My Plant Spirit Practice
Here’s something I wrote for Enchanted Magazine. It got edited down into just a couple short paragraphs so I wanted to share the rest here with you. It’s about my experience as an occult herbalist and how this practice shapes the artwork I create.
I'm a painter and an occult herbalist. After spending 15 years in Portland Oregon where I fell in love with plants, herbalism and the occult, I moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana where I've resided for 3 years now, learning a whole new region of botanical life. I'm currently working toward my herbalism certification while also apprenticing as a tattoo artist. I approach tattooing the same way as I do my relationship with plants, the occult and my painting practice, as an opportunity for healing and spiritual transcendence. At my core I'm an animist who believes the whole world is teaming with soul and spirit. This belief is the crux of my work in this lifetime. It is at the core of everything I do and of the paintings I create. I often call myself a spiritual botanical artist, put more simply - I create paintings that illustrate the spirits of plants. In my spiritual/plant practice I engage the plants in shamanic plant-spirit journeys. Under the dark moon I engage in ceremonial rituals where I coax myself into a trance state in order to communicate with plant spirits. These meetings then become the subjects of my paintings. The images I create on canvas are pulled directly from the conversations and imagery which arise within the trance state. As part of my devotion to the plant spirits I do a deep dive with one plant every month, often ingesting it throughout the month (depending on its safety), learning about it, spending time with it (growing it or visiting it in the wild) and Journeying with it on the dark moon. The plants that I connect with most make it to the canvas as close friends and confidants, others are like mere acquaintances, they don't quite make the cut.
The imagery I use beyond the plants that I call friends... The moon is core to my spiritual practice which is why I paint it so often. I use it like a calendar beginning my work with a new plant at the new moon with a shamanic journey and working with the moon for different reasons throughout its phases. The moon impacts my moods greatly and also impacts the plant spirits or what I like to call the 'verdant geni' -think of it like the collective consciousness of the plant realm. This is why the dark moon seems to work best for communication with the plant spirits. The environment is quieter, stiller and the voice or personality of the plants seem to come through more clearly at this time. The faces I depict upon the moon are a nod to 'the green man' a mythical figure in folklore and a pagan symbol of rebirth which has become a decorative motif found throughout the world and in many sacred spaces. Placing this face upon the moon animates it and turns it from a giant rock in the sky to a character with spirit and personality. So In the Moon man series, where I illustrate a different moon man for each season, essentially what I'm saying is that each season too is animate and alive with its own unique spirit and personality. I also paint a lot of skeletons, as I consider death to be life's greatest mystery and a part of the life cycle to be honored and cherished. I view death not from a place of horror and disgust but of genuine curiosity and while I'm in no rush to get there I very much look forward to solving that mystery for myself one day.
‘Bringing Down the Moon’ (acrylic painting on wood panel)
'Bringing down the moon' Is a nod to the wiccan ritual of drawing down the moon in which the high priestess, calls upon the goddess, (symbolized by the moon) to enter her body. This allows the goddess to speak through the priestess, sharing her wisdom, insight or prophesy. In this painting, a dragon (another symbol I use often in my practice, to symbolize fate) has brought the moon a gift or an offering, the sun (who doesn't seem thrilled to be here.) The sun illuminates the moon and now the moon is the center of attention. It's an ancient power-grab turned on its head. Ultimately, It's about the return of the matriarchal power structure and the fall of the patriarchy.
'A Mugwort Journey' Is a painting pulled directly from the trance state of a shamanic journey with my good friend, Mugwort. It features a waning crescent moon and her reflection in a river where a snake swims to shore to find a blue heron with open wings. Beneath this scene is an under-world where Kali is dancing in an egg shaped cocoon, nested in the leaves of mugwort. The underworld journey is an important theme throughout the myths of so many mystics from Jesus to Inanna, to Kali, who perfectly embodies the transformative power of facing the 'underworld' aspects of life. Confronting and dissolving the parts of herself that cause fear, shame and denial. I guess we could call this shadow work. a topic I generally associate more with poisonous plants. but mugwort teaches us this lesson too... That there is a time and place for all the aspects of the self, even those we tend to keep from the the light. those things we'd rather keep hidden and repress. Mugwort is such a feminine spirit, one who speaks of time in cycles and phases. It's for this reason that it is so closely linked to the moon. In every spirit journey I've ever been in, there is a sense of water and the way it flows. This elucidates for me the energy of a plant being. Some plants drip slowly, some are more like steam than liquid, others are like torrential downpours. Mugwort is a flowing river, she feeds ecosystems, she nourishes steadily. This herb brings on the menses and is closely linked to feminine cycles. This is what came through during my journey with Mugwort.
What I hope to say with my artwork, and what I hope is clear in these pages is that there is more to life than the human experience. We are so distracted these days by the mere struggle to survive in this modern world, our power has been stripped from us, our abilities to see and speak to nature have been diminished. I hope when people see my work, they are struck with an eerie familiarity... like a deja vu moment, where something reaches from beyond and grabs them, reminding them that there is more here, unseen and unnoticed. something whispering in their ear saying "Look at This, This is meaningful" My wish for humanity is that we can step into our power, step into our communion with nature and recognize ourselves as part of it. Nature isn't an object devoid of life or spirit and neither are you.
I stay enchanted by believing that there's magic all around us. Knowing that I'm a powerful being and a soul surrounded by other powerful souls. I stay immersed in the beauty of the world and when life gets hard, painful and scary, I find beauty in that too. I feel an energy pulsing through me and I recognize that I am lit up by the same exact flame that's inside of everyone I meet, the pulse of life in us is the same pulse in the plants, animals and places that we call home. I don't diminish my light or chalk it up to a meaningless scientific happenstance, nor do I give it to an angry vengeful God In hopes of finding heaven after death. I've found heaven here on earth and I use my light to illuminate this heaven for the world to see.