To restock the Flower Essences in our Wildflower Collection I need to remember when and where I have seen the Flowers in the collection in bloom.  Some beloveds like Dandelion and Goldenrod are hard to miss. When they blossom, they fill the landscape.  This makes it easy for me to make more Essence, though you might be surprised by what a short season Dandelion actually has. When it’s gone, it’s gone.

In any case, it doesn’t make Wildflowers less important because they are common, but it does make it easier for me to restock.  Some Flowers like Bottle Gentian are much more rare, and I need to focus to find them for restocking.  

This is the time of year Bottle Gentian flowers.  It likes to grow in the scrubby terrain between deep forest and woodland fields, but it is relatively hard to find. This year as I walked to a spot where I sometimes have found Bottle Gentian, I came across a family of Bottle Gentian several hundred plants strong.  I was bowled over by this abundance.  I feel fortunate when I find one Bottle Gentian plant, and here there were literally hundreds in a place I had never seen any before.

I sat down next to this amazing community of plants to consider all I knew about this powerhouse of a Flower and soak in its vibration.

I first met Bottle Gentian in the Adirondacks when I was a child. From a very early age, I recognized it had strong plant medicine.  I was extremely happy whenever I met it in the woods. It was so regal with such presence. Later Bottle Gentian was prominently featured in a book of Adirondack Wildflowers a friend and I painted when we were teenagers.  I would not describe the Adirondacks as a Flower filled landscape, so when we made this book, we searched hard for every last Flower we painted.  Bottle Gentian was a standout. It communicated to us its strength of purpose and resilience. It spoke of power used well.

Decades later in the summer of 1995, I was reminded exactly how resilient this Flower is.   I found Bottle Gentian blooming undiminished in an Adirondack landscape that had suffered an enormous blowdown of trees.  The scope of the blowdown/ microburst was immense.  940,000 acres of Adirondack wilderness were damaged by the storm with 126,000 acres completely destroyed with nary a tree left standing. It is estimated that ten million trees were felled by the storm.  When later I went on a seaplane ride to see the destruction, I saw mountains far into the distance with all their trees leveled like matchsticks. 

The night of the storm, the skies had been a strange green color. We played cards, listening to the frightening sound of mammoth trees breaking all around our camp. During flashes of lightning we peered out into the storm. Never had I seen enormous trees do what they did that night, waving like palm trees before breaking in half or uprooting or doing both. We awoke to a landscape of trees fallen like pick up sticks. We felt grateful to be alive.

A few days later, in a completely impenetrable rat’s nest of down trees, I found a resolute Bottle Gentian blooming.  To have survived the storm and lived to flourish afterwards made this cluster of blossoms a dynamo of strength.  I knew this Bottle Gentian would bring a particular vibrational wisdom about facing anything life could throw at us, so I made it into a Flower Essence and added it to our inventory.

Bottle Gentian Flower Essence supports us to hold our energy in sanctity in any situation no matter how difficult or dire. It empowers us to remain poised and serene in the face of upheaval and forceful change.  It helps us see more clearly in any circumstance. During that storm it had shown its grit and courage. It helps us do so too.

In the 27 years since that storm,  I have continued to benefit from this Flower’s strength and learn so much from its Flower Essence vibration. I delight in every encounter I have with this Flower in the wild, so you can imagine my joy in finding so many blossoms this September.

I wondered what strength this family of plants would bring to our Bottle Gentian inventory. I also wanted to know why.  I always want to know the whys.  Not that I always get answers to my questions but still, I ask.  In this case I wondered why so many Flowers this year?  I was talking to the Angels about this as I enjoyed another visit today with this community of Bottle Gentians, and they said in answer to my why, “Ask Bottle Gentian.”

And so I did.

“Greetings.  We bring great strength with our show of numbers. We want to remind you how to be powerful and hold your strength in complete harmony with others.  No matter the size of the group, you can all be in your full power without violating anyone else’s energy system. Look how our Flowers cluster in perfect accord with each other, all given space to flourish and all rising in their full expression.  This balance of power and harmony is one piece of our relevant wisdom for right now.

We also want to support you in the right use of your energy.  Your world is rapidly firing up into higher frequencies, and this requires a lot of energy from you. It can be arduous work to let go and flow with these vibrational shifts.  

We suggest you consider without criticism or shame how you use your energy. This examination is to give helpful insight. There is no need to judge. Do you make space for replenishing activities?  Do you sometimes inadvertently drain away your energy with activities like scrolling social media platforms or watching the “news”?  Do you listen when your body needs rest? Your world so often pushes you to keep going when you are spent and need to rest and restore yourself. Do guilt buttons sometimes make you push past balance so you are left drained?  With kindness to yourself as you take this inventory, consider keeping a full tank as we do. You need energy right now to adjust to the incoming light.  If you have energy, cherish it.  If you are exhausted, arrange to rest if possible.  And remember you can ask for help from all the lightworkers in spirit here to help right now.  See how our deep blue coloring and closed blossom formation suggests holding one’s energy?  Call to us and we will help you do likewise.

We are not asking you to cut people off or being unloving.  Sometimes lightworkers on Earth worry that self care means not doing your lightwork.  Right now your lightwork is self care.  This is the best thing you could do for those around you and those you love; gather your energy so it’s available to support you when you need it.

We send you our love.  Avail yourself to our wisdom.  Call us in. Study our architecture. Take our Flower Essence.  Ask for our help.  We have much relevant wisdom and want to share it with you now.”