Halloween Reads

Heather Sanderson's Blog, page 7

October 1, 2022

September 22, 2022

Holding Space To Heal Book Launch

Happy Equinox! Whether you are in the north and tipping towards the darkness of the coming months or in the south and entering into a time of more light, we are all sharing in a moment of balance between darkness and light today!

The balance of darkness and light is one of the main themes in Holding Space to Heal: A Conversation with Holly Ramey, launching today! This new book explores what “holding space” means, how it can work, and delves into key concepts of archetypes, clair senses, shadow work, the Tarot and more!

Holly then takes us on her personal journey of studying and practicing yoga, Reiki, and learning the Tarot. With these healing arts as a foundation, she talks about what it means to work with the shadow, the medicine that has come from her personal experiences of the “dark night of the soul,” creating ceremony, building community, and how all of these threads are incorporated in her offerings for others. Holly reminds us that there is always light and that we need to venture into those internal places we may not want to go.

I offer a plant spirit reading in relation to this work, and talk about why working with plants is a key part of our personal and planetary evolution. Worksheets to aid in creating your own vision, commitment, and calls to action are also included to make this book an immersive and interactive experience so that you can explore energy healing, and contribute to the conversation in your own way.

In writing this book I sat deeply with the concepts within it and discovered new layers of what holding space means to me, which I share throughout. I’d love to hear what it means to you! You can order your copy of the book here.

If you are craving more community and safe space, consider joining Nathalie Biermanns and I tomorrow (September 23rd) at 3 pm EST for the last session of a five-day “Discovery of Strength” summit. We will be talking about working with plant spirits, remembering your magic, and our book, Building the Future Now Through Reiki. Nathalie will also offer Reiki to all participants. This summit has called a lovely community into being! You can register for free here.

Virtual weekly yoga nidra classes are also starting again, on October 11th at 7:15 pm. More info here. And, if you are in NYC come by Artmageddon in person on October 9th! I’ll be selling my books on a porch and would love to see you.

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Published on September 22, 2022 17:06

September 1, 2022

August 16, 2022

Do you One-star Review Yourself?

Reading from Sister, at Open Streets Poetry Reading, Sept 2021. Photo by Justin Winslow.

It happened. The fear that nearly prevented me putting my writing out into the world at all. The dreaded one-star review! Haha.

A former version of me would *not* have laughed at that.

It was a rating with no explanation on my collection of poetry, Sister. I’ve never claimed to be the highest level poet or writer. I’m learning, just like everyone else. Part of the process of my learning is putting work out into the world to see what happens. It took me over a year to put the plant spirit books out because the fear of the one-star review dominated me. I had to get myself to a place where I knew it would happen one day (because of course it would), and to not let it steer my future hopes and dreams of being a writer.

(I’m remembering now pressing “publish” on the first book, Dreaming with Dandelion and my thought as I clicked was “please don’t one star review me!”)

And, I published it (and all that followed) anyway.

My response to the one-star has surprised me. There it was, and there it will remain. I can’t escape it or avoid it. I have to see it. 

Seeing it, my brain first tried to justify it: it could have been for any reason. Maybe the book itself arrived damaged, maybe it wasn’t the writing at all, maybe the reader’s expectations weren’t met. And/or maybe they simply didn’t like it.

And that’s OKAY!

What then irked me was that someone would go out of their way to pro-actively do this. An old version of myself would have seen this as a personal attack. 

Maybe it is… and… maybe it’s not.

Then radical acceptance set in because I love this little book of poems. I love the three years it took to come together and the healing required and infused within the pieces. I love it anyway, even if others do not. For perhaps the first time, I let go of requiring external validation. 

Then I could focus on the other reviews–the five stars! I even pulled them all together on a page on my website to bask in the energy of support across all of the 30+ books I have out there. This is so important and something that so many of us often forget to do; instead dwelling on that which is bringing discord or lack. How could I forget that supportive community also is present? (It’s so easy to forget this in life… and essential to build up an abundance of support in every possible way you can so that when things like this happen… it’s there for you to return to/can help you heal). 

