Walking the Land – WORKING WITH A TEACHER PLANT: How to do it
All plants (this includes flowers, trees, bushes, mushrooms, fungi and everything in between) can help us become a better human being. Most plants are not dangerous. Many are considered ‘medical’ by traditional herbalists. A number of our medicines originally come from a plant. For example, hallucinogenic plants and fungi are now becoming important to mainstream medicine, particularly in depression and other mental issues. Positive articles about how they have helped humans are sprouting up. This is good news because these plant medicines are being used under a controlled, safe environment for those who want to utilize them in search of better health.
My focus is on teacher plants in this blog. A teacher plant is always the oldest plant in the area. Teacher plants are also known as “mother” or “grandmother” plants. If the plant is an annual, it’s not going to be very old. A perennial plant can be very old because it may have lived over years or even decades. Any annual plant will do as a teacher plant if you are drawn to it, and if it wants to work with you. If the plant is a perennial, you want to seek out the oldest one. It may be the largest or tallest, but sometimes it is not. The Bristlecone Pine, which lives in the high Sierra Mountain Range in the West, is mostly a short, woody shrub, but it can live up to 5,000 years. Another way is to seek out a teacher plant is to find the “mother” or “grandmother” plant. She uses her seeds or roots over time to create her “children” plants around her. Grandmother plants have the most time on Mother Earth, have had more experience than younger plants, and over years or decades, it has become wisdom.
There are people (usually young teen boys) who hear about a certain mushroom or plant that will give them a “high” and so they try it. The results can range from a trip to the Emergency Room to dying from ingesting them. Below is a photo of Datura at Bubbling Ponds in Page Springs, AZ. This is a toxic, hallucinogenic plant. I don’t advocate starting out with such a plant. Instead, a safer one is the wisest choice until you become accustom to working with them over time.
From a metaphysical perspective, there is a far SAFER route to explore with a plant than ingesting it for a “high.” I didn’t start out working with hallucinogenic/toxic plants. I had worked with plants for several decades before I did that. When I lived in Arizona, I started working with the Datura plant because it is a “local” plant where I lived. It is a STRONG spirit and doesn’t mince concepts. Plants don’t speak, but with a telepathic connection, our emotions and ideas are blended so that we and the flower (or tree, mushroom, fungi or whatever plant we’re working with) can commune intelligently with one another. Feelings are exchanged, as well as symbols and a rich array of emotions. Yes, all plants/fungi have emotions and feelings.
Indigenous medicine people have worked with plants for thousands of years. They always work with “local” plants (ones that live where they do). Datura/Stramonium/Jimson/Weed/Moonflower lives in the Southwest, but it’s found nearly everywhere in the USA. Other plants, such as well-known Peyote and the ayahuasca vine, are equally strong.
Regardless of the plant, you can’t approach it arrogantly, with ego, or thinking you are above or better than this plant in any way—because we are not. Instead, humans are a part of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up “all our relations” here on Mother Earth. We must understand we’re all connected and we should all be treated in an equal and respectful way. One must come humbly and with humility when wanting to create a connection with a plant. As mentioned earlier, Datura is a hallucinogenic plant and unfortunately, in the Southwest teen boys eat the leaves or some other portion of the plant to get a “high” and the outcome is dire.
There’s a different way to approach this type of plant without killing yourself. It comes from a spiritual standpoint. First, you must realize that plants in Nature don’t necessarily want to work with a human being. To forge a positive relationship one? It will take time, patience and building trust with the plant.
Here’s how you should approach all plant beings:
Bring along a small bag of cornmeal of any color. You can usually buy a box of yellow cornmeal from your local grocery store. Remember, the plant will choose us, not the other way around. This is partly based upon how it FEELs toward us, which means you have to be self-aware and “sense” whether a plant wants to create a communication with you and is receptive to your request — or not.
Once I find a plant who is “open” to me, I give it a pinch of cornmeal. Using telepathy, I give it my name and explain why I am there and ask if I may sit and hear what it has to share with me. In other words, will the plant allow me to sit with it or not?
When you ask a plant to share with you, it will give you a very strong and obvious feeling of either YES or NO. If I receive a no? I give it a second gift of cornmeal, thank it for its time, and move on to find another plant who is willing to connect with me.
If a plant is receptive to my request, I sit down cross-legged in front of it. Don’t make the mistake of reaching out to touch its leaves or if it has a bloom, don’t smell or touch it. You must have permission from the plant, first. The plant is always in charge — you aren’t. Plants see you as a guest in their home/environment. So conduct yourself as such. Remember: no plant has to connect with you at all — you are the one wanting that link.
When we moved to Virginia, to my utter delight and surprise, there was a grandmother teacher Datura plant (only one) on our property! She had a beautiful white trumpet-like flower with purple coloring inside of it. I immediately found my cornmeal, gave her some and introduced myself. She was very pleased that I was happy to have found her. She has sent me a couple of very important dreams since our first meeting and connection. I never asked for them, but have found that giving us dreams is one of any plant’s “tools” or communication skills. She gifted me with a second bloom and I was able to get some really nice photos the blossom.
Teacher plants have their own inherent spiritual strength and abilities, and are most often open to human contact. In my experience with Datura, I’ve discovered it can telepathically send energy, a dream and/or an idea/symbol. The plant knows exactly what we need in order to heal. And usually, we human beings are pretty blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to seeing ourselves clearly enough to remove a block or heal a wound within us.
Teacher plants are found everywhere across Mother Earth, and many do not contain any hallucinogenic substance(s). I have found that the Datura plant is a healer for me on so many important interior levels. The spirit of this plant took me on a dream journey as part of my healing. There is no ingesting or smoking of the plant. It doesn’t have to be done that way. Instead, a HEART connection, consisting of emotions and feelings, can accomplish the same thing and it is safe.
A hallucinogenic plant is there for you to learn from and to educate you. The plant knows if you are ready for a journey with its spirit guiding you — or not. It’s not guaranteed that you’ll ever take a journey guided by the plant because it knows what you need in order to heal yourself, to bring yourself into harmony and balance. That may or may not include a psychedelic journey. It’s not up to you to decide, so don’t press or push or try to cajole such a powerful plant spirit to let you have that “high.” It won’t work. My most important moments with a plant /bush/tree were either in meditation with it, or they sent me a dream (or more than one).
Be kind, listen a lot, ask questions when feasible, and then true healing and a bond with the teacher plant spirit is possible. It can be life changing in very positive ways. The Native American saying, “We are all related,” takes on a new and very positive meaning in your life.
Plants love us. They put up with us. Humans need to learn that plants are our equals in every way. They can save us from ourselves if we will allow it. Find a “teacher” or “Grandmother/Mother” plant and be healed and educated in the best of ways.
