Shamanic Tantra Gardening Tips  – Part 2

Prioritizing Plant Potency!

Shamanic Tantra gardening teaches us that when growing food and plants as medicine, every aspect of growth – from seed, to sprout, to seedling, to planting, to harvesting – is significant and can play a major role in successful growing + medicinal potency.

Shamanic Tantra gardening is the lived, embodied practice of intentionally cultivating the inherent, dynamic, and mutually supportive relationship that exists between humans and plants, plant spirits, and the physical and non-physical energies in our natural environment.

Shamanic Tantra gardening invites us into a deep, active, and vibrant relationship with all the beings in our environment… Plants are people. Insects are people. Animals are people. Spirits and elementals are non-corporeal people. All of these people exist in our garden and Shamanic Tantra gardening offers guidelines for being in right relationship with all the people living in our garden. Largely so that they can help us grow good food, which then turns into good waste and compost, which then feeds them… Thus the cycle of life continues…Gardening is kind of like Vajrasattava practice in many ways…

Along with being in a dynamic relationship with the physical and non-physical earthly beings, Shamanic Tantra gardening invites us to be in relationship with the celestial beings, such as the moon and planets as well. Here in Costa Rica, ALL of the planting, weeding, cutting, seeding, sowing, and harvesting are governed by the phases of the moon, according to the indigenous farmers who have cultivated this land for centuries.

Additionally, I learned to seed, plant, and harvest according to the astrological moon signs, also in conjunction with the moon phases, when I was a wee little baby gardener over 25 years ago.

In the video below I share the best time to harvest your Horny Goat Weed for optimum potency. Some additional guidelines for planting and harvesting that I refer to as “Shamanic Tantra” for gardening are also below.

Shamanic Tantra Gardening Tips 101:

The life force energy of plants is dictated by both the moon and the sun. The sun governs daily life force energy movements, the moon dictates the overarching movement of life force energy in the plant throughout the month.

For example- each day the sun rises, the energy of the plant moves from the roots to the tips of the plant, and then back down to the roots. Plants share a similar bio-rhythm with humans – they “wake up” when the sun comes up and they “go to sleep” when the sun goes down.

The general rule of thumb is to put plants in the ground (i.e transplant) in the afternoon, 3pm or later, when the life force energy is moving back down into the roots. This helps with successful re-rooting for transplants.

It is best to HARVEST herbs for medicine in the morning, 6am-8am, or “before the morning dew dries on the leaves”, but also just before the FULL MOON when the majority of life force energy is held in the tops of the plants. But, when harvesting roots for medicine, it’s better to harvest during the NEW MOON when the life force energy of the plant is being held in the roots.

For culinary herbs, when using fresh it’s best to harvest them right before using. For dried culinary herbs, it’s best to follow the medical guidelines- Harvest in the morning, before the dew dries, as close to the waxing full moon as possible.

Plants are wonderful people to be in relationship with and Shamanic Tantra gardening practices allow us to cultivate a nourishing (pun intended) relationship with these beings who take great joy in feeding and supporting our Bodhisattva activities here on Earth. This is a whole other level of “Tantric relationship” my friends