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Ep.69 Daughter of Tulip Poplar Tree with Amanda Nicole
132 Plays4 months ago
In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Amanda Nicole about her unique bond with the Tulip Poplar Tree, which she lovingly refers to as her plant parent. For the past decade, this tree has been her guide and companion, enriching her journey of self-discovery and spiritual transformation. Amanda shares how her deep connection to the Tulip Poplar has led her down unexpected yet beautiful paths, illustrating the profound impact that a relationship with a plant can have on personal growth.
A recurring theme in our conversation is the importance of present-moment awareness and stillness, which plants inherently embody. Amanda and I delve into how these qualities enhance our perception and responsiveness to the world around us. We explore the significance of incorporating plant wisdom into human decision-making, advocating for a more sustainable and harmonious way of living.
Amanda Nicole is a Liriodendress, a daughter of the Tulip Poplar tree. Author of Flowers for a Girl: Plant Medicine and Sexual Trauma, Amanda is the creator and curator of Entosophy, a dynamic collection of unique, philosophical interviews with trees. She is the human voice of the Whispers: Plant Spirit Medicine podcast and a teacher and contributing voice at the Matthew Wood Institute of Herbalism. Immersed in the quiet exploration of Other Ways of Knowing, Amanda’s embodied expression is deeply embedded in the heart of the Tulip Poplar tree who has been her arboreal companion and teacher for many years. A mother and eco-mystic, Amanda Nicole listens to the trees.
👉🏽 Want to continue having conversations like this? Join the Naturally Conscious Community, the only online community to nourish human-plant relationships: https://tigrillagardenia.com/ncc
Topics Covered about Tulip Poplar
➡️ Instruments of incarnation
➡️ From Impenetrable Fortress to friendship and mentorship
➡️ What changes when you embody presence
➡️ Interviewing trees about climate change and society
☝🏽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 and Amanda's Relationship with Tulip Poplar
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tigria Gardenia. And this episode is so enthralling, enthralling. That's the word i that I want to use. in So this episode is all about Amanda Nicole's relationship with Tulip Poplar. and I keep saying over and over again that relationships with plants take time, intimacy takes time. And Amanda describes this beautifully in this 12 year relationship that she has had with Tulip Poplar and everything that has changed in her life as a result of it. I am extremely excited to share this episode with you. So please enjoy episode 50. No.
00:00:54
Speaker
Episode 69, 69, I still can't believe that. Episode 69 of reconnect with plant wisdom, daughter of the tulip poplar with Amanda Nicole. Enjoy. 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.
00:01:26
Speaker
Amanda, when when we had our kind of like little pre-interview question, like little time together, I already had a list of questions a mile long. But before I jump into that, I would love for you to tell the audience, who is Amanda Nicole?
Amanda's Identity as Liriodendrous and Plant Communication
00:01:44
Speaker
Well, I have come to call myself Allerio Dendris. I had to write so many bios over the years and you list I'm a mother, I'm a writer, I'm a creative, I'm a this, I'm a that. And I just got tired of the list and thought, what am I actually trying to say? So I created the term laryodendrous. And for myself, it encapsulates who I am. What it is, the definition is the human embodiment or the daughter of the tulip poplar tree. So laryodendron tulipifera.
00:02:20
Speaker
And so I've been with this tree for about a decade and there's just been a merging happening and a mirroring. And I feel that we share an essence and that it's why I'm here. So I could say I'm a mother of six living children, which I am. And I could say I'm a writer and a teacher and an herbalist and all the things. But. The Liriodendrous title for me encapsulates all of the parts of myself that keep shifting and changing so
00:02:52
Speaker
I'm Amanda. ahlario dangerousris I love that so much. I love it for multiple multiple perspectives. Besides the fact that I love that you have found this thing that incorporates, that it that encapsulates all these parts of you. And I think so many of us struggle with that because we try to use the normal words that exist out there. And that's the reason why in our naturally conscious community, we're always talking about the need for us to coin new words. for us to create a new paradigm based on new words and new modes of speaking that really bring this relationship and these relationships that we're creating with the natural world to the forefront because that's the reason why these words don't exist because we haven't done this. So
00:03:41
Speaker
so I'm gonna back up for a second because that implies that the audience should know that you have a very special relationship with a specific to lip pop poetry. So where did that start? You know, honestly, I think it started before I was conscious of it. Right. But ah well, I'm sure of it. Actually, there's a lot of places we could take this. I'll start with the normal chronology. The normal chronology is I started to notice this tree and its leaves sort of looked like hands to me and it was sort of a wave and I started to notice it. And I noticed it about the time that I started my herbal studies, herbal medicine, teas, tinctures, you know, clinical herbalism. And there was whispers in that group. This was, you know, over a decade ago,
00:04:36
Speaker
in the mountains of Virginia of plant communication that you could communicate with plants. And I was very interested in this in spite of the fact that at the time I was the wife to a conservative pastor, very conservative and extremely conservative church, head coverings, no musical instruments, no holidays. But I was really curious because I thought if the world is that magical, I want to experience it. because That's why I imagined as a child
00:05:07
Speaker
