Subject: flower essence, background information...
From: [email-masked] (Peggy Brown)
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 15:49:00 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.magick

Cross-posted from the Castenada list with permission of the
author, Doug.

Note, flower essences are considerably less dangerous than
other herbal extractions.  St. John's Wort is listed by some
as a (somewhat) dangerous herb.  Comfrey is more dangerous,
and linked with cancer.

- Peggy -

****************************************************************

The flower-essence reference I like best is _Flower Essences and
Vibrational Healing_ by Gurudas, channeled through Kevin Ryerson
(Brotherhood of Life, Albuquerque, New Mexico).  According to this
book, St. John's wort helps you to move in dreaming, while comfrey
helps you to remember where you've been:

     St. John's wort [flower essence] aids the individual having
  astral projections and soul travel beyond the lower astral planes
  to experience visionary states.  Cluttered dreams and nightmares
  are eased when the soul's forces properly separate from the
  physical body during sleep....
     St. John's wort relates to the soul's forces leaving, not
  returning to the physicl body. (p. 185-6)

    A healthy nervous system is very important in many forms of
  meditation.  It is then easier for a person to relax....  Comfrey
  [flower essence] helps one release tensions stored in the nervous
  system and the subconscious mind....  This essence also improves
  the memory.  Students cramming for exams or people trying to find
  lost objects or to remember dreams upon awakening should consider
  using this essence.  (p. 109)

Flower essences often have very different uses than the tea made from
the same plant, so taking a capsule or tea of the leaves or flowers
of comfrey or St. John's wort wouldn't necessarily have the same
effect as taking the flower essence.  I looked in several herbals,
but I haven't found any reference that says the herbal teas made from
these plants affect memory or dream recall.  

The system of using flower essences for healing is very ancient, but
in this century it had fallen into disuse in Westen medicine until it
was partly revived and rediscovered by Dr. Edward Bach, a London
physician and homeopath.  His approach was influenced by clairvoyant
Rudolf Steiner, who founded the Anthroposophical movement after
leaving (or getting kicked out of) the Theosophical Society.  Bach
was also clairvoynat to a degree; he could receive mental impressions
of a flower's effect on people simply by tasting the flower or
holding it in his hand.

Flower essences work on the same principle of potentization used in
homeopathy.  A substance is dissolved or suspended in water or
alcohol, then diluted many times to get the stuff the patient takes.
The final dilution has so little of the original substance that a
chemical analysis would show it as containing only water and alcohol.
The idea is that the dilute solution contains the subtle energy
pattern characteristic of the substance, without containing the
physical substance itself.  This subtle energy pattern doesn't have
any direct effect on the physical body, but it does affects the
body's subtle energy field.  Then the change in the body's energy
affects the physical level to bring about healing.

This process fascinates me, because nagualism is based on exactly
the same idea: that by removing the self, which is the densest, most
material expression of mind, some pattern of energy or life force
remains that could be said to survive death.  IOW, self-importance is
like the physical substance, and the potentizing process is like
losing self-importance.  Then the homeopathic remedy could be said to
exist in a kind of third attention.

But I digress.

Flower essences are similar to homeopathic remedies, except instead
of starting with a substance, the original solution (or "mother
essence") is made by capturing the energy pattern of the flower in
the water by floating the freshly picked flowers on the water in
the morning sunlight.  The sunlight transfers the "vibration" of the
flowers to the water.  You then remove the flowers and bottle the
mother essence in a mixture of 3 parts water to 1 part brandy.
Except for possibly a little dust or bits of flower that may have
fallen into the water, the mother essence contains no organic matter
at all.  The mother essence is normally diluted several times to get
the final flower essence solution.

There is evidence from physical chemistry that water has the ability
to hold complex patterns of molecular polarization that are
self-sustaining, so the mechanism whereby homeopathic potentization
may work is not all that far-fetched.  Also quantum physics shows
that information can be carried in fields without physical components
(like atoms) necessarily having to be present.  But neither of these
facts are taught in medical school, which is why most doctors
consider homeopathy to be a second cousin to voodoo.  Besides, they
are inexpensive to make and unpatented, so no drug company can make
money on them.

