Western Red Cedar — Thuja plicata

The first plant chosen for Megan’s plant spirit medicine apprenticeship was Western Red Cedar. We opened a multiple week intentional connection with cedar, Megan helped create a safe and clear bridge from the spirit of cedar to each of our hearts. Also during this first weekend we engaged in a guided meditation journey to search out a plant spirit body protector, and during this time I also connected with cedar as my protector. A plant spirit body protector is a being that is able to continually be with me, one that is welcomed to physically merge with my body, to come inside and help hold down heavy energy, to protect me when my spirit and awareness is doing work in the spirit realm such as dreaming, working with the circle and altar, breath-work, psychedelic experiences, trance states, journeying in anyway where I am beyond the normal confines of my physical body. In these situations my consciousness is no longer protecting my temple and I ask for help in forming a secure shell of protection. When engaging in these experiences one may still be quite present in their body but the energies may be beyond one’s personal capacities and strength to fully stay safe. Plant spirit protectors are so valuable and helpful so that we do not have to fear for our safety, and to not have to keep some aspect of oneself still in the “normal” reality ensuring that one’s physical body is safe, but to be able to fully journey into the spirit world. Not only are plant spirit body protectors valuable beings to form tightly bonded relationships with, but so too are one’s spirit guides, ancestors, animal guides, and helpers of all sorts that have our best interests at heart. We seek a plant ally to help keep us safe that I may regularly be with, these relationships are deep and profound and are developed over a lifetime. I welcome my plant spirit body protector of cedar to come and merge with me, to enter my being and to be a gatekeeper.

Cedar has a beautiful and yet simple taste. She is resinous and aromatic, yet it is difficult to name the taste, she simply tastes like forest and she smells like the forest as well, like sap plus the color green. The following reflections are primarily from drop doses a of fresh tincture of the leaves. Many say that cedar is toxic and should not be taken internally, I disagree. Yes caution is needed for sure, drop doses are quite safe, and larger doses for brief periods.

Cedar forests are magical places, they are something truly powerful. Deep, dark, still, so very present, always listening and watchful, ancient elders of the plant kingdom, they are knowledge keepers who share their ancient memories with all youthful spirits. They are beings who remember the magic and reveal to us guidance in how to be in a seemingly chaotic existence. They are sentinels of life, they are guardians that care for this world. Deep in the heart of an old cedar grove there is little light that penetrates to the forest floor, time has a forgotten quality in these places, the ground is soft and decaying wood is everywhere. The fungal kingdom is also at its peak experience here at the climax of ecological succession, here cedar merges with mycelium in the heart of the forest where this ancient wisdom branches out to the rest of the world. Nothing much grows beneath cedar groves, nor on their bark, their protection of the sacred container of the space does not have space for any other beings, it is too still and pure. It is curious how their wood is amazingly rot resistant as well, it can withstand water and is protected from bugs, and yet the wood is very soft and malleable and it resonates with such a warm tone of softness when crafted into musical instruments. There is much strength and protection yet it is soft and forgiving. the Pacific Northwest is a special place, the biggest, oldest, and tallest trees live in this place, it is the heart of the plant kingdom in a way. It is constantly nourished by the ocean rains and mists. They are able to receive all that water and steady temperature and grow powerful, a mark of their steadiness and resilience.

No matter what I bring, no matter the state of my ego, my frantic mind that may be buzzing and concerned with worldly affairs, when I enter an old cedar grove it all melts away as I am brought full stop the power and stillness of these great beings. I am humbled and called to listen with all of my being as I am brought into true present moment awareness, and here I can much more clearly hear the constant noise of my mind when it is before such stark contrast of tranquility, this place stills the hum of my internal chatter. 

This is exactly the sort of medicine that cedar offers in her true essence, to be brought into the heart of the forest and into stillness, to hear and feel the winds of change, to be with these ancient giants that so effortlessly stand and witness the passing of time, and to offer protection and stillness in this process. She helps us do what needs to be done and to confront the lessons from a place of truth, to let experience fully in as we orient from a place of stillness and original nature. To not exist in reactive conditioning, and she helps us to feel held and protected and to know that we are allowed to exist in this raw and vulnerable place.

Perhaps cedar is similar to mushroom medicine which helps us connect to the great great web of life, they certainly share the heart of the forest together and have a deeply symbiotic relationship. Her roots are expansive and tap deep into the soil here in this most humid of places, she is able to handle the seemingly endless water without being bogged down. Water is life, pure nourishment, the eternal oneness where we all come from, the medium regulation that facilitates all cellular activity which allow emotions and felt senses to integrate into helpful guidance, for input to transform into perception. The soil is rich with yin substances, pure forest soil that hold amazing amounts of life giving water. With enough essence and the flow of water we have a capacity for emotional buoyancy to take in life and to transmute it into experience. In Chinese medicine the kidneys store this deep reserve of essence in the lungs distribute this source energy throughout the entire being through the fluids, through the waterways of the body. The kidneys and the lungs have a deep and pivotal relationship, akin to the wealth of water and rich forests soil and the generation of oxygen that begets all life, here the spirit can clearly be held and navigate well.

I feel much awareness in the throat center as well as the third eye with cedar. There is clear and pure awareness of what is being perceived and the ability to express it through voice and communication. By stilling the normal illusions of ego and conditioning and self preservation strategies one is brought into contact with what is being held inside which requires resolution. Especially sadness and grief is able to be purged out through tears, cries, voice release, by paying respect to what needs honoring we are able to fully move on and let go to unburden oneself. This work is primary as an embodied being and must continually bring be done if one is to ever be in alignment, and certainly required to be in contact with the plant spirit realm. We cannot see the bottom of the lake when there is still unresolved winds on the surface disturbing the clarity of perception, to be able to clearly experience what is self and what is not self. Is is just how it is that we must cover up and forget our original nature that was so pure as a child, it becomes muddled as worldly conditioning takes its toll. And only with steadfast work may we remember and return and transmutes our conditioning into spiritual evolution, to choose to be a creative weaver of consciousness, to not act as if life is simply happening to you beyond all control but to continue to orient to each new experience as a gift and a teacher, that we get to choose how to respond when we are orienting from our highest potential. To experience, then to be wounded, and to have the courage to look inside and learn and grow, then to shed and reorient to a new truth as one heals and evolves as a being.

