When a flower essence is created a bowl of spring or holy water is placed in the vicinity of the plant that we wish to obtain it from. The spirit of the flower is then invited to imprint itself into the water along with any other elements from the ether that wish to emphasise the quality and message behind this particular bloom.

Imagine, if you will, various nuances and subtleties of meaning, spiralling around in the atmosphere, that are just waiting to drop into place within such a vessel at this  opportune moment, gently settling and coagulating within the mixture to establish an eternal bond, between floret and water, for our own benefit.   

This April marks the completion of a two year cycle with the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences. When an entire range of essences is created it forms in a very similar way to how an individual essence does too. It takes time for all the elements to come together, for each essence to circulate and begin to settle into its rightful place, for the collective to reach completion and the common purpose to be known. 

Little did I realise in the spring of 2019 when first being called toward the hedgerow by the abundant Blackthorn blossom, the inaugural essence of the range, of the journey I was about to embark on with all of the flowers that wanted their spirit to be collected from them to appear in my offering.   

The first 365 days of that voyage were all dedicated to collecting the 18 flower essences that now make up the individual spokes within the wheel. The second full rotation has allowed me to create poems dedicated to all of those flowers, plus, establish the 6 lunar and solar blends to be included within the package too.

Now we are 24 essences strong. Equating to two essences for every month of the year, lending a complete annual support system, to any would be client wishing to embark on a personal development program with me.

Like me, if you are to be an ideal client of mine, your primary life concern is likely to be something along the lines of how you are going to 'awaken to a life beyond bullying  to claim your true power', for this is my story also. 

Each of the essences or blends in the range add a restorative quality to us that is often lost when we are bullied, controlled, criticised or conditioned to live our lives to others wishes. The idea of the range is to assist us in coming back to a place of wholeness and balance, one essence and one quality at a time, reclaiming our true power in the process. 

In April for instance it is the Bluebell and the New Moon Essences that come to assist us with our improved emotional wellbeing. The elegant, slender Bluebell encourages us to engage with our lost beauty, something that may have disappeared from us as early as birth itself, in order to gain an 'inner-sense' of who we truly are. Whereas, the New Moon Essence aims to embed a greater assurance within us of truly 'knowing our purpose' here on Earth at this moment in time also. 

So to May, with the Red Campion and Waxing Half Moon Essences with their respective qualities of connection and vigilance and so on and so forth, month by month, right throughout the calendar, absorbing further attributes such as courage, confidence, vision, enthusiasm, resilience and trust as we go.

If this notion of gaining support from our fellow flower allies the whole year through truly resonates with you, then maybe it is time to get in touch with me and think about how you can start to benefit from the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences in their own right or as part of a wider personal development program with me. I look forward to receiving your inquiry by you answering The Call To Adventure now. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you then please feel free to do so below.

Little did I know when I first started collecting flower essences of the journey I was about to be taken on in order to understand everything that was needed to be learnt of each individual essence. This included each one's unique quality and message that it wanted to convey to me in order to be shared with the rest of the planet for everyone's benefit. 

Firstly I was introduced to how the flowers appeared within the year, month by month, then where they were located within the landscape, next how they related to one another and finally how they connected with synchronistic events that were happening at the time, had occurred in the past or, as it turned out, would be experienced in the future.

This was all designed to make me pay more attention to the essences and the level of healing ability they were capable of both for the individual and that of the collective. All the time however I was being subtly shown how they related to the lunar and solar cycles too, which opened me up to a whole new level of learning.   

My first essence I ever created was the Blackthorn which was gathered on a New Moon at the start of the financial year in 2019. Three weeks later I was being prompted to collect the Bluebell on a Waning Half Moon. It was soon being made obvious to me that there was a pattern of collection for me to follow working with the moon phases, not necessarily in the normal chronological order. I would then be tasked with the sun phases too.

This sequence I believe was to help disguise, at first, the depth of meaning held within the particular lunar cycle I was working with and how they were all ultimately connected. This revelation only started to dawn on me towards the end of collecting all of the initial seventeen essence range. Some quite interesting commonalities started to come to light within each individual, New Moon, Waxing Half Moon, Full Moon and Waning Half Moon essence as I began to bring them all together, let alone within the Solstice and Equinox essences also. 

