We have assembled a special Flower Essence mix for Japan. Several hundred bottles are already on their way to Japan.

If you are in Japan and would like this Flower Essence mix or have a beloved in Japan and want to send this Flower support to them please contact us at our email address of green.hope.farm@valley.net.

We have been sending this mix off at no cost. At some point, we may need help with postage. We can send up to 12 half ounce bottles of the mix in one global priority envelope for the cost of $13.95.
Japan does not allow for the import of Flower Essences in an alcohol base so we are very glad our Flower Essences are preserved with our Red Shiso preservative, not brandy. We came to our wonderful Red Shiso preservative because of the use of Red Shiso as a preservative by people in Japan, so it is a very full circle moment for us.

We feel a great kinship with Japan not just because it is the home of our beloved Red Shiso but because we have much loved GHF friends in Japan. We also have several beloved Flower Essences made in Japan by Tomoyo Rezvani and Vicki Ramos-Glew, two of which the Angels included in this special mix.

One Flower Essence the Angels included in the mix is Ume Flower Essence which describes itself in this way, “I bathe the world clean after wintry times…I serve to restore after the literal winter season but also after any passage through a cold, dark time of dormancy or death.” The other Japanese Flower Essence in the mix is Ajisai, or Hydrangea Flower Essence made by Tomoyo in Nagasaki on July 6 and also July 7th or Wishes Day in 2005. Among many other things Ajisai says about itself on our additional Flower Essence list, Ajisai notes, ” I AM the restoration of the eternal. I AM the light beyond the vagaries of history…My July 6th Essence helps restore the beauty of family. This is a soothing Essence for those who have suffered difficulties in the midst of their families.”

This is the ingredient list for the mix including the deeply resonant Flower Essences Ben brought back from Ireland, a place with so much wisdom about watery times and Emily’s Red Flower from Santorini that, “supports our ability to thrive after things erupt and fall apart in our lives.”

Japanese Special Mix ingredient list: Ajisai from Japan, Alba Maxima Rose, Alex Mackenzie Rose, The Arbor Garden, Aspen, Bleeding Heart, Borage, Camaieux Rose, Coralita, Corn, Crinum Lily from Costa Rica, Elderberry, Emergency Care, Golden Armor, Great Willowherb from Ireland, Grief & Loss, Grounding,Harebell from Dog’s Bay in Ireland, Joe Pye Weed, Lemon, Leopard’s Bane, Madame Hardy Rose, Maple, Old Blush China Rose, Omey Island from Ireland, Pink Tecoma, Pink Water Lily, Recovery, Red Flower from Santorini, Greece, Red Mangrove, Rue, Sarah Van Fleet Rose, Scarlet Runner Bean, Shrimp Plant, The Sunflower Spiral, Thistle from Omey Island in Ireland,Ume from Japan,Yellow Water Lily

Since we are all one and all in this together, this mix is available for all. For orders not going to Japan, we are asking the same as for any of our combination Flower Essences- $9 for a half ounce bottle and $30 for a 2 ounce bottle plus s/h.

The Angels continue to suggest our combination mix Golden Armor for anyone with specific concerns about radiation. Please email us with any questions about any of this.

Our big excitement today is the launch of our Sicily and Santorini Flower Essence collection. And this, the flag of Sicily, is the one we wave in celebration!
During the winter and spring of 2010, Emily Sheehan lived in Ortigia, the oldest part of the city of Siracusa, Sicily. Travels in the Mediterranean took her all over the island of Sicily, to Tunisia and also to the Greek island of Santorini.

Emily has always had a deep connection to the Flowers. Flowers were her first language, and the word “Flower” was literally her first word. As a small child she would open her mouth like a baby bird and say, “Flowers” when she wanted Flower Essences. By the time she was four she was asking me to make certain Flower Essences including the marvelous Baby Blue Eyes which has served many generations of children with its wisdom.

Since then she has played a part in many, many Green Hope Farm Flower gardens and bottled and packed thousands of our Flower Essences to ship off to all of you. With this history, it came as no surprise that a now grown up Emily would return from her travels with a wonderful collection of Flower Essences reflecting the heart and soul of this ancient part of the world.

