00:04:30.500and coming back to yourself here feeling the potency of this space created feeling the lands
00:04:38.680the oceans all the waters the trees the plant people the stone people the animal people all
00:04:46.160of the beings that are here for us here and now and for you bringing forward your medicine and
00:04:53.040acknowledging the power that you hold and just bringing yourself back into the space
00:04:58.380thank you i can feel it i feel calmer than i did 10 minutes ago thank you so much asha now i
00:05:11.800reached out to you when i was about i don't know 15 20 pages into your book because like i said
00:05:21.100it's compassionate i'm talking about the book here but it's also confrontational and i i found
00:05:27.340have been finding it to be the perfect balance of those two things. I just want to read a little
00:05:31.660something. You dove into the book this way, so let's dive into our interview this way.
00:05:38.040This is from the book, everybody, I'm reading from Ash's book.
00:05:41.460In our current climate, conversations around the harm of appropriation are vital for true
00:05:48.480reconciliation, equity, and healing. I share these conversations here because if non-Indigenous1.00
00:05:55.340folks want to learn about and use Indigenous teachings, it's essential to be equally invested
00:06:03.220in learning about how colonization, oppression, and racism have affected our people. I understand
00:06:10.860why folks want to learn about our medicine ways. They are so beautiful and filled with so much
00:06:15.500depth and connection. Our heritage is filled with richness, tradition, and teachings that continue
00:06:21.520to connect us to earth and spirit. The intention of my letter was not to tell people to turn away
00:06:28.440from our medicines and teachings. Rather, it was an invitation to come closer and really see
00:06:34.760Indigenous people and the issues that we deal with in the present day. I believe we can hold
00:06:41.900both. Maybe we'll start with the letter. You mentioned the letter in that passage. What was
00:06:47.640this letter that you wrote and what prompted you to do so? So it was called or it is called Dear
00:06:53.460White Woman Who Wants to Be Like Me and it was a letter that had been in my bones or in my heart
00:06:59.940for the past probably 10 years before I actually released it into the world and I had a dear friend
00:07:06.640that I would call up every time I would see things that were appropriative or harmful really it was
00:07:12.760harmful people will always say I'm sorry I offended you I'm not offended you harmed me
00:07:18.600right it's like it's a very different energy because offended implies that there's something
00:07:24.360on me right there's something it's like still on you you have to deal with that so it was just
00:07:29.620this taking this extraction that extraction feeling I'd feel it in my body and it was around
00:07:36.060the time where social media when I first started my practice social media wasn't even a thing
00:07:41.320um so when it became a thing I would see these like Instagram ads or so or Facebook ads of just
00:07:47.640folks using white sage and waving them around like in a joking manner um it just felt different
00:07:54.660using the term spirit animal in a joking manner um just using our medicines in those ways and not
00:08:01.440even really paying attention to the people they were taking them from or our history and I'll have
00:08:07.280to say our history has become way more present in the last couple years, but I've been talking
00:08:12.200about these things on social media since I was in the beginning, and nobody cared. So it was
00:08:17.640frustrating. It was frustrating to see nobody's really seeing me or hearing my voice. Nobody
00:08:23.280really cares about our people. They just want to take what they feel they are worthy and entitled
00:08:28.220to taking, because there's also that aspect, and not even paying attention to who they're taking
00:08:34.000it from or the history behind why our medicines and our ceremonies were banned in our country
00:08:39.180why it's hard for me as an indigenous person to even share them or practice them myself yet all
00:08:45.760of these white women were practicing with ease so that all just was waiting to be shared and I
00:08:52.520wrote a blog and I'd had a blog it wasn't really popular or anything I wrote a blog and then the0.66
00:08:58.800blog post was shared I think it was 23,000 times like on the blog post that's what it said by the
00:09:04.740end of it all and it just really went viral and folks were lots of them were mad and lots of them
00:09:12.000were trying to defend themselves and so people flooded my inboxes with well I have passed lives
00:09:17.260as an Indigenous person I'm allowed to take this and I you know just all this defense and
00:09:24.060i never said that you didn't i never said any of those things i was just like can you hold the
00:09:29.780whole truth can you see what's happening to our indigenous to i don't want to say our that's not
00:09:35.380proper for um non-indigenous folks to say that but to the indigenous people that are living on0.64
00:09:39.820turtle island right now because people just want to close their eyes to that and they want to look
00:09:44.580away so that's where it came from and i think there was some sacred rage in there well there was
00:09:49.920and that kind of exploded everything i'm i'm glad you said it again because i have it in my notes
00:09:56.480you use the word extraction and to me this is so fundamental because it ties it to what white
