My Journey with Flower Essences
When I was a little girl, we moved back from our 'Ranch' between Redmond & Bend (Deschutes Junction) to an acre 1 mile South of Redmond. My dad had added a cinder block garage to the house which had been built a few years before, & we had some half blocks lying about ... I'd go out to the pasture, & pick some soft leaves, yarrow, filaree .... & taking a stone, grind them on the broken block ...
Knowing, not knowing that there was 'something more to do,' I'd roll little 'pills,' & dry them in the sun. I didn't really 'know' there were things like mortar & pestles, I just 'knew' one ground herbs ...
We had chives by the garage, & mint grew in the ditches. Later, I found that my grandmother Mary had grown & used herbs, including Valerian (not exactly a cooking herb!) so realized that this ingrained sense of 'something more to do' had come down through our family ...
Married for a number of years to a botanist, I learned more about herbs & plants in general. We grew cooking herbs, gathered wild nettles, dandelions, mullein flowers (ear oil)... but he was always disturbed when I we were on a walk & I decided to taste a wildflower we didn't KNOW was edible!
In the late 80s, I found an herb class in SE Portland, & drove up for classes & field trips. We learned to make tinctures, to make salves, & '100 things about 10 herbs' as a beginning. And around that time, I discovered Flower Essences. My first Essence book was Machaelle Small Wright's 'Flower Essences.' I'd read 'Behaving as if the God in All Life Mattered,' & was also gardening with Nature spirits, a la Findhorn Garden. But ... Flower Essences!
Flower Essences are pure alchemy!
When I began making the essences in '91, I wasn't sure, at first, whether it was OK to use flowers that weren't edible. I remember standing by a lovely bleeding heart in full bloom, thinking 'you're about heart healing, aren't you?' (Yep ... "Open hearted ability to love others unconditionally. Emotional freedom.")
I'd been living at Breitenbush a couple of months, & shortly after my Reiki Mastery training, was blessed to have a workshop manifest during the Summer Solstice/Healing Gathering. Ouapiti came up from Eugene, & put a FE sampler class on the schedule!! She had a dozen boxes of essences, & a box of dosage bottles ready for us each to choose essences to make our own personal 'bouquet.'
She began by giving us each drops of an essence bouquet containing Shasta Daisy (& others) for assimilating the info!! She packed lots of information and stories into the 2 hour session, & had a variety of essences from different makers .... WOW!!
I'd already made a few essences, & she was tickled to receive a stock bottle of Thimbleberry - she asked if I knew it's 'definition' - no, I hadn't tried to find it yet, .... 'it's for connecting with the angels, nature spirits & Devas!'
Over the next few years, I attended several Eugene Flower Essence Society & CASE events, & heard lots more stories. By this time, I had a bigger pharmacy of my own essences, & some stories from using them.
In the spring of 1992, Australian
ND & 5th generation healer Ian White presented a workshop on his
Essences. I took a notebook & coloured pencils, he had a great slide show, & later put out a
beautiful book! As an ND, he prefers to work with one or a few
essences, and has a whole system of muscle testing (Bio-kinesiology) to
determine which essence is \appropriate.
Ian: "If you can extract the essence of the flower, you get the highest principle of the plant. Essences address both negative & positive aspects, you can use them as a remedy to correct a negative aspect, and or to reinforce a positive attribute. they can help you focus in on your life path or plan."
I especially appreciated Ian's stories of travelling with his herbalist grandmother (!) and of receiving 'dream teachings' about flowers from which he needed to make an essence. I had also experienced several 'teaching dreams,' both for individual essences, & for a couple of my 'bouquets;' so it was a nice affirmation of my own process. Later, a staff healer brought a set of Ian's essences to use during sessions, so I have a dozen 'second generation' stock bottles from his set. I was particularly interested in the essences he linked to different glands (pineal, pituitary, etc).
The NEXT month, I was in Portland, taking a class from Lila Devi who formulated the "Master's Essences" based on the energetic patterns of balance that Paramahansa Yogananda had assigned different foods - ie: Grape: love ... she also prefers 'simples' (one essence at a time) Lila bespoke individuals having a Type Remedy, one you take periodically to support your own being. The first essence I had purchased was one of hers, Raspberry ('the Healer's Healer, Kindness') several years before! When she suggested looking down the list for an essence that 'stands out,' or a favorite colour, I chuckled, feeling I'd already found mine!
A dozen essences came from my friend Kimbo, who also passed on several Flower Essences & Gem Elixor books. Five or six dozen came from a Reiki Mastery student, Ruth Joy, as part of her payment. Others I've ordered from Perelandra & Green Hope Farm, the Flower Essence Society & Pegasus (including a dozen starlight elixors, 'gathered' using a telescope!)
I've made over a hundred of the essences in my pharmacy.
A lighter
touch than homeopathy, Flower Essences offer our systems information of an
electrical nature.
"As energetic as well as physical beings, we interact with the world energetically....when we experience the energetics of a Flower, we read and benefit from it's problem solving vibration, even as we enjoy it's beauty." Molly Sheehan, Green Hope Farm Essences. Molly feels that while many of us have never met a 'Teacher's Teacher' or ascended Master, we ALL have access to flowers ... & flowers have never forgotten their place in the big picture!! Each flower has a slightly different 'personality' that can help remind us of our own wholeness in a slightly different manner.
Here are definitions for the flowers pictured:
Artichoke: Flexibility and grace. Powerful chakra amplifier; esp crown chakra.
