Paganism & The Plant Spirit Path
No matter how you approach working with the herbs in the modern day; clinical herbalism, herb magic, folk herbalism, plant spirit work, or anything in between, there’s a strong likelihood it’s been inspired, informed, and propelled forward by the ancient wisdom of our Pagan ancestors. In this post, I’d like to outline just 10 of the many ways our work with the herbs has been blessed by Paganism, in all its many and varied forms!
Before we get started, let me offer you a brief definition of Pagan as it applies specifically to this article. While I know not everyone in communities that could be called Pagan ascribe to this term, it’s a handy shortcut for people who practice a nature-centered, animist, land-based set of spiritual expressions based in a cosmology that is not escapist- it does not say that nature or the world is an illusion, a trap, a test, or non-spiritual in nature. On a personal level, I openly use the term Pagan to define my own work with the Old Gods of my ancestral ways, the cosmology of the Proto-Indo-Europeans and their varied child cultures, and the way I approach working with the plants. As you’ll see, there’s really no way to do plant spirit work without these ancestral influences! I should also like to remind you that I only talk about my plant spirit path work here- other people might do it differently.
Let’s get to the list…
COSMOLOGY
How we approach plants, engage with them, and ask for their virtues to flow as magic, medicine, and wisdom in our lives will be heavily informed by our own belief of cosmology. What is the universe? How is it arranged? By what means is it supported and transformed? When connecting with non-human beings, how do their own worlds dovetail or run parallel to our own?
These questions will add nuance to our plant spirit work. For example, if your cosmological view supposes that there are other worlds that are hidden from our usual senses, you might approach plants as being rooted in those spiritual realms. If, however, you suppose that the world is exclusively material with no spiritual basis or complexity, you might approach plants purely for their petrochemical constituents on a physical level only.
Pagan cosmologies are generally multi-layered, many-sided, and nuanced in boundaries and overlap. They are also fiercely animist in their composition and focus on the interconnections of all life existing in the cosmos.
WHO PLANTS ARE
Essential to plant spirit work is the awareness that plants are spirits. Like us, they are conscious sovereign, wise, and storied individuals who are capable of communication and kinship with non-plant beings like we human folk. If your spiritual tradition does not allow for anyone other than humans to be fully valid spiritual beings, then this work would be quite challenging. Conversely, if you come from an animist tradition then the plants as people is no big leap of understanding.
Pagan traditions are by nature animistic, experiencing that we live in a world filled with persons, only some of whom are human.
Check out this free online course about Green Animism where we get into who the plants are!
GUARDIANS & STEWARDS
Within all Pagan traditions we find that the plants and the green realm they collectively inhabit have various other non-plant spirits who act as guardians, stewards, way-makers, or teachers. One of many countless examples of this comes from Anglo-Saxon Pagan traditions (also: Heathen, Fyrnsidu, English Paganism) where the realm of plants is nourished by a spiritual race of beings called Ylfe (also: Elf) who occupy a realm which is guarded by a lord deity called Ingui (also: Freyr). Here we see that even within the realm of plants there is a multi-faceted network of relationships that allow for the flow of vital energy, the protection of the cosmos, the stewardship of nature, and the cultivation of beauty. By working with the plants in such a Pagan context, one is also stepping into the areas of influence of related spirits, gods, heroes, and ancestors.
THE CAUSE AND NATURE OF DISEASE
This is an aspect of Pagan influence on modern herbalism that many people find quite surprising (especially those who haven’t done their homework!). How we think about what a whole and healthy person is and what things can disturb that wholeness are often rooted in Pagan perspective. For example, when we think of someone as having lost a part of themselves due to a traumatic event, an offense made to an ancestor or land spirit, or living in a way that is not aligned to the truth of the person, we approach the healing through a reconciliation of the whole self with the help and guidance of the plants. On a purely clinical level, this approach to healing would make no sense, but for those working a Pagan cosmological model of interconnectedness, animism, and multi-layered soul, it’s perfectly clear.
Another of my favorite examples of how Pagan ways influence our approach to herbal medicine comes from the many charms and formulae of the Lacnuga Manuscript where we see elf-shot and flying-venom being the root causes of manifest disease symptoms.
