A constant that I invite into my multi-disciplinary practice is change. Change and transformation. I studied painting and drawing for my graduate and undergraduate studies. As a result, every new creative process I engage in feels a little like starting a new painting. Every time is like learning to paint for the first time. A mentor of mine, Shayne Case, feels creatively connected to the flower essences she makes, just as she does to the poetry she reads every day. They are both workings for the soul. I feel similarly about my relationship to channeling and divinatory session work. They are paintings, songs of the soul. Each session is an opportunity to listen to the notes of a new story. How do they get translated? It’s a new adventure in learning and unlearning every time.
Part of my medicine is to be fully present with clients - to hold space with great care and respect, and do the deep listening. If you are undergoing shifts in your world that are rearranging awareness, perhaps it’s time to call in an assist. We are each born into this world with specific gifts and tools to help one another see and be seen with a greater semblance of connected ease. The willingness to allow change to occur on deep and subtle levels is a key component to embodying the healing process.
In a session, it will not be me doing the healing work for a client. I am a benevolent guide, a witness, another traveler making the journey alongside yours. As an example, I go to my personal trainer every week. I devote this time to show up for myself, and train my body to change and grow stronger. I am putting in the work, and my trainer guides and encourages. That's very much how I see the spiritual and divinatory work that I do with clients. They show up to do the work to heal what concerns their body, nervous system, heart, their spirit - be that manifest as grief, discomfort, anxiety, sleeplessness, stagnation, etc. I am present to listen, encourage, reflect, and channel connection with the guides, ancestors, and plant friends that wish to collaborate on the healing walk through this life.
The effectiveness of my plant medicine formulas operate in part on a practical, physical action level: mugwort helps your digestion and eases your ability to get to sleep and stay asleep. But the ritual, energetic components are just as present as the physical actions: mugwort connects you with wise, deep knowing parts of your spirit that travel beyond the realm of your intelligent, but limited, ego self. I have explicit trust in the relationship I have with the plants involved in my practice. Not everything I make works for every body. That's why I have a library of formulas available.
I do not believe that we are meant to escape grief or discomfort - loss, struggle, and obstacles offer us great teachings, and they deserve seats of honored respect at your table of transformation. Learning to tone yourself to challenge in this way shifts the vibration of the stories that play and re-play. We can learn to trust that our higher self knows the way to navigate our whole selves into healthier patterns.
And this work needs to be fun as well. There is space for laughter, mischief, and the trickster clown. Play in learning needn’t be exclusive to childhood. There is great wisdom in activating play while we learn new habits; we learn faster and more concretely when play is involved. There will always be laughter present to help activate sustained, healing growth in a Radicle Pleasures session.
Let’s make a painting of your story together.
September 7, 2023
Artemis Divine