Voices of the plants and the elements: our exclusive interview with Plant Spirit Medicine founder Eliot Cowan.

Eliot Cowan's unique fusion of the traditional wisdom of the original peoples of the Americas with the ancient art and science of Five Element Chinese Medicine has created a natural healing modality, Plant Spirit Medicine, that is simultaneously new and as ancient as human experience. This deeply spiritual healing offers a unique form of conservation of medicinal herbs: just don't use the bodies of plants at all! Before beginning his work with Plant Spirit Medicine, Eliot was a Five Element Acupuncture instructor at the College of Traditional Acupuncture, Leamington Spa, England. Eliot is also a fully initiated shaman in the Mexican Huichol Indian tradition. Eliot visited Asheville, NC this past February and shared his time with us. (See www.newlifejoumal.com for past NLJ interviews with Eliot.)

NLJ: What is Plant Spirit Medicine (PSM)?

EC: Plant Spirit Medicine is a healing modality that is primarily concerned with calling on the spirit of plants as a healing agent, as contrasted with some other forms of herbal medicine, which are primarily focused on the physical or chemical properties of plants.

NLJ: Can you explain that a little bit more with relationship to other forms of herbalism? In other words, how do you work with plants?

EC: Many, particularly Western approaches to herbal medicine, are approaching plants primarily as factories of phytochemicals that have certain physiological effects. And then, there's homeopathy, which relates to plants primarily as agents that produce what they call an artificial disease or illness that replaces the one that the person is suffering from. But in what I refer to as PSM, plants are related to as fully aware beings that have intelligence, that have feeling mad that have spirit. The focus there is on making relationship to those deeper aspects of the plant, because they have particularly .great capacity to touch and to heal the mind and the emotions and spirit of human beings, something that the physical aspects of the plant only have a very limited capacity to do.

NLJ: So, does PSM help physical issues?

EC: Well, very often it does. But, that's not what it sets out to do. In other words, in PSM, at least the way we approach it, what we're concerned with is the balance of a person's energies and relationships to the world around them. And we find that when we can call on the plant spirits to promote greater balance and harmony, that a person has a fuller and more satisfying experience of life. Very often the improvement or relief from symptoms is a by-product of that, but it's not the focus, you might say, of the treatment.

NLJ: So, you've explained some about the plant aspect of the medicine. Can you tell me how the five elements come into play with PSM?

EC: Well, first of all I would say that PSM per se is a universal phenomenon: everywhere there have been people and plants living together, you'll find some form of plant spirit medicine. Different peoples have developed different ways of approaching and developing relationships with the healing powers of plant spirits. In the form of PSM that I practice and also share with others, we use a particular aspect of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a basis for our work.

So, that's where the five elements come in.

The five element view, let's call it, is a way of relating to the world as an expression of five fundamental divine energies, the energy of what's called Fire, which is related to heat and warmth--both physically, emotionally, spiritually and in every other way, and that relates to the energy of heart in human beings. Then, there's the energy called Earth, and that is the energy that relates to nourishment, because, of course, almost everything that we eat is a product of Mother Earth; Earth relates to nourishment and nurturing, and also Earth gives us a place to stand, so it gives us a sense of support, groundedness and security. That has a particular relationship in a human being to those systems that relate to eating and nourishment, like the stomach, for example. Then, we have what is called the element of Metal, and that has to do with precious essential trace elements that give strength and quality to our life and sense of value; that also relates particularly to our breath and, therefore, to the lungs. We have the element of Water, which supports fluidity and movement. Water, we also know, is the source and sustainer of life itself. So, it's the basis of the life force; it has a special expression in a human being with the kidneys. And, lastly, the Chinese talk about an element that they call Wood, which is really a way of saying the force of growth. The thing that puts those other four elements of Sun and Earth and Rain and Minerals together into a unique form that grows and expresses itself as it grows. So that energy of growth and expression is what's called Wood, and that has a particular expression in a human being with the liver organ.

So, the five element view sees the human being and, for that matter, different plants and everything in our world as expressions of a balanced dance among these five energies. Therefore, when these energies are in balance, we call that health and well being, and when there's an imbalance, it inevitably creates a sense of being not at ease. Sooner or later it manifests as a symptom, whether it be a physical symptom or an emotional one. So, in that way, we are looking at plants to help promote a balance of these energies.

NLJ: What does balance look like in a person?

