Plant & Fungus Totems: Connect with Spirits of Field, Forest, and Garden

In the same vein as New Paths to Animal Totems, Lupa again fills a book with insightful, experiential and practical information about working with totems, this time plant and fungus totems in her book Plant and Fungus Totems; Connect with Spirits of Field, Forest and Garden.  Similar to Animal Totems, Plant and Fungus Totems is organized with an introduction at the beginning followed by a very good discussion about what exactly are plant and fungus totems and how do they differ from the more common animal totems.  Lupa then goes into her three models of working with totems; the archetypal model, the bioregional model and the correspondences model.  She then discusses how one can combine all three of these models to really fine tune one's own personal practice with this.

Lupa's three models are all very different and really allow one to experiment and work with different aspects of this type of practice.  The bioregional model  is one which works with the plants and fungus specifically local to where one lives.  In this chapter Lupa tells wonderful stories and gives great examples of working with local flora and fauna, ways in which one can help to support local plants in danger and ways to bring plants one wishes to work with into one's home.  The correspondences model is one which seems to me to be the one which uses the most meditation and astral work.  In this one Lupa describes one working directly with the totem spirit/entity and getting the plant's correspondence information directly from them; the totem.  So this way one can gather a list of correspondences based upon one's own experiences instead of from a book with someone else's experiences.  Lastly the archetypal model seems perhaps to be the most difficult to me, however Lupa does a very good job describing it and includes exercises and resources so one can work to achieve a level of self knowledge as well as form one's opinions regarding what one sees in archetypes.  The following chapter then focuses on being able to combine these models.

Plant and Fungus Totems ends with great information about honoring the remains of flora and fauna and respectfully disposing of them.  She then includes information about gardening with purpose, ways in which we can give back to our plant and fungus totems and finally includes a guided meditation, glossary and a wonderful list of recommended reading.  Even if one does not have a proverbial green thumb, this book can really expand one's awareness of the world around them.  For anyone interested in working with a totem spirit, this book is perfect for you.  If you are someone who already works a lot with plants, if you have a garden or simply have a lot of house plants, then this book is almost a necessity.  It really can enhance one's spiritual experience, and really can add a lot of meaning to one's day to day life.  Highly recommended.

~Review by: Jessica Elizabeth

Author: Lupa
2014; Llewellyn Publications
284ppg; $16.99