SANTORINI, GREECE
My time in Santorini was complicated. I felt hopeless, wandering with no purpose. I didn’t feel the place was spiritually grounded and in that moment, I didn’t feel I was either. I floated unhappily through my visit, unsure what I was doing, where I was going and how things were meant to work out in my life.

Looking back I believe this trip was when I arrived at clarity about my circumstances, though on the surface all was confusion. During my time in Santorini, I was beginning to take hold of what I really needed to do to bring my life into balance, but I wasn’t quite ready to completely look at what being asked of me. The Essences from Santorini were Flowers that called to me in this period of my spiritual journey.

Red Flower from Santorini
The volcano that comprises Santorini erupted almost four thousand years ago and completely altered the landscape of the island through a massive explosion. The mass of the Island now arcs around a caldera filled with the Mediterranean. Adrift in its center of the caldera stands a barren rock island, the mouth of the volcano. On this windblown, exposed, and inhospitable rocky island this Flower has spread like wild-fire.

Red Flowers on the volcano

As a Flower Essence it serves to strengthen, support and encourage our own inner resolve. The wisdom of this Essence is about adaptation to new circumstances with strength and courage. It supports our ability to thrive after things erupt and fall apart in our lives. This Flower is fearless and supports us in digging in for the real fight, the real challenges with a fire energy that is not destructive but sustaining, creative and adaptive.

I AM the manifestation of my new life with creativity, strength, fearlessness and adaptability.



Tree Medick Medicago arborea
This Flower in both its physicality and spirituality is composed of cups of light. This Essence demonstrates how to hold and radiate light from internal sources when external forces have made our lives hard and heavy work or we feel bogged down spiritually and emotionally. This Flower reveals how to hold and radiate the abundance of light within us.

I AM imperishable light.

Sicilian Wild Sweet Pea Lathyrus odoratus “Francis Cupani”
According to plant historians, this Sweet Pea is considered the mother of all Grandiflora Sweet Peas. It was first collected for domestic cultivation and hybridization in 1699, and there are now 250 varieties of fragrant and beautiful old-fashioned Sweet Peas that come from this plant. And here it was, having made a bit of a Mediterranean leap from Sicily to Santorini yet still carrying its Sicilian wisdom.

This Flower Essence creates a direct and forthright space for us to see and experience the realities of where we are in our journey and asks us to face these truths. It brings our reality into focus and encourages unimportant surface ideas to fall away. It both guards and reveals the divine plan for us, encouraging us to dive in and align our will to the plan. It offers a backdrop to these essential truths but more importantly supports us to come forward and embrace the work head on.
In calling us to this work it strengthens us for the next step in the journey: moving purposefully on from this moment of truth towards greater alignment with divine will.

I AM open to the truth of my situation and ready to begin a process of harmonious change.



Purple Viper’s Bugloss Echium plantagineum
This Flower Essence is a soft place to fall in times of great upheaval, transition, and spiritual change. While the leaves and stem are rough and coarse, covered in delicate spikes, the blossoms themselves are soft and delicate with colors that are warm and supportive. This Essence is a safe embrace. It will hold us and take care of us when everything else feels turned upside down.

I AM safe.



Fodder Vetch Vicia villosus
Fodder Vetch has a true sense of self. Its elegant blossoms rise up in a graceful column, each looking forward, unafraid of movement, change or what lies ahead. This Essence supports us to let go of fear as we continue forward. It helps us find and recognize our true course and then supports us in moving forward in confident alignment. Even in a strong wind, the blossoms don’t swivel or change direction. They stand strong and true in their course and help us do so as well.

I AM sure of my way forward.

Amphitrite
On my last afternoon in Santorini, I walked out to a series of rolling grassy hills near where I was staying. I felt drawn to one particular area of a field behind a large stonewall. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I could feel that on the other side of the wall there was blue. I’d never had an experience like this before. I couldn’t see blue. None of the Flowers filling the fields were blue, but I knew blue was there. After I climbed over the wall, I found this lovely lone blue Flower whose energy and presence had called to me.

This wise and ancient Flower had an immense energy and tremendously clear sense of itself and its strengths. It supports us to know these truths about ourselves. This Flower with its eternal blue core helps us let go of surface ideas we hold about ourselves to uncover deeper truths. It helps us to understand that this release and movement forward will alter the surface of our lives but not change our souls. Instead, this change and growth will only allow us to connect and embrace our essential selves more easily.

I AM in the flow of my essential self and purpose.