EC: This is something that's a little bit difficult to talk about. If you were trying to define balance, how would you define it without using the term "balance?" You can start to talk about it in a negative way as an absence of symptoms, and absence of painful or distressing symptoms showing up for a person. But, that doesn't really cover it: It doesn't really get to the main thing about balance: beyond an absence of symptoms, it shows up as a sense of well being, as a sense of connectedness, a sense of peace and flow, a richness in an experience of life. Those are some of the real hallmarks of balance.

NLJ: How do the plants work with the five elements in the medicine?

EC: Well, plants of course understand the language of the five elements very well because they live by those energies; they understand what Sun is all about, what Earth is all about, and Rain and Minerals and the energy of Growth. They are themselves a beautiful expression of the balance of those five energies, and since they're embodying them and expressing them, they also have the ability to share those energies with us. So, we fred that a given plant may have a particular affinity for one of the elements, let's say Fire, for example, and it may offer warmth, joy and connection to a person who's lacking those things and, therefore, suffering in some way. Another plant may be a specialist in one of the other elements. Exactly how do they share those energies? It's quite mysterious. I can't claim to really know how they do that, but I do know from my experience that they do, and that they're effective. But how they go about it is something I'm still wondering about.

NLJ: Do PSM practitioners actually give their patients or clients the physical plant? How does that work?

EC: It's not necessary to do so. As I've been saying, the main thing here is about a relationship between the healer and the plant that the client is brought into. In order for the practitioner to call upon a plant for helping somebody else, the first thing is that they have to make friends with the plant. And I mean that just in the way I say it. They need to get to know the plant as, well you could say, as a person--make friends with it, develop trust, develop an agreement that that plant is willing to show up and help people when called upon. So, it's very much like having a human friend, as I say. If you make friends with somebody and you get to trust each other, you might say to that person, "I really need your help, so can I call on you and will you come and help me?" And the other person says, "Of course I will." And you say, "How would you like me to call for you? Do you want me to email you, or ring three times on your telephone and then hang up, or drive by and flash my lights in your bedroom window? How would you like me to call on you?" And the other person says, "Well, do it this way. And when I get that email, I'll know that you need me, and I'll come help you out."

So, in a very similar way, the practitioner makes friends with the plant spirit and the plant spirit agrees to come and help. The practitioner says, "Well, if I call for you this way, will you show up?" And the plant spirit will agree or sometimes suggest an alternative way. Now, for the practitioners that I train, I encourage them to call on the plants simply by asking them to bring their spirit energy through the hands of the practitioner. The practitioner places their hands on the person, and the plant energy will pass through. So, most of the practitioners do it that way, although there are other ways to do it.

NLJ: Tell me about the training and certification for PSM practitioners.

EC: In the past. this has been done in kind of an ad hoc way, but flow we have set all the machinery in motion to really make this more concrete and more professional. On the first hand, we're developing what's called a college of Plant Spirit Medicine, and we have a faculty and plans to expand that faculty. along with standards for the training of faculty and for the training of the students who want to become practitioners. When a person graduates from the training course and demonstrates their competency through examination and clinical practice, then they will be qualified to join the PSM Professional Association, which has now been set up. Therefore they will be officially recognized as a person who is a qualified professional. There are other people who are teaching and practicing other forms of PSM that I'm not really familiar with, so I can't either support them or criticize them in any way, but I want to make sure that the public knows that there is a profession of PSM and a faculty and association that stands behind the competency of the practitioners.

NLJ: What type of training do interested parties go through, and how long is this training?

EC: The training course will involve six separate weeks of classroom work with a great deal of home study in between and then an extended period of supervised clinical practice.

NLJ: How many practitioners and teachers are there currently? EC: The best record is now about over 400 people who have completed the class satisfactorily. Not all of them are practicing, however. If people are interested in finding a qualified practitioner, they can visit www.plantspiritmedicine.org or www.bluedeer.org for a referral. For more information, they can also email [e-mail]. There are only two teachers who are recognized by the college, myself and Alison Gayek, who is based in Chapel Hill, NC.

NLJ: Tell us what it's like to create relationships with the plants in the way that the practitioners do.

EC: That really has two parts to it. The first part is very simply to spend a great deal of time outdoors with the living plant, getting to know it or getting to know if more deeply. paying a lot of attention to it as you would when you're meeting a new human friend, and observing what it looks like, how it smells, what shamanism to enter into a dream state while you're still awake, and in that dream you fred the spirit of the plant and you talk to it and ask it to show you what medicine it may have to share with you. The people who do this report some very interesting and vivid responses from the plants.

