Plant Spirit Medicine and Herbalism
A most traditional way to work with herbs, the power of plant medicine goes far beyond the physiological realm. While modern day herbalism focuses on phytochemicals, plant constituents, and research, traditional healers used herbs for all of these properties and more. In most traditional styles of herbalism (and healing), plants were also used as a means for protecting, cleansing, and healing a person's energetic, emotional, and spiritual bodies. Sometimes referred to as plant spirit medicine (though it has many names), using a plant for it's energetics and essence/spirit is an ancient style of working with plant medicine. In the ways of the past, plant spirit medicine and energetic healing went hand in hand. In traditional healing systems, a person's spirit was never disconnected from their physical health and the two were treated together - serving as the ultimate system(s) for true integrative health.
Fast forward to modern times, and the concept of connecting the spirit and the body in current healthcare systems is almost obsolete. Even in alternative wellness modalities (such as naturopathy and functional medicine) the traditional concept of body-mind-spirit health is often overlooked. As a modern society in the west, it's our natural inclination to categorize, analyze, and quantify healing - but in almost all other traditional systems across the world the unknown (and sometimes quantifiable) components of health hold a seat at the table when looking at healthcare. While there are herbalists that practice purely in the scientific realm, the core of herbalism is an integrative practice that looks at all levels of well-being when assessing health.
Plant Spirit Medicine + Energetic Healing
From flower essences and herbal teas, to traditional preparations such as baths, limpias, clairvoyant healings, smoke clearings, and more - most cultures have a form of healing that helps to support energetic health and well-being. By looking at the energetic state of a person, a practitioner can choose the modality that fits the situation and use herbs and practices to support energetic hygiene and emotional/spiritual well-being. Typically these practices would feature multiple modalities, and would support a person through rituals and customs. Over the years (and in some places more than others), many of these systems have been banned, disregarded, or shamed - but at every culture's core - they exist.
What Does Energetic Healing With Plants Look Like?
From flower essences and herbal teas, to traditional preparations such as baths, limpias, clairvoyant healing, smoke clearings, and more - most cultures have a form of healing that helps to support energetic health and well-being. By looking at the energetic state of a person, a practitioner can choose the modality that fits the situation and use herbs and practices to support energetic hygiene and emotional/spiritual well-being. Typically these practices would feature multiple modalities, and would support a person through rituals and customs.
A modern day example of healing energetically with plants may look like a flower essence to help with someone's life path, an herbal bath to promote energetic clearing, or a collection of herbs in tea to help soothe matters of the heart when someone is sad or mourning. While energy healing can take many forms - plants have long been a part of this process in herbalism and beyond.
In my practice I let the client decide if they want to take this path in their healing. From flower essences to ancestral healing, and selecting herbs based off intuition (when called for), connecting the clinical with the energetic can be a transformative experience when you allow it.
Have You Ever Worked With An Energetic Healer?
If so, what did you think? What energetic practices of healing are a traditional part of your culture and how can you learn more about these old ways of supporting health?
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