Listening to Nature to Set Ourselves Free
The essence of flowers — a poetic idea, to be sure. Much more than that in a practical sense, flower essences have proven to users the world over that their energies do make a difference — subtly yet often unmistakably assisting us to put our higher nature to work. You can find the story of Edward Bach, who developed the first of the essences about a century ago, on the bookshelves of most stores and pharmacies that carry the small but potent vials.
To help spread the message of just what flower essences are and how they work, we offer you excerpts from a couple of recently published books on the subject. The first will answer your questions on a practical level; the second excerpt is a glimpse into the author's intuitive development of flower essences from desert plants, a more mystical treatment of what is, indeed, an intuitive and mystical endeavor.
an excerpt from
The Essential Flower Essence Handbook
by Lila Devi
What Are Flower Essences?
Flower essences are herbal tinctures that strengthen and balance us on the psychological and emotional levels of our being. Prepared from pure spring water and the blossoms themselves, they are set for three hours in direct sunlight. They are stored in a dark bottle and are preserved in a brandy base. Flower essences are taken two to four drops at a time, four times a day, under the tongue or applied topically if brandy sensitivity is present. They are best not taken with food: Take ten minutes before a meal or one hour afterward. Essences may be taken more often if desired. Results range from immediate and dramatic to mild and more gentle. People will often notice changes in their eating and sleeping habits and/or dreaming patterns, energy levels, ability to form new insights and resolutions.
[Consider Master's Flower Essences, for example.] Started in 1977, the Master's Flower Essences are the second oldest essence line in existence. They are prepared specifically from the organic blossoms of fruits, a few nuts and vegetables that give them the added benefit of being familiar to us and more easily assessed. Craving oranges? Eating lots of almonds? Great essence clues!
The Active Ingredient
"I was playing out the same things over and over in my mind for months," recounted Stephen of a difficult breakup. "Now it's over and done with. The essences really allowed me to let go of what I was holding on to and release the pain." With the assistance of flower essences to vibrationally remind us of who we already are, we can break the false hypnotism of our human frailty.
Through the high vibratory rate of the blossoms from which they are prepared, flower essences interact with our willingness and commitment to change ourselves. Willingness and commitment equal energy, the active ingredient in flower essence therapy. The essences both honor and activate our life force, the true source of healing. They act as catalysts, or pump-primers. For this reason, we may rightfully take credit for the changes that we co-create through taking the essences. A common response to them is, "I'm not sure if they're helping, but I do feel better!" Or, "I really feel like myself again." And since happiness is our natural state, it is only natural to want to return to it.
Energy generates magnetism, and a stronger magnetism vibrationally influences a weaker one. If, for example, a strongly negative person shakes hands with a weaker positive person, the weaker person will be negatively influenced. The opposite is also the case. Flower essences, as living vibrations, both possess and project magnetism. Their magnetism, being stronger and more positive than ours when we are out of balance, elevates us to their level, like being in the presence of someone who inspires and uplifts us. Through ingesting the essences or applying them topically, we place ourselves in their "presence."
In the journey we undertake with flower essences, we are lifted up to their higher rate of vibration. A musical metaphor can also illustrate this point. A flower remedy may be likened to a tuning fork. By attuning ourselves to it, we become in tune with the song of our unique perfection. With essences, we look to balance, and strengthen the personality. And since each individual is different, there is no pat formula or set order of essences. An essence program is as unique as the person following it.
Will the changes initiated by the essences last? People often ask this question. In most cases, the answer is yes although none of us are immune to backsliding! However, it is also true that, as a rule, we heal in stages, attaining deeper levels of clarity and insight rather than categorically clearing lifelong issues instantaneously. If you take Raspberry, for example, to be freed of the pain of past emotional wounds, you may experience a response similar to Stephen's mentioned earlier. The change will most likely be permanent, provided that your thoughts and actions continue to support it. If, for example, Sean takes Tomato to gather the strength and will power to disentangle himself from an abusive relationship, it will not serve him to return to that unhealthy situation. Environment, it has been said, is stronger than will power.
An Essence for Everything?