The danger of side-effects is less with flower essences than with
herbal or homeopathic treatment.  However, as Gurudas cautions, the
healing process always involves a certain amount of adjustment:

  [F]lower essences do not negatively affect people.  What some call
  negative influences are really healing crises.  As ingrained
  emotions are released, points of confrontation may be experienced.
  This sometimes creates illusions that the essence negatively
  affects the person.  If some emotional problems are too difficult
  to face, the essence only gradually influences the individual....
  [F]lower essences work on levels of consciousness, so they are
  self-adjusting and do not violate the individula's free will.  If
  there is an emotional blockage that should not be released at a
  particular time, the flower essence will usually cancel itself in
  that part of a person's consciousness.
     However, there is not a 100% guarantee that extreme emotional
  states will never be created as flower essences release emotional
  blockages.  When people do experience aggravation with these
  essences, it is often because it is important to their
  psychological rigidity and paranoia that the remedy not work.
  People should have enough common sense to understand that if
  extreme emotional reactions result from taking a flower essence,
  that substance should probably be discontinued, at least for a
  while.  (p. 39)

I'll post full instructions for making flower essences next message...

Doug
===

Newsgroups: alt.magick
From: [email-masked] (Peggy Brown)
Subject: howto make flower essences, x-post from Castaneda list...
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 15:50:00 GMT

Cross-posted from the Castaneda list with permission of the 
author, Doug.

- Peggy -

*********************************************************************
            INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING FLOWER ESSENCES
                 USING COMMON HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
*********************************************************************

Materials needed for EACH flower essence to be prepared:

 * 1 clear, unadorned glass bowl, to hold about 12 oz. of water
 * 1 16-oz. glass storage bottle (blue is preferred, but amber,
   green, or clear glass is acceptable), with a new cork stopper and
   a blank label
 * 12 oz. of unpolluted local spring water (preferred) or distilled
   water, in a glass bottle with cork stopper (I use a wine bottle)
 * 4 oz. of pure brandy (I like Korbel)
 * several wild or organically grown plants of the chosen species,
   in full bloom with abundant flowers
 * 1 4-oz. bottle (again, blue preferred, but amber, green, or clear
   is acceptable) with blank label and glass dropper and bulb in cap,
   to hold the "stock" tincture (diluted from mother essence)
 * several 2-oz. bottles (blue preferred etc.) with blank label and
   glass dropper and bulb in cap, for the "dosage" tinctures (diluted
   from the stock tincture; one bottle for each person who takes the
   essence)

The last two items are the hardest to find, but fortunately you
don't need them to prepare the mother essence, you only need them
when you dilute the essences for use.

Other items needed for making and storing flower essences:

 * 1 glass funnel
 * 2 finger-sized quartz crystals, unpolished
 * 1 kitchen
 * 1 pot (with lid) made of enamel, glass, copper, or stainless
   steel, big enough to hold bowl & bottles, for sterilizing
 * 1 cloudless morning, preferably in spring or summer
 * 1 idyllic, fairy forest glen with towering oaks and dancing nature
   sprites (preferred) or a spot in your backyard.  It has to get
   full sun starting in the early morning and lasting for at least
   three hours.  Also, privacy is nice because you'll be talking to
   the plants, and, as dJ says, you must talk to them in a loud,
   clear voice if you expect them to answer you.
 * 1 linen cloth (I use a piece of raw 100% linen artist's canvas)
 * sea salt
 * 1 cupboard or closet shelf, away from plastics, petrochemicals,
   camphor, caffeine, and toxic metals like lead or aluminum (that
   is, not in the kitchen, bathroom, or garage--I use a hall closet
   shelf), for storing mother and stock bottles
 * a box in which you can place the mother bottles for carrying in
   such a way that they will not touch each other (optional--needed
   only if the place where the plants are growing is far from the
   place where they will be stored)
 * extra brandy for sipping on cloudless morning while waiting for
   essences to be done (also optional)

In what follows, I assume that spring water is being used, to avoid
having to say "spring or distilled water" all the time.

I try to make more than one essence at a time whenever possible.  The
only thing you have to be careful to do is to rinse your hands and
any equipment you're using (like the funnel or the bottle of spring
water) under running water when you're done working with one essence
and want to move on to the next.  This is to avoid contaminating the
second essence with the vibrations of the first, which may cling to
your hands and equipment if you don't rinse them.  Vibrational
cross-contamination is a continual worry of flower-essence makers,
but fortunately it is a danger only when working with the mother
tinctures and, to a lesser degree, the stock tinctures.  The dosage
tinctures of several different plants can even be mixed in the same
bottle without contaminating each other.

Before making any essences, clean the cupboard or shelf space where
they are to be stored, using distilled water and a linen or cotton
cloth.  Leave the space empty for several days prior to use.  Put some
quartz crystals in the area.