00:10:05.020supremacy is also doing to the earth that's the the term that we use when we're taking resources
00:10:10.220from the earth and so to apply it to cultural appropriation i thought was brilliant i hadn't
00:10:16.380heard that before can you talk a little bit more about extraction from land and extraction from
00:10:24.980culture and how those two things are related goodness well I think we are earth so if you
00:10:31.440think about that and indigenous people we've always believed that and seen that so it actually
00:10:35.780is a direct correlation it seems like that extraction from those most connected to the earth1.00
00:10:41.280are the ones that we extract from first um is quite remarkable and and harmful and really for
00:10:51.040me it was just about you know can you can you just see like I think the most painful part of it was
00:10:57.840the fact that it took me so long for me to feel worthy even to learn my language because that was
00:11:04.520like extinguished like they wanted to strip the Indian out of the child they wanted being an
00:11:10.820indigenous person was the worst thing you could be so they wanted to strip everything away and
00:11:15.620then as these practices come back all of a sudden it's like oh yeah we forget about that part like1.00
00:11:20.440we just want to we just want to literally extract the parts that we think are beautiful the parts
00:11:25.320that we want to use um it's the same as extracting from the earth we're just going to take the gold
00:11:30.020or the diamonds or the oil um and we're going to just pay no attention to the um to the rest
00:11:37.920to the rest that that we really should be caring about humanity the earth the animals the plants
00:11:43.260the trees like all of these parts that we cannot live without yet that's what we we just stomp
00:11:50.680over it and that's what I feel a lot it's like that entitlement we're just gonna stomp all over
00:11:55.960it yeah I think I mean that entitlement is the same thing that you know Becky with the
00:12:03.000sage stick the size of a baby's arm and you know people who are cutting down old growth forests I
00:12:10.540mean to me like you say it's the exact same kind of entitlement um you mentioned feeling not worthy
00:12:18.340and you talk about in your book your own I don't want to say struggle um I want to say whatever
00:12:26.660the opposite of struggle is um about your experience with lupus and i know a lot of our
00:12:35.580coven members and a lot of our listeners myself included um have chronic illnesses and there was
00:12:41.980this one line where i i almost burst into tears you wrote i tried to live like i saw everyone else
00:12:50.420living and there's something about this notion of like while some people feel entitled to
00:12:57.300everything other people feel unworthy of anything can you talk a little bit about how you0.99
00:13:06.640came out of that feeling of unworthiness as it relates to chronic illness and indigeneity0.95
00:13:13.380if you like yeah well I think that lack of worthiness piece is sort of imbued in our1.00
00:13:19.840bones because just even like you are not you should not even be human you know you're not
00:13:24.580even a human being we don't even see you is like is is in that generational trauma that's just
00:13:30.280that's just kind of there it's always marinating there so I had to see that and see that that's
00:13:35.560not my voice like first asking whose voice is this is this a collective voice ancestral voice
00:13:40.880just being really clear about those things um I know from my mind place that we're infinitely
00:13:46.380worthy like we come to the space worthy but clearing some of that generational trauma and
00:13:51.620harm has been such a big part of that journey of reclamation of worth and then taking up space I
00:13:57.960think taking up space you know as an Indigenous person in this country online especially I have
00:14:04.920to say is really huge even in the publishing world um Hay House My Publisher has very few
00:14:11.600Indigenous authors. I got this deal from actually a competition that I entered that was for diverse
00:14:19.140wisdom authors for diversity, that they were trying to increase their number of non-white
00:14:24.800authors in their publishing house. And there was a point where I almost backed out and thought,
00:14:30.900is this the right space for me? Am I going to be harmed here? There's nobody really holding space
00:14:35.080for everything that can arise during this time. But I knew that taking up space there would make
00:14:40.380more of an impact than walking away so that's a really huge that was a huge decision for me to
00:14:45.780make and also hard with no support um so there's not a like that's that's the tricky thing is like
00:14:51.660when you're taking up space in these white spaces um harm does happen and there's no support because
00:14:57.400nobody's done it before you so being that trailblazer sometimes am I worthy of being a
00:15:01.440trailblazer when there's no mentor somebody who's done the steps before me that I can look up to
00:15:06.380that I can say this is happening, what do I do? That can be really hard too. So worthiness is like
00:15:11.660a lifetime journey. I have not gotten there yet. But from a lupus perspective, it's kind of
00:15:18.460worthiness to rest. I think maybe those folks with chronic illness or autoimmune conditions can
00:15:23.940feel that. It's like, am I worthy of untangling from this capitalistic society that keeps pushing
00:15:30.520us and driving us? Am I worthy of just taking space for myself and decolonizing all of that
00:15:36.760from my bones and my blood? Am I worthy of taking a break? Like, I think that that is my biggest
00:15:43.340lesson. And maybe that speaks to folks too, who struggle with their energy. Because it's there's
00:15:48.360medicine there. I think we've been, especially in the wellness world, I've been in the wellness
00:15:52.080world for many years. There's this thing like there's something wrong with you, you're broken
00:15:56.060if you don't have the energy of the sun 24 seven you're broken if you feel like you need to rub
00:16:01.580and flow with your energy um you're broken if you have a chronic illness what can we do to fix it
00:16:06.080let's just throw a bunch of green juices at you and then you'll be well again and I think that
00:16:10.420there's so much harm in that as well it's it's all based in just like um let's fix let's fix
00:16:16.040let's fix and that can just get to be a really unhealthy path in my opinion
00:16:20.820yes and i again i want to thank and applaud you for um staying the course and being a voice and
00:16:29.680taking up space i know that in the past few years you know we've been looking for our tokens to put
00:16:37.100at the front of the you know um but we also see that the editors and the acquisitions editors
00:16:44.000You know, we're getting more people of color and marginalized genders at the front in the show, but we need to keep going backwards into, like I say, editors, acquisition editors, people who are running the publishing houses.
00:16:59.540I think we're just beginning to, to dig. And again, I really appreciate you standing up for
00:17:07.600your space. You said something about the unrelenting power of the sun. And I, I want to
00:17:14.220connect this to the moon because the moon does give us a full and a dark and an opportunity to
00:17:21.520rest and to wax and to wane. Can you talk a little bit? I mean, the moon is the major theme of your
00:17:27.420book so can can you talk a little bit about your connection to the moon and our connection to the
00:17:31.820moon I think that is really what what drove me to add the moon because of my own learning and
00:17:38.240unlearning of we have to be in a certain space all the time and just this like disconnection that
00:17:46.500the moon doesn't do that the earth doesn't do that we cycle the earth doesn't stop cycling
00:17:50.960like the earth just continues to cycle so I really wanted to infuse that medicine of
00:17:56.640the moon moving through like those cycles and just we are cyclical being so it was so important for
00:18:04.180me and it's interesting because I now that the book's out you know I wrote this book because
00:18:08.740obviously there had to be a structure to it and I have done in my community so many full moon and
00:18:14.280new moon circles so I thought well this is perfect because I'm used I have this relationship with the
00:18:18.500medicine of the moon it's it's always been with me but people really want a linear like I'm doing
00:18:23.260this in January February even though the publishing house is like can you put the months in and I
00:18:27.800realized like actually no that's not the indigenous way the indigenous way is not to have this linear
00:18:33.060thing it's very cyclical so I I had the opportunity to do a second edition there's enough there was
00:18:39.440enough sold for my first print so I'm so excited so I actually took the months out because and not
00:18:44.400to say like I still say this is the time of year where the bears are you know hibernating like
00:18:49.600but it's more about what's happening on the land versus the Gregorian calendar that says this
00:18:54.480happens in September and it doesn't always each year because there's 13 moon cycles but there's
00:18:59.400not always 13 full moons every year so that you know that I can see how that almost linear way
00:19:07.120of thinking that colonial thinking kind of crept creeps in everywhere and then I still have to take
00:19:11.880a stand and say no no no this is like I want this to be cyclical so the moon will always pull me to
00:19:17.680that the moon pulls on our own sacred waters like tides right like pulling and drawing and if we can
00:19:23.360just if we can just even stand outside and look at the moon I think there's so much healing there
00:19:28.580it can be so simple and we like to make it complicated you talk about animals and and so
00:19:34.960on the turtle and the bear and you know these animals don't operate under capitalism except
00:19:41.580for what we impose on them and so they have their natural rhythm you know in the winter time I always
00:19:47.160wish I was a bear because I just want to sleep for three months and so I look to the bear and I say
00:19:54.140you know the bear has its natural cycle and if if the bear is allowed then surely I am also worthy
00:20:02.100we are animals we are animals right so it's like I think there's just so much unwinding and
00:20:08.480untangling that needs to happen for all of us like I'm hoping that that is the message of the book
00:20:14.260um or I hope that lands for folks just because I know there's a lot about self-compassion and
00:20:20.000rest and love because that has been my I know we teach what we need to learn it's been my biggest
00:20:24.740lesson so it's really infused in there in many ways and you know people I think we need even
00:20:31.460more of that messaging especially with like everything that's always pulling us to do more
00:20:36.280and when you said you wrote the book um and it was published because you entered it in a contest
00:20:42.940had you already written the book or did you write it within the parameters of this contest oh yeah
