Plant Ally Project Thirty Day Challenge
Welcome to the Plant Ally Project : Thirty Day Challenge!
Just what is the Plant Ally Project : Thirty Day Challenge? I’m glad you asked!
This project is for those who:
Are ready to learn how to build meaningful and powerful relationships with a plant ally. Plants are powerful whether or not we’re involved in their lives. Yet, when we do choose to journey more mindfully through the world of the green kingdom as herbalists and plantfolk, learning how to connect with a plant beyond the ground up material in a tea bag can have a profound affect on who we are and how we connect with the world around us. The Plant Ally Project : Thirty Day Challenge is about growing, celebrating, and honoring our plant allies and plant selves beyond knowing what something is used for and into the realm of how do we live meaningful and useful lives.
Want to transition from a casual interest in herbal medicine to a more invested one. I After a few weeks or months, maybe even a year, of dabbling with plant medicines, you’re feeling a calling to connect with the plant world and your herbal practice in a more committed way. The Plant Ally Project : Thirty Day Challenge will help you stretch your herbal muscles, teaching you the many ways of connecting with a plant and its medicinal and magickal qualities. In the process you’ll learn more about who you are as an aspiring herbalist and what gets you really excited about your growing practice.
Are seeking to reinvigorate and find new inspiration in their herbal practice. An herbal practice is just that - practice - and sometimes practice gets monotonous and uninspiring. Hopefully, the Plant Ally Project : Thirty Day Challenge will re-inspire the ways you connect with your plant allies and your herbal practice.
During the challenge, some days will be busier than others, so I encourage you to read through the whole list before starting your journey so you can plan ahead for busier days (such as buying the supplies you’ll need for making tinctures or tea). You won’t need much to participate in the challenge: a notebook, some simple drawing supplies will get you started, and later on you’ll be asked to seek out your plant in the (urban)wild and procure a dried or fresh plant material by either ethical wildcrafting or from a reputable source.
I encourage you to have fun with your Plant Ally Project, comment below with questions and discoveries, and enjoy the process of humbling yourself to the wild and growing your fierce green heart.
Keep scrolling to find all of the details for the project as well as a quick guide computer wallpaper for you to use. Be sure to share the Plant Ally Project with your friends and post about your adventures with #PlantAllyProject. I can't wait to see what plants you meet!
Use the following quick guide wallpaper to help you keep track of all 30 days of the Plant Ally Project.
Day 1: Set your intention for the month.
I have found that getting clear on what it is you hope to accomplish at the beginning of a project helps see it through. What are you hoping to learn in these thirty days? How will you be challenging yourself?
Will you learn everything about your plant ally in 30 days? Nope. And that’s wonderful. What you can accomplish in 30 days, however, is significant and meaningful. You can connect with a green ally in ways that will continue to shape and form your practice for years to come. The adventure, clever one, is just beginning.
I encourage you to write your intention down in a place that you will see it often. You might put it in the front of your journal for your Plant Ally Project or tape it to your mirror. Make sure you are affirming it often for it to serve as a tool of change and success.
One final note. It might seem like a lot of work some days or a big commitment to work with one plant for 30 days. There is an art of sacrifice involved in the pursuit of knowledge, which may include sacrificing free time spent on the computer or watching tv to pursuing your herbal studies. Or rearranging your schedule to allow more time for your herbal medicine-making. I would encourage you to be mindful of the work ahead and how committed you are to it, even if it involves a bit of sacred sacrifice. What are you willing to give in order to receive?
Day 2: Choose the plant you’ll be working with or let it choose you.
You might already know what plant you want to work with for your 30 day Plant Ally Project. It may be the mint growing in a pot on your windowsill or the Yerba Mansa (Anemopsis californica) spreading out in the marshy land in the park by your house. Or you might have no idea what plant you want to work with! If you’re in the latter situation, you have a few options for choosing the plant to work with. The first is simply looking around your garden or neighborhood for local flora. Or you can flip open one of your herb books and see what plant profile you land on. It might be fun to look at the ingredients of some of your favorite tea blends and choose an herb from there. You might choose an herb that is culturally significant to you and, even if it has not been used in your family in modern recollection, was probably used by your ancestors.
