01. LOTUS INITATION

“I lived in the delta in a house of mud when I first felt its glance. I lived in its fire and never knew. I was asleep, dreaming blue dreams in the egg of the world.”

Creating our Temenos, Meeting the Plant Spirit, Tea Ceremony, Laying our foundations, Introduction to Plant Spirit Communication, Physical Flower Communion, The Vitality of an Altar, Offerings, Sacred Smoke Medicine, Cultural Appropriation, Acknowledgement + Appreciation, Origin Story.

Mud. Foundations. Tea.

Our Gatherings

Save the Dates in your calendar!

01.

FEBRUARY 9 | SUNDAY | 11AM EST
Opening Ceremony
(2hrs.)

02.

FEBRUARY 16 | SUNDAY | 11AM EST
Physical Flower Communion
(1.5-2 hrs)

03.

FEBRUARY 26 | WEDNESDAY | 7PM EST
Tea Meditation + Nefertum Study
(1.5 hrs)

MEDICINE: Tea Infusion

This month we lay our foundations dipping our toes into the Lotus waters with the beautiful Blue Lotus tea. It is my personal favorite way to commune with this flower.

Inviting you to begin courting your relationship by drinking Lotus in & weaving them into your life, your rituals + practices, into your body + spirit. Follow your intuition - take notice when, where, and how you feel called to drink and sit together. Journal your experience and what begins to come through for you as you start to develop your intuitive + unique relationship together.

  • You can infuse your flower/petals from 20 minutes - 8+ hours. No matter the infusion length, the plant spirit comes through so beautifully. The strength of infusion really influences the physical properties more than anything. But we are all different, so it is finding what uniquely works for you and how your body reacts to different ways of infusion. Play, experiment, and have fun with it.

    I often leave my flower + petals in my jar and let it continuously infuse until all of my tea is gone over the course of a week or so. As it gets stronger, I like to dilute it with more water.

    1 Flower makes about 8+ cups of tea.

    Store your infusion in the fridge. Reheat a cup as you drink if you’d like to. Cold Lotus tea is also so so beautiful. You really can’t go wrong with your infusion. Try it cold and hot, see how the taste changes and what comes through in the differences.

    • Light Infusions | 15min - 1 hour: A light infusion is so beautiful, deeply relaxing + ethereal, soothing to stress + anxiety, softening, opening, and uplifting. I really enjoy a light infusion in the mornings as a devotional practice during my meditation + prayer time, and in the evenings to melt into a soft embrace.

    • If you are pregnant: Always make a light infusion for 15 min max. Take the flower out after that time, or you can dilute as necessary.

    • Strong Infusion | 6+ hours: A strong infusion often allows the core center of the Lotus to infuse and expand more and more. These infusions have the same effects as the Light - but I notice that drinking a strong infusion in the evenings can awaken very active dreaming and can bring a bigger heightened awareness + activation in the crown - which can make some feel more anxious instead of calm, but not for everyone! For some this deeply soothes them. So this is something you can play with. This also depends on the amount you have as well.

  • Work with drinking Lotus Tea this month - as little or as much as you feel called to. Inviting you to listen to your own body + heart. & know that Blue Lotus is the type of plant to stay with you after you drink, days at a time I have found, so sometimes you don’t have to continue to ingest but rather offer your presence to the essence within you.

    Silence + Presence:     simply drink Lotus in silence with presence. Play some music, breathe long and deep, offer your presence to each sip, enjoy. Journal whatever comes up/through, or your observations. Allow this to be a little meditative moment - even for just 10 minutes.

    Plant Spirit Meditation: I invite you to continue your practice with plant spirit meditations - just as we did in the Opening Ceremony. Sit with the plant, smelling it, anointing your body, taking in each sip with presence + intention, and when you feel ready and feel the plant in your body - call in the plant spirit and see what comes through for you. The more we practice this, the deeper we can go.

    Drink Louts with the rising or setting sun: A favorite ritual of mine. Lotus alongside the admiration of the sunlight is a beloved duo.

    Drinking Lotus at the Water: If you live near a body of water - an ocean, river, creek, lake, etc - I invite you to take a cup of your tea and drink by the water. Close your eyes and tune in to the sounds of the waters around you as you drink. Just be present here and enjoy. Bring your journal and write whatever may come through or your experience here. Leave your spent petals/flower to the waters and begin to feel the Lotus, yourself, and the water communing together. It is a special experience to drink Lotus by the waters and my favorite ritual.

