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Ep.65 What Cattail & Chickweed Want to Tell Us in These Stressful Times
119 Plays5 months ago
Looking through the results of my Spirit Wild Plant quiz over the last seven months, I discovered an unexpected trend. And I think it has to do with helping us through these stressful times we are in.
Cattail and Chickweed have been appearing consistently. Could this be kin's way of helping humans tap back into their wildness, resilience, and freedom? It feels like they really want us to learn the importance of navigating turbulent times with emotional maturity, recognizing and acknowledging emotions rather than suppressing them.
In this episode, we talk about how to express strong emotions in a healthy and constructive manner, and I invite you to explore the energies of Cattail and Chickweed to better understand the flow between emotions, intellect, and instinct.
Topics Covered about stressful times
➡️Wild Plants, and their roles in helping humans
➡️Cattail's connection to emotions
➡️Trusting your instincts, even when emotional|
➡️Chickweed's lessons in trusting intuition
➡️How these Wild Plants enhance your abilities
☝🏽ReConnect with Plant Wisdom podcast Ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality about the wondrous ways plants help you lead a Naturally Conscious life. Subscribe on your favorite podcast player.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Reconnect with Plant Wisdom'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to reconnect with plant wisdom. I'm your host Tigri La Gardenia, nature inspired mentor and leadership coach. In this podcast, I share ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality about the wondrous ways in which plants can help you lead a naturally conscious life.
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tigreia Gardenia, and this is episode 65.
Messages from Cattail and Chickweed
00:00:31
Speaker
We're going to talk today about what cattail and chickweed want to tell us in these turbulent times. um that this I have to say that you know I plan out my episodes and then sometimes things just come up in the moment and I decide I'm just going to come on and this is what we're going to talk about this week because it's it's sometimes good to follow what's actually happening.
The Spirit Wild Plant Quiz
00:00:58
Speaker
um So some of you may have known that I have a ah spirit wild plant quiz. It's really a quiz that helps you identify what's the spirit wild plant that wants to work with you right now. You may have even come to this podcast thanks to that spirit wild plant quiz. But that's um and this is really all about I created this quiz a long time ago. I constantly am modifying it and updating it.
00:01:23
Speaker
um in order to make sure that it really reflects what's happening and the plants that I'm working with, these wild plants, or some people would call them weeds, I call them wild plants. um These wild plants are constantly coming into my life and some sometimes I'm adding some and I'm i'm you know adding more into the quiz just to really get ah an understanding of what who wants to emerge right now. And I follow very closely the responses. So people who take this quiz, um, come into my system. So I get to see, uh, what are the responses that are coming? Like what, what spirit wild plant you're actually being matched to. And for the longest time, it was very random, at least the way that it looked like to me, I would, I would see, you know, the matchings that were happening and I would see the comments that people often leave wherever it is that they find the quiz.
00:02:16
Speaker
on Facebook, on Instagram, and other places like that.
Cattail's Role in Emotional Turbulence
00:02:20
Speaker
And I started to notice this trend at the beginning of this year. The beginning of this year was very cattail heavy in the sense that I kept seeing people who were getting, being matched with cattail. And I found it very interesting because for the longest time, like I said, it was pretty random. um This ah spirit wild plant, because it's such a wide swath of people who are taking the quiz, then um you get this uneven keel across the different wild plants that want to match with pete with humans. But in this case, in 2024, cattail started coming in really strong. And I found that curious. So I started to work with cattail. And as a matter of fact, in my own work for for myself,
00:03:11
Speaker
Presently, I tapped into cattail and I asked cattail, like, do you want to work together? Because all of the plants that are offered in the spirit wild plant quiz are plants that I have personally worked with in one way, shape or another. Most of them have come into my life very spontaneously, which is why I included them in the quiz. um because they were all plants that offered themselves to me to work in these types of of of ways. And mind you, I work with many different plants. I work with a lot of house plants, but these were specifically wild plants because what was coming to me at the time that I created this quiz was this intense need that we as humanity had
00:03:53
Speaker
in order to tap back into our wildness, what it means to be resilient and to be um free, what it means for you to express yourself. And each one of these plants in their own way has those elements. As a matter of fact, all of these plants have just shown up. for me in one way, shape, or another. They've either landed on the territories that I was living in, or they've come to me through on on my own like little balcony some have shown up, which makes no sense because it doesn't make sense as to where kin are coming from. But all of these plants in one way, shape, or form have presented themselves throughout the course of my work with plants,
00:04:37
Speaker
And some have said, please add me to the quiz. I really want to work with humanity in a deeper way. So that's that's where they come from. And so I tapped into Cat Tail and I asked Cat Tail why it is that you're coming in so strong. Why is it that there's so many people are matching with you right now? And the answer was really interesting to me. So if you have never worked with cattail before, a cattail, and if you don't know, um if you're from the UK, I apologize, bulrush. Bulrush is the way that they're called in the UK. So bulrush, cattail are all plants that are connected to water in some ways.
