Sparkling Lotus Ink

eta - regarding nuts & bolts . 2

I really need to apologize for a HUGE oversight in part 2 of this information sharing.  Have added a cleaned-up version of the following guidance to the text but thought to post this separately for those who've already read that post. 

During the organizational prep - right before or after you label your mother stock jar - you need to add your stabilizer of choice to that jar.  I like a 30-60 ratio : stabilizer to mother stock.     For my smaller bowls that works out to roughly a finger's worth of stabilizer in the bottom of a half-pint canning jar.   Large bowls need two fingers.  My six inch bowls settle nicely with one and a half.

Some people bring a jar with brandy into the field with them.  That way they aren't ball parking.  They can see exactly how much mother stock liquid is in the first straining bottle and add a precise proportional amount of stabilizer to the mother stock bottle.

I don't do this simply because it would be one more physical object for me to keep track of, potentially drop multiple times, and just generally serve to lessen the buzz of co-creative thrall I feel when I prep as much as I possibly can in advance.

Note:  If I get outside and find a bowl's evaporation rate is greater than I expected I pour the surplus brandy into the ground or distribute it among other mother stock bottles-in-waiting. 

Essence Coalescence - nuts & bolts part 2

Bronze Fennel bowl from '06 just prior to straining.  Notice the water is filmy with a layer of flower pollen.  This illustrates why I advise triple straining prior to adding this liquid to its brandy stabilizer.  Any trace of pollen or other organic matter will hasten spoilage - sometimes within a matter of just a few months.

 I left out an important detail in part one of this mini-series:

 after you've filled the bowl with flowers and adjusted the water level set it in a place where you know it will get four hours of uninterrupted sunlight.  If you're taking your best guess - make time to check your hunch every 45 minutes to an hour and adjust the bowl's placement if necessary.  If you need to do this keep the bowl in sunlight as you move it if you possibly can.  If you can't then just hustle the bowl right along to its next resting spot.  Explain you're new at this.  Flowers are endlessly compassionate and capable of adjustments we can barely fathom.  Add to which you're doing this for you and those in your circle - not to mass produce the most assiduously pristine essence in order to keep the product radiant and maximize each drop of every mother stock.  So far as I know there are no free-range flower essence police who make surprise inspections in the average person's dooryard. 

do your best and let nature intelligence do the rest!

AND NOW IT'S THREE HOURS LATER

Harvesting & Stabilizing Mother Stocks

I advise beginning to organize yourself at the hour 3 mark especially if you've never done this before.  The more organically you connect to the flower medicine spirit(s) involved, solar energy in a lesser-explored dimension, or the simple beauty of dropping out of NOW in order to go deeper into timelessness - the more spaced out you are in the linear sense.  This is true, objectively, even though you're also quite likely feeling as grounded as you ever have.   You may have powered through your time of doing whatever you've been doing with electrified focus and heightened consideration. Even if you perceive nothing at all happening you will still embody your own elastic potential to be both totally present and totally cosmic right at the same time.  That's why you need some lead time to keep your body and brain in strong linear balance with your heightened experiential awareness.

Ground & Stabilize - specifically by eating something.  Innumerable energetic healers and flower alchemists advise choosing solid nutrient dense food that is literally OF the ground.  During parts of the summer when weather forecasts suggest I'll be preparing multiple essences for a few days running - I prepare a platter of chilled steamed carrots dressed very simply with tarragon, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.   These are easy to grab as finger food right before I head out the door with my collection materials.  If I've allotted more than 15 minutes to eat something I'll heat up and mash part of a yam with some freshly grated ginger root.

important:  don't have any honey, fruit, or fruit juice!!  This will lead to your central and sympathetic nervous system vibrating extra fast due to the higher frequency range it's accessing via your part in the alchemy process.  Super-quick response time is wonderful to watch in a hummingbird but not so kind to your jacked-up neurology.

Prepare Your Materials

 I advise assembling everything you'll need on an easy to carry tray or within a small cardboard box.  I usually do this about halfway into the fusing process just in case I misjudged available supplies and have to make creative adjustments.   Once you've assembled the material supplies listed in Part 1:

Prepare a label for the container that will hold the stabilized mother stock.  Include the name of the flower.  Indicate it's a mother stock and when you've prepared it.  I also include solar and lunar astrological information:

The jar above contains a blend with 11 different flowers.  On the other side of the bottle I've attached an additional label with everything named.

Attach your label(s) to the jar.  I use standard issue Avery labels which often resist strong adherence to the glass jar so I also use washi tape to keep the label in place without being time-consuming to remove when need be.  

After you label your mother stock jar add your stabilizer of choice. I like a 30-60 ratio : stabilizer to mother stock.     For my smaller bowls that works out to roughly a finger's worth of stabilizer in the bottom of a half-pint canning jar.   Large bowls need two fingers.  My six inch bowls settle nicely with one and a half.

Some people bring a jar of their chosen stabilizer into the field with them.  That way they aren't ball parking.  They can see exactly how much mother stock liquid is in the first straining bottle and add a precise proportional amount of stabilizer to the mother stock bottle.

I don't do this simply because it would be one more physical object for me to keep track of, potentially drop multiple times, and just generally serve to lessen the buzz of co-creative thrall I feel when I prep as much as I possibly can in advance.

Note:  If you get outside and find a bowl's evaporation rate is greater than expected - pour the surplus brandy into the ground or distribute it among other mother stock bottles-in-waiting. 

 *******

Your bowl's remaining liquid will be strained 3 times.  That's why you have 3 containers and 3 sets of double layered coffee filters per essence.  The same funnel will be used for all three strainings.

This part of the process will be a different kind of mindful work from what you experienced in the preparation phase.  You're excited and involved in something you couldn't have done by yourself. And on the other extreme - the more you've done this and progressively learned how to self-calibrate the more you're also testing your edges each and every time just as you would with yoga, lucid dreaming, or any other mind-body-earth-cosmos activity.  Your consciousness is expanding and WANTS to grow farther and farther.  This ephemeral imperative is under-storied with internalized experiences that quite often defy words or even inner categories you can recognize.

***

practical insight:  If they've been well-strained and are lovingly maintained mother stocks that are stabilized with unflavored oak barrel aged brandy can last for years.  Vinegar and red shiso stabilized mother stocks will need replacing on a very regular basis.  

Everyone finds their own way with this part of it but let me spare you one particular intuitively based heartbreak: I began my alchemy adventures stabilizing everything with Grand Marnier.  I thought it would be a lovely experience for the flowers' vibrations and also human recipients of the essences.  Each and every one of those mother stocks spoiled in record time.  In a few unwelcome cases - in just a matter of weeks!

***

As you head outside make sure you bring with you: 

*a hat to protect both your crown chakra and your central nervous system - especially if you weren't wearing a hat when you prepared your bowl.  Your crown center needs protection because it's open and actively receiving light-filled energetic information of a very powerful wattage.   The sheer quantum mechanics can be too much for your subtle bodies' electrical circuitry in many of the same ways that time spent hat-less in full sun may overload your cardio-vascular system.

a hat.

A HAT.

*Water for yourself to drink as you work unless you're very well hydrated in advance.

***

If you have the luxury of time prior to collection - plan to sit with your essence bowl for just a little while.  Leave your imprint on the landscape which is leaving its imprint within your collection bottle.  be as one with all.  center in that oneness.

when you're ready to break that perceptual flow

sit on the ground or a low stool with back facing a north or east orientation from the bowl.  This insures your shadow won't fall on it during the straining process.  I pick it up in both hands unless it's very small.  Hold it up towards the sun and say Thank You before beginning the straining process.  This is what feels right to me although prior to moving here I didn't have the privacy to always feel comfortable doing it.  Do what feels right to YOU within the process of disconnecting the bowl from the path of the sun's light

Work slowly and carefully.  Place a pair of coffee filters in the funnel and slowly pour the bowl liquid into the funnel.  Try to get as much of the liquid into the funnel and fully strained into the first designated container before tipping-in the flowers and remaining liquid.  Let all of the plant matter strain for a moment.   As you watch the remaining drips of liquid fall in the glass shift your eyes to the general landscape.  Notice tiny sparkling ways you may feel a part of it more completely. 

Once I feel confident most of the liquid has strained into the container I gently place the first set of filters into the emptied bowl.  I then strain the liquid two more times.  At the point of the third straining I'm moving liquid into my labeled mother stock. 

