Plant Spirit Medicine, Part 4: Intention and Ritual
Welcome to Part 4 of five-part blog series on plant spirit medicine! In Part 1, we defined plant spirit medicine as a shamanic approach to working with plants as teachers and allies. In Part 2, we explored cultivating friendships with plants, while in Part 3 we discovered meditation practices that can open the doors of communication with plants.
In this post, we will look at the roles of intention and ritual in our relationships with plant allies. We’ll also explore how plant spirit medicine can be practiced as a healing modality for ourselves and others.
The Power of Intention
In his book Plant Spirit Medicine, Eliot Cowan (1995) describes an interaction he had with a plant spirit who told him that the plants can do nothing to help us unless they are asked. This echoes a theme that comes up often in spiritual circles: the idea that, because humans have free will, our spirit guides and allies cannot offer assistance unless we specifically ask for it.
Personally, I’m not sure that this principle is so cut-and-dry. I’ve had experiences of being helped by hidden hands many times when I’ve not specifically asked for it. I’ve also felt plant spirits reaching out to me in moments when I wasn’t expecting or even looking for them. Perhaps such blessings sometimes happen by way of grace. Or, maybe part of it lies in our general attitude toward life; if we stay receptive to help from unexpected sources, it can be enough to open the door.
Either way, it’s clear that intention plays a vital role in all kinds of spiritual pursuits. Intention is the force that guides meditations and journeys—it’s what draws in the types of experiences or alliances we seek.
This is especially apparent in psychedelic journeys. Under the guidance of Zoe Helene, the founder of Cosmic Sister whom I traveled with to Peru in 2018, I found that setting a clear, concise intention before drinking ayahuasca completely transformed the experience. Oh, it was still a wild ride, full of twists and turns that had me holding onto my cosmic hat, but I was amazed at how much the medicine responded to my requests. Intention acts as both rudder and sail during inner voyages, steering the ship of our awareness in a specific direction.
More than that, intention energizes reality. The invisible world is highly interconnected, just as a forest has intricate ecological connections via root and mycelia that are hidden from view, but vital to survival of the ecosystem. You can think of this invisible world like a grid or web of energy, where a tug in one spot creates movement across the entire system. Your intention is the tug, and the whole of reality vibrates with it.
But don’t take my word for it—try it yourself! Play with setting intentions not only during journey work, but also in your everyday life. Notice when an intention you’ve set causes a ripple or change in the web of your life. Don’t let anyone else take away the power of these experiences, including your own skeptical mind. (In Part 5, we’ll dive deeper into dealing with self-doubt.)
Inspiration from India
In Part 3 of this series, we talked about using intention in meditation and journeying to connect with plant spirits deeply. But what about when we actually use herbs as physical medicines—when we drink a cup of tea, or make a tincture? How do we bring the power of intention into our practice of herbalism?
For inspiration, let’s take a look at India, which has a long and beautiful history of plant reverence. In ancient times, plants were held as sacred both for their utility as food and medicine, as well as in a mythical sense for their connections to the gods and archetypal symbology. In fact, scholars believe plant worship to be the oldest form of religion in India, as evidenced by archeological findings (Krishna & Amirthalingam, 2014; Patnaik, 1993).
The Vedas, ancient Sanskrit scriptures of Hinduism, refer to many medicinal plants and invoke them for healing. The Artharvaveda in particular has hymns that read like magical charms and spells; it’s sometimes known as the Veda of magical formulas. Many of these invocations involve appealing to plants for their help, invoking them much as one might invoke a deity. One such invocation has a title that has been translated as Hymn to all Magic and Medicinal Plants, Used as a Universal Remedy. Here are few lines:
The plants that are brown, and those that are white; the red ones and the speckled ones; the sable and the black plants, all these do we invoke. May they protect this man from the disease sent by the gods, the herbs whose father is the sky, whose mother is the earth, whose root is the ocean….With the might that is yours, ye mighty ones, with the power and strength that is yours, with that do ye, O plants, rescue this man from this disease! I now prepare a remedy (Griffith, 1896, 1-5).
Powerful words, indeed! Imagine if we said something similar before each cup of tea we drank or over every tincture we made!