For instance when analysing all the New Moon essences I began to discover that if the Blackthorn's message was 'Knowing The Way', the Ox-Eye Daisy's was 'Bright Eyes' and the Dandelion's 'Keep The Faith', then together they would be assisting us in 'Knowing Our Purpose'. This is because their individual qualities of direction, vision and trust, when combined, point us towards a new quality of assurance. 

Similarly if we look at the Waxing Half Moon essences of Foxglove, Hedge Bindweed and Wild Daffodil we begin to discover that these are all essences that bring us more 'Aware Of Boundaries', whether this is guarding our threshold, reaching out beyond it or preventing people encroaching within it. We become more vigilant when the qualities of protection, resilience and discernment are unified.  

With the Full Moon we combine the essences of Red Campion, Montbretia, Snowdrop and indeed Red Valarian, as the thirteenth flower essence. Their respective qualities of connection, courage, determination and truth give us a new resolve for our life. Here we can 'Search For The Hero' within ourselves, find out 'Where There's A Will' there's a way and thus finally how 'To Thyself Be True'. By all doing this we begin to establish that 'We Are The Campions' and find out that we have discovered 'The Drive Of Our Life'. 

For the Waning Half Moon it is more about 'Loving Yourself'. When we combine Bluebell's beauty, Nodding Thistle's confidence and Yarrow's acceptance we begin to truly bring the quality of peace to our being where we are able to gain an 'Inner-Sense' of who we are, acknowledge 'It Is What It Is' at the end of the day and thus begin to 'Be The Best Of The Best' as far as we are concerned. 

As for the Solstices and Equinoxes then the flowers of the Wild Rose, Meadowsweet, Daisy and Primrose begin to bring us 'Fully Present' bringing our attention to every second of every day. They teach us to both seize and enjoy the moment whilst being responsible for it and treating it as if it was our first ever upon this Earth. That way we are able to be happy living our lives in a constant state of renewal, where new beginnings can be initiated forever more. 

If you wish to experience the Lunar and Solar Essence blends for yourself then why not check out the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences today and begin to live a happier life yourself too.

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.

When Dr Edward Bach created his now famous range of Bach Flower Essences he dealt mainly with negative indications, poor emotional states of mind that he would encounter before finding the particular quality he was looking for from the plants he was dealing with, in order to restore himself to a state of parity from that malaise. It is no different for the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences too. 

Here, my own essences are designed to help you overcome bullying to discover your true identity. Thus, it goes without saying that each individual essence, from the eighteen in total, will highlight a negative indication that you will have felt within a bullying type scenario. It will also make you aware of the positive indication that you require in order to counteract this and help you come back into a state of balance. 

Bullying can be a very debilitating circumstance to deal with in your life and also to be able to evolve from without help. If we are bullied, we can feel lost, unloved, unsure of our purpose, be vulnerable and feel very apathetic towards life. 

These are just a handful of negative indications that we can be suffering from that I have selected from the first five essences in the Allies Of Nature range, the Blackthorn, Bluebell, Red Campion, Foxglove and Wild Rose to illustrate the point.  The same could be said of the other essences in the range too had I gone through the other thirteen bottles and their negative indications also.   

The negative indication is the thing that we most recognise that we need help with, it maybe for instance that we are not happy with the way that our life is progressing at this moment in time, we maybe coming up against all sorts of rules, regulations and restrictions, all elements that we might be encountering under a Covid - 19 bullying set of circumstances from our government.

The ideal flower essence to counteract that negative indication from my range would be Yarrow, for it deals with all of those feelings of frustration with the positive quality of acceptance. Once we learn to accept this scenario we soon find we can carry on with our life as per normal as 'It Is What It Is' at the end of the day.  

Similarly we might be feeling a degree of despair within our life, having a feeling of loss or separation, being distant from others. Both Coronavirus and bullying can do this to us, to make us go inward. This is the negative indication associated with the flower essence Montbretia. This flower encourages us to 'Search For The Hero' inside of ourselves and to rediscover our courage, connecting us with our own inner fire and lighting a beacon within not only for ourselves to follow but others too possibly. 

I maintain if one is prepared to follow the whole calendar wheel of flower essences with myself and the Allies Of Nature range you will gradually bring yourself back into a state of wholeness by adding each individual quality that you maybe lacking, or need work on, from month to month. That's if you truly wish to be able to become the best person you can possibly be. 

