Opening to the Sacred

In the Spirit of Plants…

I am sitting at the edge of the waves, wrapping leaves together of Willow, Red Clover, Jasmine, and St. John’s Wort together in a bundle. The full moon looms above me casting a long trail of white along the water. I am whispering to the plants as I wrap them together, calling their spirits to me for help. Once the herbs are bundled, along with a few strands of my hair, I sit feeling their energy in my hands. With a clear and focused mind, I fill the bundle with my prayers, mingling the plant’s energy and intelligence with mine. When I’m finished I walk to the edge of the water and throw the bundle into the waves, to be changed and released by the energy of the moon and sea. The spirits of the plants are now holding my prayers as they roll across the waves. The sea will be my brew tonight.

I am traveling the path of sacred plant medicine, ancient magic, and the traditions of my Celtic ancestors. They knew plants are gateways to the sacred, nourishing our relationship to Spirit and bringing us deeper into the mysteries. The spirit realms teach us as we are ready, guided by our loving ancestors to remember. We are led into the mysteries often without instruction… the spirits speaking through sensation and feelings throughout our being. Guidance and wisdom comes only as we are able to hold it rightly and without harm. Teachings that are meant not just for ourselves but for everyone. They are calling us now as they always have. Asking us to gather with the council of all beings to help support the healing and transformation needed on this planet.

The green nations are powerful guardians of the earth and of our lives. Our own healing, as well as the healing of the earth itself, can occur only if we learn how to partner and coexist in intimate relationship with all of life. Why are so many of us not learning to be connected to the consciousness of the earth and its intelligence? We do not seem to understand what many wise shamans and healers around the world have always known. The plants have an active, living consciousness. They are our most powerful source of healing, medicine, and food. The strong partnerships we form with the plants can aid us in astonishing ways.

As herbalists we seek nature’s power - the medicine Earth Mother has placed in our hands since the beginning. This is our most ancient medicine. The plants teach us to understand our own bodies as living breathing beings, transforming and changing every moment. Moving with the stars, the seasons, with the rise and fall of the sun and moon, the turning of the earth and the flow of tides. The plants come into our rivers of blood and fluid, sending their energy and power to every cell. Their chemicals dance with ours, soothing our nerves, calming the mind, awakening movement and intelligence. For every need, there is a plant who can help us. Relieve an aching muscle, an upset stomach, a tight heart, or opening us up to life again…

As we know, herbs have been used for thousands of years throughout the world magically as well as medicinally. The two, in most cases, were used together. Wise healers, shamans, and medicine people around the world knew that plants were helpers that could be called on. Plants were used in ritual and prayer, as physical medicines, and were often worshiped as gods themselves. For millions of years they have been healing the human soul and the human body, keeping us connected to the earth and the realms of Spirit. Traditional healers and medicine people have recognized and formed relationships with plant intelligence for hundred of thousands of years. As a healer walking with the spirits of the plants, this ancient path is where I have been gratefully led.

Each of us has the ability to develop powerful relationships with the plants. They are eager for us to come back into the partnership that many humans in the past have upheld – the existence of life on this planet depends on it. It is time for us to listen again, with our hearts and whole being. There are few who still do and there must be more. The plants are looking for those of us who will partner with them to help support and heal others during times of illness, death, and birth. I have dedicated my life to the service of the plants who have taught me.

The plant elders are calling back to us. The herbs that we use in tinctures and teas, salves and pills, are powerful transformers and ancient beings. They call back to us, not simply to be harvested by the basket load, but to be used in a different way. Spirit based, folk herbalism is needed now, when westerners have begun to catch on to the healing power of the plants and are over-harvesting endangered species. You can catch glimpses of spirit based herbalism all over the world. Many people living close to the earth have begun to reawaken within themselves the ancient practices of green partnership practiced throughout the world for thousands of years.

