Journeys with Plant Spirits: Plant Consciousness Healing and Natural Magic Practices

by Emma Farrell, Pam Montgomery (Foreword)

A guide to communicating and working with plant and tree spirits for personal development, spiritual connection, inner peace, and healing

• Presents meditation journeys with specific plant and tree spirits, such as Mugwort, Rosemary, Dandelion, Yew, Elder, and Wormwood

• Details how to achieve a calm mind, cleanse your energy field, and connect with your heart in preparation for meditating with the plants

• Includes a progressive series of introductory meditations, adapted from wisdom traditions, to lay the foundation for working with plant spirits

In this book, Emma Farrell explains how to take your connection and relationship with nature to a deeper level and access plant spirit healing through meditation with plants. Exploring the nature of plant consciousness and how plants perceive, she details how to achieve a calm mind, cleanse your energy field, and connect with your heart in preparation for meditating with plants and trees, showing how the plants can support us not only in the cleansing process but also in teaching us how to sense what is in our energy field.

Offering a progressive series of preparatory meditations adapted from shamanic and indigenous wisdom traditions, the author reveals how to lay the foundation for working, communicating, and developing relationships with plant and tree spirits--for personal development, spiritual connection, and inner peace. She then presents meditation journeys with specific plant spirits, focusing on the frequencies within the plant’s bioresonance that will assist you. For example, the meditation with Mugwort works with the plant spirit’s qualities of alignment and self-awareness to assist you with grounding and developing inner vision, while the meditation with Dandelion helps you break old habits by working with the plant’s qualities of release, reconnection, and fearlessness.

Revealing how each plant is an expression of the soul force of Mother Nature and carries a unique blend of her medicine and wisdom, this book details step-by-step how to effectively work with plant spirits for emotional and spiritual healing, enabling you to awaken the eternal spirit, or soul, to become truly multidimensional and whole.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Herbs

288 pages, Paperback

Published October 26, 2021

About the author

Emma Farrell is one of the world’s leading freediving instructors and the author of the stunning book One Breath: A Reflection on Freediving. She has been freediving since 2001 and teaching since 2002. She is an Instructor Trainer with RAID, SSI and AIDA, a founding member of the AIDA Education Commission and has written courses that are taught internationally, as well as her own speciality courses such as her course for surfers, spearfishing safety skills course and Gas Guzzler course.

She chaired the British Freediving Association for two years, oversaw the design and construction of the freediving platform at Vobster Quay and co-wrote the world’s first freediving logbook. She is also an AIDA judge and has competed, coming 3rd in the UK and Swiss National Championships and 2nd in the Kalymnos International Freediving competition.

In the run up to the 2012 London Olympic Games Emma was asked by UK Sport to work with top level cyclists and swimmers including Keri-Anne Payne, Annie Last, David Carry, Cassie Patten, Michael Rock, and James Goddard. Emma created a unique programme of yoga and freediving techniques to improve their breathing, lung function, CO2 and lactic acid tolerance, confidence and performance. After the London games, she was invited to work with the UK Paralympic team in the run up to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, where she helped coach Ellie Simmonds, Alice Tai, Susannah Rodgers, Hannah Russell, Stephanie Slater, and others to gold medal glory. She is currently working with gold medal winning Paralympic athletes in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have followed Emma Farrell's work via social media and her knowledge of plants and plant spirits offers some very interesting insights. But hold up: plant spirits? Plant consciousness? It is a leap, I appreciate, and when I first came across the concept I was sceptical. But I now accept it as a very important concept in understanding how all life on planet Earth is connected. And if we are to understand our role in trying to undo the damage we've done, it's vital. Plants may not look like conscious beings, but they are full of life, so why would they not have a form of consciousness, a deep knowledge even if it doesn't look like ours? Professor Suzanne Simard has shown us in her book, Finding The Mother Tree, that trees hold a form of deep wisdom, that they remember, that they have relationships, that they have families, that they protect. They communicate through their root system and they communicate by releasing phytochemicals. They may even be communicating with us as the inhalation of these phytochemicals while walking in the forest has been shown to boost the immune system. Journeys with Plant Spirits is quite a lot to take in if you're not quite on the same page or at the same speed, The beautifully illustrated Weeds In The Heart by Nathaniel Hughes & Fiona Owen may be a more accessible way of easing into this thinking. But if you're already curious about how your nettle tea 'speaks' to you, whether from a teabag, or even better, freshly foraged leaves, then this is a great book to find out more. The book focuses on the plant spirits of Mugwort, Oak, Hawthorn, Nettle, Alder, Lady's Mantle, Fireweed, Angelica, Rosemary, Dandelion, Yew, Elder, Wormwood. Of course, if you have a passing interest in plant medicine, you may also enjoy this book.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Upon reading this book I learned more about the author than plants. Although the I came to respect the author's knowledge and approach, I learned very little in her book.