Next came the coaching self-talk that this is good preparation because if I write the novel I want to write in the way I hope it will turn out, and if people actually read it, it will most certainly be burned. That is the goal! That has always been something I’ve aspired to. So I better be ready to incorporate a lot of one-star reviews in the future! And know that they are okay. 

A week later after all of this processing and incorporating, and sharing with a few friends who I knew would understand, I felt more free and fueled than I ever have. A lot of stored old energy and thoughts released and pivoted to a new belief structure. A new way of being and relating to myself and to my work. Now, unafraid of rejection—no longer seeing that one-star review as what it has always felt like—an attempt to make me STOP, instead I felt prepared to do the opposite. To go!

I started reaching out to herbal schools to pitch my books. I started broadening the reach of my writing by directly asking people to include it in their shops or in their student reading lists (and several have responded that they want to!). I have been shying away from doing this out of fear. 

Now that fear has been moved through and I am more expansive and loving as a result. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to call in a plethora of one-star reviews! (Please, no!) And, at the same time, I am unscathed and an aspect deep within my psyche and heart has received deep healing. The unexposed wound I was trying to protect through fear has had its day and… received tender love and attention. I now feel not only more at peace but lighter and, at the same time, grounded—with far more footing than I’ve had ever before. Ready. At a new level of peace.

I share this in case there are places in your own life where you can draw connections. Where are you afraid of being one-star reviewed by others? Or where do you one-star review yourself/your life? What happens as a result of this thought/fear? How does it inform how you treat and review others? Do you dole out support for others and yourself? Do you rest in judgment, shooting out criticism like arrows? Is there a place through non-judgment, acceptance, and love, where you also can reside in peace?

To that end, I’ve launched a new Yoga Nidra for Peace recording available on on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and all other digital music stores. Feel free to share your experience and what messages come through to you for how to cultivate peace in yourself (and thereby bringing it into the world). 

And, if you would like to leave a review of one of my books you have ready on Amazon, please do! They really do make a difference! Especially in helping to build up the abundance of support (but of course, authenticity and honest is the most important thing).

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Published on August 16, 2022 08:24

August 1, 2022

Top 10 Majestic Wisdom Books of July

The most popular books in July 2022 were:

Building the Future Now Through Reiki Dreaming with Rosemary Dreaming with Elder Dreaming with Redwood Sister, Dreaming with Nettle Dreaming with Oak Dreaming with Sunflower Dreaming with Sumac Dreaming with Lavender

Dreaming with Birch celebrated its one-year anniversary out in the world on July 9th! Dreaming with Hawthorn turned two on July 16th!

Happy birthday!

Thank you for reading and dreaming with the plants. For a list of all available and upcoming titles, click here.

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Published on August 01, 2022 06:56

July 18, 2022

Honoring Grief of All Kinds

Photo compilation by Annie McDonnell

In dark times, we can help each other rekindle sparks of joy that illuminate a way through the fog of grief, sadness, anger, worry, fear…

If the world seems desolately gray after the heartbreaking loss of loved ones, relationships, jobs, health–whether rawly recent or achingly ancient–open to the possibility of some rays of hope shining through by gathering with a supportive community to learn simple yet powerful practices to help you feel lighter, including:

Movement: gentle stretches to release emotional tension from the body and invite in more ease

Meditation: a guided journey to explore inner wisdom

Music: a sound bath to soothe the spirit and tune into synchronicities

And more: self-care practices and plant medicine to support healing

Join Annie McDonnell and me on Thursday July 21, 2022 from 7-9 pm, at Upsoul Center in Manhattan for this sacred workshop and offering: Music, Meditation & Music for Grief.

Click here for more info and to register. 

Can’t attend (or found this post days, months, or years later) and want more connection and resources?

Annie and I recorded an Instagram Live where we touch on some of the aspects of grief and ways to honor and be with grief in community.

You can also listen to an episode of Majestic Wisdom podcast we co-created where Annie shares her entry point into the healing arts and sciences, and we walk down the garden path of her journey to Traditional Chinese Medicine with a focus on acupuncture and many other healing arts that she incorporates into her practice, culminating in a new offering called Wellspring.

In addition to her offerings, Annie shares deeply about the “witch wound,” past lives and reincarnation, the fears around opening her own business, and what it means to work with joy as a healing practice.

