I used to have a little publishing company called Hagstone Publishing, and back in May of 2019, Hagstone ran a 30 day Plant Spirit Ally Challenge. Many people participated via websites and social media, and it was a lovely month. I made some lasting friends through that challenge as well. When I decided to move on from Hagstone, I took down the website, and the challenge guide and resources page became unavailable.
Since then I’ve had a few inquiries about the challenge, so I decided it’s time to bring it back in a slightly revised form.
As some of you might remember, the Plant Spirit Ally Challenge focused on getting to know a plant from magical abilities to medicinal properties, from food to fragrance, in their habitat and among their natural companions. The idea is to know a plant as a whole person, and hopefully as a dear friend. During the course of the challenge, you’ll be encouraged to meditate, dream, create, and heal with your ally.
Originally the challenge ran live, with frequent website updates and a lot of social media participation. Now I plan to offer the challenge as a self-paced journey, always available on my personal website. I’m currently revising the guide and updating the links, and hope to release the new guide by mid-November. Since the first challenge closed, some of the blog posts and articles published for the challenge have been taken down (including the ones that ran on the Hagstone Publishing website). I will be re-posting some of those articles here on the blog in the weeks after the guide is re-released. If you want to make sure you see them as soon as they’re published, be sure you’ve subscribed to the blog.
The official guide to the challenge will include a list of each day’s activity, plus tips and resources to help and inspire you as you work through the challenge. If you decide to try the challenge for yourself, I recommend reading through the guide a week or two before you start in case you want to acquire any supplies you don’t already have. BUT, don’t worry if money is tight! I’ve designed the challenge to be flexible and to require very few supplies, and I’ll be pointing you toward a number of free on-line resources in the guide and on the challenge Pinterest board, which will be updated from time to time as I find new treasures to share.
In addition to the free guide, I’ll be creating a Plant Spirit Ally Challenge landing page on the website with an index of content created specifically for the challenge, so watch this space.
If you have any questions about the challenge, feel free to contact me and I’ll try to help you out.
A couple of final notes: One, while the challenge was originally created to be completed over 30 days, there’s no reason you have to try to stick to that schedule! You could honestly spend your whole life getting to know all you can about just one plant, tree, or shrub [or a fungus would work too!]. So if you want to work at your own pace, that’s wonderful. In fact, I encourage you to take the challenge and make it your own. I hope you will see the challenge and the guide as inspiration and jumping off points for creative, deeply personal engagement with a favorite plant friend.
Two, this challenge really is MUCH more fun with a (human) friend or two. I highly recommend finding a few friends or a little group on line to work through the activities with and share your results if you can. I’m looking forward to seeing new participants and new ways of interpreting the challenge over the coming months, and I hope you are too.
Background photo of a dandelion by Aaron Burden, courtesy of Unsplash.
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