00:05:16
Speaker
So oftentimes they live on the edges of canals and lakes and small bodies of water. um They are beautiful. They're from the Tifa family. So in Italian, we call them Tifa. And as a matter of fact, when I was doing my master's project for Futuro Vegetale, Vegetal Future, which was connected to Matera, which is a a city in the more southern part of ah but Italy, which is the One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world it's actually a city where you can still see the troglodyte culture so the living the cave people people like living in caves it's it's fascinating but there Tifa also came in really strong.
00:05:57
Speaker
and i because ah And which was strange to me because there's really not a lot of water there. Water is very scarce. But that's an entire other story, which one day I will tell you because it's fascinating as to why TIFA wanted to be involved with this project and where water was connected to this project. So coming back to these times right now, I asked Cattell, I'm like, why is it that you're matching with so many people? And the answer was very clear, which was, Cattail is a plant, is a wild plant that works with people's emotions, specifically strong emotions. When your emotions are are really
00:06:37
Speaker
there, present, for some easily overwhelmed even. But when your emotions are are kind of like you can't hide them, they're constantly being stimulated and touched, when you feel like everything is touching on your nerves, that's when cattail is most useful and powerful. And that was exactly the message that I was getting. The times that we're in right now, 2024, are just so strong.
00:07:11
Speaker
um from political turilal turmoil around the world, from ah moments of extreme uncertainty, you know of all of the stress that we are under, our emotions, our central nervous system for human beings, are really feeling constantly under attack. Under, over, on attack, under attack, under attack. um and And so ah Tifa, so cat tail, bull rush, really is a plant that helps you connect into those emotions in a way that is safe. It's really about creating shelter. um Being a rhizome, it's about also
00:07:59
Speaker
kind of expanding and duplicating yourself in a way that is an expansion of you. How do you expand yourself in a way that feels safe, in a way that feels protected, in a way that you're sheltered and being taken care of? um How is it that we could create an environment
00:08:24
Speaker
i'm I'm trying to find the right words, the hardest part, and I've said this over and over again, but I always repeat it in case you're new and or in case it's still not clear. Working with plants as deeply as I work with plants, as I hope you are starting to work with plants, you you struggle to find the words. A lot of this podcast and the reason I love to work with and interview artists and uh healers and many different types of people who are working in immersed with specific plants is because i want you to get a great taste of the fact that the words aren't coming to you right now the the fact that your emotions
00:09:07
Speaker
are are um kind of taking over and yet you can't put things into words or you don't know how to categorize it is actually normal because again our times are so chaotic in what is the paradigms that we're used to like I said political, um economic, a cultural even we're running into all of these these um moments of conflict or of extreme change that are happening and that's destabilizing everything. So you don't feel rooted, you don't feel grounded, and you feel like the soil below you is actually moving. And this is where cattail is really amazing because, again, being a plant that grows on the edge of water with soil that is, you know,
00:09:59
Speaker
um which is damp, which is movement, which is often immersed in water, that foundation has to be created in a completely different way. And part of the way Tifa creates that that foundation is through the structure of the body, the way that a cattail grows, a way that you see, you know, for for those of you that can just picture that cattail, right, that beautiful like brown cone, and then this long stock and then into the water with these leaves that come out. The balance comes from the way that Tifa, the way that Kattel carries K'self, and that creates that shelter. The protection comes from almost embodying um a different a different way of being, a different way of alertness.
00:10:52
Speaker
and this is where the insights are going to be coming from right Tifa has this beautiful tall stock and so you have this connection and this insight that you have to bring down and then connect in to the watery base that you have and this rhizome that's expanding and and bringing up these new stocks.