So my advice to you, if you have ever suffered from any bullying before is to look at my range of flower essences in my online shop to see how best the flowers can help you with the negative indication that you might be feeling at this moment in time and let the essences start to work their magic on you. Then, together with my other shamanic practices we can take you on a journey to help you be the person you were always destined to be in your life. The true adult butterfly. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.

What I have found most amazing in my journey with the flower essences thus far is the ever deepening connection that they seem to have with myself in the messages that they want to relay to me. This happens most profoundly when not only one flower wants to communicate its insights in my direction but two or more at the same time, either in a blend of essences, or in a sequence within the wheel. 

Previous blogs have commented on the fact that I believe the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences is here, in part, to help us through the Coronavirus outbreak. That is certainly how I have reported things with the Primrose, Blackthorn, Bluebell combination at work. Something that hasn't lessened any more since the arrival of Red Campion into the mix, in fact it has probably only further emphasised this.

The story so far of the lockdown period according to the flowers could quite easily read something like this. Here comes a time of 'renewal', of 'new beginnings' (Primrose). There is now a need for 'knowing the way', a different 'direction' (Blackthorn). This will require us to go inward, gaining an 'inner-sense' of our own 'beauty' (Bluebell). Then we can establish a greater 'connection' to ourself and the rest of our community by rediscovering our life purpose and how it relates to a common purpose that we share with our fellow Allies. Our bonds will then become ever more substantial for 'we are the campions' (Red Campion).

When I started collecting my essences just over twelve months ago, the flowers made it obvious to me which ones needed to be selected when, based on my connection to them at the time or more nostalgic relationships. Occasionally they would appeal to my humour too. 

When I started my Accredited Chalice Well Practitioner Course in March of last year there was one flower dominating the landscape. It was awesome. I had never seen it in such abundance, drawing my gaze continually towards it. Whatever events I was attending personally in my life it was there in the hedgerow making itself known to me that an essence simply had to be taken from it given half the chance. That flower of course was none other than the Blackthorn. 

In April however there was never ever going to be any other plant to take an essence from than that of the Bluebell, for I just simply adore the beauty of this flower in its seeming innocence. Every year as far as I can remember I have made the pilgrimage to the same wood upon the South Devon Coastline, near Wonwell Beach, just to be able to spend one afternoon of three hundred and sixty five with it, sometimes two or three. There is something about that hue of blue and indigo that plays with the heart strings, like a melodic song that just pulls you back year after year in pure romance. It is quite unexplainable really apart from the fact it must be love. 

You'ld think in any range of essences that Bluebell would be a hard act to follow and yet, within Westcountry hedgerows, as April moves into May, so right alongside it comes the Red Campion just shouting at you. 'Don't leave me out! Don't forget about me'. It grows taller, straighter and more regimental than the bashful, more unassuming Bluebell. The Red Campion stands proudly in its community, many cerise blooms upon the one stem, beacons of pink pulsing away to grab your attention. They champion their own cause to be included as part of any alliance, as they begin to take over the ever greening verges.  

What is most mesmeric for me though is when they are in full bloom next to each other, as neighbours. Where swathes of ultramarine can be seen next to patches of magenta. This is a great way of working with the spirits of these two plants also in their combined message that they want to bring to us. 

This spring, having already realised how the flowers could be connecting with the circumstances taking place upon the planet, I was intrigued as to how Bluebell would relate to Red Campion. I wondered what their combined message might want to convey to us collectively, as well as with regards to my own life journey too at this moment in time. 

For I knew in my own circumstances, as with everyone else in lockdown, that I was being encouraged to go inward. The Bluebell, where it grows most profusely is in the woods. There, it is not so easy to see out beyond the trees, you have to stay present within the forest as to what is going on within your immediate vicinity. No different then to being forced to live within your own four walls at home. 

With the Red Campion, when I started out in May, I wondered how its quality of 'connection' would make me learn about what was needed at this time and in the lift of the Coronavirus restrictions, albeit in fairly small increments. I thought I had found the answer in our wish to be reacquainted with our fellow human being. However I have since realised that the real beauty of the 'connection' between Bluebell, Red Campion and ourselves is this inward journey that we need to take to re-establish our own life purpose. 

