An Interview with Melissa Clare
Plant Spirit Medicine Practitioner

Spirit of Eureka: What drew you to Plant Spirit Medicine?

Melissa: As a child, growing up in England, I fell in love with The Book of the Flower Fairies at an early age. Cicely Mary Barker’s beautiful illustrations conveyed a message - There are flower fairies!

Later as a teenager, I discovered The Findhorn Garden Book, which told an amazing story about some people in Scotland who created a garden on the most inhospitable piece of land, through a combination of prayer, meditation and listening to the messages they received from The Plant “Devas”. This told me, not only are there plant fairies/Devas but you can communicate with them . . . so when I saw this book, Plant Spirit Medicine, by Eliot Cowan, lying on a friend’s kitchen table, I was drawn to start reading it. In fact, I couldn’t put it down. My friend had to lend me the book until I could buy my own copy…and copies to send to everyone I could think of for Christmas. Ultimately, I took the training and became a practitioner.

Spirit: Melissa, what exactly is Plant Spirit Medicine?

Melissa: It is an ancient and indigenous approach to healing that enlists the help of the plants. It is also a holistic therapy that recognizes that many of the problems that beset us have their roots at the level of spirit. Plant Spirit Medicine treats the root rather than the symptoms.

Spirit: Treats the root . . . so what does that mean ? Are you using herbal remedies, or tinctures?

Melissa: No, we don’t actually use any of the physical part of the plant. We just make friends with the plant spirits. This is done through a dream process that Eliot Cowan calls “household shamanism” because it is something that any three-year-old in an indigenous culture could do, but as our society doesn’t acknowledge the reality of this type of experience, we are not encouraged in this direction. The dream journey is made with the help of a drumbeat, which helps one to turn off the mundane thinking part of the mind, and access a deeper level of experience.

Spirit: How do the plant spirits help with healing?

Melissa: Each plant that I contact gives me a different kind of medicine. In fact, if another practitioner were to journey to the same plant, the result could be quite different. So it is a very personal experience in that way. The trick is to be able to connect each client with the right medicine for them.

Spirit: And how is that done?

Melissa: We have found that the ancient Chinese system of five elements provides a system of diagnosis that corresponds to the seasons, and this ties into the rhythm of the natural world - a basic experience that we have in common with the plant world.

Spirit: Can you tell us more about the process of diagnosis?

Melissa: No, I’m afraid not. The practitioners’ course that I took with Eliot Cowan was structured into five, week long residential sessions (I understand it is now six weeks) over a period of fifteen months, with a lot of homework,. So if I were to try to answer your question I could never do it justice!

Spirit: Hmm, so how could we find out more?

Melissa: I recommend Eliot Cowan’s book Plant Spirit Medicine. It is very easy reading and goes into quite a lot of detail about the five elements as well as the process of dream journeying. Blue Spring Heritage Center carries the book in their store( 479-253-9244). You could also go to the Plant Spirit Medicine website, or to the Blue Deer Center website to find out about current events and training courses.

Spirit: One last question, Melissa. For those interested in your services as a practitioner - How would Plant Spirit Medicine combine with regular western medicine?

Melissa: Very well. As western medicine is treating the body and we are treating the spirit, they can be complementary. Since we don’t use any physical remedy there can be no harmful side effects, and nothing to interfere with the doctor’s prescription.

Read more:

About Eliot Cowan and Plant Spirit Medicine

Melissa Clare is a minister in the Sufi Universal Worship, and a firekeeper for the Sacred Fire Community. She lives in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and may be contacted at 479-253-8252 or email her at melissaclare@cox.net