Autumn 2004
FES International E-Newsletter

Dear Friend of the Flower Essence Society,

The summer months have passed with joyous activity in our gardens, and in many wild places. We've had a chance to renew and refresh our spirit in summer's warm embrace. Now we feel ready to take that light and anchor it deep inside ourselves as Nature prepares for her winter rest. During these busy-as-a-bee months, we've also had a chance to attend to many special "blossoms" in the FES Garden of Projects. We are delighted to announce several new offerings, and also share the latest practitioner reports and other news with you.

If you are already a member of the Flower Essence Society, we thank you for your continued support of our research and educational programs. You may access the member-only features of our web site by clicking here and entering your username and password. Click here if you want to have your user name and password sent via e-mail.

If you are not yet a member of the Flower Essence Society, we invite your support for our educational and research work by your membership contribution. By joining the Society, you will receive these newsletters via e-mail, and gain access to the member-only online features described below. Learn all about member benefits here. You may sign up online for immediate access by clicking here.

Thanks to each of you for your dedication and support. May your healing work continue to shine out to the world.

With warmest wishes and gratitude,
The FES Team

New FES Publications: In Print and Online

Calix—An International Journal of Flower Essence Therapy

 

Click here to view the table of contents for our lush full-color 160 page professional journal.

Calix is available through Flower Essence Services.

Calix is a richly evocative word, denoting a sacred cup or chalice that gives restorative nourishment.

Indeed, our new journal is intended to offer healing substance for mind and soul. It features a diverse spectrum of practitioner research, plant studies and scientific reports from around the world, devoted to flower essence therapy.

A related word, Calyx, is a botanical term for the green structure that serves as a "chalice," or outer floral envelope to support the nascent bud of the plant.

So too, it is our fervent wish that our new journal bring ever deeper respect, insight and appreciation for the healing modality of flower essence therapy as it grows in the world. 

If you are a current or recent member of the Flower Essence Society, your issue of Calix is on its way to you through the mail. Your membership renewal will entitle you to a free copy of the next volume when it is released.  

If you are not yet a Society member, you can purchase Calix at a $5 discount when you join the Society. Your membership will also entitle you to a free copy of the next volume when it is released.

Flower Essence Affirmations

Affirmations by Patricia Kaminski
Photos by Richard Katz & Julian Barnard
Copyright 2004 Flower Essence Society

Exclusive for members of the Society:

Inspirational affirmations accompanied by beautiful flower photos are now available on the member's pages of our website.

Many practitioners have requested affirmations for each flower and we are pleased now to offer them to you. Each luminous portrait of the flower is accompanied by soul words that evoke the inmost qualities of the flower.

These affirmations are an important healing tool in their own right. We might think of flower essences as "liquid words" from Nature that are absorbed in the whole energy complex of the human body-soul. Affirmations help us to meet this speaking from the Soul of Nature by creating a response from within our own souls.

The affirmations and pictures are written from the most general or archetypal level of meaning. They can be used exactly as they are or practitioners can feel free to adapt or personalize each one for the particular healing circumstances of each individual.

Flower Essence Repertory—
reprint now available!

Access to the Online Repertory is a Flower Essence Society membership benefit.

The online version features full color plant photographs and an interactive database, not available in the printed edition.

Due to research standards of the Flower Essence Society, along with other professional commitments, preparations for the new edition of the Flower Essence Repertory are proceeding along at a careful, although slow pace—it is a labor of love!

However, we now have a special reprint version of the Repertory available through Flower Essence Services.

The new edition is spiral bound for easy reference, and includes all the information of the previous edition except that the introductory overview is abridged. The full length essay on Flower Essence Theory and Practice is available to members as an Adobe Acrobat file. Log in here to access the file.

Exclusive for members: preliminary indications for 44 research essences

Information regarding flower essences in the research phase is provided to Flower Essence Society members so that you can participate in our research program. Please report your experiences and results with these essences!

Preview of Research Essence Downy Avens Geum triflorum
Photos by Richard Katz
Downy Avens is a native wildflower found in the mountain meadows in northern and eastern California, western Nevada and northeastern North America (also called Old Man's Whiskers, Prairie Smoke). This exquisite wildflower is gentle to the touch and imparts a quality that is airy, light, and expansive (its name, Downy Avens means soft wings). The spiraling whorls in the styles are an especially striking characteristic of the plant, along with the silica rich hairs that impart a soft luminescence to the whole plant. By contrast, the flower is held in a tight bud oriented toward the earth, until it opens to the light and air in a remarkable way.

Downy Avens is a leading research flower essence that balances the "air element" with the human soul. One who needs this flower essence may grasp ideas very quickly but such knowledge can be premature, due to an over-abundance of the air element. A strong disposition to mental expression may prevent a fuller learning experience that engages the heart and feeling life. This flower essence has been very helpful for children who may be quite precocious, yet emotionally underdeveloped. The challenge is to learn to contain the inner experience of the soul, and to acknowledge the emotional space of the heart as a prelude to outer manifestation.

Click here to login and find out more about the Downy Avens and 43 other FES Research essences.  Members of the Society are invited to become involved in our research program.
Practitioner Reports

Flower Essences: Connection To Nature's Transformative Power

by Julia Brayshaw

The Ecologically Sustainable Medicine (ESM) movement is bringing to light the dangers of our present health care system, and calling attention to healing modalities that are life-sustaining. Promoting awareness of the crisis we are in and the solutions that exist is an important part of restoring our collective health and well being.

This article by FES certified practitioner, Julia Brayshaw of Olympia, Washington, explains how the sustainable practice of flower essence therapy contributes substantially to the ESM movement.

