Plants Have No Past: Plant Wisdom for 2021

Showing up for the plants
I haven’t written a cosmic blog post since September and the New Moon in Virgo. Since then, I’ve had many new beginnings. At Halloween, the Celtic New Year, I got engaged. A few weeks later I started a full time French teaching job in two local public high schools. Since then I have been adjusting to this radical shift in my use of energy! No more endless days to contemplate my next steps as an entrepreneur! Time to tackle that lethargy that has kept me away from my goals! Teaching and a full time job was, ironically, perhaps exactly what I needed to take my online business more seriously. Here I am, showing up for the plants, after a few months of intense adaptation to my new role in the outer world.

Reassessing self-care
My work with plants has been on the back burner, but I’ve felt them with me and had some beautiful experiences and conversations with the people I’m working with. I’ve also had to radically reassess my well-being and how I manage stress. I’ve had to make some changes in what I eat and drink and how, and the plants have helped me along the way. Most of all, I’ve had to reconnect again and again with my inner knowing of what is best for me. I think this is necessary for everyone amidst rapid and profound change, and we have all been experiencing that.

Wondering at the New Moon
And now, this New Moon in Capricorn! The first of the year! Conjunct Pluto! I have been feeling the heaviness of the Capricorn moon for a few days. When the moon traverses Capricorn, this is my least favorite moment of the lunar cycle, whether waxing or waning. I feel heavy and burdened, and the smallest things annoy me. I’ve been journaling a lot, and feeling and wondering where this year is headed, for me, for others.

Watching Giants Collide
Cosmically, we have seen huge encounters, shifts and movement. At the Solstice, Saturn met Jupiter in what is known as the Great Conjunction. I didn’t get to see the encounter on that day because of cloud cover, but I watched their approach to one another on the days before. As you may have heard, this encounter in Aquarius marks the beginning of a new era which I think we all feel we sorely need. Aquarius will bring some air to Saturn’s heavy convictions, allowing us all to innovate in order to make the world a better place for ourselves and others. Right now this probably did not feel particularly airy and light, however. In November, Pluto was conjunct the two giants, for the third time, and Mars joined in as well, squaring Pluto three times this past year (I made a special flower essence to mitigate the influences of this particularly sticky alignment - Dark Hollyhock!).

Melting Beeswax
Today I’m writing from a snowstorm, as I melt beeswax and put away the Christmas decorations. The mice have taken on my sugar addiction, so I’m cleaning up after them too. The shell of a green Hershey’s kiss. A chewed open packet of Swiss Miss. We will all be cutting back on sugar in the coming months. I’ll be drinking and communicating with Cedar, part of our monthly devotion in the WEALTH community, that, as usual (synchronicity!) fits well with my current desires. I wonder what Cedar will tell me. I’ll be able to tell you about it at the Full Moon. I am also connecting more with the stars with a coach of mine Jocelyn Mercado, and her course The Music of the Spheres. Yesterday, walking down my cold hill in the dark, they told me to trust the process as the current chaos unfolds. Trust the process to see what comes, for better things will rise, though it seems impossible sometimes. Courage!

Listening to Plant Wisdom
The last strong plant wisdom I got in 2020 was that plants don’t have a past. I was in the bath. It was at the Full Moon eclipse in Gemini in November. I saw the plants all around me, supporting me. The flowers showed me how they don’t have to release the past because, in fact, they have no past. They grow from seed, always present in the moment of growth. Their energy is always at their growth points. They are always growing in the now. They have one growing cycle, then down and around again. They don’t shed skin as we do. As I write, I realize trees have a past. They shed their skin, but perhaps that is why we have an easier affinity with them. Flowers say, live for the day. This realization helped me move gently into change, for what am I, if not constant growth and change?

Taking a Ritual Bath
Though the New Moon is now slightly past, might I suggest a ritual bath for digging up and integrating the past? As you run the bath, think of all the bits of you that you want to slough off. Plant them in the water of the bath, like the ash of an Alchemical process. After 20 minutes or so, let the water run out, imagining that you, having dissolved them, you are releasing them. Your past has vanished, and you rise from the bath tub like some strange plant, new to the world, feeding off of air.

