The Plant Spirit Podcast with Sara Artemisia

Celebrating the Seasons with Marigold with Denai Grace Fuller and Katie Rose Molina Browning

• Sara Artemisia / Denai Grace Fuller / Katie Rose Molina Browning • Episode 71

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#71 - Join us for a wonderful conversation with Folk Healer Denai Grace Fuller and Herbalist Katie Rose Molina Browning as we explore the nourishing wisdom of Marigold and how this sacred flower serves as both healer and a bridge between worlds. 

In this episode, you'll discover:

  • The many names and folklore of Marigold, including how it connects to the light within us and the light of the Summer
  • Traditional and ancestral ways that people have worked with Marigold
  • Medicinal virtues of Marigold and how it creates pathways of light for ancestral connection

Denai Grace Fuller is a Belizean-born, 34-year esoteric practitioner interested in the indigenous cultures and traditions of her region. Named a healer at birth, she is a Tul'ix (Dragonfly) Indigenous Arts practitioner, an accomplished Tarot guide, teacher & storyteller, as well, she has developed classes in plant & herbal therapies, and is the founder of Moonflower Medicine, LLC.

Katie Rose Molina Browning is a Certified Herbalist, Flower Essence Practitioner, QiGong Instructor, Sound Healer & Earth Centered Ceremonialist. Her deep soul journey of connection with the wisdom of Nature and Earth medicine traditions has been the focus of her heart and career for over 25 years. She is the founder and director of Embodying Herbalism, an educational program and healing practice based at her home in Costa Rica. Katie weaves many sacred tools into her offerings to tend to your whole being. She receives clients both in-person and online; runs herbal mentorships, workshops & classes; facilitates healing circles and collaborates on holistic, life enhancing immersions and retreats throughout Costa Rica and the world.

Join Denai and Katie at the Ancestors Among Us retreat, October 29th – November 4th: https://moonflowermedicine.love/yucatan-retreat

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You can find Katie at: https://embodyingherbalism.com/

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Learn how to communicate with plant consciousness in the free workshop on How to Learn Plant Language: https://www.learnplantlanguage.com/

Sara Artemisia:

Welcome to the Plant Spirit Podcast with Sara Artemisia on connecting with plant consciousness and the healing wisdom of Nature. To learn how to communicate directly with plant consciousness, you can check out the free workshop at www.learnplantlanguage.com and for Financial Coaching, Business Development Coaching, Flower Essence therapy, or one to one mentorship sessions, visit www.multidimensionalnature.com. I'm your host, Sara Artemisia, and I'm excited to introduce our next guests to the show today. Denai Grace Fuller is a Belizean-born esoteric practitioner working with the Indigenous cultures and traditions of her region. Named a healer at birth. She is a Tul'ix Indigenous Arts practitioner, Tarot guide, teacher, storyteller and founder of Moonflower Medicine. Katie Rose Molina Browning is a Certified Herbalist, Flower Essence Practitioner, Qigong instructor, sound healer and Earth-Centered Ceremonialist, working with the wisdom of Nature and Earth medicine traditions. She is the founder and director of Embodying Herbalism, an educational program and healing practice based at her home in Costa Rica, so Katie and Denai. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm so excited for our conversation about Marigold together.

Katie Rose Browning:

Thank you so much, Sara, for having us. It is just an absolute pleasure. We really appreciate being able to be here.

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, feeling very happy with these bright orange Marigolds, and thank you for a lovely introduction. Very happy to be with you.

Sara Artemisia:

Well, thank you so yeah, just absolutely love Marigold, and I'd love to hear if you, if you'd be open to sharing with us a bit about the original name of this flower and about your relationship with this wonderful plant?

