Who is in need of Soul Support?
I surely am. Early in my teens I watched the onset of a dictatorship that lasted 22 years. The traumatic imprints of those times still live in my nervous system...
As world and climate events, wars, firestorms, violent floods and hurricanes disrupt the lives of so many people, we ask ourselves how can we support those in need.
This may very well be why I am starting this publication at this time. Personally, I know I need to focus on what can be healing, life affirming and community building, while staying aware of what is unfolding, standing with courage and integrity.
And I can assure you that one thing that has helped support me through decades of a long healing journey, has been connecting with plants and their healing gifts and finding community amongst those who listen to these levels of life intelligence. And having at hand their flower essences that have supported me and so many others.
This will be motivating what I share here in these Substack Series.
When known structures fall apart, plant intelligence offers us life force response and healing wisdom
The first land plants have been inhabiting the Earth from around 500 million years ago, with flowering plants evolving around 250 to 140 million years ago.
Maybe it is because they have seen it all, and have been an essential part of what creates soil and the atmosphere that allows beings like us to breathe and live…
Plants have preceded us, and have created the living conditions for our existence, and yet so many amongst us take them for granted, as “resources” to be explored.
Others amongst us know and feel that plants are our Elders, and there are many who have been listening and learning with them for a long time.
Listening and attuning to plants and elements of nature, honoring and receiving their wisdom, was what our predecessors have done naturally and we need to relearn.
Some of us are re-learning from Indigenous cultures and Ancestral legacies, so we can together envision our Ancestral Future (wording coined by one of our wise guides, Ailton Kernak, a Brazilian Native leader) to co-create within the living fabric of life.
Steve was a FireFighter for a good part of his life
It is with heartfelt gratitude that I share about my friend Steve, and feature a piece of his legacy: the Soul Support flower essence combination.
In his long career as a firefighter, Steve Johnson, founder of the Alaskan Flower Essence Project, listened and attuned to the forces of nature, to the winds and elemental powers that influenced the weather and moved the fires in the summer.
While there, he also began to attune to the healing qualities of the plants that inhabited vast expanses of pristine environments in Alaska.
Labrador Tea, the first Alaskan flower essence
While still a professional Firefighter, he was dropped by a helicopter to stay on his own on a mission in Central Alaska, where he remained for weeks. This was when he attuned to the plant from which he made the first Alaskan Flower Essence: Labrador Tea Ledum palustre (also called Rhododendron tomentosum).
This flower essence later became part of the Soul Support formula, the Emergency support combination that has been crucial in supporting those moving through upheavals, shock, distress, disrupting change and traumatic life events.
Part of the Ericaceae Botanical family, this plant fully embodies its family’s ability to easily and fully tap into the resources of the underground mycorrhizal networks that interrelate fungi and plants, in this way grounding itself into full connection to the resources it needs to survive and thrive.
The intelligence imparted by the flower essence of Labrador Tea teaches us how to ground our presence and feel supported by the earth. It also shows us that we can release and discharge the accumulated stress of the imbalanced states we are feeling, so as to gradually find a more even and grounded inner stability.
Fireweed grows after fires and other land disruption
Guided by Steve Johnson, I first visited Alaska in 1995, and was shown vibrant fields of Fireweed. Standing by their exuberant presence helped me know, in my whole being, how this plant assists us when disruption has taken over our lives.
In Europe what we know as Fireweed Epilobium angustifolium or Chamaenerion angustifolium is called Willowherb, and we are told that it has been one of the first plants to grow in areas that had been bombarded after World War II.
Fireweed is part of the Onagraceae family, and based on the research and observation of my friend and colleague Kathleen Aspenns and I, we have found a common thread in the healing qualities of these plants: they seem to all help us repattern conditionings and habits, creating fresh and life infused renewal. This fascinating study of Botanical Families and common healing qualities has been pioneered by my Mentors Richard Katz and Patricia Kaminski, whom you will be hearing a lot about.
When emotional devastation left us shattered and adrift
In this same trip into Alaska, Steve Johnson showed us areas in which floods, storms or melting glacier waters had disrupted the soil, and renewal was being started by yet another plant, this one a close relative of Fireweed: River Beauty Chamaenerion latifolium. For a long time, he had also been preparing its flower essence, that has been helpful when people experience emotional devastation and the need to start over.
An attuned plant healing whisperer and fine photographer
Amidst the legacy we received from Steve during his life that ended early, is his fine photography, his precise care in researching and preparing his essences, the beauty of his materials and descriptions of the healing qualities of the Alaskan Plants and more.
A cradle of softness offering a delicate healing embrace
Cotton Grass Eriophorum sp. is another plant that grows where land has been disrupted. The flowers feel like silky cotton balls disheveled by the strong winds.
One of the lines that I clearly remember when translating Steve’s texts into Portuguese about Cotton Grass is: “shifting our focus from pain to healing”.
There are other components to the Soul Support essence combination, but for today, I will leave you with these three flowers, that just by looking you can already feel better.
If you know someone who has lost their home, or needs Soul support to start over and rebuild from different kinds of disruptions, think of this essence combination as well as the Fireweed Combo. And know that I point you to these without any gain whatsoever - my intention is to share resources that can improve people's lives.
Right now the Sun is entering Aquarius, my Sun Sign, and Venus is still in Pisces.
I gently invite you to keep following these posts, as this Substack publication evolves into a resource that brings comfort, inspiring your days, touching Souls with beauty.