Pagan Wisdom on The Plant Spirit Path
Paganism, loosely defined as the spiritual perspectives, practices, and animist living traditions of people from the perspective of incoming Christian conversionists, especially in Northern and Western Europe, isn’t a monolith. There are nearly infinite expressions of the Pagan ways depending on culture, time, and place. In my personal practice which is heavily informed and inspired by many ancient Pagan people and even modern and neopagan wisdom, Paganism as a generally animist, earth-centered, polytheist, and place-based stream of ancestral wisdom plays an important role in the plant spirit path as I walk it. In this post I’d like to share with you a bit about how Anglo-Saxon and Germanic Paganism, Modern and Revival Druidry, and NeoPagan Wisdom has added depth to my work with the green realm.
I want to start this discussion with one of my favorite questions: who are the plants? This is relevant here because it was the blessings of the Nigon Wyrta Galdor (The Nine Herbs Charm) that, after years of contemplating, meditating, studying, and seeking finally gave me the answer I was after. For more on what the Nine Herbs Charm says about the plants, watch this. This charm comes from the Lacnunga, a 10th century collection of magical and medicinal wisdom from the Anglo-Saxon Pagan world. Herein you can see the connection I’m trying to make: Pagan lore often records, preserves, and supports some of the most essential plant spirit wisdom we have.
Where no specific charms or written texts exist, we can rely on Pagan myth to preserve many plant spirit mysteries. If you look on even a surface level, you will almost always find that a plant shows up in the lore and legends handed down from antiquity. Greek, Roman, Celtic, Slavic, Vedic, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, German, and many other streams of Paganism are all brimming with obvious plant lore- and occasionally hidden green mysteries.
Another way in which Paganism and Plant Spirit work overlap is in the way the world is perceived and experienced. In order for us to walk a plant spirit path of any type, we have to experience that plants are spirits! Pagan traditions are animist in nature with the open awareness that the world is full of non-human persons, plants being just one group of them. When working with plants in spiritual ways, you will find no more a supportive framework of spirituality than any form of Paganism you might be connected to.
From Greek Nymphs being turned into plants, Roman plants being turned into deities, Hindu plants being ancient gods in disguise on earth, and German plants being the emissaries of the old gods’ powers, Pagan traditions dovetail exceptionally with our plant work in all its many forms.
