12/16/2025
🌿 **The Energetics of Herbs — Lecture 4**
# # # *Learning to Sense the Energy of a Plant*
**with John Castner — The Energetic Shaman**
Herbal energetics is not learned only through study.
It is learned through **relationship**.
The body already knows how to feel a plant’s energy — we simply need to slow down enough to listen.
This is the moment where herbalism shifts from information into **initiation**.
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# # # 🌱 **Why Sensation Comes First**
Before the mind labels an herb as warming or cooling, the body has already responded.
The first sensation is always the truth:
* A softening in the chest
* A warming in the belly
* A lightness in the head
* A grounding in the legs
These sensations are not imagination — they are **energetic communication**.
Plants speak through feeling, not words.
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# # # 🌬️ **The Practice of Herbal Listening**
To sense a plant’s energy, we begin with stillness.
Hold the herb gently in your hands.
Bring it close enough to feel its presence.
Breathe.
Notice:
* Does your breath deepen or quicken?
* Does your body relax or become alert?
* Where do you feel movement?
This is not about forcing perception.
It is about **allowing awareness**.
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# # # 🌿 **Common Energetic Signals**
As you work with plants, you may notice:
* Warmth or coolness
* Expansion or contraction
* Tingling or pulsing
* Emotional shifts — calm, joy, clarity, grounding
All of these are valid forms of perception.
There is no “right” way to sense a plant.
There is only **your way**.
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# # # 🌺 **Trusting What You Feel**
One of the greatest obstacles in energetic work is doubt.
The mind wants certainty.
The body speaks in sensation.
Herbal energetics teaches us to trust the subtle — to honor the intelligence that lives beneath thought.
Over time, this practice sharpens.
What begins as sensation becomes **relationship**.
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# # # 🌿 **Reflection Practice**
Today, sit with a single herb or cup of tea.
Do not analyze.
Do not research.
Simply feel.
Ask quietly:
> “How do you move through me?”
Then listen — not with the ears, but with the body.
> “The plants speak softly,
> but they never stop speaking.”
— *The Energetic Shaman*
