Showing posts with label meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meditation. Show all posts

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Another gift from violet



Violet was my first herbal ally. Prompted by the wealth of violet flowers in my own garden this year, I was drawn to making a violet flower essence during the April workshop at the Sanctuary. The weather was glorious, warm with almost constant sunshine, perfect conditions for making a flower essence.

Purple violets grow sparsely underneath the crabapple tree in front of the summerhouse where we planted them during the seventies. I’ve found scentless dog violets near the ancient willow tree and last year I noticed some new sweet violets growing in the middle of the daffodils.as if seeking a better home than their original shaded site.

When I went to search for flowers, all the purple ones were over. This was a disappointment but I thought to myself that if I were supposed to make a flower essence then the Sanctuary would provide the means. Sure enough, when I searched amongst the bank of daffodils, there was a group of white violets.

Until that moment, I had never seen a wild white violet in my life, yet here they were waiting for me to collect them to create an essence.

White violet was one of Dr Bach’s original flowers. It is thought to offer energetic healing to those who are uncomfortable in closed spaces and constrained environments; fearful of losing their own identity in a group; unable to embody their sensitivity in a comfortable way. The essence helps build trust in the protection of the Higher Self and benevolent spiritual forces; to help those who are highly sensitive or acutely aware of their surroundings maintain a strong sense of self regardless of the dynamics of their environment.

On such a beautiful spring day it seemed the ideal gift for me as my development has felt dry and dusty while my parents needed my support. White violet seemed the perfect flower to use on an adventure of inner spiritual journey.

The flowers were placed on the top of a jam jar of spring water and left to infuse for three hours. An amount was then mixed with an equal amount of brandy to form the mother essence.

When I held the infused liquid up to the sun, it had a turquoise tinge. On tasting it, there appeared to be no discernible taste or scent but after a few moments a definite flavour of scented violets appeared on the sides of my tongue, bringing back memories of sucking my grandmother’s violet pastilles as we lay together on the sitting room sofa for an afternoon nap when I was a very young child. I was never very fond of the violet sweets; I much preferred “iodines”!

Later that night, alone in bed, I concentrated on the white violet plant, apologising for using so many of the flowers to make the essence. I heard a very cross response.

“Do you think we would have shown ourselves if we hadn’t wanted to be used? If that hadn’t been our intention, we would have hidden amongst the grasses and you would never have seen us.” I felt suitably chastened.

 I decided to meditate using a dropperful of flower essence every day for a week to see how the interaction with the white violet essence would develop. I haven’t meditated outside the monthly world healing sessions for several years. It seemed a good opportunity and the perfect helper to reconnect.

Day 1
Unlike previous occasions, no energy flowed through my hands but I did feel the usual tingle around the back of my head which I associate with a protective spirit presence. Although I couldn’t taste the scented violet because of the brandy mask, the receptors on the sides of my tongue were again activated.
In my mind’s eye, I saw pink which turned to red which became tinged with yellow which became the deep yellow/orange of the violet’s centre. The final colour was white. I associate pink with love.
The “messages” given me were

  • The greatest protection is love
  • Stop trying so hard
  • White is the most important colour

Day 2
I took the flower essence at 7pm prior to the world healing session at 7.40pm when I was joined by four of my fellow healers. I saw white. I felt two pyramidal cones of energy (normally I feel spirals) through my hands which were initially upright. The right hand stayed upright while the left hand cone went horizontal pointing to my right through the wall for most of the session.

Messages received were

  • Don’t try, let it flow through you
  • Look to the core.

In the subsequent discussion we talked about the colours of energies. One of our members had been to a recent conference and learned some recently channelled information about the colours of energies. Orange was the colour of nuclear energy, i.e. the energy in the nucleus of cells which is the colour of the centre of the white violet.

We also talked about passed lives, parallel universes and how choices we make cause universal splits at the point of choice.

I’ve never been successful in gaining information about any of my past lives so my friend suggested doing a visualisation with the intention, “Show me those past lives useful to me now.”