I hold the bottle up towards the sun and say a second thanks.  Then I shake the bottle with a vigorous yet respectful motion for a count of 77.   Once I'm back in the house and better grounded I will continue to shake the bottle for another ten reps of 77 shakes - plus 7 additional shakes.  This means the mother stock has been blended and called into activation by YOU with a total of 777 shakes. 

This is the point, out in the field, where people want it to be a joke or something they can bargain past.  Some protest with a lot of conviction and swear they could never.  Nonetheless.  It's how I learned, it's what I swear by, and it's also why I think hypersensitive alchemists pick up a bottle of Sparkling Lotus essences, widen their eyes and exclaim WOW.  It's exquisite numerology and is worth the repetitive motion unless your shoulder/something else is damaged in ways that would prohibit it.

that said ...

If the mere idea is just too much of too much for you - consider using a rule of thumb I've been seeing online within newer alchemist's tip sheets.  Shake the bottle until it begins to feel heavier and more substantial.  Put the mother stock in a safe and special place out of direct light.  Make sure the bottle isn't making direct contact with other bottles and won't be handled vicariously.   I usually wait about 72 hours before preparing a greatly diluted stock bottle from the mother stock.  So I'll cover those instructions in a separate post sometime next week.

evening primrose bowl from '18 simply because it's bright and beautiful.  Plus a lady bug do you see it?

 a crucial part of this entire process is the final action of reciprocity.  Return the flowers from the bowl to the base of the plant(s) where you collected them. Take all the coffee filters and squeeze their remaining liquid directly onto the plant.  I sing at this point.  Usually in spontaneous sustained tones but once in a memorable highlight of deviation I was returning California Poppy flowers to their patch at SL2 when I suddenly heard myself chanting we're going going / back to Cali Cali.  

That was a very fun day and now I chant at length to each season's Cali Pops as they love to be called.  I have re-worded a lot of the GBTC verse lyrics so they apply and actually want to come out of my mouth.  Flower medicine spirits and attendant nature devas are inherently very playful.  When they get a bead on who you are they may entice you to come out of yourself and be joyous with them in all sorts of unexpected ways.

This is the SL2 colony of California Poppies that pulled a song out of me I didn't even realize I'd absorbed.

***

additional details

*I love to take what remains of the wet coffee filters and wipe them on the back of my neck, pulse points, the palms of my hands, or soles of my feet.  Then I like to go back to the house and paint with watercolor for an hour or so.  To record my initial impressions of flower wisdom and personal insight in this form without words.  They come later.  First comes drippy and ever-eloquent color in its most flower-like form.

*Because you've spent a chunk of time actively or passively moving energy in a way that involves several forms of Other intelligence and multiple vibrational frequencies you may ping pong between feeling like you're mainlining coffee to feeling like you could remain motionless forever.  Both extremes will temper themselves within a few hours of grounded activity.   

pro-tip: sometimes your physical reaction will depend on the specific flower medicine and its strongest range of influence on the human form.

*I've observed at a strictly anecdotal level that those of us with muscular pain often hurt a lot more prior to sleeping.   After that there's often a blessed dip in pain level that lasts for a number of days.   Sometimes far longer for those with a diligent yoga/body-working routine. 

*Keep a small jotter notebook or a few folded scraps of paper and a writing/drawing implement close at hand.   You may have sudden flashes that you want to record before they flash right out of your memory's reach.

essence preparation - nuts & bolts .1

  The picture above shows an essence bowl set upon a battered wooden TV tray.  It's sitting within the midst of our evolving sanctuary garden and the bowl is full of Bottle Gentian flowers.   Took the pic just before harvesting and processing the mother stock there in the later summer of '18. 

To successfully make a flower essence you need the following atmospheric elements:

* A sunny day with no/virtually no clouds.  

* Temps somewhere between 60 and 80 degrees.  You can push it to 85 degrees if you have to but setting out bowls in downright HOT weather insures your flowers will fry rather than fuse.  Remember the sun heated glass will in turn heat the water.  It's always going to be significantly warmer for the flowers in the bowl than the air temperature feels against your skin.

* Time in which to keep track of time:  4 hours worth.  You don't have to stay right there, obviously, but you do have to remain aware of the ongoing project (I set both my stove and phone timers) - keeping special track of any sudden/cloudy shifts in weather. 

6 inch bowl of coltsfoot flowers nestled into a stone wall adjacent to the site of the colony where the flowers were harvested. '07

on the material plane you need:

*A pair of small sewing or herb-cutting scissors/snips that remains dedicated solely for harvesting essence preparation flowers.

*Unflavored brandy* to stabilize the harvested mother stock.  I use E&J specifically because Matthew Wood favors it.  Equally specific: he does as much due to the brandy being aged in oak barrels.

* you can also use brown rice vinegar or a red shiso decoction

*THREE size-proportionate glass containers (I use half pint canning jars) per essence preparation. 

*SIX coffee filters - unbleached preferred but we're all pinch-hitting these days - per essence bowl.  You can use paper towels in a pinch although many shed pulp that defeats the purpose of straining.  I've had better luck layering two or three pieces of white tissue paper.

*ONE funnel (large enough to accommodate a coffee filter containing liquid and soaking wet flowers) per essence.

* simple CLEAR glass bowls dedicated to essence preparation and nothing else*.  no pyrex.   I have fairly shallow bowls that are 3, 4, and 6 inches in diameter.  I also have the 12 inch diameter version of the same bowl.  All were purchased at a dollar store 18 years ago after an essence making friend grasped how perfect they'd be for our purposes and tried out the smallest bowl size by preparing an amethyst elixir.  We had the type of friendship that involved excited phone calls when great bargains of vast consequence were discovered.  In short order she'd picked me up and we were on the way to the store so I could purchase a set of my own. 

*if you don't immediately know that you have a bowl or bowls that might work - consider what you're currently unable to recycle due to the pandemic.  Look for short glass jars with wide mouths such as small spice/herb jars or clear glass containers from non-toxic beauty products.  Wash and clean these jars thoroughly.  I like to leave them to dry in the sun.

4 inch blend bowl set upon the breastplate of our natural stone fire pit on the summer solstice '15

[I removed the ant drawn to the meadowsweet in the bowl - and swiftly transported it to a shaded recuperation site - after noticing it through the camera lens]

Additionally - many no-pick flower alchemists work with taller wide mouthed jars that allow for submerging full-peak flowers still attached to the plant or bush.  Have done it sporadically with larger plants bearing flexible flower stalks - mints, bergamots, comfrey, a white lilac flower branch, a spray of flowering quince, etc.

re-imagining tip - I have made an emergency-status essence with just two key lime flowers* and spring water placed in the hole of a plain glass candle holder.

*lime flowers have a special affinity for cleansing the auras and emotional/psychic bodies of healers/teachers/leaders/activists.  At the time of my emergency improvisation I was working between 5 and 10 hours a week with a group of self-described 'disaffected yet enraged' teenagers.  Although I could say tons more I don't think I really have to ...

3 inch verbascum essence.  Two 4 inch blend bowls in the southern bed of my former garden '07.  Note that rather than removing each motherwort and yarrow flower individually, I plunged the flower heads upside down into the bowl's water.  Never did it that way before but I'd observed a friend embrace the method to great success and was glad to try.

and of course you also need

appropriate water.  Avoid tap water that is highly -inated with much of anything.  Some people boil such water if it's their only option then set it in the sun for an hour or so to regain vibrancy.  I don't use our well water because it's very hard and overly endowed with mineral deposits.  This messes with the fusion process and tends to produce mother stocks that spoil in relatively short order or simply feel heavy rather than sparkle-bright.  I collect water especially for this work from a friend's wellspring and when that's gone I break out my yearly purchase of two 12 ounce water bottle six packs from a local source.  Each bottle is enough to fill a few essence bowls at one time. 

How to Proceed:

for Phase One of this process you'll need your bowl,  an easy-pour container of appropriate water, your designated scissors/snips and a well-balanced softly focused mind.

Your intention and practical goals will be centered on preparing the bowl for its four hour sun and water fusion process.  This involves filling the bowl with enough water to hold the flowers you'll collect and then gently adding enough water to allow turning some flowers upside down.

