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.
