#plant spirits

[buriedpentacles]

Low-Energy Ways to Work with Nature and her Spirits:

Look outside. That's it - just open the curtains and see the sunlight, find the trees outside your window and watch the birds.

Put on a documentary or youtube video about a cool animal, ecology, the natural world etc

Talk to nature - whisper, talk out loud, say it in your head - just talk. Compliment pretty flowers, chat about how creepy but cool you think spiders are, picture light dancing off morning dew.

Trace the shapes of leaves/flowers/animals etc on your bed sheets or skin - try to see how many different shapes make up the natural world, find the patterns and fractals within them

Learn the name of one new local plant a week! Just one a week! If you have the energy, research a little about their ecology, history or medicinal uses

Make a flower crown/daisy chain/leaf crown

Take up nature photography - you don't need a fancy camera, jsut your phone!

Collect some shells/rocks/bones etc!

Just sit outside! can be just outside your front door, next to an open window, or in the woods (whatever you can manage)

Take your daily activities outside!! Read in the garden, eat your breakfast under the sun etc

Create art from nature - paint rocks, press flowers, create patterns using feathers or leaves as paintbrushes/stamps

Cloud watching!

More High Energy Activities:

Go for a walk or hike outside and take some offerings. Introduce yourself to the trees and plants and streams and leave them a gift.

If there's one nearby, visit a local farmer's market and buy some local produce; honey, meat, vegetables, fruit, etc! Chat to the sellers and talk about their practices and produce

Do a small spell outside! Find a secluded, comfortable spot and invite the spirits to observe your spellwork - let them get used to your energy and way of working

Make a small diary of your time outside! Don't worry about filling it in regularly, just whenever you have the energy! Write down when the bees start coming out or leaves return after winter. What plants stay during the cold season?

Research local plants and come up with your own correspondences based on their ecology/medicinal use/folklore etc

Go on a walk to see what plants and animals exist in your area! Research them - are they native? Invasive? What is their ecology? Medicinal uses? Even the most urban areas tend to have some wildlife!

Join a local facebook group for birdwatching!

Research your area and figure out what plants or animals would be native, or used to live there - create artwork or something to honour and remember them

Research gardening groups nearby - some cities will have volunteer gardening projects or local groups that help maintain natural spaces! See if any would be feasible for you to join and get out there

Join a local allotment or community garden if you have the means - do some weeding, plant some tomatoes, say hello to the coal tits nesting in the old shed!

If you have the means - invest in a hardy houseplant! Name it, research its care and talk to it! Make a ritual out of watering and talking to it.

Take an online ecology course! Free courses exist and can be super interesting!

Watch youtube videos on a favourite taxa and make notes - build your own knowledge at a pace you're comfortable with on the things you're interested in!

Invite some nature spirits in for a meal - cook something you enjoy and set the table (if you can) for the spirits. Enjoy a meal with them.

Please add any suggestions you have below and I can add them! Everyone has unique energy levels and capabilities, but I hope that I've given people a quick idea of things they can do, if they want!

[lailoken]

Hi Lailoken! I live in a wooden house and would love to grow a relationship with it and meet the spirits of the garden around it. How would one go about doing that?

How lovely!

To foster a relationship with the spirits of your wooden house and the garden about it, you should approach them as you would any living presence: with recognition, respect, and reciprocity. In the magical practice I grew up steeped in, home and land are not inert settings but inhabited, ensouled places—each with its own Genius Loci (spirit of place) and, within the home, a Genius Domi (spirit of the dwelling).

I will attempt to share some concise points that help outline the ways one might try and foster these spiritual interactions.

Meeting the Genius Domi

• Acknowledgment: Begin by speaking aloud to the house as you move through it. A simple greeting upon entering and thanks when leaving sets a rhythm of recognition. Likewise, learning/creating a name for the home is another simple but powerful way to strengthen your rapport with the Genius Domi.

• Hearth or Nidus: Establish a hearthside focus—your “nest”—whether that is an actual fire, a candle flame, or a dedicated corner. Offer small libations of drink, crumbs of bread, or smoke from incense, adjusting these offerings seasonally to mirror the life of the land that sustains your home.

• Care & Repair: Keeping the house clean, mended, and tended is not just physical maintenance but ritual devotion. Within my tradition, repair is itself an offering that helps to strengthen the Genius Domi.

• Feeding the Heart: Share a portion of meals—especially on holy days or family occasions—with the hearth or Nidus, acknowledging the spirit as a guardian and comrade who shelters you and your loved ones.

Meeting the Garden Spirits

• Observation First: Spend time outdoors without agenda, learning the character of each corner of the garden. In traditional magic, “listening with the skin” is key—feeling how different spots settle your body or stir your nerves.

• Offerings to the Land: Milk, honey, or clean water poured at the roots of boundary trees or at crossroads within your garden are old, trusted ways of calling out to the wights of that place and endearing yourself to them.

