10 minutes read time.
The plant medicine path is a special doorway into the realms of spirit. Let’s explore some of my favorite plant medicine blends for light altered states, trance work, and ecstatic witchcraft.
Not every plant practice needs to be a mind-blowing psychedelic journey. Some of the most transformative plant medicines I’ve worked with create more subtle shifts in consciousness. These gentle altered states can deepen ritual, dreaming, and spirit communication while remaining sustainable enough to cultivate over years of practice.
For me, these herbal medicines have enhanced my ecstatic witchcraft practices and deepened my relationship to the green world of Faerie and the Angelic realms. They can gently pull us into a nourishing, sustainable, and ongoing connection to the living Earth and cosmos.
Contents
- Becoming the Plant Ritual Space: A Personal Story
- Building Relationships with Plant Spirits
- Plant Spirit Magic for Living Ritual
- Being on the Plant Medicine Path
*Disclaimer*
These practices are shared from my own personal experience and are intended for educational and spiritual discussion only. Herbs can interact with medications, health conditions, pregnancy, and other factors. Always research herbs thoroughly and consult a qualified healthcare practitioner before ingesting them.
Becoming the Plant Ritual Space: A Personal Story
One of my deepest prayers and a significant spell I have cast on myself has been to braid my consciousness with the consciousness of plants.
On my path, I was offered multiple opportunities to enter the doorway into occult herbalism from my teenage years onwards. Several potential opportunities were missed, but such is the serpentine path of a witch.
When I was in my early twenties, I was trying to decide between herbalism and astrology school. I chose the latter. It would take me until after my Saturn return to come full circle and back around to the plant path that had called me so many times before.
This time, I was ready. And I walked through the door of Poisonous Plant Medicine. A strange starting point, but the exact one I needed to work through stubborn shadows, patterns, and entanglements. I was also in the midst of a Faerie initiation, making the poisonous plant path a perfect pairing for what my soul needed.
Over the past seven years of my herbalism training, I have met many plant spirit allies. Some encounters have been deeply profound, beautiful, and ecstatic, while others were terrifying and deeply unsettling.
What has emerged is a cabinet of special allies and dear plant spirit friends. They can help tend anything from thresholds of grief to dreaming to inner transformation.
Here we will delve into some of my favorite plant medicine blends for light altered states, trance work, and the heart-opening power of ecstatic magic.
Building Relationships with Plant Spirits
During my time of deeply studying the poisonous plants, I had a telling dream.
I was crunching on yew tree seeds and berries. In the dream I couldn’t believe I wasn’t getting sick from their deadly poison!
One of my biggest fears I had to overcome through this phase of training was getting more comfortable understanding what plant medicines felt like in my body. I had some specific trauma around psychedelics and altered states of consciousness that made it hard for me to fully cross this threshold.
The dream was a starting place to nudge me towards altering my consciousness as part of my training, and perhaps a necessary node in my becoming.
I am grateful for the guidance I received from teachers to take my time, get to know the spirit and energetics of a medicine, and don’t rush into taking anything. I also realized I could explore this territory with gentler approaches.
There are many plants for light trances and altered states. Everyone’s body will be different but some of us are very sensitive to even the suggestion of a plant’s effects. Such is the way of magic.
For me, dropping in regularly with plants in a way I can more safely ingest, adds just the right amount of mind-shifting so I can more easily receive the plant medicine consciousness. It invites me to see reality through their lens while remaining gentle enough that I can still function in daily life.
Working with plants in this way also gives us the ingredient of time. And while we are human there is no replacement for the medicine of time and how it works its way into our experience. We can learn so much from building a sustainable, steady relationship with a plant medicine, reaching for them as friends and not just when we need a little boost or when we are sick.
Plant Spirit Magic for Living Ritual
a gentle suggestion
Start with one plant at a time whenever possible. Building a relationship slowly makes it easier to understand how each plant affects your body, dreams, and consciousness.
The foundation of each of these herbal formulas shared below begins with rose. The sweet and protective power of rose is one starting point for how I might build my formulas.
As I am named after my great-great grandmother Rosalie, I invoke the power of rose as an ancestor spirit of love and guidance and as a portal into the realms of the spirit world.
Shall we cross the threshold?
For Seeing Faeries: Rose, Lemon Balm, Mugwort
Safety Notes: Too much mugwort too often can keep you from your deepest delta wave sleep, which is necessary for healing and restoration. Some people are allergic to mugwort. Lemon Balm doesn’t agree with everybody and can be more excitatory than nervous system relaxing. Rose can be drying as it is an astringent.
How to Imbibe: Brew as a tea. Combine 1 tsp of dried rose petals, 1 tablespoon of dried mugwort, and 1/2 a tablespoon of dried lemon balm. Steep covered for 20 minutes (you need to steep it long enough to extract the right amount of medicine). Prepare your ritual space while it steeps.
