Plant Witchery: Discover the Sacred Language, Wisdom, and Magic of 200 Plants - Juliet Diaz 2020
Plant Wisdom
The Secret Language of Plants
Plants are chatty Magical creatures. I can’t tell you how often they strike up a conversation—I have to surround my workspace with the quietest plants I know so I can get something done! Many moons ago, while I was on a date, I went to a beautiful restaurant with a lovely garden. The space was filled with spider plants, snake plants, huge monstera towering over the tables, and cacti as centerpieces. I said hello to every one of them as we sat down.
My date started talking about his previous relationship—never a great conversation to be having on a first date! As he went on and on about all the things his ex had done wrong, I knew he needed to take more time to mourn this last relationship. I cringed in my chair and eventually retreated to sharing space with the plants all around me. As I did, the cactus on the table pricked me at the base of my spine. It startled me so much that I jumped—not that my date really noticed. The cactus told me I had better things to do than listen to this man talk about someone else. And you know what? He was right. I suggested my date have dinner with his ex instead, and I left.
Yes, I have full-on conversations with plants, trees, nature, and all her spirits. I am lucky to have a lineage of family of Witches whose Witchcraft, spirituality, and culture revolve around plants—but this kind of connection is available to everyone. All it requires is remembering that you are also part of nature, you are one with the plant. You will build your own unique language as you implement the Plant Witchery path into your life.
Plants touch us, speak to us, and teach us in different ways. They are wisdom keepers, the natural healers of the world. Think about it this way: When a plant is sick, we don’t change the plant, we change the environment around it. Nothing is wrong with the plant itself—instead, we look at the amount of water it is receiving, the amount of light, or even its placement. We consider whether it is receiving love. Does any of this sound familiar? As humans, we tend to look within, thinking the problem must lie within us, but just like plants, there is nothing wrong with us—it’s our environment that needs to change, our lifestyle, the way we eat, the love we receive. We can learn to implement plant wisdom into our own lives.
When I was seven years old, I had an overwhelming feeling of not wanting to live anymore. My life felt unbearable. The elevator in our seven-floor building was broken, and so I climbed my little self up all seven flights of stairs, gasping for air by the time I reached the roof. The air was numb, time was still, and the silence was deafening. I walked to the edge of the roof, shaking in my skin, and looked down at the biggest drop I’ve ever seen in my life. I stood there, closed my eyes, and leaned my little body forward, bracing for my fall. All of a sudden, a gush of wind hit me like a freight train, so hard my body flew back about six feet! I lay on the roof, stunned, and opened my eyes to the most amazing sight—dozens of daisies falling from the sky. They were floating above me, slowly, then landing on my body. The wind brought them there, to cover me in a blanket of embrace. I cried. A lot. And then I heard, “You belong here, turn over.” And so I turned over onto my belly, only to find moss growing out of the tar rooftop. My tears dripped onto the moss, and as they flowed, watering the moss, my despair—the feeling of not wanting to be here—disappeared. The moss absorbed all my pain, all my fear. I owe my life to our Earth.
We can learn from how plants break through hard times. They adapt to circumstances and shift accordingly. Challenges don’t keep them from being determined—think about a flower growing through a crack in a city sidewalk. Plants also don’t set limits for themselves. They want to thrive and grow as much as possible. A plant never thinks to itself, I’ve grown enough, this is my safe place, I’ll stop growing now. No, it unapologetically continues to flourish and thrive, as we all should. We deserve to be limitless.
Plants do not allow obstacles to take their focus off the Sun.