Steps preparatory to making flower essences (I usually do these the
night before my cloudless morning):

 1. Sterilize the pot by boiling tap water in it for 10 minutes.
    Discard the water.
 2. Wash the bowl, the bottles, and the funnel.
 3. Sterilize the bowl, the bottles, and the funnel by boiling them
    in the pot with tap water for 10 minutes.
 4. Label the 16-oz. mother bottles with the name of the flower
    essence; for example:

                    ST. JOHN'S WORT
                (Hypericum Perforatum)
                    FLOWER ESSENCE
                    MOTHER TINCTURE

 5. Collect the spring water you'll need (12 oz. per essence).

The sterilizing in boiling water is not only to remove bacterial
contamination, but to remove any vibrations from whatever was in
the bottles or bowls previously, or from the manufacturing process,
in the case of new bottles.

I have a funnel and a couple of bowls I use only for making flower
essences, and a couple of bottles I use for carrying spring water.
You don't have to boil such equipment to sterilize it after the first
time; all you have to do is fill the sterilized pot with spring
water, put some crushed quartz crystals in a clean linen cloth, then
dip the bowl or whatever in the spring water with the bag of
crystals.  Then dip the bag of crystals alone in the water.  This
clears away any lingering old essences, and saves a lot of boiling.

Early in the morning of your cloudless day, take your stuff to a
place that's a little distant from the flowers.  (You don't want the
equipment--especially the brandy, which you have to keep pure, from
one gathering to the next--to be permeated by any flower's essence,
for then it would contaminate other essences.)

Then follow these steps:

 1. Pour 12 oz. of spring water into a bowl.  Take the bowl and the
    two quartz crystals and go to the plants.  Talk to them.  Explain
    what you're doing, talk baby talk, or tell them how cute they
    are--whatever.  You are hoping to get a friendly, affirmative
    response.

    Here's what Gurudas says about communicating with the plants:

      Thy communication in dialogue needs to be sensitive to the
      fields of life and light about these essences, for herein is
      the dimensional state upon which the devic forces exist.  As
      you work with plant forces, placing flowers on the water, be in
      communication with these intelligences as though they were
      present with thee, even though you may not see them with the
      physical eye.  Eventually you will evolve, with the ability of
      the physical eyes, to see those energies or nature spirits.
      This increases your communication with them as forms of
      intelligence and acknowledges their existence....
         Explain to the nature spirits exactly what you are doing, so
      they will understand and help in the process of transferring
      life force of the flower into the water.  In picking flowers,
      you are literally stepping into someone's territory.  If you
      want to walk across someone's private property, it is courteous
      to first ask permission....  (p. 21)

 2. Sit by the plants and attune yourself to them.  Release any
    attachment to the outcome of the whole endeavor.  Wait until
    you feel attuned to the plant and know that it has given you
    permission to pick its flowers.  If you don't get a good feeling
    from the plant, as if it wants to help you, thank it courteously
    and go find another plant, or go on to make the next essence.

 3. If the plant gives its assent, place the bowl on the ground near
    the plants.  If you need to elevate the bowl (to catch the sun,
    say), place it on wood or a natural stone, never metal or cement.

 4. Remove flowers one at a time and place each immediately on the
    surface of the water.  Pick enough to cover the whole surface.
    Do not touch the flower with your hands; instead, use either a
    leaf of the plant or the pair of quartz crystals to pick each
    flower.  It is important to be very gentle, as any great shock
    to the plant will cause its essence (energy field) to retreat
    into the ground.  If you drop a flower, leave it on the ground.
    Also, do not let your hands touch the water.  If several plants
    are available, pick the healthiest looking flowers from them all,
    rather than denuding one plant.  Try not to take more than half
    the flowers on any one plant; this is simple courtesy.

 5. Note the time.  Go rinse your hands and the crystals, then take
    them back to the spot where you left your other equipment.

 6. Repeat steps 1-5 for the other flower essences being prepared.

 7. When all the flower gathering is done, pour 4 oz. of brandy into
    each of the 16-oz. mother tincture bottles.  Then go sip brandy
    (or however you want to spend the time) until the first bowl
    of flowers has been basking in the sun for three hours.

 8. Take the funnel and the mother bottle to the bowl that's done,
    then carefully remove the flowers from the water, using a leaf
    from the plants so that your hands do not touch the water.  Also
    remove any insects or debris that may have fallen into the water.
    The water should look sparkling and clean.  Pour the water into
    the bottle using the funnel.  Set the bowl aside to be sterilized
    (away from the other equipment and the brandy).  Put the mother
    bottle in the storage space or in the carrying box.

