The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2017
Be in Tune with the Earth
Embrace Your Own Power
Discovering the Green Witch
No matter what her access to nature is, the green witch works closely with the earth. You can live on the forty-seventh floor of a high-rise apartment building and still have a meaningful relationship with the earth.
Among the green witch’s common allies are earth spirits. Earth spirits can be valuable partners and aides in your practice. An earth spirit is an intelligence or awareness attached to a particular place, a plant or tree, a natural object such as a rock or stream, or a specific type of weather. These intelligences are sometimes called devas, sometimes fairies. Often we simply refer to them as “earth spirits,” “spirit of,” or “force of” something. It is important to understand that these spirits are not deities.
Do all green witches recognize or work with earth spirits? No. Some green witches are comfortable talking about fairies or devas, whereas others roll their eyes and get down to hoeing the garden. Most do recognize that nature has an intelligence, or a sense of spirit, that varies according to the location. Not all of us give a name or classification to that sense of spirit.
How each green witch works with these spirits or forces depends on how she perceives them. Most green witches will agree that connecting with the various forces and energies of nature is a key aspect of their practice, but it’s likely that no two green witches will be able to agree on how to do it, or even what forces they connect to. This shows how highly individualized the green practice is. One thing that most green witches would agree on is that they strive to work in harmony with these forces of nature.
How you visualize these spirits is completely up to you. You may see them as tiny people or orbs of light. You may not see them at all, but experience emotions or sensations when you are near the tree, flower, standing stone, or phenomenon with which the spirit is associated. Whether your visualization matches other visualizations is unimportant. What is important is that if you choose to work with them, you must honor the spirits as allies in your green witch work to attune to the natural world and to rebalance and harmonize life.
You can encounter nature spirits in many places and through a variety of methods. The simplest method is to reach out and connect with the spirit of a single plant, then ask the plant spirit for information on the plant’s uses and properties. In his book Plant Spirit Medicine, Eliot Cowan stresses that the energy possessed by each individual plant is entirely personal. The information and/or gift the spirit of that plant offers to you is exactly what you need at that moment. This gift is not necessarily energy that is traditionally associated with the plant. For example, if you project your awareness to a rosebush, the energy you receive in return will not necessarily be love. The spirit of the rosebush may perceive that you require something different and offer it to you. The key to working with nature spirits like this is to be open to what they offer you without expectations or preconceived ideas. Referring to lists of correspondences associated with particular plants is useful for getting a general idea of how to use the plant’s energy, but it is much more useful to communicate directly with the spirit of the plant to acquire your own understanding or interpretation of the energy and how it may be applied. The green witch never assumes she knows something, or presumes that she is correct, or takes something at face value. It is important to seek out your own experience and build your own opinions as you deepen your understanding of an element, a process, or a situation. Chapter 3 offers a series of exercises designed to help you take in information and energy through your senses, and a variety of techniques for interacting with nature and acquiring information from plant spirits.
Because there are different ways of working with plant energy, every green witch will develop her own method of absorbing and applying that energy. Employing plant energies in the practice of medicinal herbalism is perhaps the most common method of using natural energy, but the practice of homeopathy and the use of Bach flower remedies are also popular methods of working with the energy of flowers, plants, and trees.