Hawthorn's gift of softness: medicine for the Autumn season

The other day a client of mine came in to my office feeling really anxious, and I could feel that just beneath that surface of the anxiety was some long held grief.

As she lay on the table, I gave her a couple drops of Hawthorn tincture.

I guided her to connect with the plant spirit, and I could feel Hawthorn helping to soften her through layers of hardened protection to find the heart of herself.

She let out some tears. She softened. She took a deep breath. And she said, “wow, I can feel myself again. I feel softer...”

...This month in the Golden Stone Graduate Community, we’re focusing on the topic of Surrender. On our call last week we invited Hawthorn to join us, and she invited us to lay down a burden, a stress, or something too heavy to carry ourselves at her feet.

Hawthorn helped us all feel held, and supported us each to find more ease, peace, and surrender in the midst of uncertainty, transition, worry, or anxiety.

Hawthorn is a magnificent spirit, and as you can tell by the stories above, a wonderful ally to help us to both soften and surrender. A perfect ally for this time of year as the darkness invites us inwards.

Hawthorn is a generous, loving, and truly magical plant that brings us back to the heart of ourselves, and to the heart of connection with the spiritual nature of life.

Long seen as a portal to the Otherworld in Celtic lore, Hawthorn truly shines at this time of year when the veils between the worlds thin, and we have the opportunity to tune into the softer voices that lay just beyond. The softer voice of our heart. The softer whispers of our ancestors and the spiritual guides that overlay this reality.

Hawthorn turns on its head the notion that to be successful is to move fast, work hard and achieve accolades. Hawthorn reorients us to honor the softer, sacred work of the heart. The sacred work of grief. The sacred work of listening, and presence with our own internal rhythm.

This sacred work that is so vital to the living heart of this world. That is so vital to the balance and harmony of our planet.

The thing is, in order to access this sacred work, in order to find the spiritual, in order to hear the soft call of our body, or really listen to the wisdom of a plant, we have to connect with the softer aspects of ourselves, not the forcing current that so many of us operate inside.

Hawthorn helps us soften in order to connect to our rich inner world, and the magical Otherworld at this potent time of year. And helps us connect with the earnest rhythm that guides us from within, keeping us close to the heartbeat of the Earth.

PRACTICE: There's so many ways you can work with Hawthorn this season, but my favorite way is to simply find a tree, and sit under it.

Offer the tree something from your heart: a moment of grace or gratitude, a song, some dried herbs...

Taste a berry, and just sit and be still.

Track how you feel.

If you want to work in depth with Hawthorn, I encourage you to join Call Into Darkness: Deepening Plant Allyship, which features Hawthorn in week 3, at the very heart of our time together.

In the course, Hawthorn brings us into a peaceful and loving space with ourselves, and invites us to forgive ourselves, to unburden our hearts, and to find some relief in the rhythmic waves of our breath.

We begin 11/6/22.