Listen to the recording of Neils Journey here


Journey to the Lower World to request to see interesting and important aspects of the Plant Kingdom

I go through the portal, and go down and down, through complete darkness.

Far below me is the glimmering presence of the Lower World – as if it’s a planet very very far away.

I’m going steadily downwards with the intention of arriving in the Lower World and requesting the Spirit Helpers of the Lower World, to meet me and take me to where I can access understandings and awareness of the plant kingdom.

I land on a branch in a tree, and I immediately get an understanding that plants, and especially trees, are the intermediaries between the earth and the sky, and in Shamanic tradition the tree is very often used to access traveling to the Upper World by going up the tree, or traveling to the Lower World by going down, using the roots of the tree.

I’m being reminded that trees are also a home for all kinds of animals and birds and insects, and this would go for plants in general, they provide shelter and home for every type of life.

I climb down the tree, and although I’m on the ground I’m not touching the soil or the dirt because there are plants all over, so my feet are on other little growing things.

I’m being reminded that plants also serve as the protective cover for the earth. So plant life also serves to protect the earth.

By being intermediaries between the earth and the sky, plants are amazing – most plants are directly connected into the earth via their roots, and their respiration involves the sky or the air, so they are these unbelievable intermediary life energies between Earth and sky.

And the Spirit say that one of the ways in which we don’t perceive things fully, is by always perceiving them from our upright human scale – from our height – we’re looking down onto plants below us, or we’re looking up at trees going up into the sky, and we always have that fixed viewpoint, but it would be very interesting to look at plants, if we could in a sense make ourselves much much smaller, and see plants from below.

Even the smallest of plants are incredible – they are not these insignificant little things that we tower above, and arrogontly feel superior to.
And the same with trees that do tower above us, we should allow ourselves different perspective views of trees.

The Spirits are again emphasizing that trees and bushes provide the homes for birds – they provide places for nests, for roosting, for sitting, places for shelter and observation and escape. Birds and trees go together absolutely. Plants are the homes for insects and animals as well.

There’s a message that in general, broadly speaking, we take plants for granted.

We like them a lot, we love being out in nature, and we love trees, and we love greenery and we love flowers, and we do understand that we eat plants, they are essential for our nutrition and the nutrition of animals that we might eat, so we’re totally dependent on plants.
We know this but we don’t have a real appreciation, a heartfelt appreciation for just how essential plants are, and what gratitude we owe them.
What I’m been told, and what’s being emphasized to me, is how plants are a crucial part of life – the Wheel of life, the Circle of life, and we should have a much stronger appreciation of this.

It’s so easy for us to destroy plants, to damage plants, and cut down trees and bushes, and the Spirits say just because it’s easy to pick and pluck and break and pull out a plant, should not mean that we disrespect the plant, or that it diminishes our respect. We should not behave as “conquerors” of the plant kingdom.

This is the theme, we just take plants for granted. Just think today of what we’ve eaten that was directly a plant or depended on a plant, for example, the toast and butter that I had for breakfast.

I am shown a tree, like a redwood that is hollowed out, and I go inside – its like out of a fairy tale. There is a cozy living room or study inside the tree, with rugs and book cases, and a very comfortable chair, a table, lots of wood. I’m told that this is a place in the Lower World that I can come to, if I want to sit and relax, and get information.

There’s a circular stairway going up and I understand that it leads up to a place where I could sleep. So this is an interesting cozy retreat that I could come to when I do Shamanic Journeys in the future.

 

I go sit in the chair and ask the tree for information about the plant kingdom. I get told again, that the plant kingdom is essential for human survival.

The tree tells me that plants are a connection to the earth, and they also connect to water. Their roots grip them into the earth and support them in the earth, and the roots take up nutrition directly from the Earth.
The plant is able through root hairs to interact directly with moisture.
So the plant is in between the earth and water and the sky.

Its an absolute marvel of biology and chemistry, and actually quantum physics, that plants, via their roots are able to take up water and nutrition.

And there is the phenomenal aspect of plants converting sunlight into energy at an efficiency rate that far exceeds anything human scientists have managed

The Spirits say plants are magicians. They take in carbon dioxide and expire oxygen – they are such good cleaners of the air. They clean everything, they clean water, they clean the soil.

Then there is the intelligence of plants. Its a network of intelligence. An individual plant is a basic unit of this intelligence, but the entire network of plants, including other species of plants, and maybe rocks and insects and animals too, form a plant “internet”. There is awareness and there is intelligence.

Plants communicate via biochemistry, expressing hormones and chemicals.
They are these intelligent beings that network and communicate.
The “purpose” of plants is intelligent interaction with the World around them.

The Spirits say we should be so grateful that the Plant kingdom is a peaceful kingdom. It doesn’t fight us. The theme of the plant kingdom is symbiosis – co-operative interaction with Life. Humans should integrate into this symbiosis as well.

We should be good to plants, especially the one in and around our homes. We should feed them, and water them. And we should acknowledge them – tell them we love them, we appreciate them, and that we understand that it is they, who are keeping us alive.

The overall message is we really should respect plants a whole lot more, and be deeply thankful. In Shamanism, plants have Spirits and Awareness and humans should recognize this.

The drums change their beat, to call me back to the Middle World.

I thank the Spirits and the Journey is over.
Thank you Spirits.