The most freeing choice we can make is to turn our poisons into medicine. And it also requires the greatest courage.
From the impact of childhood traumas to the ancestral burdens we carry, there is wisdom in the poison of our wounding.
Recently I was catching up with a dear spiritual friend of mine that I haven’t spoken to for quite some time. But we’ve had deep spiritual conversations and attended retreats together on and off for the last eight years.
As I updated her about how much of my time outside of work is devoted to my garden she asked me, “what are you growing?”
I paused for a moment to take stock of our plants and said, “well, honestly, a lot of my garden is poisonous plants.” I went on to tell her that recent years led me to working more and more with poisonous plants as medicines. And how they’ve been extremely powerful for my healing path. And then I paused. Waiting for a perplexed face or response.
Instead she said something interesting. “That makes perfect sense to me that you would work with poisons. And they would be a part of your path. After all, you’ve had a lot of poison in your life. And you’ve turned it into medicine.”
Her words struck something deep in my heart. Like truth chords playing on my internal guitar.
She was right. I HAD come into contact with a lot of poison in my life. And I had turned that into medicine. So of course I’d be a poisonous plant person. Partnering with these special plants as medicine in my personal and professional life.
What do I mean by poison?
Most of us experience trauma in some form during our lifetime. And some of us are exposed to more trauma than others.
What makes trauma unique from other challenging experiences in life, is that trauma deeply impacts our spirit. Creating shockwaves in our physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual bodies. And when trauma accumulates over time and goes unaddressed it becomes like poison for the system. Leading to conditions like chronic illness, complex PTSD, chronic anxiety, addiction, and depression to name a few.
There are also inherited poisons. Like unhealed ancestral trauma that can look like lineages of addiction. Ongoing sexual and physical abuse behavior that gets repeated. Or for example, patterns of chronic low self esteem.
In other words, unaddressed poisons get passed down.
Trauma is born from an experience where we did not have access to agency and choice. While we did not have a choice over what happened in our past. We do have a choice with what we want to do with the poison that has entered our system and its impacts.
Our liberation lives in the medicine (aka wisdom) of our poisons. And our poisons start to become medicine when we stop running from them.
There is wisdom hidden deep in our wounding. And when we turn to transform our wounding we can experience more freedom in our being, wholeness in our embodiment, and alignment in our life.
On this week’s episode of Tune In with Marci, I dive into the concept of poison as medicine.
I explore:
How unaddressed trauma creates "poisons" in our system.
How I transformed my own poisons into medicines.
The role of poisonous plants in our healing during modern and complex times.
The historical context that led to the vilification of poisonous plants.
How to start gathering your personal medicine from your trauma.
And what happens when we don't address the poisons of our past.
Ready to gather your unique medicine (aka wisdom) to guide the next chapter of your life? Learn more about my deeply transformational 1:1 work HERE.
Much love,
Marci
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