This is Emily’s first collection of Flower Essences for Green Hope Farm and throughout her experience of bringing it forward to share with all of you, it was made clear to me again and again that the Angels of Sicily and Santorini had entrusted into Emily’s hands alone this collection and that she was their guardian and spokesperson.

When Emily chose to go live in Sicily, none of our family had been to Italy or Greece. I’d read much about the Flowers and gardens of Sicily in particular and had felt a deep kinship with the gardens in Taormina. None the less, the Angels kept me out of the project, explaining that it was Emily who had the most profound connection to Sicily, and it was Emily that was meant to bring back this collection of Flower Essences to share with all of you.

After Emily’s return to the farm, when I tried to hurry this collection into the world, the Angels reminded me again that I was not in charge of this collection and that Emily was both the voice of this collection as well as the person in charge of when it was to be released. Emily was very firm and clear about everything to do with this collection and stayed true to her inner sense of what was being asked of her.

My experience of watching this collection unfold has been a revelation of Sicily’s wisdom in particular. Sicily is a place that has been invaded so many times that to read her history is to have one’s head set spinning, and yet, Sicily prevails and is her truest self in a most profound way. Not only that, but she has learned to be her authentic self no matter what happens to her. Benign as well as violent external events leave her core identity undiminished.

And despite forces that would conceal or twist her wisdom, she knows how to express herself with great vitality and skill. Here with this collection of Flower Essences she chose exactly which Flowers she wanted made and exactly how and when they would be presented to the world and she did this by choosing Emily, knowing Emily would listen to her wisdom with great care and integrity.

Throughout the past year, much about this collection remained a mystery to me, especially the timing of our launch. If you have read our home page this past year you saw how frequently I got ahead of both Emily and Sicily about when I expected to share these Flower Essences. Yet now, as we unveil this collection, it feels in such divine order to launch this collection right now as per Sicily’s guidance.

As the winds of freedom sweep across this region of the world, this collection feels deeply supportive of this process of self definition and alignment with our truest eternal selves.

It has been an honor to meet Sicily through her Flowers and through Emily’s eyes and heart. It has been a honor to bear witness to this collection as Emily and the Angels and Elementals of these Flowers, Sicily and Santorini worked together to create and now launch this collection of simply marvelous Flower Essences. May this collection bring you as much joy and healing as it has brought me.

One last story before the four posts about this collection. When I was describing this collection to one of you last week, you told me a story which somehow summed up for me the depths and unexpected power and beauty of these Flower Essences and of Sicily herself. You described a scene in which someone had gone to the home of a Sicilian grandmother to watch her cook a meal to share at her table.

Upon arriving at the grandmother’s home, the way into the kitchen was blocked by one of the men of the household who stood at the threshold of the kitchen filling the airwaves with talk talk talk while in the background, the grandmother of the family cooked in the shadows. When the meal was served, it was the most delicious, colorful and flavor packed meal this visitor had ever had, a meal unlike any other and miraculously prepared by this tiny grandmother in an ancient kitchen.

This story echoes all I have learned of Sicily. No matter what appears to be happening on the surface at the front of the house, the beauty, wisdom, love and heart of Sicily lives and speaks with complete abandon, joy and truth in unexpected and imperishable ways.

With this collection of Flower Essences, she speaks through her Flowers.

The view of Mt Etna from Taormina, Sicily

The island of Sicily has a strong sense of self, born in part from experiences of violation, subjugation and attack. Through trial and tribulation, Sicily came into an ability to move through tumultuous experiences while anchored in a clear experience of her eternal identity. She learned to be Sicily no matter what transitory experiences swirled around her. This wisdom is one of the essential gifts she imparts to us via her Flower Essences.
Islands frequently have a very strong sense of self-identity and self-awareness, and this is particularly true of Sicily. Her Flower Essences help us take forward a similar deeper understanding of self and soul purpose no matter what events fill our daily life. These Essences help us harvest the wisdom from painful experiences while also helping us understand ourselves to be undiminished by these events. These Flower Essences help us anchor in our eternal identity as a soul.