[note:  if you select a large tree flower or something huge like a peony, artichoke, lotus, or dahlia you may need to raid your pantry for a relatively shallow clear glass prep bowl. If you don't have one  - or something else that feels like a strong choice - you'll have to deconstruct the bloom a bit in order to get all of it submerged in the watery bowl.]

GROUND AND CENTER 

breathe deeply a few times. 

If everything within your experience falls into place super easily you may get very spaced out and not realize it until you move back into more normalized and familiar activities. 

Approach your chosen plant.  Ideally you'll already have some type of personal alliance with your first few choices for essence preparation.  This intuitive self/flower guided selection method will make the experience more meaningful in ways that are both universally profound and intimately unique to any given individual.  The experiential commonality is one of cosmic union and coalescence.  It's a lofty plane to seek on any given sunny day in today's world but it starts very simply with cellular connection. 

Notice where the sun is in relation to your chosen plant.  How is the light falling, specifically, on the flowers you'll harvest for your essence bowl?  Make sure that you approach the plant and position your body so that you're not blocking the sunlight's passage.  Throughout the rest of the harvesting and setting in place process you want to keep from blocking the sunlight's path to the bowl and flowers within it.

Above I'm harvesting blueberry flowers so they fall into a six inch bowl.  My left/receptive hand cradles the bottom of the bowl and I'm careful to keep my fingers free of casting shadows on the water's surface.  what's not completely clear in this picture is that I've pivoted my entire right/dominant arm from the shoulder through to finger tips in order to avoid casting any shadows. But look directly below this sentence:

You'll most likely be standing up to harvest tree and bush blossoms.  For lower plants or ground creepers you'll be crouched/squatting, on a gardening stool, or sitting on ground.  You aren't 'supposed' to touch the flowers.  Snip the blooms with just a bit of stem left attached to the throat/base of the petals.

Old schoolers such as myself will recommend making any necessary adjustments or retrieving flowers that miss the bowl by using a leaf pinched between thumb and forefinger to shield the petals from touching your fingers.

If the flowers are large enough to consciously manipulate in a timely way make sure some blooms are face down in the bowl while others face upwards.  I push things around with the tips of the scissors - really saturating the flowers so they'll settle into the water for the 4 hour fusion process.

tip:  It can be surprisingly hard not to reflexively 'arrange' the bowl as if it were a flower vase.  In my teaching and mentoring experience there's nearly always relatively adamant in-person resistance to turning flowers upside down at first because the results aren't as visually pleasing.  What the bowl looks like is immaterial to how it feels vibrationally once the entire process is complete.  To that end it's worth the time and suspended judgement to patiently saturate each flower enough to make them heavier and harder to disturb.

note:  sometimes flowers will not cooperate with being saturated to the point of heaviness.  They sometimes won't seem to  stay right side down, either - as was my experience with the cherry blossoms below.  Do the best you can to inter-mix their orientation.  speak to them if you sense it might help.

If the flowers are small, like blueberries, you either want a proportionally smaller bowl OR the time and patience to fill a larger bowl's surface.  I went with the latter choice because my inner sense was that I might not have another opportunity to work with blueberry flowers in this way.  So far that instinct has proven itself correct.

six inch bowl of weeping cherry blossoms in the southern garden bed at the old place '06

If you have a very large flower such as a Lily you can cut it apart right there at the bowl while it's submerged in water.  This structural mangling is hard to do - at least for me.  But I did put that aside last summer in order to work with a Mona Lisa Lily.  The medicine spirit urged me forward and as I did what needed doing I reflected on several well-known flower alchemists who routinely shred all the flowers before placing them in sunlit water. 

note:  according to Richard Katz & Patricia Kaminsky's remarkably gifted updating of the Doctrine of Signatures applied to flower reading rules of thumb - bell shaped/nodding flowers speak to the mind and soul needs of those who tend to be introverted in life and work practice.  People who are not selfish or socially unskilled but almost supernaturally wise in honoring their need for isolated space and distance in which to do their intentional/healing/creative work.   Blueberry flower essence relates specifically to the needs of those who are undergoing a sense of internal transformation that demands Cathedrals of One's Own even if that sense of inviolate sanctuary is largely metaphorical given our collective experiences of the moment.

3 inch bowl of cardinal flowers elevated on a wooden tray placed beside the bed where the cardinal flowers were harvested

This seems like a good place to push the pause button on an info dump point of view.  If you've already co-created essences and would like to talk about it please comment or email if you're so inclined.  

*****

Consider your options for making a flower essence.  What plants/trees/bushes do you live with that have flowers which evoke something soothing or cleansing for you?  What is coming into flower (looking at jude...) that calls to your soul and heart in an overwhelming sort of way?

  You might also consider what plants/trees/bushes you live with that consistently evoke a sense of balance, unique familiarity, comfort or insight.   Read something about their flowers even/especially if you believe you're too familiar to need this step.

3 inch birthday bowl 2015 composed of offerings from the tiny strips of garden space lining a short brick walkway beside our porch.

as you think about this endeavor and look around your landscape's options for working with specific plants - remember that sometimes it's the in-person flowers that are magnetizing and sometimes it's the energetic vibration of the overall plant that leads to exploration/examination of the flowers it makes.

~~alternatively you can research flower essences more generally here online and match your intentions to the healing and illumination properties of a particular flower~~

I'll write the concluding portion of this how-to post on Wednesday or Thursday and schedule post it for Friday.  Part two of the flowers' transformation process covers the nuts & bolts of how to turn the alchemized bowl's contents into a mother stock.

  3 inch bowl of blended flowers spontaneously collected on the morning of my birthday in '11.  It's a particularly lovely remedy that I still work with off and on.

If such an inspirational self-care endeavor is viable for the place where you live consider preparing a bowl of whatever's freshly bloomed and feels beckoning on your solar return day.   I've been doing this off and on (it often rains that day) during the decade we've lived here. I find it a wonderful way of celebrating both my life force and the landscape's floral bounty just south of mid-summer.  These gifts often serve as constitutional remedies that last all year and well beyond.  The birthday bowl essences nourish and soothe me as time passes in a way that always prompts deeply layered gratitude and respect for the healing properties - and extraordinary sentient intelligence - of flowers and all they hold.

shake rattles & sing .3

April '07 - rattling the south-facing garden beds awake at our former home.  

eta:  a very different Molly's word tincture: Molly Sheehan of Green Hope Farm Essences.

Yesterday in the later afternoon I got a text from J. who was elsewhere in the house or yard.  He said it was going to start raining in about an hour and a half and was predicted to keep going for four days.  That's how I wound up in the way-back machine of my searching for the specific lede pic today.  Am glad for the rain since we had so little snow.  The more rain inches we can soak into the ground the better it will be once micro-droughts define themselves.   But perpetual low-light will not make for compelling blog documentation.

***

Am currently putting together a super concrete - you need these things and then you do these specific steps - type of How to Make a Flower Essence post.  Once it's published this will link back to all the posts that are previously filed under that category.   The pragmatic how-to post is meant to be amplified by all those other posts in both direct content and more deep-reading between the lines.  So far as I can tell, anyone who openly shares something authentic about themselves in relation to this blog has quite an adept feeling for their organic landscape and its specific spirit(s) of place.  Not to mention a special affinity for many of the plants and trees that grow there.

All such affinity is, in effect, an integral part of how-to make/co-create an essence.  This type of high-crisis moment - at a nuts and bolts level - is an awesome time for anyone who wants to participate in healing themselves, their environments, and their own growing spaces to actively do something that crystallizes the spark in their heart's dreams and healing wishes for All That Is on our beautiful and increasingly broken-apart home here on earth.

Above is a blended-flower bowl that yielded a wonderfully comprehensive remedy called Mellow Yellow.   The essence came to life on the hillside where I kept a plot specifically devoted to raising flowers I wished to prepare as flower essence mother stocks.  If you follow the link you'll land on one of the first posts I made here. You'll see a picture of me from '05 looking equally content and determined.  Same pitchfork  but now I wear shoes with hard shells like a sensible person.  Or wait to do whatever until I am wearing them.

for the curious and knowledgeable alike - here's a thumbnail synopsis of the bowl's contents. 

Broccoli - Scours the psyche in a way that allows us to see how/when/why we interpret the actions of others as personalized victimization.  Offers psychic and emotional fortitude to deal with that skew IF we've a mind to.

