Dear friends of Floracopeia:

Once again, I am amazed at the response to our latest retreat at Shady Creek, and deeply grateful to everyone who traveled from near and far to contribute to the high energy with their dedication to aromatic botanical medicines. Many thanks to everyone, especially those who traveled internationally (France, Canada, Brazil) and long distances within the US (Hawaii, east coast). Special thanks also to the wonderful teachers, who got rave reviews, thunderous applause, and overwhelming devotion. Much appreciation goes to all who patiently endured the rustic conditions during the first two days of rain and cold, to be rewarded with the spectacular emergence of the full moon on a frozen white landscape which soon transformed into the full glory of a warm and flower-filled springtime in the Sierras. The food was organic and delicious, the room cathedral-like and at times obviously filled with an enchantment of light, flowers and visiting hummingbirds, and the heartfelt stories and testimonials of healing brought tears to many.

For me the experience was a powerful teaching in focus, concentration, openness and enjoyment of each moment, as it was by far the longest stretch of time that I have ever been in front of such a large and attentive group; as our new beloved friend Arjun-Das commented, it was a magic room that got bigger when you sat in the front. Teaching like this is an ongoing process of seeing yourself reflected back in the eyes of everyone participating, with all the aspects of yourself that you are comfortable and uncomfortable with.

Since the retreat I have given a lot of thought to what was fulfilling and rewarding and what needs improvement for next time. Each group will be different and each retreat will happen under different circumstances, but themes have emerged from everyone’s helpful feedback about how to make the program better next time. My overall impression is that we accomplished the goal of presenting a wide range of material about a broad and complex field to a diverse group of students, and that going deeper into more specific therapeutic applications will be an ongoing process. I also feel that we accomplished the goal of learning to see and appreciate the aromatic plants in a global context, which for me is a kind of spiritual view of interconnectedness with life.

Many thanks again to all who made this event so special: Jillian for her hard work as Event Coordinator, Jai Dev, Kari, and Taya who worked so many long hours, Jonathan for bringing his still and offering us fresh essential oils and hydrosols starting on the full moon, Lorenzo and the team for keeping us well nourished, to my father for his surprise visit, and everyone else. In gratitude, I would like to post here the first part of the series titled “Beloved Plants,” a piece which I wrote for the SW Conference on Botanical Medicine recently. It has not been released before, although I read it during the teleclasses. This will be the first of a series of blog posts that I will make over the next few weeks, as we have many important developments coming with the affiliate program, new web site, and other events, and each time I will include some of this new writing. As you all know, this is the ultimate fulfillment for me, to express these thoughts and feelings and insights about nature’s beauty in a poetic way.

David

Read Part One of David Crow’s ‘Beloved Plants’ Below

Lavender

Like serpentine waves of color undulating across the continents, the lilac hues of lavender farms weave together all that is good about us humans. For love of beauty people flock to the cascading purple terraces of Provence, New Zealand, Himachal Pradesh, California, drawn like the bees climbing through their miniature labyrinthine worlds of ultraviolet scent. Because there still lives, somewhere in our heart and soul where the artificialities of modernity are not allowed, an innate indescribable love for nature’s tender expressions, the soft voice of lavender’s gentle spirit is universally understood. Because there still abides beneath our hardened, agitated, aggressive, restless madness an inescapable vulnerability to the feminine power of the earth’s compassion, lavender’s soothing touch transcends our painful imagined differences, bonding us together again in the simple child-like truth that we all suffer and need comfort.

Open a bottle of fine lavender oil, as if you were one of those who feel reverence because it has cured them of sorrows in ways that science could not do. Bring it slowly to your nostrils, for inside lies more than you ever realized. Can you perceive the fresh notes of rain, dewy transparent pearls rolling off silken petal and leathery leaf? Draw your attention further inward: there await rich earthen notes of loamy fertile soil or mineral notes of harsh wild landscapes. It is easy to get lost in the smell of purples, the sweet aquamarine notes of fruit and flower so distinct yet so indescribable, but anyone can do that. Do you sense the pungency, the soft sharpness of sunrays, the fiery acrid heat of Mediterranean summer days? How can you not notice the cool air of evening that settles on the flowing contours of color at dusk, changing the heliotrope undertones to fuschia then magenta then indigo as the plants exhale their purifying breath into the night sky?

But wait, there’s more…that was only the terrain the oil came from. What has created this wonder, this sublime artistic expression like a fragrant Impressionist painting from a palette of wind, water, earth and fire? What intelligence, what evolutionary force, what biological necessity, what inborn instinct, what genetic genius, what devic magic has mixed and melded and separated and compounded and purified and refined this alchemical gem, this elixir of healing, this infinitely valuable aromatic talisman of protection? Can we name it, or should its name not be spoken, so profound a mystery it represents? More importantly, can we smell it? We must, for its presence now permeates the cavities of the sinuses, aroma molecules now vie for receptor sites, receptor sites now fire in unison, enzymes cascade in torrents of information converting the sheer pranic power of this supreme presence into holographic neural networks. In an instant, something that did not exist a moment ago is now manifest: the fragrance of lavender within our own unique private universe of perception.

Rest a moment and breathe; new revelations will appear. Notice how this apparently simple essential oil has, in its profound botanical wisdom and primal spirituality, covertly carried the nutrient life force of the earth, the soothing cooling touch of water, the energizing rays of sun, and the uplifting breath of air directly into the deepest recesses of our brains, our hearts, our mind.

Notice its effects.

Are the sinews not softer, the nerves somehow more translucent, the joints younger? Are the pains of unconscious habitual contractions and chronic irritation of smoldering inflammation not receding? Is the chest not more open, the breath smoother, and the heartbeat steadier?

Notice also the effect on the intangible parts of our being. Is the mind not more clear, the mood more elevated? Can you not feel the somber cloud of collective despair and frustration, so closely entwined with the empathic fibers of our being that we can no longer perceive its weight, lifting, in its place a simple joy that needs no cause to arise?

Give thanks. Thanks to the compassionate plant that heals a multitude of ailments without causing harm, to the ancient intelligence that enlivens it, to the soil that nourished it, to the water that moistened it, to the air that it breathed, the sun that awoke it from slumber. Give thanks to the men and women who labor with love tending their precious children until mature, and then tending them more. Give thanks to the sacred alchemical arts and sciences of distilling the essence of these beneficent beings, and the lineages of teaching and knowledge that have brought us this precious blessing in humanity’s hour of need.

Please leave your comments, thoughts and questions below.

Tags: aromatherapy retreat, essential oil, Floracopeia

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 9th, 2010 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.