Let nature be your tarot deck.

Catherine Wen's Plant Oracles

Hello. Come here. Sit by me.

Are you maybe feeling a little bit directionless?

A little uncertain about what the actual heck you should change to feel better about yourself and your life? Are you feeling a little bit purposeless, maybe? Like all of the days are blurring together into a cream of same-same soup, and life is just streaking onwards, and you haven’t, um, become the cool version yourself yet? And, like, maybe other people don’t respect you and you’re kind of a loser?

Oof. Yes. I have been there. I have been there a lot, a lot, a lot. I know all about this because I was there for decades. I did many things to fix this awful feeling. I started businesses, I tried a million daily routines, I went on physical health journeys, and I read one zillion self-help books. I was still stuck.

And then one day, I, very accidentally, fixed it. I didn’t develop discipline, I didn’t follow a guru, and I didn’t take some new supplement. Without intending to, I discovered myself:

• Driving around neighborhoods in my city (Livermore, California) listening to music and looking for boxes of free stuff that people had put on the curb (and I was having a BLAST)

• Shocking myself by seeing how conscientious and organized I was

• Enjoying the hell out of my own company

• Feeling cute

Here’s the most important thing: I saw how... um, cool I was. All of a sudden, like, in a snap of my fingers, I developed confidence in myself. By “a snap of my fingers,” I mean it took me about a week of behaving in this new way to develop that confidence.

What I finally understood

I realized the big misconception I’d been living under: that I needed to be following someone else’s protocols if I wanted to feel responsible, safe, and worthy.

For Personal Reasons, I’d found myself packing up my life. I was moving out! Now, every decision was my decision. I didn’t have to consider anyone else’s opinions or needs, so I just started doing everything my way.

KAPOW! I was a powerhouse. I was having fun. I developed, non-trivially, non-abstractly, non-wishy-washily... self-respect.

When I did everything exactly my way - based on what I knew I liked, what I knew would work for my wiring, what I knew lined up with my own priorities, and what I thought was fun - suddenly I was a beast of a machine created exactly right for running my own life.

I didn’t need to find a guru. I didn’t need to follow the methodologies of someone I respected. I could certainly kick societal defaults to the curb. What I needed, for all those many years, was to

1. Know myself and

2. Act like myself.

You probably want to feel much more proud of yourself. You probably want to be completely aware of the traits that make you very, very cool and then live your life by catering to those strengths. Instead of waking up and feeling a bit down because your life is making you feel guilty or embarrassed, you probably would like to wake up and feel... happy about who you are and happy about how your life is going.

It’s probably true that you would like to deeply understand your wiring, what works for you, what really does not work for you, and then feel proud of your gifts, knowing exactly how you can implement and leverage your gifts to make more money, increase the depth and trust of love you’re surrounded by, and enthuse in your own creative outlets and sense of wellness.

(What does this have to do with plants?)

OH HAI MY NAME IS CATHERINE WEN AND I LIKE PLANTS. (And birds.) (And art.)

When I was a kid, my mom pointed out wildflowers to me and taught me their names. During shelter-in-place, I taught myself how to draw and paint... and I also started birding. I have discovered that some of the most ME things I can do involve loving plants, making art, and looking at birds.

Here’s how this connects to how plants can help you find yourself.

You know Tarot cards? Those beautiful decks of cards that you can use as a lens as you look at your life? Tarot cards are wonderfully archetypal. They show you another way to look at a situation, yes, but you can also get a load of the archetype presented on the card and then try that archetype on as your own persona. Why not spend a few minutes pretending to be The Empress or The Fool? There are lots of gorgeous Tarot decks, and there are also lots of Oracle decks. Oracle decks are very similar to Tarot decks, but they don’t follow the same archetypes and format of Tarot. Instead, they present their own archetypes and concepts and lenses.

A while ago, it hit me: plants are Oracles, too. Every one of them has its own attributes and can be an archetype just as powerful as The Star or The Tower.

Every plant you see is, basically, an archetype that you can use just like a Tarot card.

Any collection of plants is like a Tarot spread (that’s when you lay out more than one Tarot card and check out how multiple Tarot cards work together).

So, um, the world is a Tarot deck. Every time you see a plant, you’re also seeing the equivalent of a Tarot card. You can think about whatever question you have through the lens of the attributes and archetypes of each plant. You can spend a day or a week or a lifetime embodying the archetypes and attributes of a given plant.

That’s what this site is all about: showing you plants and the archetypes and attributes they represent. It’s a repository of the wisdom of plants. You can, essentially, find the flowers or trees or weeds or vines that are most like you.

Once you find the plants that are most like you, you can read about how awesome they are, what kinds of contributions they make, and why they’re useful, interesting, and valuable (like you). Then, having gained some insight into attributes of yourself that are completely bonkers cool, you can go and play to those strengths.

This is what changed things for me: I acted according to my strengths. I saw the incredible results I got when I acted according to my strengths. Then I came to believe in myself, so I... acted according to my strengths...

This is a whole virtuous cycle. I want it for you.

If you are someone who would like to understand more precisely what your strengths are (and understand why your attributes are cool), go forth into this website and read all the things. Read about the plants. Find plants that feel like your twin soulmate. And then act like them.

Sometimes the plants will have secret challenges for you. Maybe you’ll notice the secret society associated with this site. But most importantly, by reading through everything you can find here, you’ll find yourself listed as a plant. You are likely more than one plant. You are probably a bouquet or maybe a forest. The more plants you know, the more you’ll understand how their archetypes are your archetypes, and why leading with their attributes will make you happier and more confident.

Start by reading through the plant oracles. Read as much as you can. Really explore this site to find your self or your selves (Hello, Sky Lupine). And when you want a change of pace, maybe take a break to play the Snug Secret Society Game or read the blog.

Welcome here. Now go find yourself.

"I'm at my best when I'm being a California Poppy."