| What Plant Spirit Is Calling You This Season? | 0 comments |
 27 Mar 2008 @ 20:20What Plant Spirit is Calling You This Season? Each season we are blessed by the Goddess with a new signature - a new face of nature to guide us on our aromatic journey into wholenes, balance and harmony. She graces us with plants, herbs, flowers,that will care, nurture and empower our bodies, minds and spirits. If we listen, we will hear a calling. A plant spirit will be whispering to us to come and explore it. It can happen in a myraid of different ways-- and I can guarantee you this-- it will get your attention one way or another because it has something to share with you - something your soul is desiring to be revealed to you. The plant that was trying to get my attention early this season was Lady Lavender. She kept calling me until one day when I was in the kitchen cutting a loaf of bread and I sliced through my finger. I was moving way to fast and spinning out of control. I knew it and yet was not being aromatically responsible for myself. My husband said" what do you think that was about" I shrugged my shoulders and said, I don't know but a part of me was very clear what was going on. I was doing alot of things I did not want to do. The "should's" had gotten a hold of me once again and it was the "should" finger that I cut. As I went to my lab to get the lavender to help assist me with the cut - I felt instant relief and my whole body calmed right down. I sat on the couch and started to cry. Not from the pain of the cut but from the pain of not listening to my inner voice and not following my intuition. I know better than that and felt disappointed in myself. All the old tapes wanted to kick in but just then I heard the Lady's sweet voice. "Breathe with me. Let me slow you down. Let me enter your energy field and help yo to release all the shoulds so you can get clear on what you truly want. Breathe with me and let me guide you to that place your spirit is seeking and what your heart is needs right now". For the next 8 hours I lathered myself in her essence and just became really quiet and listened. I got some good information about what was going on inside of myself and took the opportunity to make some shifts. The spiritual energies of the plants are powerful allies and are here to help us on our awakening journey as well as to heal and assist our bodies and minds to be in greater health and wholeness. They can help us unite with more of our authentic essence. Which one is calling you? How will it reveal itself to you this season? Will it be on a walk in the woods where you smell its scent and it speaks to you? Will it be in a dream where you see a vision of it? Will you have to use it for healing something you are going through? Pay attention a plant spirit essence is calling you. Whatever way it comes to you - be open, be available to receive its wisdom, and to work with it in an intimate way. Don't miss out on your gift from nature this season. Spring has many plant devas that are waking up and are ready to assist us on our sacred walk with the divine Goddess this season. Could it be the scent of lilac, white rose, mimosa, lemongrass, lemon verbena, eucalyptus or violet leaf? I hope you will stop to hear it, get to know it. It has a message for you! Aromatic Blessings, Joan The Goddess Aromaetica is full of beautiful spring products to help you with your seasonal journey with the Goddess. www.joanclark.com |
| Aromatic Blessings Article - March 25 - 2008 | 0 comments |
| 27 Mar 2008 @ 18:10 The power of aromatherapy & plant spirit medicine By Joan Clark March 25, 2008 Excerpted from my Aromatic Blessings column on BoomerGirl.com. In our first Aromatic Blessings column I introduced you to my personal philosophy and how I wanted to share with you the power, magic and alchemy of aromatherapy, plant spirit medicine and woman’s organic and spiritual connection to the earth — its rhythms, seasonal shifts and changes. We left off with the question — what is aromatherapy? Aromatherapy is the skilled use of natural aromatic plant oils to assist with emotional, physical and aesthetic well-being. The skill of the aromatherapist is to understand how these plant spirit essences can nurture, pamper, heal and tend the body, mind and spirit, as well as to know the chemical make-up of each plant and the effects it can have on them — so they can be used and applied with safety and caution to produce the desired results. What are essential oils? Essential oils are the concentrated essences of the plant. They are extracted from different parts of the plants— root, seed, bark, leaf, fruit, flower, etc. Since many essential oils come from common plants and flowers that most of us grow in our gardens we may feel when we begin to incorporate the use of essential oils in our daily lives that we are familiar with them. After all, they have graced our tables and added beauty to our environments, we have cooked with them, adorned our bodies with their scents and used them to clean our homes with. We have a kinship with them and therefore have not had to pay much attention to the side of them that can be harmful if not used with caution, wisdom and care. When aromatic plants are distilled their chemical make up is altered and they become medicines with very active and potent chemical constituents (the chemistry is altered when they change form— from raw material into essential oils). Essential oils are much more powerful than herbs and are not taken internally. Harm can be done if skill is not practiced in the application and use of essential oils. The distillation process that the plants go through to become essential oils is similar to the self-distillation process we go through when our lives are not working for us any more or when an event takes place and changes our lives overnight. We enter a dark night of the soul experience and the raw unhealed, wounded parts of our personalities come forth. We surrender, forgive, awaken and through this process of transformation we are changed — spiritualized with a new awareness of our own inner strength, power and ability