Marigold - Very supportive of neural circuitry and its vibrancy level.  This essence - in whatever form of flower variety and color - has been indispensable in essence combinations that are geared to supporting integration with the larger/higher/faster frequency that so many of us tend to 'catch' even if we keep our awareness of it deliberately small or convince ourselves it's merely wish fulfillment or Nothing At All.

Nasturtium - boosts the circuitry of the electrical body.  A boon for those who tend to fade somewhere between the 6th and 8th inning stretch of any given day.

Pumpkin -  Helps support our subtle and physical bodies' need to galvanize under duress/situations focused on The Choice of No Choice.  Helps you locate whatever you need energetically to do whatever it takes mentally & physically in order to bring a necessary project to a timely conclusion.

Snapdragon - to smooth the bite in your communicative style if you've normally got one.  To help you keep from developing such bite under duress - especially when thrown into a situation where you personally have little to no control and it angers you.

Vatican Tomato -  Tomato's healing signature addresses situations in which we've actively allowed patterns of self-sabotage to become normalized behavior to you. 

Moon and Stars Watermelon - psychic birthing & midwifery to support life's expansive changes and creative hot streaks.  Times two thanks to the above contributor.

Yellow Wood Sorrel - hydrates physical and emotional burnout associated with hypersensitivity. 

Zucchini - supports kinder & gentler self-care initiation than we generally allow ourselves.

The above packets hold the remainder of the other seeds I've started under lights in the basement - rattling all the way.  Lincoln leeks and basket flowers are regular must-grows for me.  African foxgloves are fairly well known to me in their purple form.  They've grown with a gorgeously prolific branching pattern on various parts of the property but never taller than 3 - 3.5 feet. Am trying the white variety because they reach 5 -6 feet when they're happy.  Was thinking I'd inter-plant with Indigo Spires salvia here and there within the Evolving Sanctuary bed.   I really love gracefully architectural combos that intermix white and blue flowering plants - arranged in a visual chain that stays embedded in the mind's eye most vividly right before dusk.   This I learned from a wonderful garden design book called Color Echoes in the Garden.

  One day about a month ago an early morning dream spirit advised I grow Sweet Thai basil rather than my favored cinnamon variety.  The latter has been indispensable for decades as our family dinner iced beverage of choice during the summer months.  Couldn't find any on offer at any of my preferred seed sources when I finally ordered.  So that turned out to be an on-point lucid swerve from the Beyond.  Never heard of this bergamot variety before.  It's capable of reaching maturity in a single season in this hardiness zone range.  If it doesn't then I won't see what the flowers are like in relation to our bee, butterfly, hawkmoth and hummingbird contingents.  Not unless I can figure out how to successfully winter it over somewhere in the garage ...

stay at home day 1/wood language .2

The otherwise unexplained fourth wooden item of this post is the rolling pin directly above these words.  It's from Pearl's kitchen in the house I was raised.  Am not a baker, never will be, and so I use this talisman of my crafty roots as a brayer kinda thing for art journal smoothing and layering plus the occasional spontaneous monoprint that might chew-into the rubber brayers I keep around and misplace on the regular.  But it's pretty hard to misplace my grandmother's rolling pin for more than a moment or two.  Here this treasured bit of family memorabilia is serving as a scale model.  The rattle is roughly the same size.  The inner dimensions of the lid & box is 5. x7.  My plan is to display it sideways as seen later in the post

Since this is the third phase of US pandemic response here in MA talking about "day one" isn't feeling very first-ish anymore.  From the perspective of my adaptability quotient it's been 5 days since I last crossed property lines and ran one drop-off and two pick-up errands in my car.  The things I purchased then are still cooling their heels in my car.  Tomorrow will be a full 5 days worth of 24 hours since I came home and spoke truth to the concrete walls of my garage:  No more.  Not until there's no other choice.  

Keeping track of the days is vital to also keeping track of when it's safe to bring newer items into the house.  Tomorrow it will be safe to wipe down and store the enormous bottles of brandy and 100 proof vodka I bought on that very last run into the headlights of crumbling normalcy.  The brandy's for stabilizing and preserving flower essence mother stocks and also tincturing certain flowers - e.g. ladies mantle.  The Vodka will back-up the fifth I already had to hand for the rest of my medicinal tincturing needs.  It's also what we'll use when there's no more rubbing alcohol.

In case you're not yet as far down the rabbit hole of radically changed awareness/priorities/general life flow as I've become -  Per established universal viral contamination guidelines --  Glass containers need 5 days isolation time before handling.  Plastic needs nine and so the other package in my car must wait 4 days beyond the glass bottles' removal.  But I don't care.  I'm not planning to go anywhere beyond a ride in J.'s truck tomorrow to pick- up our bread share in the next town heading northeast.   All I can say when I catch myself thinking in endless lists of contamination safety data is that I'm ever-grateful I got back as much brain function as I did before all this hit the fan!

This is how I'll hang it now.  When it was the lid of a box it had the orientation shown in the next image.

Last night I asked my dreaming self to set me a path for early morning grounding.   Prior to that I'd gathered three of the four very well loved wooden possessions pictured above.  I also gathered a soft scrap of cotton quilt batting and the lemon verbena wood conditioner I've grown to love.  Had planned to get ginormous amounts shipped here so I could clean and condition as much of the wood finishing over-load in this house as ultimately possible but then I thought to check the location of the product's manufacturer and shipper.  Canton OH.  I checked the pandemic map and decided I'd work with what I have with much smaller refurbishing ambitions setting the course.  This will maximize the number of wood items I'm able to nourish if not in much scope.  Makes sense to start with a few extra special personal keepsakes, right?

(while writing this post I came up with a spontaneous DIY solution for my urge to condition ALL THE WOOD.  I will use the pine/juniper/tulsi oil I just strained clear the night after the full equinox day here.  I'll simply add about a quarter or third more melted beeswax - not sure yet which essential oil - and that will make my own place-based conditioner.  The wood in the house will be fed by the wood living as trees just beyond.  It makes me smile just typing that.)

In the summer of '80 I bought a beautifully constructed wooden box topped by the parquet lid directly above these words.  I bought it directly from the wood wizard who made it.  He was stationed with a wide table full of beautiful boxes and jars and intricate oversized parquet coasters just by the center entrance to Central Park (south).   It was a warm t-shirts only mid-Spring weekend that proved to be incredibly switched-on and seemingly charmed.  Right up there with this experience. in terms of my personal memory highlights.  The creator of this lovely piece and ever so many more was a little arrogant and presuming but the box has remained a beautiful thing that I love.  The best part of 'having' keepsakes is the recollections that move far beyond the thing itself.  This is why I love boxes as memory keepers on multiple levels.

  Somewhere along the line the impeccably constructed box separated from the box.  My goal now is to use tacks in the wall placed to mount the lid in a place where I'll see it often and use it as an ongoing lunar-driven touchstone.  This is so important as sunlight lasts longer each day and I move into a stronger solar mode myself.  I continue to use the dis-joined box as an altar space container for a shifting arrangement of stones, shells, and tiny mementos.

Note the pictures show my treasures before full wax absorption and buffing.  With that slow and steadying process now complete, the objects' combined presence is now a glowing line of energy as I've set them side-by side for contemplation here in the studio. 

Above is an inkwell that was always kept carelessly in a desk I sold in '88 for enough to get us through an entire winter, spring and summer as a young family in Boston.  First by my grandmother and then my mother.  I know the story behind their grim attachment to it but it's a sad discouraging story about my grandfather so we'll leave it at that.  I took it to heart and have kept it because as a [failed] ethnobotanist I'm really fond of this piece.  Inside the carved seed pod is a tiny inkwell I use with my dip pens on somewhat regular basis.

This rattle has lived a very hands-on life over the 19 years we've been together.   It's taken me probably 15 of those years to grow into my inner spirit voice enough to shake the rattle in ways that speak to her voice's scope and power.  I have her because when I heard her in full voice I understood the person who'd known how to hold and shake her like it's an easy thing to merge with a rattle's spirit would not be able to take her home.

