Flower Essence

[Fenris]

I was wondering if anybody here makes flower essences, cactus ones specifically?

Having tried rescue remedy and also some home made (not by me) caapi & salvia flower essences, I have to admit there is something to them.

Im hoping my spachianus flowers again so I can try to make some.

I guess it does seem a bit "new age" but if you believe that plants have spirit, then why not this.

From wikipedia

Edward Bach thought that dew collected from the flowers of plants contains some of the properties of the plant, and that it was more potent on flowers grown in the sun. As it was impractical to collect dew in quantity, he decided to pick flowers and steep them in a bowl of water under sunlight. If this is impractical due to lack of sunlight or other reasons the flowers may be boiled.

The result of this process is what he called "mother tincture", which is further diluted before sale or use.

Bach was satisfied with the method, because of its simplicity, and because it involved a process of combination of the four elements:

The earth to nurture the plant, the air from which it feeds, the sun or fire to enable it to impart its power, and water to collect and be enriched with its beneficient magnetic healing[8].

Bach flower remedies are not dependent on the theory of successive dilutions, and are not based on the Law of Similars of Homeopathy. The Bach remedies, unlike homeopathic remedies, are all derived from non-toxic substances, with the idea that a "positive energy" can redirect or neutralize "negative energy".

[hebrew]

e has some obtusifolia flower essence a few years ago that was really nice. i know little about flower essences but that obtus one was good

[_e_]

from my understanding and experience of what has been called "intuitive shamanic essences", cacti flowers would be moon essences; ive been wanting to travel to south america to do just this!

my approach would be:

pluck flower(s) at the setting of sun and place somewhere near the plant with ritual objects, u could use numerology and communication with the plant to determine how many flowers, and for how many nights it is to sit with the plant (but generally one full exposure/night would be fine).

you would then wrap the essence so it didnt get exposed to uv light, and energise it under the moonlight, perhaps even for an entire moon phase.

i employ crystals and neo/geo mancy in my essence work, just basically utilising sacred space/symbols/geometry and ritual implements and being open to whatever intuitive mesages i get from the plant and the process. then try to project the message(s)/information that comes to me into the essence. i.e what the plant has to share/what its particular nature is, what it has to share with humanity, and what i have learned personally in the process.

i had some of my obtusifolia essence at a party and i gave to someone on the edge of the dancefloor and he came up to me later and said "wow man this stuff is incredible, but i didnt know dmt was orally active"...

I try to be as clear and focused as possible when making an essence (which is why its beena few years now hehehe) and have actually climbed waterfalls to capture water for each individual bottle.

good luck, it is a very enjoyable process. let me know if u want anymore ideas, but ideally its a personal journey of discovering a new way to interact/communicate with plants and share that experience!

(u can use high quality spirits instead of water for the mother tincture, ideally stuff you have distilled yourself, but i would preference a combination of the freshest most vital water you can find in the best xtal vessell u can find.... to me its about capturing or transferring the 'frequency' of energy and information within the plant)

Edited January 5, 2009 by _e_

[Chiral]

very interesting thread...can I ask does the plant have to be psycho active to capture its essence..

H.

[_e_]

very interesting thread...can I ask does the plant have to be psycho active to capture its essence..

H.

definatly not!

the original bach essences were basically just bach going round and doing an essence and then saying "this plant is used specifically for.... and ...."

however these days whilst traditional 'bach' model flower essences still exist, their are two fields of essence work:

-those that state that a certain species gives a certain result, no matter where or when,

-and those that are essence specific, i.e recognizing individual plants/essence workers, and the resultant essence.

[folias]

Yeah, I've made lots of flower essences (a few dozen!)

Its very simple... get a clear bowl (no patterns)... get high quality water (not tap!) and add flower blossoms to the bowl so they float on the water. Three is often enough, and also add some leaves... I also add some buds, seeds and maybe some dead flowers too to represent the growth cycle.

Then you let infuse for a few hours in the sun until the water is sparkly... and potent.

Then, pour the water into a bottle containing 50% brandy.

Then percuss...i.e. shake well!

Then take 7 drops of that and add it to a 25ml dropper bottle, containing 30% Brand or so...

I would recommend then taking that, which is technically the "stock" solution.

You can then add 7 drops from the stock, to make a dosage bottle, which should probably a bit less brandy (as it only has to last a couple of weeks) and in a dosage bottle you can combine many essences... although this will appear as sacrilidge once you have made an essence.

Take 7 drops under the tongue, as many times a day as you feel... the frequency of taking the essence determines strength.

Finding out what the essence is good for, what it does, how it works - is a whole process... start with the "doctrine of signatures" and then open to communicating with the plant. If you spend enough time with the plant, and considering it with a pen ready, it will normally tell you about its essense.

Julian.

[Thelema]

cou*bllshit*gh!

[random fly]

Since flowers are the peak of plant expression (everything expresses itself very vividly when it wants to reproduce), flower essences can also help you get to know a plant (ie. it's preffered growing conditions, it's evolutionary path, it's medicinal properties etc.) especially when an essenc is used in combination with trance techniques.

I have previously only been familiar with the Bushflower essence technique (essentially running water over a living flower). As is my understanding, the Bach technique sacrifices the more subtle vibrations (which I assume are lost in the process of killing the flower) for the advantage of being able to keep the flower in water for a longer period of time.

What are people's thoughts on this?

Edited January 7, 2009 by random fly

[_e_]

Since flowers are the peak of plant expression (everything expresses itself very vividly when it wants to reproduce), flower essences can also help you get to know a plant (ie. it's preffered growing conditions, it's evolutionary path, it's medicinal properties etc.) especially when an essenc is used in combination with trance techniques.