So I decided I wanted to talk to this particular tree after some practice with metals and mullein, you know, I wanted this tree and I was actually at a writing cabin I had found at the time and I wasn't writing. I actually don't think I wrote a word in that cabin over all those months, but it's curious because it's the very first thing I talk about in the book that I've written. I am the tree that's soon to be published was that writing cabin. The writing process began there. And I took a walk and I found the tree and I just opened my heart to let it speak to me. And it did. And those messages it gave me on those walks at the writing cabin were the first impressions that I had of this tree. I phrases like impenetrable fortress and we will be your parents and
00:06:00
Speaker
the wound being the medicine these different and at the time I didn't understand any of those phrases and I didn't know how how any of them applied to me or why it was saying the things it was saying and so it's been a 10 year more than 10 year journey now of unpacking what it what it was saying at the beginning what it means and everything it said since then and some people have asked me sometimes you know why do you Why are you so drawn to this tree? Why this tree? And I really haven't had an answer except my heart's been drawn to it. And recently it's been telling me more about my origin, its origin. And I realized more and more that, I don't know, maybe part of the reason I'm so drawn to this tree is because we it really is me. We really are we aren really are the the same. So one note before I finish this answer is I had a teacher at the time, Matthew Wood,
00:07:00
Speaker
who has really been instrumental for me. He's given me so much support and permission and hearing whatever I hear. And at that time, more than 10 years ago in a class, he brought up to a poplar and I had just had this impenetrable fortress experience. Very unwelcoming. you know, and the people in the class were chattering and everybody was like, oh, I love to look popular. It's so loving. It loves humans. i love They were just loving this tree. And I'm thinking, I did not get that. So I raised my hand in the back and Matt just, you know, nodded. And now he said, Amanda has something to say. And I said, that's not what I got.
00:07:44
Speaker
I didn't get love and acceptance from the street. What I felt, not heard at the time, but felt, was that it was an impenetrable fortress. It was just so unwelcoming. I couldn't approach it. And the whole room was like, oh, that's not right. That's not right. That's not how it is. And I just thought, well, it's like that. And Matt, who's usually very soft spoken and really open in those sorts of settings, his tone shifted and he very firmly said, that's enough. It's teaching Amanda something different. And the the room just kind of got quiet. And, you know, I've told him so many times, neither he nor I realized what happened in that moment, right? Because he doesn't even know about tulip pop or all the things now. And I didn't know, but it was this moment of permission. And that's exactly what's happened is, uh, and
00:08:40
Speaker
a decade long journey of learning something else, you know, about the truth. And I think this is such an important fact that we forget and that a lot of people forget, which is it's very easy to get caught up in the common definitions and the common experiences with plants, which, hey, I'd rather have that you get caught up in that than not have any experience at
Unique Plant Relationships and Human Potential
00:09:03
Speaker
all. Right. But especially when you study herbology, especially when you work with plant spirit medicine of any sort, oftentimes it's kind of like we we work with crystals in the same way, right? You know, you have this list and here's the plant and here's the definition and here's the thing the plant is good for and you do it this way and this way and this way. But when we do that, we're we're forgetting that it's all about the relationship and that each one of these plants, each incarnation of this plant
00:09:33
Speaker
just the same as, you know, everybody who's from Virginia is not exactly the same. Every tulip poplar living in Virginia is not the same. Each one of us has individual experiences, has had different relationships, has a different environment, even, because even even if, you know, kind of right next to one another, it's still two different experiences that are being had. And I love that this to the popular kind of saw something in you and said, this person, this person, I can actually share my truth with, like what I've experienced. And I see that we have this
00:10:13
Speaker
the symbiosis, the synergy, this potential, let me say it at that probably time, this potential to have that kind of aspect. One of my previous guests said it, so if Jenny Emmett's just said really beautifully, she said, because the plants have different senses and different abilities, I wouldn't even say different, their senses are more awakened than ours are, it's almost as if can can see us more clearly and therefore can tap into that and to share with the others. So it makes sense that you had this experience that was just very personal already from the beginning. There are so many things to go it's from there. I love it. First, I love that you you mentioned what your guest said that they see us more clearly. And one of the ways that I like to speak about the plants is that
00:11:09
Speaker
they're instruments of incarnation. This is a phrase I like to use because they do see us and we don't yet always see ourselves. And so when they begin speaking to us, I feel part of what they're doing, maybe part of their role, um, is not just for, you know, food or even oxygen or even physical medicine. But there, I feel, enabling us to fully incarnate here, to really fully become ourselves because they help us to begin to fully see ourselves and know ourselves. but You know, I see you. So even that moment with the tulip poplar with impenetrable fortress, I took it as the tree is an impenetrable fortress, right? It was unwelcoming. It is. It is an impenetrable fortress in some ways, but it's not the way I thought.
00:12:10
Speaker
right, over the years we've been unpacking that. And it took years for me to realize, oh, it was telling me that about myself. I was the impenetrable fortress. And there are different ways that I was that, positively, negatively, in the way we, you know, describe things. But this idea of relationship, that unpacking took time. And it took relationship. And you mentioned potential, which reminds me of another plant, moen because Mullen will actually often talk to me about potential and the moment of potential right before the creation. So like through the pulse point right before this potential. But it also speaks to me about the idea that intimacy takes time.
