Below you will find descriptions of flower essences and plant energies as they have been explored and understood by Essence of the Desert. These definitions have come through decades of research and investigation, learning from the plants themselves in the wilds of the Southwest Desert and other ecologies. While one always discovers new aspects of a plant through long relationship, these descriptions should serve as an introduction to those who would like to get to know them better. Remember, the most important part is to get out into the wild and get to know these plants themselves!
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SOUTHWEST ESSENCES
Adam’s Tree (Fouquieria diguetii)
Forgiveness. Sadness. Softening anger and judgment. Hidden aggression, resentment, wanting it to be bad for others, looking down on others, (rage at violation of boundaries). Letting go of the toxic part of anger but holding onto self-protection. A gentler ocotillo – loving life and people while keeping boundaries clear and intact. For the person who is “too nice” and lets people use or walk on her. For the one who puts all hope in something, loses that, and is afraid to start over.
AGAVE
All Agaves are reservoirs for the personal forces, ancestral forces, earth and cosmic forces, which are available for one to draw upon for growth and transition. Usually involves an inner journey to access this sanctuary/reserve and can precipitate a cleansing as deep memories and traumas are released. Protection of one’s tender and sensitive aspects. Feminine earth power and issues in male/female relationships.
Agave, Palmer (Agave palmeri)
Awakening body, vitality, enthusiasm; physically and energetically present to create life. Accessing and mobilizing one’s long-guarded or inhibited creativity/talent or identity. Coming out of the closet. For FEAR. Umbilical power disturbed by childhood trauma. Giving up one’s power to the patriarchy, internal and external. Going through battle to recover vital force and dignity. Protection from abuse; awakens the instinct for self-preservation. In creating clear boundaries and true defenses, it dissolves the fog and the defensiveness which turn against oneself in impotence and shame. In relationship this clarity allows tenderness without vulnerability. Sacred sexuality. Cleansing and sealing; connecting through the navel to matriarchial lineage, the divine feminine – awakening strong belly and fierce heart. Influences of ancestors and past lives elucidated. Fixing one’s intention: the chalice held up to be filled. Broken pieces make gateways: when we find and line up these fragments, Agave enters through the gateway bringing healing grace.
Agave, Parry (Agave parryi)
intense orange flower buds
Energizing, empowering, and drawing confidence in times of intense shattering transition or devastation. Liberating trapped vitality often from past life or ancestral violence, at the same time calming anxiety, fear and nervousness. Kidney, navel. Taken to the limits of one’s being – to the place of your deepest resources but also your most profound challenge. An inner journey, dreamtime, pulling up dark atavistic memories and emotions – vigilance, rage, aggression, war, spiritual battles, black magic, death, self-defense and protection – awakening the warrior within you. Purification by fire, fire in the belly burning up through the body, demanding confrontation and clearing of karma. Shiva, arms swinging, cuts down and burns up the violence and also the self-indulgence, guilt, depression, confusion, impotence, passivity and regret which have replaced it – exposes the gaping hole in the heart and blasts out all the defensive garbage that we have thrown into that hole. Willing to confront everything around you, everything that comes up, no more suppression. The internal landscape becomes clear. The belly, heart and mind are blasted open making way for a new power to arise, moving slowly from coccyx to crown…. Mourning. Force arising from pain, from the belly of death. Internal fierceness – claiming power, defending one’s right and ability to be alive, strong, responsible. Healing patriarchal aggression, spiritual and sexual.
Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri)
Electrical – stimulating physical energy, clearing meridians. Total, active, and loving commitment to this incarnation, to one’s work here – nothing held back, no self-protection, hoarding, hiding, repressing, making nice, no avoiding or pussy-footing around. No fear. Giving with all of one’s being.
Amber Lily (Echeandea flavescens)
Mastering one’s sadness strengthens personal power and capability for compassion. Empathy with good boundary. Not taking on the sadness and pain of others – good practitioner essence.
Deep sadness – out of the wound, below the trauma – deep powerful sadness.
A sensitive, profound and elegant woman knows how to go there and hold that energy with mastery. She is flooded with empathy for the pain of the world and not diminished or worn down by it, but rather it flows into compassion as personal pain is transmuted and a heart bond with humanity replaces victimization. She holds the authority of that knowing, that experience, can feel into others without taking on their burdens. Heart of the practitioner – gives great healing but does not enable, is not available for co-dependency or dumping. Clear boundary – a boundary without coldness or separation but energetically supportive, comforting in its assurance, its correctness, its cleanness and wisdom, a boundary which promises a better way. Her mastery inspires a new vision and hope.
