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Published by Bear & Company
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
• Establishes that being in partnership with Nature is our birthright, explores the roots of our separation, and demonstrates that we are designed to communicate with Nature
• Offers six principles of co-creative partnership with Nature that serve as a map for guiding us back to our rightful place as a part of Nature
• Explains that plants can guide us in living according to our true essential nature and details the steps of creating and facilitating a plant initiation with common plants
We are in the midst of a global transformation where we must heal our separation from Nature and restore our partnership with the living Earth, which is essential to co-creating a world where all life—human and nonhuman—can thrive.
In this groundbreaking book, Nature Evolutionary and Earth Elder Pam Montgomery draws on her decades of working with plants and Nature consciousness to demonstrate that we are intrinsically created to be in relationship with Nature. She examines the co-opting of time, language, and culture to shed light on the roots of our separation, weaving together contemporary research on human physiology with personal experience.
She offers six principles of developing a co-creative partnership, explaining that we can communicate with Nature through vibratory resonance. She details the steps of co-creating an initiation with a specific plant ally, where bonding brings healing, and she shares evocative stories, meditations, and the healing wisdom gained from the profound plant initiations she and her students have participated in, all with common plants.
Through this book, Pam reveals how to restore our relationship with the living Earth and come home not only to Nature but also to ourselves. She shows that when we nurture ourselves, trust our intuition, and allow for joyful encounters, we restore our interconnection with all life.
• Offers six principles of co-creative partnership with Nature that serve as a map for guiding us back to our rightful place as a part of Nature
• Explains that plants can guide us in living according to our true essential nature and details the steps of creating and facilitating a plant initiation with common plants
We are in the midst of a global transformation where we must heal our separation from Nature and restore our partnership with the living Earth, which is essential to co-creating a world where all life—human and nonhuman—can thrive.
In this groundbreaking book, Nature Evolutionary and Earth Elder Pam Montgomery draws on her decades of working with plants and Nature consciousness to demonstrate that we are intrinsically created to be in relationship with Nature. She examines the co-opting of time, language, and culture to shed light on the roots of our separation, weaving together contemporary research on human physiology with personal experience.
She offers six principles of developing a co-creative partnership, explaining that we can communicate with Nature through vibratory resonance. She details the steps of co-creating an initiation with a specific plant ally, where bonding brings healing, and she shares evocative stories, meditations, and the healing wisdom gained from the profound plant initiations she and her students have participated in, all with common plants.
Through this book, Pam reveals how to restore our relationship with the living Earth and come home not only to Nature but also to ourselves. She shows that when we nurture ourselves, trust our intuition, and allow for joyful encounters, we restore our interconnection with all life.
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
The Roots of Separation from Nature
Co-creative partnership with Nature is a conscious joining between humans and any aspect of Nature, be it plants, trees, fungi, soil, water, air, landscape, animals, insects, birds, elemental beings, or nature spirits. Together, we attempt to bring about a balanced manifestation where all life can thrive. Once we begin to engage in co-creative partnership, we initiate the journey of healing the wounds of separation that the all-consuming plague of amnesia has created. Recovery from the trance of separation is the most profound healing we can undertake. This epidemic has created havoc not only within ourselves but also across our beautiful jewel of a planet, Lady Gaia.
There are various historical moments we could pinpoint as the origin of this epidemic of separation from Nature. One place to look is the advent of agriculture twelve thousand years ago, when humans began transitioning away from the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle they had maintained for the previous hundred thousand years. We began to differentiate plants, animals, and land as domestic or wild. We also began storing grain and accumulating personal property. These adopted actions of owning land, sequestering resources, and asserting power over others led us on a trajectory toward the phenomenon of empire building, which began over four thousand years ago with the first known empire of Akkadian, located in what now is known as Syria.
Empire building involves conquest. An emperor, monarch, or powerful government asserts supreme authority over less powerful territories, their peoples and land. In our modern times we could also look at large transnational corporations, which wield immense power as empires. Words like imperialism, colonialism, and globalization are used to describe empires. The difference between imperialism and colonialism is explained by the educational tutoring app BYJU’S in the following way: "Colonialism is where one country physically exerts complete control over another country and Imperialism is formal or informal economic and political domination of one country over the other. In a nutshell, colonialism can be thought of as the practice of domination and imperialism as an idea behind the practice." Globalization is a relatively new term that some see as modern-day colonialism. Ultimately, the building of empires through imperial colonization is a way to control the land and its resources along with its peoples for the benefit of the conqueror. Empires have always seen land (including its water, minerals, soil, animals, trees, and plants) as a resource and have extracted from it to gain wealth and power. Here, we find the roots of our separation from Nature. Once our sovereignty (where we are whole unto ourselves) is taken away by empirebuilding oligarchs, amnesia sets in. We forget that we are a part of Nature, which includes the land, plants, trees, and water. We forget the language of plants, we forget how to be in cooperation with the animals, we forget what wild water tastes like, we forget how to grow food and keep the soil healthy, we forget what our ancestors knew, and we forget who we are.