    Drinking in Nature: Bring a cup out into somewhere in nature that you love to visit or simply in your backyard/garden. Allow the Lotus to get to know you there, too. Offer the land some of the lotus water. Begin to connect the Lotus to your land, and court a place in nature where you’d like to begin to go to drink the Lotus there often. Develop a relationship in physical.

    Dreaming: As you drink Lotus before bed, set an intention as you close your eyes, to dream with them. Ask the plant to take you on a journey or reveal something to you. Begin to pay attention to your dreams when you drink Lotus in the evenings. Keep your journal near your bed, and as you wake up write your dreams down, whether they make sense or not. Begin to court this practice of dream recalling. The more you stay consistent with it, the more you will start to be able to recall your dreams in detail. Dream recalling is an ancient practice of working in non-linear realms with plants. Maybe you even want to place a petal under your pillow!

    Journaling: If you’re a lover of journaling + writing like me - I love to sip lotus and write a stream of consciousness. It becomes a channeling meditation, as you drink allowing the words to begin to flow with Lotus moving though you. See what she has to share or help you to move through and out.

  • After your tea infusion has come to an end, I invite you to offer your Flowers + Petals back to the land or to the waters. As you release them, giving deep gratitude for all you received from that one flower or group of petals that you sat with over time, honoring the relationship that was formed. I often collect my flower/petals in a bowl before I am able to make it to the ocean or river. Then make a little ceremony/ritual out of going to the waters to reflect on the past weeks and honor all that transpired alongside Lotus.

    If you live in a city: you can also offer lotus to your house plants! Or find a tree somewhere along the street or in a park that you can visit with <3

    If you have to throw your Lotus in the trashcan - that is okay! Do not feel guilty or shamed - life happens. Say your prayers and envision the Lotus making its way to the land in one way or another <3 That is okay.

  • I will share about these in our second class. & then add them here for reference after we discuss it together.

    I invite you to pay attention this month to how the plant is moving through your physcial body. Take note, write down the ways you feel.

    How does your nervous system feel? Your energy? How does your heart feel? Your belly? Where do you feel Lotus moving for you?

IF YOU ARE PREGNANT/TRYING TO CONCEIVE: Make a very light infusion of Lotus for 10 minutes only, remove the flower from the jar after infusion. Drink only a small cup at a time. Sip slowly, and drop in <3 Please use your intuition and consult your doctor if needed.

IF YOU ARE ON MEDICATIONS: Please use your own judgement or consult your doctor about ingesting Blue Lotus.

HOME EXPLORATIONS + INVITATIONS

A CONVERSATION WITH LAYLA FEGHALI: the love of Nefertum, SWANA culture, Colonialization, & inspiration.

ELEMENTAL EMBODIMENT PRACTICE + PRAYER: A bodily prayer of Calling in the Directions + Honoring the Elements within and without. Opening the body + breath + embodying different Earth elements to alchemize them within. Bringing us into a meditative state, woven into the web of the Earth to open ourselves to court our relationship with Plant Spirit Communication.

Sacred Smoke

SACRED SMOKE: A relationship with Ancient + revered allies - an offering to the spirit + allies to shift consciousness.

Earth Spirit Communication

EARTH SPIRIT COMMUNICATION: Tuning in to the subtle, courting your relationship with the Earth.

Altars

ALTAR: Creating Your Altar, a place where we lay our intentions + our hearts.

Root Chakra

ROOT CHAKRA + THE NERVOUS SYSTEM: Our foundation.

PRACTICES TO GROUND + CLEAR + TEND TO YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM DAILY:
- The Embodiment Practice Above ^^.
- Sacred Smoke Clearing + clearing the aura daily.
- Bare Feet on the bare earth. Breathe here.
- Sit or lay on the bare earth. Breathe.
- Hug a tree, breathe.
- Take in the sunlight, let it penetrate your aura and nervous system. Breathe.
- Journaling.
- Submerse yourself in nature. Go for a walk.
- Plant allies for grounding + nervous system (wonderful to drink alongside Lotus as sometimes lotus can make one feel ungrounded) : Nettles, Reishi, Red Clover, Oatstraw, Tulsi, Chamomile.

NEFERTUM + THE CREATION STORY

Here is a small take from the full story as shared in “Awakening Osiris” a translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Inviting you to read & sit with it overtime - see what stands out to you, how it translates into the medicine of Blue Lotus. Read the entire story in the book if you have it. Below is a summary with the parts of Lotus.

