The Plant Spirit Oracle Project

Regeneration

As we’ve been exploring over the last few weeks, plant spirit communication can take many forms.  The rustle of leaves outside of your window, the inner knowing, or the song a plant sings to you as you honor it for the harvest. These simple messages weave a complex landscape beyond what we can sense with our fives senses, and invite us deeper into the mysteries of the earth and all living beings. And as we’ve explored, the voices of the plants, the spirits of the plants, take a number of forms and can appear to each of us uniquely. What is clear is that the more that we open ourselves up to understanding them, honoring them, and working with them, the more connection we have with the living earth in her many forms.

Spirit of the Oak!
Spirit of the Oak from the Plant Spirit oracle!

Part of the reason I’ve been sharing so much about plant spirit communication over the last few weeks is that it has been on my mind and part of my active practice for a long time–and like a lot of things on this blog, at some point, I have enough to write about and share. Part of this is that I’ve been in the development of a new oracle deck over the last few years, which I am calling the Plant Spirit Oracle. Since the project is about 80% complete, I decided it is time to share more about it with my blog readers and launch a website that describes the project a bit more. So I thought I’d share some of the projects here and invite those of you who are interested to learn more at my project site:  www.plantspiritoracle.com.  You can also get regular updates on my Instagram account @Druidsgardenart.

Some of you may know that I painted and self-published the Tarot of Trees almost a decade ago. That was a 3.5-year project of 78 tree-themed tarot cards. It was just as I was beginning to establish my style as an artist, and it really was an incredible journey to embrace the bardic arts, learn tarot, do all of the paintings, and so forth. In 2015, I started paintings in a new series, tied to some of the pathworkings I was doing as part of my studies through the Druidical Order of the Golden Dawn. These pathworkings were facilitated by an inner guide.  I had been very active in my herbalism studies and practice, and when I asked for a guide, a plant spirit–black cohosh, specifically–came and we went on a journey together. She asked me to paint her, so I did, and it was a fun experience. Then it happened again, and again, and again. It was a set of paintings that were derived from spirit journeys–but in each case, I had a clear vision of what to paint. These paintings are certainly some of the best I artwork I had ever produced.

And after about six months of regular meditation and journeying, I had 10 plant spirit paintings.  I laid them all out and realized that it was a second oracle project, my follow-up to the Tarot of Trees. Just like the Tarot of Trees, I wasn’t clear that it *was* an oracle project at first.  A lot of the techniques I am sharing in my plant spirit communication series actually directly stem from my work with the plants in this series.  I moved to a new state, took a new job, and my paintings on this series ebbed and flowed.  In 2018, however, I really dove into the project again and decided I wanted to finish it and release it sometime in 2019. At this point, I’ve painted, 35 cards, 33 of which will certainly appear in the oracle.  I am planning for about 40-45 in total.

So, today, I wanted to share some of the cards from the Plant Spirit Oracle and some of their meanings for you to get a sense of the project.  The finished project will not only include divination meanings and information but also herbal preparations and other ways to work with the plants!  We now delve into six of the plants from the Oracle: Yarrow, Witch Hazel, Comfrey, Apple, Blackberry, and Poison Ivy.

Yarrow

Spirit of Yarrow
Spirit of Yarrow

Yarrow is common throughout the world and has long been associated with invisibility.  Yarrow keeps things hidden, just as the image for this card–painted in 2017 at the full Lunar Eclipse–also conceals much.  The luna moth comes out at dusk and flies in the night, a sign of concealment and yet beauty.  The yarrow flowers spiral ever inward.

Divination Keywords: Invisibility, Hiding, Protection, Being Unseen

Witch Hazel

Spirit of Witch Hazel
Spirit of Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel has the unique feature of blooming in the late fall and early winter, when everything else is dying, brown, and still. Witch hazel, therefore, is like a beacon in that dark time. The left half of the painting shows Witch Hazel during the light half of the year, with green leaves and dried seed pods. During the dark half of the year, Witch Hazel turns crimson and orange and then, even after her leaves drop, she blooms. And blooms, and blooms. As the snows come down, she blooms. Her song of hope and change is played by the babbling brook which flows between the dark and light half of the year. Witch Hazel offers us a very powerful message for these dark times—not to give up hope. Our children’s children’s children are waiting for us to become ancestors.