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, thank you so much. So I wanted to first say that the name, the Latin name of the Marigold that we're talking about, is Tagetes erecta, and that sometimes it gets confused with, I know it was for me, actually, when I first started my herbal journey, it gets confused with the Calendula officinalis, that a lot of us know and work with and love and put on our skin. And so the Tagetes is actually its origin is from Central America, and the Calendula has origin in Europe. And so the Tagetes is genus is the one that we are speaking to. And so, the Marigold for me is one that I have gotten to know over time, but it's truly one that being down in Central America, I've gotten to know even more, and so that is where my relationship has really like deepened with it a lot, and and where I feel that I now know its use very deeply because of being able to have deeper relationship with it in person, and it grows so well down there as well. So.

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, I think it's important to know that it is native to Mexico and that region in Central America. And so the Latin name, of course, follows colonization for the Aztec Toltec culture. The original name was cempohualxochitl, that's the Nahuatl name, and the way the Spanish said cempohualxochitl was cempasúchil. And so commonly in that area of the world, that's what you will hear it be called is cempasúchil, of course I'm from Belize, below Mexico, and have had a mopon maya midwife. What you know, that was near and dear to me and worked with me for many years, in addition to being my midwife and in her language, the Marigold is called Ichtepu, Ichtepu. And anytime you ge that little Icht in a word, it actually is pointing to the fact that there is some reverent femininity involved in what we're speaking to even in the word Tul'ix that you mentioned Indigenous arts. Tul'ix is dragonfly, but the Icht is going to denote some sort of femininity. And so that the Marigold would be called Ichtepu is telling us it's sacred to the goddesseshell, but also feminine.

Sara Artemisia:

Yeah, wonderful. And, you know, I just love how Marigold is so bright. And I'm curious if you could share a bit about your experience of this brightness and how this might correlate to the light within us and and seasonally, the light of summer.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is something that just feels so beautiful to me, because there's this piece of the doctrine of signatures, right, like how plants really share with us their uses, and how they work with us through their colors and how they grow. And there's so much in this for how I see Marigold and so, you know, it blooms very much in the North around the Summer Solstice, but then it continues for quite a while, like all the way into the fall. And it's so bright and so gorgeous, and has a lot of relationship with the sun. It comes from that Asteraceae family, too. And so it even follows the sun in in its bloom. And so also in, you know, in Costa Rica, for instance, it kind of blooms. It's one of the things that I can go out to and always see blooming. And it propagates itself really well, too. So there's always like, I can deadhead it and spread the seeds, and it's continually propagating, which is just really gorgeous. And so there's so much correspondence, though, with this in the being as well. So even you know, when we look to the Chakras as well, that orange, that deep orange color that has relationship with our Sacral Chakra and with, you know, that aspect of the womb and the portal of the womb as well. And then we also get the Yellow Marigolds, which, you know, have a lot of correspondence to with the with the third Chakra and our sense of will, and, you know, our our light that we shine into the world. And so to, you know, really seeing this portal of the the womb portal, and that birthing light, and that time of year when we are in in the North anyway, in that Summer Solstice, when we are at, like the the biggest time of year in the light, but also remembering the light that we carry, and also, you know the, how it blooms for so long in carrying that light that also has connection with with those that are on the other side of the veil. And so that connection of the light with with the ancestors, and so it's really beautiful, too to see there are even other plants that have this that bloom during Summer Solstice, but have reverence in times that are when that veil is thin and carry helped carry that light. So, yeah.

Denai Grace Fuller:

