Part of connecting with the herbs is getting to know them in their own territory. After we’ve gotten to know a plant’s medicinal properties and memorized the list of uses and properties and constituents and energetics associated with it, we realize we’ve only begun to understand that plant’s medicine.
Most of us move from there to tasting the plant and trying it in a variety of ways, like as tea or tincture or in a medicinal oil blend. We feel how it works in our bodies and see the results of it in others. And still, we know there’s more to learn. Many of us take the next step; we plant it or try to find it growing in the wild. That’s the point when we cross into a much, much deeper understanding of the plant’s medicine, and it’s another doorway into the magical realm of that plant.
Plants Live in a Magical Realm
When it comes down to it, all of us are living in a pretty darn magical world. The Plants, though, take that idea to a whole new level. They’re rooted where they are, yet they can spread across the entire planet, as has cannabis and dandelion and lemon balm. They don’t even need modern technology to help them out. Just ask Blackberry! Birds have developed the ability to fly Blackberry seeds and loads of others across oceans and conteinents, making world travel a reality for The Plants long before Humans built their first ship.
Sometimes, I think of all of us animals as being more a fancy bit of technology for The Plants. We filter their air, offer them food, provide them rides from here to there, and we do all of this without even realizing we’re dancing to their desires. It’s really quite marvelous, when you think about it.
See Through The Plant’s Eyes
Even though our vegetative ancestors, The Plants, may be world travelers, they tend to like unique environments, ones suited to their own particular adapatations. Nettle, for instance, loves a damp environment amid loads of other leafy friends, near streams and wetlands with partial to full sun so long as the sunshine isn’t too intense.
Contrast that with Larrea, who loves a dry, sunny, hot environment with just a few cousins, preferably significantly smaller ones who may shelter in Larrea’s care but won’t compete for resources with much force. As we deepen our relationship with The Plants, we gain a lot of insight into their magical skills, which is to say that by getting to know more about a plant’s preferred environment we gain insight into how that plant’s magic works.
How to Use Botany to Decode the Magical Properties of Herbs
Botany gives us grounding into the magical realm of a plant’s world. I’m not talking about using the Doctrine of Signaitures, although that’s a powerful language and system in itself. (Check out The Language of Plants by Julia Graves for a terrific and relatable primer on the Doctrine of Signaitures.) What I’m talking about is the understanding Botany gives us into the place the plant holds in the world and how that plant interacts with the world.
Ask Questions First
Choose a plant you want to work with on a magical level. Look beyond the table of correspondences and lists of medical uses into the place it holds in the natural environment. Does the plant like sun or shade? Is it tall or small, woody or green? What kind of flowers and scent does it have? The kind that attract hummingbirds, or ants, or beetles? What other plants compete for its resources and how does it handle that? How do other animals or insects interact with it? Does it grow easily for humans in cultivation, or does it eschew human tending?
Build a Picture of The Plant’s World
As you get to know the plant’s happy place and how it functions in its home environment, you can begin to construct a picture or story of the plant’s magics.
Let’s take Nettle for example. We know Nettle likes lush, wet, slightly shady einvornments where competition for nutrients in the soil can be quite fiecrce. Nettle’s strategy is to build up loads of nutrients in its body early in spring, before the rest of the neighborhood has fully awoken. Nettle uses those nutrients to make lots and lots of seeds and to stretch out with its rhisomzes along the soil’s surface, giving it a two-pronged strategy for expanding the family, so to speak.
Since grazing animals have figured out that Nettle’s going to be both tasty and nutritious, Nettle has developed a goodly sting to discourage excessive browsing.
Look For Core Characteristics and Strategies
With that picture in mind, you can start looking for the core characteristics and strategies the plant uses to thrive and apply those to your own situation. I think of the process as being like looking for similar conditions or actions that connect my own story with that of the Plant. As I look at the environment or setting where my story is taking place, I think about how it would look from the plan’ts point of view.
Sometimes, it’s easier to imagine how the Plant’s world looks from my own point of view first, especially when I’m getting to know a variety of plants. Either way, though, it’s about finding the places where my story connects with the story or environment where the plant flourishes and asking how the plant manages to flourish under those conditions. As I examine the how, I can see the wisdom that plant has to share and I can look for ways I can apply those ideas to my own life.
For example, we can see that Nettle has developed a defensive strategy for dealing with heavy competition. Nettle’s a bit of a Fox, a strategist and a warrior in a lush, abundant, and highly competative environment. Those are Nettle’s core characteeristics and Strategies.
Nettle’s sting is the most obvious aspect of that strategy; but consider how strategic it is to pop up early in spring to beat the rush. Nettle saves energy or fire in its rhizomes so that it’s ready to jump into action as soon as the ground warms. It grows fast and aggressively, aiming to beat out the competition. Nettle is a perfect partner for projects that need some fire to get them going again, especially when there are plenty of resources to draw on but the project’s not been moving forward due to circumstances that have been beyond your control. If your project has gone through a bit of a winter, when it’s laid low and waited for you to return, Nettle may be able to help you plan a solid strategy for getting motivated and moving forward again quickly. Nettle may also be the perfect ally if you know you’re facing a lot of competing forces, like other demands that want to nibble at your time or other groups trying to bring to fruitition a similar result.
