Reflections on Plant Communication
It is strange and amazing how the arrival of a substantial amount of snow can make a person forget what the weather was like a few days before. I know that the middle weeks of October were incredibly mild and perfect for clearing up the yard in preparation for winter, and I was fretting because I was ill and not able to do a lot of yard work. Now that the snow is here, I can’t recall those mild days in detail. The world is white, the driveway in need of attention, and that is where my focus lies.
So how does this link up with my topic today, which is about my experience of the three sessions on plant communication (Through the Green Door) I facilitated in 2023 over the months of May through September? Certainly, part of effective plant communication is about being open to possibilities, and being able to accept what is given rather than leaning on expectations. If one is not open to the idea of communicating with plants, it is more difficult to be receptive to what the plants are conveying to us. And too much thinking, becoming entangled in the thinking process makes it difficult to focus on what messages might be incoming. As David Walsh used to say, meditation is like clearing a runway of small aircraft so the really big planes can land. My own past experience has been not realizing, or perhaps denying, the messages that plants were sending to me over many years. This, too, is a way of closing off possibilities, and a way of focusing our attention on thinking rather than perceiving what is right before us.
Can we be open to the idea that the world is not made up of separate living things but rather fields of interconnected consciousnesses? If so, then a human field of consciousness should be able to communicate with other living things through the perception of their consciousnesses. The next step is to use discernment in what we are receiving. If what one experiences is unusual, or unlikely to be something you yourself would think or feel, there’s a good chance that it is not your projection but rather intuitive guidance.
While experiencing and facilitating the plant communication workshop series, it became clear that involvement of the heart is central to the exploration of communication with plants. Realizing this, in the third and final workshop of the series the heart space became the focus.
During the last session we explored how love and hope is vital to nourish the heart, and how this quality can be lost through becoming totally immersed in both our internal and external stressors of the day and of the world. One aspect of seeing the world through the lens of plant communication is to see the constant hope and love expressed by the world of plants, an expression that can become accessible to us. Every year, plants which are dormant in the winter spring up, willing to live again, expressing hope and new life. The plants are ever faithful to this cycle, and in turn can be the source of hope and an expression of divine love for us.
What other non-human entities could be offering us important messages? Animals, for sure. Rocks, clouds? There is much to explore!
Closing the loop to the opening sentences of this page, I would compare the coming of winter to the realizations of the importance of the heart space in plant communication – once that idea becomes apparent, it leads to new paths and possibilities. Like the new snow in the driveway, once you have perceived it, it becomes part of your known world.
Rosemary Dzus