Sunset in Santorini
Santorini is all that remains of a volcanic explosion that destroyed a larger island 3600 years ago during the height of the Minoan civilization. Just as Santorini pulled the threads of its geography together again, its Flowers echo the strength it found to recreate itself. These are Flower Essences to help us find a bead on ourselves after explosive experiences
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The view from Emily’s apartment in Ortigia, Siracusa, Sicily

ORIGINS OF THIS COLLECTION
Emily Sheehan lived in Ortigia, the oldest part of Siracusa, Sicily during the winter and spring of 2010. She created this collection of Flower Essences in the same order as her travels in the Mediterranean. Initially, Emily perceived her time in Sicily and her geographical travels in the Mediterranean to be random, yet as she learned about each of the Flower Essences she had been called to make along the way, she discovered this collection reflected and offered a purposeful journey of self definition in the face of challenges and self expression in alignment with a deepening experience of self.

Emily made these Flower Essences and took on the responsibility of bringing them forward as a collection. Working with Jessica Miller, she designed a logo for the collection based on the landscape of Cefalu and La Rocca, Sicily. All photographs posted on the website with the collection were taken by her during her time in Sicily. In the following document, Emily describes each Flower Essence as well as the places where they were made. The writing process was a collaborative effort of give and take with the Angels, Emily Sheehan and Molly Sheehan.

This collection of Flower Essences and these descriptions were over a year in the making as we worked to find the authentic voice of each Flower and its Essence. Ultimately, Emily and Molly felt they had been given an experience of what it was to be Sicily, holding fast to her truth and authentic self.

A Lemon Grove outside Siracusa, Sicily

OUTSIDE OF SIRACUSA, SICILY
Early on in my time in Sicily, I took a walk with a friend in search of green space. About an hour walk outside of the city of Siracusa, I discovered a lemon grove in a field of Wildflowers. Here in the fresh soft light of late afternoon and early evening, I found myself surrounded by Flowers and enveloped in love and light. The first steps in any journey of self-discovery are self-care, surrounding ourselves in love, light and comfort as well as asking for what we need.

These two Fumitory Flower Essences support us to take care of our most basic needs and essential selves by seeking fundamental and simple ways to comfort and wrap ourselves in loving light. On that day in the lemon grove, it was reading and napping in the shade of the lemon trees, lying in a bed of Wildflowers. At that moment when my body and soul were craving nature to hold me and help me let go, breathe, and just be, I found these two Flowers calling to offer their support.

Fumitory Bella Fumaria bella
The blossoms of Fumitory Bella are a strong pink tipped in a deep red. This Essence supports us to fill ourselves with light and life force energy and in doing so, create and sustain an energy reserve so that we have the energy to do the trying, tiring work of self-articulation. In addition, Fumitory Bella helps us to envelope ourselves in love and light.

This Flower Essence works well with Ramping Fumitory because it is only with our energy system contained by appropriate boundaries that we are free to restore ourselves with the vibration of love and light.

I AM the restoration of my self.

Ramping Fumitory Fumaria capreolata
The blossoms of Ramping Fumitory are white with intensely dark red tips. Each petal resembles an arm extended outwards. This Flower Essence helps us find the delicate balance of self-protection without defensiveness. Ramping Fumitory supports us in creating, maintaining and enforcing self-supporting boundaries that keep us and our energy fields clear. This Essence allows us to radiate our own energy and vibration at a higher level by keeping us tuned to our truest selves while also keeping other influences and energies at bay and out of our energy fields.

I AM the balance of self-protection without defensiveness.

TAORMINA, SICILY

Flower from the Gardens of Taormina
In the beginning stages of movement towards more alignment with divine will and the divine plan for each of us, this Flower Essence will encourage acceptance and openness even as things appear to fall apart. The beginning stages of this work can leave us in a vulnerable state. As the path we must take begins to unfurl in front of us, things fall away. Often this is a sorrowful place of uncertainty.