Today, there is a movement afoot called decolonization that is attempting to undo the devastating effects of colonialism both to the land and its peoples. This is no small task as empires have been with us and our ancestors for thousands of years and are deeply ingrained in our psyche. So, first we must decolonize our own heart, mind, and body before we can truly reunite with the land and the original people who occupied that land. In my own journey dismantling my "colonizer mind," I discovered a cavernous well of grief.
Colonization doesn’t just happen to people; aspects of Nature can be colonized as well. One of the largest colonized parts of Nature is the oceans of the world. Oceans are losing their vitality, and there are even dead zone spots in the ocean where oxygen levels have dropped so much that fish can no longer survive. According to a 2019 article in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans), "Dead zones are a worldwide problem. Since the 1950s, more than five hundred sites in coastal waters have exhibited hypoxia, a scientific term for water containing less than 2 parts per million of oxygen. Only about 10 percent of these areas had hypoxia before 1950, according to recent research led by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center." The article notes that though the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is enormous, some 8,776 square miles, the one in the Arabian Sea is seven times larger and is the world’s largest. The main contributing factors to dead zones are excess nutrients from agricultural and chemical runoff and rising sea temperatures, both of which cause the water to hold less oxygen.
As if dead zones weren’t enough for our life-giving oceans to deal with, huge amounts of plastic are dumped into them as well, which pose the next biggest threat to their health and well-being. While I have known for years that the oceans are being deluged with plastic, when I recently spent time on the coast of Belize, I was shocked by the amount of plastic on the beach, both from people tossing aside their single-use plastics and by what was caught in the seaweed, which offshore currents wash up on the beach. Then I observed a local man meticulously picking the plastic out of the seaweed and loading it in his truck to take home and rinse before putting it on his garden to build the soil. In that moment, as the tears were streaming down my face, a glimmer of hope fluttered in my heart, and I remembered what Dolores Huerta, a civil rights, labor, and women’s rights activist said: "every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world." The next morning I was on the beach with my friends, and we chose to be part of the solution instead of complaining about the plastic. We collected plastic containers and picked plastic out of the seaweed so that it could naturally decompose.
You might say the problem is too big for one person to make a difference, but what else are we to do? Perhaps if we all remember our kinship with the ocean, from which all life arose, and treat her with respect, love, and kindness, like we would treat our grandmother, maybe then a new day will dawn.
Decolonizing Language
In working with co-creative partnership, I find that language is so important. As noted earlier, I have capitalized the word Nature throughout this book, to indicate that it is worthy of respect. Anishinaabe author, lecturer, and teacher Robin Wall Kimmerer suggests that to stop the Age of Extinction we eliminate the objectification of Nature. Instead of referring to aspects of Nature as it we use the word ki for singular or kin for plural. As Kimmerer says in a 2015 article, "using ‘it’ absolves us of moral responsibility and opens the door to exploitation." She brings up one more aspect of colonization that we must look at: "Colonization, we know, attempts to replace indigenous cultures with the culture of the settler. One of its tools is linguistic imperialism, or the overwriting of language and names. Among the many examples of linguistic imperialism, perhaps none is more pernicious than the replacement of the language of nature as subject with the language of nature as object."
In the world of herbalism, which I am a part of, I find myself cringing every time I hear how someone "uses" a particular herb. To me this implies taking advantage of the plant, in the negative sense of that expression. My suggestion is to replace the word use with cooperate.
Open your heart, breathe deeply, and listen to the following sentences.
I’m going to use Dandelion to clear my sluggish liver from toxins in order to restore my liver to health.
Continue to breathe and listen even more deeply.
I’m going to cooperate with Dandelion to clear my liver from toxins in order to restore my liver to health.
How do you feel when you use and how do you feel when you cooperate?
To cooperate implies that you are participating in your own healing process and that you and Dandelion are working in concert. When you use, you are engaging "colonizer mind" where Dandelion becomes a resource or commodity instead of your kin. When you cooperate with Dandelion, you recognize the beginnings of a collaboration that can result in a co-creative partnership together.
