How to Spiritually Connect with Plants: A Comprehensive Guide
The "familiars" nobody talks about
I see a lot of information around the web about how to create spiritual links with animals. These animals, once the link is created, are referred to as “familiars” (think: the stereotype of a witch and her black cat).
However, I rarely hear anyone talk about forming such connections with plants — and that’s sad because I’ve always found it rather easy (and fun) to connect with plant familiars!
In this post, I will explain how to spiritually attune oneself to living plants. But before that, let’s take a better look at their metaphysical properties:
Plants are expert alchemists. They incarnate with the innate ability to transmute light into food. This is a skill that only the most advanced humans can perform, so the ease with which all plants do it makes them deserving of our most humbled reverence.
Because most plants spend their entire lives rooted in one place, they are great teachers of devotion, persistence, commitment, and resilience. Plants are also skilled in meditation.
This extreme degree of focused observation, combined with their deep sensitivity to their environment, causes plants to absorb and become the energies that surround them. For this reason, plants make wonderful “energetic smoke alarms,” so to speak. In other words, plants diagnose the energetic field they’re planted in. So if your houseplants feel “off” to you, they may be reflecting your own energetic state back to you, or the presence of stagnant or malevolent energies in your home. Similarly, if you walk into a new date’s house and their plants look radiant and lush, that’s a good sign!
Of course, other factors must be considered, like soil quality and plant species. But as a general rule, people who stew in anger have difficulty keeping plants alive, whereas people who maintain a state of peace and joy can practically bring plants back to life!
This concludes the short-list of plant powers. Now, let’s learn how to befriend them…
Choosing a Plant Familiar
Think about the plants you most resonate with.
If there are already plants in your environment that you like, you can go ahead and start connecting with those. Maybe your roommate keeps a cute rosemary plant in the living room, or there’s a nice tree outside your office building that you feel drawn to.
Or, if you’d prefer to start fresh, meditate on what kind of plant energies you’ve always fancied. Do you resonate strongly with certain colors? Do you tend to like plants from certain biospheres, such as deserts or rainforests? Was there a plant involved in a particularly fond memory? — perhaps a lover gave you a bouquet of lilies, or you once used lavender to help you through a period of insomnia? Let instinct guide you.
Once you’ve chosen a plant, do some research to show respect for your new friend. Make sure you can give your plant the time, attention, space, and nourishment it needs before you bring it into your life. Remember: you’re making a commitment to care for a living being. This is a sacred responsibility!
A quick note about the difference between growing a plant from seeds versus buying a pre-grown plant from a nursery: Most nursery plants have suffered tremendous abuse with pheromonal manipulation and pesticide poisoning in the greenhouses where they’re mass-produced by exploited humans. So if you buy a plant from a nursery, be aware that it may have deeply-rooted trauma and require your loving assistance to break up these painful blockages. You may also consider refusing to give monetary support to these inhumane operations in the first place.
If you sense that the energy of your plant has been compromised by genetic modification or pesticides, make sure to express your support and love, and don’t ever make the plant feel ashamed or at fault for its trauma. Forcefully-restructured plants are on a journey of self-restoration. They need patience and loving support as they process what has been done to their DNA. Let them know that the violation is not their fault.
Connect with Your Plant Familiar
Once you’ve got your plant, honor it. Include your plant in your daily rituals. Lovingly stroke their petals and leaves — plants love being touched. They’re very sensual creatures. Certain plants, like basil and lavender, will say “thank you” by releasing a beautiful fragrance.
Play beautiful music for them. Greet them in the morning before you leave for work, and when you come back home, sit with them for a while, and tell them about your day. If the plant is outside your home, make a promise to visit it regularly, then keep that promise.
If you can’t speak out loud to your plant because people are around, speak telepathically to them. Clear your mind and imagine a channel between your mind and the plant, and send thoughts along this channel. They will hear you and respond in kind.
Once you’re comfortable giving adoring attention to your plant, practice having an energetic exchange. Tell you plant about your day, then ask them about their day, too. What did they contemplate today? What did they see outside the window? Do they have a spirit name?
After you’ve invited them to speak back to you, quiet your mind and open up to their responses — and trust that they will respond. In my experience, plants are usually elated when somebody sits and talks with them. Hardly anyone in our modern world acknowledges that they are conscious, intelligent beings. So when you sit down to talk with a plant, don’t be surprised if you feel them sending bright beams of light and flashes of color towards you. This is how they express gratitude and friendship.
Bonus tip: If you menstruate, give your menstrual blood to your plant familiar. This will strengthen your energetic bond immensely, not to mention deeply nourish them with trace minerals and nutrients. I recommend using a menstrual cup to collect your sacred fluids, or the water used to soak a cloth pad made of natural materials. Avoid using blood collected from conventional plastic pads and tampons, as this can expose your plant familiar to harmful chemicals like bleach. Also, be wise not to give your blood to a plant in a context where doing so would pose a biohazard to others.
Receiving Insight & Energy from Your Plant Familiar
Once you’ve established a friendship with your plant, you can ask for its perspective and guidance. For example: if you’ve chosen to grow poppy flowers (who are considered flowers of dreams and death), you can ask for the poppy spirit’s help processing grief over a lost loved one or interpreting a dream. They will teach you how to transmute this grief and confusion into clarity.
You can also borrow energy from plants. As their guardian, you provide plants with water and nourishment. In return, you may ask the plant to exchange energy with you. For example: if you come home from work tired, sit by your plant and let it recharge you with transmuted sunlight.
If you’ve chosen to care for a medicinal plant such as aloe or cilantro, make sure to thank the plant before harvesting its parts. Let it know that you’re about to pull one of its leaves off, then proceed gently. In fact, you can even ask the plant to show you which part you can pull off that will cause it the least amount of pain.
You can ask your plants to watch over your space, like a natural security system, and to send you updates telepathically. I once had a loyal ivy plant who sent me an urgent “!!!” feeling when I was away at work and a roommate went snooping around my room. Lo and behold, the roommate stole something from me that I was never able to recover.
Plants are also keen judges of character. If you ask your plant for their opinion on your new lover, be prepared to hear their honest answer.
Finally: Once you’ve become attuned to your familiar plants, you can start communicating with “stranger” plants as well. Go ahead and commune with the plants you find in public parks or other people’s houses. Ask them what they know, and what they do. Be open to the answers. Earth-based societies have always discovered which plants could be used as food or medicine — or which plants should be avoided — by simply asking the plant. Deep in your soul, you still know how to do this. It’s never too late to remember.