Five Magical Workings for Better Houseplants

Witches all over the world have embraced the houseplant craze as a way of rewilding their homes and their practice. Houseplants are an easy way to meet Mother Nature halfway and, while no substitute for a walk in the park, can go a long way in helping us remain connected to the spirits of the wild. In my new book Houseplant HortOCCULTure, I dive into the magical characteristics of over one hundred of the most popular houseplants as I explore the unique work of developing a spiritual relationship with a living plant. I talk about everything from how to keep them alive to how we can work with the unique rhythms and cycles of living plants as a form of potent magic. In this article, I'd like to continue one of the discussions that I present in the book: workings that will help your plants grow bigger and better. What good is being a witch if we can't have the biggest foliage on the block?

1. Devote Living Plants to Your Gods and Spirits.
Do you know what is far more impressive than some cut flowers? A whole plant! Starting off the list easy with this one, but it is not exactly a no-brainer. For those of us who are accustomed to long-term devotional work, the idea of raising a houseplant in the name of our spirits is probably not the strangest thing you've read.

For me, this is where my devotional practice really took off. There were plenty of times when I forgot to pick up my offering on the way home, or was too tired or busy to procure an offering before a devotional working. It made me feel like a lazy witch and I spent more time sorting through the self-imposed guilt than I did just being in the magic. While I haven't replaced my offering bowls for planters, I have brought plants onto my altars as a form of devotion. Not only has the effort not gone unnoticed, but I have also gotten the sense time and time again that it means more to the spirits with whom I work than a traditional offering alone. To them, their partner plants are a type of eternal flame. By tending to those plants, I am tending to my spirits.

While this might not be everyone's cup of tea, if you are interested, here are ten easy to find houseplants that correspond with the two main energies on a traditional Wiccan-style altar.

Five Plants for the Divine Feminine: philodendron "Royal Queen," philodendron "Silver sword," Nepenthes (all), Tradescantia zebrina, Syngonium (all)

Five Plants for the Divine Masculine: philodendron "Dark Lord," Philodendron verrucossum, banana, bird of paradise, ficus (all)

2. Propagate with the Moon.
The Farmer's Almanac has included information on best practices for propagation since early in their publication history. Propagation, for those who may not know, is the proliferation of plants through cloning. We do this by taking cuttings and rooting them through special processes that are usually unique to the plant. Some plants can be propagated simply by placing a cutting in water, while others need highly specialized conditions and hormone treatment. Just as the water in the oceans is affected by the moon's phases, so too are the cuttings we take!

The Farmer's Almanac recommends taking and propagating cuttings as the moon is waxing or <ahref="https://www.llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/term/full+moon">full but to avoid this practice when it is waning. As part of my lunar work, I have incorporated this timing into my witchcraft and found that doing so intentionally has led to potent magic. While you may not get the chance to harvest herbs with your boline, you know that pothos is just dying for a cut!

3. The Right Kind of Cyclical Thinking.
We often have a difficult time thinking outside the box for direction when it comes to where we place our spiritual observances throughout the year. Most of us follow some form of the wheel of the year, and houseplants can help us both lean in on those traditional observances while also helping us to establish a few new ones of our own. Most houseplants are subtropical or tropical species that are perennial, meaning that they have a long life span that undergoes cycles of growth and dormancy. For perennial plants, the goal isn't to grow quickly and come to seed within the course of one growing season; rather it is to grow as large as strong as possible, which takes time. Many perennial plants are capable of living just as long, if not longer, as you or I.

What these cycles teach us is to think big and to understand growth takes time. I go into this more in Houseplant HortOCCULTure, and Arin Murphy-Hiscock has presented beautifully on this in the past at events like HortOCCULTure, but the point I want to raise is that houseplants and their magic almost always involves the potential for longevity. Longevity comes through cycles of growth and dormancy. When we work this into our personal magical philosophy, the ups and downs we experience in our own spiritual practice aren't as disempowering.

4. Do the "Houseplant Hustle."
I always feel a little silly sharing this with people, but I swear this is my hidden secret for big and healthy plants: shake your butt for them. No seriously, I mean it. Your plants want to see you move that jelly. Here in my house, we call it the "Houseplant Hustle," and it usually involves me listening to disco music while the cats watch in amusement from the couch. There is something that happens when I raise energy physically through dance and then reach out with my psychic senses to the plants around me. The spiritual energies bounce back with excitement, and at times I have felt those spiritual energies right beside me as I danced.

We so rarely get to engage the natural world ecstatically, but doing stuff like the "houseplant hustle" not only brings you into harmony with your plants, but it helps you to connect to them on a primal level. It is in that space, both mentally and spiritually, that peak psychic exchange can occur.

For those interested, here is my houseplant hustle playlist on Spotify.

5. Let Your Plants Teach You.
Okay, this last one is actually a bit deeper than it might appear at first glance. What I mean when I say, "let your plants teach you" is that each plant has its own needs and you have to find out what those are before it will grow successfully. When you do, however, and your plant is healthy and growing strong, you can finally gain access to the hidden energies therein, and that is where the deep work with the plant can begin. When you have opened those lines of energetic communication between you and your plants, they can truly become spiritual teachers. As a result of that open pathway, the plant will grow more successfully in your care.

In short, if you want bigger, happier plants, the trick is to let your witch power take the lead. That is easier said than done, I know. The good news is that every skill you have developed along the journey can be applied to this work, and if you haven't had the opportunity to develop devotional, ecstatic, or psychic skills as much as you would have liked in the past, every houseplant is a new opportunity to do so.