00:12:59
Speaker
So this relationship and this intimacy with the plants, it takes time to get to know them and in getting to know them, honestly, to get to know ourselves, you know, really. And when you say, you know, this um really surface knowledge, I feel, with a lot of the general information that's out there about plants, that's how I started. I feel that's probably how most people start. And it's okay because that's how we start with other people. Like right now, people have learned that my name is Amanda Nicole, right? You've heard that I lived in Virginia. I have brown hair. Look, we're starting with the surface. right But the more we go into this conversation and if we had more and more and more, you know, the deeper we go. And for myself, I found that absolutely for me.
00:13:50
Speaker
the most potent, magical, effective, beautiful, I guess, medicine, that's the way I use the word, has come from absolutely nothing that has yet to be in a book. I'm writing them, but it's not in books yet. And I tell students and clients, the more you listen, you will you'll literally create your own material medica, you'll create your own basket, like it you'll just create you're your own reception of it. And like you said, bring things into the world that aren't here yet. I think part of the reason we don't have some of these words is because we're so focused on human language. If we go and speak to some of these other beings, they will share with us other words and concepts.
00:14:34
Speaker
I comp i you you're speaking my language. That's exactly the way that I see it. And and I love it's a a recurring theme. And I and it's one of the things that I love the most about having all these comforting conversations on the podcast is relationships take time. All relationships do. We tend to forget this with our human relationships, and we don't even consider it when it comes to our plant relationships. And therefore, we don't really get to go beyond that surface level. We don't have an opportunity to not only get to know the other,
00:15:07
Speaker
But even more important than that, who we are as a reflection of that other. I live in community. And one of the things that I love about living in community is the fact that I have all these different reflections. And some of them are hard. Some of them are hard to see. And it's very easy when you're in those first years and when you're just starting to get to know somebody to point the finger at the other person. Oh, look, they do that and they have this and they have that. And over time, you realize that, oh my goodness, the reason I'm pointing my finger at that is because it's this piece of me that's being touched in this way, and this is something important. And this, I think, happens even more with the plants because with humans, we have you know these understandings to a certain extent, codified rules and conditioning and all these different pieces. But with the plants, they're so different
00:16:04
Speaker
from us that when you build that relationship over time, what what gets reflected back is aspects of ourselves that we didn't even know were there. yeah yeah Yes, that is on point with that what I've experienced with the plants. So one of the lovely things with the plants, and for me particularly tulip poplar, is like you said, the human relationships can mirror things back. that's what they're meant to do. And it's really meant to turn us inward again, you know, so that we can reengage with the other, hopefully in an improved capacity, more loving capacity. But that's really difficult with humans because honestly, humans are not always acting from a living place. They're not always reflecting things back to us because they love us, at least maybe at an ultimate origin.
00:17:01
Speaker
place, you know, our souls, but not here in this 3D moment. But with the plants, even hard things that I've needed to see about myself, right, have always been communicated gently and lovingly. Right? There's never unkindness. They're never saying anything to me to hurt or to be unkind or to judge or to criticize. And that's one of the things that's been so lovely about it, like this distrust that is able to develop in the relationship um for me over time with the plants. So now when I hear something from a plant, even if, you know, it really hits at a spot that's a little raw or vulnerable,
00:17:49
Speaker
um I know it's loving and I know it's true because it's loving if that makes sense. It makes perfect sense. I'll talk about violet sometimes as a plant that teaches us to only listen to the voices that love us, right? Even some voices that don't love us they might be right but it's gonna cut in a way that maybe we need to receive it from a different place that can be effective. But then there's also that aspect you said of places about us we didn't even know were there. So I Part of what to a popular has drawn out for me is a lot of human characteristics that needed to be brought more to the surface. But some of them I sort of already knew like I enjoy singing or I'm a writer or a mother or a teacher or right. But they needed some emphasis and some honing and some encouragement. But then there's been, and I think this is where plants are lovely with that instrument of incarnation idea.
00:18:46
Speaker
parts of us that are really outside of maybe this dimension of who we are. And they're able to bring that in so we can just more and more and more embody there the soul self from all these different dimensions. So I'll i'll speak sometime and I'll say, I'm a rainbow dragon. and I mean it. but it's an It's an aspect of myself that Tulip Poplar reveals, or I'll talk about myself in a celestial way, or even recently talk about myself from another another time and another place, but here on earth, but I am that. Or even when I say, I am the tree and the tree is me and I'm a Lirio dangerous and I mean it.
00:19:33
Speaker
Like these aspects of ourselves that are also outside of like you've already addressed the norm, normal language or normal ways of seeing ourselves. And I think that those parts are order also really very lovely. I think they help us to just get a wider view on on what it means to be human. and And I think it makes us love ourselves more. Absolutely. And this is this is really where working so closely with plants is such a blessing because, I mean, you've hit a so many things yourself, right? The aspect of the lack of judgment, and they're not there's no need for that judgment. Therefore, when a plant shares something, just like when a plant shares information with another plant or with
00:20:22
Speaker
you know an insect or an animal of any other sort, that plant shares because it's important, because it's either going to be good for survival, because it's something that you need to know, because it's going to help our ecosystem grow, because it's going to improve the quality, because it's going to be something that needs to be worked on as a group in a symbiosis, whatever the reasoning is. And of course, so when they share that same type of information with us, it's for the same reasons. what are they What is their goal to to improve, to evolve, to make the best ecosystem the most resilient ecosystem? And you are now a part of that ecosystem. So it makes sense that that's exactly what's happening. And because all of these extra senses from the physical perspective, plus probably from everything else, all the subtle senses
00:21:10
Speaker
The plant is able to to to recognize things inside of us and to help kind of show these, like point them out to us, give us an opportunity to embody them even more.
