The Anatomy of Protection - Finding Safety in the Darkness
While the art of protection has been significant in all spiritual traditions and spaces, in these turbulent times it is completely vital. Some people claim that since we are ultimately in unity with everything we do not need to worry about protection, but this foolish perspective is a fabulous way to invite in unnecessary chaos. This is especially true when we are working in ceremony and opening ourselves up to the realms beyond our immediate comprehension - maintaining a relationship with what protects us is essential, and an act of self-love! Fortunately, there are a plethora of tools and techniques available to us to maintain our safety and perhaps even guide us towards a much greater benefit.
Using the Available Tools of Protection
Cultural and spiritual traditions throughout time and all over the world have discovered many options when it comes to protection tools. These include smokes/smudging, sprays, crystals, blowing mapacho, and so many others we couldn’t even begin to list them all. Here are some of my personal favorites that assist me when I feel the need to add a layer of protection around me.
Blowing Mapacho can not only bring in the protection that we need but also help to seal our energy from that which we prefer not to let in. I find it most powerful to first ask Mapacho himself to assist me and set the intention for him to help offer the safety that I am seeking. By blowing the smoke over my arms, chest/heart, head, and anywhere else I am called, his energy can be felt coming in like a child being held by their father after a nightmare. His presence is grounding as well, so any fear is often dissipated.
Though smudging is fabulous for bathing ourselves in protective smoke, an added benefit is that it can be wonderful for clearing and protecting larger areas like rooms, spaces, and entire buildings. Some of the ones I reach for most often are White Sage, Palo Santo, Juniper, and Cedar. Each of these carries the spirit of these powerful plant beings and the safety provided by their energy, particularly when the intention is set and a relationship with them is built and sustained.
Using sprays works similarly to smudging and can be useful for both personal protection as well as that of spaces. Agua de Florida is used in ceremony and is something I carry with me all the time. While there is a commercial brand seen regularly that does the trick, I personally lean towards buying ones that are hand made with intention and that do not contain harmful chemicals. My personal favorite is from HanaqPacha, available on Etsy. as well as a Palo Santo spray with wild Tobacco and Rose by the same seller that smells like heaven and includes some of my most commonly called upon plant powerhouses for spiritual safeguarding.
As a personal example, there is a closet in my house that is over a stairwell and was always cold. For whatever reason, that closet always felt like a darkness was present in it, and I didn’t like using it for much. However, I placed a bag of Epsom salt charged with reiki in there, which seemed to help, but it did not completely clear the heavy density. Once I started spraying it regularly with the kinds of sprays above, the energy completely shifted. Now my clothes also smell lovely, and I get a whiff of plant yumminess every time I need to grab a sweater.
Another common and potent ally can be the carrying and wearing of crystals. I joke that I gauged my ears just so that I can wear crystals in my body, but there is an element of seriousness to the sentiment too. Like with smudging, using crystals is most effective when you build a relationship with them. For instance, I have a necklace with a black obsidian stone cut into sacred geometry that I absolutely always bring with me to ceremony and wear during every Master Plant Dieta. This stone speaks to me, and at this point I consider it a friend. He not only protects me because he is made of a stone that is often used for this purpose, but more so because of the connection that we have developed. My primary shielding stones are black obsidian, black tourmaline, amethyst, tiger eye, and apophyllite (which is said to draw in high vibrational energies and guides); however, finding the crystals and stones that call to you is better advice. These come from the earth, have personalities, and each one, no matter what type of stone we have named it, have the ability to be worked with and asked for assistance.
These tools have come down through the ages with us for use in guarding ourselves, but they are external to us and so would need to be carried all of the time. Depending on the tools alone does not provide everything that we need to defend ourselves, and learning to empower ourselves with what we do always have available inside of us is even more successful.
Calling in Guides and Protective Spirits and Energies
Our guides are always there when we call. They come in millions of forms. For some, it may be a deity, god, or goddess that they resonate with, ancestors or loved ones or even pets that have passed over, or simply an energy like calling on “the light” that comes when we put out the signal. Many meditations and techniques are available to discover who your guides are, but they don’t often come just by searching. Instead, look at what you are drawn to, what has meaning for you, and what in the universe feels safe and loving. Your guides are calling to you as much as or more as you are calling to them and want to be heard.
When I walked away from Christianity in my youth and began my wider search for spiritual meaning, I would have laughed if you told me that Mother Mary would be one of my main guides. Yet, here we are. This understanding and even acceptance of her has come with time and some clarity brought in through my Master Plant Diets with Mimosa and Rose. Also, the way that I perceive Mary has broadened beyond the box she has been put in by the church, ironically just like me. I see her as a mother goddess, and embodiment of shakti. She is not just the mother of Jesus, but of us all as well as a badass demon slayer and some of the best protection around. While loving and caring to the max, she also holds the power of Kali Maa, another goddess that I connect with, and can eat and transmute demonic energy as if it were just a snack. (I actually see Mary and Kali as the way that two different cultures perceived the same dynamic fantastic being.)
