Local Lyrics hosted by Amber Renee appears on the 3rd Monday of each month. In it, Amber features the work and musings of a local poet.
Plant Companions and Personal Storytelling
A Poetic Essay by Stephanie B.
What does a relationship with a plant ask one to do?
Slow down
Engage
Dream
Unfold
There are many methods inwards to ignite the recognition of an invitation to work with, care for and be cared for, and learn with a plant. Many use the term “plant ally” to describe the beginnings of a relationship with a plant. I find this useful, but useful in the sense of transmitting information, as the term for me does not describe fully what is happening. Discovering and cultivating a relationship with a plant is an open invitation to connect with the part of ourselves that speaks in Earth's language- metaphor, myth, the sensual, spiritual, intangibly tangible, to name a few. In my practice, I refrain from hoping that a plant will do anything for me, and maintain that what is happening is co-creational and based on a relationship. Getting to know a particular plant and Its spirit is like being with a Friend, and in my feeling, best to go in without expectations.
The method that I am sharing with you today was one that connected me with a lifelong relationship with Flax (Linum usitatissimum translated from the Latin: “the most useful flax” there's enough story in that description of Flax alone, LOL). Some people estimate that Flax has been with People for 40,000 years, so the memories and stories that Flax carries with It span a broad imagination, including pre-agricultural time-markers. Flax's depth and humility resonated with me, and being with Flax this year through the entirety of Its lifecycle, and now into spinning the planting into linen has been incredibly transformative in my feeling and way of being with the World, that I felt inspired to share with you briefly, and only partially, how this happened.
In this current phase of my life, I am in service to Laima, Baltic Goddess of Fate, Midwifery, Weaving, Bathhouses, Linden Trees, Young Mothers, Cuckoo birds. She is from my Father's Ancestral Thread, and brought Flax to Me partially to be liberated from nationalist narratives of identity, and to discover and deepen mySelf as a Weaver.
At this time, much of the lens through which Flax is refracted is from a prism of a relationship with one group of my Ancestors. I am saying this because I can not begin to assume any authority of Flax's whole story, yet I can offer to you what Flax and the Earth of my ancestors has shared with me so far.
This method is experimental, and happening by the seat of my pants starting when transiting Saturn touched my natal Saturn at 0 degrees Capricorn (Tropical) in December 2017 CE. I hope that in sharing, there are some things that resonate with You that help You in making a connection if that is what You wish! If it does not resonate with You, there are many other ways to engage this process. Thank You for reading, and holding space for this method.
If You would like the following blessing, please take it with You.
May the Story of Your life and World unfold, and may the wonder of existence inhabit You fully. And so it is.
Point of Initiation
Point of Entry
-Come upon and draw into the scrying well of a deep question.
Ex.
Was there ever a time in your life where you felt as if you had absolutely no Human relation to turn to, connect with, seek guidance from or counsel with? (This question was my point of initiation; different questions may be different points for different personal storylines)
-Create a circle of safety and reflection for the following exercise.
-Re-member that time. Safely invite the emotions to return, though they may be painful. Let the feelings inhabit you to the point of re-invoking the circumstances in the landscape of Your memories, and if You wish, in Your body. Explore them. Create a landscape in Your imagination where the feelings and memories morph and take form into creatures, into mountains, streams, wells, lava fires, air deities, magical beans, birds, trees, worms, waters, volcanoes, whatever it is that they suddenly seemingly naturally become. Keep this landscape in Your psychic and meditative spaces as a place to return to and work with the Land as a place to return to and interact with as the Story unfolds and develops.
[[[At times, deep pains and pleasures, are points of entry into the liminal spaces that mythology inhabits. Much of society does not recognize these points of contact, and many times, the results are further isolation and alienation. However, in loving kindness to Ourselves, these points of entry can be powerful kilns wherein the magic of the animated world come through to Us to speak. You can even turn this point of entry into an ancient Tree, into a mountain, to travel into the soils and the skies of Your and the World's Soul.
-Invite the guidance and presence of Spirits, Ancestors, Guides. Make a pact that You will be open to receiving communications from them, whenever and however that may be.
-Are there any Deities, Earth energies, Archetypes that preside over the themes with which You were struggling? Any from (one of) Your ancestral thread(s)?
-Journal about these times and begin dialogue. Explore what comes up, especially metaphors, that is things or events that literally happen(ed) that are deeply, synchronistically symbolic.
-(Shortcut) Are there particular Plants associated with these Gods/Goddesses/Deities/Ancestors? Are these Plants the Spirits and Deities Themselves?