00:20:47.940no I hadn't I um I actually people all my community wanted me to write a book but I never thought oh
00:20:54.160I'm gonna do this thing I just I didn't really I wrote a lot in the Facebook group that I had for
00:20:59.360years and years and I really loved writing and people are like this would be a great book all
00:21:03.020of these stories you have to tell and but this opportunity came up and this person that I knew
00:21:09.380she was going to be a mentor for this program so she was the one that said Ashley you should just0.53
00:21:13.800write an essay like you just said put your dear white woman letter out into the world why don't
00:21:17.320you add that to this essay so I put that in the essay and said I want to write I didn't know fully
00:21:22.640what kind of book I wanted to write but I knew that this is the way that I wanted to write it
00:21:26.380And I also had this desire to have more of a global reach, like I could feel that that was that was a way to help to spread the medicine that I wanted to share in a global, a global way.
00:21:38.740So this seemed like a great opportunity. I didn't know I was going to get a deal out of it because there was like, I think, 160 submissions, 15 of us got to go to Houston to do the writer's workshop, and then they were going to give the deal to one person.
00:21:51.580and they end up giving it to two. And yeah, when I got it, I remember it was like the day before my
00:21:56.600birthday in 20, was it 2019? And I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is amazing. This is amazing. And I
00:22:04.840was like, I'm gonna write a book, I guess I'm gonna write a book. And the pandemic hit. And I was
00:22:08.040like, Oh, my gosh, who writes a book during a pandemic? This is so hard.
00:22:13.720Yeah, my my podcasting and book partner, Risa, we always say that we kind of tricked ourselves
00:22:20.380into writing a book sort of similar to you know we wrote this and we wrote that and we wrote this
00:22:24.880and then we were like this is a book and it happens like that yeah it's again I'm just I'm
00:22:34.960a bit of a fangirl here because once again like I'm so grateful for this book I genuinely believe
00:22:40.800that this is the book to buy today as I said before it's equal parts confrontational and
00:22:46.680compassionate and I think that that's what we need right now we we all need a hug everybody out
00:22:52.480there we know we know and we know that colonization affects all of us in some way but at the same time
00:22:58.640we have to be confronted with the reality we have to be confronted with the truth we have to examine
00:23:04.740our own prejudices and biases and uh our own extraction I'm so grateful that it landed you
00:23:14.620know it's so interesting as I did my audio I did the audio version in December and at the end of
00:23:20.620the audio version this is what I was talking about the harm is they hadn't they hadn't chosen somebody0.78
00:23:25.200who did not know how to do harm to record the audio version so this person was a Christian
00:23:30.380person and at the end of it he said to me I mean he said a lot of things but one other thing was
00:23:37.440this is going to trigger a lot of this is first his first comment was this is going to trigger a
00:23:41.000lot of people I hope you know that good and this is true and it's like very vulnerable to speak
00:23:48.060like your whole like three days of sharing and reading your words because it just feels very
00:23:52.860raw and then that's the first feedback you get and I sort of froze a little bit I mean
00:23:57.240I'm used to that sort of it's not that I don't think I'm a huge disruptor but I did create a
00:24:02.640ripple so I thought oh my goodness I wonder how much this is going to disrupt folks and I wonder
00:24:08.900if it'll be like the letter again where everybody's really mad but I have to say I think that there's
00:24:13.460been some evolution because that was like 2019 the letter was released so since then and perhaps
00:24:20.980it was like when George Floyd was murdered and everything happened there's just more awareness so
00:24:25.860I'm not getting all of that pushback from folks anymore then and I think just because the
00:24:32.260conversation has been out there so I'm actually grateful I see that there's been progress
00:24:37.120that's a wonderful way of looking at it that thing that happened two years ago we've had so0.97
00:24:42.880much progress but I I mean I assume this was like you said a Christian man I assume it was a white0.65
00:24:48.480man and Tim so this is going to be true to me that sounds like well this is going to make my
00:24:53.980wife uncomfortable you know the scorn of making white people uncomfortable it was really it was
00:25:03.640really interesting and at the time like first he said you go you're worshiping the moon you're
00:25:08.340worshiping animals you're and it brought jesus christ into it and i was just like wow like after
00:25:12.880i even read because if you've read my book there's a lot of um i speak a lot about um the colonization
00:25:18.520and the church and the damage the church has done and i just thought this is so ironic right now
00:25:23.280this is just is this really happening like is this really happening before my eyes right now so
00:25:27.160um it was a really good opportunity for me to speak up and to share my voice in that moment
00:25:32.680And to also see that more work has to be done in these places that where whiteness shows up so many places and we need to just really evaluate how we can make places safe for for folks of color or any marginalized, any marginalized being.