My one tip is that once you choose an herb for your Plant Ally Project is to stick with it. It can feel overwhelming and exciting to know that there are hundreds of thousands of herbs for us to learn about. Right now, you are making a commitment to connect with one herb over the next 30 days, and while this does not exclude working with other herbs, it does place emphasis on one plant relationship in particular. For those of you who may feel like they’ve chosen the “wrong” herb after a few days, I strongly encourage you to follow through with your original commitment. Herbs that are difficult to decipher or might take a bit of extra study on our part can appropriately challenge our analytical and emotional skills to connect with the plant world.
Day 3. Learn the latin binomial + folk names of your plant ally.
One plant can have a multitude of names and it is important to be familiar with the Latin binomial as well as common or folk names for a plant. Latin binomials allow herbalists to identify the same plants regardless of language differences. Latin binomials can also help us learn about some of the folkloric stories associated with a plant as well as its medicinal qualities. Motherwort, which Latin binomial is Leonurus cardiaca, tells us about the plant’s association with the heart in two ways. First, Leonurus, connects to the plant’s astrological correspondence of Leo the Lion which traditional guards the heart. Cardiaca again refers to Motherwort’s affinity for heart health.
Day 4. Learn about the habitat of your plant ally.
Where is your plant native to? Where has it naturalized? Does it grow locally? What type of environment does it thrive in?
Day 5. Learn about how to harvest your plant ally.
What are the ideal harvesting conditions for your plant? What time of year? What parts of the plant are used medicinally? Should you harvest from a mature plant?
Day 6. Smell and taste your plant ally.
One of the easiest and most essential ways of connecting with a plant ally is to breath deep its scent and to taste its flavor. If you have access to a fresh plant (and it is safe to nibble on the fresh plant) use that, but you can also used a dried plant. Be aware, though, that a dried plant will often smell and taste different than when it is fresh.
What does the plant smell like? Sweet? Pungent? Strong or soft? What does the plant taste like? Does it dry the mouth or encourage the production of saliva? Taste is a way of understanding a plant’s medicinal qualities. Astringent plants, for example, dry the mouth while bitter plants often produce saliva.
Bonus! Learn about the tastes within Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine traditions.
Day 7. Read three different materia medica profiles on your plant ally.
You have already been reading about your plant in order to complete the last week’s tasks, but now it is time to read multiple materia medica profiles about your plant ally to understand the multiple ways of engaging its healing qualities. Check out my LibaryThing materia medica catalog for book recommendations as well as free resources such as botanical.com which is the complete materia medica of American herbalist Maud Grieve. Searching for {your plant’s name} plant profile online should also turn up resources. Remember, though when searching the mighty internets to find reputable sources. It is amazing the wide range of (mis)information there is about herbs online, so I encourage you to purchase or check-out from your library a few quality materia medicas to start your herbal studies as opposed to relying solely on search engines.
Day 8: Meet your plant ally in person.
You may have already done this, but whether or not you have, spend some time connecting with a live version of your plant ally. It can be a plant growing in a garden, in the wild or in an urban park. Spend time being still with the plant, observing its environment, and talking aloud or silently to it. You might be surprised by what the plant shares with you!
If such is not possible at the moment due to the season or accessibility, reserve this exercise for another day and spend time connecting with an image or remedy of your plant ally.
Day 9: Draw a picture of your plant ally.
One can learn a lot about a plant from drawing it because the act of drawing engages our observational skills in new ways. It doesn’t matter if you can “draw well” or not. If you can hold pen to paper you will be able to roughly sketch a plant. I encourage you to get creative and use color, adding energetic observations, and any other doodles that you find inspiring. Have fun with it!
Day 10: Study the best ways to prepare your plant ally medicinally.
How to extract plant medicines depends on the constituents of a plant and whether or not they are extracted in water, alcohol, oil, vinegar, or additional menstruums (which is a word for a solvent that is used in extracting medicinal constituents from plants). Learn what the best method of preparation is (such as an infusion versus a decoction) and whether your plant ally can be used externally, internally or both.
Day 11: Make a tea or decoction of your plant ally.