Acute awareness and contained peaceful stability, every cell illuminated by a feeling heart and a profound spirit.
American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea)
Crown opens to fill the body with the light of spirit. Healing and alignment of all chakras. Balance of earth, fire, air and water – appreciation of earth darkness, the heavier aspects of flesh, as well as sky lightness and freedom; helps to join and integrate the two. Sexual avoidance, darkness, confusion or abuse. Clarifying and releasing. Restores an integrated sensuality. Calms nervous, agitated, scattered or driven states and the tendency to be out of body OR difficulty accessing spiritual inspiration or feeling the sacredness of the physical. Strengthens and balances the nervous and reproductive systems. Energizes…and inspires a shift in brain patterning to emphasize circular, nurturing and meditative rather than linear expression of that energy. Increases the capacity to hold light and invite transformation. Supports a full opening of the heart. Healing love. Radiant peace.
Angle-pod (Matelea producta)
High energy driven by anxiousness. Core issue: an underlying fear of separation. Riding high, with excitement, and ignoring an emotion that is nagging you inside. Or: restores light and exuberance when depressed, empty and desolate.
Arizona Blue Eyes (Evolvulus arizonica)
Intensifies perception of self (body/spirit), of all beings, and of one’s place in this web of life. Feeling with a profound cellular awareness all parts as inter- dependent and equal. Experiencing body, and all of creation, as a direct expression of spirit – alignment sharp, direct, activated, electrified. Gentle bliss and a freshness that breaks through stuck and stagnant energy, discontent, lack of ful-fillment, and addiction to suffering, to victimhood, self-pity – “Why me….” Energy cleared, liberated, and amped up for perception/reception and transmission, psychic communication.
Ashy Jatropha, see Jatropha, Ashy
Bartram’s Stonecrop (Graptopetalum bartramii)
Umbilical disconnection (childhood trauma), collapsed ego, lack of confidence or self-appreciation. Insecure, needy, weak willed, mentally foggy, with a tendency to be out-of-body. Fear in facing the world, people and personal responsibilities. Allowing manipulation by others. Giving away one’s power to be taken care of. Like Self-heal, stimulates a person’s will and willingness to take responsibility for his own healing. An important essence to use with clients who can’t do their part and just want you to fix them.
Beargrass (Nolina texana)
Nervous, ungrounded, overly mental, out of body, over-entangled in relationships and projects. Superficial, scattered. When you can’t see the forest through the trees. Beargrass helps simplify, fortify intention; prioritize and align activities with your soul purpose and with your heart. When consciousness and the sub-consciousness pull in different directions. It helps integrate the two, bringing a greater self-aware honesty. It can restore feeling, affection and spontaneity that has been lost to workaholism. When the center is hollow, we need only to return to the body and to the heart. Beargrass makes us real. Opens the eyes of nature and to other people, marveling at beauty that has been overlooked, connecting on a DEEPER LEVEL, with greater love and appreciation. Also opens harshly guarded people, or those who are overly sensitive, introverted and withdrawn.
Beebrush (Aloysia wrightii)
Steady direction of energy towards a clear goal. The chariot, alignment. Grounded commitment/determination gut-level, not mental. Energizes, stimulates meridians, while calming nervous tensions. Belt routes. Calms impulsiveness – many false starts, multiple scattered directions, no completion. Lack of continuity and strength, poor stamina. May open awareness to the part of the body that holds principle blockage and can help clear painful memories stored there.
Bigroot Jatropha see Jatropha, Bigroot
Bisbee Beehive Cactus (Coryphantha vivipara)
RELEASING, on a cellular level, the physical/emotional guarding and negative memories of abuse. Feeling unclean, avoidance or disgust with body. Rigidity and tension often held in muscles relaxes. Restores gentleness, relaxation and self-appreciation, the ability to love and be intimate.
Blue Palo Verde (Cercidium floridum)
Loss of soul. Dark night. Shame. Exhausted by addiction, failure, or long-time emotional pain. Or, negative and critical attitudes and pessimism, closed heart. Bright renewal, hope, optimism and fresh enthusiasm.