00:25:48.740yeah I'm just imagining I guess people who do audiobooks record audiobooks professionally
00:25:54.740can read without reading I mean it seems like this person read your whole book obviously
00:26:01.040and then came away with like having learned nothing right well maybe maybe that happens
00:26:08.320maybe that brings me nicely to my next question what what is a peaceful warrior
00:26:13.180oh I love that question um and I love that question because as I write in the book I
00:26:19.620struggled so much to claim that because mostly I'd say after that time it's been a really
00:26:25.340I'd say um disruptive time sort of social justice wise you know we've had to find our place and use
00:26:32.040our voice and I was speaking a lot about indigenous trauma and pain that's where I got
00:26:38.940the most attention and that's the hardest part for a person of color is like that's where you
00:26:43.220get the likes and the shares and the platform and that's where you raise your numbers by speaking
00:26:47.560about the trauma and I always as a human being want to come back to compassion. I'm not, I don't
00:26:57.140love to infuse things with shame as much as I can. I mean people might feel shame from reading what
00:27:01.640I write but that's not my intention. So I think that there's been times where I think people have
00:27:07.480they're like you're not angry enough you're not all these things enough and um I had to come to
00:27:14.580the truth that that's just not my way and there are so many people that that is perfect for it's
00:27:19.200their medicine I had to get so clear like my true nature is to speak with love to speak truth with
00:27:24.900love and their true nature is that so I had and then when the peaceful warrior thing come up like
00:27:31.060I I claim that myself and I I had people who were acknowledging that around me that and that said
00:27:37.060oh yes like my astrology shows it all of the things show it and that was just really confirmatory for
00:27:42.720me to say like I can walk as a peaceful warrior and it's okay as an indigenous person because
00:27:47.300also people have these like we're not a monolith and people have these expectations on what
00:27:51.860indigenous voices should be what they how they should sound like all of those things how they
00:27:56.740should educate and I had to find my way and it's enough that's that's what I had to come down to
00:28:02.640your worthiness again yes yeah but writing this book is like I'm so grateful I have a place now
00:28:11.260to direct folks to say like if this is what you need to know about now you have my book instead
00:28:15.620of having to educate because the Instagram education you know it goes it's like a day
00:28:20.520if you're lucky and then it's gone so it's like I'm grateful that I have a space now where it's
00:28:25.640all gathered and folks can educate themselves and they don't have to keep asking me because
00:28:30.320it's a never-ending black hole of asking. Yes and then I mean buy the book as I said I've said it
00:28:37.920four times already you know and then and then you get a royalty for your teaching which is what you0.93
00:28:42.600deserve instead of the free labor that has been expected of marginalized people like literally0.56
00:28:47.520forever. Indeed yes yes I hope I'm like hoping for royalties. Yeah it's great. It always takes a while
00:28:56.340you know the book business the record business it's always like artists are artists patiently
00:29:02.580waiting for their meager checks to come yes yes can you talk a little bit about why circles are
00:29:10.080sacred yeah well I think from an indigenous worldview or perspective we have always seen
00:29:17.500circles as as medicine so you know we see the circle in nature there's so many circles in
00:29:23.200nature um it's one of those i guess sacred um shapes that is just the sun the stars the moon
00:29:30.220um the circle of life you know it's it's just part of our interaction and our relationship
00:29:36.760our sacred relationship with all of creation and then in circle we have this you know everyone is
00:29:43.080equal nobody's above nobody's below we sit when i do circle i really love sitting on the floor
00:29:49.360with everyone else I even teaching I don't love to to stand above people and to teach in that way
00:29:56.740I know sometimes that just happens but I always feel most comfortable when we are sitting spirit
00:30:01.240to spirit heart to heart knowing that you have I have wounds you have wounds I have trauma you
00:30:07.040have trauma and then I have medicine you have medicine and I mean it might be different medicine