Camas: using your thoughts and voice to create what you want and need to manifest a meaningful and potent life
Calypso Bulbosa Orchid: joy, wonder, honesty, friendship, openness; opens the heart to kindness, gratitude, love, remembrance. Inspires childlike, playful qualities; alleviates stress as it lightens the attitude.
Crab Apple: Inner purity, acceptance of physical body & physical world
Today, I am Grateful for the blessings of the flowers! May they continue to support & uplift us!
Knowing, not knowing that there was 'something more to do,' I'd roll little 'pills,' & dry them in the sun. I didn't really 'know' there were things like mortar & pestles, I just 'knew' one ground herbs ...
 |
| Honey Bee on Artichoke |
 |
| Camas |
In the late 80s, I found an herb class in SE Portland, & drove up for classes & field trips. We learned to make tinctures, to make salves, & '100 things about 10 herbs' as a beginning. And around that time, I discovered Flower Essences. My first Essence book was Machaelle Small Wright's 'Flower Essences.' I'd read 'Behaving as if the God in All Life Mattered,' & was also gardening with Nature spirits, a la Findhorn Garden. But ... Flower Essences!
Flower Essences are pure alchemy!
When I began making the essences in '91, I wasn't sure, at first, whether it was OK to use flowers that weren't edible. I remember standing by a lovely bleeding heart in full bloom, thinking 'you're about heart healing, aren't you?' (Yep ... "Open hearted ability to love others unconditionally. Emotional freedom.")
I'd been living at Breitenbush a couple of months, & shortly after my Reiki Mastery training, was blessed to have a workshop manifest during the Summer Solstice/Healing Gathering. Ouapiti came up from Eugene, & put a FE sampler class on the schedule!! She had a dozen boxes of essences, & a box of dosage bottles ready for us each to choose essences to make our own personal 'bouquet.'
She began by giving us each drops of an essence bouquet containing Shasta Daisy (& others) for assimilating the info!! She packed lots of information and stories into the 2 hour session, & had a variety of essences from different makers .... WOW!!
I'd already made a few essences, & she was tickled to receive a stock bottle of Thimbleberry - she asked if I knew it's 'definition' - no, I hadn't tried to find it yet, .... 'it's for connecting with the angels, nature spirits & Devas!'
Over the next few years, I attended several Eugene Flower Essence Society & CASE events, & heard lots more stories. By this time, I had a bigger pharmacy of my own essences, & some stories from using them.
 |
| Calypso Orchid |
Ian: "If you can extract the essence of the flower, you get the highest principle of the plant. Essences address both negative & positive aspects, you can use them as a remedy to correct a negative aspect, and or to reinforce a positive attribute. they can help you focus in on your life path or plan."
I especially appreciated Ian's stories of travelling with his herbalist grandmother (!) and of receiving 'dream teachings' about flowers from which he needed to make an essence. I had also experienced several 'teaching dreams,' both for individual essences, & for a couple of my 'bouquets;' so it was a nice affirmation of my own process. Later, a staff healer brought a set of Ian's essences to use during sessions, so I have a dozen 'second generation' stock bottles from his set. I was particularly interested in the essences he linked to different glands (pineal, pituitary, etc).
The NEXT month, I was in Portland, taking a class from Lila Devi who formulated the "Master's Essences" based on the energetic patterns of balance that Paramahansa Yogananda had assigned different foods - ie: Grape: love ... she also prefers 'simples' (one essence at a time) Lila bespoke individuals having a Type Remedy, one you take periodically to support your own being. The first essence I had purchased was one of hers, Raspberry ('the Healer's Healer, Kindness') several years before! When she suggested looking down the list for an essence that 'stands out,' or a favorite colour, I chuckled, feeling I'd already found mine!
A dozen essences came from my friend Kimbo, who also passed on several Flower Essences & Gem Elixor books. Five or six dozen came from a Reiki Mastery student, Ruth Joy, as part of her payment. Others I've ordered from Perelandra & Green Hope Farm, the Flower Essence Society & Pegasus (including a dozen starlight elixors, 'gathered' using a telescope!)
I've made over a hundred of the essences in my pharmacy.
 |
| Crab Apple |
"As energetic as well as physical beings, we interact with the world energetically....when we experience the energetics of a Flower, we read and benefit from it's problem solving vibration, even as we enjoy it's beauty." Molly Sheehan, Green Hope Farm Essences. Molly feels that while many of us have never met a 'Teacher's Teacher' or ascended Master, we ALL have access to flowers ... & flowers have never forgotten their place in the big picture!! Each flower has a slightly different 'personality' that can help remind us of our own wholeness in a slightly different manner.
- remove the flowers (I use a silver spoon gifted by a Reiki student) stabilize the charged liquid - I generally use brandy, 1 part to 3 parts of the flower water ... viola! That's your "Mother" essence. A Stock bottle has several drops from a Mother bottle, in 1/3 alcohol to 2/3 water.
Here are definitions for the flowers pictured:
Artichoke: Flexibility and grace. Powerful chakra amplifier; esp crown chakra.
Camas: using your thoughts and voice to create what you want and need to manifest a meaningful and potent life
Calypso Bulbosa Orchid: joy, wonder, honesty, friendship, openness; opens the heart to kindness, gratitude, love, remembrance. Inspires childlike, playful qualities; alleviates stress as it lightens the attitude.
Crab Apple: Inner purity, acceptance of physical body & physical world
Today, I am Grateful for the blessings of the flowers! May they continue to support & uplift us!
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