• Seasonal Marking: Mark the turning of the year with small rites of propitiation and maintenance involving important agricultural actions such sowing, tending, and reaping. Doing this helps you to harmonizes your life and patterms with those of your garden.

• Names & Tokens: Building unique and personal relationships with specific plant spirits can be a very meaningful to build broader rapport with the Genius Loci. In that vein, if a place or tree reveals its name to you (through dream, omen, or intuition), honor it and acknowledge it by name. Likewise, one might create a specific amulet or other token of significance to hang discreetly upon, or place in the earth at the base of, a given plant spirit you are building a relationship with.

The Work of Relationship

What binds all this is consistency. Spirits, whether of house or hedge, come to trust those who show up with regularity. Over time, the Genius Domi will begin to reflect your regard, offering a sense of safety, clarity, and subtle companionship. Likewise, the wights of the garden will become peers, and may eveb become allies—sometimes protective, sometimes playful, and sometimes instructive.

In essence: tend, feed, speak, and listen. Your house and garden are already alive; your task is to weave yourself into their life so that, together, you mutually nurture and empower one another.

[oliviarampaige]

“Soothsayer”

Day 22 - Botanical Beasts

Can you escape the entropy?

[zmiyinaart]

Lily-of-the-valley fairy || Poison Garden

[ashderdour20]

Canna en avant yellow/red spot.

Canna lily.

[ophidian-whispers]

On the Practice of “Curing” Plant Spirits in Northern Brazilian Folk Magic

In the northern region of Brazil, particularly in the state of Pará, there is a form of protective magic known as “curing a plant”, and involves a person regularly watering the plant to be cured with a mixture of water, animal blood, and sometimes cachaça. The animal blood does not come from any sort of sacrifice, but from the residual blood present in store bought meat or fish, for example.

There is also this understanding that not every plant can be cured. The ones most commonly put through this process are snake plants, species in the calladium genus, pothos, taro and dumbcane. This is particularly interesting because all of these plants are very toxic when ingested raw, so there’s this clear connection between the toxicity of the plant in the physical world and it’s potency to be awakened in the spiritual world through curing.

To cure a plant, one would take the aforementioned mixture and water the plant while stating that it is now awakened, is going to be fed regularly, and should therefore take the role of a house guardian. The plant is now considered “cured”, and shall be fed regularly as promised.

In the rural areas of Pará, it is commonly understood that the plant will now be spiritually strengthened, and it’s spirit may take human form both for protecting the house it inhabits and to remind the caretakers of the land it is still there and the accorded offerings should not stop.

Some accounts have described the human form of a cured plant to be that of an indigenous man, others describe it as a black man, but regardless of race they all look very strong or warrior-like. This is also a reflection of where this practice comes from: indigenous spiritual knowledge taking form under the changing circumstances of a society that push and pulls at traditions.

In my point of view, the practice of curing plants not only highlights what we already know to be widespread in folk magic — that is, the necessity of finding solutions for our problems in ways that require few resources — but also prevents part of indigenous knowledge and spiritual understanding from fading away.

[ponzonyera]

Starting to make the henbane-effigy

I see as "unbelievable" working with herbs and not trying to connect with their spirits. Animism is at the core of my spiritual beliefs but I think that it becomes even more important in my practice of the witching arts. How can someone heal or curse with a plant that doesn't know? No one asks help from strangers and the Green World it's no exception. So although I don't have a close relationship to all the herbs and trees that grow in my land, my intention is to know well those who I consider my allies. To create a close-knit and tight web of spirit helpers and allies, with reciprocity and truthfulness. My patron deities, my ancestors, the Blessed Dead, familiar companions, genii locorum and my most beloved and trusted herbal spirits.

Thyme, rosemary and ginger were the first plants I forged a close relationship with. They continue to be central in a lot of my recipes and in my everyday life. To the point of being a joke in my family because I'm constantly recommending thyme to heal everyone's aches. But apart from these well-known herbs, in the last years I have been introducing myself on the so called "poison path"; a craft that led me to establish new alliances.

Because I'm stubborn and I like to walk every road by the most difficult means, my first poisonous contact was with Datura Stramonium. This beautiful yet deadly plant taught me some rough lessons (that I prefer to keep secret) and now is like an old friend. Maybe it doesn't pop up in the day-to-day life but I know that I can beg for her wisdom and help in my most needed times. I acknowledge my naive audacity approaching her. I found her morose and hermetic, prepared to destroy fools like me. Discovering my faults, having patience and being consistent transformed the relationship into an allyship. She revealed a profound knowledge and even a protector nature and I recovered from a sudden family lose thanks to her.