Which direction to go with this? But it makes me think of the folklore, which is from the Toltec, Aztec culture. You know, they have a little story of two young friends, a boy and a girl, who just always played together from childhood and loved each other. And you know, maybe they didn't call it love. They were just having fun, and they would go up onto the mountain top and they would throw flowers to the sun god and offer it. And as they grew older, their friendship did develop into a love, and at some point, Xochitl was the woman's name, which means flower, and the boy's name was Hui Huitzilin, which means hummingbird. And at some point, Huitzilin was called to war, and he died in that war. And of course, Xochitl, heart was just broken, and she went up to that mountaintop where they went so often as children, and beseeched the Sun God, Tonatiuh like, oh my gosh, I don't want to live without my love. I don't want to be here. And when a beam of sun light hit her head, she turned into the beautiful Marigold, and that bright flower attracted a hummingbird to the flower. So there's this beautiful story that's so just full of light and love. And you know, Katie also spoke, spoke to this portal. So of course, this is a really important flower used in celebrations, for welcoming our dead, for opening up those portals in all kinds of cultures. Definite, definitely in the Mexican culture, throughout Central America, throughout the Caribbean, this flower will be used when someone has passed away for one reason or another, but definitely at all ancestral reverence ceremonies. And what it's doing is creating this path of light and opening up the door to the other realm and asking the ancestors to come, come, come, be with this bright flower. Of course, it also has that scent, and that's also in the story, because when Xochitl opened up her 20 petals, and that's what the name that you know, going back to the original name cempohualxochitl, means 20 petaled flower, and when she opened up those 20 petals, the scent went out, which is just, it's such a interesting scent, you know, Katie and I were talking about how it goes deep, deep, deep into your brain, and kind of brings up a memory of long ago. But the scent also keeps away the discordant energies, or the, you know, the souls you do not want coming through that portal. So, it's a, it's really a beautiful flower. I feel like there's so many points that you talked about with the portal and all that that I'm not touching, but that's a little bit of the story of the background of Marigold.

Katie Rose Browning:

And I feel like to something, to add on that that just got really stimulated is this other piece with the doctrine of signatures too, with the plant. It's so amazing. You know that Marigolds are often planted around other plants to be their protectors, because they have, you know, the vermafuge, where they keep worms away and their insecticide, and they help protect the other plants. And it has a lot of those uses as well, internally, like physically with us, too. So it's so beautiful how there's these correlations as well, and it is such a protective plant. So it, you know, really works within our system as well, to be very much being a protector, but also ridding what we what may be off in the bacterium, or whether we are carrying worms or things like that. And that's really one of its main uses, actually, in Costa Rica, that I didn't know until I started living there, too that you know, really one of the main reasons they use it there is for this purpose to help. It's also anti-parasitic, and so to help the gastrointestinal track, you know, which there's so much more to talk about on the levels of how it works physically, but just even in that correlation, you know, it's so beautiful to always see how there's these full dynasms of correlation, and how it works with us in these spiritual ways, and, you know, maybe unseen, but it's also reflecting that in how it is a protector of the of the plants that it grows by, and it's also doing that in our bodies, so.

Sara Artemisia:

I love that just so many different ways and levels that the plants work and how they are reflecting their healing gifts through all these different levels. It's so incredibly powerful. And you know, when you were speaking to that aspect of with the ancestors, having this path of light, kind of an experience, I've definitely had that experience when I've journeyed with Marigold. And I was curious if you could share a bit more about some of the traditional and ancestral ways that people have worked with Marigold?

Denai Grace Fuller:

I think I'll take the question and just answer from the perspective of Belize, you know, because I know Mexico has their own ways of working with this beautiful flower, and so, you know, and I want to say, like so, much of the knowledge was actually lost in the conquest, because when the Spaniards came and saw the importance anytime they saw anything being used ritually, especially around ancestral worship, this is something they really attempted to destroy. So I don't know that even all the ways and all the information exist in how it has been used historically in Belize, though there's a strong tradition from the Maya culture of using those flowers in spiritual baths. And because, again, because of the protective aspect of the flower. And I, you know. And one thing I wanted to mention, and what Katie had just said, is, yes, it has all these medicinal qualities that can that are so potent that can also be used for babies, like I've used it when my one of my sons had really bad colic. And why I'm bringing that up is because I've used it in spiritual baths for children, like one client came and said, we live in this old house, our the grandma just died in the house. The kids are having nightmares, can you help me with this situation? And I said, sure, come on over. We'll do a spiritual bath. Which bath is a strange word, because it's more of an aspersion of throwing this holy flower water over a person's body and auric field, and the children sat down on the mom's lap and literally one splash on those kids, and they went running around the yard. That's all it took. It was so fast. They were better. They were happy. And so I just told the mom to, like, sit and continued with the Copal and the prayers and the flower water for her spirit, too because it had caused a lot of anxiety. So the spiritual bathing is really important. And you know, Belize has many different tribal, I guess peoples that live there five different ones, but one is called the Gurunagu, and they are descendants from Africa, and they have a really strong ritual of using Marigold water by just having a bowl of flower water at funerals and wakes, and anybody who's definitely dealt with the body is going to dip their hands into the water and then disperse themselves with some of it. And really, anyone who's gone to the funeral is encouraged to also dip their fingers into the water and so that you're not carrying any spirits or ghosts home. So it's really used spiritually. You know, lots of ways to use it medicinally, but a very strong spiritual use of this particular flower with the deceased,