Heather also offers a plant spirit reading in relation to Annie’s work. We hope that this podcast will help you find an entry point to your own personal wellspring, and continue to tend to it.

There are many plant allies for grief, grieving, heart support, and connection with the journey of death (of any kind). Here are a few that I’ve written with and a brief message from each:

Dreaming with Violet (also known as heart’s ease–helps bring relief to the heart and allows grief of any kind to move through) Dreaming with Hawthorn  (heart support at all levels, medicinal, spiritual, and magical; gateway plant to the magical world)Dreaming with Lavender (helps bring ease when working to release a loss of any kind) Dreaming with Nettle  (holds a protective mantel for the transition to death and acts as a gateway guardian between the physical and invisible worlds)Dreaming with Holly (specifically helpful in the journey of death, and grieving loved ones/connecting with ancestors)Dreaming with Elder (honoring the sacred ways of eldership, trusting yourself, your process and the overall process of life/death/love/loss)Dreaming with Spruce (revered the world over as a sacred tree for funeral rites and to help cross over; playful and joyful to bring magic into life)Dreaming with Willow (oh so much magic and witchy connections to death, dying and beyond!)

Each of these Plant/Tree Spirit Short Reads shares the spirit, medicine, and folklore of the plant (including the expanded details of the message above), many ways to connect with the plants and trees on your own, and a special guided journey for you to go on together to discover what you need in this moment. See which ones call to you!

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Published on July 18, 2022 05:19

July 1, 2022

June 16, 2022

Top 25 Majestic Wisdom Books of All Time

As we approach the summer solstice here in the north, I have a heartfelt desire to celebrate and honor the growing list of Majestic Wisdom books! The solar energy peaks with the longest day of the year on June 21st, as does active energy. The act of doing always benefits from the ability to connect. If you are curious about more ways to connect (with yourself and other beings around you, be they plant, animal, human, or other) these books are here to help you on your journey.

The 25 Majestic Wisdom books of all time are:

Dreaming with Mugwort Sister, Dreaming with Nettle Dreaming with Dandelion Dreaming with Hawthorn Loving Kindness for Everyday Life Dreaming with Oak Dreaming with Violet Dreaming with Lavender Dreaming with Holly Dreaming with Redwood Dreaming with Rosemary Dreaming with Willow Dreaming with Heather Dreaming with Red Clover Dreaming with Birch Understanding Reiki Dreaming with Apple Dreaming with Sunflower Yoga Nidra for Everyday Life Dreaming with Trillium Dreaming with Sumac Dreaming with Goldenrod Dreaming with Spruce Dreaming with Elder

Thank you for reading and dreaming with the plants and all of this writing. It truly is a dream come true to share these works with you.

For a list of all available and upcoming titles, click here.

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Published on June 16, 2022 12:48

June 1, 2022

May 16, 2022

Translating The Multiple Languages Of Life

Dog I walk with Mugwort. Photo by Heather Sanderson

Communication is complex and we are all constantly translating.

We know it’s not as simple as saying something and having it be heard, as intended. That rarely ever happens fully. Communication (both sharing and receiving) is dynamic and has embedded within it every psychological desire, every emotional behaviour, every energetic gesture (or what we have often called body language) all personal, inherited, and then a part of the larger collective belief system (and more!).

Then, throw in multiple languages to access, multiple ways to access and interpret communication, and diversity of ability, range of understanding, across human beings, and animals, and then plants! It’s easy, sometimes to say “forget it.” Complexities can be hard. Yet, the potential for growth, nuance, deeper understanding of others, the world, Self, becomes so dynamic and engaging when we start to look at communication and translation not as an obstacle, but as an enriching soil, full of untapped potential and fertility.

Communication is vibrational.

I was recently at an in-person party. The first large room of people I’ve been in for over two years. Many conversations were struck with complete strangers and it felt, to me, energizing and engaging.

One of the women there was interested in different models of education and intergenerational gatherings as a part of that. We followed the thread and ended up talking about human interactions with plants. She spoke about the science experiment many of us have seen posted around the internet where someone spoke only kind, encouraging words to one plant, and degrading, harsh words to the other. Not surprisingly, the plant that was given nurturing words flourished, the other didn’t grow as big or strong, shrinking and shriveling away.