Nonetheless, I felt like something was missing. The witch folklore of my region, Aragon, is full to mentions and ominous references to henbane and that always had strengthened my curiosity. Finally I had some experiences with Hyoscyamus albus and later on, with Hyoscyamus niger. Initially I was so cautious because of my previous risky interactions with Datura. I, to some extent, expected something similar. Despite that, my first experience was radically different! Encounter after encounter, I discovered a spirit thay i could refer to "kindred one". I was amazed and needed to go a step further. After thinking that her spirit and mine were getting along I made an effigy with its roots. For the head I made a ball filled with white and black henbane, poppy seeds and other herbs. I wrapped the figure with a fabric in which I had drawed sigils and saturnian symbols. The result was doll-like.

The henbane effigy made and awakened

The last weeks of 2025 I slept with her and fed it with drops of my own blood. My dreams were absolutly incredible. I've never had oneiric experiences like the ones I had while working with henbane. Since then, the effigy has evolved in appeareance as long as my encounters with her spirit changed my initial perceptions. I sewed a skull charm in its head to represent the chthonic powers that She has, a broom to depict the aid that she can provide in the witch-flight and a tiny bottle filled with more henbane.

The henbane effigy nowadays

I can understand why so many people described it like a more approachable spirit. Since the beginning I saw her like the embodiment of sorcery. Twisted, hag-like and quirky. Still prone to rough teachings but more amicable. It makes me think of "La Celestina", the old match-maker and spellcaster of the classical spanish literature. The spirit of Henbane will help in almost any type of magic from necromancy to love spells, aiding in the spirit-flight or making an amulet to obtain fortune. Recently I saw the illustrations of the medieval book "The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man", including the personifications of Necromancy and Sorcery. Sorcery is depicted like an old women with a cercenated hand, a stick or wand and a basket with "many knyves and hoodys ek, dyvers wrytes and ymages, oynementys and herbages" offering her services and knowledge of the arte. I cannot unsee the resemblance. This is, at least for me, one of the masks of Henbane. Along with the ancient seeress inspired by Apolo, the folk magician and healer who could either cure tooth ache or invoke the restless dead to curse.

Sorcery personified in "The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man". John Lydgate, XVth century, Cotton MS Tiberius A VII/1 ff. 39–106v

Perhaps in the future I will write a more detailed publication about henbane, its magical applications in Aragonese tradition and ponzoñeria (let's say that is the local form of "poison path").

(As precaution i should say that i'm not responsible of anyone interpretation of my ramblings. I do not recommend approaching ANY plant without proper training, less I recommend working with a poisonous one. Water in excess could kill a person but that isn't a reason to call it wicked or perilous. Herbs have been a invaluable help to humans since the beginning of times, but they could also damage you if you are not prepared enough. With common sense, education and responsability every art and skill can be cultivated. Do your will at your risk. Know your limits and be mindful. Trust good teachers, read good books and try good manners).

Also I wanted to explain that plant spirits are not human nor human like. They exists in essence and in materia, like us in soul and flesh, but they are very different conscious beings with their own unique ways of expressing and living. Eventhough, they know how to present themselves to us. In order to look and be more approachable, comprehensible and trustful they will adopt signs, names, forms and atributtes of our own cultures and beliefs. Knowing and using our “codes” or “languages”, they intend to be understanded. Seen and heared as something not human but neither otherwordly. For me, the Witch doesn’t know the plant spirit only as the life or the invisible force that inhabits a root or a flower. For the Witch, the plant spirit is a thousand voices and a thousand faces she has speaked to. In my writings I don’t pretend to humanize any spirit or numen but when talking about personal experiences with them I find some difficulties. Could be because that English is not my first language. It also could be that humans naturally express the Unknown in knowable terms.

[songsofbloodandwater]

I'm surprised I haven't see anyone mention something like this online but in my experience, plant's seasonality is not just biological, it's spiritual aswell. It seems people are so used to almost every spice and herb being available to them from a supermarket year-round, and so disconnected from their living plant form, that they call on the aid of any herbal ally at any time of the year and expect the same answer, and the same potency. When, in my experience, that doesn't make any sense.

Some plants are stronger than others in particular times of the year. Some are effective year-round. Some only step up to aid when there's a need for them, under very specific circumstances relating to you and your specific situation at the time. One herbal spirit may be my ally for the summer, and another in the winter, for the exact same purpose. Except one of them is readily available (out in the field, and also spiritually awake and willing to work) during the season that the other isn't. Evergreen plants are great for a number of reasons, one of them being how they're available all year round and to me, that means their Spirits can also help us all year round.

Plant spirits can be reawakened out of season, sure, but in my experience their efficacy is not as great. The amount of effort you put into that reawakening will directly translate into the potency you obtain, and it probably still won't be as good as a plant spirit in season. Simple because the latter is a spirit that has adapted to work and succeed in that environment. The out-of-season plant spirit likely hasn't.