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah.

Denai Grace Fuller:

And spirits or ghosts or

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah,

Denai Grace Fuller:

things from the other worlds.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, exactly. And one of the first times I was introduced to Marigold was actually from a Belizean. Belizean woman, Miss Beatrice Hortense. And it was actually when she was visiting to Colorado, but it was she was teaching a workshop on on vaginal steaming. And the Marigold just being of such utter importance to the vaginal steams, it's one, basically of only nine other plants that she would ever use in vaginal steaming. And how it was fascinating to me then, because there you know, first of all, the fact that womb steaming was new to me. But also this being like a really deep tradition, and, you know, I work with that now, too in my practice. But you know how it's really the importance of of the steam. It is 90% of the health of of the woman, too just how much is, how much the steam in helping to deal with, you know, various different ailments within the womb, from bacterium to prolapse of the uterus to various different things. Marigold has a lot of importance in the vaginal steams as well, and when we think about too, which goes back to kind of this dynasm as well like it is fascinating because of how dynamic it is with both its resins as well as its volatile oils. It's one of the most complex of any plant, of any known plant, with like the dynasm of its resins and volatile oils, and so to just how it works with through that portal of the steam in its dynasm is both very spiritual as well, as you know, working with very physical ailments as well. And so that's definitely another kind of traditional piece, and it's not something that's very known. There's very few cultures now that really work with vaginal steams, and it is, again, like one of the most vital to be in those steams.

Denai Grace Fuller:

So yeah, yeah, vaginal steaming is something I offer in my practice, and it for me, it's more about an energetic healing of things women are carrying in the womb, but it is such a strong part of Belizean medicine. I mean, if we go back to that doctrine of signature you're talking about with the bright orange flower, I mean, just to drink the tea helps with menstrual cycle irregularities and menstrual cramps, and then to take the steam. And of course, we never steam while we're menstruating, but if you did a few days prior, it would help clean out maybe old stagnant blood that the lining hasn't let go of.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, definitely. And so also, you know, another thing that I have done quite a lot is have the miracle placed on top of the uterus as well, and on the umbilicus. And that is something that now looking into it has, you know, been done in other times and other traditions, too where the plant is placed over top of the umbilicus, and it has that same, you know, helping to connect that portal and bring through the light and transmute and transform and alchemize, kind of the energies that that are there.

Denai Grace Fuller:

Well, that is so interesting. And maybe this is going to go off the rails, but okay, going back to the name of the plant, right, the Cempohualxochitl, 20 flowered, 20 leaf, flower plant, the 20 is so important in these cultures, it's the there is a sacred calendar for the Maya called the Cholq'ij, and it's made up of 20 energies by 13 days. And if you add that up, that's 260 days. Well, that's the full gestation period of a child, right? And that 20, every energy in the 20s says when you've gone through those all that cycle, that you're a full human being. And the umbilical cord is like our lifeline in into the world, right? Yes, it's our first mouth that's eating from our mother, and if you're putting the flower there to bring about some healing, I no one's ever said this to me. So this isn't something I've learned from any of my teachers or even in the culture, but I always thought there was a

Katie Rose Browning:

Oh, right.

Denai Grace Fuller:

And specifically, the wholeness of correlation between this flower and the calendars. the human being.

Katie Rose Browning:

Right.