Plant Past Lives and Transformation through Tulip Poplar
00:21:22
Speaker
And I actually, it was funny that you were just talking about this um relating to being able to see yourself on a multiple dimensions and even in other space and time. So in Damanhur we do we do a lot of past life research and it's a very big part of the process of understanding of reawakening your memories from past lives and re-embodying those memories so that you have all that knowledge and wisdom. So really helping your your soul reach
00:21:49
Speaker
the goals that you set out for yourself faster because you're able to use all this old information. And one of the things that I've just over, you know, recently started to work on is we have plant past lives. We have those connections at multiple level. And therefore, what would that be like? And I just recently so I have a in the naturally conscious community, we have a ah writing and creativity group, which I love. And once a month we do we we meet every week. for writing and such. And once a month, we do something called budding artistry where we we design, we draw, we use arts of all sorts. It could be movement, it could be poetry, it could be ah you know watercolors, it could be anything. And the whole point is to explore beyond just words. And I recently took our group through a series of prompts that were physical movements and meditation and exploration to connect to their plant past lives.
00:22:46
Speaker
And it was been it's been amazing to see what comes out in those designs, the designs that help the person embody more of that life. So really reawaken more of your plant self, of your plantness, as I call it. And I think that that sounds like a lot of what you're doing also with Tulip Poplar, you're not only working with tulip poplars to see more of your humanness, but you're also connecting more into, hence why you say, the daughter of tutiplolar of tulip is like, you're really embodying even more of your plantness. Do you find, ah what have you found that has really changed in your life since this relationship started?
00:23:27
Speaker
I know, right? One of those easy questions. yeah It's only been... Everything. It's only been 20. Everything. I and that's the answer you get always. every moment But i I'll be specific. I'll be specific. But before I'm specific, I want to address what you said about tuning into your plant self. Because I was smiling, as you were saying, it because of the synchronicity. So I called myself Alleria Dendris and a daughter of the tulip poplar tree before I tapped into previous life plant self. It was just what I knew. I just knew like we're that, we're family. Because one of the first spoken, I'll say spoken um instead of and like an impression that words are received, was we will be your parents. Which that particular story I write about in my book Flowers for a Girl,
00:24:17
Speaker
And I remember when the tree said, we will be your parents thinking, wow, this is just beautiful that like these trees would receive me as family. But at the time I didn't realize that I was going to need a replacement set of parents in a way. And also that um they are. Right. So that's been 10 years in the making. So recently I've been making pilgrimages. I guess I'll use that as a word. into the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, which I was born in East Tennessee, but sort of been um exile from that place for a while because of my family of origin. But the trees calling me back there through a story, through a Cherokee story, an indigenous story. And so I went back because of that story, because I could see the two of popular connections in the story, even though it's not named.
00:25:15
Speaker
then once I went back into the mountains, Tula Poplar started telling me more of the story. Like, you you know how people go to a movie like for a superhero and then you've got the backstory. So we got the back, we get the backstory. And it gave me its origin story. So after more than a decade together, and I would even describe it to people as the a tree that would teach us about our origin. It decided, I'm going to tell you my origin story now, Amanda. But what happened was when it told me its origin story, guess what? This is also my origin story, right? In a past life, you were this person, right? And this person shape shifted for these reasons.
00:26:05
Speaker
and became the first tulip poplar tree and this is what it looked like and this is how it happened and it's just I know I'm not going into too much detail because honestly it's um it's still percolating and it's being written and I want to be sure to say it as it wants it said but it's it literally wanted to come and say You have, you have literally been me. You are me. This is how I began. You know, this is how we started. And it's just beautiful. So all these words of I am the tree and the tree is me and Larry or dangerous and we will be your parents, you know, coming together where I feel like in some ways we finally got to where we've been going together, you know? So there's that. And then what has changed in my life since this relationship started? When I say everything, I'm not kidding.
00:26:56
Speaker
So I was married. um I'm no longer married, which is not uncommon for a lot of people, but in my in my world and the way I was raised religiously and the part of the world I live in, the idea is you get married and you stay married, right? So I'm no longer married. I no longer have a family of origin. I mean, they are here on this earth, like they exist, but for reasons that are probably not surprising anyone when I mentioned conservative Christian church and whatnot, the fact that I'm saying I'm a Lirio dangerous and even talking about past lives and plant communication, it's just, it's just not acceptable. And also when I started to speak about sexual trauma, that didn't go over well either, which was also connected to the tulip poplar tree.