-If so, do any of these Plants particularly resonate with You in the very core of Your being?*** (meditate on what the feeling of the very core of Your being is, or reflect on times when It was singing tunes of resonance on high harmonic throttle that You just KNEW something)
-If so, what are the folklores and mythologies, and stories surrounding this Plant? Ask the internet. Ask the library. Ask photo albums. Ask a Garden. Ask Sky. Ask a Seed. Ask Your Friends and Family. Ask Your Ancestors, all of Them. Ask Birds and Soil.
-Go looking for this Plant. Be exhaustive and thorough in Your adventuring. Sometimes, They are in previously unexpected or unseen places and with You all along. If You are positive You can not find it, You may be being asked to come upon the seeds and grow Yourself. Any and all information is relevant, even if at first it may make no sense. In this process, cultivate practices that engage and develop Your intuition. Meditations, dreamwork, journaling, solar plexus, third eye exercises, clearing, cleaning, organizing, to name but a few. You will over time, develop a very unique series of special rituals that are in Your Landscape's Language! Be open to ways in which symbols or events in dreams or meditations come about or spring up in day to day instances, and try to record them as often as possible, whatever Your preferred medium(s) may be. And if not record, acknowledge them when they happen, or when it occurs to you that it may be happening.
-Find a place where You can regularly be with this Plant. Simply be. Each time You visit, bring all of Yourself to the space, wherever and however You may be being. If it is in the wild, visit this place. Observe and speak with the Plant for a whole year, and be with it through all changes of season. Observe Its lifecycle and process of Its story from seed to flower to fruit to seed. If it is a perennial like a tree, listen and watch for how it wakes up and fall back to sleep. Each time You visit, bring with You a gift or offering- an object, another Plant, a tasty treat, a song, a piece of Your hair, (biodegradable) cloth, an intimacy. Get familiar with Plants and Creatures and Spirits sharing in the space, the soil, the light, the weather. Come from the space of Your heart. Interact with each of Your senses during these times. Give Your ears all of Your focus and listen. Give Your touch all of Your focus and listen with Your hands or arm hairs. Give Your eyes all of Your focus and listen to the light and shadow. Give Your nose all of Your focus and listen to the smells. Give Your tongue all of Your focus and listen with Your tastebuds (obligatory precaution: always be sure that whatever You're tasting is ingestible). In developing these listening senses, all sorts of “words” come through. If You already do this, You know what I'm getting at, and if You don't, You will.
If You are growing and stewarding the Plant, do the same, yet visit more often, especially if the Plant is not familiar with the area (in its story with Earth). If You harvest, ask permission first, and offer an exchange. Wait for an answer, sometimes They do say no. When asking permission, it can be done with Your heart or with words, yet let the Plant know so it has time to prepare.
It is also worthwhile to hold constantly in reflection and practice in these processes that We are living on occupied Land during a mass extinction. There is much to hold in One's heart and reflect on and grow with and from. In mindful awareness, please be sure of the status of the Plant, and if endangered, or sacred, do not harvest from the wild, try cultivating it, or receiving Its medicine and wisdom through Its presence alone.
-Save the seeds
-Share the story
The main takeaway that I would like to share with You is that Plants are like People in that while They may have broad personalities like astrological sun signs, every relationship They have is unique. The conversations You will have with the Plant are deeply personal, yet also universal. Your way of being in relationship with Them will bring forth different medicine, healing, storytelling, which adds to the overall tapestry of Its, and Our story.
People may follow the same recipe, using the same cooking implements and ingredients from the same places, but the resultant dishes will be different because of the magic each Person brings to the alchemies of transformation of the food. That is very sacred, and very beautiful to Me, and I feel similar goes with plant relationships. In relationship with Flax, I've learned something incredible about life, resilience, My place in creation, and deepened my love for this planet and the Life that is here. The world is living and speaking and I truly feel it misses Us.
Q&A
1. Your essay touches on some deep topics, with ideas such as universal symbols, meditation, & even spellwork. What's your inspiration for this? Meaning, who or what took your interest to dive down this path?
I would like to thank the bean seeds that kept showing up everywhere in December 2017 CE. When they first started falling on my head and showing up on the ground, they alerted me to a part of life I had been ignoring for a couple of years--- intution, synchronicity and their logic. At that time, I was full on in the humiliating and humbling lesson that I was not checking myself, and consequently, wrecking myself. I felt at the time that everything was falling apart, bit by excruciating bit, and in the collapses, I chose to remember or align with a faith in the Universe that I could participate in and be in relationship with.
The beans helped me recall a time when I worked at an ecovillage in 2015 CE- I got a card reading in a group regarding companion plants and spirituality. I pulled the Bean, whose extolled attributes in that deck were fertility and regeneration.