“At first a voice cried against the darkness, and the voice grew loud enough to stir black waters.
It was Temu rising up, his head the thousand petaled lotus.
He uttered the word and one petal drifted from him, taking form on the water.
He was the will to live. Out of nothing he created himself, the light.
The hand that parted the waters, uplifted the sun and stirred the air.
He was the first, the beginning, then all else followed…

It was in a world out of time, for there was neither sun nor moon,
and nothing to mark the night from day until Temu reached down into the abyss and uplifted RA.
The sun shone on Temu’s bright face, day began, and Ra lived with him from the beginning of time.
That was the first day of the world. But on that first day, when Temu held the sun, a spark flew out from him.
The globe he held caught and reflected first light.
The light flew back and he saw the light was himself, he saw that he was god
and only after Temu created RA was he visible even to himself.

In the beginning the earth languished with the sky, nothing lay between them … they were not separate.
Each encompassed the other like a lover, and the world of life pulsed between.

At a word, Temu parted them and they became heaven + earth so that the sun might move between,
that it might ride over and under the bodies of two worlds giving both its light…

Yet because they had lain so long together, heaven and earth were still part of each other.
Spirit manifested in matter was infused with spirit.
Between them ran three pillars of air, earth and water, and these were named thought, form, and desire.
The spark of his fire pulsed in all of them and this Temu called life.
He created himself and his body burned, writhing with dark shapes. Out of himself he created everything else — in a word:
the skies, the oceans, the mountains, the plants, the gods and men, and he named them.

Of his fire, made of fire, each held fire of its own;
therefore, they created and perpetuated life, a cycle of being without end.”

“… but there’s more to the story than the worlds creation.
There is its destruction. From fire, out of fire, into fire, Temu takes back what is given.
One day he’ll destroy what he has created — from nothing returning to nothing…”

“Some things Temu spoke remain always true: 
Life and death, boundlessness and restraint, intuition and magic, nature and nurture, the earth and sky.
When I became the becoming became… I am my transformations.
This is my coming together. Here are my selves become one…
Transformation is intellect, will, purpose, desire.
Die. Be born. Bring forth labors and love.
Let the invisible be in the visible.
Name yourself in your heart and know who you are.”

BOOKS + RESOURCES

01. AWAKENING OSIRIS by Normandi Ellis:
This is a translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead - one of the most ancient texts that have ever been found. Many different people have translated it over the years. Normandi Ellis’ translation is my personal favorite. This is a poetic book of life and of death. It emanates the spirit of Blue Lotus in so many ways, in so many stories - both literal and more abstract. We will work and reference this book a lot along the journey.

02. PLANT SPIRIT MEDICINE by Eliot Cowan:
A beautiful book on Plant Spirit Medicine. This was one of the first books I was required to read during my plant spirit medicine studies. Hearing the stories in this book allows for a deep understanding of the powerful healing of Plant Spirit Medicine - and the gifts of the spirit realm. You will also find some sweet and simple invitations + practices for awakening your relationship with the plant spirit realm by communing with the land that your on and the plants around you.

03. THE LAND IN OUR BONES by Layla Feghali:
This book is written by my teacher and lebanese sister Layla - who is our guest speaker this month (see the recorded class above!). This is a must read for the work we do in relation to earth-based wisdom, ceremony, connection, plant medicine, and land remembrance. This is especially important as we work with an ancestral plant of the SWANA/Egypt.

04. THE MYSTERY OF ANCIENT EGYPT’S BLUE LOTUS APHRODESIAC - VIDEO: (Please note - We must be extremely discerning when watching videos like this about Blue Lotus/Egypt. As the narratives can be extremely white-washed and misinformation spread about Lotus.)
An interesting, more scientific view on Egyptian Blue Lotus and the studies they have done in testing the flowers compounds looking for psycho-active properties. They test an ancient flower found in a tomb and compare it to a Nymphaea Cearulea today, and give some insights into its medicinal properties that they compare to Ginko. — Some of this video is a little cringe - I really dislike when they call Blue Lotus a “drug” and are convinced that their “fascination” with Blue Lotus was because it was a drug. It is so very false. But we know and can see beyond these narratives, especially when we begin to develop our own personal relationship with this sacred flower. <3

CEREMONY PREPARATIONS

01. Opening Ceremony

Plant Spirit Tea Ceremony, Creating our Temenos, Casting Intentions, Introductions.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 9TH, 11AM EST.

