The Confluence of Gaia, Plant Medicines and the Human Soul

A journey into the deep and ancient soul relationship between Gaia, humans, and plants

"Tantalizing... provocative... laced with sensuality. Ms. McIntyre has the unique ability to allow the Earth to speak through her."--Deb Vail, Grandparents of the Forest

The Confluence of Gaia, Plant Medicines, and the Human Soul unearths the deep twining roots of human and plant relationships at the intersection of Soul: from the plants and trees who reach out to touch us, to heal us not only physically with their medicine but with something far deeper and older, the soul-to-soul medicine has been in hiding for two thousand years.

And so, the journey that we take involves far more than merely the medicinal healing of our bodies. It takes us deeper into Soul, our own and that of the plants and Earth itself.

The sanctity of vines and trees is far older in human memory than the history of crops, agriculture, and religion. The Athenians, the Greeks, and indigenous cultures knew that Soul and intelligence was an inherent aspect of plants. They knew that powerful spirits lived within trees and plants, that they were closely interwoven with that of the gods, even of Gaia itself.

This is the oldest, original story that was once known to all peoples in all times and places that have been. Its tendrils can still be found in even the most industrialized of countries. Gaia's story lives in the underbrush and the soil of this world, in the tendrils of plants, in the cambium of trees. There is not a child born that does not feel the touch of that story as easily as they breathe. Its threads are not only interwoven throughout the world around us but lie waiting in the understory of the human psyche.

The Confluence of Gaia, Plant Medicines, and the Human Soul reminds us that:

• The living Earth, Gaia, is not something apart from us as so many of us have been taught. Rather it is the fabric in which all life on this planet is embedded. It is from Gaia's threads that we and every life form on this planet have been woven.

• Those who have felt the livingness and intelligence of plants can begin to remember who they were always meant to be.

• The first human bonding with Gaia as infants begins with the first touch, the first taste of grass and dirt .

• The soul of plants are involved in human soul-making.

In these times of uncertainty and as humanity seems to be losing its way, meeting at the confluence of Gaia, plants and the human soul begin the journey of a different path, one that rekindles ancient relationships with the Green world, the life of the senses and veriditas.

As Jung once said, "Plants facilitate the marriage between matter and psyche where Gaian consciousness is the result." When our diseases call out to the medicinal plants of this Earth, and they respond, we find not only physical healing but a far deeper relationship with Earth and ultimately our own souls.