Esoteric Ethics: Maintaining Sanctity in your Interactions with Plant Teachers

Esoteric Ethics

The door of potential which these plants will open in your life is far too profound to be taken lightly. Absolute respect and diligent sanctioning is of significant importance to those who intend to develop a harmonious relationship with their plant ally.

I’ve learned a lot through 8 years of shamanic practice and have experienced first-hand the varying effects which sprout from one’s interaction with the teacher plants. The more that i have cultivated respect for the plants, the more that the pool of potential they hold has become a spiritually nourishing fountain of youth. While the more esoteric concepts and details of my shamanic practice would be too much for one post, I feel the principle guidelines for how to speak to the plants and cultivate respectful interaction with them is a surmountable meal of information. Enjoy!

The Three Points of Travel…

Points of Travel: The varying stages in your interaction with the plants.

1. Receiving – The initial time of bringing the plant into your life is the time of receiving.
2. Approaching- A sanctioned interaction to speak with and feel your resonance with the plant.
3. Meeting- The time of truly working with your plant and engaging its spirit.

The Receiving of the plant is simple enough right? You receive Eternity in a Box plants in the mail after an order, or you come across a plant out in nature perhaps. This is when your receiving of the plants essence begins, as does this mark the point when the plant receives you. All interactions are a constant exchange of energy on physical as well as mystical terms.

Like with any existing body, don’t force yourself upon another. You wouldn’t stampede and start plucking from and poking at a human you just met would you? Understanding the sentience in nature teaches that our interaction with growing plants or even dried foliage like we provide at EiaBB requires this same level of courtesy. Luckily nature is not up-tight in the least, and demands no specific mannerisms! It’s all about your intentions when it comes to measuring the respect in your energetic interactions. If you are intending to be loving and harmonious in your interaction, and you are conscious of this intention when meeting your plant Then the rest will arrange itself.

*Note for the mystical enthusiasts: Being conscious of your initial emotions and sensations when coming in to contact with the plant can provide much insight into your resonance with its spirit.

This is a good point to stress this idea of utmost pertinence: There is no Specific form you need to conform to! This writing is intended to outline the constructs of maintaining harmony in your interactions, but in no way is this telling you how to ‘do your thing’ as they say ha. True ritual (which is addressed below in detail) and raw wholesome expressions come from the heart. I can help point you in the right direction with these esoteric ethics, but the specifics of how you bond with the plants are unique to you! Express love and intend harmony and the plant will teach you how to interact with it better than I can 😀

Approaching the plant is essentially speaking with it through emotions. The specifics on how to approach respectfully are detailed below in the 3^rd point of respect. But what exactly is the approach, and how do you speak to a plant anyways?

So you know where your plant is, maybe its outside in the woods growing naturally somewhere or maybe its foliage is in your designated safe keeping place at home. The approach is the act of physically coming into the presence of the plant with the intention to sense your resonance with it. I often will hold the plant’s jar in my hands if it is a dried specimen which I am interacting with. If I am approaching one of the wonderful plants I grow the approach may be sitting near the base of it.

The actual energetic connotation of this is that you are entering the plants energy field, while allowing it into yours; creating a current of interaction between your two physical forms.

The two main reasons to approach a plant are either to:

1. Bond with it and share a moment of meditation perhaps. No goal in mind other than harmonious bonding. (Isn’t it nice to just Be, Being Beside Another?)
2. To ask it when it is time to Meet. The approach is often intended to sense when the time to allow the essence of the plant into you should be. Timing is of much importance when it comes to Meeting with the plant, approaching to consult regarding this timing is very valuable.

Where’s the data you ask? When do you receive the printout of what the plant has to say? Natures spirit doesn’t use our current method of communication through vocal chords. What the information is perceived as is often emotional subtlety. Below in the Reverent Approach point I will detail how to maximize your lucidity of this information and how to get into the mindset where this emotional subtlety can be clearly felt.

The practice of regularly refining ones intentions through meditation and focus also produce an increase in the volume of spirit message from my experience. How are you going to hear the whispers of the woods among all that mental chatter? 😉

Your Meeting with the plant is the most profound time of interaction with it. Meeting with the plant can come in a variety of physical forms. A meeting could be a prolonged meditation trance session near the plant, could be a meditation beside some of its material bunt as incense, or it can involve physically allowing the plant into the body (*note of significance* the plant that we carry at Eternity in a Box are not intended for human consumption, but rather for incense or meditative alter use. I detail the consuming of plant teachers so as to promote the information of how this is done harmoniously and to highlight this trend of traditional shamanism.)

The difference between the meeting and the approach is that the meeting is the time of fully receiving the guidance of the plant. When meeting with any plant teacher you are going to need to be prepared on all levels of being. The specifics on how to prepare physically are unique to each, but I outline some common disciplines to consider  in my next post Ritual: Preparing and Devoting.

I think any meeting with solemn meeting of a plant by definition involves a sort of meditation or trance state. Even if one is not versed in meditation/trance the beauty of working with teacher plants is that this state will reveal itself through bonding with the plant. CLEAR YOUR MIND is the key, just listen.

