What does "Plantcestor" mean?
Old Growth Cedar Forest of Lebanon
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PLANT·CES·TOR (aka. PLANT·CES·TAR)\noun\ plant-ses-tər also -səs-\ :
an ancient living organism of the kind exemplified by trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, ferns, and mosses, who live through absorbing water and the soil's minerals through their roots, sunlight/starlight/moonlight/cosmic energy through their leaves, and the carbon-dioxide exhaled by humans and other mammals which they transform into oxygen. These beings are predecessors to the human kingdom, which depends on them to survive for food, breath, medicine, fire, shelter, and more. Through their intimate daily relationships to humans for many centuries, they have acted as vessels of ancestral, elemental, and *cosmic* knowledge, folklore, culture, history, and memory, and have been utilized to support the spiritual and earthly well-being of humans for many generations. They are our ancestor's ancestors, amongst the earliest and most ancient beings whose livelihood, sacrifices, and brilliance has made human & animal life possible upon this Earth. Through intentional and reciprocal cultivation and respectful relationship with these diverse and multi-dimensional allies, humans have been able to access the masterful and mysterious healing miracles and deep wisdom afforded by these highly intelligent ancestors, towards greater alignment with our own authentic purpose, greater wholeness, peace, and balance with the natural order of the universe that ensures and sustains all life. This wisdom of “plants as ancestors” is practiced and tended by indigenous and traditional peoples from all over the globe, rooted in and passed down by the original ways of our ancestors.
[***This terminology was coined and popularized by Layla Kristy Feghali, founder of River Rose Re-membrance, to honor, express, explore, and revive a deeper relationship to these ancestral paradigms and understandings through her own body of practice.]