 9. Go rinse your hands and the funnel, then return to the spot where
    you left your equipment.

10. Repeat steps 8-9 for the other flower essences.

This may sound complicated, but it is really just a matter of being
conscious of where each flower's vibrations have gone so you don't
let one essence contaminate another.  When you're done, rinse the
crystals and funnel and sterilize the bowls (using the
bag-of-crystals method).  You can store the equipment in the space
with the mother bottles as long as everything has been sterilized.

To prepare a 4-oz. stock bottle, wait at least two days after making
the mother tincture.  Then wash and sterilize the stock bottle, and
put 1 oz. of brandy in it.  Fill the rest of the bottle with 3 oz.
of spring water.  Fill the stock bottle dropper with mother tincture
from the mother bottle.  Add 7 drops to the stock bottle.  Empty the
remaining mother tincture in the mother bottle, replace the dropper
in the stock bottle, and cork the mother bottle.  Wipe the mother
bottle with linen dipped in a solution of water and sea salt.  Shake
the stock bottle about 15 times and store it in the cupboard or
shelf.

To prepare some 2-oz. dosage bottles: again, wait at least two days
after the stock tincture has been prepared.  Wash, sterilize, and
label the dosage bottles, fill each with 1/2 oz. brandy and 1 1/2 oz.
spring water, then use the stock bottle dropper to add 7 drops of
stock tincture to each dosage bottle.  Cap all bottles.  Shake each
dosage bottle 15 times.  The dosage bottles are ready for immediate
use.  When you give someone a bottle, write the name of the person
on the bottle's label.

A flower essence that is being taken for a specific problem is
usually taken once a day by placing seven drops in a glass of water,
then drinking the water.  For dream recall, it would make sense to
take the essence in the evening.  If you don't want to drink the
water, you can simply put seven drops from the dosage bottle under
your tongue.

Never put the stock bottle dropper into an unsterilized bottle or
a bottle containing a different flower essence.  Never share a single
dosage bottle between two people.  Store the stock and mother bottles
so they don't touch each other; keep the mother bottles about 1 foot
apart.  Wipe them once every three months with linen dipped in a
solution of water and sea salt to clean them of environmental
contamination.

There are many fine points to this work that I have omitted for
brevity's sake.  For example, flowers that grow facing the east side,
rather than the west, of a shrub or tree tend to be slightly more
potent; flowers from the top of a tree tend to move emotions, while
those near the bottom stabilize them; and so on.  In a pinch you can
bend most of the rules; you can get by with a plastic funnel, leave
the flowers out a little longer if there are some clouds in the sky,
etc.  The main ones you can't bend are the requirements that you get
permission from the plant, that the essence must not stay out so long
that the flowers begin to wilt, and that petrochemicals or toxic
substances should not be kept near the storage area for any extended
period of time.  Also, roses, lotus, papaya, and mango require 50%
brandy instead of 25%. If you want to know more, get the Gurudas
book.

The *intent* of the person making the essence is probably the most
important factor.  You don't necvessarily have to gullibly believe
anything, but you need to at least have an open mind, and of course
not too much self-importance.

Properly stored, mother tinctures can last indefinitely.  If you only
use them to prepare stock bottles, and only use the stock bottles to
prepare dosage bottles, one 16 oz. mother bottle will supply you and
all your relations with plenty of flower essence for the next seven
generations.  So it's worth taking care to do it right.

The first essence I made was Easter Lilly, which is a general
purifier of the female reproductive organs.  I made it for a friend
who was concerned about the possibility of ovarian cancer (mainly
because she had been reading about it, not because she had any
medical tests that indicated she had it).  She had a hard time
believing that the dosage tincture would do anything (even though
there's really no real substance in the mother tincture either), so I
gave her the mother tincture straight.  This will usually cause the
essence to affect the physical body more directly, and is generally
to be avoided because it circumvents, to some degree, the body's
intelligence.  But if she had taken the dosage tincture, her
disbelief that it could be effective would have worked against her.

After a few days of doing nothing different except taking a few
drops of the mother tincture each day, she got her period early, and
her body ejected some fibrous matter that she said looked like small
fibroid tumors.  This result even impressed me!  I hadn't expected
anything quite so dramatic on my first attempt.

Doug
===

Newsgroups: alt.magick
From: [email-masked] (Peggy Brown)
Subject: more on making flower essences, xpost from Castaneda list
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 16:06:00 GMT

Cross-posted from the Castaneda list.