Day 3
I saw green which became a white dandelion clock which became pink.

Messages

  • This is for you alone
  • Who am I?
  • Learning about self

The pink colour turned lilac then purple then back to pink. I saw different flower shapes – primrose, dahlias and chrysanthemums  Those shapes inspired me to choose a flower spirit card – Nomodiaris, a plant I’d never seen before. This gave me the phrase “I experience freedom by becoming aware and having compassion.”

Day 4
Message: How can you access magic if you’re not grounded?

Day 5
Message: You need to focus if you’re going to achieve anyting.

As my mind was constantly flitting everywhere during this meditation, I missed the following day until life calmed down a little.

Day 7
Messages:

  • Yes, this exercise is like raking the debris from the top of the soil. You can see the soil underneath waiting to be used but you need to clear the detritus off first before you start working it
  • Everyone has stories
  • Everyone has tears
  • Everyone has memories
  • The important thing is to remember
  •  At the centre, the core is the pink of love. It may look fragile and ethereal but it is always there.
  • Your guides are always with you.

Finding time to meditate has always been difficult for me but this week held none of the usual frustrations. Each meditation lasted no more than fifteen minutes yet it always felt long enough.

The messages and images were all very personal rather than something to share with mankind. It is the first step along a continuing pathway after a long period of standing still not knowing where to go next.

I am very grateful for white violet’s gift of direction.

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Violet meditation

Sitting quietly beside a plant or flower and asking it, humbly, to share its wisdom is not an easy task. It could be thought the plant may not wish to share anything with a creature who has just picked a significant proportion of itself and has already eaten both a leaf and a flower.

These acts were done mindfully. I would never have dreamed in a million years that these vibrant spring plants with their delicate scent would now be a significant part of my foraged spring salads, nor that I could be considering the garden violet patch as a cherished food source. Such is the power of making a plant your ally!

Sketching the violet flower from different angles forced me to notice many new aspects of colour and proportion. Eating both flower and leaf made me very aware this was a powerful plant which left a lasting impression on my taste buds, mouth and me. Eating joined me with the plant.

I was sitting on the bench underneath the kitchen window looking out onto the garden. On my left, two large hawthorn trees were now in leaf. On my right, forsythia twined a yellow love spray around the flowering cherry. Golden daffodils swayed gently in the afternoon breeze. Sun shone. The only sounds were robins answering boundary calls occasionally interrupted by the harsh caws of pristine rooks from the tallest branches of a neighbouring fir.

I held the vision of the violet flower in my mind and closed my eyes.

As a healer, it is relatively easy to slip into a grounded state which allows energy to flow where it is needed. I could feel energetic spirals on my hands, knowing there were friends who would benefit from this healing force, but what of the violet?

Although I could see the violet flower, it seemed to be the white centre which was important. As if to emphasise the point, a white space became a fluttering butterfly flapping its wings. Then I saw a bunch of violet flowers growing together, upright. This was on the right hand side of my field of inner vision. The bunch then moved to the centre of my view, fanning out into a circle like a hollow vase.

As I studied this brilliant white central core, I could see the curled petals of a chrysanthemum, or was it a tightly furled water lily? No matter, it was the colour which was important. White, the colour from which all other colours come, symbolising purity, innocence, peace, or deep spirituality. A colour to wash away and cleanse whatever was needful.

Violet flooded my vision and I felt my third eye open, pulsing in the middle of my forehead. The brow chakra - a place of intuition, of deep understanding, of being true to yourself.

I could feel the sun warm on my face. Red came, then white again followed by green. Within the green I could see detailed drawings of violet plants, complex, tall and high in the centre of my inner sight. The green transformed to blue and then to turquoise, such a gentle colour. Purple returned followed again by white. I felt the spirals of energy disappear from both my palms and knew the meditation was over.

What had I learned? It was a simple sentence which came to me during the meditation.

“It is violet which takes us to all that we are.”

Thank you.