Denai Grace Fuller:

And so that, like, you know, you'd put it on the umbilical cord, makes total sense to me.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, because I feel

Denai Grace Fuller:

On the navel sorry, on the navel, I misspoke.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, no, but I think I misspoke it actually. But I think that's a big piece, too and it's something I kind of want to bring forward, because you just brought that up Denai's, you know, I feel like you were speaking to as well, like how some so much has been lost over time, especially with these plants that have so much veneration and have been so important, and yet, through colonization and through there's been so much lost as well. And one of the pieces for me that's been really vital, now that I have it growing, and it's growing all the time, and I'm working with it has been just to go to it and work with it, and almost how it's like downloading, you know, like how, where does it want to go on the body, and just being guided to that, you know? And it's like, I know there's tradition in that, and how it's been used at some point, and yet there's also this piece of, like, what does the DNA remembers and what the soul remembers, almost in this knowinglike how the Marigold is, is even speaking through our cellular memory, through our DNA, even when we don't, haven't necessarily been told or spoken or taught that way, necessarily. But there's this remembrance that starts to just happen, you know? So, yeah.

Sara Artemisia:

I love that with the plants that direct transmission, yeah, that we experience when we are in direct relationship with them, is unparalleled. It's, it's phenomenal, yeah, and particularly with these plants that are both portal plants, their bridge plants and their protectors. These are great plants to be learning from, just so powerful. I'm curious if you could tell us a bit about why this flower is so strongly associated with ancestral reverence in your experience?

Katie Rose Browning:

Well, I feel like that has a lot to do. I mean, obviously there's really, like, these deep traditions. And one thing I just want to speak to real quick, which is kind of along the lines of what we were just speaking to, but is that the association, with the light and that connection. So there's a lot, too especially in in Central American culture, you know, of it being the brightest flower, and it being this flower too, that has, like this strongest scent, you know in this way that it's, that it's helping those souls to basically be guided like the path, to be laid through the scent and through the light, to be able to come into connection with this realm again and be remembered like there's so much in the in the remembrance.

Denai Grace Fuller:

I mean, I think Coco, the movie, the Disney movie, did a pretty good job, honestly, they worked with Indigenous Mexicans to really understand the use and the importance of the flower. But it's, you know, I always find the the knowing of the why in the folk tales, in the folklore and and that story of you know, the the young woman just beseeching the sun deity, please help me. The love of my life is gone. Like, how can I be torn from this person and and him witnessing their pure and true love and saying, Yeah, you can't, you know. And then turning her into this flower so that they could be together, and allowing the deceased warrior to come back as the hummingbird. It's the ancestral pieces in the story. It crossed time and space, yeah, and now we know that flower can work with us to go to other realms. And I think you were starting to just really speak to all the different plants that start blooming at summer solstice, that take in all the sun when I first moved to the Pacific Northwest, I had never lived anywhere cold, and I was working with an energy healer, and she was telling me it was going to be critical for me to take in foods, more teas or anything that filled themselves up with sun. For instance, Sunflower seeds was one thing she said, or eggs, because, you know, the hens can't lay without enough sunlight into the day. But also drinking Marigold tea, because it starts blooming at that time of the year. It's taking in so much sun, it can take in full sun, and then it comes into your body, warms you up and brings in all that light and connects you to your ancestors.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then thinking, too of like, I love. Thank you for bringing that back up, Denai, you know, just all of these plants that are blooming at this time in that relationship to that time of year, too, when we are really going fully back into kind of the darkness at that time of year. And so remembering how to carry that light you know within us also has that connection of remembrance and remembrance through, through that relationship in our in our beings, of our, of the ancestor, of that ancestral being in ourselves, too. You know that connection. And so one thing I wanted to mention, too is like the the Ofrendas, the offerings. You know that this is such a very important and sacred flower for all the offerings that are done during the time of of the Day of the Dead of Día de (los) Muertos) of Hanal Pixan. And so the offerings of this plant, it's it's that light from the, from the vibrant orange and from the smell and and that those are laid in the offerings. And it's, it's that same kind of thing of where it's, it's the light, and the light just the pathway, you know,

