Ceremonies of any kind turn our attention into intention, which is a natural doorway through with to find connection - with self, with source, and with community. When paired with a plant medicine like Tea, which has a relationship with humans dating back beyond recorded history, ceremonies become opportunities for deep connection and healing. This is the difference between simply drinking tea as a beverage, and Tea Ceremony; it’s that intention of cultivating the Sacred in the Ordinary.

I have learned to serve Tea through practice, studying with teachers and by listening to Tea herself. Tea brings a new lesson with every experience, every bowl; she is my constant teacher. I have teachers whose teachers say they are learning new things about Tea every day, and they have been practicing for decades upon decades. I can say without question that this kind of relationship and conversation with Tea can only come through deep and patient practice, humility, and surrender over time.

Tea is quintessential to all four of the religions of China - the indigenous, tribal peoples (who lived alongside tea trees wild in the forests long before Tea came to the Han Chinese peoples), Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. These traditions go back through the ages. but it is important to note that there are no unbroken lineages in China. There have been many cultural upheavals in China’s past, many of which were horrific and violent, and many cultural treasures, including methodology, traditions and lineages, have been lost forever. That being said, each of the teachers today, in every lineage, has specific ways and methods of brewing and serving Tea, and they are all beautiful.

Each of their methods are based on ancient (and maybe some not so ancient) traditions pulled forward through time, weaving together new and old in a way that honours both. I believe that these living lineages or living traditions are a beautiful constellation of what remains, and what we yearn to remember. This is how I aim to serve Tea; honouring the past, honouring nature, and honouring Tea.

While my hope is that my offerings will encourage you to dive into a relationship with Tea, the intention is not to teach you how to serve Tea. I am not a Tea teacher; that is not my path. These offerings took shape as a means to help you to remember to remember; to allow for a deeper connection to Tea, to Nature, to the Mystery and ultimately to yourself. That is an intimate, often deeply moving experience, and I believe in holding those close.

If you are wanting to start your own Tea practice, please visit my own Teacher’s website Global Tea Hut (linked below). There are many back-issues of the Global Tea Hut magazine available for free, as well as several online courses and books available that can give you a wonderful foundation to start from.

Caffeine is a naturally occuring substance. It is found in the seeds, nuts and leaves of various plants, including tea. Serving a living tea, or a sustainable tea does not mean that it doesn’t contain caffeine, of course it does, but it also contains a myriad of other molecules and chemicals and the essence of how it was grown and harvested and treated and how it lives and interacts with its environment. The leaf is the trees expression of the tree’s relationship to its environment. Tea contains the essence of nature. The water, the molecules and chemicals, the frequencies of the environment. It relaxes us, which makes listening easier, which helps us begin to be able to hear the voice of the earth, of spirit.

I am not here to negate the experience you have with caffeine in your everyday life, but I would offer that this type of ceremony is one in which the plant is revered, treated with respect from seed to leaf, and consumed as medicine. This is very different from the everyday beverage of tea. While I do not serve any caffeine free Tea, you are always welcome to simply drink less tea during the ceremony. This is a lovely way to titrate between receiving the essence of the experience while also honouring your sensitivities.

Today, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world (next to water), and is largely consumed without ceremony or fanfare; this is the tea that you are most likely familiar with, as this is the tea that’s most widely available. However, Tea has been consumed for almost 6000 years (probably longer) and for most of that time it was consumed as a tribal shamanic plant medicine and shared as part of a spiritual practice. When I serve Tea Ceremony, this is the medicine I am serving. I am always serving the plant Tea (Camellia sinensis and some other Camelia varietals) in an effort to connect with her medicine specifically, and I want that medicine to be as healthy as possible. Since the leaf is the trees expression of the tree’s relationship to its environment, if the medicine is not a healthy medicine (meaning that is is full of chemicals and the growing of it negatively impacts the environment) then we cannot expect it to heal us.

That means that I source my tea very consciously, aiming for something called Living Tea, which has very specific qualities. These qualities are not found in the kinds of tea that you can buy at just any grocery store or tea shop. There are six qualities that constitute a Living Tea:

1. The tea trees are seed propagated - planted from seeds, not clones or cuttings.

2. Tea needs room to grow up and out - the plants are not pollarded or crowding one another, they have space to grow freely.

3. There is biodiversity in the environment - bugs, birds, other plants can be found in and around the tee trees.

4. No irrigation is used - the trees get all their water from the environment in which they grows.

5. No agro chemicals (fertilizers or pesticides) are used - at all.

6. There is a healthy relationship with the farmers - the intention is to make the best quality tea they can, or even better, to make the best medicine they can.

This is what we aim for, but of course not all teas can be living teas, some has to come from plantations. So at the very least, I drink and serve tea that is sustainable. Tea as a ceremonial plant medicine should not harm nature, should not harm the farmers, and not harm our bodies. At the very least, the tea that I serve will be free of agrochemicals. If you are wanting to source your own high-quality tea, Global Tea Hut has been my favourite source for a long time. I also love the Selection at O5 Tea in Vancouver, if you’re looking for a closer-to-home shipping option and are in North America. Not all of their products are grown in the ways described above however, so please do your own research and ask questions.

I share tea and Tea Ceremony free of charge. I ask that if you find value in the experience (and are able to) that you consider a donation that reflects that value. Donations allow me to share Tea with anyone and everyone who feels called, and to not create barriers to the transformational healing that the practice can offer.

All Spiritual Guidance Sessions are offered beyond the practice of Tea Ceremony and will be priced based on the length of the appointment.