| Since the beginning of human experience, plants | | | | of ingesting them in a tablet or even a herbal |
| have played a role in the evolution of our species, | | | | form. |
| not only in the provision of food and medicine but | | | | In Haiti, Peru, Brazil, Indonesia, and in our own |
| in our deepest spiritual experience and the | | | | Celtic past, there is a practice, for example, of |
| development of consciousness. Their form, | | | | taking floral baths, where flowers and herbs are |
| beauty, enchanting scents, their healing and | | | | added to blessed water. The sick person then |
| emotional qualities, have all provided a gateway to | | | | bathes to wash away his ailments. These baths |
| the Great Mystery of Nature, which our Celtic | | | | are not restricted to physical healing, but can be |
| forebears called "The visible face of Spirit". | | | | used to draw good fortune and change your luck |
| Though our lands are no longer forested as they | | | | (which is regarded as a real and tangible force), |
| were, we try to recreate a sense of their beauty | | | | by making you more 'open' to the receipt of |
| and tranquillity in our gardens, parks, and the | | | | money, love, or spiritual power. |
| green spaces in our cities, giving us at least a | | | | Other ways of working with plants include the |
| taste of Nature with which we can sustain | | | | making of pakets, 'power pouches' containing |
| ourselves against the soulless backdrop of the | | | | herbs that remove negative energies, while |
| steel and concrete jungles that are our homes | | | | returning life force to the patient as the pouch is |
| today. For many people, plants are still the | | | | brushed over his body. The paket has similarities |
| messengers of divinity, harmony, and beauty. | | | | to the Amazonian chacapa, a bundle of dried |
| They are also the source of our health and | | | | leaves which has medicine powers to rebalance |
| wellbeing, not just as medicines but in their ability | | | | the patient's energy field, and is rubbed over the |
| to relax, refresh, or excite us. | | | | body in the same way. |
| Some deep part of us knows that the healing | | | | The seguro of the Andes, a bottle which contains |
| power of plants is inherent in what they are as | | | | a mixture of plants and herbs in Holy water and |
| much as what they do. Flowers have a role to | | | | perfume, uses the same principles of spiritual |
| play, for example, in all of our most primal | | | | connection with the plants. Here the shapes, |
| celebrations of life and death - birth and birthdays, | | | | colours, or qualities of the plants invoke various |
| comings-of-age, marriages, illnesses, funerals and | | | | powers that the client wishes to draw in to his life. |
| deaths. They are there at the first 'I love you', | | | | Round, golden, seeds attract money, for example, |
| and they are there for our endings too. Even | | | | while cactus spines embody protection. The |
| after death our connection to the natural world | | | | seguro, according to Andean shamans, becomes a |
| continues and our spiritual destination in many | | | | "Friend", you can consult with. Every time you |
| religious myths is some form of paradise which is | | | | speak out your problems to this friend, they are |
| often symbolised as the "Heavenly Garden", or | | | | removed, while the powers of the plants draw |
| the Garden of Eden. | | | | good energies in. |
| Archaeology shows that plant spirit shamanism | | | | One rule that comes up consistently in this work |
| has been part of our healing experience for | | | | is that we must treat our plant allies with respect. |
| thousands of years, predating other practices by | | | | In Haiti, healers literally pay the plants for their |
| millennia and going back to a time when healers | | | | work by dropping coins at the base of the tree |
| worked in harmony with Nature. | | | | they're collecting leaves from. They are then 'fed' |
| Plant shamanism is - and always has been - a | | | | and there is a fair exchange: we charge the plants |
| person-centred approach and incorporates, in a | | | | with energy so they have the power to help us. |
| holistic way, practices such as herbalism, energy | | | | We must also treat plants kindly. Research shows |
| work, aromatherapy, and counselling to provide a | | | | that they have feelings, intelligence, language - |
| unique blend of therapies that is most needed by | | | | even the ability to count and make music! - and |
| each individual client, based on the healer's | | | | they can sense our intentions and respond to our |
| attunement to the state of balance or otherwise | | | | actions. If we treat them with love, they flourish |
| of that client's soul. But it is also fundamentally | | | | and grow; if not, then their spirits die and we |
| spirit-centred, and all traditional healers - from the | | | | don't have the healers we need. |
| Curanderos of the Amazon to the 'folk magicians' | | | | GETTING OUT OF OUR MINDS |
| of Ireland - regard plants as sentient, aware, | | | | One of the biggest challenges for the Western |
| intelligent, alive, and as 'doctors' in their own right. | | | | mind in learning how to work with plant spirits is |
| Plant shamanism involves practices for meeting | | | | our cultural fascination with science and |
| these spirits, such as shamanic journeying, soul | | | | measurement. This socialisation into 'scientific |
| retrieval, rituals using flowers and fragrances, | | | | thinking' is hard to overcome because, as part of |
| offerings to Nature, floral baths for protection, | | | | it, we have been taught to stifle our dreaming |
