Connecting to the Nature Spirit of the Plant/Phenomenon (2020)
Firstly, make a commitment to yourself and to the Earth to give these exercises your time, your patience and an open mind free from prejudice. Choose a time and a place where you are happy to make the effort.
Stand in your sovereignty as a human being. Establish a strong connection with your peaceful self, your joyful self, your open and loving self. Our surroundings are easier to penetrate when we are in balance and in joy.
Let your waking consciousness be present and strong behind your decision to become more 'fluid'.
Mantras by Rudolf Steiner
The following mantras by Rudolf Steiner will help you to find and create a sheath of soul quiet. This will help you to access the bandwidth of the elemental kingdom.
(A prayer and petition to the nature spirits is also included at the foot of the page).
Connecting with the Higher Heart Self
“More radiant than the sun, Purer than the snow
Subtler than the ether is the Self
The spirit within my heart, I am that Self, that Self am I”
Strengthening the Power Within
“Quiet I bear within me,
I bear within myself the forces that make me strong,
I will fill myself with these powers' warmth,
I will be filled with my own power
Quiet will pour through all my being.
Earth's power works in me
Heaven's power frees me here on Earth.”
Please see below a selection of nature spirit communication methods for you to experiment with and explore. Choose whichever ones appeal to you. Spending time barefoot when and where you can will enhance the experience of these exercises.
1. Approach the tree/plant/rock/phenomenon. Be still and place your awareness on the phenomenon and give a greeting.
2. Ask permission to work with the plant/phenomenon. Be in a state of deep gratitude and warm appreciation, this will prepare you for their bandwidth. Give the plant/phenomenon permission to connect to you. Chivalry and good manners are a valuable currency in the realm of the nature spirits.
3. Relate to the plant/phenomenon as a living being in its environment. Look at its surroundings – the soil, its relationship to water and its relationship to the other plant/phenomenon in the environs.
4. Introduce yourself, say your name. Nature beings see us as a constellation of energy structures, they can read our souls and they know more about us than we do. As we send out our thoughts and feelings we light up and dim down – this is how they read us. They read the feeling states that coat our thoughts.
5. State your intention e.g. 'May I enter your bandwidth of Time? I am here to listen...' Practice 'opening spaces' in the heart and mind. We need to hold our consciousness in a neutral way without any subjective commentary in order to meet the beings of the spirit world.
6. Rest with the phenomenon. Clear the inner space behind your eyes and in a mood of quiet reverence and patience send out your questions to the phenomenon. Release and let go. Say “I'm willing to receive...” Wait. Our will is forming conscious space... our will then retreats and allows the will of the phenomenon to approach.
7. Spend time drawing the plant/phenomenon. A thread of intimacy develops as your eye moves to and from the phenomenon you are drawing. Gently speak or sing to the being of the phenomenon as you draw.
8. Observe the gesture of the plant/phenomenon (e.g. the different branch formation between an oak and a willow). Yield yourself into the gesture. Allow your body to move with and mimic the form of the phenomena you are addressing.
9. Become the other, you and the plant/phenomenon merge.
10. Work through all the senses. Honour the evidence of your senses. Use the body as an instrument of diagnosis. Nature spirit language is multi-sensory; we need to take note of light, colour, feeling, sensation and symbol.
11. Breathe with the plant, gently taking in plant-ness and giving back human-ness.
12. Try not to 'intend' too strongly, this will override perception. Let perception and observation flow into participation. Become the other, you and the plant/phenomenon blend.
13. Open a line of communication and have an experimental attitude. No right or wrong. Imagine and send out a thread from your heart to the plant/phenomena; let this thread be a medium through which you both can transmit and receive. Read the pictures in your heart.
14. Enter the dream of the plant by asking “May I enter your dream?” Wait to be shown what the dream of the plant is.
16. With eyes open or closed receive the images, symbols and sensations. Let them flow. Try not to force them into an intellectual sequence that you think is right. There is a fluency in plant language. We have to give up our demands for concepts that 'fit'. If you are confused, ask the phenomenon 'Have I understood you correctly?' or, 'Please show me something to help me understand?'
17. You can mentally present pictures and feeling-sensations to the nature spirits in order that they may work with them and then return them to you – reworked and re-cast.
18. Allow time to integrate.
19. When you and the plant/phenomenon spirit are ready to close the dialogue, say 'goodbye' and 'thank you'. Ground yourself by pressing your feet into the earth and placing your hands on the ground. If you and the plant/phenomenon have merged, remember to bring all of your merged self back into your present-time self.
20. Present an offering, e.g. a sprinkling of food. Alternatively, you could recite a prayer or sing a song.
Here is a list of questions you may like to try. Keep them simple and short to begin with.
Who are you?
Who am I?
What do you teach? Am I able to receive it?
Please show me your becoming...
What is your mood? ( plant/phenomenon spirits are immersed in a specific mood)
How do you feel me feeling you?
How do you live in Time?
How can I help you?
How can you help me?
How can I help me?
How can I help the Earth?
Expect the unexpected. Keep the revelations you receive close and protected, put them in a special area of your memory.
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For further information about the role of nature spirits and elementals on Earth, please see my book Nature Spirits: The Remembrance; A Guide to the Elemental Kingdom.
For further methods of communication and collaboration with the nature realms, I highly recommend the work of Marko Pogacnik. Marko's book entitled Universe of the Human Being contains many exercises, which are both profound and effective. They can be practised as an individual and in a group setting.
For details of my UK workshops entitled 'Communicating and Co-Creating with the World of Nature Spirits and Elementals', click on the following link www.susanraven.com/events.php
For courses in the USA, I highly recommend the teachings offered by the Blue Deer Center: http://www.bluedeer.org/events
An Article by Susan Raven
CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 2020 SUSAN RAVEN