The Roots of Separation from Nature
Co-creative partnership with Nature is a conscious joining between humans and any aspect of Nature, be it plants, trees, fungi, soil, water, air, landscape, animals, insects, birds, elemental beings, or nature spirits. Together, we attempt to bring about a balanced manifestation where all life can thrive. Once we begin to engage in co-creative partnership, we initiate the journey of healing the wounds of separation that the all-consuming plague of amnesia has created. Recovery from the trance of separation is the most profound healing we can undertake. This epidemic has created havoc not only within ourselves but also across our beautiful jewel of a planet, Lady Gaia.
There are various historical moments we could pinpoint as the origin of this epidemic of separation from Nature. One place to look is the advent of agriculture twelve thousand years ago, when humans began transitioning away from the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle they had maintained for the previous hundred thousand years. We began to differentiate plants, animals, and land as domestic or wild. We also began storing grain and accumulating personal property. These adopted actions of owning land, sequestering resources, and asserting power over others led us on a trajectory toward the phenomenon of empire building, which began over four thousand years ago with the first known empire of Akkadian, located in what now is known as Syria.
Empire building involves conquest. An emperor, monarch, or powerful government asserts supreme authority over less powerful territories, their peoples and land. In our modern times we could also look at large transnational corporations, which wield immense power as empires. Words like imperialism, colonialism, and globalization are used to describe empires. The difference between imperialism and colonialism is explained by the educational tutoring app BYJU’S in the following way: "Colonialism is where one country physically exerts complete control over another country and Imperialism is formal or informal economic and political domination of one country over the other. In a nutshell, colonialism can be thought of as the practice of domination and imperialism as an idea behind the practice." Globalization is a relatively new term that some see as modern-day colonialism. Ultimately, the building of empires through imperial colonization is a way to control the land and its resources along with its peoples for the benefit of the conqueror. Empires have always seen land (including its water, minerals, soil, animals, trees, and plants) as a resource and have extracted from it to gain wealth and power. Here, we find the roots of our separation from Nature. Once our sovereignty (where we are whole unto ourselves) is taken away by empirebuilding oligarchs, amnesia sets in. We forget that we are a part of Nature, which includes the land, plants, trees, and water. We forget the language of plants, we forget how to be in cooperation with the animals, we forget what wild water tastes like, we forget how to grow food and keep the soil healthy, we forget what our ancestors knew, and we forget who we are.
Today, there is a movement afoot called decolonization that is attempting to undo the devastating effects of colonialism both to the land and its peoples. This is no small task as empires have been with us and our ancestors for thousands of years and are deeply ingrained in our psyche. So, first we must decolonize our own heart, mind, and body before we can truly reunite with the land and the original people who occupied that land. In my own journey dismantling my "colonizer mind," I discovered a cavernous well of grief.
Colonization doesn’t just happen to people; aspects of Nature can be colonized as well. One of the largest colonized parts of Nature is the oceans of the world. Oceans are losing their vitality, and there are even dead zone spots in the ocean where oxygen levels have dropped so much that fish can no longer survive. According to a 2019 article in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans), "Dead zones are a worldwide problem. Since the 1950s, more than five hundred sites in coastal waters have exhibited hypoxia, a scientific term for water containing less than 2 parts per million of oxygen. Only about 10 percent of these areas had hypoxia before 1950, according to recent research led by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center." The article notes that though the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is enormous, some 8,776 square miles, the one in the Arabian Sea is seven times larger and is the world’s largest. The main contributing factors to dead zones are excess nutrients from agricultural and chemical runoff and rising sea temperatures, both of which cause the water to hold less oxygen.
As if dead zones weren’t enough for our life-giving oceans to deal with, huge amounts of plastic are dumped into them as well, which pose the next biggest threat to their health and well-being. While I have known for years that the oceans are being deluged with plastic, when I recently spent time on the coast of Belize, I was shocked by the amount of plastic on the beach, both from people tossing aside their single-use plastics and by what was caught in the seaweed, which offshore currents wash up on the beach. Then I observed a local man meticulously picking the plastic out of the seaweed and loading it in his truck to take home and rinse before putting it on his garden to build the soil. In that moment, as the tears were streaming down my face, a glimmer of hope fluttered in my heart, and I remembered what Dolores Huerta, a civil rights, labor, and women’s rights activist said: "every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world." The next morning I was on the beach with my friends, and we chose to be part of the solution instead of complaining about the plastic. We collected plastic containers and picked plastic out of the seaweed so that it could naturally decompose.