I heard her in full glorious voice as a perpetual flurry of the small white stones lovingly described on her authentication certificate.  The shaker was a tall sturdy-legged teenage bear of a boy.  He stood very straight with a rapt expression on his face as he shook and shook and shook.  Everyone in the gallery turned towards him - surprised and smiling.  Everyone but his father who was annoyed and intent to cut the experience short.  Words were exchanged between father and son - protestations and refusals and a final plea with a backwards glance.

If you think I'm putting up with THAT any time you take it in your head ...

And the rest of us either turned away briskly or sought-out each other's eyes.  Small little head shakes and shoulder shrugs.  I'd been planning to buy a colorful wooden Mexican candelabra of carved hummingbirds circling in clusters.  But I asked the owner if he had any sense that boy might come back.  What if I bought the rattle and he kept it under the counter just in case?  Owner shook his head as he looked me over - suggesting I'd be better off buying it for myself.  I thought how much easier it would be to keep a rattle too big for me close at hand than to haul around an elaborate candelabra that felt just right.  And was undoubtedly a beast to clean after use.

That's how the rattle came home with me.  And we have taken a thorough good long while to get to know each other.  When I shook her briskly over the newly pressed-into-earth columbine seeds I heard what I'd heard in the art gallery so long ago.  Not sure how and when it happened but I've got the touch for her now - and she for me.

abundance of care tea

 

 This morning I mixed together a generous cache of nine-herb healing and restorative tea. Something I've been meaning to get to for about two weeks suddenly became mandatory.  I needed a tangible empowering way to attend to my family and myself because we - like so many households in so many places - have been the recipients of a workplace-related Abundance of Caution email.  We knew in our minds and guts it was a when rather than if once facts emerged about Boston area contagion.

My husband has three degrees of separation from the situation - at least on paper and in theory.  What he described to me of physical reality/exposure proximity was close enough for us to conclude we'd shifted from self-quarantining as a luxury feature of his remote work schedule to diligent citizenry. 

Abundance of Care feels like the necessary fulcrum point on which to balance caution and pragmatism.  Everything in the recipe I'm sharing was grown or wild-crafted on our property - save the glorious and ever-healing oats.  Those are from Avena Botanicals.    The blend addresses matters of wellness, systemic purification & protection, and metabolic re-boot at the gentlest possible level.

Over time I've learned to prepare my family's customized recipe in triads of soothing and restorative herbs - to mix based on the most physically stable/inherently strong herb grouping so that the sturdiest herbs are handled the most and fragile flower petals are lightly tossed into the final round of inclusions.  

You'll notice a coded parenthetical after the herb's name in the triad listings .  That's my measuring system of the classic homefolk "parts" methodology.  In this recipe a part is a loosely held handful.  Not too precise for those accustomed to exactitude but definitely viable once you get a feel for how it comes together at the end.   The proportions of this recipe work very well for the 3 of us.  You'll instinctively adjust according to your family's size and needs.  You'll also add and subtract specific herbs based on instinct and gathered experience.

  oats (3P) lavender buds (2P) sweet fennel seed (2P)

Oats soothe and nourish over-stimulated adrenal glands.  They also buffer against expressive anger that gets in the way of collaborative productivity - or knowing when to move on from news ingestion.  Oats' healing signature is emollient in nature.  That's a wonderful property to slowly drink into you body.  Muscle tension will begin to re-tone itself within an hour or two. Oats also provide a modest amount of easily absorbed calcium that helps keep rudimentary bone flexibility. 

Lavender has an ancient collaborative and co-creative relationship with our species.  The flower's healing properties are profoundly antiseptic - also equally compatible & effective with our digestive system and central/sympathetic nervous system.  Lavender's also a reliable source of effective moderate pain relief for anything 4 or lower on the universal pain scale.  And a solid ally to cherish for anyone prone to insomnia. 

Sweet fennel seed - The robust fifties era flower vase shape of fennel seeds is packed with digestive support and reliable aid/relief as needed for the things about shifting reality that we literally cannot stomach.  Fennel is another plant strongly valued for centuries worth of gardening inter-relationship.  There's something very grounding about this inclusion that speaks of timeless comfort and renewed life force. 

Mix these together thoroughly with loose and loving hands.  

Lemon Thyme* (1 generous FULL hand P) Anise Hyssop leaves (1.5P) Tulsi leaves & flowers (2)

*inclusion of ANY thyme should be abandoned for those who are pregnant.  In such cases consider substituting with Lemon Balm or research safe substitutions online.   

I choose to work primarily with Lemon Thyme almost exclusively because a healthy plant thriving in full sun can provide plenty for both culinary and medicinal uses in a single growing season.   In this recipe the herb is absolutely essential to support nourishing a dry throat - especially when accompanied with dry unproductive cough. 

Anise Hyssop's healing signature holds strong sedative and digestive properties.  The flowers are additionally uplifting to the spirits.  The leaves offer support for systemic reboot of the lungs; easing cramping or strained bronchioles with soothing consistency.   They're a gentle and effective tummy soother as well. 

Tulsi leaves and flowers combine to offer mental and psychic elevation.  This medicine spirit nourishes the soul as well as our physical brain.   I've found this inclusion seems to promote peaceful (and oftentimes creative problem-solving) dreams at a time when my waking self really needs that kind of respite and recharge.

Slow your roll to mix the new inclusions into the base mix.  This is especially important with dried thyme.  The tiny leaves are best removed from the stems with minimal crushing.  Work slowly and lovingly.  Remove the empty thyme stems unless you shred them into small pieces.  Put your own intentional/energetic healing mojo into the mixture as it grows and re-blends itself.  This is practical curendera magic at its simplest and most effective level.

Kentucky Mint (.5P) Calendula (2-3P) Red Clover* (2/2.5P)

*Red Clover  holds substantive blood thinning properties.  Do not include for anyone who takes blood thinning drugs, is prone to nosebleeds, or has trouble clotting following a lab draw, scrape, or cut.

Kentucky Mint is my preferred minty tea inclusion because its aftertaste is sweet rather than bitterly astringent.  Its proportionally small but memorably powerful inclusion here brightens the general palate of the blend while it also clears and sharpens the mind.

Calendula flower petals should be dried on-the-head and removed just prior to mixing with light deft motions.  It seems like their proportion rate is over-scaled until you're actually doing the mixing.  This inclusion speaks to substantive arcs of antiseptic and restorative properties that are quite well documented.  This is why I've yet to grow "enough" to yield unto the lure of dyeing with it.  Thought this might be the year that changed but now I'm just grateful I have a place to grow more for health and wellness purposes!

to turn this classic nine into a magical eleven:

lemon balm (2-3P) soothes and sanitizes with a soft lilt of anti-depressant capability.  Anyone with a hyperactive thyroid should embrace Melissa officinalis as a constitutional and very effective ally.  This well-tested ally may become crucial for anyone such as myself with recurring Graves or many forms of Hashimoto's. 

AND/OR

Pineapple Sage  -  This tender perennial's leaves and flowers hold strong anti-depressant properties.  The herb also helps to lower and regular blood pressure.  It's an inclusion in the mixture pictured in the photo lede - I used leaves only because all the flowers that manage to bloom before the first frost are used in tinctures or glycerites.  

OR

monarda fistulosa flowers  may provide a type of specific relief that could make the difference between gratitude and misery for over-extended lungs that need to un-sieze and stay relaxed enough to re-establish a sustainable breathing rhythm.  If I'd harvested more aggressively I would have shredded  2 or even 2.5 P into the blend.  But it was my first year of feeling welcomed to take.  Was therefore very humble in what I took for this beginning opportunity to work with its medicinal properties.  This year there will be bigger colonies and some surprise self-seeded volunteers.  I will cut more accordingly - providence willing.

Hope this recipes offers you ideas of what you might mix or grow with a customized version of this blend in mind.

May we travel safely and in healing grace.

freshly picked Monarda fistulosa flowers during last year's High Summer.   Feel super grateful to have to hand a quart jar mostly filled with dried stems & leaves if things get bad but we can manage to bypass hospitals and doctors offices. 

Plant Geek Eyes: the tarot edition

Not so long ago I acquired the tarot deck pictured above by winning a runner-up lottery prize from a regional herbal collective.  Quite a bit more recently an old ethnobotany buddy who off-and-on reads here SOS'd me on the subject of the same deck.  Was asked if I'd do a visual breakdown explaining how I approach a new deck in order to become more familiar with it.  Although I'd normally be inclined to post this on my secondary blog the gorgeous plant-elevating artwork feels like it's ultimately a better fit for this space. 

 go here if you want to see a thorough (and thoroughly lovely) PROPER review of this particular deck.