Boojum (Fouquieria columnaris)
Exhilaration of the stars touching deep earth body. Vibrant white light opens a perceptive door. Security in feeling self as part of much bigger energy; spiritual awareness in every cell of body. NO FEAR. A loving bond with all beings, a vibrational social circle. Tenderness.
Boxwood (Buxus)
Focused creative manifestation in form, in material life. Respecting the physical as a vessel for spirit.
Buffalo Fur (Acourtia thurberi)
Agitation, conflict and aggression, often stemming from deep wound, shock, loss, sadness or repressed rage. Low level discouragement, disappointment that builds to irritable frustration or anger and violent bitchiness. Caught in cycles of wounding and defense; obsessive ranting. Remediation. Touches and comforts one with the sweet strong heart of loving and harmony. Especially effective in family conflict – healing the heart in the family. May help with excess liver heat.
Buffalo Gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima)
Helps one maintain an inner healing sanctuary while engaging in demanding or excessive external activity. A buffer against stress, preventing dissociation of body and soul, neglect of body or other personal needs, minimizing conflict with others. Calm, strong and safe.
Burrograss (Scleropogon brevifolius)
Simplicity. Cleansed by sun fire, storm water, earth and air. Stops mental and emotional over-involvement or obsession, worry, and mental manipulations for security, fear, and paranoia – gone. Spontaneity, clear perception and presence restored.
Bush Pencil Cholla see Cholla, Bush Pencil
Candy Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus wislizenii)
Quiet, comfort, emotional calm, safety, no reactivity. Tension gone – no driven impulse. No pressure – time stretches (sensation that there is plenty.) Softened mental focus – letting go of clutter. Analytical preoccupation gone. Shift from cognitive to limbic perception, The mind becomes the wise one, watching, listening, rather than battling or running.. A still and happy emptiness supports change, clear decision-making, healing of emotional traumas, and gentler responses in relationships. Smoother transitions, quicker adjustments. Facilitates listening, entrainment. Decompression; comfortable with just ‘being.’ Can become light-hearted, humorous and fun!
Cane Cholla see Cholla, Cane
Canyon Evening Primrose see Evening Primrose, Canyon
Cardon (Pachycereus pringlei)
Deeply supported by a huge being of immense heart and compassion. Ocean mother, ancient woman of the sea, priestess of salt, wise grandmother. The heart connection and support never goes away. Weakness, impotence (everything feels too hard, impossible, exhausting), separation, isolation, broken heart, deep sadness, trying but lost in hopelessness. Up against the wall – place where you can’t access the power to defend or protect you own inner child. Feeling one has to prove worthiness to receive love. Holding on to beliefs which foster blindness and vulnerability and dull instinctive self-protective wisdom. Difficulty being in body. Commitment to flesh (and heart); embracing the vulnerability, pain and dignity of humanness, so that your spirit grows big and calm.
Cardon Grande (Trichocereus terscheckii)
Opening psychic awareness in new directions, while relaxing and strengthening the heart. Insecurity, fear, drug derangement, low self-esteem. Slowly rebuilds sense of safety, strength, and a realistic assessment of who one is. Wisdom orientation. Renewal. A journey plant from another habitat – can at times feel uncomfortable or disorienting.
Catclaw Acacia (Acacia greggii)
Healing broken ties. Healing a broken heart. Sadness, isolation, loneliness expressed as anger and indignation creates greater separation. Compulsion to run. Ranting, critical, judgemental, guarding shame, inviting ostracism. Rebelliousness turns against the self. Soothing to the nervous system. Nurturing, coming to the heart, to center, to a sense of home on this planet. Comfort, harmony, feeling supported. Tenderness, humility, honesty, openness.
Catclaw Mimosa (Mimosa aculeaticarpa)
Nervous system.
Clears and quiets the mind. Calm, strongly centered presence and stability, acute perception and awareness without mind chatter. Emotional and mental clearing.
Awakens those spaced out or lost in a fog, can’t muster interest, focus or present awareness, emotionally/mentally pre-occupied, or driven by anxiety, uncontrolled compulsions. breathless…
Chaparral, Creosote (Larrea tridentata)
Cleansing. Clearing physical, emotional, and mental toxins. Inviting guidance or spiritual assistance. Sense of ancient support, a lifting of the burden. Opening and energizing a receptive space for new experience. Transformation. Can be a doorway to more profound perceptions, an invitation into the magic of the Sonoran desert.