You might say the problem is too big for one person to make a difference, but what else are we to do? Perhaps if we all remember our kinship with the ocean, from which all life arose, and treat her with respect, love, and kindness, like we would treat our grandmother, maybe then a new day will dawn.
Decolonizing Language
In working with co-creative partnership, I find that language is so important. As noted earlier, I have capitalized the word Nature throughout this book, to indicate that it is worthy of respect. Anishinaabe author, lecturer, and teacher Robin Wall Kimmerer suggests that to stop the Age of Extinction we eliminate the objectification of Nature. Instead of referring to aspects of Nature as it we use the word ki for singular or kin for plural. As Kimmerer says in a 2015 article, "using ‘it’ absolves us of moral responsibility and opens the door to exploitation." She brings up one more aspect of colonization that we must look at: "Colonization, we know, attempts to replace indigenous cultures with the culture of the settler. One of its tools is linguistic imperialism, or the overwriting of language and names. Among the many examples of linguistic imperialism, perhaps none is more pernicious than the replacement of the language of nature as subject with the language of nature as object."
In the world of herbalism, which I am a part of, I find myself cringing every time I hear how someone "uses" a particular herb. To me this implies taking advantage of the plant, in the negative sense of that expression. My suggestion is to replace the word use with cooperate.
Open your heart, breathe deeply, and listen to the following sentences.
I’m going to use Dandelion to clear my sluggish liver from toxins in order to restore my liver to health.
Continue to breathe and listen even more deeply.
I’m going to cooperate with Dandelion to clear my liver from toxins in order to restore my liver to health.
How do you feel when you use and how do you feel when you cooperate?
To cooperate implies that you are participating in your own healing process and that you and Dandelion are working in concert. When you use, you are engaging "colonizer mind" where Dandelion becomes a resource or commodity instead of your kin. When you cooperate with Dandelion, you recognize the beginnings of a collaboration that can result in a co-creative partnership together.
Product Details
- Publisher: Bear & Company (March 4, 2025)
- Length: 360 pages
- ISBN13: 9781591435235
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Raves and Reviews
“Co-Creating with Nature is a call to deepen our relationship with the natural world by moving beyond traditional notions of stewardship. Instead of merely caring for Nature, Montgomery advocates for a profound collaboration—a co-creative partnership with the living ecosystems around us. Filled with personal anecdotes, Indigenous wisdom, and scientific insights, it highlights that Nature is not passive but active, communicative, and willing to engage with us—if only we open ourselves to listening. The practices she outlines, including contemplation, sensory awareness, and sacred play, are designed to heal the separation we have created. This movement from separation to nonduality sets this book apart from other books on ecological consciousness. By collaborating with Nature, we can heal ourselves—a message that feels timely and necessary in our age of separation and crisis.”
– Nisha J. Manek, M.D., FACP, author of Bridging Science and Spirit
“Pam shows what it means to entertain relationships with other living species. Her story can inspire people who are seeking to do the same.”
– Jeremy Narby, anthropologist and author of The Cosmic Serpent
“A truly remarkable book in every way, indeed, an incredible gift for the world. There is so much wisdom and hope encoded in these pages. There is also scientific research and information to satisfy the most questioning of minds along with beautiful imagery, poems, and quotes to ignite one’s imagination. For those searching for a deeper meaning to life and a pathway forward, Pam provides practical guidance and tools. Amidst these chaotic times, it renewed my faith that we are capable of healing our wounds and the wounds of the Earth with the help and guidance of Nature and her healing plants. This beautifully written and utterly important work shows us the way and guides us on the journey.”
– Rosemary Gladstar, renowned herbalist and author of Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs and He
“The root of herbal medicine has always been having a deep connection to the natural world and the plants themselves, but in this modern world it can feel increasingly difficult to do that. Co-Creating with Nature is a manual to guide us back to remembering that we are a part of Nature as much as Nature is a part of us. This premise shapes our perceptions, morals, pathways to healing, and, ultimately, our practice of herbal medicine.”
– Sajah Popham, author of Evolutionary Herbalism
“Co-Creating with Nature teaches us how to create a partnership with the plant world, which is so willing to share healing with us if we would just remember our primal connection with plants to guide us in aligning with our true essence. Pam is such a bright light for all of us to tap into. She has an abundance of knowledge, wisdom, passion, and love for working with the plant world in a way that shows us our truth. This book is a true treasure for the times we are living in.”
– Sandra Ingerman, M.A., shamanic teacher, author of The Book of Ceremony and Soul Retrieval, and coau
“Pam’s deeply lived wisdom and exemplary guidance in showing us how to enter into an evolutionary and co-creative partnership with Mother Gaia and all her multidimensional and multisentient family fills my heart with love, gratitude, and joy. Remembering our interbeing with all life in a living and essentially loving universe is surely both the greatest wonder and adventure of our lives and the greatest hope for a New Earth to come.”