00:27:54
Speaker
So I don't have a family of origin here, like in a human sense anymore. um It changed my mothering. It completely changed my mother. It's even changing my mothering right now. I've been having conversations this week with a friend of how my mothering is getting ready to change again. um And i I speak about the tree in that way. It's the parent tree. It's a connected to the divine mother, all all sorts of aspects. It's really a beautiful tree. Um, my mothering has changed. I'm a mother to six children. Um, and they're like three older, three younger, this gap in between, you can really tell the different that's changed. My belief systems have changed what we think of as spiritual or religious beliefs. Um, I was raised in the church. Like my mom used to say, you know, the second I was born, you know, for my first breath, I'm in the church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
00:28:52
Speaker
revivals I went to a Christian school growing up. I ended up marrying a pastor. So all the beliefs of conservative Christianity, most all of them are gone except for the thread of truth that I think is everywhere. You know, this is still with me. Religious beliefs have changed. What I think it means to be human has changed. What I think about the universe, the cosmos, what we think of as the afterlife. Oh, I mean, it could just really go on and on. Everything has changed. every Everything has changed and which can be scary for some people to hear. And I think that's legitimate because it's not easy always in the physical form to make the changes. But I think about this often and I would i i don't regret a single moment.
00:29:43
Speaker
with the tree or the changes because I am so deeply grateful to have a clearer, truer, more loving, beautiful view of myself and of you and of the world and nature and and just everything. Like the word that came to my mind when you were speaking earlier about how the plants speak to us was benevolent. That was the word that was coming to me. I'm so grateful, especially with my Christian background, conservative Christian background, to just sort of be in a place where, except for moments, right, because we're human, I can really bask in the benevolence.
00:30:27
Speaker
of the cosmos. Well, I think a lot that's that string ah that I do. Another one of those pieces that I feel happens when you re-embody that your plantiness, when you really reconnect or or as I call it, you have your plant reawakening. I feel like the, the because plants are about presence. they have to be present, they have to be in the now, and they have to be aware. And so therefore, spending time with kin forces awareness, not because they're like, you must be aware, but because that's the model that you have in front of you is you have a being that spends can't run away from things, can't like ignore things and pretend that's not happening and so therefore has to be extremely present to what's going on and therefore when you are present it gives you the opportunity to I don't want say evaluate because that's not even the right thing is to feel from what the the resonance between the inside of you like you said your truth barometer your understanding of things your
00:31:33
Speaker
senses and your experiences and what is happening outside of you. And so when you stop, stop literally in that the running around in the way of the human that's always going and doing things and you stand in that presence, all of a sudden you're able to hear more clearly. You're able to taste more clearly, feel more clearly, be more clear. It all becomes different. And stories become just stories. And what what you're looking for is that resonance.
00:32:07
Speaker
And if it doesn't resonate, it doesn't resonate. And it makes it also so much easier in that presence to let those pieces fall away. That's the other piece. I find that even though, of course, life is hard, right we call it peopling. Peopling is hard. Everything that has to do with you know people in all kinds, human people, animal people, plant people, rock people. Peopling is hard. But that presence allows me to sort of be so connected to myself and so connected to my ecosystem that you see things and you're like, no, that doesn't fit in my ecosystem anymore. Like it just doesn't. It just doesn't. Yes. This is part of what's been so lovely to me about my connection.
Timelessness and Connection with Plants
00:32:52
Speaker
with the plants and particularly tulip poplar is the stillness, the stillness to just to just be with the tree and just be which like you said is to just be present and that's an interesting part of how they communicate this as well because I've over the years from tulip poplar and other places because you know, I also talked to land and animals and who knows what else. You know, so I received these messages and at at the beginning I was very leanier in the reception. I was very human and chronological in the reception.
00:33:28
Speaker
But what I've come to realize is that, like you said, they're just present, they're just now, they're just outside of time. And so a lot of the things I was receiving, it's because they have this awareness of everything all at once and right now, right? So I would, you know, I'd hear something and think, how does that pertain to this very moment? Or what do I do next? or but And it's like, no, it's all it's all a story. They're all stories. you know We'll get to this message. you know you'll You'll take action on this 10 years from now. right you'll say You took action on this five years ago. you know It's this timelessness.
00:34:07
Speaker
that allows us to be in the moment. And it's really beautiful because even as I've experienced what I've experienced with things falling away, as you mentioned, and it is easier. It is easier to just let them fall away in the stillness because there's not the resistance, right? There's not the fighting. There's not the analyzing. There's just the knowing. Yeah, exactly. There's just the loving knowing. Just it's love. This place of what I say is love. um But What I found, I'm sort of pausing in the timelessness.
00:34:46
Speaker
forgot I've lost my train of thought there for a moment in the timelessness, to be honest. ah Because the falling away, and it's like it doesn't, it does all exist, but it doesn't. So I'm able to see myself, yes, in relation to my mother, yes, in relation to my former partner, to ah an institution towards this or that. But in the stillness and the presence of it, it expands out and it's just timeless. It almost even isn't. It just all is and isn't, which it's interesting when we speak like that, it can sound like we're floating up here. and But that's something that I found with the plants that what you were saying reminded me is that it it's grounded me. yep and And in being grounded, I have the ability to sort of let this
00:35:37
Speaker
let it become that big you know and still be in the moment still cook dinner for my children and go to the grocery store and you know do the things that are right here and right now so there's just such a value and what they're teaching us as you said of just presence just learning how to simply be Yep. And we forget, we we try different avenues to, it's almost like we think that beingness is, I don't know, it's something that you can manufacture when instead it it is, it's a state. It's a it's a it something that you enter into. And from there, the paths around you all seem more
00:36:24
Speaker
just just present and clear. And I love that that you were talking about it, the stillness in that way, because I think that that's so important. I want to ask you about, all right, folks, ah you might have seen that my friend's cat mocked over my microphone. And so, ah yeah, we had to start over, not start over, we had to continue on in a new way.
