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My love of flowers has lead me down a path of deep healing. As a little girl, making little arrangements with my friends as we played, brought a special kind of magic to my day that now I understand in a more profound level.
Flowers are pure magic, they have the ability to take our breath away with their fragrance, their texture, colors and complexity in such a simple way!
I find myself during the growing season in a much more positive and uplifted mood and more optimistic by far, than during the winter months. I know their radiance and message have a big impact in my emotional state; and I know I am not alone in my experience.
As a flower essence practitioner, I have been able to develop a different level of connection with flowers. I have been blessed and honored by choosing them to be the at center of my offering to the world. They help me find my way back to my heart, to my gifts and my purpose in this life.
It is incredible to see how their different gestures, colors and shapes are so telling of their gifts and healing properties for us.
A good example of this is the calendula flower….it is in a shape of a cup and its center is soft, warm and strong all at the same time. The plant stays close to the ground. The tallest cultivar I grow, only gets 18 inches tall. It wants to stay close to the earth’s energy, grounded and strong. In Southern Europe, this flower is called “Mary’s Gold”, it is associated with the Virgin Mary.
I grew up in a Catholic country where The Virgin Mary is part of our lives. In most houses, a picture or a statue of The Virgin Mary is placed in the house and the garden both.
We celebrate her birthday, the month of May in my school was dedicated to us celebrating her in a big way through songs, poetry and dance.
Mary’s essence is one of compassion, of unconditional love.
To me, whenever I see calendula growing in my garden, I feel the presence of The Virgin Mary, and its soft, golden cup is a gentle reminder to me, a call for unconditional love.
At Healing Flowers Farm, throughout the years, the birds and the wind have spread calendula seeds all over the place and as a consequence, it is the flower that is found in almost every corner of the farm.
It is also the flower with the longest blooming period. It starts blooming in late February and it is the last flower standing when cold temperatures arrive.
Calendula is known for a wide variety of uses, as a natural dye, as a topical application for wounds and other skin disturbances, and as an anti-inflammatory and antiseptic herb.
It's giving nature is evident when you see how the central disk florets form the beautiful double Fibonacci spirals.
These beautiful spirals to me, are a symbol of Divinity, a visible representation of the beauty and love from the Spiritual World. It also is a clear invitation to open our hearts, to receive the light and warmth from the Sun. This shining light lives in the center of every person we meet and I believe the calendula flower is here to invite us to see the light in others, to be faithful to our intention to share that light, to reflect it back to others and to be ambassadors of unconditional love.