Plant Spirit Medicine
By Jewell

What would you think if I told you that almost anything that ails you has a cure in your own backyard? Now what would you think if I told you that there are plant allies all around you available and waiting to heal you?

Many of you have been learning about the healing power of herbs and common "weeds" through the dedication of herbalists and health food stores. Everywhere you look now, there is an article in a mainstream magazine. There are even bottled herbal remedies in the chain drugstores and television ads.

Now what if I told you that most of what ails you is a disease of the Spirit? And what if I told you that connecting with the Spirit of a common weed could heal you at a deeper level than you have ever imagined?

Neither of these statements is anything new. They are ancient truths that are coming back into our consciousness after a steady disconnection with nature as spirit. This disconnection threatens to annihilate us and to rob from all future generations the true inheritance of this beautiful being we call Earth.

My own journey into Plant Spirit Medicine began when I was a small child. I am a descendant of Jules Verne, the visionary writer. Summers were spent at Le Tertre, the family home at Oudon, France. This was an old, falling-down, rambling stone country house, formerly an inn. There was no indoor plumbing and the food was prepared in a stone fireplace. In the front of the house was a tall stone courtyard with large yawning wrought iron gates. In the back, as far as I could see, was Paradise: the garden. The garden provided all the vegetables, flowers, and herbs for the house. All along the left side of the garden was a stone wall draped with wine grapes. At the far back was a small stone garden shed. The artichokes lived there, stately beings. I would commune with them for hours. Harvesting and eating them was an elaborate ritual. My French relatives treated the relationship with the plants and the food they provided with great reverence.

The man who tended the garden, Pere Durand, was very old, wise, and tiny. He was a live gnome from a fairytale. I was fascinated with the mystery surrounding him and the aura he shared with the plants. He wore wooden shoes and would water the garden with a bucket hand-drawn from the well that was situated at the front of the garden, to the right of the central path. Sometimes he would give me a ripe pea to shell and eat. I was transfixed. I would spend as long as an hour opening the emerald green pod and beholding the intricate treasure it held.

I was so often in that garden and a part of the life there that I didn't question drinking from a cistern at the far back, which was used to store rain water for dry spells. What was good for the plants and the birds and insects I saw drinking there was good enough for me. However, I was a little girl, and I contracted typhoid from it.

The doctor came to the house. I was deathly ill. When he left I was fed pureed vegetables from the garden, as the only medicine, and ordered bed rest. This kept me away from my beloved friends the plants, whom I could fortunately still see in a feverish haze out my window.

It was all one-the nourishment, the spiritual energy, and the healing, when something was not right.

I read an article recently about a scientist who went to Mexico to find healing plants for research for a pharmaceutical company. The local healer, a young woman who knew about the plants, was willing to show him the physical plants and how they were used. She kept insisting, however, that it was the spirit of the plant that mattered, and insisted that he observe the proper rituals to make that connection. He went along with her "superstitious" ritual to get to the "real thing."

The Real Thing, as practiced in Plant Spirit Medicine, is exactly that: the spiritual connection to the plant. The most effective way to treat the broken spirit of our people today is through spiritual means.

I have had the good fortune to travel to many places in the world and to receive instruction from teachers and healers from different cultures. My most recent instruction, healing, and initiation has been from Eliot Cowan, a shaman and healer who has written a wonderful book called Plant Spirit Medicine. In the last few years, he has opened up a whole new dimension for me as a healer and as a woman trying to heal herself.

I came to Eliot with my right hand swollen and seized up into a claw from a herniated disc in my neck. This was a serious ailment for an artist, hands-on healer, gardener, and mother of three who heats with firewood. The immediate result, which lasted for five hours, was an experience of sublime wellness. My hand unfurled. I wandered the woods like a small child. I was so innocent and pure that I attracted a wild fawn who accompanied me as I leapt over the stream beds. That wore off abruptly, the pain returned, and I began the bewildering journey of real healing.

My wounded hand was merely the most surface and recent symptom of much deeper disease that had been festering for 40+ years. With the support of the Plant Spirits, I have been able to release ailments that have been plaguing me for years, ranging from arthritis to shedding the light of truth on childhood scars. I am more flexible and a lot stronger.

Eliot's unique Plant Spirit Medicine combines the compassionate five-element healing of Chinese Medicine that I had been introduced to through Qigong, and the shamanism of direct contact with the spirit of the wild plants that are living all around us. I rediscovered that true healing is a commitment to the reality of the laws of nature, the mystery of spirit, and the miracle of Love.

After my initiation ceremony as a Plant Spirit Medicine healer, the water source where I live is glowing with a new energy. The Artemesia plant, which was puny before, has grown to be a bush six feet tall. I have my new tools of flexible observation and my abilities to track subtle changes through taking pulses. I have been able to use Plant Spirit Medicine to help heal ailments as diverse as skin rashes, spinal injuries, and psychological trauma. I am able to assist others in their healing, to watch them grow and move through their obstacles to a better life. I feel constantly infused with the support and magic of the generous Plant Spirits.

Today, I have a healthy hand and neck, and I've entered a new era of vitality as a human being. The contact with Plant Spirit Medicine has transformed my life. I am back in the garden: the Paradise of being alive.

Jewell is a Plant Spirit Medicine healer and Qigong instructor. She has a Transformational Healing practice in Shutesbury, Mass. (read more in the Spiritual and Intuitive Counseling section). She may be reached at 413/259-1814.