PLANT FOLKLORE
Pagan traditions are often the source of our existing plant lore. This can be a fascinating thing to explore because sometimes it is Pagan myth, legend, and lore that preserves plant story- and sometimes it’s the writings of other folk who do the preserving for us! Two exceptional examples of the latter are Reginald Scot (Discoverie of Witchcraft) and The Venerable Bede (Ecclesiastical History of England) who both preserved nearly-lost Pagan plant lore, and a bunch of other sacred content, by writing about Pagans from an often pejorative perspective. Scot, in fact, preserved a great deal of lore by writing about what other ‘witch hunters’ should be on the lookout for! Thanks, guys!
APPROACHING AND PETITIONING PLANT SPIRITS
While anyone, anywhere, can approach a plant and speak from the heart, there are existing formulae and frameworks for prayers to many types of spiritual allies that are rooted in our Pagan traditions. By using these prayer formats, we not only tap into the way things have been done for so long that we really should trust them, but also ensure our petitions to the plants are done with sacred reciprocity at the heart of it all.
The format I personally use and reference most is the tripartite prayer format we see in almost all Indo-European Pagan traditions: (1) invoking with known names and relevant kennings/binomials, (2a) extolling the relevant virtues of the spirit and (2b) dedicating reciprocal offerings/gifts, and finally (3) asking for what it is we need.
(1)
Mullein, great tower of yellow flowers,
Feltwort, Soft-leaf, whorl-plant, flannel and down;
(2a)
You are celebrated the world over for your blessings of pneuma-
the coming and going of vital force on the deep and easy breath.
You are invoked into countless formulas to heal the lungs
and ease the giving and receiving between our world and the next.
(2b)
I offer you nine exhalations from the depths of my own being,
saturated with the signature of my spirit- a gift of kinship between us-
May the ways be open!
(3)
Mighty Mullein, Verbscum, as I harvest your leaves
may you send your virtues of healing to the medicine I craft.
Check out this class on Praying to Plants
HARVESTING RITES
Pagan lore hands us a variety of common sense and absolutely fantastic rituals, taboos, and suggestions on how to approach plants when harvesting them. It is made clear in these ancient rites that one does not simply walk up, hack and slash, taking what one wants, and leaving a mess behind. No, our Wortcunning ancestors ave made it quite clear that plants must be approach with deep respect, humility, gratitude, and love. Without these nudges from the past, I think the concepts of plants-as-commodities would be the status quo, as it is in most forms of even spiritual herbalism today. For a lovely exploration of harvesting rites, I suggest The Master Book of Herbalism by Paul Beyerl.
CRAFTING MEDICINE
The story of the Cymraeg goddess Cerridwen is perhaps my favorite telling of the making of herbal medicine. In it, Cerridwen sets her sacred cauldron on an open fire and places the wee Gwion Bach in charge of keeping the flames going. Into the cauldron she adds wild waters and a selection of herbs, perhaps 365, over the course of a year and a day. Gwion Bach must keep the fire going, the water topped off, and the potion moving to ensure a proper extraction of the qualities of the plants within.
I am not likely to try and duplicate whatever Cerridwen’s formula was (although I would not mind its benefits!), but we can take so much inspiration from how she made her medicine: mindfully, respectfully, ritually, and with full knowledge of each plant chosen and why they are being invoked into the elixir.
Pagan lore emplores us to make sacred the tools of our craft, to hold sacred the processes of medicinal artes, and to always reverense the plants and their virtues. Without stories like these, I fear we would value the machine-made, factory-bottled formulae more than that made by the hands and hearts of those engaged int he green artes.
CRAFTING CHARMS
Our work with the plants, at least as I teach it, understands that there is no reason to distinguish the medicinal from the magical- both create positive change and add to the harmony and beauty of self and cosmos. Charms, as we see them preseved in thesame ways plant folklore was described above, give us insight into how our Pagan forbears understood the nature of magic, transformation, and harmony. The charms speak time and time again to how we can ask the help of our verdant allies in getting from where we are now to where we want to be. Without the surviving plant charms, I fear we would assume the ancients only charmed the Gods!
Check out this class on How to Write Plant Spirit Charms
EMPOWERING PRACTICE
Last but certainly not lease, our Pagan, Heathen, Animist, Land-reverencing, Nature-centered spiritual traditions from across time and places give deep roots to the ways we connect to and engage with the plants. All of the above points come together in a magical elixir crafted in the cauldron of the ancients over thousands of years. We can, then, lean into the blessings of our Pagan past to ensure that our Pagan present remains vibrant, fertile, and alive.
