 10-minute sit-and-listen session. So, to choose a plant, and I like to work with plants for moon cycles, so to choose a plant for a whole moon cycle and do a 10-minute sit-and-listen session each day. Find a time of your day that works for you, maybe a time where you have the space to sit and listen. So it might be first thing in the morning, it might be in the evening, it might be during a lunch break. But to sit, and preferably if you can be in presence with that plant, if you can't physically be in presence with that plant, maybe taking a bit of that plant's medicine or having a bit of that plant talismantically with you, like a leaf pressed or something like that, and just take ten minutes to sit quietly and listen, to focus on your breath, to sink into your clairs, to be open to what it is that you might be perceiving. I really like the breath in particular as a vehicle for moving into this because we literally breathe in the breath of plants, and they breathe in our breath. So even having that be a focal point of like, I'm breathing in literally the breath of this plant, and I'm breathing out, and having them breathe me in, and sit. You can even set a timer, sit for 10 minutes, sit and listen, know that just through doing this, even if you're not receiving a message every day, that you're building trust. You're building trust in yourself. You're building trust in that relationship. And that, oftentimes, what I find is that there's actually an arc inside of a relationship with a plant, that it may not even be just that one session, but what you're learning over the arc of this whole moon cycle of sits, it will appear at the end of it. You'll see the arc of what you've been working with or what you've been learning from this plant. And I really encourage you, if you can, at the end of this 10-minute sit-and-listen session, to just jot down whatever came through that day, because sometimes we'll think that we will remember each day, and we don't. And so at the end of this month long cycle, to go back and look at what you've written and see that arc for yourself. See what is the overall message or what is your relationship with this plant like? And I love this practice in particular because it's creating a daily way for us to commune. It's literally rewiring our brain to think more animistically, to think more metaphorically, to be open to what happens during those 10 minutes, because it might be you have a thought or it might be like something happens in that moment. Maybe an alarm goes off or a leaf falls in your lap or you have an idea about something else completely different, but when you think back on it, you're like, oh, that is such a metaphor for what actually I was asking in the session, that it's rewriting our brains, it's creating this built sense of trust, and then it's also giving us this wider perspective on our life and showing us what's possible when we are in daily connection with plants, when we do really tend that relationship. So that is the 10 Minute Sit and Listen sessions, and I encourage you to give it a try.

Thank you, Asia. I am absolutely inspired by all of the wisdom that you hold within yourself and the teachings that you have offered us today. Please do let our audience know where they can find you out in the world and any courses or classes or teachings or projects that you have upcoming you'd like to share about. Yeah. You can find me on my website, asiasuler.com. There's a lot of free resources on that website, including a quiz called, What is your Earth Healing Archetype? I've seen really amazing breakthroughs happen for people when they take this quiz and access the completely free suite of classes that comes along with it to help you understand this archetype that you're embodying in your life. It gives people this perspective of how their energy works, how they're supposed to be using their energy in the world, what the innate gifts are that they're bringing. These five archetypes came out of my own experiences of working in private practice for over a decade and really seeing that they came up over and over again. And they're also in alignment with the Daoist concept of the Five Spirits. So it's a really cool, interesting set of classes that's, again, totally free and just a really great way to take that next step, tune into yourself, and stay in connection with me. So that is there. That's also where all my online classes are. I am on Instagram and Facebook under Asia Suler. And I also have a podcast called Remember Why You're Here. And so that podcast is streaming on all the podcast services. I have a book called Mirrors in the Earth. If you're interested in ecological lessons from the natural world that help you to understand your own journey, then that book is there. Coming up in March, we are going to be opening the doors again to this new school for sensitives called Earth Angel School. The school is like the... It's the collaboration, it's the collation of really everything that I've been learning in my life in the last 15 years about how to be a sensitive person on this planet, how to be a sensitive person in the wider ecology of this planet. And it feels so profound for me because I am a sensitive person, and I notice that most of the people I work with are sensitives as well. And many of us are asking this question, whether we came into this through orienting to our nervous system, our sensitivity, or whether we came through a healing crisis wanting to connect with the plants that we often end up in this place of really wondering, what is my role here? How am I meant to give back to this wider ecology? And so that's so much of what Earth Angel School is about. It's about really learning who you are in the wider ecology of the world and in your relationship to this planet. So we launched this program last year. It was truly incredible. It's a live three-month program, and we're about to open the doors again. We only open the doors once a year. So if you're a sensitive, and this is something that you're interested in, if you're a sensitive who loves working with plants and being in connection with the Earth, then I would love to journey with you there, and you can check out all that information over on my website.

That sounds so amazing, Asia. I will absolutely be looking into the Earth Angel School. I'm grateful for you and your teachings and your time today. It's been an honor having you on, and thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor to be a part of this incredible collective and this amazing offering in the world. So thank you.