Composting vs. Cleansing: Why Parasite Obsession Keeps People Stuck

Composting vs. Cleansing: Why Parasite Obsession Keeps People Stuck

🎧 Listen to the Full Episode: You can hear the complete story and all the details on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube

Recently I shared some things on Instagram about the dogma in the holistic health community and what the opposite of it is. The opposite of dogma is fluidity - staying open to new information and evolution. It's discernment - using wisdom rather than rigid rules. It's embodied knowing - trusting your body's intelligence over external authorities. It's adaptability - adjusting based on what's actually working. And it's curiosity - staying in questions rather than fixed answers.

And then I asked people what dogma - or things that they've been told they have to do to heal - are they confused by. And one of them was 'Do I have to do parasite cleanses?'

Which is a great topic, so I figured it was worthy of its whole entire own episode. Because let's be honest - parasites are being talked about everywhere these days. You can't go anywhere on Instagram without running into a post about parasite cleanses.

I had this whole series planned, but this topic came up so powerfully through your questions that I had to address it now. I'll pick up the Beyond Root Cause to Terrain Restoration series next week.

So here's the thing - I have yet to meet a single person who has done a parasite cleanse and it made them all better. Not one...

And I've been in this space for years, working with hundreds of people through my mineral and microbes programs. Everyone tells me the same story: 'I felt some relief for a short time, but then I went back to feeling poorly. So I tried another cleanse. And another. I kept thinking I just needed to be more aggressive, more thorough.'

Does this sound familiar? Maybe you've been there yourself - caught in this endless cycle of cleansing, feeling temporarily better, then crashing back down, convincing yourself you just need to try harder next time.

And I see this pattern over and over again. People come to me after doing multiple parasite protocols - sometimes three, four, five different cleanses over a year or two. They're spending hundreds or thousands of dollars, following increasingly extreme protocols, and they keep getting sicker with each round. Their gut becomes more damaged, their energy gets lower, and they start to think their body is fundamentally broken.

But here's what I've realized - and what changes everything for these people - the problem isn't that they weren't cleansing hard enough. The problem is that they were fighting their body's messengers instead of listening to what they were trying to tell them.

This is the pattern I see consistently: temporary relief followed by feeling worse in the long run, leading to more desperate attempts at cleansing. It's like being stuck in a hamster wheel of depletion disguised as healing.

Today I want to challenge everything you think you know about parasites, about cleansing, and about what it actually means to heal. Because the parasite cleanse obsession isn't just ineffective - it's a symptom of a much deeper issue with how we approach our bodies, our pain, and our healing in this culture.

We're going to explore why this warfare mentality keeps you stuck, what parasites are actually doing in your ecosystem, and how to shift from fighting your body to building terrain so vibrant that imbalance simply cannot take hold."

So let's talk about what's actually happening here. Because to understand why parasite cleanses fail, we need to understand what parasites are actually doing in your body's ecosystem.

What parasites actually do - the deep dive

Here's what most people don't realize - parasites aren't just random invaders that show up to terrorize your body. They're responding to specific conditions in your internal terrain and often serving ecological functions we don't understand.

Parasites often appear during healing phases to help break down cellular debris and toxins. They're literally part of the cleanup crew, not the problem itself. When you interrupt this process by trying to kill them, you're interrupting your body's natural healing mechanism.

From an ancestral perspective, humans have always lived with parasites. They were part of our ecosystem for millennia. The obsession with eliminating them completely is a very modern, very Western concept that goes against how nature actually works.

Here's what parasites are often doing:

• Breaking down dead or damaged cellular material that your body needs cleared
• Responding to acidic, mineral-depleted terrain where they can actually serve a cleanup function
• Indicating areas where your digestive fire is too weak to properly process food
• Showing up where beneficial microbes are missing and ecological niches are empty
• Processing toxins and waste products that your overburdened detox systems can't handle

They're like the vultures, the decomposers, the mycorrhizal fungi of your internal ecosystem. They have a role. And that role is usually "there's something here that needs attention."

The message they're bringing

The real question isn't "How do I kill them?" but "What are they trying to tell me?"

Usually the message is:

• Your mineral density is too low
• Your pH is too acidic
• Your beneficial bacteria populations are depleted
• Your digestive capacity needs support
• Your detox pathways are overwhelmed
• Your terrain needs rebuilding from the ground up

Why the warfare approach fails

But what do we do? We declare war. We try to carpet bomb our entire ecosystem to eliminate the messengers. And here's what happens:

You kill not just the parasites, but the beneficial organisms that maintain balance. You further deplete the terrain that invited them in the first place. And you never address the root conditions that made your body hospitable to them.