 Hope my process/approach sparks ideas of how you might personalize and enhance the experience of familiarizing yourself with a previously unexplored deck or perhaps your very first.

My first move once the deck is out of the box is to liberate it from its paper ribbon.  I hold it gently in my left/receiving hand while using my right to open the deck's accompanying guidebook to a random page.  I then retrieve the card (this will be easy even if you've never done it before because a virgin deck is arranged in perfect numerical/suit order)  corresponding with the page I opened in the booklet.  In this case is was a very short search-and-find walk to The High Priestess.

I don't initially focus on the left brain/info part of this introductory gesture.  I simply look at the card.  Noticing what it feels like vibrationally and what I admire most about its visual presentation.  Making note of what ultimately resonates - or fails to. 

* If you've got a frame of reference for other decks notice how this card differs from and/or fulfills your expectations in terms of vibe, specific illustration, and color palette.

*If this is your first deck try looking at the card's imagery as if it had been created for your specific scrutiny.  Solidify some type of personal response to what you see:  note your feelings, intellectual connections swiftly made, emotional surges that defy linear definition and so forth.

The purpose of this opening gesture is to also get a feel for what the deck's guidebook has to offer.  It was a lovely surprise to see the inclusion of (wild)crafting ideas. Interactive prompts are very compatible with the hands-on world of herbcrafting. That adds a lovely layer of automatic resonance and accessibility.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

My next exploration nearly always involves XVIII and XIX - the Moon and Sun cards.  The reason doesn't relate to the tarot-based meaning of these cards - it's astrological.  My natal sun sign is ruled by the moon.  My moon sign is likewise ruled the sun.  That makes the cards' natural pairing - as well as their energetic polarity - especially potent when one or both cards appear in reading.

 Unless you have a specific pairing of strong established meaning to you - I suggest you begin by doing this:

Separate the 22 (0-21) Major Arcana from the rest of the deck.   Shuffle very lightly - not so much to mix them up as to give them your touch until the cards start to hold some of your warmth.  Am aware many people interject assertive energy at this point by rapping the Majors sharply on the edge of a table or a specific sacred object sturdy enough to absorb the blows. I just like to touch them via shuffling until they hold warmth.  Tarot cards are pragmatically composed of paper which holds vestiges of sentience.  Simple warming touch seems like a much more rewarding way to wake up together, doesn't it?

Spread the cards out like I did  - a bit messily and with a great deal of overlapping among the cards.  Soften your gaze rather than studying whatever shows a focused way.  As you gaze rub your palms together briskly for a moment.  Then begin rubbing them more gently - about twice as long as you were brisk. These motions will enliven your secondary palm chakras as well as pinging your Crown and Heart chakras to begin their opening process .

Hold your hands, palms down, 4 to 6 inches above the cards.  Don't mentally watch what you're doing just allow your palms to hover until you feel a gravitational dip/pull to pick something up.  Repeat in order to select a second card. 

NOTE:  if you don't feel any kind of physical or energetic nudge simply shuffle the major arcana well.  Cut the deck twice using your non-dominant hand.  Re-stack and then use your dominant hand to deal yourself the top two cards.

Study the cards' colors, images and symbols.  Make note of what these elements already mean to your visual brain - in or out of a tarot frame.  Quiet yourself enough to notice anything the image whispers to (or from within) your soul.  When you look carefully - what does this card feel like at a purely personal level?  Is the resonation strong enough to focus on what's been evoked rather than concern over what the card is 'supposed' to mean?

If you're the type to document grab a fresh notebook and write down the cards you select.  If they resonate strongly for you at the blink/image level pay special attention to their designated meaning.   Documenting your card draws will yield a fascinating grasp of patterns to the draws you might not notice if you rely solely on your temporal memory. After the trends are noted I transform the otherwise dull/repetitive entries into art journal pages or use them for collage substrates.

*******

Next I pull my soul and personality card from the deck.*  This is a numerological thing often attributed to Mary K. Greer.  In research prep for this entry I learned the technique actually pre-dates her.  Here's an online source for all the relevant info needed to make your own calculations. 

[Note if you follow the link:  I don't know what is up with the third mentioned card of Shadow.  What's been included doesn't make sense to me.  When I consulted my copy of Tarot for Yourself I saw nothing similar but it's a very early edition.  The new re-release may have that shadow information included.  If anyone reading has that edition and the info makes the slightest bit of workable sense could you verfiy in comments, please?]

*alternatively you can simply look at the remaining major arcana and pick two more cards that appeal to you - whether you know why or not.  Sometimes it's a lot more juicy and ultimately revelatory when you don't know why but you go with it anyway.

By now I trust the imagery clarifies why I decided to publish this post here.   This morning I found a comment to a post in which grace mentioned a review she'd read of Herbcrafter's comparing artist Joanna Powell Colbert to Pliny.  It doesn't seem at all hyperbolic the longer I look at her gorgeous work.   Each card is comparably compelling and brimming with life-force as well as flawless and beautifully varied composition.

***************

I have one more habitual step before moving on to study the deck's imagery systematically.  Will begin posting the full visual review in the next post.   Hope everyone will agree this was a good choice to kick off a new blog element of sentient exploration. I want to more cohesively feature art that's inspired by ever-deepening appreciation for the green nations.  Thought to name the category Plant Geek Eyes.

As a final gesture in this portion of a Hello examination I pull a three card reading from just the Majors:  above/below/within.

Always good to see such a personally significant card riding high above.  Dandelion is an interesting choice as a Fool significator plant.  In comparison Michael Tierra's classic Herbal Tarot assigns Ginseng.   Dandelion feels a lot more on the money.    Have some intuitive opinions concerning alternative allies for 0 but they are of zero relevance to anyone but me. 

[If you have feelings or thoughts about specific cards you pull - write them down within the day's card list.]

  Was gladdened to see Strength in the below position.  Garlic is an excellent choice for a Below totem.  And an equally excellent health-full ally to cherish. 

within reflection: Garlic is pretty much everything to a faltering immune system.  Or surviving practical and situational emergency.  If you have water and some garlic you have a healing restorative broth that can help keep you lucid, aid recuperation, or promote sufficient resilience to avoid getting sick in the first place.  If those two ingredients are all you have for a little while you'll keep up enough strength to forage for additional nourishment. 

[It's good to keep a fresh vibrant head of garlic with your emergency bug-out supplies if you can - for these very reasons.]

Tower energy signifying my current within status is right on the money.  BOOM.  pluto.  BOOM.  pluto again, over and over again.  Over the last couple of weeks I've found that pretty much anything involved with my internal structure that's remotely false or outdated has been crumbling or lighting itself on fire with colossal speed and great finality.  I think it's a thing that's happening for people intent to marshal inner resilience in the face of whatever lies ahead.  We're organically shedding what we can't use no matter how inviolate such internalized structures have seemed in the past.

In some moments it also feels like the ceremony of burning a few inner temples to the ground while they hold their peak beauty.

  The thing to remember about Tower energy is it's not something you or anyone else can stop or even forestall for any successful length of time.   Tower-generated change is inevitable in nature.  As is, within literal nature, the decay on which flourishing mushrooms feed.

Usually I let my first Hello end with such quick and largely visual assessment. But this time I went back to the accompanying guidebook to read about Mushroom's relationship to the The Tower as perceived by the deck's creator.  What I read put me much in mind of what happens from a naturalist's perspective once the Tower's archetypal role is reconfigured in neopagan decks as The Blasted Oak. 

****************

When drawing your own three cards keep things loose and intuitive if the meanings aren't known to you.  really LOOK at the cards before reaching for the guidebook.  What does the featured imagery already mean to you?  If you don't hold personal associations what can you infer about the focal points from the way they're presented on the card?

Soft Leadership

A late spring '19 glimpse of the space that holds everyThing described below.  Two Components of the profiled remedy recipe are visible in this informal garden portrait: Milkweed and red Sweet William flowers.