Chickweed's Message of Balance and Intuition
00:11:15
Speaker
um And so really at the beginning of this year, I was seeing, and i as I started to converse with Cattail about this, was really the need for those for us to learn how to navigate this turbulence because it's not going away anytime soon.
00:11:33
Speaker
So where sometimes we can shut ourselves off from the outside world and sometimes that protective bubble is really important because something is going to pass. What Tifa is trying to show you, what Cattail Bullrush is trying to bring into existence for you, is how to go with the flow. And for each one of us, it's going to be different, right? For each one of us, the way we connect in and what this plant shows us is going to be completely different. But what's most important is to recognize that this isn't about changing it, making it go away, ignoring it,
00:12:12
Speaker
It's protecting yourself from it and giving yourself space. Yes, giving yourself space in order for you to be able to deal with your environment. And absolutely yes, to having moments where you isolate yourself from what is happening. That isolation could come in a form of just you taking quiet time for yourself or time for you to do whatever it is that you need to do. It could be, you know, unplugging from the outside world, but that is not a permanent condition. So what Cattail really wants you to understand in this moment is the need to move with it, the need to slowly allow your body
00:12:53
Speaker
to adapt to what is happening, to find a new place of equilibrium, to find a new way to stand erect in what is happening and to reconnect to your insight, to allow that insight to come through you and to allow your emotions to guide you. And this is the hardest part, especially for, you know, hey, I'm a woman and I grew up in a time when being a woman meant You're too emotional. ah And that everything around emotions, especially strong, overwhelming emotions was a bad thing. And there are still many cultural like taboos around the expression of strong emotions. But what bulrush wants, what cattail wants is for you to learn how to express
00:13:47
Speaker
these really strong emotions in whatever way works for you. Whatever way is healthy and creates this ability for you to express. This is not the time for you to swallow this in. Yes, take time for yourself to process them, but this is not the time to neither worry about the perfect words. The worrying about this is about communicating across language through other things, letting your emotions be a part of you and finding the way for the emotions to guide you into the directions that you're supposed to go to trust your instincts that if it says turn on your TV right now, turn it on. But if if your instincts tell you do not turn on your TV,
00:14:36
Speaker
because right now what's gonna come on the TV is actually gonna be more harmful for your mental health than don't turn it on. This is what's important for us to listen to, for us to trust that our emotional responses to things are actually going to guide us in the direction that we need to sit with it, but to really sit with those emotions and let them become a part of you and integrate them into it, integrate them into who you are. And Catwell Tale was really adamant, especially at the beginning of this year, the first first half of this year, I was seeing over and over again, so many people getting Cattell as a response. And this was the reason why in these times,
00:15:24
Speaker
And then it all changed. Well, that's not true. There are still a lot of people that are getting cattail, and cattail is one of the top five. Mind you, again, I have been working with this quiz for so many years. And for many, many, many years, there were other plants that were like the number one and the number two. Cattail's always been close because, you know, emotions, we all have to deal with them. But there was a more balanced spread. Now instead, the plant that is coming in, around the time of June, a new plant started to emerge out in the quiz. And I started to see more and more people getting a plant that for years has been one of the lowest received plants. And that is chickweed.
00:16:11
Speaker
Now, Chickweed became a part of this quiz in a time where, for me, I was working, um I was living in one of the nucleos here in Tom and her and really enjoying the territory. Specifically, I became the compost girl. I loved the compost. Now, mind you, with a house that had about 20 people living, In it means that our compost bins were huge our compost bins were um three I had them special made for us these three massive bins that I could literally stand in in order to turn the compost because we generate a lot of compost and that's even at the time we had pigs that would eat many of our leftovers but we still generated so much.
00:16:55
Speaker
But one day I turned around, I was working in the compost bin and I was, you know, ah just turning it and making sure that everything was healthy and that the the all of the composition of the compost inside of the different bins was at the right levels for where it was in the decomposition and the decomposition cycle. And I turned around and there was this giant bush behind me of chickweed. Now, at that time, I didn't really know chickweed that much, but I definitely got the whole turn around and look at me. I am important for you now.