Respectful meeting with the plant involves maintaining attunement to its messages. Once a meeting with a plant has begun, it is your duty to digest the entirety of its message…you don’t cut off someone while they’re speaking to you or nod off and become distracted do you? Just listen and feel the love and your intentions for harmonious transformation. There’s no magic trick to any of this, just intentions and respectful reverence. The rest is natural manifestation between your essences.

This is the end of the linear progression of your interaction with the plant teacher. The fourth point of travel is the transit between meeting and approach once more. Unless one is not meant to go back to this plant teacher for another meeting, than the cycle of bonding flows back to the second Point of Travel the Approach.

*Another mystical enthusiast note: It is important to integrate the wisdoms and revelations you receive in your meetings. Writing down the components is valuable for some, but not required. You need to take what you’ve learned and apply it in your life if you intend to go back for another meeting. This is how harmony is maintained with the plant spirit, by respectfully integrating and fully pondering upon the lessons you’ve been given. If you show the plant that you are taking your development seriously you are more likely to receive further breakthrough revelations in your meetings.

A little more about Intention…

Any meeting with your plant teacher has come about for some reason or another, what is your intention with this meeting? Perhaps you seek guidance regarding something in your life, or you would like help in transforming your energy. Some say that they prefer to approach without any outcome/goal in mind, and I can agree that this is sometimes very valuable. However, even in this example, isn’t one intending to experience something outside of one’s own prediction? Even if the goal is indescribable, the intention is still there, and that is to experience what the plant has to offer in its most neutral form. *Then there’s a ‘calling’ from the plants which is described more below.

Intention is a very important concept here. When I say this, I don’t mean to describe the idealistic good intention/bad intention dichotomy. Rather intention is the root of your exertion into reality and your exertions (whether consciously exerted or not) unto the plant are what make up your interaction with it.

I’ll describe intention more in later posts, but in a couple sentences: How do you make yourself think, or walk, or pick up objects, or speak? You intend to do such, and then it happens. Neurological pulses are responsible for the orchestration of the muscles needed for each activity, but it is your intention as a being which gives rise to the firing of such neuron-patterns. In this same manner, the total energetic exertions which will interact with your plant through the meeting are the product of the intentions pulsing from you.

Intend to be respectful and loving and the practice of how to do so in a graceful manner will become as clear as day. 😀

The Four Points of Respect

Paralleling the points of travel are the points of respect. These are the four primary nodes of energy which relate to your interactions with the plant teachers.

1. Sanctioned Location of Dwelling – It is important to keep the location where you store your plant material safe and respectfully sanctioned.
2. Maintaining Neutral Disposition – Keeping your desires and interests quiet enough as to be able to sense when is right to approach.
3. Reverent Approach – Balancing your mind and emotions before approaching to make sure you’re giving the plant the best energy when interacting with it.
4. Intentioned Commitment – Keep the meeting sacred and with you loving intentions clear.

Keeping a Sanctioned Location of Dwelling for your plant teachers is the first primary point of maintaining respect. Your plants should be kept safe and in a personal spot where no one (and no animals) will come upon them but yourself. A cupboard, box, drawer, anything really can be the sanctioned dwelling place. It’s relevant to your situation what exactly is best. Some practitioners like to creating crystal grids or arrange other items which are powerful to them around their teacher plants. But designation and positive energy at the storage spot are the primary goals to address in my opinion. Don’t leave them somewhere random, but put them somewhere you would keep something which you love.

Maintaining Neutral Disposition has two main components:

1. The process of unlearning the conditioned western idea of nature being objects which deserve no respect.
2. The active process of maintaining a clear perspective on your interaction with the plants as to minimize your conscious bias when interpreting their calling.

Show respect to the plant as an eye-level entity, not an ‘inferior organism’ or ‘less advanced life form’. Strip away the mundane label system and the preconceived cultural conditioning regarding plants as these inanimate ‘objects’ and start to teach yourself that this is a living entity every bit as existentially profound as yourself. The more you unprogram these human-centric tendencies the more you will naturally be able to tune in to their message. Through the humbleness of accepting that we are not the ultimate species, but rather just another piece of the puzzle, the grip of the know-it-all mentality of our people loosens and the subtleties around us become visible. Be respectful and hold the teachers in a place of honor! The power they hold is unique and so beautiful.

.If you are to meet with the plant to learn from it, you should show it the respect of any teacher. This is not just an Amanita Muscaria cap in a bag, but rather a single physical piece of the larger spirit which is the Amanita Muscaria essence. You are not speaking to a dried piece of plant material but rather you are communicating with the spirit which encompasses the physical form of the plant you hold.