NLJ: Is this something that anyone can do? EC: Yes, anyone who's interested. You know, it sounds kind of exotic perhaps, but this is a kind of practice that's available to anybody because everybody falls asleep and dreams at night, so you don't have to have any particular special training or calling to be able to dream. And it's not as difficult as it may sound at all to learn how to dream while you're still awake. So, in that dream state, people find that it's actually quite natural and quite easy to come across and begin to relate to the spirits of plants, or other things for that matter.

NLJ: I'm assuming that this is traditionally the way that people connected with plants before?

EC: Yes. The details of how it was worked out varied from time to time and place to place, but, yes, this is very traditional. When I first started working this way myself, I really wondered it was something I'm making up or if there were other people who have done this? For the first several years, I wasn't able to find anybody. But, with time, I started discovering that this way of relating to plants is really universal. Anywhere plants and human beings have been living together, people have been doing this kind of thing and finding it very helpful throughout the world. It's still available today and still helpful for people today.

NLJ: Can you tell us a story related to creating relationships with plants.

EC: A number of years ago, I was holding a class and introducing people to different plants. At one point, we had spent the better part of our morning outdoors getting to know willows better, and then we came indoors and did the dream journey procedure that I was talking about a minute ago to see if we could meet the spirit of willow and find out what kind of medicine it had to offer. After that, we sat in a circle sharing what the willow had shared with us. People were listening to each other and taking notes and everyone was sitting together quite nicely. Then one young man told his story and said, "You know, there's one other part to this that I really don't understand what it means or how it fits, but it must be important because the spirit kept on insisting on this." And I said, "Well tell us about it and maybe we can help you with it."

He said that the willow spirit kept on saying over and over again 'Don't look down. Don't look down. Always look up. Don't look down. look up.' "What do you suppose that might mean?" he asked. I told hint that l really didn't know and asked if anyone else had any ideas. No one did i said. "Well. you know. keep it in the back of your mind. and I'm sure that eventually comes sort coincidence will happen that will help you understand what that's it." And if did. Much later we were having another meeting he was saying about what the willow spirit said to him. We said we did. He told us that he now knew what it meant. I asked him to tell us. And he (this was a man who was a doctor and an acupuncturist) said, "I used the willow spirit for a patient I'd been seeing for quite some time, and it seemed to work very well for her. So, after I'd delivered that medicine, I told her that we were done and she should come back a week later and we'd see how she was doing." So, she came back the following week and asked what the wonderful medicine was she had been given. He asked her why she said it was so wonderful, and she started talking about a number of symptoms that started getting better in the previous week. "That's wonderful," he said, and she said, "But the greatest thing of all is something else." He asked what that was. She said, "Well, I discovered something I didn't realize before: I've been kind of depressed all of my life. It's as if I've been trudging through life looking down at the ground and seeing nothing but the dirt and frith in life. But, from the moment you gave me that medicine last time, I heard this voice inside me that said 'Don't look down. Look up. Always look up.' And you know I have been. And instead of seeing the dirt and filth in life, I've been seeing the light and the beauty and the sparkle."

NLJ, I know that you've traveled to several different places in the world meeting and working with elders in different traditions. Do you have any stories or insights related to those travels that you could share with readers about how some of these indigenous and Native populations worked with plants in their neck of the woods?

EC: One that comes to mind is at one point I went to visit the Pomo people in Northern California, and one of their main shamans was holding a dance in honor of the harvest festival. I got there a little early and was talking with him and some of the other people that were coming by, and I was introduced to a man who was working in a nearby city as a janitor. This was a man that obviously the people there had a great deal of respect for because he knew literally thousands of traditional songs of their people. So, I was chanting with him, and he asked what my line of work was. I told him that what I did was help to heal people with the spirit of plants. And, I could tell from the expression on his face that he knew exactly what I was talking about and he just took that in stride. So I said, "You're a great singer. Can you sing any plant spirit songs?" And he said, "Oh, yes." He started to sing me a song of this plant and that plant and the other; these were songs that he said that the spirits of these different plants had given to him to share with the people. In some traditions, the healers actually sing these songs as a way of delivering the medicine of the plants. But, the point of that little experience is that wherever I've traveled and wherever I've met with traditional people from any part of the world, whenever I talk about PSM, they all know what I'm talking about, and they can all refer back to some tales of experiences of how it's done where they come from.

Erin Everett is the publisher and editor-in-chief of New Life Journal. She can be reached at [e-mail].