The more time we are left on our own and realise how much we enjoy this life compared to what we might have experienced before when commuting to work every day, under someone else's control, then we will only naturally want to start to question our future path. A desire to understand where we personally are heading in life will come to the fore, as we wrestle with the question of what our life purpose is all about.

For me, when being under the influence of both Bluebell and Red Campion, whilst I have been questioning my own path forward in life I have been presented with certain signs in nature that may well have only been viewable in my own backyard. When walking the fields next to my home, spending time in the garden or even inside the house, cloud formations, encounters with animals and birds, number sequences, dreams, astral connections and pointers towards reference material on my book shelf have occurred that most likely wouldn't have happened had my outlook been more expansive and I was busy doing other things. 

Through experiencing a sun bow recently, where the sun refracts through ice particles in the upper atmosphere to leave a halo effect three hundred and sixty degrees around the sun, I was steered back towards a book I have read a couple of years ago called 'The Legend Of The Rainbow Warriors'. In the book it talks about a group of people that begin to form like Allies Of Nature, all prepared to stand up for the Earth itself, as 'Rainbow Warriors', at a time when these sun bows or whirling rainbows are seen with more frequency within the skies. They herald a time where the 'Age Of Aquarius' really starts to kick in. Another name for this new age is the 'Age Of Flowers', where a greater understanding of the healing power of flowers begins to take place by way of their essences!!! 

I wasn't fully aware of this notion when I read the book the first time, the penultimate chapter may have phased me somewhat. It now of course makes perfect sense to me as to why my life path has been as it has been and why I have come to be a flower essence practitioner, such is the power of a Bluebell, Red Campion alignment it would seem and knowing one's own life purpose as a consequence. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.

The further I have journeyed with shamanic practice and flower essences in particular the more I have realised how I am being encouraged to work month by month, in all my personal development work, with what is happening in nature at the time and how this relates to the calendar wheel. 

To be fair shamanism is more or less set up for this in any case. The medicine wheel that accompanies shamanic tradition is often talked about in circles of First Nation people. It helps form the symbol associated with this particular spiritual path. It has four directions connected to it, East, South, West and North. These directions can have various meanings attached to them, the colours of gold, red, black and white or the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively. A fuller understanding of all the meanings and teachings associated with the four directions can take many years of study to become fully competent in. 

I personally however, seem to be being fast-tracked somewhat towards this knowledge through my association with the flowers and their devas (flower spirits). In a shamanic way they have become my teachers. At times they have been very kind to me, at others, quite severe in the lessons that they have wanted to bring to me, dependent on what has been needed to be taught or learnt at the time. 

One by one they have introduced themselves to me in this month by month fashion. Starting in March 2019 with the Blackthorn and then offering up Bluebell when moving into April, the Red Campion in May and so on and so forth until the whole year was completed.

They were showing me all the time when each flower was appearing in the landscape, why they are located specifically there and how they related to each other and the lunar and solar cycles too. This was before any synchronistic events that might be happening in the world came into being that needed to be considered also in the meaning behind their essences. They would seemingly stop at nothing just to be able to impart the messages that they needed to give me about their particular uniqueness. 

The wheel pictured above has sixteen equal spokes to it, all centred around a central hub. My flower essence range consists of seventeen different essences that can all be mapped to this particular wheel.

The range has four solstice or equinox essences associated with it. The Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice can take up the positions of the four directions, the strongest spokes within the wheel.

The other twelve spokes can all be represented by one of the calendar month essences. However, as with the passage of the moon itself in its annual cycle from January 1st to December 31st there is always a thirteen lunar month within any calendar year. The hub itself can represent that thirteenth essence. In the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences. The Red Valarian is the thirteenth essence within the moon cycle, which brings with it the message 'To Thyself Be True'. What better message to have at your core being than that! 

The hub with its sixteen spokes can all support the outer rail of the wheel, all the qualities that we need to be a whole person in our lifetime. As with the picture above, we can experience the odd broken rail in our wheel as our life unfolds. In taking the respective essence that relates to that portion of the wheel we can restore ourselves to a more healthy state.

Once more in all the other parts of the wheel if we choose to take the respective essence for that part too, it can assist us in polishing up that quality within us, giving us a new makeover or lick of paint so we feel all the more better about our complete selves in the process too. 