This blend has a less all-purpose/inclusive vibration.  The recipe was designed for far more specific but arguably equally significant purposes.  The remedy's energetics are focused on 4 vibrational signatures belonging to cultivated "domestic" flowers I introduced into the large perennial bed that was part of the property's original landscaping.  The fifth flower in the combination is indigenous and blessedly widespread in this region..  Milkweed started appearing with increasing numbers and vigor once it was clear the colonies would be allowed to develop and thrive where once had been - I'm not sure exactly.  Yet more stella d'oro daylilies is my best guess.  But instead J. has dug and I have pitchforked and we've both sifted-out and through innumerable pounds of fragmented goldenrod runners.

Our efforts have produced a vibrant t-square corridor holding what I hope is a well-considered integration of one person's notion of a garden worth having with my own.  I've actively (even though I didn't plot it out in advance I just worked a few diligent pitchfork's worth of clearing space at a time) created a garden-within-a-garden - planting things that hummingbirds and bees love as well as plants that produce seeds of value to the nearby sparrow colony.  Thus all five flowers in this blend are part of this area's evolving  (as opposed to embedded/indigenous) vibrational pulse.

The flowers' combined healing and illumination signatures relate to leading by example in unorthodox ways and/or for deeply personal reasons of significant scope and detail.   The idea seemed to occur out of nowhere and then I thought in the next split second of Jude Hill.  Soft Leadership. I thought of a few other people in my friendship circle.  In the midst of those thoughts I found myself moving into a deeper place of greenworld co-creation.  In that illuminated caul I focused on the regenerative and light-collecting needs of people who inspire others to go forth and, well, multiply - their own fields and scope of inspirational prowess and engagement.  This specific type of inspiration is a regular part of their Thing.  It magnetizes the gathering of those who lead in equally soft yet distinct ways.

The Evolving Sanctuary healing & Illumination blend

Comprised of five flowers:

Milkweed

The sweet and distinctive scent of milkweed flowers on a late spring evening is a luxury anyone can enjoy if they're lucky enough to live in close proximity.  This beauty grew at the edges of gardens I loved as a child but it wasn't until we moved to central MA that I had an opportunity to share an eco-system.  Milkweed = monarchs in the wild - at least the scrubby wild places of my memories.  This past summer was the first time we've had any of these sacred butterflies in 5 or 6 years. 

Milkweed's classic flower remedy signature relates to healing and dissolving any strong or trace ties to patterns of addiction.  In my mid-forties I concluded addiction of innumerable forms was a by-product of allegedly civilized living.  I contacted a few friends and associates who tend to be intrigued by these kind of ideas.  I proposed that we all work with milkweed flower essence as a constitutional for an entire path of 13 lunar cycles.  We'd each work with the essence in whatever private ways - giving no pre-programming concerning "addiction" and whatever that word did or didn't mean to us. 

Over the course of the year I came to appreciate how beautifully gentle the Milkweed healing signature is - how it cleanses the subtle and earthen bodies as well as mindspace.  There were a handful of things I 'stopped doing' during that particularly mindful year.  Some were spontaneous and fairly superficial if time-liberating (I don't ever want to watch another crime/police procedural drama again in my life, so I won't*) and some were laborious due to the problem-area's tenacity (carbohydrate 'therapy')  Other friends reported similar stoppages that were mixed between pro-activation and spontaneously choosing to abandon habits of time-filling/numbing agent indulgences.

 red Sweet William

Plentiful multi-colored six packs of Sweet William plants are a very popular garden center staple.  Have been planting them since childhood.  The years when I don't - I miss their clusters of spicy sweetness.  The flowers in the picture above are from years ago in my previous home's garden space.  The flowers in the essence bowl were gathered from a volunteer colony I'd been delighted to discover a month or so earlier.

Any flower in the carnation family is going to have a bit of kick-ass fumigation and cleansing property.   Within that canon Sweet William energetics manage to be both mild and substantive.  It's the energy of Mercy and the blessing of clearing-away what no longer serves the highest good of All.  In this particular blend I've begun to consider the Sweet William component the psychic and auric equivalent of hand/body sanitizer.  It's also a uniquely soothing 'antibiotic' for the inevitable snips and snags of personality entanglement.

pink Larkspur

(image borrowed from friend's garden archives)

Larkspurs enchant me.  

The pinks flowers included in this remedy are the floral inspiration and co-creative guidance system for the remedy.   I planted twelve and the snails slowly but surely decimated all but one.  The single plant that remained suffered breakage twice from marauding wood rats.  The more unlikely larkspur inclusion seemed the more I cast about for a replacement flower in the emergent recipe.    And then, from the center of a cluster of leafy basket flower seedlings, a wispy candelabra of larkspur flower stalks emerged.  Apparently one of the decimated stems hadn't been cut too far to prevent emergence of side shoots. They didn't show themselves until it was nearly time to co-create.

and then all the open flowers gave themselves.  Thirteen beauties very much like the one above.  Am grateful I was able to secure a stand-in portrait on short notice.  Every other color and variation of larkspur are in my own archives but  I could find no pink.  Maybe I never grew them before?  Not this beautiful double-flowered variety, anyway...

Larkspur remedies always relate to the specific healing and illuminatory needs of those in leadership positions.  Pink flowers speak of heart-centered affinity.  In my experience and observation Larkspur essence feels subtle and perhaps ineffective until we start to notice significant cumulative effects.

Fleece Flower

I'd never noticed or heard of this plant before I found a mostly shriveled offering marked down to $1.75 at the farm co-op in mid-October.   The past summer was her third year of growth.  Since her unremarkable beginning she's become a lovely 7 x 5 sized bush beloved to wasps, certain butterflies, and very small green flies - but thankfully not the vicious biting kind.  Her blooms have no distinct scent but their visual presence is more than enough.  On warm evenings their glow lingers as the indigo sky begins to squelch the presence of less vivid light-holders.

White flowers always speak - at least in part- of purification and protection.  And although it's quite on the nose I think this addition speaks directly to Softness as well as the leadership capacity to assimilate fairly rapid growth of ideas and 'suddenly' manifested opportunities for personal expansion that exceed what was planned or expected.

Italian Alkanet

These biennial flowers are my inner eye's notion of the perfect blue.  The color of a luscious pigment-heavy cobalt wash and Madonnas' undimmed robes in innumerable fresco paintings. Italian Alkanet is a member of the borage family with hairy leaves and stems - and generous multi-branching growing habits.  The flowers grow in clusters that attract both butterflies and hummingbirds.  The plants will faithfully re-seed provided goldfinches don't pluck-up every one.  That's what happened here after the second season of goldfinches realizing the plants had [intended to ...] become a regular feature.  Last summer was the first time since that I successfully overwintered a plant.  In comparative terms the plentiful blooms in the bowl misrepresented a discouragingly small number of flowers before the plant expired in a shriveled clump.  Climate change is strongly impacting what has thrived and failed in the past 5-6 year window.

Italian Alkanet's illumination signature relates to clear and rich Sight.  Of what range and scope depends on the particular leader working with the remedy.  This signature is both specific and limitless.  In relation to Italian Alkanet's healing range the human capacity to maintain high-functioning Sight ranges is supported and nourished - especially when those working with the remedy support and nourish aspects of this gift they've grown accustomed to taking for granted.

the Healing Lights blend components

 life's coming at all of us pretty fast and at times furiously these days.  Amazed to find myself somehow on projected schedule with the next two posts.  The recipes I'll share in each relate to flower essence blends I co-created - in both cases in a flower led/guided manner -  last summer. 

(An essence blend is a mixed-flower remedy in which a variety of floral components are included in the same essence preparation bowl.  Making it the vibrational equivalent of a stew/blended oil or tea infusion.)

The flowers in this particular remedy are common and in most cases indigenous to my particular region. I include each flower's unique contribution to the blend so that you might consider how you could prepare something similar from flowers you have to work with where-ever you are.

  I also encourage you to investigate what other online sources have to say about the vibrational healing properties of the specific flowers I've included - as well as those you're drawn to work with where-ever you live.  Younger alchemists are organically aligned with a much higher receptive frequency.  Those who are willing to share what they know often crystallize the elemental nature of a flower's vibratory/healing signature far more elegantly.

Healing Lights

an all purpose healing & illumination remedy comprised of 7 flowers:

Elecampane

These strongly architectural flowers love an opportunity to thrive. I've been lucky to have successful colonies in two locations.  In both places the flowers have beckoned for inclusion - first as a single essence in my ever-growing collection of home-made flower essence mother stocks and then, 17 years later, within the blend bowl now being described.  Grow this plant in your own garden for a wondrous unfolding of large - at times VERY large - lime green leaves topped with sunny yellow flowers that remind me of the fringed two-circle paper flowers my mother taught me to make as young child.

