Flower Essence I n t e n s i v e

Marie White, community herbalist x Wild Rose College

About Marie

Community Herbalist (10+ years of practice)

Wild Rose College Manager

Maker of flower essences

Herbal Medicine Maker

Advocate of folk herbalism ways

An exclusive offering for the Wild Rose Herbal Village

A community for herbal learning

Thanks to the whole Wild Rose College team for creating and nurturing this space, thanks to Becky for being our village leader

+ thanks to our student moderators Ramona, Lori, Ruth and Linda

Special announcement: join us soon off of FB for a unique herbal learning experience with Wild Rose College

About Wild Rose College

A trusted destination for herbal learning

We offer in-depth courses along with three full diploma programs: Practical Herbalist, Master Herbalist, and Clinical Herbalist, which together consist of over 2,500 hours of herbal learning

We run seasonal courses, too: our spring herb walk in May and our medicinal mushroom course in the fall.

Have you checked out our Urban Medicine Garden Tour yet? Available for free for a limited time only

Land AcknowledgementI acknowledge that I am a settler on these lands, an uninvited guest on the unceded territory of First Nations

From my place of birth in Montréal, Québec, I acknowledge the traditional territory of Tiohtià:ke and the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation

In the place where I live, work and play now, I acknowledge the traditional territory of the Quw’utsun’ and the Cowichan Tribes

Indigenous stewardship has made and continues to make my path as a herbalist possible, now and for generations to come

Now… Flower essences!What will we learn in this course?

Part 1: What are flower essences, my personal essence story, history of essences, how and why they work, and more

Part 2: Common garden flowers & their flower essence uses + cultivating the inner garden, how do we relate to certain emotions and why

Part 3: Wild flowers & their flower essence uses + ethics of foraging and wild tending + policies of ecology

Part 4: Step-by-step guide on crafting your own, from harvesting to extraction to dilution, storage, and use + special poisonous wild ones

Part 4: July 30, 2020● Quick recap of Part 1, 2 & 3

● Make your own: step by step instructions

● Harvest, extraction, storage, dilution, and use

● + bonus section on poisonous plant allies for energetic & psychoemotional practice

Part 1 RecapFlower essences are an ancient folk remedy that meets our modern needs, both for personal use and within the context of clinical practice

Used to help ground ourselves in periods of upheaval (divorce, bereavement, job loss, transitions, psycho-emotional stress)

Also beneficial to help connect with our plant allies in a new way, get to meet a different side of them

Flower essence remedies are an ecological, low-waste remedy that is sustainable and highly scalable (especially when working with rare plants)

Working with flower essences offers the opportunity to work with toxic plants in a spiritual way (like with datura and poison hemlock)

Advantages include: non-habit forming and non addictive, safe during pregnancy and with medications, bypass digestion

Part 2 RecapCommon garden flower monographs (calendula, borage, California poppy)

Decolonizing plant names & unpacking the history behind the naming of plants, using the example of California poppy… Here’s a challenge for you: dig into the name of 1 plant of your choice, and share what you find with us!

Tending the inner garden: emotional monoculture vs emotional polyculture, and the responsibility we have as flower essence practitioners to look at our own built in patterns and unconscious desires to “fix” or “suppress” difficult emotions in ourselves and others

Resources from the Flower Essence Society on clinical studies for flower essences & depression

Part 3 RecapWorking with wild plants: ecological notion of invasive vs native - what does it mean and what language do we use to describe ecosystems

Wild flowers monographs: blackberry, yarrow, St John’s wort

Wild plants, wild places, and habitat destruction

Connecting with the wild in order to help protect it

Wisdom of wild plants: the way plants show up where they are needed - like dandelions near a mental health facility (Megan Waddy, Clinical Herbalist) and ghost pipe in 2020

How to Make your Own Flower Essences

1. What tools do you need?

Glass amber bottles (at least 7 but preferably more!)

Glass bottles, cups & containers

Brandy for preservation (or other similar alcohol)

Distilled water

2. Harvesting your plant or flower

Glass bowl (smaller is better)

Use something to harvest with: pieces of quartz, seashells, rocks, parts of plant used (like leaves) or other flowers), wooden chopsticks, etc

Harvest a flower or two (or just enough to fill the surface of the bowl)

Leave your essence to extract slowly, in full sun, next to its mama. Cover with cloth to keep dust & insects out

3. Making a mother essence

Let plant extract in water for 2-3 hours

Extraction can be done in full sun (or under the full moon)

Strain out plant particles and store mother essence in a glass jar

Give back extracted plant particles to the mother plant (rather than taking them elsewhere to dispose of)

4. How to preserve the mother essence

Add ½ volume of brandy (or other alcohol) for preservation

Store jar and label it well: plant used, plant part, location, date, and preservative used

Label it as a mother essence (undiluted)

Store until ready for next step: dilution

5. Diluting a mother essence into Dilution 1

In an empty amber glass bottle, add 5 drops of mother essence

Fill ⅘ of the bottle with distilled water

Add ⅕ with brandy

Label: plant name, dilution 1

6. Dynamise & rest

Dilution 1 is almost complete:

Next step is to dynamise or let it rest

Hit in the palm of your hand 100 times

Or let rest under a pyramid (or other quiet, high vibe spot) for 24 hours

The resting period can also be shortened to 15 minutes per rest if needed

7. Dilution 1 to Dilution 2

Repeat the same process for dilution 2

5 drops of dilution 1 into a new glass bottle

Fill ⅘ with distilled water

Add ⅕ of brandy for preservation

Dynamise & rest

Label: plant name, dilution 2

8. Dilution 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7

Repeat the same process all the way onto dilution 7

Make sure you label your dilutions accordingly as you go along

Dilution 7 is the one my teachers recommend

All physical traces of plant matter have effectively disappeared from the essence by dilution 7

Dilution 7 is the one you would use as a practitioner

Working with Poisonous Plant AlliesWhy work with poisonous plants?

Toxic, dangerous, and deadly plants often have special medicine for us

We live in a time and place that is TERRIFIED of endings: breakups, job loss and termination, illness, big life transitions when a certain loss occurs, and finally, death

But everything in life exists in a continuum of birth and death, beginnings and endings, and a continuous flow

Poisonous plant allies can often help us tune into the cycle of life without fear

Working with Poison OakIndication: fear of closeness, contact, intimacy

The wild plant causes rashes when brushed against

In the same way, a person would “hit back” when you get too close - reject you before you have a chance to reject them

Working with Poison HemlockIndication: Newness, change, resisting change, fear of what’s coming

Phobias, terror, paralysis

“Convert the energy of fear into excitement”

I used this when I was learning to drive a car

Working with DaturaIndication: Heal deep trauma, release toxic patterns, rewire your thoughts patterns and emotional patterns

Ally for the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ life moments

Learn to allow some deaths to unfold (endings, changes, shifts)

Extracted under full moon

Aaaand that’s a wrap!

Thanks folks!

Much gratitude for the time spent together learning about flower essence remedies and plant essences

When you use some or craft some, remember to share with us in the group!

~Marie