Rose Initiation

Fusing the folk practice of herbal simpling and the Amazonian vegetalista dieta traditions, plant initiations – also known as plant diets – are a deep practice of discipline and devotion, sacrifice and prayer. In sacred reciprocity, the plant teacher, in our case the spirit of the rose, bestows on the initiate deep teachings as well as profound physical, emotional and spiritual healing. 

This practice of dieting plants opens us to dimensions of human experience where we can have direct encounters with the living world and remember the sacred in all things. 

It is in this dimension that plants can communicate with us, helping us to access deep visions of our life path so we can retrieve our inner medicines and live our hearts deepest desires.

Developing relationships with plants

The hedge-witch and folk herbalist are often self taught and intuitive in their practices. They heal by reconnecting us to ourselves and the natural world using the profound connection they have with their plant allies. 

What a plant initiation involves

A plant initiation or plant dieta involves drinking a decoction or infusion of the plant whilst following a strict diet and abstaining from sexual contact, followed by an integration period. Initiates abstain from alcohol, salt, spices, oil, fat, meat, dairy and sugar, sticking to a bland diet consisting of vegetables, rice and occasionally fish. This diet expands outwards to what we mentally and emotionally consume in books, social media, film, conversation and even our own thoughts and dreams.

In the Amazonian tradition this process is done in total isolation, stripping you of all that is familiar, bringing your wounds to the surface for healing, and returning you to a deep space of connection with the living world.

Our rose initiation process

At Wolf & Rose, our plant initiation process is a fusion of these practices, allowing you to go as deep as you would like – with the option of a “strict” initiation where you are in relative isolation, or a more “social” initiation where you continue to carry out your major daily tasks whilst adhering to strict dietary guidelines, reducing external stimuli and committing to time in nature as well as to prayer, embodiment practices, devotion and meditation. For those wishing to follow a strict initiation, prior experience in this kind of devotional prayer is required.

A deep process of plant-led healing 

The process of working with plants in this way can be incredibly challenging as it is designed to remove external stimuli and everyday distractions in order to bring our stories, fears and demons to the surface for healing whilst also illuminating our patterns of avoidance and self sabotage. In this way it is also a deep practice of self compassion and presencing, of finding your way back to centre through the storms of facing the shadow self.

This profound process assists us in calming the mind, gently beckoning us to listen more deeply to the living world, and to our soul voice, opening us to the subtle realms, wherein the teacher plant can work with us on deeper levels of healing and transformation.

The depth of the journey depends on you

The plants however, can only bring us as deep as we are committed to opening. The deeper our commitment, devotion and sacrifice, the deeper the plant can penetrate through our defences, opening us to the qualities and teachings of the plant.

If we have the courage to fully open, the plants can give us guidance and add meaning to our lives, evoking in us a sense of wonder and connection with the web of life, whilst performing a sort of spiritual surgery, healing us of deep wounded imprints, freeing ourselves and our lineage of these traumas.

At it’s heart a plant initiation is a journey of reconnecting to ourselves and to the living world. It is the holy work of remembering our true nature and our role in creation.

Returning to the altar of nature

In being humbled by the plants, we learn to bow down in reverence at the altar of nature once more. And in so doing the plant becomes our sacrament, offering us communion with spirit, right here, in the temples of our being, providing to us a new vision for our lives, and for humanity.