I want to tell you about something that might sound strange at first. Something that our modern, logical minds often dismiss before we've even given it a chance to land. But bear with me, because what I'm about to share might open a door you didn't know was there.
Plants have messages for us.
Not metaphorically. Not as some sweet, New Age fantasy. But actually—viscerally—plants carry wisdom that can speak directly to what we're moving through, what we're avoiding, what we need to remember, what we're ready to become.
And sometimes, all we need is someone who knows how to listen.
The Language We've Forgotten
There was a time when this wasn't strange at all. When our ancestors understood that everything in the natural world was alive, aware, communicative. Trees, stones, rivers, the herbs growing at the forest's edge—all of it part of an ongoing conversation we were invited into.
But somewhere along the way, we decided that only human language counted as real communication. That only what could be measured, quantified, and reproduced in a laboratory was valid knowledge. We built walls between ourselves and the rest of the living world, convincing ourselves we were the only ones with anything meaningful to say.
And yet.
Haven't you ever walked into the woods and felt something shift inside you? Haven't you ever sat with a plant—maybe in your garden, maybe on your windowsill—and sensed it was reaching toward you, not just with its leaves toward the light, but with something deeper, something you couldn't quite name?
That's not imagination. That's remembering.
That's the old language starting to come back online.
What Is an Intuitive Plant Spirit Reading?
An intuitive plant spirit reading is a session where I act as a bridge between you and the plant world. I quiet my own thoughts, open my awareness, and allow the intelligence of plants—whether specific plants in your garden or plants that are calling to work with you—to come through with messages, guidance, and insight.
It's not about me reading your future or telling you what to do. It's not fortune-telling or performance. It's about creating a space where the usually-quiet voices of the green world can be heard, where the wisdom they hold can be offered to you at precisely the moment you need it.
Sometimes a plant will come forward with information about your physical body—areas that need support, imbalances that want attention, herbs that are ready to work with you. Sometimes the messages are emotional or spiritual—patterns you're caught in, grief that needs witnessing, old stories that are ready to be released.
Often, the plants speak to the threshold you're standing at. The initiation you're moving through. The version of yourself that's trying to emerge.
And during perimenopause especially—this liminal, transformative, sometimes disorienting passage—the plants have so much to offer. Because they know about cycles. They know about seasons of dormancy and explosion. They know about letting go and being reborn. They've been doing this forever.
How It Works (And Why It Matters)
When we begin a reading, I usually start by pulling plant oracle cards to establish an initial energetic map—what's present, what wants attention, where the medicine wants to move. This gives us a framework, a starting place.
Then I ask you what you're navigating right now. What questions you're holding. What areas of your life feel unclear or stuck or ready for transformation. Not because I need your story to fabricate something, but because your conscious intentions help focus the listening. They invite specific plants forward.
Then I close my eyes, drop into a deep receptive state, and wait.
What happens next is hard to describe if you haven't experienced it. Images come. Sensations. Knowing that arrives fully formed. Specific plants step forward—sometimes ones you already have a relationship with, sometimes ones you've never heard of. They carry information, not in words exactly, but in impressions that I then translate into language you can work with.
Sometimes the messages are startlingly specific. I might see a plant in your garden that has something particular to say to you. I might sense an ancestor or animal spirit that's been trying to get your attention. I might receive information about your nervous system, your womb, your heart—things I couldn't possibly know, but that land with a recognition that makes you catch your breath.
"Yes," you'll say. "That's exactly it. How did you know?"
I didn't know. The plants knew. I just got out of the way long enough to let them speak.
The Plants That Choose You
Here's something beautiful that happens in these sessions: plants volunteer themselves. They step forward to work with you.
By the end of a reading, there are usually one or two herbs that have made themselves clearly known—plants that want to support you, that are energetically aligned with where you are and where you're going. Sometimes they're plants you already have in your home, waiting to be worked with more intentionally. Sometimes they're new allies, ready to be introduced.
And this is different than just looking up "herbs for anxiety" or "herbs for hot flashes." This is being met by specific plant intelligences that recognize you, that see what you're carrying, that offer themselves not as a generic remedy but as a relationship.
One of my clients had been struggling with decision-making paralysis around a major life transition. During her reading, mugwort came through powerfully—not with instructions, but with an invitation. An invitation to trust her dreams again, to let her intuition lead, to remember that she knew more than she thought she knew. She began working with mugwort as a tea before bed, and within weeks, the fog had lifted. Not because mugwort "fixed" anything, but because it helped her access her own inner knowing.
Another client was dealing with deep grief—not just from recent losses, but old, ancestral grief she'd been carrying without realizing it. Hawthorn stepped forward in her reading with the most tender message: "We hold what hearts cannot bear alone." She wept. And later, she told me that working with hawthorn had allowed her to finally feel her grief without being destroyed by it. The plant held her while she felt.
This is the magic of being chosen by a plant. It's personal. It's alive. It's participatory.
