Dreaming Beyond the Collective Nightmare of White Supremacy: *A Workshop for White Anti-Racist Herbalists
Dreams are powerful portals to the collective unconscious. In the United States, we often focus on dreaming as an individual activity. Dreaming collectively is an ancient practice that white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism would have us believe is a New Age trend that white people can only utilize by culturally appropriating from Black and Indigenous spiritual technologies.
Not so! There are plant allies and ancient rituals across cultures in our European heritage that provide powerful medicine to dismantle systems of oppression through dream work. White supremacy is so deeply embedded in our institutions and our psyches as white herbalists.
Where do these beliefs come from, how do they impact our abilities to show up for racial justice, how can we unlearn them, and how do we dream together? Plant medicine helps us to connect with our ancestral healing practices. Do we dare to navigate the nightmare of white supremacy together to show up powerfully for collective liberation?
Materials List:
Plants/Herbs
Any of the following:
Lavender
Hawthorne
Rosemary
Bay Leaf
Other
Container for water
Container for fire
Charcoal
About Kate Cavanagh, Laura Shmishkiss, Madelyn Moyer, and Melissa Edwards:
Laura Shmishkiss (she/ her) is an equity consultant, coach and trainer who has committed her life to working for social justice, equity, and liberation. As a white, Jewish woman, she has a vested interest in dismantling white supremacy and all other interconnected forms of oppression that live within ourselves and the world. As an herbalist, Laura believes that social justice work is inseparable from healing work which is inseparable from restoring an interdependent relationship with the land.
Madelyn Moyer (they/them) is a massage therapist, community herbalist and educator living and learning from the land in Gainesville, FL.
Melissa Edwards is an Herbalist, Reiki Master and Flower essence practitioner with 17 years of experience. I am a culmination of all of my teachers, ancestors, guides, life experiences and study. My practice revolves around the respect and reverence of these teachers and my lineages. The journey toward full emotional freedom, self compassion and self love is the purpose of my work.
Kate Cavanagh (she/her) is a white anti racist witch who grew up on Long Island and in the woods of New Jersey in a big, extended Irish and Italian family. She is a queer, cis woman who is raising her three children with her partner and his parents while community gardening, fighting gentrification, and working at a large public high school in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.