Chaparro Amargoso (Castela emoryi)
Discourages energetic parasites, of external or internal origin, treating constant negative expectations, the propensity to selfopunishment and martyrdom, as well as psychic attacks. Strengthens boundary and sense of self. Sharply awake, knowing how to hold inner space, inner seeing…keeping the temple clean, the oil burning. Clears emotional debris – fears, patterns of co-dependency or sexual abuse.
Chia (Salvia columbariae)
Impells activity, movement, change. Breaks stagnation and ignites vital force. Can also moderate and creatively direct destructive, incoherent and driven impulses.
Chicura (Ambrosia ambrosioides)
Sexual power and dignity, strong boundary. Weakness and damaged self-image; unable to say ’no’. Inspired to heal by EARTH WOMAN STRENGTH and spirit. Able to stand on one’s own, assertive, self-assured and fiercely protective of self or others when necessary. Held, strengthened and nurtured by a great heart.
Cholla, Bush Pencil (Cylindropuntia arbuscula)
A womb place of renewal within – safe and secure, simple, nurturing, without mind.
Releases chronic tension, holding on, control compulsions, resistence, subconscious fears and trauma response. Letting go of mental/emotional baggage and preoccupation, clears negative memories, both personal, ancestral and collective. Deeply relaxes against all habit of constriction. ‘Going with the flow’, flexibility, easily moving through or around blocks and obstacles. Helps sleep. Resting like a baby…..
A fresh, innocent and gentle green loving heart energy.
Cholla, Cane (Cylindropuntia spinosior)
Flexibility, flow and harmony. Not tensing with emotional challenge; allows difficult changes to come gracefully. Creative responses to challenging situations. Rigid, hypervigilant, tense, guilty, manipulating, stuck in old mental or emotional patterns of response or belief systems that no longer serve. Heart unfettered, unafflicted, honest, able to open without fear. Feeling safe enough to dance or fly….
Cholla, Christmas (Cylindropuntia leptocaulis)
Unconsciously taking on energy patterns from others, a psychic sponge. Not able to refuse projections. Or, one’s path entangled and impeded by feeling guilt and responsibility for others. Clear BOUNDARIES on all levels. Finding a balance that keeps alive the purity, excitement, and direction of your soul’s expression, your path, your work.
Cholla, Jumping (Cylindropuntia fulgida var. fulgida)
Moving too fast or too superficially to feel deeply connected, afraid of losing the thread or failing to function to the full capacity of one’s potential, fear that the mind cannot remember and hold all that you are, addicted to accomplishment, needing confirmation. Wearing a soft golden coat of warm protection around me, my soul and what is most precious in my being is held inviolable through time, through dangers and challenges. Still, inward, strong, enriched. Vision quest, search for identity. Heart filled with a warm knowing. trust in process, in spirit, in life.
Cholla, Klein’s (Cylindropuntia kleiniae)
A naturally occuring hybrid, this cholla understands harmony and cooperation between different energies. Easy flowing solutions, seeing new ways around conflicts. Comfort and ease with people, in groups and relationship. A sweet, warm, playful, joyful, appreciative and loving heart.
Cholla, Teddy Bear (Cylindropuntia bigelovii)
Soft, warm heart, safety, simplicity and joy. When one has lost the ability to feel and be intimate, feels separate and empty. Welcoming and open, dissolves judgment, paranoia and competitiveness. Not pushing or manipulating or needing to prove or achieve; surrendering to flow, patient and friendly. Helps with addiction especially, by letting one feel more intimacy with self and less disconnection from body and emotions.
Cholla, Tree (Cylindropuntia imbricata)
Obsession, paranoia, fear of attack. Past trauma, separation; early abandonment or abuse.
Chronic emotional tension, (application in chronic disease), irritability. Empty, lost the sense of meaning, threatened by relationship.
Releasing repressed pain from the heart, feeling warmth, affection, capable of intimacy.
Letting go of past trauma. Muscle-relaxant.
Christmas Cholla see Cholla, Christmas
Claret Cup Cactus (Echinocereus coccinea)
Contacting the vital spark of source fire deep within oneself, the most secret and profound part of one. Personal magic, purpose, focus, direction, inner visioning, survival, alertness. Stimulates vision and physical senses, sensual and sexual capacity, awakening instinct and perceptive ability for healing the body and internal inquiry. Breaks the habit of avoiding the deepest level of your being, your potential awareness and capacity, your responsibility, direction and power, in ‘going with the flow.’ Activating the magical power and inspiration within. Keeping focus on an inner journey. Having the courage to face what you don’t want to look at or are afraid to do.
