Essences To Support You The Whole Year Through 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.
0 Comments
The Synchronistic Messages Behind The Moon And Sun Cycles 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. Each Flower Essence Will Both Have A Negative & A Positive Indication To It. 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. We are the campions, standing tall and straight.
We are the campions, lined up by verge and gate. We are the campions, proud troop upon the view. We are the campions, regimental through and through. We are the campions, flowers of hottest pink. We are the campions, come to make you think. We are the campions, an army of the hedge. We are the campions, urging you to pledge. We are the campions, magenta blooms of beauty. We are the campions, of service and of duty. We are the campions, a legion to unite. We are the campions, in purpose we delight. We are the campions, with petals of cerise. We are the campions, lapels without a crease. We are the campions, a squad of florets shone. We are the campions, root to stem as one. We are the campions, with message to connect. We are the campions, to settle an old debt. We are the campions, a force of greater good. We are the campions, to help you if we could. We are the campions, here throughout the seasons. We are the campions, around for all right reasons. We are the campions, a battalion of your trust. We are the campions, belief in us a must. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2020 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below. Bluebell & Red Campion Make Perfect Neighbours 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. Be Supported Throughout The Year 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. My Medicine Shield 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. |
AuthorSimon Blackler Archives
April 2023
Categories
All
|