Reading · Heathwitch's Hearth

A polar bear pauses next to a river in an arctic tundra. The river is in the foreground, leading to the polar bear in middle-distance, standing on all fours and looking to the right. The background shows a rocky landscape of browns, golds, and greys. — A polar bear walking across a river next to rocks. Photo by Francesco Ungaro.

If you had told me, about twenty-five years ago, that I would not only embrace flower and vibrational essences but go on to work with them in professional practice, I’d have told you that I had no intention of doing exactly that. Strange how your plans change, how your path changes.

I’d come across flower essences in the 1990s, and, despite being quite open-minded and inquisitive about holistic therapies, I’d discounted them after reading just one article. Actually, I did more than that — I ignored the deep energetic pull from my solar plexus, the instinctive knowledge that, no matter what they were, I had to connect with flower essences sooner rather than later. I ignored all that, and buried myself back into my life — full time university studies, settling into my first home at 18, trying to launch a business with my then-partner and a friend, and all whilst struggling with chronic illness. I poo-poo’d the idea that the energy of flowers and plants could hold blueprints for us, blueprints of the “best we” we could be, and put it down as one of the oddities of holistic therapy. After all, Bach Flower Remedies were co-created in the 1920s-30s, and so were completely irrelevant to contemporary life. I understood and worked with other forms of vibrational therapy — chakras, Reiki, crystals, and meditation — but flower essences were definitely hokum. Or so I thought.

Several years later, I came across an article about Wild Earth Animal Essences. I was instantly intrigued — and this time, I listened to that pull deep in my gut. I was in a rut — still ill, dissatisfied with my life, and searching for connection and community. I had my regular spiritual practice with Witchcraft and tarot, but something was missing on the emotional level. I had been doing a great job of ignoring this through overwork and over-indulging in alcohol as a “pain killer” — though, realistically, it wasn’t physical pain I was trying to numb.

Oddly enough, while plant energies didn’t make sense to me, animal energies did. I was familiar with the concept of an animal’s “medicine” (or “wisdom”) as explained within Shamanism, and so I could totally get on board with the idea that the vibration of animals could hold the energetic blueprint of a certain state of being, or balanced emotional state — but that was as far as it went. The idea that said energetic blueprint could be captured and retained in water, and then be used to help folks like myself unpack and heal our emotional stuff? Crazy.

Still, part of me was curious, and I was drawn to book a place on a Wild Earth Level One workshop. I was 25 years old, and intent on proving that vibrational essences didn’t work. (You can see that this is not going to go according to my plan, right?)

The workshop was experiential, and part-way through the first morning we were each invited to try one of the essences, without knowing the medicine that particular animal offered. This involved intuitively selecting a bottle and squeezing a few drops of the essence under the tongue, and then sitting with the animal’s energy in a light meditation. I was intent on choosing an animal I loved — perhaps Dolphin, or Whale, or Wolf. Instead, for some reason I still can’t fathom to this day, I selected Polar Bear… Or maybe Polar Bear chose me.

Either way, I took some of the drops, settled quietly into my familiar meditation position, closed my eyes, and stilled myself. I felt very sleepy. The outside world dropped away, only to be replaced by a white wilderness. At perfect peace with his surroundings, Polar Bear appeared — calm, steadfast, strong. Completely at ease. Huge and powerful. All at once I understood that power didn’t always equal aggression, and I felt intensely vulnerable — both at being in the presence of this creature, but also suddenly, achingly clear on the fact that the path I had been walking for the last few years didn’t align with my heart. As for the path before me — it was blurred.

Polar Bear began to move away. Instinctively, I followed. For a while we walked together, silently. I let myself be guided by his movements, starting and stopping whenever he did — the power he held was obvious. And then he stopped and looked at me. I expected his eyes to be black, but really they were a deep chocolate colour. Meeting them, I felt uncertain and yet safe and calm. It was almost as if I trusted him. He looked back at our tracks in the snow, then forwards towards the horizon, then back at me again. I took a deep breath, and felt something settle in my solar plexus: a deep knowing that everything was going to be just fine. That moving forward on my path wasn’t as difficult as it may appear. I was no longer in a rut.

I came out of that meditation completely confused. Vibrational essences didn’t work. It was my imagination. I wrote about my meditation in my journal, as clearly as I could, while my rational mind tried to understand the experience I’d just had. Then I sought out the description for Polar Bear essence: Supports one in moving forward in a deeply grounded way. Nurtures an integration of rootedness and action. For deepening one’s experience of groundedness and power on the spiritual search and path.

Over the rest of the weekend, I allowed my mind to open a little to the possibility that maybe I was wrong. I worked with other animal essences — one which scared me, one which I adored, one whose qualities I wished to nurture in my own life… And my world shifted. I could feel these animals and their wise lessons within the little bottles of liquid energy. I felt how much they could help someone … And how much I needed them.

I came away from the weekend with a Practitioner’s Kit of essences, a head full of curiosity, and a heart full of gratitude. Little did I know that I was about enter on the most transformational journey I’d yet to experience — breaking open years of numbed emotion, opening a wounded heart, delving deeper into the mysteries of a spiritual life, and changing my life as a whole. Eventually working with the animals lead me to experience other essence families, including Alaskan Essences, and slowly lead me back to the start: Bach Flower Remedies. And somewhere along the way I found myself training for professional practice.

Vibrational essences are profoundly gentle, yet powerful, catalysts for change. Looking back at the past two-decades-plus of working with essences now, I can see so clearly where they have helped me to unpack and understand my emotions. How they have empowered me in developing traits within myself that I thought I could never cultivate. How they have added to my spiritual and meditative practice. And where they have encouraged me in taking the difficult path when needed, because it is through challenge and heartache that we grow. They have nurtured and supported me in ways I never thought possible, and I am so grateful for their presence in my life. Working with them now, both personally and professionally, offers an opportunity to connect with others, with Nature, with the Divine, and with myself that is altogether rich and poignant and beautiful and authentic. I am truly blessed.

Join the magic: Have you come across vibrational essences or flower remedies before? Have you had a profound experience with them? Are you interested in reading more about essences? Do let me know in the comments:

Encountering Essences

Comments