– Jude Currivan, Ph.D., cosmologist, cofounder of WholeWorld-View, and author of The Cosmic Hologram
“A true steward of the plant path, Pam leads us into the wilderness of our own being, opening our senses to two-way communication with the Great Mother. This book is a living bridge, connecting the scientific dots that underlie nature mysticism with such skill that the lines between them dissolve entirely.”
– Nick Polizzi, documentary filmmaker, founder of Sacred Science, and author of The Sacred Science
“Herbalist and Earth Elder Pam Montgomery brings her passionate commitment and deep sense of purpose to shine a light on the far-reaching effects of the primal wound our separation from Nature has caused. She presents a path forward for us to heal ourselves, each other, and our world by learning to listen to and learn from plants, including some of my favorites like white pine and wild rose; to reconnect with ourselves as part of Nature; and to co-create a future that honors and supports all forms of life on our beautiful planet, which she lovingly calls Lady Gaia.”
– Robin Rose Bennett, herbalist and author of The Gift of Healing Herbs and The Young Green Witch&rsqu
“Pam’s book is prayerful and insightful, filled with a joy, reverence, and depth that come from her years of communicating with the spirits of plants and guiding many students and clients. How Pam weaves an understanding of interbeing throughout this book is truly uplifting and a map needed in these times.”
– Deb Soule, herbalist and author of The Healing Garden and Healing Herbs for Women
“Pam takes the lead in sharing cutting-edge information regarding our next steps as fully human partners in our living world. This book lays out a detailed, well thought out journey through the realms of creation many have lost sight of but so desperately wish to reclaim. This helpful and hope-filled book is brimming with insightful connecting narratives and practical activities for walking ourselves into healthy and balanced living with the world around us.”
– Tammi Sweet, cofounder of The Heartstone Center for Earth Essentials and author of The Wholistic Hea
“If you are looking for a book to help you remember who you are and how to reconnect with Nature, then this is it! This inspiring and optimistic book eloquently describes how we can come into right relationship with all beings and leave a thriving planet for future generations. Well-informed, thoroughly researched, and packed with heartfelt anecdotes, Pam shares precious teachings from the plants and beautifully describes how plant initiations are a powerful way to build a lifelong loving and co-creative partnership with plants, trees, and the whole of Nature. A masterpiece for our time.”
– Carole Guyett, medical herbalist, shamanic practitioner, ceremonialist, and author of Sacred Plant I
“Co-Creating with Nature is not only a profound read but also an accessible and enjoyable one. Pam explores elements within the matrix of Nature (Pachamama) and offers ways to reconnect with her so that we can actively participate in co-creation with other living beings and Nature. These plants have the power to remove our outdated evolutionary and genetic matrix, initiating a quantum and dynamic process capable of triggering epigenetic and regenerative changes at the cellular level. This process aims to help the human species rebuild a natural paradise in harmony with Nature. Everyone should read this book and rediscover their connection with Pachamama.”
– Rocio Alarcon, Ph.D., healer, ethnobotanist, and founder of IAMOE Center
“In this important book, Pam offers a plant-infused healing balm for these uncertain times. With inspirational personal stories and student experiences, she expertly guides us into her deep love of plants and way of being with the more-than-human. Reading this felt like witnessing the gentle light on the horizon just before dawn, a glimmer of hope for our unknown collective future.”
– Rachel Corby, author of Rewilding & the Art of Plant Whispering
“This book is a powerful reminder of our innate connection to the earth and the importance of a co-creative partnership with Nature. It gently guides us toward living in harmony with the natural world and offers profound insights for those seeking to deepen their relationship with the planet.”
– Iris Verbaas, founder of Nabalo and author of Elemental Whispers
“Pam’s heart is clearly aligned with the soul of the earth. This book is the plant kingdom speaking through her, offering a clear pathway back to right relationship with the self and therefore with Nature. A truly enlightening read.”
– Emma Fitchett (Farrell), M.Sc., founder of the School of Natural Esoterics and author of Journeys wi
“Pam asks us to reconsider our relationship with Nature at a time when it is deeply needed. Her invitation to listen, breathe, and learn from our nonhuman relatives opens a new space for addressing urgent environmental challenges and human loneliness. It is a space filled with wisdom, compassion, and even joy.”
– Stella Tarnay, cofounder Capital Nature and Biophilic DC
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