Divination Keywords: Shining in the darkness, overcoming difficult odds, hope for the future, music of the earth, spirit songs

Comfrey

Spirit of Comfrey
Spirit of Comfrey

Comfrey is one of the most well-known medicinal plants on the planet, well-loved and well respected by herbalists.  She is known by many names, including knitbone, boneset, and mending plant.  This is because of her many uses for mending bones, healing serious wounds, and healing the body inside and out.  Comfrey also is an amazing garden plant; she is what is known as a “dynamic accumulator” meaning that her deep tap roots can pull up nutrients and make them available to other plants.  She also is a summer-long producer of nectar for insects and birds. In the card, we can see the hummingbirds feasting on her nectar while her roots hold the power of the planets.

Divination Keywords: Resources, personal action, leveraging one’s skills and abilities, favor from the heavens, astrology, manifestation, recognizing the opportune moment, “stars” aligning, taking action now

Apple

Spirit of the Apple
Spirit of the Apple

There is nothing quite like finding an apple tree in full fruit in the fall months. A single apple can produce hundreds of pounds of fruit and each apple tree, particularly those that are wild, offer incredible diversity in its fruits. The Appletree has had a tremendously long history with humans. Ancient humans, and some modern, engaged in rites to “wassail” the tree so that she would produce more apples, which could be dried, turned into sauce, butter, fresh cider, or hard cider. Truly, Apple is a tree of fertility, offering many blessings and gifts with her magic.

Divination Keywords: Magic, Fertility, Creativity, Nature Connectedness

Blackberry

Spirit of Blackberry
Spirit of Blackberry

If you’ve ever tried to pick wild blackberries in the height of the summer, you likely will have paid a price for those delicious treats. Wild Blackberry produces amazing, large, juicy fruits, but she often demands a blood price from those who seek her fruits. The deeper you get into a blackberry patch, the more difficult the patch is to escape from. In my region, we call her a “jagger bush”, and getting “tangled in jaggers” is not a place you want to be! The blackberry painting features a huge tangle of bushes growing from a porcupine—another creature that enacts a strong price if you get too near. The blackberry, therefore, teaches us that actions have consequences and to tread carefully.

Divination Keywords: Entanglement, Consequences, Wrapped up in Troubles, Rewards after a long struggle, Doing things the hard way, Paying a price

Poison Ivy

Spirit of Poison Ivy
Spirit of Poison Ivy

Poison ivy is one of the most feared and avoided plants in the natural environment due to the contact dermatitis it creates after several days of exposure. Because many have had a previous run-in with poison ivy with lasting consequences, it encourages people to learn to recognize it, to avoid it, and to avoid areas with it. In other words, poison ivy, through its hard lessons and pain, teaches us to be aware of our surroundings and stay guarded.

And yet, this defensiveness can go both ways. When I encounter poison ivy, I see how it protects places—growing thick so that none can get through. It especially grows thick along the edges of forests and fields, in “edges” where the wildlands are meeting cultivated lawns and other human-dominated ecosystems. It works, in this way, to be strongly and visibly defensive: growing to keep people out. In fact, it is this “edge effect” that has allowed poison ivy to substantially spread its range due to the increasing disturbances caused by modern buildings and lawns, and is, in some ways, nature’s response to human incursions and lawn cultivation. Today, it is much more common than several centuries ago, primarily due to the amount of disturbance in the landscape that humans have created and due to the increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This ecological reality parallels its divinatory meaning.

If you’ve ever suffered from poison ivy, you know that the more that you scratch it, the more you spread it, offering yet another powerful lesson: sometimes we have to just let things run their course and not do anything to further upset the situation.

