There is an old saying, “The eye of the master fattens cattle,” which always meant to me that a farmer who pays close attention to his work is more successful. The saying’s roots are more literal than that. The ancient Romans believed that the presence of the landowner on his farm had a beneficial effect on the whole farm, and that his eyes projected a fertilizing virtue on the crops and animals, causing them to grow abundantly in response to his gaze.
Like the evil eye, which was believed to wither and harm living things, the master’s gaze was believed to be a projection of a force or substance that caused things to grow and prosper. The Roman agronomist Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella said of the visits of the landowner to his estate, “For the head of the household comes down the more willingly to feast his eyes upon his wealth in proportion to its splendour; and, as the poet says of the sacred deity, wheresoever the god has turned his goodly head, truly, wherever the person and eyes of the master are frequent visitors, there the fruit abounds in greater measure.”
Scholar Britta K. Ager in her dissertation entitled “Roman Agricultural Magic” says, “Columella describes the eyes of the owner as something almost separate from the man himself. The master’s gaze, as it sweeps across the plants, impels them to flourish and grow more vigorously.”
It seems I have been unwittingly practicing ancient Roman agricultural magic my whole career by walking around the farm, evening being my favorite time for such walks, and admiring the beauty of the garden and its abundance, as well as assessing where work needs to be done. This is the instinctive magic of the relationship of mutuality that we humans can have with the plant kingdom.
Most people have heard of the idea that plants like to be talked to or that they are in some way responsive to our thoughts and intentions. These ideas were popularized in the 1973 book The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, and in the documentary of the same name. Suffice it to say that talking to and singing to plants is just something that seems natural to me, as it does to many other plant people.
Practicing The Art of Energy Healing Through Reiki
In recent years, however, I have endeavored to raise this practice beyond the instinctual by deliberately trying to send energy to the plants via an energy healing modality originally from Japan known as Reiki. Reiki derives from the two Japanese words rei and ki. Rei literally means “universal” but has esoteric connotations and is understood as “all pervasive” in a spiritual sense. Ki is the universal life force that is known in Chinese as “qi” and is known to esoteric systems all over the world. So, Reiki, therefore, means spiritually directed life energy. In many ways Reiki resembles medical qigong, which was undoubtedly an influence on the founders of Reiki, including Mikao Usui, who discovered Reiki during a mystical experience as a student of Zen Buddhism in 1922.
The idea of a life force that flows through nature and enlivens all living things is common to all cultures. It was known to the Stoic school of philosophy in ancient Greece as the pneuma, “an all-pervasive force which … holds all things together — from the universe as a totality to an individual body within it.” The various philosophical schools of India refer to this force as prana, the Romans called it spiritus, and in Hebrew it is known as ruach. All of these are equated with wind and the breath of life. Indeed, the Taoist sage Zhuangzhe said, “The universe exhales its qi and it is named wind.” In North America, the Lakota people call the force which gives life to everything that lives wóniya. A bit of research can furnish endless examples of that force that we are working with when we practice Reiki.
What makes Reiki different from other energy healing practices is that the ki in Reiki is understood to be directed by a divine or spiritual intelligence. The healer doesn’t utilize their own life force to affect the healing, as in some other systems, but acts as a channel for the Reiki energy, such that we merely have to place our hands over the client to heal. The healer visualizes celestial light entering into the crown chakra and flowing out from their hands into the body of the recipient. The healing force is then directed to where it is needed by the Reiki, which is seen as an intelligent spiritual force. I think of it in Western terms as an angel or a divine being — and this is how it came to me during my Master initiation — as Christ consciousness.
But the Western esoteric system has a broken chain of transmission due to loss of the mystery schools and centuries of persecution by the hostile forces of the exoteric versions of the Christian faith. This leads to gaps in our system that need to be filled to be able to resurrect the mystery tradition and create a viable whole.
Energy healing is one place especially where the West has lost its tradition (one exception being Braucherei — I’m sure there are others), and generally embraced the materialistic model of medicine that has prevailed since the nineteenth century. That system has brought us many advances that I would not want to do without. But I am not talking about giving up Western scientific medicine and all of its lifesaving advances. I am talking about taking back some power and agency for our health by using time-honored and time-tested techniques from around the world.
