Shamanic Plant Medicine and Communicating with Plant Spirits
Ready for a story about ancestral remembrance, plant mediumship and wildcrafting? Read on! (And make sure to check out the photos below!)
As a kid, I loved to make “potions” out of leaves, sticks and dirt from my backyard. I would present the resulting elixir to my mother and proudly announce its healing properties, while she nodded seriously and pretended to drink it.
Throughout middle school, high school and university, my relationship with plants became much more academic. I learned how to identify many different species, memorize their scientific names and ecological significance, and occasionally learned a few facts about their cultural or practical significance to indigenous people. I saw examples in museums of baskets and clothing woven from Western Red Cedar, and clay pots stained with herbs. I read the little cards about the importance of these practical tools in peoples’ daily lives and felt a deep longing I couldn’t quite name.
For the first many years of my Shamanic practice, I felt so much ease and comfort connecting with animals, different spirits, and opening my mediumship. But connecting with plants in that way eluded me. I heard other practitioners gush about working with their plant allies and the powerful healings they received from flower essences and tinctures. And I just… didn’t get it.
Until 2019, when Stinging Nettle and Hawthorn intervened to help wake me up.
I have long stories of how both of these plants gave me a significant dose of their medicine that resulted in huge waves of transformation. For now, suffice it to say that receiving transmissions from these 2 plant spirits woke me up to plant mediumship.
When I got home from my trip, I saw Hawthorn everywhere I went. I dove deep into studying with this new ally, and officially began my practice of foraging, wildcrafting and alchemical herbalism. I have felt the plants supporting me gently by sending me 2 or 3 new plant allies to study with deeply every year.
In addition to learning about their properties and understanding them from the ecological perspective, I received transmissions from the spirits of the plants. They offered me healing and teachings about their magic. I studied their connection with Alchemy, and learned how to harvest them and work with them during their most auspicious hours and days to make potent medicine.
My practice of plant mediumship has grown exponentially since I moved out of the city in 2024. With every season, I feel my remembered wisdom coming more online. (I’ve had some very cool experiences of feeling a strong pull toward an unfamiliar plant, only to identify it and discover that its medicinal properties aligned perfectly with my needs at that time.)
I feel like I’m beginning to grow a little bit out of my imposter syndrome when it comes to herbalism, and that is thanks to cultivating and trusting that intuitive knowing with plants (an intuitive knowing that came so easily to me in other areas of my Shamanic practice). Now, when I feel a strong pull towards a plant, it feels less like something unfamiliar, and more like being re-introduced to someone I met a long time ago and rediscovering our friendship.
In addition to working with plants and making medicines, I’ve been diving into other ancestral skills: drum making, firecraft, and most recently, Adirondack foraging pack basket weaving. (Maybe I’ll tell that story in another article.)
With my practice of plant mediumship, wildcrafting and studying ancestral skills, that unnamed longing I felt as a child has transformed into a warm connection. I can now see that the longing was my desire to remember, to communicate with the plants as beloved allies, to get to know them on their own terms, and to collaborate with them to make medicine with my own hands.
What ancestral remembrance is calling you?
Do you feel a longing you can’t quite name, pulling you into deeper study of Shamanism?
Are you called to develop your mediumship and direct relationships with plants, animals and other spirits?
Are you ready to receive support in your Shamanic practice?
Get Support:
>>>Book a call with me to talk about what type of support is right for you!
