Learning from Wild Plant Wisdom

If you've taken my?Spirit Wild Plant quiz, you know I am totally in love with wild plants. I mean seriously, why would anyone think a weed is a bad thing?

For as long as I can remember, these often disregarded and persecuted plants have captured my attention. I think this love affair is fueled by the same source as to why I love helping humans share their gifts with the world: I just can't stand seeing you being held back from using your talents to make the impact you are meant to make!

So when my woods guide friend and medit-action research partner, Muflone, suggested recently that we go on a lecture walk with a local Herbal Wiseman, I said yes immediately!

One Sunday afternoon, under the hot sun—thank you summer for finally arriving!—we gathered for four hours to see and talk about local wild herbs.

Wild Plant Guides

Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major), Codariocalyx, St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum), Telegraph plant (Codariocalyx motorius), Passionflower (Passiflora caerulea), Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), Horsetail (Equisetum arvense L.), Cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus), Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus), False Baby's Breath (Galium mollugo), Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla alpina), and so many more.

Our human guide had so much knowledge he received directly from the plants, it was hard to keep up! Preparation, uses, and folklore were his specialties. Although he has several degrees in botany and herbalism, he says that observation and communication with the plants directly have been his greatest teachers.?

I took so many notes that it will take some time to parse through them, integrate them with my own esoteric and scientific knowledge, then add them to my growing wild plant dictionary.

It's a little late in the season this year to make the tincture recipes he gave us, but you can bet that as soon as I can, I will be making them with as many wild plants as I can so that I can use them to enhance my communications with these wild beings. This type of slow, alchemical process opens a portal directly to the essence of the plant.

In the meantime, there are many other ways to connect and get their benefits. I find that kin's spontaneous nature, alternative logic, and curative applications are helping me better connect to and surface these parts of myself and my clients.

There is one plant that every time I turn around, there ki is with more to teach me:?Urtica dioica, AKA Stinging Nettle. When ki asked to be included in my?Spirit Wild Plant quiz, little did I know how much I would be taught in the process. Are you having the same experience with your Spirit Wild Plant??

There's always more to learn

Soon, I'm heading to a slightly higher altitude to explore Cantoncello, a ghost town. I've been going back through my botanical archeology lessons from my masters and learning more about paleobotany in this period. Unexpected ways to connect with plants that are changing my understanding and perspectives about the plant/human relationship in the built environment. I find this study expands my understanding of human behavior over time while providing insight into the plants that have been here to support humanity over eons of evolution. Valuable resources I apply in my?1:1 mentorship and coaching.?

When I can't get outdoors, I bring my ideas and intuitions to the houseplants that live with me. Kin have been living in super close contact with humans for so long, that it is easier for kin to speak a language I can understand. When the wild plants have me in a tizzy, Spider plant, Pothus, and Snake plant can usually help me make heads or tail out of it.

What new discoveries with wild plants have you had recently? I'd love to hear about them.