It is damp in the forest. The rain just left, leaving raindrops falling off the leaves drumming rhythmically. Mist slowly rises from the warm earth and hovers through the Bluebells. The forest floor is alive. Every green is stretching and moving as if waking up from a long slumber. The plants are whispering. The magic is tangible on this mild Beltaine night.
Our ancestors around the world understood the importance of plants for their survival and prosperity long ago. Plants are not only source of food and medicine, having various healing properties, but they also carry important information and knowledge in their seeds and leaves. Plants teach us how to navigate the various terrains we find ourselves in, how to return to the knowledge of the lands, and essentially how to heal ourselves. When we begin to work with plants, we gain access to this knowledge by learning how plants whisper.
One way to do that is by making Medicine Drums. Local plants are key players in assisting the birth of new drum spirits as well as gifting us healing. They voluntarily donate part of themselves to lend their healing abilities and wisdom to a drum. The most common way is to soak the animal skin in water with the plants, and get the raw hide absorb their energies. Nettle is a great cleaner of energies and fern shows us how to grow in darkness.
Another way is dying the skin with natural dye made of their leaves. In some cases the drum calls in the plants for assistance. Other times, the plants themselves are so powerful that they can call in a drum spirit. This means the energy field of the plant acts like a magnet to the corresponding energy of the drum spirit, and actively attracts it. In some cases, Plants weave a web of energy that acts as a vessel holding the spirit through the birthing process until it has taken form in its physical body, the drum itself. Without the assistance of plants, drums would not exist.
The most profound way of learning the ways of plants is by physically working with them. We are automatically getting to know our local environment, and learn about the different properties each plant holds. For instance, Gorse grows in the mountains and has incredible healing powers with asthma, swelling, dermatitis and so on. We reconnect to the knowledge of our ancestors and recover it for our healing. At the same time, when we touch plants, weave grass, harvest flowers, their energies transfer to us just like they transferred to the raw hide. Have you ever noticed how you feel after collecting Mugwort or drying Nettle?
The delicate nature of plants requires us to learn where they grow, their healing properties or safety in order to handle them properly. We also learn how to harvest these plants responsibly so that we may find more next year. In Shamanic or Spirit work, we strive to live in balance with our environment, and only ever take as much as is needed. In a sense, plants teach us to consider other needs than our own. When we work with natural material we unavoidably are becoming more fine-tune and caring for our environment.
When we remember the bond with nature through land work, we return to living in inner and outer balance - a healing desperately needed for humanity at this time. This is how we serve our communities and our planet through craftsmanship - when we begin to listen to the plants whisper.
Lovely words, impressive fotos and arrangements. I enjoyed it. Make more and go further in this spirit. Your dad