00:30:12.620but I do believe we all have that and I think if we even took some of the some of our conversations
00:30:18.260that we have online that are tricky and sticky and we sat in circle and brought them to circle
00:30:22.040I think things would be very different because I just think then we have to actually communicate
00:30:26.760and be in that relationship with each other yes I remember the first time I um I heard the term
00:30:34.640call in before you call out was was also from uh from an indigenous person and uh calling into
00:30:42.620circle i think is is it's healing in so many ways so i'm i'm all for like nuance and repair i think
00:30:50.080that's where i notice the most maybe that's part of that peaceful warrior is i i think for my
00:30:55.020nervous system when i when there's not space for nuance or repair that i can get really it's very
00:31:01.080traumatic for me and i just think okay let's just take a breather here there things can be repaired
00:31:06.640if we give space and sometimes that space is like a circle so that calling in could be a circle space
00:31:12.000for that repair to happen um and it doesn't seem like that happens as much as might be a beautiful
00:31:18.680thing on social media it seems like there's lots of call outs a lot of canceling yeah and i you
00:31:23.760know it's it's i let's be real i think it's a lot of clout chasing too you know it is you get more
00:31:30.300likes from you know there's a sacred rage that we talked about that we're all into but there's also
00:31:35.880just putting a hashtag and calling it a day I know and I'm not into taking people down like I think
00:31:44.780sometimes I witness those things and I just I guess it's that empathic part of stepping in
00:31:49.800somebody's shoes and saying like I'm like how would that feel if somebody was trying to take
00:31:54.440you down that intensely and then a whole bunch of people were then taking you down like I that's an
00:31:59.540energy healer I also think about that like the energy that's coming at you and the clearing that
00:32:03.660has to happen after that it just it makes me a little bit like oh my goodness that person like
00:32:08.640I hope they have some energy um healing around them so they can so they can like um move some
00:32:14.420of that out because it's it's a lot um that's those are the things I think about I guess
00:32:18.920all people don't but I do but again that that's very compassionate and confrontational and we
00:32:27.120appreciate your approach um i want to talk about your definition of what a medicine person is but
00:32:35.280first i want to read something from your book um sort of a your definition of medicine as it were
00:32:42.280medicine is the vital healing energy that connects the spirit mind and emotional bodies what what are
00:32:54.220those you know i see that as a being a homeopath for 15 years is like we worked on those sort of
00:33:03.500energetic layers of being so i could it's almost like in a sea or two i could see like the the
00:33:09.960mental body the emotional body the spiritual body like it was three different energy frequencies
00:33:14.780that were sort of around the being but i would say like the mental body is comprised of the
00:33:19.980thoughts we think the information we take in belief systems you know and the emotions to me
00:33:26.340is more that feeling state like how does that feel for you you know and being able to to communicate
00:33:33.440those things and then that spirit body is sort of the vision the dreaming the little more ethereal
00:33:39.700kind of energies so I believe that medicine is something that helps you yes to connect those
00:33:48.120And mostly because I saw homeopathic medicines doing that, giving a remedy would help to bring this cohesion to those three bodies or just maybe just an acknowledgement.
00:33:58.020Like all of a sudden folks could say, oh, I know what that feels like.
00:34:01.360This is a sensation in my body, like bringing it sort of into themselves and really igniting that wisdom within you or that remembering within you.
00:34:09.620And I think that's what medicine is for me.
00:34:11.180It's like something that brings tears to your eyes, something that brings a remembering to your heart, a warmth when you're just like, I know or I know that person or I've heard that before or I remember that from somewhere.
00:34:23.100It's like, of course, it's in your ancestry or your DNA or like all of those rememberings coming forward as medicine to me.
00:34:29.980So things that catalyze that or initiate that to me are medicine.