  • I invite you to make your infusion in ceremony, with intention + presence, knowing that as you create this medicine your journey together begins. Hold the lotus in your hands at your heart, feel into their energy, whisper your prayers and intentions into them, or simply introduce yourself and share your name. Feel into the plant and take notice of how it feels in your hands, the smell, gazing at their beautiful colors… taking note of what they may begin to share with you just by observing them. Placing the flower/petals in your jar, watching as the waters pour over and how the flower begins to expand and transform and come alive.

    What does witnessing this alchemy share with you? How does it make you feel? Journal about your experience after if you feel called to.

    • Use a Quart (4 cups) sized glass jar with a lid or a french press.

    • Place your lotus in the jar
      - Whole Flower: 1 flower or Petals: about a five-finger pinch.

      - If you only have a small jar available, half the amount of petals accordingly, or make a stronger infusion and add water the next day.

    • Heat filtered water on the stove and fill the jar.

    • Place lid on + let infuse for 6-8 hours/overnight.

    • Leave your infusion on the counter, or somewhere special like your altar until our ceremony. And leave the flower/petals in.
      - If you live in a more hot + humid environment without AC, then put your infusion in the refrigerator.

  • Prepare yourself for ceremony in whatever way feels good to you. Maybe it's cleansing in a bath or shower, anointing your body with oils, clearing your body with sacred smoke, laying on the Earth outside. Whatever makes you feel relaxed, comfortable + beautiful.

    I invite you to adorn in something special - a garment or a piece of jewelry, wearing white or blue lotus blue, whatever it may be. Whatever you would like to adorn in to show up for a sacred event/ceremony.

    Come just as you are. No need to be “perfect”.

    • I invite you to clear the space that you’ll be sitting in for ceremony with sacred smoke or herbal water before beginning. This simple ritual will invite the energy to shift for ceremony no matter where you may be.

    • Set up somewhere cozy where you will be undisturbed.

    • Create a small altar next to you or in between you and your computer for ceremony.

    • Gather any sacred objects that are special to you in ritual and that honor the elements of the Earth.

      Something for:
      Air - feather, sacred smoke/incense, color white, + so on.
      Fire - candle, serpents, color yellow, + so on.
      Water - shell, a bowl of water, + so on.
      Earth - stones, flowers, a bowl of soil, metal, + so on.
      Spirit Guides & Ancestors if you feel called to.
      Heart Center - rose quartz, a little bowl of rose petals or cacao, whatever feeds your sacred heart.
      Blue Lotus Spirit - place some lotus petals or a whole flower on your altar with you as we welcome Blue Lotus Spirit.

    Allow this practice of gathering items around your home or the land you're on to be nourishing for you, releasing perfection, and tuning in to the beauty + sacredness around you and your unique relationship with each element and what they mean to you.

    Be in flow, go slow, it can be simple + special, only for you and Lotus.

    Allow this to be your sacred offering to the Blue Lotus, left at the edge of the river as we call her forth to commune.

    • Your tea infusion.

    • A Journal + Pen.

    • Sacred smoke/incense + a light.

    • Some water for you to drink if needed.

02. Physical Flower Communion

Observing the flower. A study of origins of Nymphaea Caerulea.      

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 11AM EST.

  • Make any type of infusion with a WHOLE FLOWER.

    Refer to the instructions on making your infusion under the Medicine of the Month section on this page. & have the WHOLE FLOWER in your infusion for class.

    (If you only have petals for now, thats okay but revisit this with a flower later too as we will be examining the whole flower in class.)

  • Come as you are! Prepare in whatever way feels good to you.

  • Set up in a quiet space where you will be comfortable and undisturbed - and preferably in a space with some nice lighting.

    • Your tea infusion with a Whole Flower inside.

    • 1-2 dried Whole Lotus Flowers.

    • A Journal + Pen.

    • If you have an art medium you enjoy, such as colored pencils or watercolor, etc. You would maybe like to have those supplies with you. (Not necessary though!)

    • Sacred smoke/incense + a light.

    • A hand towel.

03. Tea Meditation + Nefertum Study

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 26, 7PM EST.

  • Make a tea infusion any way you’d like to.

    Maybe you want to try a way of making the infusion that you haven’t before.

    Keep in mind the time of day you will be joining and drinking too! For many of us - it will be our first time drinking in the night together in circle before bed <3

  • Come as you are! Prepare in whatever way feels good to you.

  • Set up in a quiet space where you will be comfortable and undisturbed - and preferably in a space with some nice lighting.

    • Your tea infusion.

    • A Journal + Pen.

    • Sacred smoke/incense + a light.

RECORDINGS