This Flower Essence supports us to trust the path as it presents itself to us, trust that even when there seems to be only loss, there is love and light and divine order which will become more apparent as we move forward.

In the uncomfortable early moments of anger, lack of understanding and denial, this Essence supports us to let go of outcomes. It supports us to keep untangling and keep moving towards acceptance of what is and isn’t meant to be.

I AM open to the path that is being laid before me and I understand that it is in service of my life to move forward this way.

Seaside Flower from Taormina
Found at the base of Taormina near the beach to Isola Bella, this Flower Essence helps us to be optimistic and positive in the face of hard circumstances and challenges. This Wildflower lives in a harsh and windy environment but maintains its sweet appearance, positive nature and high vibration. It is soft, kind and open amidst difficult conditions. This Essence supports a positive state of mind when accepting what is happening in our lives and where they are headed.

No matter the winds of change, I AM optimistic and of good cheer.

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Isola Bella

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.

LA ROCCA, CEFALU, SICILY
In late March, my brother, Ben, came to visit me in Sicily. Together we traveled to Cefalu, a beautiful old city on the northern coast of the island. On our first day we hiked up La Rocca, an enormous rock mountain that sits right on the coast, with the city of Cefalu curving around its base, nestling into its roots. The trail up La Rocca climbs and loops. It covers a vast amount of diverse landscapes, each offering a unique and breathtaking panorama of the surrounding sprawl of Cefalu, its mountains and coastline.



Scarlet Pimpernel from La Rocca, blue variation Anagallis arvensis foemina
This was the first Flower I found on La Rocca and one of the most powerful. Having just climbed high up on the mountain, I walked away from Ben out to a ledge overlooking the nearby mountains. Everything was green and lush, but this small blue Flower yelled out to me louder than the beautiful view. Its piercing blue color with a direct yellow core reflects this Flower’s deep and true sense of self as well as its great strength. This Flower despite its size is understated but not weak, small but not unimportant.

This Scarlet Pimpernel Essence helps us overcome feeling small and overwhelmed in the shadow of all the work that needs to be done and all the spiritual movement that is being asked of us. This Essence supports us to know our own strength and feel our personal power. Being one with God means that none of this work can be bigger than us; we can do the work, we do have the strength.

I can do all I AM called to do.

Tree Germander Teucrium fruticans
The Tree Germander is an incredibly intricate and interesting Flower. Its icy blue petals, great reaching stamen and deep purple veins are unique, elaborate and elegant.
As our surface lives and circumstances change, there are aspects of our souls that are constant and eternal. As part of our journey towards being our truest selves, Tree Germander facilitates a retrieval of our unwavering strengths and unique soul qualities so we can express and relish them. These gifts may be from past incarnations, and they may come to us as unexpected facets of ourselves. During this process, it is important to re-access truths about ourselves in a positive way and back ourselves up, own our strengths and courage from past incarnations and enfold them into our current journeys, situations, and lives. This Essence allows us to bring hidden and often unsuspected treasures from within us to the surface and shows us how to express these gifts with true abandon.

I AM self knowledge expressed with true abandon.



The Letting Go Flower
The architecture of this Flower doesn’t hold things in. The petals are soft curves forcing things out, off and away. They are not defensive angry points but soft bends that calmly support us to let things fall away that are no longer part of our journey. Although it is sad and hard to let go of things and people, if they do not serve to support and encourage our growth forward as souls or to fully be ourselves and own our authentic lives, we have to do the hard work of moving forward without those ties that hold us back. This Flower supports in a kind and gentle way, this process of letting go.

I AM unburdened.



Mediterranean Thistle Galactites tomentosa
Mediterranean Thistle Flower Essence is about the full expression of self in a framework of appropriate protection. If we have done the work of going within to know who we are, then we are ready for the balanced and clear self-expression that this Flower Essence supports. In particular, this Essence supports us to expand outwards into new parts of ourselves, unafraid and unedited. This expansive dynamic helps us own and actualize our true inner desires, thoughts, and emotions.
In addition, it helps us protect ourselves from outside forces that would serve to slow or stop us during this branching out and articulation of what we really need for our souls to grow and be happy. It helps us know how to defend who we really are and what we really want.