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, I mean, and think of like in Western culture, this isn't just easy conversation. People have fear around spirits or ghosts or ancestors or, you know, this kind of working intimately with the deceased. And I go back to those children who experience the spiritual bath, one splash of water and their fear of the ghost that they thought that they were experiencing in their home was gone. And so I think the Marigold holds that piece, too because when we're going into realms that we consider dark, it's like having a torch, a bright light that there's nothing to be afraid of. Here, there's a light that's guiding you, protecting you and showing you the way and keeping you safe with that beautiful scent.

Katie Rose Browning:

And that really brings to just like it brings emotion, actually, like that remembrance of relationship with the plant beings that are there, guiding us and holding us, you know, this is a very strong and beautiful, almost like that gorgeous grandmother spirit that is there, like guiding and protecting and holding. I really feel that with the Marigold a lot like just this real strength, like that grandmother that's just got you, you know, and and remembering, yeah, that, that guidance of the of the spirit of the plant herself, yeah, Ichtepu. Ichtepu.

Sara Artemisia:

So beautiful. And, yeah, just so incredibly important to listen to the torch bearers of the plant realm, vitally important, right now.

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, torch bear, yes, indeed.

Sara Artemisia:

Vitally important. I'm curious if there are any interesting or little known medicinal virtues of Marigold that you could share with us?

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah. I mean, it's interesting, because I feel like some of them, we've already tidbit it a little bit, but I feel like a couple that I definitely work with and haven't been shared thus far, actually has to do with the flower essence. It's definitely flower essences are just, I love working with a lot, and have worked with a lot the Marigold flower essence since I now have, again, have relationship and ability to make them in Costa Rica, and I feel like it's again, a through line of this light and protection, but it's as I've worked with the flower essence, more with miracles, it's also about this alchemization. That's transmutation of some of the things that we carry inside, that we do fear in, that in those places that we might consider dark or we don't want to look at or habitual ways that we're doing, things that need support in that transmutation, and need that torch bearing of light to kind of be seen and be able to be alchemized through, through the being, like through the whole being, obviously, which is what I love with flower essences, is that we're really working with all bodies. But yeah, I would say there's this aspect that's really about this transmutation. Yeah, again, like an optimization of the light in the being. And that has been really profound with some of my clients as well that are just like really working in myself too, but really working through things that have a lot of whether we want to hold them and hide them because of shame or fear or guilt or whatever, and able to just really alchemize that light in the being.

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, I mean, I'm also thinking medicinally like that. You know, we mentioned the menstrual cycle. But also it just works with having too much gas or wind in the the intestinal track. And so you could drink a tea of that. And like I said, the colic with my babies, so it helps, you know, in that whole digestive system, which I think is incredible to like to just move through whatever you know needs to move and feel good in there. Yeah, I always make to a Florida Water, which is, you know, like a protective spray, and my main ingredient has to be the Marigold, and mainly for the scent, because it just brings such a lovely scented fragrance to it, but obviously for the power of the protection. So I know that's not quite medicinal, but it's important when you're doing any kind of esoteric work that you have your ways to take care of yourself. And that one is super important like everything gets sprayed. My room, me, massage table, tools, everything, my hands.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, so,

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, I just want to bring that one in, because I think that's an that, like the Florida waters, are very much part of, especially the diaspora of Central Americans, and a part of the tools that spiritual healers are using is that Agua De Florida,