Your first medicine-making day! Depending on what you learned yesterday, create a tea infusion or decoction of your plant ally. I recommend that you do not add other herbs to the tea - simply create a one herb infusion or decoction so you can fully appreciate the taste, smell, and effect of your plant ally in your body. Pay attention to the initial taste, the aftertaste, and how the herb feels in your body. Do images, memories, or words come to mind? Spend a half hour or more in contemplation with your tea.
Day 12: Learn about your plant ally’s magickal qualities.
Some materia medicas will include a plant magickal qualities or folkloric stories, but there are also materia medicas dedicated to the magickal qualities of plants including Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham, A Compendium of Herbal Magic by Paul Beyerl, and The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Magical Plants, Revised by Susan Gregg.
Whether or not you are a practitioner of magick, learning a plant’s magickal qualities and accompanying folklore can enrich not only our understanding of how our ancestors connected with the plant and the plant connected with them, but there is often insight into a plant’s medicinal qualities. Plants used in love spells, for example, are often aphrodisiacs and affect the sexual organs, libido, and/or nervous system (such as Damiana Turnera diffusa).
Day 13: Learn about the astrological correspondences of your plant ally.
You may have already discovered the astrological correspondences of your plant ally yesterday, but if not spend today learning more about them. Traditional Western Herbalism and astrology were intertwined for centuries and it has only been in recent generations that the two arts have been split apart.
A physician without a knowledge of Astrology has no right to call himself a physician. - Hippocrates
Learning the astrological correspondences of herbs further deepens our language to be able to talk about herbs and understand their healing qualities. It also helps us to understand better traditional western herbal energetics and why certain herbs have been classified in certain ways historically (and whether or not that still makes sense today). Books discussing the magickal quality of plants often has astrological correspondences list as well, but you should also check out the historical works of Nicholas Culpeper including his still in-print Herbal. You can also check out my Introduction to Astroherbology which includes additional online and offline resources.
If no astrological information exists for your plant ally, that’s ok! You can either have fun doing a little research and assign your own astrological correspondence (check out my ongoing Astroherbology series and especially my blog on the Astrological Body for insight) or maybe get in touch with your favorite medical astrologer for some guidance.
Day 14: Learn about your plant ally’s emotional qualities.
Plant medicine affects the whole spectrum of our lived experience whether physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual, because it is a holistic medicine which recognizes that all of our parts are interconnected. Just as plants have medicinally healing qualities, they have emotionally healing qualities. Books on flower essences are great places to look when researching the emotional qualities of plants as well as materia medicas which take into account the emotional symptoms of dis-ease.
My recommendation for learning a plant’s emotional qualities is to ask the plant directly. I usually enter into a light meditative state and gently ask the plant to share with me its emotional story, sometimes while ingesting plant medicine (such as a tea), but not always. Sometimes I get words, other times images, and most often I feel the response in my body. Make sure to record your experience and don’t rush to “validate” or compare it to the writings and experiences of others. I will say, though, that very often there is overlap between one person’s emotional experience of a plants and another’s.
Bonus! Create a flower essence from your plant ally. Flower essences are easy and accessible forms of herbal medicine. You can find out how to make an essence of your own here.
Day 15: Take a break!
You’re halfway through your Plant Ally Project and it’s time to take a break! You deserve it. Sit back and relax, clever one.
Day 16: Make a tincture or glycerite of your plant ally.
Tinctures and glycerites are great for creating high-potency herbal medicines that have a relatively long shelf life (alcohol extract tinctures can last for many years, while glycerites can last up to 2 years). There are two primary ways to create an extract; the first is the folk method and the second way is by weight-to-volume measurement. Below I have listed out a simple folk method to create an extract. Some plants require a higher percentage of alcohol to extract properly and not all plant constituents extract well in alcohol (such as vitamins and minerals). You can learn more about plant constituents and extractability here. Michael Moore has a some amazing free resources on his website including clinical manuals with extraction recommendations. Lisa Ganora is one of the leading herbal experts on plant constituents and you can check out her short guide to solubility and choosing appropriate menstruums (PDF). For further herbal medicine-making study James Green has written a great book called The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual which I highly recommend.
