When I go to harvest plants for their medicine there is no ritual that I perform but there is an inner dialogue going on between myself and the plant before I have even come across the plant.
Perhaps the plant medicine is for a client or perhaps the plant medicine is for myself. It is not unusual for plant medicine to call to be harvested before I even know who it is for. One of the things that will happen is an image of a plant will come into my vision. The image will appear on and off in my mind for a few days. My responsibility is to recognise this as a phenomenal occurrence and mentally record it. I may come across a few more instances that pertain to this particular plant often in random conversations or extracts read in books or online. A mixture of reverberating in-formation begins to appear in my field of existence in random ways and it's my role to interpret the experiences.
There is a certain frequency that each plant holds and vibrates at. Our heart's too, have a frequency so when we feel into our heart's frequency while picturing a particular plant or area of the plant, a resonance will occur if it is the right one to go to. In my mind's eye I will go through a databank of plants (in this case, kawakawa) and feel into the resonance between my heart and the plant in my vision. The resonance feels like a warm waterfall cascading through my heart and I know, without a doubt, this is the plant I must find. There will be no resonance or warm cascading waterfall if the plant being viewed is not calling me. The resonance between heart and plant connects and communicates in an ancient language of resonance. This is what it means when you hear people say:
"I felt it calling me"
I will reflect on the plant to make sure I have 'felt' the complete resonance and then 'call' to the plant through silent karakia (prayer). In my prayer I am not using words but sound. The silent sound is coming from my heart and amplifying the resonance between heart and plant. Then I let go and wait....
I wait to receive 'instructions' of where to go to find her. She could be growing in my area or outside of the area. She could be growing in a forest or alongside a road. She could even be in a random place behind someone's garage. Often times, I never know where she is growing until I come across her path and it could be at an inconvenient time, but everything in that moment stops for me. My heart will quicken and the scenery becomes vibrant in colour. My senses are heightened and I can feel her. Can you hear the sound of this Mānuka flower?
I can spiritually smell her and the smell is the sweetest aroma you could ever imagine yet the smell is not in the atmosphere it is coming from within. A way to describe this sensation is that it arises as a sound, a note. Much like musical notes that make up a song and various shades of colours turn into a painting, fragrance notes are necessary to make a perfume. In fact, in perfume making 3 notes Top Notes, Middle Notes and Base Notes are blended (to make a symphony). This is the healing sound of plants.
"there are three note scales
that when blended together
create the perfume's fragrant accord"
And then I see her. She will be in her most vibrant state because she is communicating. Everything about her is standing to attention like the magnificent being that she is. Her leaves are at their best, shining and vibrating because she is releasing her medicine. Her medicine is flowing ready to be picked. She is selfless. I will acknowledge her mauri (her life-force) and want to weep, not from sadness but from being in her presence. The amplification of the resonance from my heart to her has merged and it is like she unlocks a part of my heart to expose it to truly feel her and it is breath-taking. There is nothing that compares to this sensation, it cannot be described, it can only be experienced. It is like being in the space and experiencing Source.