Gaia and Entosophie: Expanding Consciousness
00:36:46
Speaker
So, Amanda, I wanted to ask you about Entosophie, because it's, again, another one of these beautiful terms that you have created and that has an entire story behind it. And I'm super excited to hear about it. But before we start that, I just want to take a quick second to introduce one of our eco-conscious business partners.
00:37:06
Speaker
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00:37:48
Speaker
Seriously, there is something for everyone. If you are looking to expand your consciousness, then go straight to Gaia. Just look in the show notes for the link to guerillacardenia.com slash Gaia. And there you will find a whole host of channeling and programming that you never expected to see online. Okay, we're back. Amanda, tell us. Am I pronouncing it right? Entosophie. Well, you can pronounce it however you want. Entosophie. I say Entosophie. I say Entosophie. But no, we've got to choose something right. So Entosophie. I'm really excited actually to talk about this because this is actually a project that is very dear to my heart and that is still in process and and becoming. It's another one of the books that I'm working on.
00:38:40
Speaker
And it came about in a lovely way with some people that I really love. And I'm excited that I actually get to mention them. Human people this time? Human people. Human people. We've got to qualify here. I know. Human people. So I took a class with someone named Nathan DeFor. And and his website is Nathanology, I believe, dot .net or dot .org. He's lovely. He was a philosophy professor who began to rap his philosophy lesson. And as though you know just another way to present the information. And then he has an incredible interest in ecology. So I had come across him on Instagram years ago. And I don't know if you have this, but there's moments you'll see someone and it's just, you know, bing, right? And so that's how it was with Nathan.
00:39:36
Speaker
And in time he offered this class and it was, um, what did he call his class? It was an eco philosophy class. I'm not going to butcher what he called it, but it was an eco philosophy class. It's still running. he's He just finished up one of the recent cohorts, um, this week. So I thought, Oh, yay. Like it's a chance to be in space, you know, in time with Nathan and I'm interested in ecology and he has this emphasis on, um, action. Right. So how do we take thoughts and ideas and put them into action, which I really appreciate. So I took the class and it was lovely. He's lovely. The members of the class were lovely. And so there's all this discussion on this idea at the time of what is the ideal society.
00:40:23
Speaker
Right. This idea. What is the ideal society? How do we create it? Right. What are the policies that this is that? And so in this class, of course, everyone was talking about plants and animals and rivers and oceans, you know, as part of this because of the ecological emphasis. But it was kind of driving me nuts. which he knows I've talked about this. It was kind of driving me nuts because it was still loving, good and loving humans who are wanting to be conscious and intentional and helpful. Telling plants and animals and water what is best for them and what's going to happen to them.
00:41:05
Speaker
So we had a final project in this class, which you know was optional because it was a very easy engagement. And what I decided was I was going to take five questions that Nathan had given us that we were supposed to personally answer, like what is the ideal society to you? What are its policies? What are some challenges? All this. And I was going to take these five questions and I was going to ask the tulip poplar because I was like, we' we're missing other voices. We're missing very significant voices. And I personally think it's part of why as humans, we just can't seem to figure it out because we're not meant to figure it out as humans. We're part of the earth, the, you know, everything and everyone, different types of persons.
00:41:56
Speaker
non-humans do not have a seat at the table or not a part of this discussion. Now, I have never had a conversation with a popular like this before. You know, we've we've had a certain way of communicating. We've had a certain way of talking. Usually it's more personal, right? But I thought, you know, I've come a long way with this web communication. So I went to the tree and I asked at these five questions and It was mind blowing. I had never, in 10 years, we'd never engaged that way. We've never, and it actually said to me in the interview, which you can find on my website, they're listed, and on my sub stacks, and it's a little messy on my sub stacks, but everything will get cleaned up eventually with the end to Sophie, because it it just was very organic how it came into being. But it actually said, thank you so much for asking me these questions. No one talks to me like this anymore.
00:42:54
Speaker
No one asked me these types of questions anymore. So I turned it in to Nathan as my final project. And he's lovely. He's very lovely. But I really wasn't sure how it would be received. Like, oh, great. She was talking to plants and whatever. you know But he responded back so thoughtfully. I mean, he really engaged the project. And we ended up having ah an ongoing conversation about this and our friendship developed from that. And I thought to myself, like,
00:43:35
Speaker
we need more of these conversations. So I went back to Tulip Poplar and sort of gave Tulip Poplar the response. And Tulip Poplar said to me, right beside this Tulip Poplar, the one that I sit with all the time, there's a dogwood tree right in front of it. and there's a ginkgo tree off to the side. And it said to me, don't ask me more questions when I went back to it. It said, ask dogwood, ask ginkgo. So I went and I just started going as I was led. And it got to where I would go to this place near me, the botanical gardens that are near me, and which is a really easy place for me to visit, a really easy place for me to walk, you know, if I'm not wanting to like go into the wilderness, right?