I AM the beauty of self articulation.

LA MARCHESA, SICILY
La Marchesa is a place where the water and rocks meet, a world in between agricultural fields and the sea. It is an expansive coastline; open, fresh and vast.


Flower from La Marchesa
Having let go of known territories and all the things we thought were set definitions of self, we find ourselves in a sort of in-between world like La Marchesa, no longer where we were but not yet where we will be. This Flower looks out in all directions with an inquisitive yet centered peace. This Essence supports us in being open to possibilities in all directions. It teaches us to delight in the unknown, to feel the expansiveness of moving forward and to appreciate the openness of being where we are in the process.
This Essence supports us to let go of fear and worry related to not knowing where our lives and journeys are headed but instead feel the positive in this moment, the open, exciting, adventurous place our lives find themselves.

I AM open to the gifts of the in-between worlds. I embrace the gifts of the unknown.

THE WEST
Reaching the end of my time on the island, I traveled through the west of Sicily where I saw breathtaking landscapes and landmarks and felt an increasing connection to this incredible land.

Wildflowers on Motia

THE ISLAND OF MOTIA, SICILY
The ancient Phoenicians transformed this tiny island into one of the most affluent cities of the ancient world. In the fight for Sicily during the 6th century BC it was a stronghold of Phoenicians and Carthaginians against the Greeks. In 379 BC the tyrant Dionysus the Elder from Siracusa destroyed Motia. The island is now empty of human inhabitants.


Italian Sainfoin Hedysarum coronarium
In the dry harsh salty climate of Motia, this brilliant red Flower stepped forward as a survivor. As a Flower Essence, it offers wisdom about constructively holding our energetic and emotional response when something explodes in our lives or we experience violation or violence against us. Italian Sainfoin encourages us to find a state of emotional balance in response to these intense energies. It supports us in not being passive, lying down and just accepting these events. It also supports us in not being reactive to violent upheaval thus just continuing the cycle. It encourages us to bounce back with strength and to make use of experiences that feel like a battle by organizing our reactions in creative directions.
First, Italian Sainfoin helps us acknowledge and own the full range of what we have experienced. This is necessary to rebuild our sense of wholeness with grounded acknowledgement of what happened.

Second, when we are on the receiving end of violent behavior, it is vital to transmute the energy we have received into a different form, thus breaking the cycle of violence. Energy that is hurtful is still energy and can be transmuted into something good. Being reactive to violent upheaval just continues the cycle, but suppressing the energy within us just moves the violence into a place within us. It is important to let the energy move and shift into a different form then channel this energy into life affirming inspired directions. Italian Sainfoin helps us use experiences that feel like a bloodbath by shifting the energies into something constructive, beautiful, inspired.

I AM the creative transmutation of all violence directed at me.


SEGESTA, SICILY
The beautiful ruined city of Segesta was invaded by Phoenicians, Athenians, Carthagenians, Romans, Vandals, and Normans among others, yet Segesta still has a fresh, clean, expansive and authentic vibration of self. Throughout all these upheavals, it was known as a place of harmonious blending of influences, peoples and cultures. Today Segesta is a popular tourist destination and archeological park, but it has not lost its strong sense of place. Segesta shines through as a genuine place with a true sense of its unique self, unaffected by transitory surface ideas, cultures or values.


Segesta
The Flowers encircling the ruined city had bright intoxicating colors. The combinations were incredible: fluorescent oranges, purples and yellows. The Segesta Essence made from these Flowers is about identity. This Essence, in homage to the strengths of Segesta, supports us in finding our authentic selves amidst cultural pressures and shifts. It helps us be our authentic selves in a fluid and complex way, owning different facets of ourselves while remaining grounded and true to our core identity.

I AM my authentic self no matter the culture that surrounds me.