00:17:29
Speaker
And so I did. And there was chickweed. And for several months, actually, for a few months, I kept coming out and sitting, as I would work in the compost or in the area around, because there was other things that were going on in that area, chickweed kept talking to me. Chitty chatty, chitty chatty, chitty chatty. Now, the thing about chickweed is that chickweed is cool, calm, and collected. Chickweed really is about keeping everything
00:18:00
Speaker
flowing in a way, but that is calming. And I find that extremely interesting that now is that chickweed is coming in. Chickweed really is wants you to seek out knowledge, but that balances with your intuition. So it's really about trusting this connection. between your knowledge and your instincts and being able to flow with them. So I found that really fascinating that cattail had been, you know, who wanted to emerge the most at the beginning part of this year. But now as we head off into a more, even more
00:18:41
Speaker
I think, somewhat volatile, right? We have heat waves going around. We have massive water happening around the planets, like with lots of different places that are getting immersed in water. We have temperatures that are just just weather in general that is very different. We have a political climate that continues to escalate with more and more uncertainty and more and more even conflict in a lot of ways. And so I found it very fascinating that Chickweed was the plant that started to emerge. And now chickweed, like I said, is about cool, calm, and collected, something that many of us are not feeling. So I said, why are you matching with people? And Chickweed told me, I want people to feel that from me. i want from from I want to be able to help them arrive at a place where they can trust their intuition to find the right knowledge.
00:19:40
Speaker
Let me see if I can explain that better. We often think we're supposed, especially like I work, I work a lot on the confines between spirituality and science and and with with art in the middle. And many of my clients are people who are extremely intuitive and have have developed many different types of connections to plants and to other things within ah in their spiritual ecosystem. And yet, we all love knowledge, right? Knowledge is great, but it's important for you to understand that your instinct, your ability to listen, to receive, to trust in what is coming to you from your
00:20:21
Speaker
non-physical senses, let's say, like that, is just as powerful as what is coming from your physical senses. And oftentimes, kind of like I was talking about how with cattail wants you to flow with your emotions, wants you to learn how to read and understand your emotions so that you can then take what is coming through your emotions and use it to adapt to these times and to express what is necessary in these times, even if the words aren't coming yet because the paradigm is still shifting. Chickweed wants you to work on the other side of it from the perspective of trust that what's coming in will help you find the right knowledge and the right physical attributes for you to make it useful.
00:21:09
Speaker
So really about balancing the head, the heart, and especially the gut in the perspective of my instinct, my emotions, and then what I logically learn and know. Being able to find the balance between these three is extremely important. And that's why Chickweed is coming in strong right now. Chickweed really wants you to listen to your instincts, to guide you through the physical world. So it's not a separation, but instead a union. And Chickweed is really amazing in helping you build confidence to take action.
00:21:49
Speaker
I love that. Chickweed also is about finding support, right? Remember I said it's about taking in and like listening to your instincts, right? Receiving through your gut, feeling your emotions that came from cattail, but then also seeking out whatever it is that's going to help you in order to bring that into practice. This isn't about doing it alone anymore. And I think that that's fascinating, especially in this time where um Just recently, I was reminded at how important community is, how important it is to seek support, to seek reinforcement, to seek the voices of others in order to balance out your own voice.
00:22:32
Speaker
So this is a really important time for you to truly listen to yourself, but then to share what you're receiving with others or to get support from others to better understand how to make that balance, right? So the reason you share it is not to tell others, this is how it is, but it is more to say, this is what's coming in for me. And then for you to compare and contrast with others. This is a place for you to use others as a sounding board, right? whether that's getting support for your own um way of dealing with this or whether that's creating groups or being a part of groups. and An example of this is kind of like, I was just, ah so I have a book club, right? We have the the the, in the naturally conscious community, we have the Plant Wisdom Book Club. And I love the book club because it helps us rethink and re-see, it helps me expand the way that I'm looking at or experiencing any of the books that we're reading.
00:23:29
Speaker
And just, um I also teach for Dom and Her in our initiatic path, what's called medit action. And we also have created a sort of little mini ah book club in there for the books that we want to read as initiates for my students. And I was reminded yesterday when we were talking about what the next book that they're going to read by one of them who was saying, I am so excited that we get to read this book in the group, because I've read this group now this book like two or three times. And every time, I know that there's more for me to understand. But I need the help of the group in order to understand it. I need to share what I am seeing and hear what others are receiving so that we can put the pieces together. And that's exactly what chickweed wants.
