inflorescence ::::::: ritual floral support for the times

Yes, I’m a little woo. Yes, I am also very grounded, and, a complete science freak. I am a person that practices polytheistic ritual. I pay respect to the divine, practice rites, possesses clear channels of clairsentience, and believe in the energy of nature, spirit, intention, devotion. At one point of my life, I was a high-achieving science student encouraged by educators to enter into neurobiology. I chose a path that circled art, creation, entrepreneurship, outreach, philosophy, mythology, and psychology. I like to think that what was once called magic was often science, undiscovered. I like to think that all of these aspects of interest and identity are inflorescent to each other, each working together to inform an ecology of life.

An inflorescence pattern in flowering plants are a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. One can also define an inflorescence as the reproductive portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern. I see this as a profound metaphor for interdependence — that which we need more than anything right now given the state of our world.

The natural world is dying as capitalism erodes our basic dignities and political bodies become more volatile. It feels clear to me that humanity is in need of re-connection to the physical and the esoteric. Throughout history, elders, healers, mystics, psychotherapists, scientists have agreed and understood that physical manifestations of disease (dis-ease) are often a result of our environment, our stored traumas, the suppression of our emotions, our emotional imbalances.

I have been drawn to and worked with flowers and herbs since childhood. I have grown and tended to marigolds my entire life, long before I began my journey as a death doula and grief guide. The day I decided to create flower essences I felt an overwhelming call from the plants I had been growing all season. I began that very day. As I was harvesting, I decided to listen to a podcast. The podcast that came up was one specifically about floral essences (The Spiritual Essence of Flowers with Rachel White). Here I knew the plants were already working their magic. Deciding to work with flower essences is an active conscious choice of tuning in to yourself - often the denser parts of self that hold imbalance, disinterest, discomfort, fear - and what you are willing to consciously work through. Intention, energetic frequency, imprint, and energetic vibration are very real. Science supports these realities too. Even the art of collecting pollen is based on frequency. Bees and insects are not attracted to flowers based on their colour. Flowers emit electrical impulses that attract pollinators by providing an energetic output signal. The body’s energy system - our meridian system - is much the same, studied by the TCM for over 5000 years.

The history of using flowers to heal emotional imbalances extends back thousands of years, with documentations of their use discovered on papyrus scripts in Ancient Egypt. Indigenous Australians also recognized their healing qualities and would use them as part of healing ceremonies to resolve emotional imbalances and physical injuries. The earliest European recorded use of flower essences was by Hildegard von Bingen in the twelfth century, who would place muslin sheets over flowers at night to absorb their dew, which would then be collected in the morning, rung out, and used to treat people with emotional imbalances. However, it was in the 1930’s that the British physician, Dr. Edward Bach pioneered a deeper understanding and precise application of flower essences through his clinical and personal observations. This is when the famous 38 Bach Flower Remedies were discovered and brought to the world.

Flower essences work by the principle of resonance within the subtle human energy field which impacts one’s physical and emotional health at all times. They stimulate the body’s natural capacity to bring itself back to homeostasis. All plants carry vibrational energy patterns and it is said that flowers are the pinnacle of this energy. Doctrine of Signatures play a major role in identifying the specific application of each flower. DOS originated within Alchemical and Hermetic traditions, where the most important thing was to understand how the macrocosm (universe) corresponds to the microcosm (individual). When viewed through the lens of DOS, the energetic qualities of flower essences present themselves through their colour, shape, habitat and growing patterns.

The human body is mostly water. The brain and heart are composed of 73%, the lungs at 83%, skin at 64% water, muscles and kidneys 79%, and our bones contain 31%. water. Science easily confirms that water has been a consistent recording device in both small and evolutionary ways across time. As humans, we are connected to nature and have worked with it symbiotically since we began our journey on earth. It’s funny to me that we can believe in something like wifi — a frequency we cannot see but clearly experience — yet some choose to disregard others. Flowers absorb the light of the sun’s energy, their growth responds directly as hypothesized to positive and negative stimulus nearly ever single time. Flowers have healing and medicinal properties, they connect to a vast network of microbes and root systems, they receive information from their surroundings and adjust themselves accordingly, they need water to survive, the contain an imprint of all life on earth, they act as an antenna with the earth, with the sun, with the moon.

May we allow each other to support ourselves in ways of ancient times somewhat forgotten. May we resolve our wish to destruct, dismiss, or be contrarian to what we do not understand. May we resolve our egotism, confirmation bias, our divisiveness, our critical nature, our need to be “right”, our superiority of will. May we remember that our community attention and personal intention illuminates our ability to show up in fullness of ourselves to and with each other. May we collectively illuminate our curiosity, our connection to each other and all things, and our ability to stay present to the now while we are still in it.

portrait by viktor cahoj, woods photography by jake sherman
all other photography by brooke manning

Sources:

US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior, Endeavour College of Natural Health,
Nora Weeks, J. R. Cram, G. Kasman & J. Holtz, Introduction to Surface Electromyography;Gaithersberg, MD, Haynes, Muscle-Contraction Headache: Psychophysiological Perspective in Etiology and Treatment In Psychosomatic Disorders: A Psychophysiological Approach to Etiology and Treatment; The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach, Physician, Kaminski; Flowers That Heal, J. Lacey & B. Lacey, Verification and Extension of the Principle of Autonomic Response-Stereotype; American Journal of Psychology, M. H. Lader & A. M. Mathews; A Physiological Model of Phobic Anxiety and Desensitization Behaviour Research and Therapy, R. B. Malmo & C. Shagass.