The Flowers Have a Message for You
Field of Trefoil, Daisies, Clover, and Hawkweed
I want to tell you about an experience that has completely changed how I have witnessed the way energetic medicine moves us as humans. I use the word heal loosely because what I have noticed through my own journey and through observing my clients is that when our energy comes in contact with another energy, a shift happens. When that shift comes from something as pure as nature is, we experience what I have come to call “coming home to self.” (We can use “self” loosely too because Self is yes, necessary to our process of individuation, but not so necessary when it comes to examining the way we interact with oneness, but I won’t get into that today).
I mentioned in my last few notes to you that I have been working with Flower Essences. I took a Bach flower course for Homeopaths by the incredible Linda Nurra, PhD, CCH, RSHom(NA) and was introduced to the process of making my own. It was one of those things where before I even understood the process, at the mere hearing of it, my entire body lit up. An immediate “I am going to do this.” This happened back in January when I started the course and in the dead of a very cold Minnesota winter, I started making my list of plants I wanted to work with once they began to bloom in the spring. I have since made essences out of five different native plants (Pussy Willow, Dandelion, Lupine, Orange Hawkweed, and Yarrow) and have gleaned more wisdom from the process and the plants themselves than I ever imagined possible.
When I first came to homeopathy, it was out of pure desperation. I was 22 years old, very lost, very wounded, very tired, and very much in pain with absolutely zero answers as to why. At 29, after experiencing so many nuances and miracles through this healing art, I decided to abandon my plan of becoming a Speech Pathologist and enrolled in Homeopathy school rather impulsively. The thing was, it wasn’t first the noble act of helping people that magnetized me, it was the mystery. I needed to understand this stuff on a deeper level because to me it was pure magic. A vibrational frequency that had the power to shift disease, that had the potency to move stagnant emotions, but contained no physical or chemical substance. I was utterly enchanted and I needed to know more.
Fast-forward to now, fifteen years post my first encounter with this medicine, and six years working with humans using homeopathy and I have been enchanted all over again. Taken deeper into an understanding of just what happens when we put ourselves in the way of nature’s vibrational frequencies and allow ourselves to be impacted and changed by them. I am so grateful to this process for helping me see just how sensitive and perceptive our life force energies are, how powerful nature actually is, and just how much Source speaks to us through every encounter we find ourselves in.
I have learned a lot about homeopathic materia medica through practice and seeing how these remedies move my clients as well as through the case taking process. Flower essences have their own unique personalities and unique ability to widen our lens, shift our emotional experience, and open our eyes to entirely new ways of seeing ourselves and how we move through the world. I want to share with you some of the incredible things I have learned thus far from making my own flower essences and what the process is teaching me.
The Plant Chooses the Maker
Have you ever been on a walk in your neighborhood or on a hike in the woods and suddenly a tree, a flower, or a little plant almost seems to reach out to you? It’s as if you’re magnetized to it, a fullness opens in your chest and suddenly, you’re drawn in. I believe this is how plants make contact with us, or how we know intuitively if something is for us. There is a resonance between your life force and the life force of another. Sometimes that resonance feels like expansion in the body, or curiosity, or a sudden rush of emotion. It can be so subtle at times that we may disregard it, or sometimes we’re so in our heads that we don’t even notice it’s happening.
This is how I have found plants reach out to say “I have a message for you.” As I have journeyed into essence making, each plant has reached out in its own way. With Pussy Willow, I literally heard the invitation directly. Another, Orange Hawkweed, I have had a deep adoration for since childhood. While Yarrow, my most recently made essence, reached out to me in a dream and then I couldn’t stop thinking about this plant until I sat with her and made the essence.
I believe wholly that when we feel drawn to an experience, or in this case, flora, it is because the essence of that being has something to teach us.
The Medicine that Comes Forward is Exactly what the Maker Needs
Oh this. This revelation has been one of the most potent things about this process for me. Each time I have sat myself down in the sun with these plants during the three to four hours it takes to make a flower essence, I have come to the realization that the message, the medicine, the energy being emitted is exactly what I need for that particular day, week, part of my cycle, or chapter in my life.
It was during the process of making the Lupine flower essence that my partner and I were in a decision making process that felt chaotic and full of fear. Both of us were questioning some very big next steps for us and because neither of us felt entirely certain on which way to go, we found ourselves floundering around, searching for answers in a bit of a panic. When I first experienced taking the Lupine flower essence, it was as if my entire life force took a deep breath and I was reminded that the right direction would present itself when it was meant to. My nervous system relaxed and I went into a space of deep meditative focus. What a beautiful synchronicity that this flower reached her peak bloom to deliver this message to my spirit when I needed it most.
Yarrow on Lake Superior
The Essence becomes the Teacher
After I go through the process of making the Mother Essence, I continue to take it over time. Flower Essences can be used liberally and intuitively (unlike Homeopathic posology where remedies should be administered in a more calculated cadence according to what the life force needs). As I continue to experiment with them, I learn more and more about each plant. When I first made Orange Hawkweed (also known as Devil’s Paintbrush, or Fox and Cubs), it was clear to me that this plant spoke with authority. I have come to coin its essence as “liquid audacity” because when I first took it, I felt my spine straighten, a smile spread across my face, as if I had just received a major confidence boost. This plant knows herself and has fantastic awareness of what she deserves! Fast forward to a month later, I experienced an encounter where I felt my boundaries had been crossed and I was extremely angry, to the point where I couldn’t stop clenching my jaw and had become extremely tense. I was driving at the time and really felt like I needed to move through the emotion, I instinctively grabbed my Orange Hawkweed flower essence out of my purse and rubbed in on my chest. Within seconds I experienced an emotional release. I had a sudden clarity about why I was so mad and the grief at the core of this injustice was finally able to be felt. I let myself cry, moved through the feeling and felt calm within mere minutes.
It has been an honor to meet these plants as my teachers. Ones who have reached out to help me move through any emotions that feel stuck and even provide relief to physical discomfort that arises from feelings that need to shift. What magic it is to know how much I get to learn through native flora and how empowering to commune with nature in this way. To heal myself and then extend this to others.
The process of Flower Essence Making has made herself at home in my practice and has opened me up to such a powerful way of self-healing and to my own intuition. I feel more connected to nature than I ever have before through this reverent communion. I have plans to write much more about the essences I have worked with thus far, their healing properties and messages, and I also want to talk more in-depth about the nuances of essence making.
I would love to work with you.
It is an honor to witness the growth and healing of the human spirit. The journey through our layers of wounding and back to self is a sacred and personal one that I find is best supported through compassionate witnessing and partnership. If this article has piqued your curiosity, I would love to help you take your next step. I offer Discovery Calls for anyone curious about this journey. Or you can email me at katie@katiebrommehomeopathy.com!