The (Soul) Family meets again
[Green Flowers, Green Hearts] Soul Family encounters at the Second International Flower Essence Conference
The Second International Flower Essence Conference happened in Victoria, Canada, in 1991
In May of 1991 I flew from Brazil to Victoria, BC, a charming town located in Vancouver Island, on the Pacific Coast of Canada. I was there as a participant as well as an invited speaker.
With me, two other Brazilian colleagues who had been part of our initial Circles, Maria Grillo and Vera Giorgi, eager to learn everything we could and drink from all the knowledge presented live. We were amazed to have landed at this beautiful location at the height of Spring!
Evocations from the First Flower Essence Conference
A year before, the very first worldwide encounter of flower essence researchers and producers (most of them had never met before) had happened at a Conference in the French countryside, organized by Philippe Deroide, producer of Deva flower essences, based on the French Alps.
At this mountain area in France, full of dandelions (they tell me), presenters came from different parts of the world and were meeting for the first time. During the Conference, they shared their calling to research flowers from the environments where they lived, their discoveries of qualities brought forth by plants, and their unique environments, all based on the principles of the Bach flower remedies.
Flower Essence Researchers and Practitioners from around the world meet in Victoria, BC, Canada
At the II International Flower Essence Conference in Canada we were around 200 individuals, Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Australians, participants from New Zealand, India, and three of us from Brazil, joining in for the very first time.
During those few days, I was introduced to a whole range of inspiring Flower Essence contemporary research that was already making history. I met for the first time the FES, California researchers Richard Katz and Patricia Kaminski who’s essences I had been studying with passion (a whole dedicated post coming up), and there, I began learning about the research of Steve Johnson of the Alaskan Essences, Ian White of the Bush Essences, Cynthia Kemp of Desert Alchemy, Pacific Essences from Vancouver Island, Living Essences from Australia.
“The (Soul) Family meets again”
The morning after the Keynote Conference opening speech on Vibrational Medicine by Richard Gerber MD, speakers representing different continents were chosen to sit for an opening panel.
Being the only speaker representing South America, I had the honor of being placed side by side with pioneer researchers I was yet to get to know.
Steve Johnson, founder of the Alaskan Essences, was the one to start the talk. With touching opening words that sent goosebumps all over me, and his smiling gaze and charisma, Steve evoked deeper meanings when he said: the (Flower Essence) Family meets again.
While so far from where I was born, there was a deep sense of coming home. The soulfulness of the encounter (for me) was such that we all felt we were part of a grand circle. There was no need for very many words, each panel representative added their bit and the conference began.
A sense of meeting Soul Family was not something familiar to me before this, but it became something I will get to know deeply and recognize in others who were touched by the same feeling, as our journeys unfolded. What we got to later call a great reencounter, was touching soul chords that lived in each one of us, that we did not even know were there.
Early in life he had found solace and joy out in nature
In his lecture, Steve Johnson shared with us about his childhood in Idaho, where he felt held and at home outdoors, by the streams, the rocks and the trees. He shared with us how this journey with and in nature was where he got comfort.
He told us how this intimacy with nature led him to become a Firefighter, eventually commissioned to years of intensive summer shifts in Alaska. This work required spending long periods outdoors, sensing the land, the winds, the elemental forces, often totally alone surrounded by vast areas rarely populated by humans.
Through long and dark winters, these lands were covered in snow and ice. But during the growing season when Steve was there for work, he lived surrounded by species of plants that completed their whole cycle of growth and flowering very very fast, through long summer days.
In search for healing emotional isolation, personal wounds and the impact of chronic stress, he told us he had, at times, received help from Bach Flower Essences.
Once in Alaska, surrounded by these potent environments, Steve felt called to tune into the healing properties of wild plants growing in those powerful and pristine environments.
Alaska and potent Elemental Forces
Those who were there for that lecture (and who joined him in other places around the world where Steve taught for subsequent decades) could feel, through him, the power of these environments: Steve brought these forces with him.
Through Steve Johnson I learned just how much Alaska is a place that awakens us to the power of Elemental Forces. Stepping out from whatever vehicle brings you there, you are immediately impacted by the grandeur of the forces of the land.
The presence and power of the mountains, plants, wind, water, fire; of glaciers, lakes, volcanic forces, wildlife on land and ocean…
How Steve began preparing the Alaskan Essences
He shared that a helicopter dropped him off for a few days in an isolated location in the North of Alaska, where he observed the directions in which fire would spread.
Steve had the natural ability to feel completely at one with the environment and sense the way the elemental forces were at work. He would then advise the teams controlling wildfires on the trends he perceived, helping to protect populations and crucial areas.
He had dedicated years to this work, which was extremely demanding, most often with no resting breaks. Serving in this way on an ongoing basis had exhausted him.
In those days, all around him, the Labrador Tea Rhododendron tomentosum plant was growing. He felt called to make its flower essence for his own healing, and this became a core component of his Emergency combination: Soul Support. I wrote a previous post all on this: “Who is in need of Soul Support”.
His new path had begun, giving a deeper meaning to his life, all the way to the end.
Powerful Elemental forces were transmitted through him
Seeing him for the first time as a speaker took us beyond our conditioned ways of sensing and seeing. His intimacy with the outdoors and the plant world was remarkable. We could feel his authenticity and integrity in conveying precise patterns of these natural forces. This led me to make choices that created numerous teaching opportunities for many others in the decades that followed.
In the ways he described the Alaskan elemental forces and their interaction with the qualities of each plant, we could sense the uniqueness of their healing gifts, some being miniature orchids, plant beings that one would easily overlook.
Something about Steve’s approach to this work revealed an alive connection to nature’s forces, precision, and quality. I trusted the vibrancy of his Alaskan essences.
Qualities of the Sonora Desert environment
The Sonora Desert, with its unique population of plants, is located around the contemporary line that divides southern Arizona and northern Mexico.
Cynthia Kemp, founder of the Desert Alchemy line of flower essences,showed us how, in these ecosystems, each plant is its differentiated and distinct being.
Through her stories and discoveries, she showed us in very vivid ways how the essences from those areas helped us discover, and own, our unique strengths. In her words, the essences from these environments support individuation.
I remember the beauty of the photography of her presentation, how it was presented along with the sounds of the desert. The quality of the music, the descriptions of specific essence qualities. And her adventure of discovery!
The uniqueness of the Australian Bush
Ian White was raised very close to his grandmother, who intimately knew the plants that grew wild in the areas where they lived. Since he was a kid, he walked with her and became acquainted with the variety of plant presences in that landscape.
Ian went on to train as a naturopath, and later started preparing flower essences from the Australian Bush, traveling to different locations around that continent. At this conference, in his lecture on flower essences prepared in many different regions in Australia, he showed us powerful plant beings, sharing stories of his encounters with these plants and legends associated with them .
Flower essence language validated my soul experiences
For me, all of this was unprecedented and also felt like coming home. I will share more about these key encounters and the deep soul impact they had on me.
The descriptions of feelings and states that I had experienced, but had not put into words, were talked about by these researchers, coming from what they had learned through observing and listening to plants and the unique qualities of their essences.
The language and concepts they brought forth felt totally right and somehow very familiar, even though I was hearing them for the first time.
All of this evoked in me memories of my childhood, a time in which I would spend hours alone and out in nature, swimming in large bodies of water, walking amongst plants, and feeling at one with the sands, the waters, and the sky.
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[Green Flowers, Green Hearts] to be continued: posts in this category will include history on the discovery of flower essences, flower essence language and awareness, and the communities this work has brought together, historically and to this day.