Illuminations

How to Make a Flower Essence

 


The first time I ever opened a book about flower essences I cried. Tears just sprang out of my eyes— not out of sadness per say, but out of a deep well of recognition. I remember I was sitting in the near darkness in my room in Brooklyn, a long boxcar of a space called a “railroad” without windows or proper doors, and suddenly it was like I was in the mist of an out-of-the-blue baptism.

I call tears like this “truth cries.” When something just hits you as so irrevocably true, so deeply in tune with your being, that part of you just weeps. Often these tears take me by surprise, like finding a precious heirloom that has been lost for a long time. In that moment, the dam that was blocking you from remembering a piece of who you are, simply dissolves. And suddenly, you feel more yourself than you were just a moment ago.

Often you can’t even put into words why you feel so deeply— but you know, in a place before words, you’ve made a connection that you will never lose again.

In moments like these, we find our essence once more.

And the amazing thing is, the more we make these connections to medicines that can help us to re-member ourselves, the more truth literally cries out to us.

 

 

Once the world of flower essences opened for me these experiences of profound self-revelation began to happen all the time. The flowers tugged lovingly at the hem of my pants, and now I knew why they were whispering to me — they wanted to help me come back home to my own being. And with the art of flower essence, I knew how to open to their medicine.

Every spring I make a flower essence that is my “core essence” for that new season. I work with the essence for the duration of the spring and every year that flower helps me to open up, bloom, discover more of my core essence. My journey becomes increasingly graceful, I learn more about who I truly am. And yes, truth cries happen often, in the best and most medicinal ways.

Each spring a flower will call out to you, too. When it blooms you might feel an untethered joy, a stirring, maybe even a few tears. Or maybe it’ll come in as a simple sense of curiosity, intrigue, or the awe or suddenly seeing a flower as if it were the first time.

The blooms that are waving to you now, the ones that have shown up in your yard with a delight of color, piquing your imagination, are wanting to work with you this spring. Trust me. This is how it all begins.

Right now, there is a flower that wants to help you touch into the core essence of your own being.

And you opened this missive today because you are ready to receive its medicine.

 


When I first started making flower essences there were very few resources online (I remember I literally bookmarked a geosites website from the early 2000s to reference). Of course, today there are many more guides, but I wanted to create one directly from my own experience to share with all of you here.

Check out my video guide to making a flower essence, and create your own “core essence” to help you bloom into a whole new era of self-knowledge this spring.

 

YouTube player
 

And if you are ready to dive even deeper into plant communication— cultivating the ability to access your own medicine, and working with the healing of the natural world— come join me for Intuitive Plant Medicine!

In this eight-week online course we explore how to embody the blooms of who we are, and become like an essence (full of so much medicine) for this world. We also go into even more richer flower essence practice with information about attunement, dosaging, formulation, essence acupuncture and so much more.

I hope to bloom with you there.