So of course they come back. You've made the terrain even more vulnerable and created perfect conditions for recolonization.

Now, I want to be clear here - I'm not saying we should never address parasites. Our ancestors absolutely did seasonal deworming, and there's wisdom in that approach. But there's a huge difference between what they did and what we're doing now.

Ancestrally, people would naturally consume bitter herbs in spring - things like dandelion, wormwood, wild garlic - as part of their seasonal eating patterns. This was gentle, food-based, integrated into their regular diet. It supported the body's natural seasonal detox processes and happened alongside mineral-dense foods from healthy soil and robust digestive systems.

Think of it like amending soil in spring - you're adding nutrients, beneficial microbes, organic matter to support the growing season. You're not scorching the earth to kill everything.

The modern problem

What we're doing now is completely different. We're taking isolated, concentrated antimicrobial compounds out of their natural context. We're doing aggressive elimination protocols divorced from seasonal rhythms, often combined with restrictive diets that further deplete our terrain.

And here's the key difference - we're trying to do this in bodies that don't have the reserve capacity to recuperate. Our ancestors had mineral-dense diets, they lived on healthy soil, they had robust digestive systems. When they did seasonal cleansing, their bodies could handle it and bounce back stronger.

Most people today are already depleted. Their mineral stores are low, their digestive fire is weak, their beneficial bacteria populations are compromised. So when you add aggressive antimicrobial protocols on top of that, you're not supporting the ecosystem - you're further damaging it.

The paradigm shift

The problem isn't addressing parasitic overgrowth when appropriate - it's that we're approaching it from the paradigm of Western patriarchal medicine, which is about warfare and elimination rather than ecological balance and support.

 

The terrain approach

This is why I focus on terrain building. When you create an environment that's so mineral-dense, so populated with beneficial microbes, so robust in its digestive capacity - parasites lose their ecological niche. There's no cleanup work for them to do because your system is handling everything efficiently.

It's ecosystem management, not warfare.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL/ENERGETIC LAYER

Now let's go deeper, because this parasite obsession isn't just about physical health - it's revealing something much more profound about how we relate to our own power and boundaries.

The appeal of parasite cleanses

I think it's really easy to get swayed and convinced that you need to do a parasite cleanse to heal - especially if you're in a pattern of giving your power away to external authorities. There's something seductive about having an expert tell you exactly what's wrong and exactly how to fix it.

It's like jumping on a bandwagon with this fantasy that you can clean things up without having to address the harder, more complex stuff - like your inner boundaries, your relationship dynamics, or learning to trust your body's own wisdom.

Parasites as messengers about sovereignty

What if parasites are actually messengers about our own fears and lack of personal sovereignty? What if they're showing up to say: 'Hey, you're not trusting your body's intelligence. You're looking outside yourself for answers. You're giving your power away.'

Think about it - if you're constantly worried about things invading your body and taking your life force, it might be reflecting:

• A pattern of not trusting your own inner knowing
• Difficulty setting boundaries in relationships
• Fear of your own body's natural processes
• Looking to external authorities instead of developing your own discernment
• Feeling like dangerous things can get inside you without your permission

The deeper work

The real work isn't cleansing your way to safety - it's building the inner sovereignty and self-trust that would naturally guide you toward what's nourishing and away from what's depleting."

The contamination wound

And for many people, this goes back to early experiences where boundaries were violated or where they learned that dangerous things could get inside them without their permission.

This might have been emotional enmeshment where you absorbed your family's emotions as if they were your own. It might have been growing up in chaotic environments where you never felt safe or contained. It could have been physical violations, or even just medical experiences where your body was treated as something that needed to be fixed rather than trusted.

When this happens, your nervous system develops this deep fear of contamination. You learn that you can't trust your own boundaries, that bad things will get in, that you need constant vigilance and cleansing to stay safe.

But here's what's really happening: you're trying to cleanse your way to safety instead of building the inner sovereignty and self-trust that would naturally protect you.

The obsession with physical purity - whether through parasite cleanses, restrictive diets, or endless detox protocols - becomes a way to feel like you have control. Like you can finally make yourself safe by eliminating all the "bad" things.

But you can't cleanse your way to wholeness. Safety comes from building such strong internal boundaries and self-worth that you naturally know what belongs in your ecosystem and what doesn't.

