This podcast episode is sponsored by Ritual + Shelter. Are you looking for a magical place to shop and hold space? Check out Ritual+Shelter online or in Homewood, Alabama. Browse through their bookshelves covering topics  such as Energy Healing, Reiki, Chakras, Auras, Accessing the Akashic Records, Shadow Work, Astrology, and Earth Based Healing.

You can also find herbal teas and tinctures alongside crystals and oils to help establish a mindful mindset and fluid ambiance before meditation, ritual work, and reflection.

Ritual+Shelter is dedicated to providing one on one in depth conversation with customers to help them find the most efficient healing methods and resources that match the customer’s unique interests and energy. They offer Tarot sessions as well as Reiki, Soundbowl, and Crystal Healing. Visit ritualshelter.com to book an appointment and bring peace back to the body, mind, and spirit. Or find them on Instagram at @ritualsheltershoppe

I’m back from my adventures in Santa Fe.  What an amazing trip. The landscape was beautuiful, the Native American dances at the Cochciiti Peublo were very inspiriting .. all their dedication to rituals and family was inspiring.  A huge shout out to Kate Jenkins for her stamina and focus and her work with Native Strength Revolution… it was hot!   I checked out a retreat venue.. the Ojo .. yes.. I will be hosting a reatreat at in 2025.  The art, the galleries,  the culture… I loved it all!  I’m still integrating it all and will be writing more about it on my blog over at Substack.  Soul Musings: Confessions of an Empowered Empath.  Check it out!

As this podcast goes to air, we have moved into the sun sign of Leo. Leo is bold and reminds us to feel pride in our lives. The thing I love so much about Leo is that it brings us courage—courage to stand in our truth and courage to make changes. Change isn’t easy but so needed at this time. Courage brings in the energy of the heart which helps to raise our vibration to make these changes from a loving perspective.

Right now with everything going on in the world, the tendency is to just hold on. Hold for you’ve got as my dad would say.. but that can create stagnation.  Leo holds the element of fire which helps to transmute the stuck emotions bringing flow back into your life.

It is a time to stand up for you and what you believe.  Know thyself to be true.

Maybe you don’t know what that is for you. That’s where a spiritual mentor can be so helpful in guiding you to your soul and the messages of your purpose.

I wanted to offer another testimonial from a private client… Allison, The Grounded Empath. Allison shifted so much in her coaching work.  Learning, tools,  techniques and raising her vibration.  She quickly adapted these teachings and expanded her coaching practice. Listen to what she has to say…

So yes, I am a spiritual mentor and I help people tap into their spirit and even learn more about themselves. I have many ways in which I can guide you through.

So I offer you to Schedule a Complimentary Spiritual Upgrade Breakthrough Call with me. Let’s talk about how I can guide you into building your practice, help you move through difficulties in life, transitions, and find the love of your soul that will inspire you.

In today’s episode, I continue the conversation on how important it is to be in touch with the sacred elements of Mother Earth. She has so much to teach us. There is so much wisdom and magic in sitting with the plants, the animals, the elementals, the divas, all of it, as my guest Matthew Wood confirms.

Matthew is a very well-known herbalist and teacher. HIs latest book is A Shamanic Herbal: Plant Teachers and Animal Medicines. In this episode, we talked about his background and knowledge, the plants and their relationship to animals, how they can help us, how plants are the universal language of shamans, and spiritual lessons personified in animals’ medicines such as bear medicine, turtle medicine, alligator medicine and more.

Matthew Wood has been a practicing herbalist for more than forty years. He is an internationally known teacher and author with more than ten books to his credit, including The Book of Herbal Medicine, The Earthwise Herbal, Holistic Medicine and the Extracellular Matrix, and A Shamanic Herbal. Matthew has an MSc in herbal medicine from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine (accredited, U. of Wales). He lives in the Midwest. 

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Sharing profound experiences from his long career as well as his first years growing up on a remote Seminole reservation in the Everglades, renowned herbalist Matthew Wood interweaves practical herbalism and the spiritual potency of Nature to deeply explore the plant teachers, animal medicines, and foundational principles of shamanism as a spiritual path.

Wood describes a universal “language of the shamans,” based on direct, sometimes supernatural experiences as well as case studies from his practice. He examines the alphabet of Nature and spiritual lessons personified in animals and plants, especially “animal medicines”—when the plant looks like an animal.

He shares accounts of Turtle Medicine plants for self-examination, Bear Medicine plants to open the imagination, and Wolf Medicine plants for wholeness and magic. He explores the plants of Alligator Medicine for healthful prosperity, Horse Medicine plants to bring the conscious self in harmony with the animal self, Badger Medicine plants to strengthen gut instincts, and many other herb and animal teachers.

He also looks at plants associated with journeying to the spirit world through the medicine of Crane, Dragon, and Bat. Throughout the shamanic adventures he shares, Wood offers profound comparisons between shamanism and the psychology of Freud and Jung, the visions of Carlos Castaneda, and the occult teachings of Rudolf Steiner and G. I. Gurdjieff.

Revealing the shamanic roots of his herbal teachings, Matthew Wood provides not only an inside view of his life-long spiritual path but also an immersive and experiential guide to the shamanic wisdom of countless plant and animal teachers.

Each plant is a reference point toward consciousness.

We can follow and learn by tuning in and meditating with plants. Listening and getting quiet.

Be sure to check out all of Matthew’s work.

The local herbalist we mentioned are Johanna and Trevor of Walden Farmacy, Cameron Strouss of The Deep Roots School of Herbal Medicine and Jessica Carmon of Resourced Apothecary.

Thanks again for listening!

To your Spirit,

Terri

PS… Freddy Silvas’s course – The Bridge Between Material and Magic.  Learn how powerful energy centers interact with your body and consciousness, enhancing your awareness and connection to Self and the infinite.
Bonus: a pdf copy of Freddy’s bestselling book Portals: Energetic Doorways to Mystical Experiences Between Worlds to which I am a contributing author.