FEAR, stagnation, spaciness, mental confusion, low physical vitality or weakened with constant emotional drama, overly serious or working too hard. The most authentic and creative part of self emerges and eclipses the habit-worn persona and defenses behind which one hides. In groups encourages communication from a truer and deeper place, avoiding distractions and possible conflict among the superficial aspects of personality. Keeps one grounded within and diminishes competition. More play and joy, but most of who you are remains yours, held in a secret energizing bliss, the boundary a natural expression of your self-intimacy and wisdom.
Cliffrose (Purshia mexicana)
Exhausted or depleted from emotional stress. In shock, frozen, emotionally paralyzed. Going through the motions of life without vital presence. Golden energy enters through crown and fills the body, down to the feet. Present, strong in body, grounded, empowered. Instinct clear, belly strong, feet deeply connected to earth, mind quiet, communion with people flowing. Breaks the hold of trauma or panic. Awakens those not participating.
Coral Bean (Erythrina flabelliformis)
Core fire – vital force, and safety (fire at the center of the earth.) Umbilical (point back side of solar plexus). What is REALLY going on here?…below the surface. Where is my soul passion? Where do I need to put my energy – distinguishing and freeing it from the many masks, costumes, roles, defenses, distractions that drive one superficially and define the form of one’s life. Do these forms express my vitality? Shapeshifting. Learning to play with the roles rather than being dominated or duped by them. Transforming fear and anger through this play. Compulsively driven (fire drives addiction, defense, escape), tension, anxiety; OR exhausted, depressed, scattered, spaced out, without core purpose, earth-fire extinguished. Calms misdirected fire; stimulates weak vital fire. Withdrawing to the central hearth of my being, to the sacred fire, to remember my true self and recreate an expression of that. Mantra: “I come bearing a gift” – choose to enter each situation remembering and radiating fire from the navel to bring life, liveliness and creativity into play there. This overcomes victimhood, negative expectation, fear or pessimism, shame or a sense of impotence, to prevent draining, meaningless, wasteful or false interactions. Present. and connected with SOURCE, energized and energizing. Coming from true self instead of from one’s hurt place.
Coral Root (Corallorhiza maculata)
Soul retrieval – separated from parts of self by loss, trauma, and/or abuse. Coral root calls back the lost parts, makes one whole again, restores the center, which allows one to bear pain without dissolution, and create new life.
Creosote see Chaparral
Crown-of-Thorns (Koeberlinia spinosa)
Burying awareness of one’s shadow or dark side with one’s wounds, and with it connection to instinct, spontaneity, and spirit. Withdrawal from social interaction and relationship. Not able to deal with vulnerability. Confusion clouded motivation, casting about for meaning.
Desert Lavender (Hyptis emoryi)
Relaxing, calming and comforting, sedating. Insomnia.
Spirit level cleansing, white fresh energy, and release….
Transmitting healing through the hands.
Desert Prickly Pear (Opuntia englemanii)
When the sense of self and safety is torn by many distractions, demands, and scattered commitments, or by emotional instability, weakness or self-doubt. Vulnerability. Confused self image. Aligning with one’s own strong simple center – internally warmed, nurtured and protected. ‘My being, my body, is my safe sanctuary, the place where I am recharged, where I am safe. I am never without the protecting walls of this home and the warmth of the hearth fire at the center of my being. In stillness and activity alike I am constantly within the strength, power and safety of my CENTER, never abandoned and always sustained by the warm light of my internal flame.’ Alignment, integration, boundary, security, purpose.
Desert Rue (Thamnosma texana)
Sharpens physical and psychic senses. Cuts through and sharply clears out invasive and generally negative energies, entities and thought forms or manipulations from others. Focuses and energizes ones whole awareness with a strong psychic acuity that allows no room for interference, entanglement, uncertainty or ineffectiveness.
Desert Sumac (Rhus microphylla)
So powerfully connects one to the deepest internal place, taken down by the total surrender to sadness, to find a quiet supportive power in oneself. Severe disconnection, withdrawal and vulnerability. Conversely, can lighten the burden and allow relaxation, flow, appreciation, and joy in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar situation.
Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis)
Powerfully connects one in the deepest internal place – taken down by the total surrender to sadness, to find a quiet supportive power in oneself. Conversely, can lighten the burden and allow relaxation, flow, appreciation and joy in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar situation – shifts perception away from dark broodiness and fear, or discontent and critical judgement. Adaptability. Protection and mental/emotional ease on journeys or in new places
Devil’s Claw (Proboscidea parviflora)
Spontaneity. Play. Accepting and enjoying the body and all of physical reality. Overcoming inhibition. Will also take one to the heart of the earth and protect against false, corruptive, or dangerous voices/influences especially on an inner journey.
Doubting Mariposa see Mariposa, White
Drummond Clematis (Clematis drummondii)
Out-of-body response to shock and trauma – spacey and dissociated, avoiding, can’t engage with the present with all of oneself.
Elephant Tree (Bursera microphylla)
A nurturing protective inner space, soft rich golden light sanctuary (the inner sun, earth spirit) – that warms and feeds the soul and eliminates attack or psychic negativity from without, begins a very gentle process of clearing confusion, uncertainty or fear, and opening inwardly to receive the food and direction of spirit. Safety. Protection. Healing. Ceremony. Nurturing – a soothing balm.
Ephedra (Ephedra trifurca)
Self-heal of the desert: The male plant stimulates the energy to extricate oneself from a debilitating and dis-empowering situation; the female is the pure energy of healing – in the hands of the mother holding the baby, the healer touching the body of a patient, nourishing the energy field with warmth and light. Both are used to make this essence.
Evening Primrose, Canyon (Oenothera brachycarpa)
Unusually long hypanthium tube connects the showy large yellow petals above the leaves to the ovary at the base of the plant, sometimes nearly buried on the soil. Trauma and disconnection usually from birth or early childhood. Fear, panic, repressed or overt. Weakness, feeling excluded, isolated, insecure, no support from the universe – doing it yourself, no maps, no guides, no assurance. Link between body and soul severed or obscured. Nervous, avoiding, knot in belly, fuzzy mind. Choked with turbulent emotion or just drained and blank. Extreme self-doubt, as though having no identity, no place on this earth. Evening Primrose restores the cosmic umbilical mother (belonging) connection between spirit and earth (body). Vital force returns, fierce, and playful. As spirit joins body, the enteric clears and physical presence grows strong. Grounded and liberated from inner agony, from the struggle with terrible self-image. Sexual and social confidence. Vitality and enthusiasm. A primary treatment for a disturbed mother connection.
Evening Primrose, Pale (Oenothera pallida)
Hiding, self-conscious and withdrawn, long-time repression, regret, bitterness, emptiness, social awkwardness, feeling unattractive, delicate and vulnerable, tending towards compensatory spiritual preoccupation, emotionally sensitive and easily injured. Traumatic shock. Hidden Shame. Tension with underlying fear, sadness, guilt. Shut down – anaesthetized feelings.. Afflicted sexual response or relationship. Restores deep sensitive and sensual openness and receptivity; awakens sentience on a cellular level, tenderness, and a stronger sense of self. The underlying severed mother bond restored – the inner umbillical connection to source. Often early injury – in utero or even at conception.
Fairy Duster (Calliandra eriophylla)
NERVOUS SYSTEM. Romantic/ecstatic/artistic temperament, with escapist tendencies. Excessive and impulsive, even compulsive. Overly reactive. Hyperactive. BI-POLAR. Inflated exhilaration followed by depression and emptiness. Need to feel high to be OK. Nervousness. Balance, grounded stability, a secure base from which to manifest vision.
Figwort (Scrophularia californica)
Brings up old and often repressed memories for resolution. Encounters with the dead, often in dreams, to resolve old issues or feelings left hanging. Negative ancestral memories, guilt, mistakes, “if only”s, regrets cleared. Clouds of confused or difficult energy stored in the body are dispersed. Letting go in stuck places. Light and free.
Fishhook Cactus (Mammilaria macrocarpa)
Co-dependence. Clinging, manipulation. Enduring or allowing abuse, dominance, or energy sucking because afraid of pain/change/loneliness, fear of hurting another, or feeling unworthy of respect. Relationship addiction. Stifled. Giving up one’s power. A sweet and strong heart finds solutions – gentle and compassionate but firm presentation of boundaries. True loving and loyalty rather than hooks. Fickleness, rampant attractions.
