Daisy and the Five Pointed Star Key
Healing Qualities - Interconnectedness, Resilience with Sensitivity, Order amidst chaos, Light, Health , Vitality. Created Thursday 26th March 2020, Wold Close, South Cave, UK.
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The story behind the Essence :
Background
Midsummer Women is a gang of inter generational women have been meeting once or twice a year for the last 12 years .
We are a special and much treasured gang that only meet once or twice a year. The original founders, of which I was one, have now given way to next generation to coordinate the gatherings which offer a unique and rich mix of friendships, hysterical laughter, outrageous fun, delicious food, time with Mother Earth, ceremony and deep conversations about shared values and experiences particularly around social justice, activism, the sacred feminine and healing work.
The arrival of Covid 19 put paid to our scheduled Spring Gathering so when it was suggested that we could meet online and synchronise in ceremony in whatever way we felt right; lighting a candle, singing a song, walking a spiral or beating a drum across the ethers my heart leapt, I could do that. I could lay out something on my lawn, perhaps a labyrinth or spiral and light a fire as we connected being open to Spirit however we each understand that.
Also due to Covid 19 the entire programme of events I had planned up to June were all to be postponed or cancelled, including a Daisy day at the end of April.
Meanwhile the first flush of the strongest daisies had popped up after the winter, inspired by the glorious sunny spring weather we had been having over the past couple of weeks. They were good essence making material I had clocked them.
I began considering what to create for our ceremony, and although I work a lot with labyrinths this time it didn't feel right. I wanted something more immediate and straightforward, then number 5 popped into my mind loud and clear.
This is what I discovered about them - the five pointed star the pentad is associated with light, vitality and health, the fifth element of ether or prana, life force that is in all living things as it is understood in Hindu traditions. The pentad is also considered a sacred symbol found within several traditions and religions and mystical practices. This all resonated and felt very good and very strong so decided I would lay out a large 5 pointed star on my lawn as the threshold space for our ceremony.
It then became very obvious to make a daisy essence in the centre of the star , the intercrossing lines create a pentagon and the essence would to be potentised right in the centre of the pentagon, this felt very ordered and stabilising. I recognise that some essences are more potent than others and I knew that the last essence we had made at a Gathering was a very useful and beautiful one being most powerfully about unconditional support so felt very positive that in some more subtle ways this essence could capture something of the essence of our group .
The weather dictated which day to make the essence which was the day before the ceremony was planned as it promised to be the last day of glorious sunshine for a while.
My response to the impact of the virus had been to step up my meditation and prayer practise, spending an hour morning and evening in stillness and silence – a massive change for me who habitually chases around from here to there, always thinking and planning ahead, never getting my lists completed. So here I was faced with immobilisation and no physical contact with my best beloveds and folk in general. Over this time I occasionally get insights and promptings, there is a quietening happening as I move through a roller coaster of emotions and confrontation with much else. I find my perspective has changed, the world and lives being turned upside down, inside out.
One such insight the week leading up to making the essence was a real acknowledgement of the deep patterns throughout creation mirrored and found in the ancient arts and sciences of astrology, sacred geometry. Look closely at flowers it is constantly there, likewise the rhythms and cycles of life, day to night, sunrise to sunset, movement of planets across the galaxy, everywhere movement and patterns - this is not random. When I/we are in flow there is an order too, if we can be open enough, humble enough and maybe patient enough, if we can keep the fear and panic down, watch and listen … this is the nature of my work, the world of vibrational medicine and healing, of connection to ourselves, each other, our planet, our inhale and exhale.
So back to the story......
Running order of events in the making of the Daisy Essence.
Thursday 26th March 2020
Clear bright, heavy frost on the grass, sparkling.
9.00am Stillness, prayers and process pages done
I ventured out pyjamad, bare footed and bobble hatted determined to do my best with the day. I have never been a runner but decided of late that a few laps each morning, barefoot around my large garden would have to be a good thing for mind, body and lung capacity so off I went walking jogging walking jogging, by now it was 9am and knew that I definitely needed the daisies to be in situ for cooking by midday so thought I had better start laying out the star.
Although good at flow I am certainly not the most practical person in the world and seem to get things done rather in spite of myself so my planning for the creation of the large star had involved practising drawing its rhythmic pattern down until it was internalised and embodied and I then marched up and down my lawn leaving behind me a trail of my plaited ropes which had been used over the years to create sacred space in the form of labyrinths and spirals in numerous gatherings and festivals, but I had never worked with straight lines before. I actually enjoyed it although it also felt very hard work, like walking through treacle, as everything seemed to at the moment, its angularity giving it a strong sense of purpose and structure. I attempted to guesstimate where the 5 points should be to occupy the space and create a balanced portal, its was tricky. By 10.00ish I decided I need a break so went inside got showered, dressed and breakfasted .
11ish returned now minus bobble hat and several layers as the sun was heating up and the frost had completely disappeared almost as soon as the sun appeared overhead . The daisies were now beginning to open so I reckoned I still had a wee while to complete the star which was now shaping up and collect daisies before midday. I finally constructed the star by making both the sides of the inner pentagram and the depth of the stars from the pentagram to its tips 5 paces so all felt in good alignment with the energy of 5.