But Is It Real?
I know some of you are reading this with skepticism. I understand. Our culture has trained us to distrust anything we can't pin down with data, anything that smacks of mysticism or magic.
But here's what I'd offer: you don't have to believe in plant consciousness for this to work. You don't have to understand the mechanism. You just have to be willing to receive.
The people who come to me for plant readings are often surprised by how specific, how accurate, how helpful the information is. Things come through that I couldn't have guessed. Messages that address exactly what they're struggling with, even when they haven't articulated it clearly. Plant recommendations that turn out to be precisely what their bodies need.
Is this because plants are sentient beings with messages for us? Is it because I'm accessing some collective unconscious or archetypal realm? Is it because intuition taps into information fields we don't yet scientifically understand?
Honestly, I don't know. And I don't think it matters.
What matters is that it works. What matters is that people leave these sessions feeling seen, held, and guided. What matters is that the plants that come through become genuine allies in their healing.
You can call it whatever you want. But don't let your need for explanation keep you from the experience.
When the Plants Want to Talk Back
One of my favorite moments in a reading is when I ask: "Would you like to hear if any of your plants have a message for you?"
Because yes, the plants in your garden, on your altar, in the pots by your window—they have things to say. And they're often surprisingly chatty once someone's willing to listen.
I've had plants express gratitude for being tended. I've had them gently point out that they're being overwatered or need more light. I've had them share that they've been holding energy for the household, protecting, filtering, witnessing.
One client asked about a spider plant she'd had for years, a plant that had survived moves and neglect and kept growing anyway. When I tuned in, the plant's message was so clear it made us both cry: "I've been showing you how to survive. Now let me show you how to thrive."
She'd been in survival mode for so long—perimenopause hitting during a divorce, financial stress, raising kids alone. She'd been holding on, barely, just like that spider plant. But the plant was saying: we're ready now. We've made it through. Let's grow differently.
That's the kind of wisdom that comes through. Not vague or generic. Deeply personal. Perfectly timed.
The Bigger Picture: Reconnection as Medicine
Ultimately, what happens in a plant spirit reading is about more than getting information or finding the right herb. It's about reconnection.
We live in a time of profound disconnection—from our bodies, from each other, from the Earth, from the sacred. Perimenopause often intensifies this disconnection, as our bodies change in ways that feel foreign, as the roles we've inhabited no longer fit, as we're forced to confront what we've been avoiding.
But what if this is also an invitation? An invitation to come back. To remember. To re-establish relationship with the more-than-human world that has always been here, always been willing to guide us.
When a plant speaks to you through a reading, something ancient wakes up. A recognition. A homecoming. You remember, even if just for a moment, that you're not alone. That you're part of something vast and intelligent and kind.
That you belong to the Earth, and the Earth is still speaking to those who will listen.
What to Expect in a Session
If you're curious about experiencing a plant spirit reading, here's what typically happens:
We begin with a brief conversation about where you are in your life, what you're navigating, what you're hoping for clarity around. This isn't required, but it helps focus the reading.
I pull plant oracle cards to establish an initial energetic landscape.
Then I move into the intuitive portion—closing my eyes, dropping into receptive awareness, and allowing whatever wants to come through. I'll share what I'm sensing, seeing, feeling. Sometimes it's immediate and clear. Sometimes it unfolds gradually.
We'll explore the messages together. I'll explain what I'm receiving, and you'll help me understand how it lands, where it connects, what it illuminates.
By the end, you'll have specific plants to work with—herbs that have volunteered themselves—and guidance on how to begin building relationship with them.
Some sessions also include plant brushing (a form of energetic clearing using actual plants) or custom tea blending based on what came through.
The whole experience is gentle, conversational, and surprisingly grounding. Most people leave feeling lighter, clearer, and more connected—to themselves, to the plants, to their path forward.
An Invitation from the Green World
The plants are always speaking. Always offering. Always ready to support us if we're willing to receive.
During perimenopause especially—this powerful, destabilizing, transformative threshold—you need allies. You need wisdom that isn't trying to fix you or rush you or convince you that you're broken. You need the kind of guidance that honors your complexity, your timing, your unique unfolding.
The plants can offer that. They've been waiting to offer that.
All that's required is your willingness to listen.
So if you've felt drawn to this—if some part of you perked up reading these words, if you've had your own moments of sensing that plants have more to say than we usually acknowledge—I want to invite you into this mystery.
Not because I have all the answers, but because together, with the plants as our guides, we might discover the questions that actually matter.
The green world is reaching toward you. It always has been.
Maybe it's time to reach back.
Taylor Short, of Harmonious Return is a Perimenopause Herbalist, Writer & Earth Intuitive. She’s passionate about starting a natural perimenopause revolution and tap into the wisdom of the earth and your body’s natural healing abilities so you can step out of barely hanging on… to fully blossoming and thriving in your full, authentically balanced self!