Divination Keywords: Defensiveness, Awareness, Hard Lessons, Letting things run their course, Caution, Danger

 

Closing Thoughts and Links for More Information!

The plants have much to teach us both physically and in spirit.  I hope this look into the Sacred Plant Oracle has uplifted your spirits and brought you joy. Thank you for reading! To keep updated about the Plant Spirit Oracle (and be notified when preorders are available, likely early 2019) please visit this page!

Spirit of Calamus / Sweet Flag
Spirit of Calamus / Sweet Flag

Dana O'Driscoll

Dana O’Driscoll has been an animist druid for 20 years, and currently serves as Grand Archdruid in the Ancient Order of Druids in America (www.aoda.org). She is a druid-grade member of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids and is the OBOD’s 2018 Mount Haemus Scholar. She is the author of Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year through Earth-Centered Spiritual Practice (REDFeather, 2021), the Sacred Actions Journal (REDFeather, 2022), and Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical, and Ritual Approaches for Healing the Earth (REDFeather, 2024). She is also the author/illustrator of the Tarot of Trees, Plant Spirit Oracle, and Treelore Oracle. Dana is an herbalist, certified permaculture designer, and permaculture teacher who teaches about reconnection, regeneration, and land healing through herbalism, wild food foraging, and sustainable living. In 2024, she co-founded the Pennsylvania School of Herbalism with her sister and fellow herbalist, Briel Beaty. Dana lives at a 5-acre homestead in rural western Pennsylvania with her partner and a host of feathered and furred friends. She writes at the Druids Garden blog and is on Instagram as @druidsgardenart. She also regularly writes for Plant Healer Quarterly and Spirituality and Health magazine.

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15 Comments

  1. Wow, this looks like it will be an awesome deck.

  2. Someone on the Facebook group asked for the latin names. Here they are:

    Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
    Witch Hazel – Hamamelis Virginiana, Hamamelis spp.
    Comfrey – Symphytum Officinale
    Apple – Malus spp.
    Blackberry – Rubus Spp.
    Poison Ivy – Toxicodendron radicans

  3. Oh, my goodness, I LOVE these! Gorgeous!

  4. Hi I tried to follow the link to tarot of trees and was taken instead to a bright red page saying danger or somesuch! And I was unable to proceed except “back to safety” Would you send me a different link please!

    Many thanks, Julie

    On Sun, 16 Sep 2018 at 14:46, The Druid’s Garden wrote:

    > Dana posted: ” As we’ve been exploring over the last few weeks, plant > spirit communication can take many forms. The rustle of leaves outside of > your window, the inner knowing, or the song a plant sings to you as you > honor it for the harvest. These simple ” >

    1. That’s very weird. I’m in the middle of changing hosting providers, so I wonder if that has to do with it? I should have a new site up for the Tarot of Trees within the next 1-2 weeks. I’ll post here when I do!

  5. Dana I didn’t realize you are a visual artist too! Your paintings are gorgeous and resonate with the energy of the plant spirits. I will look forward to purchasing your Oracle when it’s ready! Thanks again for all you do.

    1. Yes, I love to paint and write ;). Thanks for the comment!

  6. Dana, I think you have made beautiful images of these plants, and their energy shines out from the paintings. You are capturing the plant spirit’s messages in a most meaningful way. I look forward to seeing the whole deck of oracle cards. — niniann lacasse

    1. Thank you so much, Niniann! Glad you like them :). It has been a labor of live, like any oracle or tarot project!

  7. Dreamt of walking past a large collection of windfall apples last night – I picked a few up to examine whether they were edible but there were slight small circular abrasions so I placed them back down again.
    Great info btw. many thanks!

    1. That sounds like a really interesting dream…what did you learn from it?

  8. Hi. I just wanted to say “thank you” for writing this. I just had my first experience with spiritual plants and I am a believer. I’m eager to learn more if you have any recommendations. Thanks!

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