This monthly cycle of taking the essences is now influencing my personal development offering as a whole. With any of the healing, coaching or guidance packages I advocate, the practices and exercises need time to soak into your being before they start to enact change. The type of transformation I offer should not be viewed as a quick sticky plaster to be placed on any gaping wound to try and make you feel better immediately, these practices need time to properly heal you.

This type of personal development is no short term hit of happiness, for that would be a very superficial way of looking at the way spirit wants to work with us in its many nuances and subtleties in our journey towards wholeness. Not to say that breakthroughs aren't possible, because they very much are, epiphanies and eureka moments can occur at any point in our voyage, we just need to be patient with ourselves as we go along. 

Any personal development work needs a period of percolation including when working with the essences too. Any particular issue we are going through may require a month, three months, six months, or a year to be properly worked through depending on what divine right timing is necessary according to the higher power in our healing journey. The flowers however and the shamanic teachings are here to help you negotiate that time, and I am too. We wish to assist you through every step of that personal development process.

Each month I will work with people on certain themes, bespoke to them, and the time of year that we are dealing with. We will be advised by the essences, investigating what synchronicity that will bring with what is going on in nature at the time and see how that can help you with your own progression. 

This is truly beautiful work I believe if one is prepared to engage with it and start to turn through the circle of the wheel as per what nature intended us to do. If you are ready to get started, why not check out The Butterfly Journey and The Flower Power Trip now through the links below and let us get this wheel in motion. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.

This weekend it feels like the honourable thing to do is to acknowledge the inaugural, pioneering essence of the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences. For on the 6th April 2019 the Blackthorn flower essence was created. At the time, it was a Saturday, it was a new moon, it was the start of the financial year, the Grand National was taking place, and there was no hint of any global pandemic being in the twinkling of Mother Nature's eye, or any other eye for that matter also. 

As an essence the Blackthorn has proved to be a pioneer in many ways for me. The message it wanted to convey to me on capturing it was 'knowing the way'. Thus it has shown me how to collect an essence, educated me on how spirit wants to communicate messages through its flowers to me and taught me that not everything about an essence can necessarily be revealed at the point of collection. A greater depth of understanding needs to be accumulated about it over a period of time. 

A year on for instance, we are in very contrasting circumstances to when the essence was collected. Coronavirus has spread across the planet, there are no sporting events taking place and we are all under lockdown. We are also at a very different point in the moon cycle it must be added too, somewhere between a waxing half moon and a full moon. This illustrates that when a 'Mother Essence' is created it is very much born out of the spirit of the moment and cannot be wholly reproduced in the same way ever again.

There will always be nuances between essence collections of the same flower. Other distinct scenarios will be playing out within nature and society at the time, new influences will be at work, one could be guided to collect the essence on a totally different day or phase of the moon cycle, the planets themselves will all be aligned differently. This will give a slightly contrasting accent to the language being communicated to the practitioner from the flower itself. 

Indeed alternative interpretations can be extracted from the initial flower essence collection when more than one practitioner is involved too. When studying at the Chalice Well we would often collect an essence together and each person's understanding of it would be slightly different. There would however be a common theme running throughout the process. Links and connections within the web of information being accumulated would be the same or similar and this would point to an overall knowledge of what the essence was ultimately about. A golden thread of understanding would then eventually come to light. 

Subtle differences can exist from range to range too when comparing like for like flowers or very similar ones. When I collected the Wild Rose essence last summer solstice and got the quality of 'enthusiasm' from it, it was very reassuring for me to know that when I came into contact with the Wild Rose from the Bach Flower Essences, some time later, that its quality was one of 'enthusiasm' too. This exact match however may not always be the case and our job is then to enquire further as to why such a difference may exist and see where the common ground lies. 

It is good to approach essence making with what we say in the shamanic tradition is 'beginners mind', i.e. we haven't totally drawn a conclusion at the outset of the essence creation, or the journey thereafter, as to what that essence is wholly about. We endeavour to remain open to other thought processes, inspirations and revelations that might come that are reflective of what is happening with the essence as the process unfolds, layer by layer. We will always then have an opportunity to deepen our understanding of what we are being presented with.

That said however, there will always be this overall theme, this golden thread within it, something 'special' about this particular flower and what its purpose is to be upon the planet at this moment in time. This is what the spirit of the plant or flower deva wants to convey to us in allowing us to connect with its unique flower essence in the first place. 