Cedar helps us with all these things, just as our elders do, and she protects us to. Looking up through her branches there are many dead ones where now only moss gross. Her green is only at the canopy where she keeps growing, every day reaching new limits and understandings. These old limbs are ways that she has left behind, she has honored them and learn from them, and she has shed what no longer serves continual growth. The ground underneath and her bark are both void of all other plants; she possesses great protection of herself, is it pure inner space, not somewhere that just anything is allowed to share in. And above she offers protection from the rain, it is quiet and dry underneath. Yet this clear border of the inner sanctum of the being is not in total isolation from the outside, quite the contrary actually. The open ground welcomes visitors space to come share together inside her sanctuary. Her scaly armored protective leaves are fingerlike, soft, and flowing, and layers upon layers of leaves selectively choose what is allowed to penetrate to the depths of the heart space. The leaves meet the outer world, strong and protected yet gentle and permeable, and an overwhelming sense of home and peace is felt when they are broken or burned. Cedar smudge helps clear stress and when we are getting in her own way, it helps us remember our place and to feel connected to the world primarily by shedding unnecessary things and attachments, especially when they are self induced. Even her bark is made into cord, through and through she is strength that ties us together in connection.

Cedar is a potent immune protector due to all these same reasons. When in the early stages of the sickness recently cedar helped me strongly and swiftly respond with full force to the invasion. The resin taste protective, it helps bring awareness and the immune system is very much the regulation of the whole being responding to life challenges. The immune system and the connective tissues of the body are really what hold us all together, and the immune system exists with in the confines of the connective tissue. The connective tissue is nourished by essence, and it is truly what chooses to respond, all movement, growth, decisions, all response and culmination of directed intention is carried out through shifting tensions of the connective tissue. Cedar helps see what there is, but from a higher consciousness entwined with cedar the body is able to choose what needs doing to healthily respond, to regulate.

I recently became aware of a big piece of my healing quest. I respond to all stimulation by mounting an immune reaction as soon as something that impacts my nervous system in any way that demands change. My autonomic cellular subconscious response lacks the capacity of adaptation and it shuts down when confronted with sudden change, there is a trauma trigger and I'm not actually in conversation with the new change but instead festering in the waters of old stagnations. By being overwhelmed for so long by the world I have learned to adapt by subconsciously protecting myself by hiding inside, by not expressing emotions, not wanting anymore input that I don't know how to integrate into my broken navigation of present moment response. Not all stimulation is bad, but in order to shift this automatic response I must be willing to look at it and to resolve and remake the pattern of how I choose to respond. This requires me to first repair the border of myself, to heal the tissues of my insides that are in contact with the outside, to heal my leaky gut and reestablish my relationship with food to no longer be subjected to every single thing that comes into contact with me. To instead to selectively choose what comes in and what does not, just as cedar does. I can then use intention to choose that medicine I take into my body are safe even though they stimulate change. Through spiritual healing I look inward and I consciously choose to be in the world, I honor myself and must be true to my gifts, my being, to learn how to be in right relationship to the world. I am exploring using food as a medium for training myself as to what is safe and what still needs protection from instead of traumatically rejecting anything new that may possibly be a threat, another thing to process. Cedar may be a guide, offering deep core protection, to help me choose with awareness, actual response through orienting from truth and not reactive trauma, yet still selectively choosing what and how to engage that supports respect and honoring and confronting life lessons. From a place of looking inward, reflecting, letting go, and then glowing brighter, one is all the more able to meet life and facilitate soul evolution.

Suffering is seeking things to be different than the way that they are, rather than seeing what new aspect of human existence is being offered as a lesson. Cedar provide so much oxygen, deep green forest, generator of life energy and qi and prana, of the limitless heavenly realm. The throat and lungs command respiration, and we are connected to the world around us through breath. The lungs draw in all the heavenly qi for the spirit to use in all its processes, and it especially drives the fluids of the body through which all processes take place. Again the kidney is the water, fluids, yin, nourishing essence, and the lungs take in qi that regulates and drives the fluids that allow for the regulation and distribution through the waterways. The fluids also protect our outer border at the level of the skin, this place where the immune system and the higher self regulates in response to the world. Thus sadness, grief, and longing all deny choosing to take it in qi, to choose to not meet life by inhibiting respiration, by limiting choosing to be in contact with the unknown that is beyond the self. We breathe in creation and are in relationship to every single thing through space, the air and metal element, the energetic field that holds all knowledge, the field. Cedar empowers us to be by honoring and reflecting, the courage to purge to then be able to choose to the present, aware of all that we carry with us that is inhibiting full articulation of the respiration and thus lack of full embodiment of the spirit, and supports us to do what needs doing. Cedar is a sagely medicine for those willing to do the work, all is revealed in the deep stillness of the heart of the forest. It's name is arborvitae, the tree of life, she offers herself with so many gifts, so many teaching, an appropriate first plant to open the apprenticeship.

Thank you cedar, come and be with me as I walk my path, I welcome you into my being. Please help me remember my truth and my gifts, please help protect my body as I do my work. This world is often overwhelming and I seek aid and strength to be able to be the authentically sensitive light bringer that I am, I welcome your protection as my ally. I honor you, and I thank you for your spirit.