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Plant spirits are one of the major allies of shamans for healing, seeing, dreaming, and empowerment. Shamans heal using their knowledge of plant spirits as well as the plant's medicinal properties. When the shaman does not know what plant medicine to use for a sick person, the spirit of the plant tells him.
Plants, however, are more than their chemical components. They are intelligent beings that have the capacity to raise consciousness to a level where true healing can take place. Plants have always evolved before their animal counterparts and offer profound guidance regarding our own spiritual evolution.
In shamanic rituals, plants are commonly used in smudging. Smudging is a method of using smoke from burning herbs to purify a space in preparation for spiritual or inner work. The sacred smoke dispels any stagnant or unwanted energy and opens the energy channels of your body. Sage, cedar, and sweetgrass are traditionally used for smudging. Light the herbs in a fire-resistant receptacle and then blow out the flames. Then use a feather or your hands to fan the smoke around your body and home. I recommend cracking a window or door for ventilation and for releasing unwanted energies. Conclude the smudging by thanking the plant or tree spirit whose body made the cleansing possible.
The following is a list of herbs that I use in my shamanic practice. You can use them independently or mix them together in a smudge bowl. Each plant imparts specific qualities when burned. Remember to thank the plant or tree spirit whose body made the cleansing possible. To assist you in creating sacred space:
1. Smudge with the smoke of cedar or juniper for protection, deep cleansing, and the dispelling of negativity.
2. Smudge with white sage or common sagebrush for cleansing, blessing, and for calling in the specific spirits that you require to aid you in the task at hand.
3. Burn sweet grass, the breath of the Earth Mother, to attract and draw in the helping spirits that are called upon.
4. Use copal resin, the blood of trees, to honor the Tree People for providing our first breath, which is spirit, and to call upon the ancestral spirits for their oversight, insight, and protection.
5. Burn Palo Santo, which translated means "holy wood," as an energy cleanser and to attract sacredness and benevolence to a space.
6. Offer tobacco smoke or a pinch of dry tobacco to carry your prayers to the Loom of Creation, thereby reweaving the pattern of existence in accordance with those prayers.
Plant Spirit Shamanism
For an in-depth look at the role of plant spirits in shamanic rituals, I highly recommend
Plant Spirit Shamanism by Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing. From their years of extensive shamanic work in the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, Heaven and Charing present the core methods of plant shamanism used in healing rituals the world over: soul retrieval, spirit extraction, and sin eating. They explain the techniques shamans use to establish connections to plant spirits and provide practical exercises as well as a directory of traditional Amazonian and Caribbean healing plants and their common North American equivalents so readers can explore the world of plant spirits and make allies of their own.