Plant worship was not uncommon in ancient cultures; it’s likely that all of our ancestors revered plants, just as all of our ancestors relied on them for their very survival. As author Naveen Patnaik (1993) explains, “What makes the Indian reverence for plants unique is its unbroken continuity from prehistory to the present day” (p. 16). Many sacred plants still hold an important role in modern-day India; some are strongly associated with a god or gods in religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
The first temples were sacred trees, which were thought to be inhabited by spirits called yakshis (feminine) and yakshas (masculine). Many modern Indian temples are situated near sacred trees, and depictions of tree worship persist in temple artwork (Krishna & Amirthalingam, 2014). Ayurveda, the traditional healing system of India, also has deep spiritual roots that persist in many of its contemporary philosophies.
According to authors Nanditha Krishna and N. Amirthalingam (2014), plant-related rituals have also survived in India to this day. One modern-day ritual involves embracing a tree and consuming some of its bark or flowers, while other ceremonial practices include ritually circumambulating (walking in circles around) trees and leaving offerings beneath them (Krishna & Amirthalingam, 2014; Patnaik, 1993).
Bringing Intention Into Herbalism
Having grown up in a culture devoid of any such reverence for plants, I find accounts of both the ancient and modern plant reverence of India to be highly inspiring. Imagine if all herbalists took a page from the Vedas, so to speak, and actually thought to ask the plants we work with and imbibe for their healing.
I’m not suggesting that we all recite Vedic verses, but rather, that each of us develops our own intention-setting practice around our use of herbs that feels good to us and fits with our own beliefs and traditions. It doesn’t have to be complicated—it can be as simple as taking a moment before drinking a cup of tea to ask the plants in that tea for healing. It may feel odd at first, but remember, this is something that people from all over the world once did as a matter of course—our ancestors asked the plants for help and consciously invoked their healing.
Setting intentions while making or using herbal medicine is a wonderful way add potency to your remedies and get more deeply involved with your own healing process. Actually, we can ask the plants for far more than physical healing. Eliot Cowan (1995) makes a great point here:
The history of our species shows us that plants furnish us with whatever we ask for. Our society values comfort, so that is what we have gone to the plant world to get. This is wonderful as far as it goes, which is not very far in the direction of satisfaction. If for a moment we could forget the quest for comfort and ask plants to help us find joy, richness, and significance in life, is there any reason to suppose they would not share those qualities with us just as they have shared everything else? (p. 13).
He goes on to say that plants can even teach us about the experience of ecstasy, and that ecstatic union with nature is not merely a fringe benefit of plant spirit work, but is actually central to our wellbeing. I suspect this is a missing link for many of us experiencing chronic health problems (whether physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual)—a deficit of ecstasy caused by a lack of connection with nature. So, you might consider asking the plants about that!
The point is, we can ask plants for help with all kinds of things, from health challenges to the deepest questions that our spirits yearn to understand. Ask plants for advice about your life, or to show you things about the world or about yourself that you didn’t know before. The plants show us deep truths, which can be profound enough to be life-changing.
What is Ritual?
Intertwined with intention is the concept of ritual, a word that can mean very different things to different people. While it may conjure up images of religious ceremony or rites of passage like weddings or funerals, another meaning of the word simply refers to habitual or customary practices. Author Arin Murphy-Hiscock gives a lovely definition of ritual as “an intuitive ceremony or something set apart from everyday action by mindfulness and conscious intent” (2018, p. 13).
Simply remaining mindful and bringing intention into our activities are ways of evoking ritual in everyday life. Through this sense of presence and reflection, ritual also affords us the opportunity to cultivate a more intentional relationship with plants. It helps us honor the plants we use through our awareness and appreciation of the gifts they bring. As we learned in Part 2, the quality and depth of our relationships with plants are the keys to their medicine.
Ritual also helps us maintain our commitment to plant relationships by bringing them into our daily lives. As herbalist Thea Summer Deer (2011) points out, consistency is key: “The commitment is made in the present moment, one moment at a time, and that commitment becomes a constant flow of energy and intimacy that deepens as you progress” (p. 2).
I encourage you to develop daily plant rituals that are personal to you and, most importantly, feel good when you practice them. Personally, I have found inspiration in Arin Murphy-Hiscock’s delightful books, The Green Witch and The House Witch. Yet ultimately, the most powerful rituals are those guided and inspired by the plants themselves.
Like intentions, rituals can be as complicated or involved as you want them to be. Some of the simplest daily rituals—taking a flower essence at your altar each morning, soaking in a ritual herbal bath, or leaving offerings at the base of a beloved tree—can be also some of the most profound.