| and the use of visionary plants to find purpose, | | | | and imaginative selves. Luckily, however, there |
| clarity, and new directions in life. All of these, to | | | | are also plants which have a spiritual intention to |
| the shaman, are implied by the term 'healing'. | | | | re-establish our connection with the spirit-universe |
| WAYS OF HEALING | | | | and open us up to the true nature of reality. |
| As a young boy, I was apprenticed to a Welsh sin | | | | One of these is guayusa. In the Amazon it is |
| eater - a 'cunning man', as they were called in | | | | known as "The night watchman's plant" because |
| Wales - who used plants and flowers in his healing | | | | of its ability to bring lucid dreams and dissolve the |
| work. One of his methods was to bury the name | | | | boundaries between wakefulness and sleep. Thus, |
| of a patient, etched on a piece of bone, in a | | | | the night watchman can take guayusa and nap, |
| corner of his garden, next to a patch of 'sun | | | | while remaining alert to the sounds and sights |
| flowers'. Each day he would say his prayers to | | | | around him as he watches over the tribe. |
| the flowers, consulting with them on the condition | | | | The shamans say that in every country we have |
| of his patient, then squeeze a few petals so their | | | | plants to cater for our own needs; thus, in |
| aroma was released. As the scent drifted | | | | Europe, it may be difficult to find guayusa, but a |
| upwards, he said, a little more of his patient's | | | | tea made of vervain, valerian, and chamomile will |
| illness was carried away until he or she was | | | | achieve similar affects. |
| healed. | | | | Another way of getting 'out of our minds' is |
| This may seem like a strange approach in our | | | | through a special state of trance consciousness |
| culture today, but when I grew up and went | | | | known as shamanic journeying. |
| travelling I found the same essential methods | | | | To take any shamanic journey, find a time and a |
| used in Haiti, Peru, Africa, Greece, America, | | | | place where you can be alone and undisturbed for |
| Turkey... so it is not an eccentricity or even unique | | | | 20 minutes or so, then dim the lights or cover |
| to Wales. | | | | your eyes, lie down and make yourself |
| The world over, in fact, wherever shamans work | | | | comfortable. |
| with plant spirits rather than extracts and | | | | Most journeys are taken to the sound of |
| compounds as Western doctors do, it is | | | | drumming, which encourages 'dreaming' patterns |
| understood that plants are alive, aware, and willing | | | | to emerge in the brain, taking the shaman deeper |
| to teach their healing secrets. Plant spirit | | | | into a more holistic experience of the world in its |
| shamanism is therefore learned practically - by | | | | fullness. You can drum for yourself, have a friend |
| getting out into the fields and making contact with | | | | drum for you, or use a drumming tape to guide |
| natural forces, not by reading about plants in | | | | your journey. |
| some dusty library. | | | | Expressing your intention and keeping this in focus |
| The sin eater communicated with plants in this | | | | is again important. Intention is the energy that |
| way and knew several magical uses for them | | | | guides the journey and enables you to engage |
| that they had told him of. For example, the 'sun | | | | with the mind of the universe so it can work with |
| flowers' he used were actually marigolds, but he | | | | you. |
| called them sun flowers because they are "Bright | | | | You can try this yourself by setting your intention |
| like the sun" and warmed the soul with protection. | | | | to meet with a plant ally - the consciousness of a |
| It is interesting, then, that we find the same belief | | | | plant that will guide you into the world of the |
| in Andean Peru, where rosa sisa (African | | | | collective plant mind. You do not need to have a |
| marigolds) are also used for protection. Here, they | | | | specific plant in mind. Stay open instead to |
| are often planted by the door of a house, so if | | | | whatever comes. |
| someone should pass by and give the 'evil eye', | | | | As soon as the drumming begins, imagine yourself |
| the flowers will catch these negative energies and | | | | entering a place which connects you to the Earth |
| protect the soul of the house from disease. The | | | | in a way that is meaningful to you, then allow |
| petals turn black when this happens, but revert to | | | | your imagination to take you where it will. All you |
| their bright colour when the energy is discharged | | | | need do is receive. |
| through their roots to the soil. The sin eater I | | | | When your plant ally appears to you, spend some |
| knew had never visited Peru and yet the | | | | time in conversation with him or her (in the |
| message from the plant was the same: marigolds | | | | imaginative world, most plants take human form). |
| - "sun flowers" - protect. | | | | Enquire about its healing gifts and the way these |
| WORKING WITH PLANTS | | | | properties manifest in the plants themselves. Ask |
| The key thing with plant spirit shamanism is to | | | | how you can work with this ally and the plants |
| establish a connection with the plant. Once that is | | | | that embody him or her. |
| done, the plant spirits themselves teach you | | | | Visit your ally often in this way and you will learn |
| everything you need to know and reveal the | | | | more about the world of theplants, the nature of |
| many ways of using them in healing, most of | | | | reality and, indeed, about yourself, as part of this |
| which are very unlike the Western medical notion | | | | vast andbeautiful universe. |