‘Marshmallow Journey’
‘Marshmallow Journey’
Most herbalists will tell you about Marshmallow’s penchant for Moistening. It’s high mucilage content coats that which it comes into contact with making it great for sore throats, tummy aches and all sorts of digestive issues. What they wont tell you is how ‘radical softness’ is the true essence of this plant spirit. Working with Marshmallow on a spiritual level reveals such a compassionate, generous, feminine energy. She offers grace and reprieve for those who need it most.
Working with plant spirits has taught me that what a plant does on the physical level, it also does on an energetic level. For example, the way Yarrow repairs holes, tears and punctures of the skin as a reputable wound healer, it also does on the energetic field, repairing our holes in our aura. Marshmallow also has similar parallels between its physical applications and its energetic ones. It’s soothing, moistening, and cooling, helping to bring down inflammation and irritation which cause our bodies harm when they are in need of rest and repair. Energetically, the spirit of Marshmallow works similarly to soothe, and relieve that which irritates us on a soul level. our prejudices and tensions toward ourselves and others melt away in the embodiment of compassion. It helps to release our biases, and judgments, so that we can approach ourselves and others with openness and understanding. it’s a mirror that calms and caresses the shadow. It releases our tendencies toward perfection allowing us to accept what is. Marshmallow gently reminds us how to treat ourselves and others, without tension, harshness or judgment. It’s radical softness urges you to forgive that which you have been holding too tightly.
My plant spirit journey with Marshmallow began like most of my journeys do, searching for an entrance to the underworld. When I’m first entering the trance state, many shapes and colors begin to come into my vision, this can be distracting as I try to grasp to define them and their meanings. At first it’s always a push and pull between allowing myself to enter that trance state and the urge to stay anchored in the physical body, the usual chatter of the monkey mind will do everything it can to keep you in the conscious state of awareness and so a practice that helps to trick your brain into thinking it’s in control while also allowing yourself to slip into trance is using your creative imagination to find an entrance into the underworld. it’s similar to how a hypnotist will help you to envision a staircase as they count you down into hypnosis. You can forget about your body and busy your mind while your psyche wonders off to explore in search for a portal.
Throughout history, in shamanic and witchcraft practices, the underworld has played an important role in transformation and healing. A practitioner can journey to this spiritual realm to communicate with spirits, and to gain insights into the root causes of spiritual and physical ailments. One can reach higher states of consciousness by journeying to the underworld. Myth and history is teeming with tales of people traveling to the underworld for the answers they seek. from the Goddesses Inanna and Persephone, to Christian mystic Emanual Swedenborg and psychiatrist Carl Jung. This is where the true work of plant spirit journeying takes place.
I take a lot of walks around my home and am lucky to be surrounded by nature. When I’m going into trance and searching for an entrance to the underworld, I often find myself in those familiar places I go to often on my daily walks. There’s a divot in the earth where a tree once grew and now it contains a small patch of Mugwort, I once entered the underworld by burrowing myself into the soil there. There are many hollow trees along my walking path and that is another great place to access this space. For my Marshmallow journey, I found myself at the side of the lake beneath two giant Oak trees where I’ve watch a little muskrat build his home. There are a series of holes around it and that is where I found my entrance this time.
I found myself beneath the water and my visions began to come in faster and clearer than before. I saw a woman before me, her hair flying up in great waves that continuously curled in on themselves. I saw myself in a past life standing beneath a willow tree holding a swaddled baby in my arms. Spirals of flashing lights that reminded me of my time spent with Datura. A thought came in that said “What do I do with all this doubt?” Its was my thought and I knew it well, but before I could judge it, the whole world collapsed around me and I felt the presence of Marshmallow come in. it showed me how to wrap that thought up in acceptance, to hold it without judgment like a precious thing to be loved and cared for. The softness enveloped me, coated me, brought me to the depths of the dark blue lake and under there it showed me how I’ve created a barrier around myself defensive and preparing for judgment and how this barrier was like a mirror through which i view the world. always backward, quick to judge others before they judge me. I felt such a softness and compassion for that gooey underwater thing, the doubt which had become a snake in my hands. And while this perspective, this new insight was still with me, Marshmallow asked me to view my hardest challenges in this light and to feel myself soften around them and it felt miraculous to release the judgments that I held so tightly regarding my foes and my troubles. I wept as I realized this was the true meaning of grace.