Of course, our beloved plants are some of the most magnificent guides. Many of the plants that I have dieted and worked with are protectors of mine, but the one I will focus on is Queen Rose. She is currently permeating our consciousness, and while in this culture, as I am writing in the United States, we often only see her as a beautiful flower having lost connection to much of her higher powers. Nonetheless, Rose is here with her incredibly high vibration, the power of love, and while she has soft gorgeous petals, she also has thorns. Those are her swords, and with them she is an absolute shakti force!
Singing and Other Means of Changing Our State of Being
Connecting to our guides is a fantastic way of drawing in protection - here is where the absolute magic lies.
First, we all have the capacity to sing. In Ayahuasca ceremonies, I have always been awestruck by how the songs can shift and move the energy in a room. Many icaros and medicine songs have great force, and a recent experience brought this home in a mammoth way. A tribe sister and I had rented a cabin in the forests of Missouri near the Meramec River to hold an isolated diet with our chosen plant partners. We had used many of the tactics above and others to clear and protect the house and asked for the permission and protection from the land on which we were working. For the first 4 days or so, all felt aligned and safe. One evening though, as I sat down with my Blue Water Lily tea for our sit together, the darkness growing outside felt ominous. Fear was creeping in like high tide crawling up the shore, and I knew that I needed to act. The space had already been cleared with Mapacho and White Sage, so I momentarily pondered what to do next.
Then I felt it – the invitation to sing. I began singing my song to Lily, and everything around me entirely shifted. By the end of the second round of her song, the room was glowing with energy. Even more beautiful, everything inside of me had shifted, and I felt connected and unified with the entire space. By using my voice, I was able to not only raise my own vibration, but I connected to my beautiful plant ally as well as the room, the land, the ancestors, and all of the magic inside and around me. I can never thank Blue Water Lily enough for this lesson.
This also gets to the heart of why we feel the need for protection, and it harkens back to that current state of duality in which we live. Until we fully shift into unity, there are opposites. In order for there to be light and safety, there is also darkness and danger. Singing can bring our energy into a state of connection, and transmute darkness and light into oneness. In my example, I welcomed the darkness present in the space and enveloped it into my heightening vibration. Nothing came or left, it was shifted, transmuted.
We can also achieve this by simply shifting the way that we are thinking in any given moment. Reframing how we perceive something changes it, just like in quantum physics how looking at something alters it. Awareness contains a massive ability to transform.
Another extraordinary plant teacher, Cacao, taught me this in a different way. She showed me that most of us think of darkness as evil which inspires fear and other heavy emotions within us. This is very much a residue draped over us by the current patriarchal system. We have forgotten that the darkness is also the warm space of the womb which holds the energy of the possibility of all creation. In that womb, we are still connected to the truth of unity. Life is born from the darkness but of the light, and like so many things that we have been taught to fear, the darkness framed in this way holds immense power and potential. I am not saying at all that there are not evil forces here on the earth, as that would be reckless and irrational, but we can learn to work with these energies in ways that inspire growth and understanding. By being open to seeing them in ways that allow us to connect and honor them, we not only transmute them, but we expand into greater love and understanding of all that exists within our world and inside of us.
If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself with these tools and how to work with the darkness, I highly recommend Kat Courtney’s Plant Medicine Mystery School. She deeply explores our relationship with the darkness, our incredible plant allies, and so much more.
Darkness and fear is a part of what we experience here on 3D earth. We are blessed with many tools like crystals and smudges that can help us shield ourselves when necessary and have infinite guides available to support us in navigating these storms and threatening times and spaces. Ultimately though, the darkness is an impressive teacher, and just like I was surprised to have Mother Mary be one of my main guides, you just might be shocked to find that the very darkness that scares you is exactly what is directing you back into the unity consciousness and the arms of love and safety. How could you reframe the darkness in your current life to discover growth and empowerment of your soul? What tools or guides are supporting you in this, and what do you have available within you to sing yourself into a vibration where you can shine light into yourself and everything around you?
About the Author
Lindsay Calliandra Rose is a medicine carrier, an accomplished herbalist, Plant Medicine integration specialists, and a woman with a profoundly sacred relationship with nature. She began her Plant Medicine journey many years ago with Ayahuasca and Huachuma, and she has completed multiple Master Plant Diets with beings like Rose, Bobinsana, Juniper, Jurema, Cacao, Blue Water Lily, and many more. Lindsay is an initiated server and carrier of Hapéh. She now works as a preparation guide for those answering the call to work with sacred medicines, and she is apprenticing in the art of guiding Master Plant Diets as well. She is a passionate advocate of safe and transformative experiences with the plants, and she loves helping people navigate these mysterious spaces with grace, love, and support.