to transcend. We are rebirthed and connected with a much deeper part of our authentic essence. We are changed from the inside out. Now we have a “new spirit” that only that inner walk-through-the-fire could have awakened in us. We have had an alchemical transformation and we have something new to share and with which to anoint the world. The plants go through this same process as they are distilled so as to be used as deeper healing tools. The aromatic plants are gathered and then placed in a large vat of water— the temperature is raised and the steam moves through them. The stress on them allows what is inside of them to come forth and this is how they produce those beautiful droplets of their most essential oils. From the stress that is placed on them from the outside conditions of heat and pressure— alchemy inside of them is activated, they change form and the raw material is transformed. The distillation process has changed the plant from raw material into a liquid essence. Some of us in the aromatherapy industry identify this new form as the spirit of the plant and feel that because of what the plant has gone through and what has taken place within the distillation process that the plant has become more than the sum of its parts. The plant has released a new part of its essence that now can be used as a tool to support the human spirit as well as to nurture and help assist in encouraging the body’s natural healing system to come more to the fore. The aromatic plant — distilled to its essential oil — not only has a new form, but a new and powerful chemistry which must be respected, used with care, caution and awareness. This is the alchemy that this alternative healing modality— the art and science of aromatherapy and plant spirit medicine— can offer those of us in the 21st century who are seeking natural ways to become more balanced, whole and self-aware of the body/mind/spirit presence within and without. The aromatic garden is filled with plant spirit essences that would love to nurture you when you are feeling stressed, (lavender, chamomile, marjoram) calm you when you feel overwhelmed,(valerian, neroli, rosewood) support you when you need some extra energy (peppermint, fir, eucalyptus) inspire you when you need some inspiration (rose, jasmine, bergamot). Nature has a way of taking us home to a part of ourselves. It allows us to breathe and see things in a different way. Essential oils offer us the opportunity to bring the healing power of plants and nature into our lives each day. They invite us to embark on an aromatic lifestyle that works in harmony and balance with our own inner and outer alchemy. I am excited to begin our journey with the individual plant spirit essences and look forward to sharing with you the gifts that these beautiful essences of nature have to offer us— one flower, one plant at a time. It’s going to be an amazing adventure! |
| Aromatic Blessings Article - February 2008 | 0 comments |
| 27 Mar 2008 @ 18:08 Aromatherapy: An IntroductionAromatherapy, Plant Spirit Alchemy and Women's Spirituality By Joan Clark Feb. 8, 2008 Excerpted from my Aromatic Blessings column on BoomerGirl.com. I am delighted to be able to share with the readers of Boomer Girl a new column on aromatherapy and plant spirit medicine. Working with the plants has been a passion of mine for over 25 years, and now having an opportunity to write about these amazing gifts of nature and sharing this knowledge with a new audience of women of like mind and heart is a true blessing. My sincere desire continues to be: to become a humble spokesperson for the plants. They have so many things to offer us on a daily basis. To be able to share some of my work, experiences, wisdom, stories, and personal insights that I have had with the plants will be a great joy. The plants are as individual as we are and each of them have something special to offer, as we do. Like us, they are multi-dimensional but each with a special gift and quality of their own. They have the ability to provide us with not only relief from physical aches and pains and seasonal illnesses but they can also uplift our spirits, calm our emotions and provide us with clarity and insight as to what may be going on with us or within us on a deeper level. Since this is going to be a regular column for Boomer Girl I believe we start from the beginning and take it a step at a time. What is aromatherapy and plant spirit medicine? How can we use it in the 2lst century to assist our body, mind and spirit? These are the first questions to consider; and then we begin working with the individual plants and how we can begin to incorporate them into our lives so we can begin living an aromatic lifestyle. My personal specialty in working with the plants is what has been coined “subtle aromatherapy.” There are many different specialties in the field of plant spirit alchemy, but my heart has been drawn to the more energetic and spiritual aspect of what the plants come to offer us for a deeper inner connection with ourselves and the world in which we live. So, I will not only share with you the traditional and medicinal ways of using the plants but also the energetic and spiritual uses and ways they have been used and can be used in your own lives. I invite you to think of nature as not only your physical apothecary but your spiritual one too. The gifts of earth not only care and nurture your body, but your spirit as well; and that is what I am excited to share with you in our journey together. I hope you will join me. Until next time: What is aromatherapy? It is the skilled use of working with essential oils. Did I say skilled use? Remember that for our next aromatic discussion. |
| About Joan Clark | 0 comments |
 27 Mar 2008 @ 18:07Joan Clark is an aromatic consultant, natural perfumer, educator, energy therapy practitioner and owner of her own line of essential oils and aromatic products –The Goddess Aromaetica. Joan hosts women’s retreats as well as aromatic travel adventures. She is an artist, writer and originator of Powerful Passionate Women for Peace. Her web site is www.joanclark.com. |