00:34:33.920yes and we were talking about um sacred rage and and michelle in the comments mentioned the
00:34:43.160performative rage which is which is a different thing um i want to return a little bit to uh
00:34:51.980your sort of use of language and metaphor how you again we we talked about this how you use
00:34:58.520the term extraction when you're talking about cultural appropriation and you also use the term
00:35:02.620invaders when you were talking about your lupus and so so much of the book through your use of
00:35:11.080language is connecting our our bodies to our spirits to our society to our culture again
00:35:20.180we're talking about circles where you know these we there is no beginning and no and um again can
00:35:28.740you can you talk a little bit more about your choice to use these metaphors or did they just
00:35:34.340it's just this is just what your heart wrote it is sort of what my heart wrote i didn't
00:35:40.500it really was a channeled it really was channeled in um in that way and i saw this i saw this
00:35:48.420instagram post the other day about frequency like energy frequency and how you can speak something
00:35:53.260and it will it'll hit certain people right and then it's just like you know when you tell your
00:35:57.900partner something and you tell them 10 times and they don't hear and then somebody else says it to
00:36:01.700them and then they're like guess what i just heard it's like this big thing i think it's the same
00:36:06.340thing where it's just like these energy frequencies come in and they'll speak to certain certain souls
00:36:11.280that are meant to hear that so that's the intention i before i wrote was may this touch those who this
00:36:16.960is going to be a catalyst for um may it be may it be like that divine energetic frequency because
00:36:24.600that's I mean I worked as a homeopath and an energy healer so energy is just everything to me
00:36:28.980so that's how the words came about and that just tends to be how I write is just like can they can
00:36:35.220they come out and touch somebody even if they're it's not like perfectly grammatically correct or
00:36:39.840perfectly written in those ways right I think for me the energy is more important
00:36:44.480what's your second book going to be about or your next my second book oh gosh I don't have any words
00:36:52.280left so i have an oracle deck coming out next year with hay house too called the sacred medicine
00:36:57.880oracle so that will be out in march next year i believe so that is what i'm i'm working on the
00:37:04.920edits of that right now but the artwork is gorgeous it's the same artwork as the artist
00:37:08.280who did the cover of my book which is they are beautiful listeners they are amazing
00:37:12.980it's it's so beautiful i'm i'm so grateful i honestly at this point i don't even remember
00:37:19.420how I found you I must have just been on some sort of spiritual Google journey and like I said
00:37:27.020I read about 15 pages and I reached out to you immediately I just want to tell listeners again
00:37:34.340I know your book budgets are tight this is the one this is the one today and it's available on
00:37:41.500Audible I mean you know I feel like me and you have like five Audible credits it's on Audible
00:37:46.920too if you want to because there are journeys in the book and with that energy frequency listening
00:37:51.200to it too will be a different experience. Ashley's in the chat saying she already ordered her copy so
00:37:56.940hopefully those royalty checks are going to start to come in. I know you don't have a lot more time
00:38:03.020so I'm going to ask one more question and then I would love to invite you to close the circle in
00:38:08.560any way you choose but my question is the title of the book is you are the medicine how am I the
00:38:17.500medicine if you could make like a you know distill the notion down to a couple paragraphs
00:38:23.960but everybody just buy the book and read it but as a teaser yeah I just really believe that you
00:38:31.560that creator visions you hear your ancestors visions you hear as this powerful presence and
00:38:37.200you all carry this this unique vibration that's meant to impact the world and however you're
00:38:43.100meant to impact it it doesn't have to be on a stage or a best-selling author but your presence
00:38:47.500is here just to kind of sprinkle out that energy and if you sit in front of me as we sit together
00:38:52.320it's like both of our medicines are co-creating they're they're interacting like you can feel
00:38:56.640mine I can feel yours so it's like if you can just know that is truth and then unfold it or
00:39:04.040like unweave it or just bring it forward the world is a better place and there are there are some
00:39:09.020practices in the book that help you do that but i think just coming back to acknowledging the fact
00:39:13.400that you are a medicine keeper you hold gifts um they are they are meant to be used i think the
00:39:19.500saddest thing is if you just keep them hidden or um keep them small because we think we're not
00:39:23.820enough and i'm here to tell you i could do what you could do it the worthiness the worthiness is
00:39:30.800just pouring off of you. And I really hope that all of our
00:39:33.800listeners are allowing that worthiness into your own bodies