by His full development into the botanist behind the book, however, included a long journey of self-discovery. “A change happened to my mother when I was 16, when she was out of a long, toxic relationship, where she started deliberately focusing on what we put in our bodies and how certain foods could help us feel special — help us “to feel good,” says Jordi. When they later left home for college and faced the whirlwind of systemic prejudice that turned to black and queer people like themselves, they instinctively returned to what they knew: the ground forces of natural things.
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“When I became a shopping spree and used my energy and vitality to make the food I ate and create my environment, I realized I had control over how I felt,” says Jordi. “I began to incorporate essential oils and herbs and herbal teas into my own individual healing practice.” Shortly after Jordi returned to their hometown of Los Angeles, after graduating from college, their love of botany mingled with a drive for activism in a way that made both passions stronger.
Jordi recently spoke with me * about how this unique synergy has continued to shape their current approach to healing and inspiration Lil Book of Potions.
Well + Good: At what point did you first embrace the idea of becoming a therapist?
Jordi: Other people needed to call me a therapist or mention that I had the ability and knowledge and an intuitive gift to share medicine with people and really change their emotional, physical and spiritual states.
“The remedies I used to deal with certain things inside me were confirmed and confirmed by other people; so I felt compelled to continue to appear as a therapist.”
At first I started bringing essential oils to the traumatic areas where I found myself as an activist, such as the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, as a means of consolation, and I quickly realized that people were so open to sharing these medicines I had brought and putting oils on my body. them — and they were so communicative about how it affected them. These therapies that I used to deal with certain things inside me were and are being confirmed by other people. It forced me to continue to appear as a therapist in environments specifically built around the organization.
I facilitated mediations and weighed in on the spirits that had passed or the people who had died, many times literally, as I stood over the blood that had been poured on the concrete beneath me. And this project has been completed and developed in the last two years into top treatment centers, especially for trans, non-binary and gender-incompatible immigrants released from ICE detention centers with Familia: TQLM, and also organizing treatment for black women with Jimanekia Eborn and Tending the Garden.
How did you learn the herbal techniques you now use in your practice?
It started ancestrally. I did a DNA test and found that my ancestors were mostly from South Africa — Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria — and I quickly began to incorporate what they ate into my diet. Then I learned from my great aunt that my great-grandmother called people to her house and made them tell her what they were going through and made these herbal remedies. That’s what I really did, so a lot of it came into my intuition.
I was also lucky to meet the biochemist and cannabis researcher Brandie Cross, PhD at a Black Lives Matter event in Los Angeles. I had absolutely no laboratory experience, but they welcomed me to their laboratory and trusted my energy and my healing desires. I found myself literally studying shoulder to shoulder with this person for about two years and learning the chemical aspects of these natural things with the spirits with whom I had already felt so connected. And that really empowered me to say, “I know what my path is and what my purpose is.” I realized that I was doing this job not only for myself but also for my great-aunt who did not have access to this kind of space but knew about healing and had developed ways to help people instinctively.
When did your connection with the moon and the lunar cycle begin?
The moon stood out as I began to embrace spiritual practice, mainly because my relationship with time was skewed. I never really had a nine to five job. I worked in restaurants and in childcare, but also as an actress. My body longed for coherence and the lunar cycle was like a tie in time. It was like, “Hello, hold me. You know that in 29 days, it will always be full moon and if you use it to keep track of events, you will be able to follow the thread of time and find patterns more easily, even when things are extremely chaotic.
“My body longed for consistency and the lunar cycle was like a tie in time.”
There is an ancient relationship that humans have with the moon, which is based on agriculture, based on when we took care of the earth and when we reap. And tuning in the lunar cycle became for me a way to get back to that sense of grounding, as soon as I realized that the technologies and passion of capitalism really exhausted me from my natural energy.
How do you use the lunar cycle in your work as a therapist now?
My personal relationship with time may have been distorted a long time ago, but with the pandemic, it was really the collective relationship with time that broke. We were in our homes so much that people literally started screaming at the moon, singing together outside their windows. Throughout this time, the moon has become a really clear reminder that there are always cycles in life, and wherever we are at all times it is not fixed. even if you stay in the same physical position, change still happens. And in this headspace I started to channel the contents of this book.
Can you share the inspiration behind the 29 filters in your book?
When I first started mixing herbs, the focus was on five lunar events: the new moon, the full moon, the dark moon, the lunar eclipse, and the solar eclipse. And then the number 29 was very strong in my head, because that’s the number of days in a lunar cycle, so it left me with 24 remaining spots — which I split into 12 for the waning moon period and 12 for the lunar period. which increases. The energy of the moon at each stage, therefore, inspired every mixture of herbs.
With the solar eclipse filter, there is a lot of yellow, living energy based on the sun. I used lemon, ginger, turmeric and honey. It is the return of our power to us — because with a solar eclipse, the sun is blocked by the moon, which means that the heat and energy of the light source usually given to us by the sun are also blocked. So this mixture has to do with finding and igniting this energy within us. Lemon mixed with honey symbolizes the conversion of sour into sweet and ginger helps increase circulation and restores some of the warmth in our body that we lose when light is temporarily lost. As for turmeric, I included it for its anti-inflammatory effects. It helps to process all the emotional energy that can be released during this period.
Jordi herbal filter for solar eclipse
As we approach the total solar eclipse of this eclipse — when the moon moves directly between the sun and the earth — on December 4, Jordi shares how to make the plant filter from the book created with this lunar event:
Add a sliced lemon, a large thumb freshly ground turmeric and ginger and as much honey as you want in a pot (Jordi suggests one tablespoon per cup of water). Boil with enough water to fill the kettle.
* This interview has been edited and summarized for the sake of clarity.
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