Codependency vs. healthy interdependence

And let's talk about relationships for a minute. I see this pattern where people use the word "codependent" to pathologize normal human interdependence. We ARE meant to be interconnected - that's how ecosystems work, that's how humans work.

The problem isn't dependence itself - it's when the exchange becomes extractive rather than reciprocal. It's when you consistently lose yourself to keep others comfortable. It's when your energy flows out but nothing nourishing flows back in.

These are the real parasitic patterns that need addressing.

The purity trap

The Western purity paradigm has us believing that if we can just cleanse hard enough - whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually - we'll finally be worthy, finally be safe, finally be enough.

But purity culture is toxic culture. It keeps you focused on elimination instead of integration, on perfection instead of wholeness, on fighting your humanity instead of embracing it.

The terrain approach to emotional health

Just like with physical parasites, the solution isn't to keep purging the "bad" emotions, the difficult relationships, the shadow aspects of yourself. The solution is to build such strong energetic terrain - such solid boundaries, such deep self-worth, such robust inner resources - that parasitic dynamics simply can't establish dominance in your life.

When your energetic terrain is healthy, you naturally attract reciprocal relationships. You naturally repel people who want to feed off your energy. You don't need to constantly guard against contamination because your inner ecosystem is so vibrant that only what's nourishing can thrive there."

CULTURAL/ASTROLOGICAL CONTEXT 

Now let's zoom out and look at the bigger picture, because this parasite cleanse obsession is happening within a much larger cultural and cosmic shift that we're all navigating right now.

The major astrological shift

On November 19th, 2024 - so just recently - we had one of the most significant astrological transits of our lifetime. Pluto officially left Capricorn after 16 years and entered Aquarius for the next 20 years. This is a tectonic shift in how our entire society operates.

What Pluto in Capricorn gave us

From 2008 to 2024, Pluto in Capricorn emphasized authority, structure, hierarchy, and patriarchal systems - especially in healthcare. During this time, these systems were built up and reinforced, but they were also cracked open by crisis.

Think about what we witnessed: the pandemic exposed massive inequities in healthcare, institutional failures became undeniable, and we saw the corruption and control embedded in corporatized medicine. Pluto amplified all of this so we could see it clearly.

This gave us the rigid, top-down medical approach where:

• Experts know better than your body
• Follow protocols without question
• Wage war against symptoms and "invaders"
• Medical knowledge is gatekept by institutions
• Individual achievement and authority matter most
• Healthcare is profit-driven rather than care-driven

The Aquarian shift

Now with Pluto in Aquarius, we're moving from rigid hierarchical systems to collective, decentralized, egalitarian structures. Instead of top-down control, we're moving toward shared power and community-focused healing.

This means:

• Collective well-being over individual authority
• Decentralized healing networks over institutional gatekeeping
• Innovation and questioning over tradition and compliance
• Community knowledge and peer support gaining value
• Prevention and whole-system care becoming the focus
• Healing that includes ancestral wisdom and lived experience

Toxic vs. healthy masculine 

Now, I want to be clear here - I'm not demonizing the masculine. Healthy masculine energy gives us structure, protection, discernment, and the ability to take focused action. We need that. The Capricorn era DID give us important advances - medical breakthroughs, organizational systems, ways of creating stability.

But like any energy taken to an extreme, it became toxic masculine - this need to dominate, control, and eliminate anything that threatens the established order.

Toxic masculine energy is about:

• Domination instead of protection
• Rigidity instead of flexible structure
• Warfare instead of wise discernment
• Control instead of guidance

The parasite cleanse obsession is pure toxic masculine healing - trying to dominate and control your body's ecosystem through force.

The Aquarian Innovation

The Aquarius era is inviting us to integrate both masculine structure AND feminine flow and wisdom. Instead of throwing out all structure, we're learning to blend:

• Discernment (masculine) with intuition (feminine)
• Action (masculine) with receptivity (feminine)
• Protection (masculine) with nurturing (feminine)

So instead of "kill the parasites" (toxic masculine), we ask "what are they here to teach us?" (integrated approach). Instead of "follow this protocol" (rigid masculine), we learn to trust our body's intelligence while using wise discernment about what supports us.

Why this matters now

This isn't just about parasites - this is about how we relate to our bodies, our healing, our power, and our sovereignty. The people who are ready to question the parasite cleanse dogma are the same people who are ready to step into this new paradigm of health and healing.

We're literally composting the old ways and growing something new.

THE COMPOSTING PARADIGM

So now let's talk about what this new paradigm actually looks like in practice. Because if we're not fighting parasites, if we're not trying to eliminate and purge everything we've labeled as 'bad,' then what ARE we doing?'