Flower Essences and Dream Therapy

by Maria Susana Koreck

María Susana Koreck resides in Bahía Blanca, Argentina and is a Licensed Psychologist who is a Doctoral candidate at the Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales in Buenos Aries. She has devoted many years to clinical research about flower essence therapy and dream therapy. As she writes,"dreams can present a diagnosis as well as a prognosis for an individual's psychic condition. They also inform us about the attitude towards therapy and the therapist."

Koreck's article outlines key concepts from both Psychoanalysis and Analytical Psychology and their relevance to flower essence therapy with psychotherapy.

She goes on to submit compelling cases that show how these concepts are reflected in her healing work.
Special Events and Travels
FES Classes in Japan
In May of 2004, Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz traveled to Japan to teach a weekend seminar and a practitioner training and certification class. They were hosted by Mitose Komura, who directs the Association for Flower Essence Education Japan, assisted by Takashi Ukai, Maki Shimamura and many other associates.
 

A nature walk by a mountain stream

Drinking ceremonial Japanese tea

 

Patricia and Richard were impressed by the dedication of the Japanese students, exemplified by the quality of their plant studies, several of which are profiled in this newsletter. They also experienced a sampling of the rich and ancient Japanese cultural heritage, with visits to the Peace Memorial and Edo Museum in Tokyo, the Buddhist temples of Kamakura, and some of the rural countryside, including Mt. Fuji. The Japanese reverence and sensitivity to nature was particularly evident in the temple gardens.

Please use the links below to view the Japan travel photo essay:

Japan Classes
Nature Studies
Affirmation and Celebration
Experiencing Japan
Kamakura Temples

Reflections on the Nature Forces Workshop
with Julian Bernard & Marko Pogacnik by Claudia Keel

Julian Barnard and Marko Pogacnik were co-presenters at a well-attended conference the last weekend in May in Great Barrington , Massachusetts. Hosted by Steinerbooks, both teachers presented important approaches to the development of Nature Awareness. Julian Barnard, of Hereford, England and author of numerous books on the work of Dr. Bach, emphasized direct observation and experience of plants in Nature. Marko Pogacnik, from Yugoslavia, offered methods of intuitive communication and healing. Read the full report by Claudia Keel, a herbalist from New York City, New York.

Report on Brazilian National Meeting of Flower Essence Therapists

by Cynthia Accioly Abu-Asseff and Ruth Toledo Altschuler

The country of Brazil has one of the most well developed programs of flower essence therapy in the world, with thousands of practitioners in all aspects of traditional medicine and allied healing arts who use flower essence for their clients. In recent months the professional community in Brazil has been challenged to clarify the classification and regulatory status of flower essences. In particular, an organization of pharmacists had declared the original flowers of Dr. Edward Bach as belonging to a homeopathic category, despite the writings of Dr. Bach which define them as distinct.

An important conference was organized on August 19-22, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Practitioners from all regions of Brazil, and in a wide spectrum of professions, came together to clarify and deepen their understanding of flower essence therapy and its unique classification.

Read a report by organizers Cynthia Accioly Abu-Asseff and Ruth Toledo Altschuler who are also directors of Essencias Florais along with Bibo Abo-Asseff. Cynthia and Ruth describe some of the distinctive therapeutic insights which practitioners of flower essence therapy have noted in their practice. An important sense of community was established at the conference. Cynthia reports that since then, many pharmacists in Brazil have joined the growing movement of practitioners who have called for canceling an official document that classified the flower essences of Dr. Bach as a homeopathic modality.
Plant Studies

Japanese Iris
Iris iacvigata/Iris ensata
by Mitsuyo Matsumoto

 

The Japanese Iris has figured prominently for centuries in the culture of Japan. Read a plant study and narrative of her personal experience of the Iris by Mitsuyo Matsumoto.

This plant study, and the studies on Dokudami featured below, were done by students attending the FES Practitioner Training in Japan.







 

Dokudami
Houttuynia cordata

excerpts from studies done by Yuko Oda, Miho Kawakami, Chieko Kobayashi, Kumiko Tsuruta and Hiromi Yamamoto

Dokudami grows profusely throughout Japan and it's no surprise that five people attending the FES class in Japan chose to study the plant. Photographs, drawings, poetry and written observations comprise this profile made up of excerpts from the five individual studies.





The annual FES Practitioner Training and Certification Course features excursions in Nature and techniques in plant observation.

Flower Essence Practitioner Training



Granlibakken
Conference Center


Lake Tahoe

Announcing the 21st Annual FES Practitioner Training and Certification Program July 7-14, 2005
Granlibakken Conference Center at beautiful Lake Tahoe, California

Continuing Education for Professionals

The Flower Essence Society is pleased to offer credits for continuing education. The FES Flower Essence Practitioner Training has approval pending for 57 contact hours by the American Holistic Nurses' Association, which is accredited as an approver of continuing education in nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

More details here.

Future FES Practitioner Training
Tentative date: July 6-13, 2006

Ask FES

 

 


Pomegranate
Punica granatum
a leading essence for conception and pregnancy

The following questions and answers have been posted since the last Society E-Newsletter:

What are some of the lead essences used for conception and pregnancy?

Do flower essences work with the lack of libido many menopausal women experience, and how is this issue generally approached in flower essence therapy?

If any aspect of a plant is poisonous or causes some kind of dysfunction, couldn't it be assumed that the flower itself has detrimental properties?

Ask FES is intended for questions that are of broad interest to therapists, concerning general healing themes. For ethical and legal reasons, we cannot give specific advise concerning personal cases.

Flower Essence Society
PO Box 459
Nevada City, CA 95959
USA
tel: 800-736-9222
530-265-9163
fax: 530-265-0584
www.flowersociety.org
mail@flowersociety.org

Editorial staff: Patricia Kaminski, Jann Garitty, Richard Katz, Alison Anderson
© 2004 Flower Essence Society All rights reserved