So, if you desire to be a community magic practitioner and healer in the twenty-first century, or even just a cunning farmer, you would do well to avail yourself of the best techniques that are on offer. Sensei Usui generously bestowed upon us in the West the miraculous healing practice known as Reiki as the selfless act of the loving kindness of a bodhisattva.
I have used Reiki extensively with my family. For ordinary aches and pains, it is outstanding. It has reduced my personal use of ibuprofen, which I use to dull the aches and pains incidental to a life of farm labor, to practically none. A few moments with Reiki hands on a headache or a backache usually clears it up. I have sent distance Reiki to friends and family, and those who have reported back report improvement, some even miraculous.
Reiki for Plants
I have used Reiki techniques extensively on the crops, both while they are in the fields and on seedlings in the greenhouse. While not a controlled experiment, I noticed increased yields, even during drought conditions, and decreased pest problems, such as not having to use my organic sprays for cabbage worms until June, which is unheard of. It is an enjoyable practice to walk up and down the rows of healthy growing crops, broadcasting Reiki from my hands while chanting a mantra.
Plants are spiritual beings without a doubt. They have been experimentally shown to respond to the thoughts and feelings of those who tend them. Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird’s book The Secret Life of Plants details several remarkable experiments in which plants were shown (using sensitive electronic equipment) to respond to the positive and negative intentions of their cultivators, flourishing with praise and withering with scorn!
My friend Salvador would call out to the plants, saying “Animo, matitas!” (Courage, little plants!) during a drought.
So, when we go out on the land in among the plants we tend, and try to project love and positivity, they respond. One of my favorite things to do has been to sing to my plants or hum to them during times when they are stressed. My friend Salvador would call out to the plants, saying “Animo, matitas!” (Courage, little plants!) during a drought. We once had a patch of zucchini and assorted other squash that went for a month with no rain, yet continually produced baskets of squash, which we picked every day, praising the plants and offering them encouragement the whole time.
Salvador told me that his father taught him to be very sentimental with the plants. He told me a story about when he and his father were weeding the corn patch and it started to get dark, so it was almost time to quit for the day. Earlier in the day his father had told him that the corn plants were frightened of the weeds, and that it was their job to help them. Well, at quitting time, little Salvador began to cry. His father asked him why he was crying, and he replied that he didn’t want to leave the plants because they were frightened. His father told him not to worry, because they would come right back in the morning to help them first thing.
In Salvador’s garden, many plants would volunteer from seed dropped the previous year, especially tomatillos, whose husk-covered tomato-like fruits are used to make the delicious salsa verde and other mouth-watering salsas used in Mexican cuisine. Every season his little garden would be absolutely overrun with the weedy tomatillo vines. He said it pained him to weed them out because, upon going to pull one out, it was as if he could hear them say, “Don’t pull me out; look what I’m going to give you!” And seeing the little tomatillos forming on the vines, he wouldn’t be able to pull them up.
That level of sensitivity toward our little green brothers and sisters is definitely noticed and rewarded by them. But unfortunately, it is not a practice encouraged in today’s agricultural scene, where high yields, massive machinery, toxic chemicals, and biological experimentation with genetic modification is the norm, rather than the slow and patient work of listening to the voice of the plant spirits and responding with love and gentleness.
Promoting the well-being of plants and contributing to the production of healthy foods are a fundamental part of maintaining human health. We have a relationship of mutuality with the natural world that, when honored and cultivated, leads to greater health and well-being, but when ignored leads to disease and disharmony and many of the problems we see in the culture around us.
The only way to really get an understanding of these energetic practices is to dive in and try it yourself. A Reiki level one class is a good place to start, as is simply working with intent on the green things in your care.
Reprinted with permission from The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology & Folklore by Todd Elliott. Inner Traditions, 2026.
Todd Elliott is a practicing farmer, Druid, Reiki master, and astrological magician who lives and works on a ridgetop farm in Kentucky, ethically raising crops and livestock with his family, while preserving these endangered traditions.
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