As I hold the finished hardcover copy of Dreaming with the Plants, I feel a glow in my heart. A radiance of recognition that at least part of my work in this life has been completed. It’s out in the world. I see this book as an offering; a cumulation of teachings I have received from the plants, other humans, and my own inner wisdom all forged together into these 354 pages. As I hold this magical book, I hold the realization of multiple dreams that have now come true.
What are those dreams? You might ask. As a child I wanted so much to be two things: a witch and a writer. As a child I imagined the grown-up me living as a wise woman of the woods with plants hanging to dry from the beams of my cottage. This was in the early 1980s. At that time, I hadn’t yet encountered anyone who actually was a witch. That came much later. I share this story in depth in the introduction to the book which you can read here, if you’d like. (This link opens a PDF to the first 38 pages of the book). Though I wanted to also be a writer, I never imagined what my first book would be. That’s where the plants came in.
It’s important to note that for a long period of time that started in my early twenties I gave up on writing. I gave up on the connection with the plants. I never released the dream of being a witch, but that dream turned into the shadow side of this reality, and I became immersed in the fear of persecution that this path can hold. I became trapped and increasingly unwell physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. Then, in 2012 I found a lifeline in the form of a healer and yoga teacher training. That word—healer—sparked a deep knowing in my being. Yes, that is what I have meant for all these years. The word I had was “witch”, but I also meant “healer”. I just didn’t have the word yet. That training brought me to a person who told me that I could work with the plants in all the ways I had described to them. That was a first opening. The dreams I held, and had closed down, were possible! I had become quite weak, however, and it took two more years for me to be brave enough to reconnect with my creativity. At first by drawing and then by writing. I wrote a blog post here about it in 2015.
In 2016 I found yet another training and another term that called to me: Priestess. More specifically, Celtic Priestess. For that was how Carole Guyett (also a Medicine Woman) described herself. I applied for and was accepted to her Way of the Wise Healer apprenticeship. This was a three-year commitment that has now spanned a decade of working with her and her many teachings. In this apprenticeship I worked diligently on healing the parts of myself that carried the wounds of persecution and on healing my creativity in a myriad of ways including drum journeys, deep personal ceremonies, and I started writing again, all while fostering a connection to the plants and their dream. Throughout this time, what had weakened in me over years of my own neglect became stronger. Through dedication, commitment, and practice, I grew.
I became a conduit for the plants.
I became a person who could listen to the dream of the plants and give voice to that dream: to work in all the ways that are required to create a book in the human world on their behalf. I have those skills (and also developed the ones I did not yet have) whereas the plants do not. They needed me to execute on their dream just as I need them for all of mine to be realized.
At first what are now the chapters of this book came in by way of short “plant spirit” books. Dreaming with Dandelion was the first. Then Mugwort, Violet, Nettle… then the trees wanted in: Hawthorn, Redwood, Oak. Twenty-two plants and trees asked me to write on their behalf and so, I listened. This process took over two years. Then this new book, Dreaming with the Plants, asked to be born. It wasn’t as simple as slapping all of the short books together. Another few years of collating, taking apart the text to put it in a new order, omitting some parts, adding in a lot of new ones including key concepts, and working with editors and readers to revise transformed what had existed before into this new creation. It’s polished. It’s pretty, thanks to James Leonard who designed the gorgeous cover, and it’s here for people to read, be invited into the dream of the plants in a multitude of ways which include meeting the spirit of each plant, their physical medicine, folklore, and to go on a guided journey with each plant to receive healing in some way.
There are also sections about how to enter the dream, or consciousness, of the plants (and what that means) and several invitations for readers to remember and/or create their own ways of being with and connecting with plants. Ultimately, Dreaming with the Plants invites us to consider what the world could look like if all humans listened to the plants and co-created reality with them in partnership. That, to me, is the true medicine.
Buy the Book:
Dreaming with the Plants is available wherever books are sold. Ask your local bookseller to order from Ingram.
It’s also available everywhere online. Here are a few options:
Amazon: US, CA, UK, IE, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP, AU, NL, SE, PL
Buy from the printer (US, UK, AU).
Barnes & Noble (US)
Bookshop.org (US)
The Strand (US)
Waterstones (UK)
Add the book to your GoodReads shelf.
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