What I have found in my own journeying with the flower essences, and revisiting them for a second time through the calendar wheel, is that they only want to deepen their connection with us and help us understand the original information given about their essence more intimately. 

With Blackthorn, its message twelve months prior of 'knowing the way' had been illustrated to me by way of its pioneering spirit breaking new ground with its blossoms in an otherwise barren hedgerow. It was giving all the other plants 'direction' in so doing, as it would give ourselves 'direction' when we connected with its essence also. How then would that message be further ingrained within us in 2020 when visiting with it again?

On the Blackthorn Medicine Walk that I completed recently in my own back garden, due to the lockdown regulations, I was able to connect with the original tree I got the essence from again. I asked it the question as to what will give us the opportunity of 'knowing the way' forward given our current very restrictive Coronavirus circumstances?

The answer that came back to me seemed to be connected to finding our own inner peace, and then from that place being able to honour all of the other three peaces too, creating peace with others, our community and the planet. We cannot have peace in the world if we have conflict within ourselves.

This further message from Blackthorn ties into the message from the Bluebell as mentioned in my previous blog, that of gaining an 'inner-sense' of ourselves, it being the next essence in the sequence of the Allies Of Nature range of ​flower essences. This further emphasises the connection between the essences as they go through the year. There is a beauty to this unfolding, a poetry, where there is a story to be told which isn't always obvious when each essence is originally collected.

I feel that the spirit of Blackthorn in 'knowing the way' is continually with me as I learn more and more about the flowers and their essences, in how they are captured, manufactured and are then to be used at a personal or planetary level. I can always rely on Blackthorn to give me 'direction' throughout my entire essence journey. 

​If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you then please feel free to do so below.

I must immediately state that flower essences are not a cure for Coronavirus, but what they are here to do for us is to help support us through these times of the Covid - 19 outbreak. They will aid us with our mental health and emotional wellbeing in order to be able to better deal with the circumstances that we are now facing.

When I started working with flower essences I had no idea of the journey I was about to be taken on, or what the flowers wanted to teach me about their unique qualities. They had a message for me that they wanted me to bring to the world, both individually and collectively, as I voyaged with them over the course of a year. 

Firstly, I would learn about how they appeared month by month within nature, then in what place in the landscape that they could be found, how they related to the next flower essence in the sequence and in turn how they could be connected to both the lunar and solar cycles when they were gathered. This was before I was educated in the finer details of how they might also connect to what was going on within the Universe, both in their capture and then when it came to market them a whole twelve months later. 

Each essence had its own story to tell, its own chapter to write, as if being a part of a bigger book of Allies Of Nature flower essences. Each line, paragraph or page just seemingly wanted to meld into the next as if the flowers were relay runners handing the baton on from essence to essence, in the telling of a collective narrative. This was all the more evident when the cycle began to draw to a close most recently and then begin again, all throughout the days of March. 

Last week I collected the Primrose flower essence on the Spring Equinox, the final essence, in the sequence of 17. I captured the Wild Daffodil, the previous essence, on 2nd February and all the time in between up to 20th March I was getting hints as to what Primrose was all about even before I placed the bowl of spring water next to the flower itself in order to collect the essence. 

There has been a lot of renewal in my life recently, a feeling of things coming to a end as well as other things about to come into being. Not only yearly cycles and seasons, but relationships and ways of existing too. When I sat with Primrose, as the day and night became equal in measurement again, the message that came through to me quite strongly was one of 'new beginnings'.

'How does that sum up the Coronavirus situation?' I hear you wonder. Well, it would seem to me that whenever this virus comes to an end the whole world will feel different. Different because of the collective experience we have gone through together and the love and compassion that has been shown to our fellow men and women on all levels of society as a result. Is it even possible to go back now to how we were before, in our more uncaring, busy, busy, busy type of lifestyle? It maybe that the Coronavirus has come along in some way shape or form to wipe the slate clean so we can start again, at our beginning.

I would suggest that if the messages that the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences want to bring to us are anything to go by, as one annual cycle starts to overlap the next, that Primrose's herald of 'new beginnings', links directly into Blackthorn's 'knowing the way'. 