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, and it's great, because that really makes me think of two. So I don't have calendula available. And this is kind of maybe a bit full circle, because there are, they are different plants, and yet they do have a lot of similarities, too. And so I don't have Calendula available to me there easily at all, and they do have a lot of similar volatile oil compounds and resin compounds, and they so I work with Marigold, too in my infused oils for some of the things that you would think of for Calendula as well. And so for you know, we deal with a lot of Fungus down there. So I make an infused oil, and it's actually really fantastic anti-fungal. It also is emollient and definitely helps with a lot of skin issues. It can help to heal wounds. So it has some similarities that you would use Calendula for, but I make a Marigold infused oil, and actually that Marigold infused oil also gets worked with in other ways, too particularly ways that we were just talking about, and sometimes gets rubbed on the moon and in various places to help bring in the light. But it's an, it's a really fantastic anti-fungal and so I just kind of want to highlight that a little bit, because I think it's something that may or may not really be understood, and that's another reason that it's again, planted around other plants as well, because it's an anti-fungal. Besides being a Vermis, besides being an insecticide, it a natural insecticide. It's a really wonderful anti fungal and we deal with that all the time in the droppings. Basically, we're just one big walking fungus sometimes. So yeah,

Sara Artemisia:

So funny. And yeah, I love the plants that are both the protectors of the human realm and of the plant realm. These are excellent, excellent plants to get to know so and so. I know you have a retreat coming up as well. So could you tell us about this?

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, we're super excited about our next retreat. It's the second time Katie and I will be working together on leading women. It's a women's retreat into Central, one to Mexico, into Merida, Mexico. And this one is to experience what is called Hanal Pixán in that area, which is day of which is the Maya version of Day of the Dead.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, we're really we're calling it the ancestors among us, which also Denai makes an incredible essence, by the way, and so, yeah, this retreat is really about being able to work with our own ancestral connections in a way of learning from a culture that has such deep reverence and understanding of this. So we will be we're so blessed to be in a place where we can really be in witness of this, and we're going to be experiencing. The celebrations of this, we are also going to be working a lot with the Marigold, not only in our own work with it, but also seeing how it's used in offering this and and there's a whole ceremony that's actually a whole part of one day of how the Marigold is is offered there in their celebrations, and so, yeah.

Denai Grace Fuller:

Yeah, it's definitely a cultural and immersion in a very respectful way. But at the same time doing some of our own personal, spiritual work. We have a private hacienda. We'll build our own altars. We're not trying to culturally appropriate anything. We're really attempting to wake those who join us back up to their own ancestral roots. All of us are Indigenous. All of us have a place where we're connected. All of us have done ancestral work at some point in our lineage, or really honored, you know, work that's not the word necessarily, but honored our ancestors, remembered them and stayed in our roots, and we're hoping to just lead women to that experience.

Katie Rose Browning:

And there's going to be quite a few amazing experiences that we will be able to, yeah, honorably, be a part of. And we're also going to be visiting a, really, quite a few sacred sites, but one of them, in particular, the Ishmael, which is a archeological site that, yeah, is really special. So there will be a lot of special experiences that will be a part of this as well. So really, really excited.

Sara Artemisia:

So great. And so tell us again, when is the retreat, and how can people find out more about it and register?

Denai Grace Fuller:

The retreat is October 29th through November 4. I believe registration is on my website, which is moonflowermedicine.love, there's an easy banner scrolling across it that says, tell me more about the Yucatan or something like that. So, if you just make your way to the website, it would be easy to find out more information, request an itinerary of our day to day activities, what we have planned, and yeah, thank you, Sara for allowing us that time to share this. We, I love retreat work. I love retreat work with Katie.

Sara Artemisia:

Yeah, you two are amazing at it as well. So this is going to be a really incredible one. So yeah, thank you for facilitating it and and thank you so much for joining us today. So wonderful to sit together and community and connect with our loved ones, the plants just so great to see you both again.

Katie Rose Browning:

Thank you so much, Sara, it's been a real honor. And, yeah, just having us all together here, we really appreciate being here and your time and,

Denai Grace Fuller:

Thank you. Thank you to your listeners who have interest in the plants and the flowers. It's amazing.

Katie Rose Browning:

Yeah, and thank you to the spirit of the Marigold. And thank you to all of our plant sisters that are here walking with us.

Sara Artemisia:

And thanks so much for listening and joining us today on the Plant Spirit Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it, and please follow to subscribe, leave a review and look forward to seeing you on the next episode you.