I have seen this experiment posted many times and yet, in listening to her describe it as if I was hearing it for the first time, something new emerged:

It’s the vibration.

We are all feeling, sensing beings. That is part of the operating system of pretty much every living creature here on earth. No matter what we believe about being emotional, the energy body, or being “too sensitive,” or not sensitive enough.

While, perhaps, the plant could hear the words being expressed, it occurred to me that it’s much more likely that they are feeling the vibration emitted through the person’s body and energy field, then interpreting the data, and responding accordingly.

The same goes for humans, of course, and interacting with animals. Dogs, for example, as my friend Jessica Latour taught me, only really know “safe” and “unsafe.” This is the foundation of their communication and, therefore, how they go about making decisions and living.

If you watch a dog closely, you’ll start to notice when and how they pick up on the stimuli around them: the vibrations of the environment or of other dogs and people. Notice when they shrink away (unsafe) or grow bigger (safe).

Think about this for yourself. How does communicating with another person make you feel? When do you shrink away? Step into your power? When are you nurtured? Or afraid? What happens in the body as a result and, how do you respond? 

What is our capacity to create safety through communication?

It’s not just speaking either. Think of all the times you have read an email or a text and have inserted a tone you believe is behind the words. A tone is a vibration. Where does that come from? Is it true knowing of the tone embedded from the sender? Or your own projections and stories that you place into the email to reinforce the beliefs stored within you? Or both?

Even when no words are spoken or written, communication happens. It’s felt–emitted as vibration from one person to the others around them, including non-humans and the environment or ecosystem of which they are a part. And we have the ability to witness the vibrations we emit to others and, in time, there is the possibility of choosing what vibrations to emit. Play with this–see what happens!

See, complex!

I have Mugwort to thank for initiating some of these new and evolving thoughts. Her book, Dreaming with Mugwort recently wanted to be translated into Spanish! As a non-Spanish speaker, this presented a new challenge of how the heck to do this…and one that was met with love as my friend Mary Santivanez kindly offered to read over an auto-translated version of the manuscript.

Mary took such great care with this midwifery–even asking others about some words and what the best option would be (since the Spanish language and meanings vary across different lands and people). So today, we welcome Soñando con la Artemisa: Una lectura corta del espiritu de las plantas into the world!

Which brings us to that whole other channel of communication and vibration: speaking with the plants. Each of the plant and tree spirit books goes into this in detail and offers different ways to access and work with the consciousness of the plants. 

This is also vibrational. Those vibrations are the communication only, this time, instead of a human coming at a plant with their vibration, it’s more of a merging or entering into a safe container where some kind of experience can take place.

For some, they may use words and receive information like a stream of consciousness, a story, or one or two words. Others may tap into this vibration and see images or visuals, feel sensations in the body, dance, move, sing, play music. 

Here is the beauty of complexity: this kind of communication only has right answers. The trick is finding ways to access the information that is all around us, all the time, emitted constantly by the plants and trees.

When we enter into this kind of communication, there is more nourishment and nurturing, different kinds of awareness. Generative creative fertility of a give and take. A reciprocity and balance which, eventually pours over into other ways of thinking, being, communicating with non-plant species. 

Mugwort, I think, wants to help lead the way and collaborate on establishing new ways to dream, create, and communicate with humans. I wonder if that’s why her English book is the top-selling Plant Spirit book of all time? Why she grows prolifically at least here in Brooklyn, and why hers was the first to be translated into another language?

Who knows? Perhaps that is too much projection, and it makes my own vibrations buzz with joy to think that it’s a possibility.

Which plants or trees are you called to communicate with? How does moving you your body add to your vibrational experience of communicating with others? Does yoga help? 

I’m asking lots of questions because I’m curious as this new world opens to me. One I’ve been exploring for years now through so many different healing practices, and feel ready to open yet another door and see what wants to be learned and embodied with respect to communication. There is much more to uncover and understand–and I’m excited by the possibilities yet to come.

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Published on May 16, 2022 14:34