Toé

Nature of the plant

Toé is a tall shrub with large, hanging trumpet flowers. At dusk they give off a heavy, sweet scent. All parts of the plant are highly poisonous. In Amazonia it is regarded as one of the most powerful and dangerous teacher plants – only very experienced healers work with it. It stands for the threshold between the worlds and for the respect this threshold demands.

Inner attitude

Toé is quiet and serious. Its beauty invites, its power demands distance. It teaches reverence, not curiosity.

The essential qualities

• powerful
• serious
• veiled
• boundary-setting
• awe-inspiring

Its flowers bow towards the earth, as if they knew their power.

Meaning

Toé calls when you are to learn to respect boundaries – those of nature and your own. It reminds you that not everything that tempts is meant for us, and that humility is a form of wisdom.

Voice of the plant

«Look at me, but do not come too close. Respect the threshold.»

Encounter & working together

You meet it only from a distance: look at it, do not touch it. Stand some way from a flowering plant, take in its beauty and feel where respect begins in you.

Pay attention to

• where you want to cross a boundary
• what tempts you and why
• where humility protects you

Toé works when you are ready to honour what is powerful from a distance.

Essence

I respect the threshold and honour what is greater than me.