The Ritual Setting: I like to drink this tea after the Sun has gone down. I might add it to an evening ritual practice, sitting at my altar and calling in the spirits. I prefer to take this blend alone, so it’s just me and the spirit realms. But there is something to be said for shared experience and having the confirmation of others ‘seeing’ spirits with you can be a joy and delight.
If you are connecting with these plant allies to see Faeries, here is what I recommend. Turn off the lights and sit in a meditation posture. Put out a dish of milk and honey. Light a single candle. And begin a deep breathing practice with your eyes remaining open. Hold the intention to connect to the Faerie realm.
Your experience will be your own, but you might see or sense the energy in the room start to shift. You may notice subtle changes in the atmosphere of the room, unusual sensations, shifts in perception, or a heightened awareness of the unseen.
For Ecstatic Bliss: Rose, Blue Water Lily, Lavender, Damiana, Passionflower
Safety Notes: Blue water lily can interact with certain medications for mental health. Make sure nothing you are taking is contraindicated. It is a sedative with potential narcotic properties. I have found too much blue lotus leaves me feeling low or depressed the following day. Lavender can be very sedating and cause headaches if too much is taken. Rose can be drying.
How to Imbibe: Take as a cordial. You will have to plan ahead on this one. A cordial is a mixture of brandy and honey and herbs. I use the folk method for measuring. Once your cordial is ready, put a dropper-full or two of the cordial in a favorite drink, kombucha, or red wine and enjoy. If you can’t wait the weeks it takes for your cordial to be ready, you can always brew this combination as a tea. Only use a tsp of each herb, dried, and steep for 20 minutes. Add honey if you’d like to sweeten it.
The Ritual Setting: This blend is meant for the evening, around Sunset when you can fully take in the betwixt energy between day and night. Have it with others, it is best enjoyed in the company of other bliss-loving witches, or have alone, it’s up to you! I like it for date night or before I go to ecstatic dance.
For more ritualistic use, prepare your space for devotional practice. I find this to be a beautiful medicine for connecting to the Divine realms. Receive visions of the Angelic and celestial spheres and commune with the Cosmos, the Peacock Angel, and stellar deities.
Each of the plants in this blend plays a specific part in the role of a ceremony. When combined it acts as a ritual container, guiding you deeper into the realms of spirit.
Rose: Opens up love and the heart
Blue Water Lily: Opens the channels between heaven and earth
Lavender: Is an offering of sweetness to the Ancestors
Damiana: Heightens sensation and pleasure
Passionflower: Grounds and relaxes the spirit and body
For Time-Bending Portals: Rose, Amanita muscaria, Blue Vervain
Safety Notes: Amanita muscaria should never be approached casually. Be mindful, don’t dive in before you have done your research. Amanita contains the neurotoxin ibotenic acid. Amanita muscaria cannot be taken with alcohol; this can have deadly effects. Be considerate of your body and your limits. Regardless of preparation, Amanita is a powerful entheogenic plant ally that deserves careful study and respect. Blue vervain can be sedating. Rose can be drying.
How to Imbibe: Take this as a smoke medicine. Amanita muscaria tends to be gentler to the spirit as a smoke. Using just a tsp of dried mushroom, a small dash of dried blue vervain, and a sprinkling of dried rose petals. Don’t overdo it, take a few hits and let the medicine speak to you. Lie down and journey or close your eyes and see where the bliss of time travel takes you.
The Ritual Setting: I prefer the cover of night for my altered states plant medicine work, this blend is no different. Amanita muscaria as a smoke medicine can alter your perception just enough that something feels off but you can’t quite place what.
This is the time-bending trickster nature of this mushroom. Everything might look the same while also carrying an air of the surreal. It puts you into Faerie-time, the land of between, before, and later. While working with Amanita we can venture into the thicket of complexes, patterns, and behaviors that have us stuck.
I have found that smoking this blend is supportive of spirit journeys to the past, or even the future, to rewrite narratives and discover new outcomes and possibilities.
Being on the Plant Medicine Path
Are you finding your way on the plant medicine path? Plants are a powerful door into the mind of Nature. They offer their medicine to us.
An open heart creates the perfect landscape for traversing the green realms. With love as the starting place, your relationships with plants can deepen and grow in surprising ways. I am always learning and experiencing new depths of connection with my beloved plant friends.
If you are seeking guidance on the plant medicine path, I offer Plant Spirit Magic sessions. Together we can explore how your magic and medicine intertwine. Each session includes a custom herbal preparation as a gift to support your practice.
In love and magic,
R. Z.
Cult of the Divine 
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