September/October 2023 Alchemical Voice

Alchemical Voice - L2M - Issue 22
WHERE THE PLANTS
WHISPER
Hannah Gauss
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.
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The plants are whispering. The magic is tangible on this mild
evening light.
Our ancestors around the world understood the importance
of plants for their survival and prosperity long ago. Plants are
not only a 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 rawhide to 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.
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