Indigenous healers and shamans have known since antiquity that plants possess a spirit essence that can communicate through light, sound, and vibration. In Plant Spirit Healing, herbalist Pam Montgomery offers an understanding of the origins of disease and the therapeutic use of plant spirits to bring balance and healing. She introduces a process engaging heart, soul, and spirit that she calls the triple spiral path. She explains that the evolution of plants has always preceded their animal counterparts and that plant spirits offer a guide to our spiritual evolution - a stage of growth imperative not only for the healing of humans but also the healing of the earth.
248pp, 152mm x 224mm, softback, 2008

Extract
Healing Oneself, Others, and the Planet with Plant Spirits
My breath becomes focused with attention on White Pine, that great one who has given me such strength this past year. As my breath deepens with its constant circular pattern I begin to experience the 'greenbreath' of exchange with White Pine. A tingle runs up my spine as the oxygen-laden breath reaches each of my cells and a rainbow bridge to White Pine joins us in a bond of light. A vibration begins in my hands and slowly spreads to the rest of my body as I receive the light from the sun transferred to me from White Pine and cells breathe - my cells or White Pine's? Suddenly I realize the tingling vibration I'm experiencing is that of photosynthesis, as White Pine and I are no longer separate. White Pine's breath rushes up my spine in currents of ecstatic life force as I begin to move in rhythm with these waves, riding the crest and dipping into the trough. With a full heart, mind, and body I revel in the sensual experience of White Pine. As my greenbreath shifts and I return to regular breath, my tears flow as I begin to comprehend the gift of such an intimate encounter with White Pine - more than an ally, my beloved.
Journal Entry, May 2007

Plant Spirits as Personal Guides
Most people who have any kind of a spiritual life have some form of guidance they rely on. Various religions have helping forces like saints in Catholicism, devas in Hinduism, or angels in Christianity. In the Native American tradition animal guides are present as helpers. A helping spirit guide is one who is available to you at all times to bring guidance and assistance of any nature. Plant spirits can serve as personal guides and helpers in this way. Plant spirit guides may come to you in a dream, or perhaps you are healed by a plant that then becomes your personal guide. You also may make a request for a personal plant spirit guide to come to you; pay attention to the plant that crosses your path either physically or otherwise. When you encounter the plant three times, remember, it is the one you are seeking.

It is important to pay attention to all your spirit allies, particularly your personal plant spirit guide. You pay close attention by bringing your guide into your prayers each day and being grateful for his or her presence in your life. This guide can instruct you about other plant allies you may engage for healing purposes, guide you in personal decisions, and help you with your own health issues. Your personal guide will also assist you with issues of intention and humility, reminding you that, ultimately, you are in service to the holy, the sacredness in all life. Your plant spirit guide can also bring clarity about the recognition and maintenance of relations with all of your plant spirit allies, including any ceremonies that may need to be performed on their behalf. These ceremonies may be a way to feed your plant spirits or they may be necessary for certain types of healing.

Healing others with plant spirits
We can work with plant spirits for our own personal guidance and healing, but when we call upon plant spirits to engage in the healing of another, a particular type of dynamism is added to the healing process. Plants are community beings that are here to serve the community as a whole so that when we step beyond our own personal needs and begin to address the needs of others, we are fulfilling the primary thrust of plant spirits' path as community healers.

When I ask a plant spirit to assist in a healing situation, a three-way line of interaction is opened among me and the plant spirit, the plant spirit and the client, and the client and me. This alignment creates a triangle that is very solid in its patterning. It also incorporates a key ingredient, which is that of asking. Asking helps to clarify intention, which is another important aspect of any healing work. By engaging in this level of asking for help (me of the plant spirits and the client of me), we support one of the basic tenets of nature, which is that of interconnected and interdependent relationships. When we try to do it all ourselves, we often fall short because this is not how nature is designed. Everything in nature is interdependent; nothing stands alone.

From Plant Spirit Healing, ?2008 by Pam Montgomery, published by Bear & Company.