The month of May marked the beginning of the Plant Spirit Ally Challenge, hosted by Hagstone Publishing. I thought I would share some of my experiences of the event.

I chose African Violet as my ally to work with. This plant has accompanied me since my childhood, I had it throughout house moves, and at university. I thought it was about time I deepen my connection with it. The only downside of my choice was that many of the challenges required ingestion of a plant, which is not something advisable with this particular violet.

The challenge begins with relatively easy tasks, making it approachable. As the tasks increase in difficulty, you spend more time working with your ally and learning more about them. I found this really helps the relationship grow quickly as the focus is fairly intense when tasks are done daily.

Within the first week, I meditated with my violet, made offerings of crystal charged water and service, drew it, and overall gave it a lot more attention than I have for a while. I meditated with it again afterwards, and the experience simply did not compare. I received a lot more information from its spirit, regarding its use and properties, as well as spiritual correspondence. Some of it matched what I read online, such as using it to strengthen connection to the Divine, spiritual protection or love, but some of it was new, such as using it to help with divination. I also believe I was introduced to the archetypal spirit of the African Violet, which came as a bit of a surprise. This is the kind of personal gnosis that makes your practice more exciting and more personalised.

I must say, I particularly enjoyed researching lore then writing my own myths for the ally. Although it might seem a bit abstract, the process relies on your knowledge and understanding of the plant and its symbolism, allowing you to express them more creatively. My myth and poem were not very long, but they were personal to me. I still have a few outstanding tasks that I am planning to undertake at a later date. In some cases I’ve done the tasks but with a different ally, and I would very much like to repeat the process with different plant spirits.

Overall, this was a fantastic experience that brings tangible results very quickly. It propels you into a novel approach of getting to know your ally, with fun activities that allow you to form a much closer bond. I would highly recommend it to anyone starting their journey with plant spirits, particularly since the challenge can be approached flexibly in terms of preferred tasks and the time frame, while still keeping you motivated. The materials and the accompanying guide can be found here. I hope that you, dear reader, will give it a go (if you haven’t done so already) and discover the joy it brings.