Simple Folk Extraction
For both extractions (either glycerite or alcohol) you should have a clean jar with a well-sealing lid. Add in your fresh or dried plant material into the jar. You can add the plant material in whole or chop it up to help the extract penetrate the cell walls of the plant and pull out the plant medicine. You’ll want to mix some water with either your alcohol or glycerite - a few dashes is usually sufficient. If you’re using fresh plant material with a plant that has a high-water content be sure not to add too much extra water and compromise the levels of alcohol or glycerite needed to act as a preservative. For glycerites, be sure to mix the water and glycerite together before adding it to your herbs.
Pour your alcohol or glycerite over the herbs so that there is about ¾ of an inch of the menstruum floating above or below the herb. Let your extract brew for at least three weeks - I brew most of my extracts for a minimum of one complete moon cycle, but usually three moon cycles in total. Shake your extract daily and speak to it, charge it up with song, or keep it in a sacred spot in your home. Be especially mindful of glycerites and air bubbles which can lead to spoilage. When it is ready to be decanted, use a nut mylk bag (my favorite method), a fine mesh strainer, or cheesecloth to separate the extract from the plant material. I think it is important to respect the plant body remains and to compost it or add it back into the earth in some way. Now you have an extract! Extracts of both varieties are best stored in dark bottles away from direct sunlight and in a cool location. It is especially important to keep glycerites cool - I keep mine in the refrigerator. If you are not worried about keeping a glycerite alcohol-free you can always add in some alcohol during or after the brewing process. Honey and maple-syrup can be added, too, to alcohol extracts during or after the brewing process to sweeten the tincture. As for dosage, you should research what is the recommended dosage for your plant ally in your materia medicas. In my own practice, I use drop dosages, which is traditional within western herbalism, and in general recommend a dosage of 1 - 10 drops up to three times daily for many of my extracts.
Day 17: Meditate with your plant ally.
For those of you who practice mindfulness, meditation or other contemplative practices, or those of you who have been wanting to start a meditation practice, meditating with your plant ally will hopefully sound like an exciting endeavor. For those of you who read that line and thought, “I can’t meditate!” I would like to first reassure you that this is a common response to many folks who go on to find out that they can indeed meditate. Furthermore, we fall into meditative patterns every day without even knowing it. Have you ever daydreamed? You’ve meditated. Have you ever zoned out while walking, exercising or washing the dishes? You’ve meditated. Have you have taken a break from an overwhelming situation to close your eyes and take a deep breath? You’ve meditated. The folks who may not be able to meditate or should not meditate are those experiencing certain states of psychosis and should seek out the assistance of their health care team to figure out what is best for them and their health.
Meditating with plants is a gorgeous experience and I really encourage everyone to try it out. It can be as simple as sitting with your plant ally, either next to it in a physical context whether as a living plant or plant material such as the dried herb, an extract, oil, or tea, or visualizing the plant in your mind’s eye. You can close your eyes or softly gaze at the plant. Energetically greet the plant before beginning - ask to be invited into their space. Meditating with plants (heck, meditating with anyone!) is an opportunity to open up to the plant beyond the written or spoken world and into intuitive connectivity. You can spend just a few minutes meditating with a plant or a whole afternoon. Do what is comfortable and in a way that encourages openness and vulnerability between you and the plant. Afterwards, be sure to offer the plant something in thanksgiving, whether some water, a song, some sacred incense or another heart-centered gift.
Day 18: Find a poem, quote, song, painting, that embodies the quality of your plant ally.
After your meditation experience with your plant ally, you have hopefully received additional insight about the plant and your growing relationship. Spend some time today finding a poem, song, painting, or additional media that embodies the qualities of your plant ally. For example, I think the following poem by Mary Oliver speaks to the amazing gifts of Milky Oats (Avena sativa).
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
You might choose to keep the a copy of whatever you find on your altar or in a place in your house where you will see it often. Herbalism is not just a science - it is an art. It is through art that we can find profound healing and when we are artfully able to speak of our plant allies we move beyond the habit of “{x} plant does {this}” to “let me tell you a story of Chamomile, the littlest brightest sun.”
Day 19: Plant personalities. Who in your life is most like your plant?
In my personal materia medicas I include a section on the plant personality which describes both the personality of the plant, but also the personality of a person best served by the plant’s medicine. Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), for example, is a plant for a colic-y child (or adult) who complains of an upset stomach when their emotional world feels unbalanced. Elder (Sambucus nigra) is known as the Elder Mother in many European countries and she has a fiercely protective, no-nonsense personality so she is often good medicine for folks who have difficulty setting up boundaries and are invested in self-deluding practices that don’t serve their health and wellbeing.