Often clients ask, "Is there an essence for everything?" "Do you have an
essence for my husband's procrastination?" "My sister-in-law is so overbearing — what do you have to make
her change?" "Which essence works for insomnia?" "My son is teething. Is there an essence for his discomfort?" A
generic answer is, "Yes, there is an essence for everything." Implicit in our desire to be well and whole is the remedy
itself. True seeking leads to sought-after answers.
Enter Flower Essences
Although Corn addresses procrastination and Grape is wonderful for bossiness, the real issue at hand may not be other people, but us. Our strength lies in our ability to work on our issues and confront our own tailor-made tests. In truth, we are powerless over others except to the extent that we project a positive magnetism, inspiring them by our example. And what victory when the shortcomings of others no longer negatively affect us! Considerable self-honesty is necessary in order to realize that the flaws we see in others may be the same as those we ourselves possess. If we find bossiness in someone else, it would be worthwhile to introspect on whether we, too, harbor that tendency.
As for the second set of questions above: Yes, Lettuce assists with the emotional states behind insomnia, and Orange is helpful for teething pain. Flower essences work with the energy that triggers these physical issues, and not directly on the actual physiological states. When peace of mind is restored, any latent seeds of illness may remain unnourished and thus unable to sprout. Sometimes, however, illness is necessary; we needn't look at illness, or even death, as failure. Essences do not remove our tests; they help clarify them.
To simplify, all flower essences do the same thing for every living thing: They restore us to a state of balance in which our internal, intelligent life force is activated. Life force is the real healer; the energy of flower essences merely primes it. And since the uplifting qualities embodied in the essences are our truest nature, to resonate with those qualities is only natural.
What Flower Essences Don't Do
Essences do not affect us biochemically, as does traditional allopathic medicine. Sedatives, for example, can knock you out for the night. This is not the case with flower essences. In other words, they allow us to change; they do not make us change.
A point to remember: Flower essences will not change us into anything but our true selves. Thus, we never need worry about misusing them to manipulate our own, or others' behavior. It is simply not possible. There's a joke about the man who, upon having his arm set in a cast, asked the doctor if he would be able to play the piano when it healed. "Of course," replied the doctor. "Good," said the man, " I couldn't before." Not so with flower essences. They allow us to refine who we already are without altering our essential nature.
The excerpt above was taken from the new book, The Essential Flower Essence Handbook, Remedies For Inner Well-Being by Lila Devi, with permission of publisher Hay House, and is available at all bookstores or by calling 800/654-5126.
The Alchemy of the Desert
by Cynthia Athina Kemp Scherer
Preface
What is the alchemy of the desert? The great work of the alchemists was to find the way to transform things with no value into ones of value, such as lead into gold. The modern alchemist can use the help of nature to turn problems into opportunities; trauma into experience; handicaps into assets; lack into abundance; patterns of imbalance into qualities of harmony.
I offer this book as a supportive guide for those interested in cultivating their own relationship with the nature kingdom, especially through the wondrously unique plant life of the desert.
Every flower essence is a co-creative blending of the nature kingdom and the blessings of someone of human consciousness. Each flower essence I have made and worked with has been prepared with the highest blessings I can offer for the support and upliftment of all of humanity. May they be empowered with the highest capacity for healing and supporting consciousness.
[This book contains] the result of about fifteen years of research in co-creating and using desert flower essences. When I began co-creating the essences, I had no idea how they worked to create harmony with myself. I was only aware that when I used them, I would feel better. I had a great desire to know myself well enough to recognize exactly how each essence was working within myself, and to be able to explain the process to others. In a very short time the patterns, or the attitudes, of disharmony began to be apparent within myself (proving that what I ask for, I receive!). I realized that the awareness of these patterns was a vital part of being able to understand how to use the essences with myself and others.
[The question I am asked most often is how I got started making flower essences. This is the story. It illustrates the potent healing power of the desert.]
Desert Discovery
...I never desired or imagined that I would return to the United States where I had been born. Yet the universe, in its infinite wisdom, had other plans for me. After ten years of living in my beloved Greece, it became painfully obvious that I was to return to the United States. I had no idea of what I wanted to do there.
