Hello from a cool June morning in Northern Ireland. The moon is full and the sun is hiding behind the clouds.
This weekend I held an ‘introduction to flower healing’ circle, at Scargle Nargle holistic centre in Lisburn.
Here is the wise woman behind the business Colleen, who is a healer and has been so supportive to me.
The centre of the circle is a focus for everyone to reflect and find common ground. On Saturday the flower for the centre was Elder.
She is in full bloom and filling my street with fragrance. She grows over the wall where children walk to school and seems to be reaching down to them, mostly over their heads but watching over them.
I went to meet her and the wind was being very playful. It was lovely to bring a head of elderflowers to the group.
I placed her in the centre in a bowl of spring water, to help demonstrate how flower remedies are made.
The group had many things to share about Elder flowers. There were common threads (or lace..?) of familiarity, recipes and feminine power. We were an all female group.
As we discussed death and birth I thought of one of my personal ‘elders’.
My great great grandmother on my mother’s side was the local ‘births and deaths woman’ for her area. Called on as a midwife and also to lay out the dead. I felt very calm and supported in the group.
I brought an elder flower remedy I made years ago and realised I haven’t used this yet for emotional healing, though I use her black berries (tinctured) and white flowers a great deal.
Her flowers and berries are both edible and highly medicinal (mind the stems!) Only ingest wild plants when you are confident in both plant identification and herbal medicine preparation.
Folklore says to doff your cap to the Elder… She deserves our respect, as she is a medicine tree!
It was a really special afternoon and there was laughter as well as emotional discussions.
We all picked a flower from two lovely decks of flower cards. This created a meadow of flowers, to reflect the emotional body of the group.
Flower remedies are vibrational medicines, made with water and sunshine. I brought a selection of flower remedies, made by myself and other suppliers.
The Bach range are very well known.
I shared the details of my Bach flower training (one participant has already signed up for level one!) and gave out flyers for Lucia, a local Bach flower practitioner who has helped me and is qualified to give consultations and make individual flower blends.
I highly recommend Lucia. See her website ‘Silent Beauty’ for more information https://bach-therapy.com/
My Elder flower essence helped me connect to my feminine beauty, the centre of the circle, and my own elders. I put it in my water bottle and made a mist (I love floral sprays) to prepare the space for the flower circle.
I shared my personal story of healing bipolar disorder and pharmaceutical addiction with flower remedies, and explained that I am developing a new range of floral mists from my apothecary…
More about these soon!
Thank you for reading and I hope there is a flower near you to bring you some healing today.
Love Catherine
Healing Well 