11.30am Completed star and laid out the water in a beautiful wide glass bowl which would have been my mother's, grandmother's or great Auntie's. When making essences I am always aware of my own maternal line, honouring and using certain cloths and containers that were theirs, I believe and feel supported by them in this work.
I then collected a random number of beautiful daisies now fully open in the glorious sunshine as I walked around my back lawn, placing them in a basket my daughter had given me this Christmas, this being its first time out and lined with a tablecloth that I had embroidered at school 50 plus years ago that I now used for essence work.
Shadow arising - mind started wandering as I was collecting the daisies particularly around my chequered love and sexual history, it seemed very difficult to stop the thoughts as I pondered the Sacred and Profane, how they relate and dualism in our society in general and in particular around sexuality/ spirituality and the deep wounding that this splitting and simplistic patriarchal way causes.
Addictions and Coping strategies, I am a very light smoker but it is certainly one of my coping strategies and addictive patterns. I also had a strong strong desire to smoke as I was working which I resisted until I received a first telephone call which raised my anxiety for my family and their situations during Covid19 Lockdown.
Once gathered I carefully placed the daisies onto the bowl where each floated on the water skin. They all completely and perfectly covered the entire surface of the bowl ( see pic ) - and that felt very good! I was in flow
12 .00 – 6pm Daisies in sunlight.
General Process I am not a person who sees flower, or for that matter any other type of spirits, fairies, angels or devas, I do however feel things and during this embodied essence making process I have all my imaginative and expansive antennae out touching into as many realms and possibilities as possible .
I personally believe that the flow of words, some might call guidance, channelling or active imagination is a combination of both my own immediate emotional and spiritual condition plus something else which to me feels utterly magical, coming from the cosmos via the flowers.
So I asked the daisies what they want to share with me and this was what flowed verbatim –
A remembrance of all that is good and holy
Keep us always by your side
we will never let you go.
Soft and gentle
Strong and kind
Our essence is tough love
paths of truth
We have battled over time and space and now we have landed.
This time like all others will pass - but we shall not.
We are from the eternal realms where only trusted friends and warriors may step.
Long the way and twisting the journey
Through shock and trauma, we have seen it all and still we prosper.
Do not deny us our power, small and often trodden underfoot but we can soften the blows and lighten the load.
Breathe and be refreshed
Do not worry for all is in hand.
The night is long and not yet passed but the light is never diminished.
Let us be ever open to this light, this love, this healing .
Blessed be.
12.15 Immediately I had finished writing this a close friend rang who I hadn't spoken to since Lockdown started. The conversation retriggered my anxiety about my son and family who are in London so anxiety and fear entered the arena, I then received an invitation to an online session by someone I have great respect for and was unclear what to do so went back to daisies to see what they had to say, keeping focus and not getting distracted is a massive issue for me
We are your friends
Trust us as we trust you
Only loving kindness will heal the planet now.
Stay your own course
Do your own work and all shall be well.
So I didn't do the online session left the daisies and was about to continued with my work of the day which involved making essences up for 4 people, when the phone rang again, it was another very tuned in friend I hadn't spoken to for a while and we had a long open conversation which ended with talking about sexuality and spirituality as though helping me with the arising thoughts earlier, interesting.
General Process When in an essence making process it seems like everything is heightened, we are in scared time and space, when we are able to be mindful and present as possible in any give situation - it is when we are more awake that we can then begin to see 'God' /Spirit at work and everything becomes supercharged with energy and meaning through metaphor and synchronicity.
Form and Function
The Daisies in the bowl beautifully illustrated this interconnectedness every single one touching at least another with their soft white petals, whilst the sun was out . I also noted that although the majority were facing up toward the light a few had fallen onto the water face down, saying something to me about my/our hidden aspects still in the shadow on our journey towards greater consciousness. Being part of a community of consciousness had also been part of the recent telephone conversation and had triggered another shadow for me rejected and not part of community.
Daisies are extraordinarily sensitive to the sunlight, despite being such a remarkably resilient species – and I feel this mixture of sensitivity and resilience is at the heart of their healing potential.
'We are all touching one another with our gentle petals
In the breeze, we move together on the skin of the water, the movement of our feeling lives held together by an invisible film .
We are hope and we are joy
And we are happy to be here.'
Over the next few hours I kept popping out to see how they were doing as I did my other essence work, watching to see the sunshine and whether they were still fully opened, I have vaguely thought I would bring the essence in at 6 pm, around the time the sun would start dropping and sure enough by 5.30 some had begun to start closing.
5.30pm
Some had started to close so now not all touching but still dancing in harmony on the surface as the ripples of wind pushed them about.
'We open and close
according to Helios's rays
Opening and closing
We touch more or less.
As we close we group together.
A few may get stranded , until we stretch out again.
The unseen film of water still holding us together.'
Description - The flower heads facing down have lost their connection to the sunlight and hence their own natural rhythm, every description needs to understood metaphorically.
6.00
Brought them in and made up the Mother tincture.
Big thank you to the Daisies for their beauty and their sensitivity
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