I met a woman who told me, "I don't know why, but I feel that I must introduce you to these things called flower essences."
She couldn't tell me much about them, but I felt a strange sense of recognition as she showed me some little bottles of Bach Flower Remedies. Not really knowing what they were, I began to use them. I had no idea what they did, but I knew that I felt better for using them.
After spending one year of wandering about the United States in deep culture shock, I found myself in Tucson, Arizona. The first thing I did was to drive out into a huge cactus forest where I felt immediately at home. I knew that my wandering was over, that I had found my home again. The instant attunement with the desert and all its plants was startlingly powerful for me. I felt as if I had been here before and I knew that the desert was very special for me.
I found a secluded house out in the middle of the desert where I lived all alone. At once I began to cultivate a relationship with the desert in the same way you would get to know neighbors or make friends with people. I simply spent my time with the desert.
Even though I was very attracted to the desert, I was also very afraid of it at first because it was so strange. At the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, and through books, I began to learn about the plant and animal life so that I could feel comfortable running about the desert floor. The greatest learning, however, came to me through my spending time with the plants themselves. It was as if they had been waiting to share with me, to show me their strange strategies of adaptation. They wanted to share with me the ways in which they could discriminate with their energy, and how individuated they were.
I fell in love with these unique plants and very quickly felt very at home among them. Because I did not know people in or around Tucson, the plants became my friends just as they had when I was a child.
Here in the Arizona desert we have a huge cactus called Saguaro. You have probably seen them in the old western cowboy movies.... This cactus stands erect, sometimes as tall as fifty-two feet, with great arms that appear to stretch up high to the heavens. When I see these magnificent creatures I feel so humble, as if I am in the presence of something ancient and majestic.
One day as I was driving through a whole forest of these great cactuses and feeling a deep sense of oneness with them, I had a powerful experience that was to change my whole life. It was as if the Saguaros were talking to me, yet what I heard came from within myself.
I heard, "Cynthia, why don't you make a flower essence from us, the Saguaros?"
I was very excited by the idea. Then another realization struck me very strongly; I didn't know how to make a flower essence. In fact, I didn't even know exactly what a flower essence was. I thought that I couldn't actualize this great idea, so I pretended that this experience hadn't even happened.
About two weeks later, I was awakened by someone knocking on my door at 5:30 in the morning. I was very surprised as I lived out in the wild desert with no one around. When I opened the door, I saw a Gilia Woodpecker bird perched on the door jamb. I experienced the same communication that I had with the Saguaros. What I heard inside myself this time was, "Today is the day you will make your first flower essence, so get up and get ready!" Then the bird flew away.
What ensued was one of the greatest battles I have experienced within myself. My mind was convinced that I was completely crazy. Had I spent too long in the desert? Was all this really happening to me?
Yet as the same time, within me arose a deep sense of peace and rightness. All the knowledge that I needed was right there inside myself. I just needed to listen and trust. By listening to the wisdom within myself, I was led through all the steps of making a Saguaro flower essence.
About a month after I began making flower essences, I met a woman who was teaching how to make [them]. She verified that the way I was making the essences was indeed the same way in which others were making them. I had outer verification that I could trust my inner wisdom.
I had felt completely alien when I returned to the United States. In the nature of the desert I saw plants that looked like aliens from another planet. We had much in common. In retrospect, I see that it took me three years to overcome the deepest effects of culture shock and begin to feel comfortable relating to others. The flower essences and my ever deepening relationship with the nature kingdom (and ultimately myself) were a major support during these demanding years. The difficulties and challenges that I faced and resolved were the foundation for the research presented in this book.
The above was taken from the new book, The Alchemy of the Desert: a comprehensive guide to desert flower essences for professional and self-help use, by Cynthia Athina Kemp Scherer with permission of publisher Desert Alchemy Editions. Available at bookstores or from the publisher at P.O. Box 44189, Tucson, AZ 85733; telephone: 520-325-8405; email: info@desert-alchemy.com; web:www.desert-alchemy.com.