Rituals can be developed for many purposes: self-care and healing, celebrations and rites of passage, and to effect change in your life in what some might call spell work or magic. Examples include energetic cord-cutting or release rituals, and forgiveness or manifestation rituals. You might also connect with a plant ally to ask for a specific healing ritual for yourself or others.
Plant Spirit Medicine as a Healing Modality
Plant spirit medicine has been developed into an official healing modality with specific protocols by Eliot Cowan. I’ve been told he has service-marked this modality, so that only those who have taken his trainings can legally use the term “plant spirit medicine” in any kind of official practice. So, I’m not claiming to provide any such training here. With that disclaimer under our belts, I think it’s safe to discuss some basic concepts of plant spirit medicine as a modality, as well as my own informal experiences calling upon plant spirits in healing work.
Plant spirit traditions hold that our relationships with plants are what foster their healing effects. The relationship itself is the medicine, more powerful than any herbal extract, and the healing we receive from plants depends upon this connection. So, honor this connection any time you imbibe or offer someone else an herbal preparation like an infused oil or flower essence. Spend some time sitting with the preparation and consciously ask the plants to infuse it with their medicine.
These sacred relationships can also be called upon to help us heal others in a process akin to energy work. Essentially, the healer forms such a deep relationship with a plant that they become aligned with that plant’s energy and vibration enough to transmit that plant’s vibration to another person energetically. In essence, you become the medicine.
As a Reiki practitioner, I call upon plant spirits in this way during energy work. Sometimes, a plant will show itself to me during an energy session, and I’ll feel guided to focus on a particular issue or part of the body. Occasionally, I receive messages from the plant to share with the person.
Other times, I will put out a call for the help of any plants who would like to step forward and help the person. Again, the power of intention is what calls the plants to you, but you can also strengthen that intention with physical rituals. Here are a few ideas:
Placing herbs on the body.
Brushing the body or energy field with plants for cleansing, protection, or blessings.
Placing an image of a plant on the body, underneath the massage table, or nearby. You can a photo, illustration, or card from The Herbal Healing Deck.
Burning herbs as incense in the room or using aromatherapy to engage the senses.
Some people even learn healing songs from plants. This is done in ayahuasca shamanism—the icaros are healing songs often learned directly from the plants and sung during ceremony. Similarly, herbalist David Winston shares that in the Southern Cherokee tradition, each plant species is known to have its own song, which must be learned directly from the plant (as cited in Montgomery, 2008, p. 30).
In her book Plant Spirit Healing, Pam Montgomery (2008) tells some beautiful stories about people spontaneously hearing plant songs and using them in healing work. As she says, “It is important to pay attention on all levels. You may suddenly find yourself humming a tune or toning with a plant. By listening you may receive the plant’s song, which, of course, is ‘big medicine’” (p. 92). Pam Montgomery’s book is also a source of techniques and inspiration for bringing plant spirits into healing work, and it’s definitely worth reading if you’re looking to go deeper.
Fostering Planetary Wellbeing
Infusing intention and ritual into our work with plants helps bring us ever deeper into relationships with the plant spirits, energizing our ecstatic connection with all of nature. This, in turn, fosters healing on the collective and planetary levels. In the sage words of Pam Montgomery (2008),
The Great Healing that is upon us is the healing of the earth and all her beings. We can assist that healing by healing ourselves and others with plant spirits. When we come into alignment with our true nature, a shift in consciousness takes place and we align with the larger nature. In this alignment there is no room for unsustainable living where the earth is regarded as a commodity to be used as we see fit (p. 112).
In this case, our ecstatic connection with nature fostered through intention and ritual becomes essential not only for our own wellbeing, but also for that of the planet.
In the next post, we will wrap up this series by addressing one of most common pitfalls of any type of spiritual work: self-doubt. We will answer some common questions that come up in plant spirit practice: What do plant spirits actually look like? And how do we know if our experiences are real?
References
Cowan, E. (1995). Plant spirit medicine. Swan Raven & Co.
Deer, T.S. (2011). Wisdom of the plant devas: Herbal medicine for a new earth. Bear & Company.
Griffith, T.H. (Trans.). (1895). The hymns of the Atharvaveda. E.J. Lazarus & Co. (Original work published c. 1000 BCE). Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe42/av062.htm
Krishna, N., & Amirthalingam, M. (2014). Sacred plants of India. Penguin Books India.
Murphy-Hiscock, A. (2018). The house witch: Your complete guide to creating a magical space with rituals and spells for hearth and home. Adams Media.
Patnaik, N. (1993). The garden of life: An introduction to the healing plants of India. Aquarian.