Sophie Strand's wisdom

There's a beautiful piece of writing by Sophie Strand that captures this perfectly. She talks about how ecosystems heal not by purging pain, but by composting it - nurturing decay so new life can flourish.

This is such a different way of thinking about healing. Instead of elimination, we're talking about transformation. Instead of getting rid of what's unwanted, we're learning how to compost it into something that can actually nourish new growth.

The composting vs. cleansing paradigm

Think about what happens in a forest. When a tree falls, when leaves decay, when an animal dies - the ecosystem doesn't rush in to eliminate and cleanse away the "mess." Instead, fungi, bacteria, insects, and other decomposers break everything down and turn it into rich soil that feeds new life.

The forest composts its challenges into fertility.

But our Western purity paradigm has taught us the opposite. Whether we're talking about physical health, emotional healing, or spiritual growth, we've been trained to think that healing means elimination:

 

• Physically: cleanse all the "bad" things from your body

• Emotionally: purge negative feelings and traumatic memories

• Spiritually: eliminate ego, shadow, and human messiness

• Relationally: cut out all "toxic" people
  
  

 

Integration vs. elimination

But what if our difficulties - including parasites - aren't contaminants to be expelled but raw material for transformation? What if they're actually composting material that, when properly tended, can become the foundation for deeper health?

This doesn't mean we become passive or accept harm. It means we learn the difference between tending and fighting, between transformation and elimination.

Practical composting in health

In my work with minerals and microbes, this is exactly what we're doing. We're not trying to sterilize the gut or eliminate all the "bad" bacteria. We're creating conditions where beneficial organisms can transform waste into nourishment, where the "problematic" elements become food for what's beneficial.

When you build your mineral reserves you're giving your body the tools to compost cellular debris effectively. When you support beneficial microbes, you're strengthening your body's natural composting crew. When you eat seasonally, you're working with natural cycles of breakdown and renewal.

The emotional/spiritual parallel

This works on every level. Instead of trying to cleanse away your trauma, you learn to compost it into wisdom. Instead of eliminating your shadow aspects, you transform them into integrated wholeness. Instead of cutting out everyone who triggers you, you learn to compost those triggers into stronger boundaries and clearer self-knowledge.

The generative metaphor

The composting metaphor makes healing feel generative rather than depleting. Instead of constantly losing parts of yourself through elimination, you're constantly gaining richness through transformation.

Your wounds become wisdom. Your challenges become compost for new growth. Your parasites become messengers pointing you toward what needs tending in your inner ecosystem.

 

 

So how do you actually make this shift from cleansing to composting, from warfare to terrain-building? Let me give you some practical steps you can start implementing right away.

 

Immediate mindset shifts

First, the next time you hear about a parasite cleanse or feel the urge to eliminate something from your body, pause and ask yourself:

What is this trying to tell me about my terrain?

What foundational support does my body actually need right now?

Am I approaching this from fear and control, or from curiosity and care?

What would it look like to tend my ecosystem instead of fighting it?

 

Practical terrain-building steps

Start building your terrain from the ground up:

Focus on mineral density - your body needs these foundational building blocks to create inhospitable terrain for imbalances

Support your beneficial microbes through fermentable fiber diversity, and avoiding things that damage your microbiome

Strengthen your digestive fire with warming spices, proper food combining, and eating in alignment with your body's rhythms

Get seasonal - eat the bitter herbs of spring naturally, not as isolated aggressive protocols

Build your nervous system resilience so you can trust your body's intelligence

 

The deeper work

And remember, this isn't just about physical health. Start composting in other areas of your life:

Instead of cutting people out immediately, ask what they're reflecting back to you about your boundaries

Instead of trying to eliminate difficult emotions, explore what wisdom they might contain

Instead of following rigid protocols, develop your own discernment about what actually supports your unique ecosystem

 

My program: Minerals & Microbes

If you want structured support in making this shift, this is exactly what we do in my Minerals and Microbes program. We focus on building unshakeable foundations - mineral density, beneficial microbes, digestive strength - so your body naturally maintains balance without needing to wage war on itself.

We work with your body's wisdom, not against it. We build terrain so robust that imbalance simply can't establish dominance.

Your body is not your enemy. You don't need to cleanse your way to worthiness or fight your way to health. You just need to remember how to tend your inner ecosystem with the same wisdom that nature uses to maintain balance in every forest, every garden, every thriving environment on earth.

Your body knows how to heal. Your job is to create the conditions that support that natural intelligence.