First, there is too much looping back to matters she has already discussed. As my POV, after years of my own studies, aligns with that of the author rehashing ethics became tiresome.

Second, there is too much commentary of little value by observing that many think this or that of that of such and such plant using general and vague adjectives and phrases.

Third, there is much off-topic rambling. The worst is in the final section of the book labeled as a deep dive in thirteen plants. The worst of the worst is elderberry chapter, where there is more discussion on things other than elderberry.

Where was the editor???? This author has the ethics and knowledge to write a useful book.

[Alicia Bayer]

Way too out there for me. Deals with plants as shamans. Very wordy in all black and white with no photos. The end deals with about 13 specific plants and their wisdom (nettles, elder, dandelions, oaks, etc.) from a magical standpoint.

I'm not giving this book a star review since it is not written for someone with my belief system. People who share Farrell's beliefs are likely to find it very helpful. I found it really long-winded and it didn't provide any information that I was hoping for. I often enjoy books written from other belief systems but this one read almost like a textbook for me. You may want to use a "peek inside" feature to see if it will be a good fit for you.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

[Elizabeth Ruth-Abramian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Journeys with Plant Spirits, Farrell investigates Plant Spirits from a deep commitment to matters of the human spirit. A personal inquiry, this journey explores her own heritage in the British Isles and the transcendent practices of other lands (especially in the Far East). Thus, you’ll find and likely feel at home with her choice of meditations from Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American, and the Celtic traditions.

For plant lovers and healers alike: if you’ve ever practiced meditation or been exposed to a variety of spiritual traditions, this beautifully written testament to spirit consciousness is for you.

Following are my impressions and review of the book.

Why, you might ask, do plants and trees make matters of the spirit more evident to us? Author Emma Farrell discusses this question, pointing at first to the basic facts of existence, being human and living on this planet.

Read more in my post.

[Tigrilla Gardenia]

Super interesting resource book. So incredibly grateful for Emma Farrell, author of Journey with Plant Spirits, for taking the time to come to the live discussion of her book in our ReConnect with Plant Wisdom book club.

I was a little nervous about having her, since it is the first time we've hosted the author and our chats can cover lots of ground. The questions asked were super interesting and Emma's answers in-depth and sincere. The time just flew by!

From April to May, we are reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. Although not strictly about plants, Sheldrake's vivid exploration of fungi link plants together in complex networks known as the "Wood Wide Web". As we learned in Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard--our first book club read--you can't really think of plants without recognizing the role of fungi to support kin!

[LucyInTheSky]

I tried, but nope. Right from the start Farrell’s tone and the frequency of the word “I” do not sit right with me. It’s great for her she had such a beautiful spiritual journey, got to travel so much and experience all these things, but that’s not what I came for. I came for the plants.
The book would have benefited from more extensive editing. Sentences don’t need to be more than five lines long, glued together with the word “and”. The chapters could be more condensed, making for a more pleasant, more to the point, reading experience.

Dnf at 10%, I think this is not the book (and author) for me.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I can’t quite put my finger on it but there was something missing in this book for me. I liked the concept of the book and found it intriguing- but never captivating. I like that each plant chapter had a meditation and that those weren’t too long. I found the bits of political discourse annoying, not because I don’t agree but because they weren’t needed for a book on this topic. I wish she had gone into the history and traditions of each plant a bit more to explain the plant spirit associations.

[Suzan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by a neighbor with who I often discuss different beliefs and life in general. We share a different beliefs but agree on so many things. So when she recommended this I was very willing to read it. I did find this book different and, in that interesting. I also found the book extremely over-explained. I am giving the book 3 stars. This is because if you are a Farrell believer you will most likely find this book very interesting and helpful.

[Samantha Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting more of a guide to how to tap into plant spirits but this seemed more of a memoir. I appreciate learning about the author's experiences but that just seems to be the whole entire book. I honestly started to skim the last half of the book because my mind just wasn't engaging with it anymore.

[Annarella · Rating 3 out of 5]

There're some interesting part and the author surely know what she's talking about. As a keen gardener I wanted to love this book I felt it too distant from my spiritual path and experience.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Stephen Radentz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting