How to Harness the Messages & Metaphors of Mother Earth modern mystic

The messages & healing we most need will never stop trying to be delivered to us. Discussed in this potent interview with herbalist & author, Asia Suler, is how to cultivate our finding & receiving of these messages all around us which connect us back to both ourselves, our Source and our ancestral wisdom. Also unpacked is the power of metaphor that is not only a helpful language for articulating metaphysical experiences but also the way flowers & plants communicate their healing properties. How to connect with nature in urban settings, the Celtic notion of “the Other World” and the hidden power in our name are also delved into. 
Show Notes:
To be a Modern Mystic is to be in a relationship with the beloved qualities of the mystery itself and not just focusing on the “answers.” Embarking on this journey in the Modern Age is not a block but just an invitation to the next level encounter of the mystery to fall in love with. 
Discussed is the term Animism, the viewpoint  that all creatures, plants, trees, flowers, rocks, rivers, weather systems possess a distinct aliveness and spiritual essence. 
Kids don’t see plants as any different than a person; however, we lose this natural ability to see we are one living being in a collection of living beings that make up a living world through enculturation.
The messages & healing we most need will never stop trying to be delivered to us. Sometimes that can look like hardship and crisis but always underneath healing wants to be delivered. 
Intellectualism and spiritualism don’t have to be antagonists but can be viewed as two sides of one coin. We can blend these two arenas and through intellectualism, we can access spirituality.
The concept of our “Wider Self'' is discussed, and the idea that there is no divorcing Self from what you are a part of which is nature . You are a part of nature's dream made manifest in this body in this lifetime and so there is always the opportunity to reach out to nature and have a conversation. Nature is a parent mirror that never forsakes us. A parent ideally mirrors their child: their goodness etc... We are missing the primary connection with the parent mirror of nature often in our Modern Day Age. You don’t have to do anything special for nature to speak with you because we promise you nature already is doing so.
Find a “gatekeeper” in an environment: a sentinel tree, stone, waterway and notice the feeling of sitting with an elder. Introduce yourself for that’s a basic building block for building a relationship. You might feel silly which tells you that you are on the right track as silliness is looking around and seeing what’s normally done, and then turning a cultural norm on its head. Our sharing of where we are from and what we care about trains our brain to recognize various aspects of nature as living sentient beings. Create a practice of sitting consistently with this gatekeeper to create a relationship which at times can lead to an almost psychedelic perceptionship.
Metaphoric thinking is discussed and is an ancestral skill as there is only so much you can learn from literal thinking. Metaphoric thinking helps more synapses and connections to be made in your brain as metaphor connects one thing to another. Metaphor is a bridge because spiritual truths can’t be expressed literally so metaphor supports how we gather, store and transmit knowledge to convey spiritual truths. 
In western herbalism there is a doctrine of signatures, a story of a plant’s lifetime that will tell you about its medicine. i.e. Mullein which grows around the highway. This plant clears our lungs of pollution. Sometimes a plant offers a non-literal/metaphorical story of how it is growing and communicating to you which might be on a physical level or on an energetic level. Many of us have had the experience of being uplifted by smelling a flower and it shifts you!
Flowers and plants have broad spectrum multi dimensional healing powers to them.