Dissolving into the Air
If you feel some fear at dissolving, at seeing your false sense of self drop away to reveal your inner, green, shining core, I’ve just posted a new Flower Essence up in my shop for you, White Foxglove. This beautiful shadow essence eases the way for us on our shadow path, allowing us to disperse, be everywhere, and find that the answer to our fear resides in the expansiveness of our imagination.

I wish you great expansion during this time of great change. Be light on yourselves!

Love,

Amy

P.S. I have a few spots open for one on one creative coaching with the flowers. You can make an appointment for an exploratory session with me here. I’m also offering some flower essence consultations if you would like me to make a blend for you. You may also browse the essences in my shop (and shadow shop). I also will soon have some exciting news about some new blends that will be available soon on a beautifully curated platform for healing products from Vermont! Stay tuned!

The Red Earth: A New Moon Solar Eclipse in Capricorn and a Welcome into 2019

This morning, meditating on the new moon eclipse in Capricorn, I had a vision of a woman rising, round faced, like a tree, growing up out of the ground and spreading into the sky so that there was little else to see.

I’m in Kenya, where the earth is red and well-packed roads lead to where you were always going. My first impression, before arriving here, upon arriving here, was that I was going to a magical land, where strange and wonderful animals still lived and people still smiled a welcome you didn’t need to deserve. This morning, I thought of the whole earth being like this, a magical land, where people smile a welcome, where strange animals and birds roam, whether the soil is black or red. Here we are reminded of it because you can’t escape it. She sticks to your shoes and skin, leaving her red mark. Don’t forget me she says! Smile your welcome.

Reducing Whatever Was Left Of My Hard Outer Shell

For me I think 2019 will be about reducing whatever was left of my hard outer shell down to nothing so that I can better serve the world. Capricorn is the goat climbing steadily up the mountain, and I want to slowly grow my business, to keep talking to the flowers, offering their wisdom, speaking more broadly for the non-human worlds. I’ll keep forgetting who I am in the process. Saturn conjunct the sun teaches the value of hard work and humility. All this cardinal Earth energy demands contribution, retribution, reminds us that, in the darkness, something new is beginning, and it isn’t about us as individuals. Don’t take it personally. Whatever changes have swept over you are for the greater good. Pluto is there too, reminding us that perhaps there will be further sacrifice demanded of us. Perhaps total transformation is now the only option.

Sometimes The Earth Seems Fragile

Sometimes the Earth seems fragile. Everywhere I read news of breaking cycles, vanishing animals, emptying seas. Sometimes it seems solid, like it does here, holding us up, even in mud, with the trees. I’m near the equator and the shapes of the stars are different. In the garden many flowers grow, and along the roads, hibiscus, a yellow bush I don’t know, small tubular orange blooms clustered together, a bush whose clusters, like a sunset, fade from orange to pink to yellow. I don’t know their names. I think today I will make a hibiscus essence. She whispers to me of faith, faith in this trembling world, which, like a mirage, might disappear at any moment, doesn’t always seem real, so that I remember my own fragility as I walk upon it. Here I go.

All That Is Real

Yet the Earth isn’t going anywhere, she’s solid and strong, present, all that is real, and she’s letting us know. Like her, I’m solid and strong, not a wisp anymore. Perhaps as I walk upon her, I could be more imposing. Perhaps, as I walk upon her, I need to be more imposing, to encourage whatever transformation for the good is naturally happening. With my voice I’ll spread wide into the sky like a tree, and tell everyone how the birds speak to me.

Sacrifice and Synchronicity

Speaking of sacrifice, if you want to join a group learning experience to follow along with the currents of our changing world, it is the last chance to join Charles Eisenstein's Living in the Gift course in its first round. This month's theme is sacrifice and synchronicity: I just had an experience of the latter when, after mentioning sacrifice here, I read an email from the course and found that it was the theme there this month as well.

Keep your eyes out for my new website which will have a place to purchase my flower essences, some offerings to grow your creativity with the flowers, a cosmic blog and other as yet undreamed of offerings.

May your hard work and persistent visions be blessed. May your dreams, however dark, be transformative, and may your actions support the health of the communities and ecosystems you are a part of.

Karibu!

(Originally posted on January 6th, 2019)