Ep. 249: Botanical Shadow Work with Amy Blackthorn

Sign up for Isaac's free webinar intro class to the Zodiac Garden here: The Zodiac Garden: Astrology, Magic & HerbsToday Isaac and AC welcome back Amy Blackthorn to the Plant Cunning Podcast to discuss her new book, "Blackthorn's Botanical Shadow Work." Amy explains shadow work as reintegrating parts of the self formed to survive trauma, emphasizing gentleness, safety, and support from therapy, EMDR, and other professionals when needed. She describes “botanical shadow work” as using plant spirit allies, essential oils, trance journeys, and practical exercises to make inner work feel less intimidating, including a journey to the corpse flower for learning to release what no longer fits. They discuss boundaries as bids for connection, protective warding before journeying, tools like automatic writing, and allies such as lemon balm for grief, thorny Mars plants for boundaries, mugwort for accountability, and grounding stones like smoky citrine, black tourmaline, hematite, and amethyst.

01:50 Why Botanical Shadow Work Now

04:12 Writing the Book and Doing the Work

05:42 What Shadow Work Really Means

08:55 Safety and Trauma Informed Approach

12:16 Plant Allies for Courage and Grief

14:37 Essential Oils Tools at Home

15:42 Defining Botanical Shadow Work

17:08 Trance Journeys and Corpse Flower

22:33 Integrating What Comes Up

23:58 Boundaries and Burnout Basics

25:24 Healthy Boundaries in Relationships

29:15 Plants for Stronger Boundaries

30:37 Spirit Realm Boundaries Question

31:13 Claim Your Safe Space

32:54 Rituals and Boundaries

33:45 Facing Dangerous Shadows

35:23 Surprise vs Projection

37:20 Journaling Without Fear

40:46 Processing and Grounding

46:49 Crystals for Shadow Work

52:53 Mugwort and Accountability

56:57 Reclaiming Bodily Autonomy

59:54 Where to Get the Book

01:01:22 Final Thanks and Next Project