- Peggy -

************************************************************

Peggy, you wrote,
  >>So far my SJW plant has only produced 2 flowers, at different
intervals. The recipe calls for enough flowers to cover the surface
of the bowl.  Also, it says not to deplete the plant of flowers.  So
I didn't pick either flower.  Maybe they'll goto seed and produce
more plants for next year.  Would making the essence out of leaves
be worthwhile?<<

In a pinch, you can bend most of the rules.  In this case, for
instance, you could use a small bowl and make less essence (only four
ounces, say).  You could ask the plant if it's OK to take all of its
flowers.  SJW is a perennial, so it may not mind as much as an
annual would.  Explain your situation to the plant.  Plants are
usually pretty understanding if you ask them nicely.  However, it
sounds like you have only one flower to work with, which probably
wouldn't be enough.

No, the leaves won't work.  Only the flower carries the flower
essence.  The vibrational pattern of the energy you're trying to
capture is related to the geometric form of the flower.  Also, I
forgot to mention, the plant must be growing in the ground, not in a
pot.  And it shouldn't have been fertilized with chemical fertilizer
in, say, the past year.  But if it looks and feels healthy, it's
probably OK.

I've found that the hardest part to making flower essences is
finding flowers in the best possible condition.  It's easier if the
plant is a tree, vine, ground cover, or large shrub; then at least
you have plenty of flowers to choose from, and the only problem is
finding plants in a secluded spot where you can talk your head
off to them in a LOUD, CLEAR VOICE without attracting a crowd.  It's
more of a challenge to find small individual plants like SJW or
comfrey, because even if you know someone who has an herb garden,
usually they have only one or two plants, or the flowers are very
small, or one batch of flowers wilts before the next comes into
bloom, etc. etc. etc.  It's frustrating.  And places that grow
fields of herbs commercially almost always use chemical fertilizers.

Fortunately, it's not too hard to grow a bunch of small herbs if you
have a little garden space and can plan ahead.  You usually only
need to gather the essence once; after that you can put the extra
plants in pots and give them away to friends.  Roses take a little
more work, but they're nice to have around anyway.

  >>I plan to make the essence out of clover flowers.  Those are in
season now and I have access to plenty of them.  What do clover
flowers do?  How about (miniature) rose flowers?  Snapdragons?
Daylily?  Dahlia?  Nasturtium?  Black-eye Susan? Daisy?<<

Here is a brief summary of the main uses of the ones I have
references for.  The Gurudas book contains much more detail, but
even it can't list every flower in the world.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense):  Treats mass hysteria or panic, such
as that following disasters like earthquakes, fires, floods, the
arrest of a national football hero for murder, the parking situation
during the World Cup, etc.

Green rose or Chinese wild rose (Rosa chinensis viridiflora):
Augments psychic abilities, especially the exchange of systems of
philosophy between East and West.  Treats a variety of diseases that
result from the suppression of psychic abilities, including
allergies, asthma, colon spasms, epilepsy, Meniere's disease,
migraine headaches, mucous colitis, chldren's night terrors,
obsessional neuroses, and duodenal ulcers.

Koenigin von Daenmark (a double-alba rose hybrid introduced in 1826):
Revitalizes the immune system, which affects just about everything.

Macartney rose (Rosa macrantha):  Balances the brain hemispheres and
increases telepathic abilities.

Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus):  Treats any problem with the vocal
chords, lips, jaw, and face, such as tetanus, Bell's palsy,
arthritis of the jaw joints, TMJ, laryngitis, sore throat,
inflamations of the esophagus, and speech disorders like stuttering. 
Also treats the radiation miasm (a disorder of the energy body
produced by exposure to radioactivity in the environment).

Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus):  Revitalizes the nervous system. 
Treats narrow-mindedness, compulsiveness, nervousness, or obsession
with an issue--a good one to give to your fart friends.  Also
increases sensitivity to colors.

English daisy (Bellis perennis) or Shasta Daisy (Chrysanthemum
maximum):  Facilitates finding an intuitive understanding of the
unity of various spiritual paths.  Stabilizes people who are
constantly running from one spiritual growth group to another
without finding what they are seeking.  Brings scattered information
into clear focus.  Good for students in school.

As you can see, some essences, like Snapdragon, are highly specific in
their effects, while some, like Koenigin von Daenemark, are more
general.  Some affect mainly the physical body, while others mainly
treat psychological conditions or the energy body.

You ought to get the Gurudas book.  It's only $12.95.  You can
probably order it through any new-age bookstore: _Flower Essences
and Vibrational Healing_ by Gurudas, channeled by Kevin Ryerson
(Albuquerque, New Mexico: Brotherhood of Life).  Fascinating
reading.

Doug