Introduction to Communicating with Plant Consciousness

Introduction to Communicating with Plant Consciousness

By Kathryn Solie

Despite what our material reductionist schooling and social conditioning have led us to believe, plants are beings with their own interior experience of reality. This interior is something our ancestors perceived and related to in unique ways. Absent modern scientific instruments, how else do we think people would have learned of the vastly complex, and in many ways superior systems, such as Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda? Could trial and error alone have brought about the sophistication and effectiveness of these systems? Seems highly unlikely.

Plants are speaking. Not in the way that I’m speaking to you now, but in a wholly unique kind of language. A language our ancestors were listening for. This language hasn’t been forgotten or lost by humanity, all that has been lost is our willingness and cultural permission to open to it. Through patience, openness, and humble practice you too can rediscover this ancient tongue.

One of the things that I love most about plant “spirit” medicine is that it’s available to anyone, anytime, anywhere. You don’t need to pay someone to do it. You don’t need to have physical plant medicine like a flower essence, tea, or tincture. You even don’t need to have the plant in front of you, nor have ever met the particular plant you wish to communicate with before doing this practice (though these certainly help). You can practice plant spirit communication in a jail cell, in the deep woods, sitting on a couch in your apartment, in the bathroom during a break at work, on a boat in the middle of the ocean. It’s truly a line of communication accessible to all.

There are many ways to practice plant spirit communication but I’m going to outline what works for me below.

Plant Spirit Meditation:

  • Close your eyes
  • Take in a few deep, full breaths
  • Welcome in the plant that you are wanting to connect with
  • If you’re connecting with rose, you can say something in your mind like “welcome rose” or “I am open to what rose has to share with me” or you can just hold the knowledge that you are now open to the consciousness of rose
  • Notice what arises
  • There is no wrong way to experience plant communication. You may see dreamlike images, hear words, experience body sensations, see colors or patterns, have a gut feeling, or hear a song.
  • The way you experience plant consciousness may change from plant to plant or from day to day.
  • During communication, you don’t have to hold onto anything in the moment. What you need to remember, you will remember.
  • Sometimes nothing will happen, or we’re not clear on what’s happening, and that’s ok too.
  • This is a practice, a life long practice. It’s not something you achieve one time and master.
  • Keep in mind that just as we can so easily project our own desires, fears, and stories onto other people, we can do the same with plants. Therefore, the more you do your own work, the more that you heal and deepen within yourself, the more you’ll be able to hear what the plants have to say.
  • Once you feel like you’ve received the medicine you needed, you can ask the plant if there’s anything you can offer to them. You can say something in your mind like “how can I be of service to you?” Take note of what they say & carry out their requests to the best of your abilities
  • Thank the plant for their medicine and wisdom
  • Take in a deep breath and open the eyes

You can do this practice with plant medicine like tea, essences, tinctures, or salves OR you can do it without any physical medicine.
If you’re sitting with a physical plant, I always ask the plant for consent before making contact.
I like to ask for consent for three main reasons:

  • The subtle energies of any living being (electromagnetic or otherwise) can constrict or open, depending largely on what that being is perceiving - friend or threat. The clearest communication comes through the energetic bond of friendship.
  • To further cultivate the understanding that plants are complex feeling beings intimately woven into the wellbeing of all life on this planet.
  • Lastly, what if that plant you want to talk with is poison ivy and you don’t recognize them - their lack of consent may save you from getting a nasty rash!

Try to have a beginner’s open mind with every plant communication. Just because you’ve heard someone else’s perspective on a plant’s “personality” doesn’t mean that’s how the plant will present themselves to you. Anyone who tells you that a plant has one exclusive message is offering a pretty limited perspective. We all have different understandings and life experiences that color the way the way we hear the plants. There’s not one correct message from a plant. Stay open to variance.
That said, refined consensus has its place in the development of new integrative systems of medicine and human-plant interaction.

Plants seek to harmonize with their environment and we are now a foundational piece of that environment. Will we let them guide us (humanity) to that harmonization, and all it has to offer human life? Will we take our place as biospheric stewards? I don’t know, but the more that we learn to listen, the greater chance that future will come to pass.

Wishing you the best on your plant journeys.

If you’d like to learn more about plant spirit communication, you can visit my Patreon or take a class with me.