The intelligence of the plants has been understood for centuries by many cultures. It is estimated that nine million people were killed in Europe during the witch-burnings (80% who were women) for practicing traditional folk healing and herbal magic – common knowledge and practice during pre-Christian times. Millions around the world have died trying to hold onto their folk healing traditions and spiritual practices that partnered with the intelligence in nature. As westerners today, when globalization has caused so many folk healing traditions to slowly die out, we are called to preserve what we can of them, in the hopes that our relationship to the earth, our health, and the health of all life, does not continue to deteriorate because of our inability to listen. And if we are meant to be present as the passing begins, may we be training ourselves now to hold what is most sacred in our arms as it changes form.

The universe is an interconnected web of energy, the earth itself a matrix of many conscious energies interacting with each other continually. Each of us carries specific energy that interacts with our environment, just as every living thing in nature. The plants have powerful energy that can be used by the wise for healing and creating change. This is ancient knowledge that was forcibly taken from many people in the last few hundred years.

Without the partnerships formed between herbalist and the plants, the deepest levels of healing cannot occur. They are asking for us to learn, and to listen to them as we would to our elders and teachers. If you listen, they will teach you how to heal and support your life and the lives of others. The plants can help to nourish and rebuild the body and spirit in incredibly powerful ways. They can support our dance into wholeness through rebuilding the soul, healing the heart, and transforming illness. They touch us on an energetic level as well as the physical - soul and body. They can change and shift energy powerfully within us, and they can help us to learn to do so ourselves.

The key to working with plant spirits is understanding that you are not controlling or commanding plants to help you, you are asking its energy to be directed towards creating needed change and healing, knowing that the plant itself has its own wisdom and intelligence. Come to the plants seeking knowledge and transformation. You will see they will often change your life and the energy around you in ways that you may not have expected. The plant spirits will both challenge and support you, they will not take the tough experiences of life away that contribute to our soul’s growth. Come to them when you’re called… with a compassionate heart, and willingness to learn. Come to them in your own power, respecting your spirit as you respect theirs.

If you can, sit with a plant before and after using it for medicine. Take time to just be with it, breathing each other in, giving the plant time to take you in as well. Become familiar with the plant’s surroundings, growth patterns, the color of its flowers… All of this will tell you of the energy and personality of a plant. Look at what the plant tells you through its physical body, how its colors, smell, touch, and taste makes you feel. Ask permission to use it for healing, giving love and gratitude as offerings. Ask what the plant needs and how you can support its life as well. Open yourself up to them and bear your vulnerabilities… invite them in. Slow down and listen from under your skin. They will teach you their magic if you listen from deep within you. Approach them with no expectations… with openness and trust. If you come to them seeking healing and wisdom, a plant will most often give some of its body and spirit to you. From this intimacy, we begin to rebuild forgotten relationships with the plant realms, and carry their needed medicine into our communities.

For the past 18 years I have been journeying with the plants into unseen realms, learning through them the ways of nourishment, transformation, birth and death, magic, intimacy, and relationship. They are my grandmothers and grandfathers, a source of continual teaching, bridges into the realms of Spirit. Journeying within these realms is not an easy path, or one that does not demand discipline, devotion, and practice. I’ve come to understand that it is a lifeway and practice that is not learned in a handful of years, but one that evolves through a lifetime (sometimes many) of relationship. This intimate work cannot be taught or given, what can be presented to you is an invitation in. One is chosen for and chooses relationships such as these. Herbal medicine can be used by anyone, just as each of us can learn to grow our own food, we can easily grow and make our own medicine. However the path of a devote, of one training in the realm of spirits, takes us into sometimes dark, sometimes light, places of mystery.

Listen and they will teach you. You will remember the wisdom that is imprinted in your cell memory. We are holding in us the powerful knowledge of healing and transforming this planet. There is a common language of love they speak. The plants will help you remember. My offering is to share and facilitate journeys into the realms within you, with the plant teachers as our beloved guides.

Earth Mother, bless me to be present today, to the magic of life as it is unfolding, perfectly, and with immeasurable beauty. May all awake to your presence within and around them.

© Sage Maurer