00:44:19
Speaker
And I would be on my way to talk to one tree and I would have trees that I'd never spoken to before, like species of trees that I'd never spoken to before, get my attention. And I would say to them, um I'm on my way to meet with such and such, so but we want to be part of this. Right. And so sometimes I'd sit down and I'd think, you know, I've never spoken to this species of tree before because This is important. ave It's not just plant communication. It's not just plant language. They each have their own voice and you have to learn their voice, right? So I was nervous about it because it's like sitting down to do, like if we were humans, I don't speak, you know, I don't speak French. So if I sat down with someone to do an interview with them and I don't speak their language. So I don't know how this is going to work.
00:45:11
Speaker
But it went lovely. It was great. And so I did this series of interviews. I think there are 16 or 17 interviews that I think are, I think the fact sort of canon is closed at the moment for this um this this segment event to Sophie. And it's beautiful. And part of what came out was the personality of each tree, the essence of each tree. And it was so beautiful because every single tree, and well, there's a staghorn fern and elderberry in there as well. They wanted to get in on it. um They all have different answers to the questions. And what's so incredible to me about it is as humans,
00:45:59
Speaker
humans would be giving those answers and we would think that we were contradicting each other and that we were opposite to each other and that we were disagreeing and the trace didn't think that at all. They're like, okay, thank you so much. They see it as all being part of the spectrum like a ah disco ball with, you know, these different facets and so I'll probably stop now so you can respond. but I love it. And now I'm working on putting it into a book where there's not just the interviews, but there's the field notes, what was happening around it and like context to sort of fill it out. And also some of the trees have asked me as you do with interviews for follow-up questions.
00:46:47
Speaker
But I really think, I mean, this might be saying a lot, but I'm just going to say it. I can't even believe I'm getting to say this. I feel this book can change the world. I feel the end to so because everything could change the world, right? Everything we're doing. But to come to believe that the plants can engage you in philosophical dialogue and questions and questions, it brought up things like homelessness. It brought up things like electricity and how we receive our power. It brought up things about dancing and community. I mean,
00:47:23
Speaker
Just if we could believe, so we don't, we don't believe as a human collective, we don't believe that they're intelligent. We don't believe, we think we're smarter, we think we're better, but to believe that like they can, they can engage with us at our level and beyond. And one of the interviews, sorry, I keep gushing, I'm gonna stop gushing, ended up at Yale. at the Yale Graduate Conference on religious um religion and ecology, one of the trees just pressed through because their theme last year was entanglement. And I'm not going to go into all the details because it's kind of funny, I even ended up being able to be a part of that conference because it was very unlikely.
00:48:13
Speaker
But as soon as I saw their phrase entanglement, the Japanese flowering cherry was like, Amanda, look at my interview. And I did. And so just the fact that like, even though they put it in the art gallery, the art part and not the like papers being presented, just the fact that a tree interview can even be at Yale, that's a big deal. The world is changing, you know?
The Wisdom and Role of Trees in Ecosystems
00:48:41
Speaker
I agree. and And these are exactly the types of things we need to spread more for different reasons. One, like you said, the the trees are the ecosystem. And so therefore, they are the planets just like we are, but we forget this sometimes we just separate ourselves out. And so to be able to ask these questions of the beings that are not just living, but also
00:49:06
Speaker
actively aware that they're creating what we consider to be the environment, I think is so important. And it brings a new perspective, a new optic, a new way of looking at these questions that helps broaden our perspective for our own behaviors. Like you said, our actions oftentimes, especially in these moments, we don't even know what actions we're supposed to take. And we can't think that we should know when we're only about 200,000 years old.
00:49:38
Speaker
When plants have been around for 470 million years, maybe they've learned a thing or two about this whole planetary thing and how things work and see relationships that we don't necessarily see, or as you said before, are not necessarily blocking those relationships' views because of fears and conditioning and judgment and all these different aspects. So I think it's fantastic, the idea of going to them. We've we've talked about this all the time and we have had several projects where, um for example, I was working, there's ah a project that I know of that they have a tree council. And as they're working on how to develop their project, they are a human council and a tree council that work together. so
00:50:27
Speaker
the humans go out and talk to these trees and gather the feedback of what the trees have to say about whatever it is that they're looking to do and then come back. And I think this is an extremely important thing, especially in land development. in If we're thinking about any kind of land development, if we're thinking about any kind of project, the idea of being able to get a thinking outside of the box, something outside of our human norm, I think it's fundamental. I've worked for many years with spider plant with spider plant was my business partner for many, many years. And um over the last few months, spider plant has been like, Hey, I am taking a break from the business. And I'd like you and and I've been talking to Noel the Christmas cactus who's sitting over here.