The Blackthorn was the first essence in the range of essences that I created a whole twelve months earlier. It was the March essence, that was actually collected on the new moon in April at the start of the 2019/20 financial year. Its message to me was that it was a pioneer, breaking new ground. Its abundant white flowers and pointed barbs made me think about clarity and direction. It felt to me as if it was guiding other plants in the way of flowering, as it was the first to appear in the otherwise barren springtime hedgerows. 

I believe that in Primrose's 'renewal' of how to be in the world under Coronavirus lockdown we will find the clarity and direction we need through Blackthorn, but also with the next flower in the range of essences too, the Bluebell. For if we are to believe the collective narrative of the Allies Of Nature then the direction we need to travel from Blackthorn to Bluebell is inward in order to gain a greater understanding of our own inner beauty, our own 'inner-sense'. 

If you would like to know more about any of these flower essences and how they could best help you why not answer The Call To Adventure and have an introduction session with me or alternatively browse through the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences in the shop to see which one might resonate with you the most to assist you in your own personal development. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you then please feel free to do so below.

Back in August 2018 I came to the end of my Three Year Shamanic Training, the culmination of which saw me produce this Medicine Shield, designed to truly depict who I am, even though at the time I didn't wholly realise what this meant. However there were enough clues in the imagery and my final Vision Quest to suggest what it could be hinting at. As I have journeyed in the weeks and months since, the shield has given me much greater clarity, proving to be a great teacher in its own right. 

Whereas in the past I have run companies in graphic design, branding and personal development and always chosen logos that in some way shape or form related to nature, there was always something missing, most likely because I wasn't really sure of my own unique identity behind the brand, my own true self.

However, this shield truly represents me and my recent journey, it holds all of my medicine power. I know it and love it deeply because it has come from a truly intimate place within my soul, each element being spelt out to me within nature as an essential part of who I am. I shall now carry this image with me, quite literally, for the rest of my life.

This I believe is the strength of shamanic training and working with spirit in this way. It gives you this essence of who you are, this understanding, this knowledge, by giving you riddles along the way for you to solve in divine right timing.  

I had been drawn to include flowers in the motif, for what reason I did not really know but they had been very much a part of every ceremony I had done in nature. I knew this was seemingly a very feminine thing that I had to depict within any would be warrior shield but I just knew they had to be in there somewhere, intuitively, instinctively, they wished to have their presence known. 

There were the Foxgloves that had stood as guardians in the darkness of a Devon forest, protecting me on one scary, lone vigil night, as I was being introduced to my first power animal, the black panther, representative of all my feminine qualities that had dominated my life to that point. Then again that same flower had stood tall in the full glare of sunlight in a Druid Welsh valley where I received a dream as vivid as you could imagine of my second power animal, the red stag, who started to bring forth my masculine side, so sadly missing from my previous existence. The two animals together would give me the balance that I so desperately needed.

Here in the shield too was the Thistle whose seeds had blown continuously through the 'Shedding Of The Skin' ceremony that I had completed within the first 12 months of my training where I left my past behind me to witness my full power blowing on the wind spreading its potency as far as the eye could see.

Then there was the Wild Rose itself, which I was still yet to discover its true meaning until only this past week. 

For this summer solstice I was guided to create my latest flower essence, the Wild Rose. One of the things that I had been given from my last deep immersion in nature in the final days of my training was the fact that I could in time start to work with flowers and flower essences in particular, little realising then how much I was going to love this voyage of discovery once dipping my toe in the water.

Signing up to the Chalice Well Flower Essence Practitioner Course back in March is seemingly the best thing that I have ever done. I believe the flowers have heightened my connection to nature and spirit, they have been continually calling me to make essences from them, to understand spirit better through them, so as to frame all of my other work and build a brand to help my fellow 'Allies Of Nature'.

Creating my own essences of Blackthorn, Bluebell, Red Campion, Foxglove and now Wild Rose a story has begun to be told of how they all link together and the beauty held within each one of them in their individual qualities. The Wild Rose speaking most highly of a return to source, it being the original rose where all roses have arguably come from, getting back to the real essence of what it is to be who you truly are. Then to live from that place, with a strong heart, seizing the moment, seizing the day, carpé diem, in how you live your life for the rest of your existence.

