Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012

The Green World: Plants

As roots may we be solid,

As trunk may we stand tall,

As branches may we reach high,

As leaves may we whisper beauty,

As blossoms may we open to possibility,

As fruit may we give forth our legacy,

As allies may we be worthy of the Green Ones.

Plants can be powerful allies. When most people think of shamanic plants, their minds immediately jump to the entheogens—mind-altering plants that open the psyche. The ancient shamans of northern Europe certainly had access to and did use some entheogens—Amanita mushrooms, belladonna, henbane, roseroot, and others—to enhance psychic journeying and turn up the volume on their ability to see and hear the spirits. However, these are by no means the only allies in the Green World, nor necessarily the most common or even the most powerful. Since time immemorial, tree and plant spirits have aided shamans in activities such as healing the body and mind, protecting an area, reading the fertility of a piece of earth, blessing fields, and purifying a person or space before undertaking esoteric work. Accounts of these practices have come down to us in many surviving documents, such as the Old English herbal and leech charms (from the old Anglo-Saxon word laece, meaning “healer”). Just as our ancestors learned to access this ancient knowledge, we as contemporary practitioners can too. In this tradition we often refer to plant spirits as Greenwights, and that word will be periodically used in this chapter.

Ancient folk were much more aware of their environment than modern people usually are. Their constant vigilance was necessary for survival, and they were generally able to identify most of the trees and plants that they saw every day in their ecosystem. Exploring and understanding that ecosystem was necessary for their survival. Traditional practitioners of the shamanic arts often knew hundreds of plants and their uses, and they made various levels of alliance with the spirits of those plants. We don’t have the space to explore hundreds of plants here; the nine spirits of the Green World that we will meet in this chapter were chosen because they are well-known examples of plants that our ancestors considered to be highly sacred. By learning to work with these nine plants respectfully and well, you will build a foundation from which you can continue to safely make alliances within the Green World. It should be noted that none of these plants number among the entheogens, which require more advanced training to connect with safely.

Each plant in this chapter is a medicinal plant, and a few of them are ancient medicines of great power. We have chosen not to reiterate their extensive medicinal uses, as this isn’t a book of medicinal herbal-ism. Using herbs as physical medicine was certainly part of the work of ancient shamans, but what differentiated the shaman from the simple herbalist (and, later, the doctor) was that the shaman did not merely apply the herb to the patient, but also invoked the spirit of that plant for added potency and direction of cure. For those who are interested in learning about Northern medicinal herbalism, or the healing and spiritual uses of other plants from this part of the world, we recommend The Northern Shamanic Herbal, published through Asphodel Press. Learning medicinal herbalism is a long endeavor that may take many years to become proficient. There are quite a few excellent medicinal herbals on the market and even programs and courses of training that offer the requisite medical knowledge.

We think of plants as nonsentient—perhaps even not really alive—because they are sessile and cannot easily communicate with us. Scientific studies refute this—studies that show that plants feel pain, for instance, and are aware of the intent of the humans around them. For an animist and for anyone who is pursuing the path of a shamanic practitioner, believing plants to be nonsentient is a mistake. The spirits of the Green World are powerful allies with a great deal of wisdom, and they can advise the new practitioner on a number of topics. These are not merely limited to spiritual pursuits, although the new practitioner could do worse than to run her latest journeying plan past a steady plant ally. One might not think that a plant spirit would know enough about people to say, “That new flame, that one’s not going to last,” or about human bodies to say, “Why aren’t you getting enough sleep? Go in the house and rest.” But you’d be surprised. Part of their core competency is about creating and maintaining balance. That is part of their job, so to speak, within the greater ecosystem of the environment. They are immensely sensitive and aware of when things are out of balance, and that includes the smaller microcosms of our bodies and our emotional worlds.

In exchange for their help, they often ask you to alter your way of thinking about plants, and your way of interacting with them. For those city dwellers who think that you don’t interact with them at all, keep in mind that much of the food you eat is plant derived. You put their bodies, quite literally, into your own body every day. Essentially, if you’re eating, you’re interacting with the Green World. Some shamans and shamanic practitioners who work with the Green World have found that they are required to eat plant matter that has been grown with respect—not bioengineered to survive being laden with coat after coat of pesticide, not processed into oblivion or superheated so that it forms trans fatty acids. Chemicals in our food cut down on signal clarity, and organic food is grown with respect. Working with any family of spirits must be based, first and foremost, on respect. Certain plants have allied themselves to humans—grains, legumes, some fruits—and we refer to them as the Ancestral Fathers and Mothers in this tradition. Even the wildest of weeds is aware of our lack of respect for the Ancestral Fathers and Mothers; the Greenwights who have sacrificed the most for our species and the other citizens of the Green World do not think much of us for this. Awareness of what plants we eat and how they are grown is a common taboo leveled on spirit workers in exchange for alliances.

Some Greenwights will ask that a human ally be vegetarian or even vegan, perhaps in order to more fully live in the Green World. Other Greenwights will forbid their human allies to be vegetarian or vegan, because there is a temptation among us to privilege the lives of animals over plants, imagining that it is cruel to eat animals but fine to uproot and chow down on a still-living plant—because it isn’t really alive. For those humans, forced omnivorousness is a way to drive home that carrots are just as alive and worthy of living as cows and, moreover, that all life feeds on life. The Northern Tradition grew in a harsh, freezing climate that required eating whatever was available and being grateful, and this is still the way we work with food in this tradition, both animal and plant. Nothing is forbidden as long as it was raised with respect, was killed cleanly, the spirits have not given you any taboos against it, and your body does not react badly to it.

Greenwights might also ask their human allies to grow a garden, grow plants in pots to give away, clean up an area of the natural world, or make it possible for others to do so. Plants communicate with each other through an enormous, worldwide network, and they know that things are off kilter with the environment. They also know who is at fault, and shamans or shamanic practitioners may need to prove that this, too, is a concern that they value. This is not done by giving lip service, but by pitching in and making change. There are no free rides within the Northern Tradition, and no knowledge or power is gained for free. We are required to step up to the plate and put our beliefs and the respect we claim into very clear action.