00:24:13
Speaker
Chickweed wants you to balance your intellectual thought process, your emotional center, and what you're receiving instinctually, but wants you to find that balance, but needs that balance to come by seeking externally from you shared responses, by getting support for you to put these into action
Unique Support from Cattail and Chickweed
00:24:37
Speaker
confidently. And i I just find this fascinating because again, I hadn't seen this trend over the last few years of having this quiz. Over the last few years of having this quiz, there had been many other plants that had kind of been just jostling about, but usually more or less in the same proportions in the way that they were connecting with people.
00:24:57
Speaker
Instead, now these two plants have said, note 2024, we know you need us and we are stepping up to the game. We are here. We want you to connect. So I really invite you, even if you have taken the quiz and this is not one of the plants that you receive, I invite you to just explore what cattail and what chickweed have to offer for you right now. Go and look for these bulrushes and And these delirious see what what it is that these plans have to offer you and how it is that they could be of support and how they could also help guide you to support. Because remember, what they're helping you to do is to become more resilient in this stressful time. They're inviting you to take the time to listen to your emotions, to receive through your channels of instinct and of of all kinds of openness and to process this in your own mental thoughts, where there is a union that's happening. So, you know, I feel like personally that Cattail really was working in that first half of the year to help kind of create this um
00:26:12
Speaker
this comfort with being in your emotions to really trusting your emotions so that then when you do go to work with your instinct and when you go to work with your thoughts and mental and and knowledge and external knowledge especially, it doesn't get overshadowed. We don't forget that our emotions are an extremely important part of who we are and that our emotions are valid. Our thoughts are valid, our knowledge externally is valid, but emotions are also valid. heart, head, and gut, all working together. And and I'm really excited to see this partnership between Cattail and chi and Chickweed. i know I myself have been calling them in more because they don't necessarily grow, kin don't grow in the exact same location. What I often use is photos.
00:26:59
Speaker
So if you're looking for a way to call in the energy of these plants, look at the photos. Take a look at the different photos. Find a photo that really calls to you of this plant and call in the energy of the plant in that way. And if you have any questions at all, you know that I'm here. I'm i'm happy to have these conversations. I'm happy to bring these conversations to light because I feel like they're so important. And again, that's the reason why the Naturally Conscious Community exists, right? I created the Naturally Conscious Community, the only online community space for having these big discussions all around how the plants are helping us navigate these times, how the plants are helping us on our own journeys through our stress levels to be more resilient, to be more adaptive. How is it that we're also co-creating the world with these plants? How do we create a place and a safe space where we can shift the paradigm by bringing heart, head and mind? No?
00:28:02
Speaker
by bringing mind, heart, and gut together. Words, see what I'm saying? Words, words are different. More importantly, the most important thing I want you to take out of this is listen to your emotions and balance it out with everything else. Allow your emotions to be expressed and not necessarily always through words. Sometimes you just feel it. And if you need support or if you want to talk this through, please feel free to reach out to me anytime. I'd love to have this conversation.
Engaging with the Plant Wisdom Community
00:28:38
Speaker
so Tell me what it is that you thought about this. Are you working with cattail or with chickweed? I'd love to hear about it. And if not, what other wild plants or what other plants are you working with? As you heard recently, we've had people here on the on the podcast that are working with cacao, that are working with mugwort, and we're going to have more. guests that are working with different plants. So I'd love to hear what plants you're working with right now. What is it that this plant wants to share with you and how can we be a part of the process? All right, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you are enjoying these episodes, please make sure to like and subscribe and comment and share this with others. And please join the Naturally Conscious Community. The Naturally Conscious Community is not just a place for us
00:29:26
Speaker
to be able to have these conversations. It's also the way that this podcast gets supported. We have different membership levels with the book club, with our writing group, with our plant inspired master classes, with reconnect with the plant kingdom course and many other offerings there to help you really connect deeper with the plant kin home and to become more your true nature to embody and show to the world so that you can make the impact you've always wanted to make. And I'm always there for you, anything that you might need. So this is me, Tigraya Gardenia. I'm out. Bye.
00:30:07
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom, intro and outro music by Steve Schulie and Poinsettia from the singing life of plants. So join me, Tigri La Gardenia, and my plant collaborators next time on Reconnect with Plant Wisdom.