The Elecampane healing signature speaks of light and lighten-ing.  Great for anything that's stuck in your belly - especially in the spiritual or metaphorical sense.  Keeps the solar plexus chakra and its associate energy centers well hydrated.  This helps prevent getting stuck in ideological despair or over-charged zealotry that can only lead to burn-out.

Calendula

Calendula is a gem of a healing herb that I believe everyone can and should grow.  Long known as Pot Marigold, it's as suited for containers as the ground.  Give it good sun and its resinous vibratory sun will give you its healing spirit.  If you have time and inclination, I invite you to watch the short (2:32) video linked in part because its human Speaker, Deb Soule fully personifies the joy and gentleness that speaks to Calendula's vibrational/communicative gifts.  In the middle she sells just a little bit but in the most understated and joy-full way imaginable. This lady is the real deal and a genuine treasure of an herbalist. Strongly strongly encourage you to bask in the 2.5 minutes of her heart's light.

Calendula's healing and illumination gifts are classically associated with communication.  It seems to me the connection goes deeper to matters of ego involvement.  The solar plexus-throat chakra bridge is central to both right thought & action.  We certainly see in today's world what happens when those in power short-circuit the bridge by running on Ego and proscribed Ignorance.

Each of us has similar yet unique power: the power of voice. Calendula's energy softens and strengthens our voice.  It makes our tone-range flexible in both speaking and thinking planes of communication to self and others.

Saint Johnswort

Pictured above at the trailing end of a long-gone summer solstice's golden hour - Saint Johnswort grows wild in my chosen home state.  I have loved getting to know the flowers' healing properties - first by way of gathering flowers in the company of two friends living on Cape Cod.  I recall our 20-something excitement and the many bees that tracked our every move until we were back in the house filling carefully sterilized recycled jam jars with flowers and apricot oil.

St. Johnswort essence is an ultra-effective auric cleanser and high-vibrational protective shield like no other.  There's a lot more that could be said but I think the true seed of its versatility and usefulness is distilled in the single sentence.  see also/in conjunction with:  red clover at the end of this flower portrait profile list.

Comfrey

Comfrey was considered an unspeakable pest by the gardeners who taught and shaped me as a child.  I didn't really understand what a glorious beautiful presence She brings and how fully she deserves some Pride of Place in any garden until I was back there in those pivotal early 20's years.  At the northern edge of my wild field garden two comfrey crowns at long last claim that rightful place.  One was transplanted from my former garden (pictured above) and another arrived in the same transplant bucket as the elecampane crown that spawned the plant giving flowers to this remedy.  Both crowns offered flowers to the bowl in equal measure.

In flower essence terms Comfrey holds a longstanding reputation as a master healer.  It's also graced with a very grounding energetic signature that helps to slow or stir the mind to greater balance/full potency as need be.  I look on its inclusion in this remedy as another source of psychic and emotional/mental hydration.  Like drinking enough water and/or regular alternate nostril breathing/brain oxygenation. With an vibrational taproot that knows what it's about as a full-service healing agent.

Prunella

Prunella is more commonly called Self-Heal but I'm partial to her formal name. I find this flower indispensable in my therapeutic skin oil infusion blends.  The flowers also hold long healing associations with the bladder and kidney.  I can attest to its restorative/constitutional property in maintaining strong kidney health following a terrible complicated summer-long experience with kidney stones and ever since.  At my last physical my doctor declared me having kidney functionality of a 25 year old. I credit this flower in its dried hot infusion form for such a strong recovery.  That and a 95% low oxalate diet.

Prunella flower essence supports self-accountability and diligent self-maintenance in all matters of healing and wellness.  Have been gathering anecdotal evidence to suggest the remedy's popularity is cycling to strong interest levels because it supports authentic self care and the mindfulness that gives rise to all forms of functional and vibrant Care moving outward.

Monarda fistulosaBeloved to bumblebees, hawkmoths, and my neighbor's honey bees my garden's thriving multi-crown colony of this regional beauty was started from seed under lights in the basement.  Last summer marked the first year I felt permission to gather flower heads for my family's herbal medicine chest.  Two full vibrant heads offered themselves to the flower-guided blend bowl.  Also prepared a shredded flower head tincture we all use for mouth rinsing and skin application for a stubborn crack or tiny abrasion that's slow to heal completely.

All Monarda/bee balm flowers hold a strong affinity for our brain/general body's electrical circuitry.  It's rather similar to the affinity all Rose flowers have for the human central nervous system.  Monarda fistulosa, in particular, speaks to our ability to assimilate and more effectively upgrade our nervous system's capacity to identify and filter the human landscape's noise-to-signal ratio as well as cosmic bombardment upticks.  Such a filtering system is permeable without being friable.  This is an invaluable differentiation to make and foster as the dreaded 2020 dystopian hellscape bingo aspects of larger (alleged ...) reality begin to pick up speed, volume, and fury.

Red Clover

Red Clover flowers became the center of my healing & wellness universe when perimenopause came calling with drenching night sweats and unsettling hot flashes.  I also paid note - given the flower essence's primary healing & illumination property -  to how abundantly red clover flowers bloomed and prospered in the spring/summer of 2002.  Some friends confirmed and further said they'd noticed the uptick in the previous season - before the 9/11 attacks as well.

Red clover's vibrational signature shields our minds and subtle bodies from the ongoing erosive impact of other peoples' fear factor(s). 

nuff sed.

Oil Infusion Update

Earlier today I checked on my ceremonial oil and noticed a large air bubble in the quart jar.  You can see it above covering the left side of jar's curved base.    Brought both jars out to the kitchen in order to rectify and take these pics.  Thought it might be helpful if you're getting ready to check your own brews or simply appreciate more encouragement by way of information concerning what you can expect as an overall process when doing this for yourself.

   As soon as I unsealed the jar band on the quart jar I could smell the white pine.  Once I lifted the lid I also smelled juniper and lavender in equal measure.  It was only after I walked away to grab my camera that my brain registered the after-note of tulsi just as true to itself as a small crushed leaf in my hand.

a visual aid of what you can expect due to oil seepage.  The outside of the infusion bottle may also have a sheen of oil.  I use a cotton dishcloth with a tiny amount of grease cutting liquid dish detergent to swipe clear then polish everything clean with some warm water rinsed through the cloth and over the dish.

note:  I don't include this oil with lid leavings (see below) because it isn't remotely clean.  It's been sitting around in the open air collecting everything that's passed through the room.  By default  that means it's holding  a much lower vibrational frequency than sequestered lid leavings.

Here's what full to the brim should look like.  Note the surface tension of the oil is still holding its own weight.  Nothing should be dripping before you do this:

You can see oil seeping like something in a cave, and also dots of infusion material.  That means you'll need to get everything clean and clear of oil.  Yes I realize that sounds redundant but oil's relatively heavy. That can be a royal pain if you've got a lot of it to deal with at one time and your cleaning cloth becomes over-saturated too soon.

pro tip:  The surface tension smush-down pictured above makes its own case for the advantages of working with banded lid canning jars.  Although it's by nature a messy maneuver this particular way of getting the jar re-sealed with confidence is simple and effectively fool-proof.

When you check on your own oil's welfare you'll probably have a lid with some thoroughly oil saturated infusion materials clinging to the lid's underside.  Usually I use a small rubber spatula to scoop everything back in the jar.  But today I had the inspiration to try scooping everything into the bottom pan of the enamel pan I use for all my herbal concoctionary needs.   Once the water was simmering I placed it on the stove's warming burner.  This had the whole downstairs smelling refreshed and revitalized in 20 minutes or so. 

The smaller half pint bottle I prepared didn't need additional oil.  When I took a deep inhalation of its scent I discovered the imprint was exactly opposite to the larger jar.  The tulsi hit me right in the third eye as soon as the lid was unsealed.  But the general scent's olfactory after-glow came from white pine.  In both jars the elder lavender buds mellowed the sharp edges of the juniper.  Which in turn enlivened and bolstered the lavender.

If you're doing this - or still actively planning something out at the recipe level please share in comments or drop me an email.

LOVE