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I owe my life to Plants. This is a simple statement and yet, can you feel the power in it? The truth is that we all owe our lives to Plants. Plants make this amazing, wonderful, fantastic planet livable. Among many gifts, they provide the oxygen that we need to breathe.
Have you ever pondered this miracle? Have you ever breathed with a Plant or truly recognized the connection between Plants and your life? When I do this, the word that comes to my mind is Love.
Some of my more scientifically inclined friends and colleagues would caution me against this or at the very least would start to squirm in their seats at the idea. They would say that we humans have a tendency towards anthropomorphism, assigning emotions and relationships to other species that do not exist other than through our human lens.
The Magic of Interacting with Plants
After spending many years communicating with Plants and having my life guided by them, I think Love is an accurate word.
I know that I am not alone. Talk with any true Plant lover about Plants and you will start to see the twinkle in their eye.
I love Plant people. We come in many shapes, sizes, colors, and economic levels. We have various religious backgrounds and political beliefs. We can have greatly differing opinions on the best way to interact with Plants or grow them.
However, all the differences and disagreements are quickly forgotten when we begin to talk about a well-loved Plant. In that moment, when the guard goes down and the Heart opens, we understand that this other person has experienced the magic of Plants. Once this magic is experienced, our lives are forever changed.
Numerous people have shared their stories with me about their childhood relationships with Plants and Nature. They were aware of magical worlds and knew a different language. Then they went to school or their families discovered their relationships, and they gave up their connections to fit into the societal norms and expectations. As they tell me their stories, their faces reveal a deep heartbrokenness, for they long to have that connection again.
I’ll share with you what I tell them: you have not lost anything. The connection remains, the path is there, and, though it may be a little grown over, you can rediscover it more easily than you think. The Plants are waiting for you.
I have yet to meet someone who was not able to return to the magical world of Plants. It is never too late, nor is the path ever completely lost.
A Lifelong Love Affair with Plants
As for myself and my own path, I have had a lifelong love affair with Plants. Really, I don’t know if I had a choice. Both of my grandfathers loved gardening and Plants. In their unique ways, they introduced me to the magic of Plants.
From a young age, Plants were a solace, and as I got older, they became my teachers, my Guides, my medicine, and my friends. After all these years with them, I know that I am barely scratching the surface of their wisdom, gifts, and our relationship. Every day that I am able to spend time with them is a gift that I cherish. They have brought me back from the deepest depths of pain, lovingly chastised me when I was not listening, and have brought me great joy and pleasure. No matter how much I messed up or would try to ignore them, the Plants continued to show up, again and again.
My Apprenticeship with Plants
My apprenticeship with the Plants became serious when I purchased my dream property in 2003. It took almost a year before my family could live there, but I quickly planted a garden and started to observe the wild Plants.
In the spring and summer of 2005, I spent my mornings harvesting berries. While harvesting, information would come to me, problems that I had been stewing over suddenly seemed clear, and I found a deep calm.
The idea that I should write a book about Plants came to me, but in my humility I quickly discounted it—I was in my twenties and didn’t think I had anything to share about Plants; there were people who were much wiser and had more life experience than me and they were the ones who should be writing.
Plant Communication is Your Birthright
At this time, I also did not believe that I could communicate with Plants. To be clear, I did believe, whole-heartedly, that some people were capable of Plant communication, but that I simply was not one of them.
Little did I know that the solutions to my problems, the idea to write a book—all of the messages that I had been receiving—were the Plants communicating with me. Several years ago, I realized that my “humility” was actually arrogance, because it wasn’t me who was supposed to write; the Plants were asking to write the book through me.
Now I am endeavoring to be the Plants’ pencil. Since the early berry picking days, I have become a voice for the Plants and have taught many people how to communicate with them. I believe that Plant communication is, as Pam Montgomery says, our birthright. Everyone has the innate ability to communicate with Plants.
No Special Talent Needed
If you are reading this and thinking, “This is bizarre!” that’s fine. You are not the first person to think that. I invite you to put your disbelief aside and simply wonder, “What if?—what if Plants could communicate with us?”
If you are reading this and thinking, “That’s cool, but I’m sure I am not able to do this,” or wish that you had this skill, I assure you, you can and you do. The Plants communicate with us all the time. The difference between me today and me in 2005 is that I am now able to recognize the ways that the Plants are communicating.
If you think that you are not one of the “special” people who can communicate with Plants, I ask you to please put that thought aside. I have taught Plant communication in various forms for around fifteen years to people of all ages and I’ve never had someone who did not receive information from a Plant. There are those who want to make this out to be a complicated process and it just isn’t.
Communicating with Plants (really all of Nature) is your birthright. What I tell my students is that my job is to help them overcome the culturalization that tells them they are unable to communicate with Plants and help them remember this innate skill. Once we get rid of these blockages, the rest is easy.
Experiencing The Wonders of the Plant World
For those of you who have already experienced the wonders of the Plant world, may my words be the magic dust that brings your own adventures to life and gives encouragement to delve deeper.
You see, we are a bunch of amnesiacs. This is no fault of our own. It is our nature. By the time we take our first breath on this Earth, we have already forgotten much of the wisdom of the universe. As we grow, the amnesia takes over like a giant eraser until we no longer know who we are or why we are here.
Unfortunately, most of our Ancestors were also amnesiacs, so for generations we have been losing more and more Sacred knowledge, without even realizing it. Then, of course, there are those of us whose Ancestors had their wisdom stolen, beaten, and murdered out of them, usually in the name of money, religion, or progress.
I share this statement of our amnesia as a message of hope. For once we realize what we are experiencing, we can then choose a different way and remember. We can also stop the blame or self-sabotage, understanding that this is simply who we are and focusing our energy toward our remembering. We do not get angry with a baby because they don’t know how to talk or walk. We support and celebrate their learning and growing. We should extend this grace to ourselves.
Copyright ©2023. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission of the publisher,
Bear & Co., an imprint of Inner Traditions Intl.
Article Source: Communicating with Plants
Communicating with Plants: Heart-Based Practices for Connecting with Plant Spirits
by Jen Frey.
Everyone has the ability to consciously communicate with Plants. Jen Frey shows that if we are willing to listen, we can hear the Plants speak to our Hearts and teach us how to heal. With the support of our Plant allies, we can be our truest selves and remember our intrinsic wholeness.
In this step-by-step guide, Jen shows how to awaken your ability to directly receive the unique wisdom and healing gifts of Plants. She describes how communicating with Plants is more like a communion than an exchange of words. The primary language we share with Plants is through the Heart, and Plant communication brings an expansion of Heart intelligence and emotional growth. The Plants help us overcome anxiety, grief, fears, and limiting beliefs and teach us to trust, forgive, embrace self-Love, and enjoy the sweetness of life.
Click here for more info and/or to order this paperback book. Also available as a Kindle edition.
About the Author
Jen Frey is a healer and mentor with more than 20 years of experience with Plant Essences, energy work, and herbal practices. The founder of Brigid’s Way and co-steward of Heart Springs Sanctuary in Pennsylvania, she has dedicated her life to the spiritual path of Plant work.
Visit her website at BrigidsWay.com/