I have previously only been familiar with the Bushflower essence technique (essentially running water over a living flower). As is my understanding, the Bach technique sacrifices the more subtle vibrations (which I assume are lost in the process of killing the flower) for the advantage of being able to keep the flower in water for a longer period of time.

What are people's thoughts on this?

perhaps dunking the cacti flowers would be the way to go... just walking plant to plant dunking pollinating eually?

and yeah my understanding was that when a plant flowers it is at its most 'ripe and expressive' .

both the essences i made, the passiflora and the grandfather acacia werr used during ceremony with some very humbling and empowering feedback.

as julian mentioend above, often i have used local crystal, seed pods, fresh flowers and fallen flowers in the essences (but never the phyllodes/ leaves in the case of passiflora)

however i didnt dilute any of my essences down more then once from the mother essence... and often did 7, 11, 13 or 23 drops (heheh sorry julian i know u got the 7 thing going on, it jsut felt righ at the time like intuitive dosing)

[Mycot]

There are now hundreds of different flower essences now available, each one having special unique qualities. Years ago I experimented widely with Bach flower, Australian bush flower and Californian flower essences. Also made some essences from Brugmansia and Peyote. The Peyote was special.

[mauve]

The Peyote was special.

Could you explain a little bit more ? thanks

[random fly]

I've made some peyote essences recently. Very useful in getting to know the plant without signifiantly hindering it's growth (and doing something illegal).

Ditto to mauve's comment.

[folias]

Some people make flower essences without plucking the flower... which I think is a bit silly...

just throwitinyadish and yar larfin!

There are tens of thousands of flower essences availalbe from all around the world... the alaskan essences are some of my favourites, and put me onto environmental essences, where you make an essence of an environment, a particular time and place.

Julian.

[random fly]

Well, as I said, that's the idea of Bushflower essences. The theory behind this is that when a flower is plucked (killed) it loses allot of its more subtle vibrations. What's involved in an environmental essence Julian?

Edited January 8, 2009 by random fly

[folias]

You can also hold the flower up into the bowl of water while it is on the plant/tree for 20 seconds or so... this works well!

An environmental essence is just made in a certain environment... just put the bowl of water in a certain environment and then let it sit for a few hours... 6 hours or so is good!

I've only made one... on the clearest day I have ever experienced... in a very special place in nature... if you have the intention, some nature spirits can help contribute to the "mix"... powerful stuff!

Julian.

[reptyle]

According to the essence of lingam sutra, the best way to spiritualise your experience is to dip the head of a charged wand in the vessel containing th waters of life and have some magick words to say when you are trying to activate the essences, often the tone of vocalisation reverberates throughout entire days worth of activities providing a special opening for the infused knowledge to become apparent and active. Often resulting in glee and laughter upon integration of contained data.

Toning by intuition will also provide information regarding the "freakwency" of the material you are utilising.

I have never understood the use of impure alcohols by people, especially when clean spirits are available. Mental contaminants or triggers such as flavour can bring unwanted backlash at later dates if used on specific ailments.

Does anyone know much about milk flower essences?

Surely they cant be kept for long periods, i do however like the cleaness and connectedness of milk.

maybe you could dry the milk out? and have a powdered essence of life or somesuch thing.

capturing spores and microflora from areas and using them in essential medicine seems like a whole can of worms.

Essences should only be consumed in the area they are created so as to ensure that the effect of the essence is locally applicable and that the effect is not stemming from the airborn constituents. Unless the entire climate of the essence is where the magick is derived and that thought forms built around known chemical and biological structures have been modulated to achieve correct data transfer.

Discuss:

The essence of purple.

The essence of the letter A.

The essence of a single droplet of rain.

The essence of a leaping mullet.

The essence of truth.

The essence of Mr Squiggle.

[FancyPants]

Next time I'm up that way I want to try searching for a few special trees (special acacias would be a bonus) up at Mount Warning at sunrise and have some bowls and pure water handy to try that. I wish I'd known about this when my parents lived at Farrants Hill near Mur'bah, they had an absolutely stunning view of the sun rising over the Pacific. Wish I'd known I could "bottle" that.

[Mycot]

Could you explain a little bit more ? thanks

Well I think the idea behind essences is that they embody the essence/vibration/personality of the plant itself. Just like having a fairy jump inside of your skin its going to have an effect.

With peyote there seems to be a tuning and opening up on psychic levels and also seems to open up the heart chakra.

The flowers of peyote have the form of pink rays on white petals.

[ajna]

again i approached flower essences with a decent amount of skepticism but open-mindedness, and have been quite surprised on some occasions. i have made and experimented with a brugmansia essence with some interesting results, and i'd like to try one with moonlight rather than sun for comparison. among other things, one thing i remember when i took it for 2 weeks everyday was that i craved tobacco like never before, 'lust' probably describes the feeling more accurately than crave. every cig was like a gift from god (and i dont usually smoke tobacco). i wondered if it could have something to do with trace amts of tropanes, but after the dilution it would have to be such a tiny, tiny amount that i don't think so.

i've also used a meditation essence from the bush flower range which seemed helpful. i've also witnessed the emergency essence work on children incredibly fast, one kid with a raging fever calmed down and temperature dropped within minutes, another having a tantrum stopped in it's tracks and the kid calmly going off to bed.

the power of suggestion can't be underestimated, but there seems to be something going on here...

[Mycot]

Thats been my experience with the essences. They work incredibly fast, in minutes. I don't believe it's power of suggestion as I've seen persons whole psychological demeanor change virtually instantly where they had no expectations at all. Just didn't know what hit em.