I didn't think much of it at the time, yet Beans have this means of pollinating themselves before their flowers open, so in a type of essence, Beans will be true to themSelves, which has an interesting "utility" if One wants to save their seeds. I felt they asked me to remember and recreate who I am and step into that ever-shifting process with more awareness of engaging the Self with the understanding of the ebb and flow of relationship. I am myself, sure whatever that means, yet I am also an interplay that is not static or unchanging of everyThing and everyOne I am a part of. So I tried to engage remembering how to play- with myth, story, symbol, relationship, and all manner of experiences broader than what I understood to be myself.
I remembered being "younger" that living time of youth that is alive and ready to visit, before being labelled insane, crazy, random, wild, before any of those terms held a type of relevance in a way of being with Life. I journeyed to what was organically calling my attention- myth, storytelling, magick, Earth, and reconnect with it- humbly, curiously, personally. I made the choice to take the premise of the transit of the Saturn Return as seriously as possible, yet also play.
Since 2010, I've worked with Earth and People in many varieties of context- farming, gardening, activism, herbalism, spirituality, astrology, the occult and esoteric, and felt called to actively combine the experiences and lessons into a lifestyle. I chose a seasonal endeavor that I could channel current observational and relational capacities into and experience what happened. I quit being an alcoholic and substituted the habit with crochet to experiment with untangling the structures of consciousness and experience. What happened in that multidimensional process, I uncovered what originally drew me to relating to Earth and the elements. With crocheting, I wanted to go further, what are seeds and threads and what is that process of spinning thread?
I let go, with an amount of kicking and screaming that is humorous now that I'm here, of semblances of goals and normalcy and followed where current consciousness would allow to go and enrolled in an Intuitive Plant Medicine Course. The course, from Beltane to Summer Solstice, was mostly comprised of exercises to reengage trust with Intuition, and to also develop that trust each and every day. It reminded me that all aspects of experience from dreams to boiling a pot of water have the potential of gravity and relevance with intention, and a dose of skepticism where dogma is concerned.
The results of this piece from an amalgamation of all of those engagements, of being in play with my conceptions of reality, and challenging forms that calcify, and many teachers and relations, soil human bird ancestor wind plant that joined me along the way. Myth and story is not static, and in certains ways, asks for methods of engagement to be with Them, so that They in turn move and breath abd live within and morph living in different contexts. And that to me is relational, so this piece is about how I candidly tried to do that, in hopes that parts of it, or much of it, or some of it, or however whatever of it haha, would engage that sense in someOne who reads, and could be inspired in solidarity to do similarly, however it may be for Them.
2. Can you talk about your thought behind your use of capitalization in this essay? (For example: "mySelf")
i took Reiki II course at the beginning of my attempt to change my relationship with alcohol at Space 2033. The class was great, and fellow practitioner, and Artist on many dimensions, Arazel ( instagram: @thedevaarazel), shared this style of capitalization i used in this piece. Arazel brought to my awareness something profound. it hadn't occured to me how capitalization of addressing pronouns happens. Why does the "I" always get capitalized, and every noun otherwise not? Then i want to digress into the dimension of how the individualistic aspects of largely white western existence make themselves apparent in such subtle, pervasive avenues as to become an ingrained afterthought, yet it's pretty profound by way of what neurons and subtle emotional body picks up on...
In formulating this piece, i wanted to engage the parts and all of ourSelves inherently sacred and address from that space, and the character/personality/side of me that is laima's apprentice inhabits and speaks from this space, though that part of me is still largely unintegrated, so it's obvious where the inconsistencies are where the automatic writing is concerned. Yet i'm stoked to continue with this practice and way of relating with the read-interface word. Much of what i'm familiar regarding performance and words is live and personal, so the aspect of capitalization once the words become solidified on a page or a byte or internet page becomes immediately, to me, impersonal, which has the potential to isolate. I want to speak with the divine in each, "individually", and i'm also curious and passionate about how that "aspect" connects to cosmic and universal experiences, and there are so many ways to play.
Stephanie B. (she/her) enjoys rain, cooking, warm soil. she bites nails, twirls hair, falls asleep anywhere between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., and is going to the mountains to grow with chestnut trees. She practices toward, yearns for, and occasionally experiences a world that loves and cares for all of itself-learning more about it with each yea
AMBER RENEE, she/her, 26, writes from her home in suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A fool hopelessly in love with the pursuit of psychic knowledge, she often writes autobiographically; though without sacrificing her distinctive off-rhythm canter. 'Thoughts on This Most Recent Episode' was her 2016 full length collection of self-published poetry ruminating on her thoughts & illnesses. Currently she is working on a musical album of poetry.