Plants as Portals

There is a great and simple mystery that unfolds when we step into the presence of a plant spirit with sensitivity and slowness- all plants are portals. In the presence of a plant, we are in fact in direct connection with the wholeness of things. In the same way that your phone, the one you might be reading this on right now, connects you to worlds and perspectives and wisdom far beyond your usual state, every plant does the same in a more spiritual way.

To sit with a plant as they grow in the soil, to breathe with them, to caress them with your vision while exploring every color, texture, and pattern, is to drop into an altered state of consciousness which awakens the liminal spaces within and puts us in direct contact with the great green mysteries.

Plants protect many dualities- one of them being the way in which they reach up and down, toward light and dark, into patterns and into mysteries. Like bridges, their physical forms act to connect the worlds. When we’re in contact with plants from the center of our own being, we are gifted access to these bridge-like qualities and can ourselves journey by inner vision and feeling into realms wild and mysterious.

Here, I'd like to share a simple ritual you can perform with the help of any strong plant or tree that is safe for you to touch with bare hands. This is perhaps my most favorite way to engage with the plants as portals. I tend to easily get stuck in my head- overthinking and overanalyzing whatever I can get my brain on. This more tactile method is immediately grounding, centering, calming, and connecting for me.

Tapping In

To tap in, sit with a plant that’s safe for you to touch. Spend some time exploring them visually and with touch while sharing intentional breath with them- offering your exhalations and receiving green blessings through your inhalations.

When ready, gently hold the end of a branch, a cluster of leaves, or place your palms against trunk. Close your eyes and settle in. Try to feel and experience the bridge-like nature of this plant. If you were to place your palms against a closed door, on some level your brain would assume the space behind that door. Do the same thing here. Reach down with vision and consciousness into the roots and reach up into the canopy. Imagine that the branch you hold is the end of a string which leads to the deepest of all mysteries. Feel connected to that mystery and allow it to lead you where it will.

If you struggle with this, try the following:

• Imagine that you are holding the end of a string that moves off into the distance and ends somewhere you cannot tell. Try to viscerally and mentally experience the knowing that comes when you hold the end of something that leads somewhere. Imagine giving the string a light tug and feeling the depth into which it reaches. Try to apply this same feeling to your connection with the plants.
• Imagine standing in front of a door in your home. The door is closed, and you know what’s on the other side. Placing your palms against the door, become aware of the space behind it- the space concealed. Apply this same feeling to the plants.
• When connecting physically with the plants, imagine that there is something behind or underneath them you are trying to perceive. You cannot feel this hidden something, rather you are trying to intuit or make space or its existence in your own mind.

As with all things plant spirit work, this requires practice. Some folks will be able to tap in and enter into awareness of the portal connections of the plants effortlessly, while many of us will need to work on quieting the body and mind and allowing the raw, unknown, wildness of what’s on the other side to seep into our consciousness.

Once you become adept in this work, you may find that tapping in leads you into visionary and sensory communications with the plant you sit with, the plant world as a whole, and aspects of your own intuitive power and virtues. Follow these mysterious tracks with the guidance of the plant spirits and see where they take you!