Plants as Partners and Listening to Nature
00:51:10
Speaker
And I want Noel to be your new business partner. So if you'll have Noel and so Noel and I are still starting to get to know each other because spider plant was very direct in when we would design
00:51:23
Speaker
programs or when we would talk about marketing plans or when we would talk about classes that I was putting together. um We've written multiple classes together and even during COVID, Spider Plant was very adamant to be the healer of the family. I am the one that wants to do the healing and I want to work with plant music and all these other things. Noel has been a very different relationship. Noel is much more chill, Noel grows much slower, like there's just all these different aspects. And so being able to have that non human mentality, and that that other kin as part of our relationship and and what we do, I just think is fundamental, I think it really is going to be what changes the world.
00:52:07
Speaker
when we step outside of the idea of the human centric, anthropocentric world, and we start to recognize that other kin have understandings that we don't have. And that other kin want to share these understandings because their ultimate goal is to co-create with us rather than us taking over or the or or them taking over. And so when we step into that and we really move into co-creation, I am completely in agree with you. It's going to change the world. and of complete I love it. I love that you have a business partner. because That's the spider plant. And now the Christmas cactus, because that's what's so popular to me. Absolutely. You know, it sounds crazy to certain people, but not to you, right? But when I'm doing something,
00:53:00
Speaker
You know, am I going to create this class? Am I going to have this offering? Am I going to do this? Am I going to do that? Even when I recently wrote the book, I am the tree, um, I would go and sit with Tula Poplar. and ask it and receive outlines. Put this here, put that there. Don't forget this, put this there. you know And then I would read it to the tree and get the feedback and you know this collaboration that's happening. And I'll have to say, that book, I cannot imagine writing it without the tree. It was too hard. It was too, because I thought to myself, how am I going to piece together all these aspects of the tree's medicine and
00:53:43
Speaker
and the human life and you know, all these threads. I mean, the tree is genius. Like I tell people sometimes, you know, either people who are skeptical, I'll say either the plants talk, either they can communicate or I'm a genius. And I'm pretty sure most humans don't want me to be a genius. So the plants must talk, you know, because you, you receive things that just, it's just outside of what your, your mind could scope. You know what I'm saying? And I completely agree with you about this engagement on land development, you know, just how beautiful it would be, you know, if every city or business or whatever had humans that were
00:54:33
Speaker
translating for for the tree council, for the land. And I've worked with people even just on their own land. You can just start on your own land. So usually people come in and they want to do this. They want this kind of garden and this kind of landscape. and But over the years I've had people reach out and we're going to listen to the land together. What would the land like? And you can even present your plans to the land, right? And the land can tell you. And what people are afraid of, I think, is the land's going to tell them no. the tree is going to tell them no. And we don't want to hear no because we want to do what we want to do because it's what we want. But what I've found is usually it doesn't.
00:55:10
Speaker
it It usually will say yes in every way it can say yes, and it will make adjustments. Some things are nos, but they're not us. They're not in competition with us. They love us. They want to collaborate with us. They want to create with us, right? So it's not it's not like you're sitting down with another human that's got their bottom line and they're not budging. That's not how they are. I agree. The world is going to get better. It is. It is getting better. Well, and there's definitely a reawakening that's happening right now. We're seeing it all over the place, the critical plant studies, the plant humanities, more people talking actively about plant communication, plant anthropology. There is so much more right now that is allowing that voice to come through and is giving people more permission
00:56:00
Speaker
for themselves to be able to be those those you know translators and to be those um those voices and bringing plants into the conversation in some ways. Amanda, I have a feeling that we could sit here and talk for hours on these subjects.
Where to Connect with Amanda Nicole
00:56:18
Speaker
And um I am really i just so appreciative of everything that you've shared. Where can my audience find you? Where are you? Well, the easiest place to find me is my website, which I'm sure you'll share in the notes, but it's Al Camillas. That's the Latin name for and ladies mantle. My first business partner.
00:56:40
Speaker
so alchemillas.com and there I've got one-on-one sessions, the Lary O Denders Press which is in its beginnings in its origin story at the moment, the Tulip Poplar Apprenticeship which is beginning which really is just a transmission I mean it's just meant to pour out Tulip Poplar My podcast I don't I don't publish on my podcast anymore But it all of them are there these little snippets right 12 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes little Plant speaking through me ah the whispers podcast. My book is there mostly Most into Sophie's there. That's the best place to connect. I'm on Instagram as well. But um, I The website is the place to dive in. Perfect. Well, we'll make sure I include the link to the website and, you know, anything else that I think you're also your sub-sac and so that people can find you. And I, I'm just so grateful to you. Do you have any last words that you want to share with everyone? Well, given my mind was immediately.
00:57:52
Speaker
I am the tree and the tree is me. And I say this about myself, but really I just believe it's true of all of us. The oneness, you know, the singularity. Yeah. That's perfect words to leave us by. Thank you so much, Appanda. And thank you all for listening, those of you that are here. Please remember to like, hit the subscribe button, leave a comment, and also remember to join us in the Naturally Conscious Community because the Naturally Conscious Community is the only community out there for human-plant relationships exactly like these that we're talking about. All of this conversation is normal over there, not just normal. encouraged and we do it all the time. And that's the best part about it. So please head on over there. I'll make sure everything is in the show notes so that you could easily find Amanda, you can find the naturally conscious community, you can find me. And that's it for another episode of reconnect with plant wisdom.
00:58:52
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.