This is what the shield most represents to me I feel that solstice moment of the full sun in the background, being at its height, its zenith, with the masculine stag in the middle ground with all its power and might, and the flowers in the foreground representing the warrior, guardian, protector, with the strong heart. From here comes the pure joy of the swallow, dancing in the sky, and ultimately the swallowtail butterfly itself behind it all, unseen, who helps form the brand of 'Allies Of Nature'.

So there we are, that is me, in all my glory. As this shield becomes more ingrained within my psyche and I devote more of my time to be able to work in my element, sure of who I am now. I hope this will begin to reap rewards not only for myself, but for all the people that I am lucky enough to come into contact with to assist in their own personal development and for the rest of the planet also.

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.

These past few months have seen a shift in what I am now to offer through Allies Of Nature. When I completed my shamanic training last year I knew from what I had conceived upon my Medicine Shield that flowers in some way shape or form were going to be a part of my future. The animals and birds had introduced me to The Shamanic Path and had helped me travel along it thus far, but it was the beautiful petal headed plants, ever present in all my Vision Quests that seemingly, more fervently, wanted to take me on the next step of my journey.

Over the last couple of years in particular I have become more aware of the abundance of flowers within nature. As our countryside has become less cultivated, had less pesticide put upon it, had more areas set aside for wilderness and less verges cut on a regular basis due to county council cost savings, so the wild flowers and blossoms have returned to our hedges and roadsides, like which I cannot remember.

It is this, or spirit in its many guises has just wanted me to pay more attention to it and become more aligned again with nature, in order for me to truly understand it as a real ally in our everyday existence.

For once we start to discover what is at the very essence of every living piece of flora or fauna alive on the planet today, its unique identity, and realise how we can benefit from that mammal, bird, insect or plant with what it wants to bestow upon us, absorbing that essence into us in one way shape or form, then the real healing of our planet can begin.

The game changer upon the Earth today is when we start to understand that the animals and flowers that exist around us are here for own personal development and journey towards wholeness. When we begin to grasp this concept is when we start to open up to the great mystery of life. Provided of course that we are able to leave enough space for nature and allow all these great species to stick around long enough to be able to teach us all of their ways. That way, we will not make them extinct simply through our own ignorance and unconscious expansion.

This is what essence work and indeed animal spirit work is all about I believe. Not only the flower essences that I am now beginning to offer people but the essence of every living creature on the planet too.

What is it that makes a tiger a tiger, an elephant an elephant and a Bluebell a Bluebell? What special thing does it do that no other entity can do upon the planet? What way of being does it want to communicate to us that we can learn from and amalgamate into our own existence for our own benefit once we know how?

This can only be communicated to us when we become still, quiet, and just listen to all what is going on around us, then spirit begins to percolate the message through to us that we desperately need to hear for our own health and wellbeing.

To capture an essence of a flower one ventures out into the woodland, hedgerow or grassy meadow, the environment where that plant exists, and then sets down a bowl of holy spring water next to it. The vibration from that flower then radiates in the direction of the cut glass vessel and is captured in the water, like that of its own reflection, an imprint of what it is to be that particular child of Mother Earth herself.

What comes to us in the witnessing of that process, what nature wants to tell us is going on at that time, helps form an impression of what that essence is all about and the quality of that plant that it wishes to communicate to us. 

In taking of those waters, that quality can then in turn be transferred to ourselves, where we can start to heal as individuals and indeed excel, helping us to become all that we wish to be.

We work in a similar way with the animals but in an ever more spiritual context. As you will appreciate it is a lot harder to keep an animal still long enough to capture its essence, so as a shamanic practitioner or animal essence provider you have to invite the spirit of that animal to work with you in a similar way to that of the flowers. That way there is no need to restrain the animal itself, or god forbid harm it in any way in order to capture its essence, no need to consume or acquire a particular body part to gain its quality, the essence of that animal can simply be infused into a healing remedy or potion in a similar way to the flowers through the holy water.
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In a recent trip to a woodland in South Devon to capture the essence of Bluebell, I was first given the word innocent, as all flora and fauna are innocent upon this planet and deserve to be treated that way. However me being me, as the particular wordsmith that I am, working in conjunction with spirit I felt that word evolve into 'inner - sense'.  So if I am to learn anything from the true power of Bluebell it is to gain an understanding of one's own true inner beauty, my own 'inner - sense' of who I truly am. In essence!!

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.