One hot, summer, Sunday afternoon (before I got air conditioning) some healer friends and I were trying to help a friend of mine using energy medicine. She was lying on a massage table and we were standing in a ring around her. Sweat poured down our faces and armpits, and the heat was intensified by the energy channeling through our bodies.

Heat is not something I handle well.

I had been studying herbalism with Matthew Wood and he’d been talking about how plant spirits can sometimes act even when the physical plant is not present. I was wishing for some relief when I felt the spirit of the lovage plant from my backyard come bustling into the room—tall, green as celery, and cool. She went straight to the head of the treatment table, placing her hands straight into my friend’s aura. As she did so, my perceived temperature decreased perceptibly and my friend’s body began to accept the healing more readily. I don’t know whether the temperature actually lowered or my ability to handle the heat improved. That is something lovage is known for.  

It’s easy to see how that might have been my imagination.

Then someone else said, “Does anyone else feel a bit cooler?”