Discovering plant personalities doesn’t always feel intuitive at first, but that is why it is good to reference back to the work you did on Day 14 when you learned about the emotional qualities of your plant ally. You might discover that you are the plant personality that your plant ally best serves or a close friend or family member. Plants come into our lives most often for a reason, even if we don’t understand for many years to come, and exploring plant personalities can be one way of discovering why we are drawn to our plant ally.
Day 20: Create your own folk name for your plant ally.
As discovered on Day 3, most plants have a few, if not a multitude, of common names. Create your own folk name for your plant ally based on your experience so far with them. They may have already shared a name that they like to be called with you. Have fun with it and reference back to Day 18 if you need further inspiration.
Bonus! Create a folk name for you.
Day 21: Read a new materia medica profile on your plant ally.
Today it is time to find a new materia medica profile to read about your plant ally because tomorrow you’ll start creating your own personal materia medica.
Day 22: Write a materia medica of your plant ally - Part 1
Whether or not you continue to write your own materia medicas throughout your practice, it is important to learn how to gather information on your plant ally, synthesize that information, and add your own experience and study to it. Reference your favorite materia medicas found in books and online for creating your own, including the type of information included, as well as formatting. I've created a materia medica for Angelica (Angelica archangelica) as an example of how I typically create my plant profiles. For part one of your materia medica complete the following information about your plant ally:
Name (folk + latin binomial)
Habitat, Growing Conditions, and Harvesting
Parts used of the plant for medicine-making
Flavor
Plant Constituents
Optional:
Astrological information
Energetics
Day 23: Write a materia medica of your plant ally - Part 2
Today you’ll continue to work on your materia medic, focusing on the heart of the materia medica.
Herbal Actions
Main Uses
Day 24: Write a materia medica of your plant ally - Part 3
Our final day of materia medica crafting!
Magickal Uses
Contraindications
Drug interactions
Dosage
Optional:
Plant Personality
Recipes + Charms that feature your plant ally
Day 25: Create a plant ally charm.
You’ve completed your materia medica, meditated with your plant ally, and learned about its many uses, now its time to stretch your magickal muscles and create a plant ally charm. You might choose to create a small herb bundle to wear around your neck or keep on your altar. You might make a charmed herb candle or an herbal dream pillow including your plant ally. Engage with your plant ally magickally and follow the path of enchantment that unfolds!
Day 26: Write a plant ally song or poem.
Take time today to write down a song or poem, whether short or long, for your plant ally. It may be a song of thanks or medicine-making. You might write a poem describing the plants healing qualities. Or a short rhyming verse calling on spirit of the plant. What do you want to say to your plant ally?
Day 27: Create a Plant Ally immersive experience.
You’ve created a charm and written your poem, now it is time to immerse yourself in the world of your plant ally. If appropriate, create a bath using your plant ally or bathe with them in your shower. You could also burn the plant as an incense and sit in meditation with them or create a room and body spray with the plant’s essential oil. If you are so inspired, create a ritual of connecting with your plant ally where in addition to the immersive experience, you speak aloud your poem, create medicine, and charge up your charm. The path you choose is up to you...
Day 28: Write about your unique ways of connecting with herbal medicine.
We are very near the end of our 30 day challenge. What have you learned about yourself and the ways that you connect with plant medicine? What has your plant ally taught you? Are you super exciting about creating plant medicines? Do you want to grow a garden of herbal wonder? One day do you think you want to serve others as an herbalist in a private or community practice? Describe what it is about your experience of herbal medicine that gets you excited.
Day 29: Write your values as an herbalist or user of plant remedies.
I think it is important to know and state your values as a humyn creature living on our ocean planet, especially when entering into a mindful relationship with the powers of the plant world. Spend today creating a set of values that describes who you are as an herbalist or user of plant remedies and how these inform the ways that you move through the world. You can read my values here.
Day 30: Review your month!
Wow! Congrats! You did it! Take time to review your month and take a look at all that you have accomplished. Make sure to leave a comment below about what plant ally you worked with and your experiences, including favorite recipes, herbal wisdom insights, and recommended reading.