Ingraining this view of the plants as being of equal or greater power than ourselves is the first part of maintaining a neutral disposition, as this allows us to come off of the perceptually-biased high horse and look around at a level closer to neutrality. While we are always bound by the subjectivity limitations of our perceptual facilities, it is amazing the receptivity which opens up when one quits convincing one’s self that they have everything figured out. It’s healthy to remind yourself from time to time that the quest of understanding is infinite. This re-leveling of your conscious preconceptions, a reality check of sorts serves to really open you up to the whispers from the spirit.

The second component of maintaining a neutral disposition involves keeping your intentions clear. It can sometimes be very enjoyable to meet with a plant teacher, and sometimes the curiosity and fascination with their effects on us can be tantalizing. Balancing your desire to hurriedly rejoin the company of your plants is of importance in assuring that habits do not form and cloud your true sense of when the right time to meet is.

Like any situation, forming excessive attachment and cultivating personal-satisfaction desires tends to distort our neutral view of that situation. Working with the plant teachers is too important to allow this human tendency to interfere. Just remember to remind yourself of the necessity for a quiet mind; If you feel your mind latching on to the desire for a meeting, supplement with silent meditation.

If you are being ‘called’ by your plant ally to come to it and learn then this sensation of wanting to be near your plant will be persistent and re-arise after you’ve quieted your mind. The more we maintain this neutral sense of solemnness, being not in a hurry to meet, the more that the perfect timing of when to go to the plants becomes clear.

Reverent Approach is the third Point of Respect. As we discussed above, the approach serves as a time to bond with your plant, as well as a means of checking with the plant about when to come back for a Meeting. Similarly to the process of maintaining neutral disposition, the goal of structuring your reverent approach is to make sure you’ve appropriately positioned your mind/emotions to a state where you are most receptive to the plants messages. The difference here is that when approaching and entering the energy field of the plant, we not only need to be clear to hear the plant, but also we need to have our ‘hands clean’.

Clean hands? What I mean is that you need to wash your being thoroughly before approaching to maintain reverence. This could involve washing your hands literally, as you wouldn’t want to get your plant specimen all messy. But more specifically the goal is the wash your mind/emotions out of any disharmonious energies before touching or entering the field of your plants.

Now the specifics of what it takes to have clean hands when approaching varies uniquely for each. The process of meditating or praying can likely center your energy adequately, or various types of empowering energy works. On its fundamental perceivable level, what I am describing is the processing of filtering out the hesitations/anxieties/angers/other-bad-vibes. Clearing your neuro-patterns of all impure or distracting thoughts, and clearing your emotions of all worry and tension.

Like I spoke of above, Intention is what we have to work with as a being. The mechanics of cleaning the hands is really as simple as emitting the intention of being clean. By reminding ourselves of our purpose and goal in development we can access a well of confidence and power. This ‘accessing of potential’ achieved through channeling our intentions is our ‘foot in the door’ to transforming our energy.

Even if you feel bad and off, less than what you can be, sick, weak, tired, etc… If you take a moment to focus on your intentions of interacting with the plant harmoniously and completely relax and let go. You will have successfully centered yourself enough as to approach your plant. Again, no magic trick here either. Just the application of your loving intention. : D

The fourth of the Points of Respect is Intentioned Commitment. This one is easy to describe as we have already covered the framework for the practice in the previous sections. Intentioned commitment is the process of applying your refined and pure intention of interacting harmoniously with the plant to the Meeting itself.

Possibly the most important point of respect of all…Just as the meeting is the most profound point of the bonding with a plant teacher. Sanctity is maintained during your meetings with the plants by applying this same neutrality of mind and emotions described above to the meeting. The clean hands reverence is also a priority especially when going forward to a meeting with your plant.

Know why you are going to the plant, and commit to the full preservation of the intention. Dedicate the meeting to the goal, asking for help in achieving it. If you don’t know what your goal is, go in seeking help in finding a goal. Or apply intention to a generalized goal such as ‘harmonious evolution’ or ‘development of being’ and ask for help with this.

Closing Thoughts

Don’t let the length and intensity of this writing confuse the point that: It’s YOU who has the answers! This is an outline for harmonious interactions, but remember that it is you who knows what is best in your life and each bond is as unique as a snowflake. No two people are alike, the way that You connect with the plants will be different than the way I do. It is the Listening to the plants which really sets the course for the development of harmonious rituals involving them. You will feel what is right when you go to them. Maybe not at first, but with a little practice and some retrospective analysis I believe anyone can tune into nature’s messages.

Read, ponder and evolve upon! Take these ideas and build your own theories/ideas around, tangent or totally different from these. No process such as this can be written to the point of informational exhaustiveness. There is always room for personalizing this or creating your whole own routine.

Just be respectful the way that feels right to you and watch as your bond with the plant grows.

Stay tuned in to the Eternity in a Box blog for more lessons regarding meditation and shamanic work, as well some easier-to-take-in poems!

Already hungry for more spiritual thoughts? I’ll be posting my next release in this series way soon, Ritual will be the primary focus of the next post and will cover how to prepare for and harmonious develop your own ritual.

Blessed Be!

Hope this is helpful to my fellows,

Best wishes to you all,

Zach of Eternity