The beauty of nature for me comes in the medicine, food and materials it offers us , selflessly, so we can survive, thrive, grow and know our place as guardians and custodians of the earth.
Its in the healing trees, flowers and plants we term “weeds” that until fairly recently in our social history, were known for their medicinal and healing properties. Not in a far off exotic land , but here in these blessed isles of what we now call Britain.
In the not so distant past , as recently as the 1940’s and 50’s we still had local wise men and women who held the knowledge of herb craft and plant wisdom. They knew what preparations could support the communities health and well being long before we created the NHS .
Whilst there may have been con artists and quacks selling ineffective concoctions for profit ( there still is ) most communities had at least one person, often one with knowledge passed down generation to generation, whose purpose was to tend the wellbeing of the community. We might call that person the wise woman, the cunning man , a witch, a healer , a shaman , one who knows.
They were the midwives, GP’s, nurses , social workers , care workers , counsellors and advisors others turned to in times of need. They lived and worked with local plants and herbs to alleviate and stave off dis-ease and sickness amongst their local population.
As industrialisation increased, as more towns and cities developed as more and more people were sent to work endless shifts in dirty , dangerous conditions that were frequently deleterious to their health and increasingly removed them from their previously close contact with the natural world around them.
Resources that were once common- belonging to all – the commoners – became owned and only available if sold in exchange for money.
As everything increased in price and cost nature became devalued. It became not our abundant store of food and materials but a commodity and as this spread more and more our capacity to care for the land and support it to grow and thrive diminished.
We orphaned ourselves from that which nurtured and sustained us and we set off down the path of careless destruction and disconnection from our true place in the world.
I believe plants and flowers have never stopped trying to call us back home. To mend the severed ties, to ground us back in belonging to the earth. I have the pleasure of many wild weeds , flowers , medicine on the land I am now custodian and guardian.
As a flower essence and shamanic practitioner and wild therapist who has travelled the healing path all my life , been attuned to the nature kingdom since early childhood , who has never forgotten the presence of the other world or the ways in which it speaks to us I find the most profound healing has come through the use of flower essences.
Flowers are one of natures most gentle and potent , powerful healers .
Their capacity to energetically support our soul healing and bring our mental physical and emotional bodies back into balance should not be underestimated.
When people think of plant medicine they often think of Mother teacher plants like , Peyote , San Pedro , Psilocybin mushrooms and other psychotropic plants that often shift consciousness and awareness rapidly and often quite forcefully needing lots of time for us to integrate their medicine and healing.
People don’t often consider that every plant and flower possesses healing medicine , that is just as profound and brings just as much insight , awareness and healing. Albeit at a much gentler pace and speed . Enabling integration to take place more easily and with less of a shock to our system and psychic senses.
Having had the psychic shock and trauma of psychoactive substances taken too young – the very gentle flower essences have been the most effective remedy for re-balancing , repairing and mending the after effects of opening up too much , too soon , when unknowingly too traumatised to properly integrate the experience.
Flower essences have supported me to repair my energy field, clear ancestral and familial patterning , unblock stuck and repressed emotions, ground and centre my energy back into my physical body , clear my chakra system , stabilise the mental and emotional bodies and lots more besides.
If you find yourself drawn again and again to a particular plant or flower it’s probably trying to get your attention. It has medicine for you . It has energy it wishes to share with you . On some level your being needs it .
Sit with it a while . Notice its colour. Its scent . What comes to mind when you spend time with it. What feelings/ memories arise ? How does your body feel in its presence ?
What is it trying to tell you ?
(All words and photos copyright © Alexa Sargeant /Space for Nature 2021)
Space for Nature 
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