Pam Montgomery is an Earth Elder, author, and teacher who has passionately embraced her role as a spokesperson for the green beings and has been investigating plants/trees and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. She is the author of two books, one of which is the highly acclaimed Plant Spirit Healing; A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness and Partner Earth; A Spiritual Ecology. She operates the Partner Earth Education Center at Sweetwater Sanctuary in Danby, Vermont where classes, plant research, and ceremonies take place. Pam also teaches online courses and has taught internationally on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology, and people as Nature Evolutionaries. She is a founding member of United Plant Savers and more recently the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries or O.N.E. Her latest passion is to engage ritually in full symbiosis within the plant/human matrix where the elder common plants and trees initiate and guide us into being truly human.
What is Sweetwater Sanctuary?
Sweetwater Sanctuary is a place where we regularly honor the land, water, and all the beings both seen and unseen through prayer, ceremony, and offerings seeking to create sacred space for those who find their way here. In this atmosphere, not only optimal learning but also deep healing can take place. Your educational experience goes beyond information exchange touching into your heart, soul, and spirit for core integration, assimilation, and connection with yourself and nature.
We are dedicated to living as sustainably as possible and offer you the opportunity to experience awakening to and engaging with natural rhythms. As we thrive in accordance with the laws of nature we attempt to bring the human gift of loving-kindness to all we do, enhancing the sense of Sanctuary.
What is your mission?
Our mission is to bring awareness to the wider world of our inherent kinship with Nature and how we can live sanely and sustainably with sweet Lady Gaia. We recognize the seen and unseen forces that inform us and seek partnership with the intelligent force of Nature Consciousness. We engage with the Sacred through our heart rejoicing in the ability to thrive within a balanced Spiritual Ecology. We honor the plants and trees and their life-giving qualities while embracing them as symbiotic relatives. We strive to live to our greatest potential by filling ourselves full of our true essential nature while walking our unique path sharing our gifts for the health and happiness of all our relations.
What is Plant Spirit Healing?
Since ancient times healers, medicine persons, and shamans have understood that true healing is more than “fixing” a physical ailment. They knew that when dis-ease occurred the essence of a person was misaligned and that to be effective in a return to health one must reach into the core of the person to bring about a change toward balance. In these modern times, this “core essence” of a person is understood in terms of energy. We know of meridians or “pathways of light” within our body through which energy flows, the auric field which is the energy body that surrounds our physical body, and chakras which are energy vortexes that exchange energy with the external world.
We now know that energy anatomy is just as real as our physical anatomy and is, in fact, the template for our physical body. Given this understanding, when the energy body becomes compromised it is best to heal at this level before the compromise reaches the physical level. True healing occurs by going beyond symptomatic treatment addressing the source of dis-ease.
Energy exists everywhere, can neither be created nor destroyed, and manifests as heat, light, and movement but does not have sentience. In Plant Spirit Healing we work with the “vital principle held to give life” otherwise known as spirit. The conscious spirit of the plant directs the energy allowing healing to take place efficiently and effectively.
Healing is a journey that engages our whole being of heart, soul, and spirit and is not a linear process but instead follows a spiral pattern. As we spiral through life we periodically reach new understandings allowing healing to reach deeper levels each time filling ourselves more fully with our true essential nature. As we become more ourselves our unique path is revealed and that which doesn’t serve us on our path falls away.
This form of healing is not a quick fix but is instead a maintenance program. Since we are constantly surrounded by that which can disrupt our energy anatomy we must be vigilant always striving for balance physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. As we raise our consciousness we view healing not as medicine but as a way of life.
What are Plant Initiations?
Initiation is an ancient form of ritual that brings one into maturity taking up their place within the collective. In traditional society initiation was a coming of age where the young person became an adult stepping into their role within the “tribe”. The elders would perform the Initiations that sometimes took up to a year to complete but always culminated in a great ritual and then feast. In modern times the Initiation process has been mostly forgotten so that there are many adults who have never had the opportunity to come into their maturity bringing forth their gifts in order to serve the community. The elders, too, are mostly gone so that even for those who would like to be an Initiated human there is not the ability. In my deep work with plants, I continue to be amazed at how they step up to the plate and provide us with exactly what we need. So it has come about that the common plants are taking on the role of the Elder and are initiating us into what it means to be truly human living sanely within the collective.
A Plant Initiation is an opportunity to work deeply with a plant or tree where we not only receive personal healing but also become bonded with the particular plant and receive the plant’s healing gifts to then work with oneself, others, or the planet. This very intimate sharing with a plant allows for guidance on many issues, opens doors of perception, brings healing on all levels, and expands one’s consciousness.
During this three-day ritual, we ingest an elixir that has been prepared within a sacred container to enhance the consciousness-expanding qualities of the plant. We suggest light fasting while we ingest the elixir at various times throughout the three days.
We deepen with the plant in many ways including dreaming, journeying, taking on the essence of the plant aided by mask making, and experiencing the plant through Greenbreath. We step into the initiatory experience of dismemberment which is a traditional shamanic way of dying to the old and being reborn into a new you. Our plant ally aids us in ways known and unknown as we leave space for the magic and mystery to emerge.
You are asked to prepare yourself ahead of time by eating certain foods and refraining from certain activities. Entering an Initiation with a clear body, mind, and spirit is an honor of the Elder Teacher Plant, who is the initiator. It is with the utmost respect that we approach these magnanimous beings as they lay the fertile ground for a deeply transformative experience. You emerge from an Initiation in a new skin. Be prepared to change your life.