Foothills Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla)
Like Blue Palo Verde, treats discouragement, negativity, exhaustion, failure, shame, addiction, but goes to a deeper quieter level of healing. The Blue exuberantly wakes up the sleeping soul; the Foothills provides deep support for the ongoing process, softening the calluses of struggle and allowing one to connect with one’s own light and life force again. Gentle relief and contentment, Vibrant renewal, radiant sense of purpose. Sloughs away layers of defense and resistance. Shifts personal identity from one of failure to one that reflects the beauty and goodness of the soul which is never tarnished but only hidden. Restores dignity, self-confidence and poise. Awakens the cells of the body. Holding one’s light more quietly and deeply when in danger of having it stolen or impaired.
Fragrant Snakeroot (Ageratina herbacea)
Transition. Deep relaxation and emptying out of the brain. Escaping the tyranny of the mind. Forward-moving energy. Immediacy and presence directed by instinct. New attention and focus, clearing one’s vision. Re-wiring. Dropping past habits of response, mental definitions and expectations. Dropping obsolete habits of trauma survival and tight self-protection.
New ideas about what’s possible. Open – ready for a new order, all the instinctive acuteness and wisdom of your being in readiness. Rejuvenation of energy, enthusiasm, direction, clarity, chi. Awake!
Fremont Cottonwood (Popluls fremontii)
Emptying out the mundane noise of life – simplicity, quiet inner focus. Rest and Renewal. Listening. Dreaming. Change.
Golden Palace (Senecio carlomasonii)
Golden yellow heart protector. Golden light around chest. Warm, bright and safe. Nurtured and shielded from demanding, or abusive energies. Womb, hearth, fire, retreat or sanctuary internalized and easily accessible. Past trauma makes it hard to feel or function. Disconnection from self or any support.
Graythorn (Zizyphus obtusifolia)
The thorny path of life leads us always back to spirit. Transmutes all our painful experiences and memories into a light, compassionate and quietly joyful acceptance. Heals physical and emotional pain, quiets mental self-torture, especially judgment, resentment, and fear. Sitting in the presence of spirit and receiving the blessing, the liberation…and ready to bless others with the healing.
Greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus)
Calm fortitude, endurance, and an open heart. Empowered and strengthened by one’s emotions, not having to hide them. Presence and complete safety. Healing separation; healing the heart. Good boundary, respect, support, comfort. Afraid of being excluded, holding defenses in the solar plexus, grief, regret, guilt, judgment, emotionally unavailable. Still, content, soothed, radiating nurturing energy, safe, joyful, secure in just being, earth support from the root.
Heart-leaf Morning Glory see Morning Glory, Heart-leaf
Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus englemannii)
Feeling awkward, SELF-CONSCIOUS, inhibited, unworthy, outcast, moving through life with difficulty, struggling against the tide – the internalized mother and family weak or negative. Food addiction. Gives a deep sense of nurturance and belonging, security and support. Social ease and joy, playful and enthusiastic.
Huachuca Rocktrumpet (Macrosiphonia brachychiton)
Night-blooming, white gardenia-like smell. Pulls one deep inside, away from mind, to place of focused awareness in contact with one’s own knowing, instinct, inner vision. Helps with tools like dowsing because it strengthens intimate connection between consciousness and higher self. Minimizes distraction. Centers in heart – very secure with self. Helps when a person feels split from self or out of touch with his own depth, sensitivity, or perceptive and healing power.
Incienso (Encelia farinosa)
Cuts through the weary darkness or depression of winter with the spring sunlight of enthusiasm and inspiration. Renewal of a run-down body or spirit. Clean and fresh, energized, vital spark. Focus, life force, morale, hope, will to live, wakes up numbed sensitivities. Warms the body. Clears negative psychic energies and entities as well as internal darkness.
Indian Root (Aristolochia watsonii)
Blank, empty, lethargic and often tense; grounding and pulling in an over-extended aura or lost soul-sense. Effects of fear and shock. Profound sadness: the original wound, the fall, the pain of incarnation, difficulty being in form, in body. Agony or spaciness; depleted by the constant subconscious drain of past wounding. Or running, never coming home….
Welcomed by maternal earth arms – soft, nurturing, comforting, resting, drawing inward – recuperates energy on a deep level. Surrender brings creation out of emptiness – a spark of light is born in the darkness, in the empty expectant womb of life. Cleansing the subconscious, often through dreams. Gut-level intelligence and presence restored. Contacting ancient source, guides, and ‘muertos’ – protection.
Peaceful inner cave of renewal, security, nurturance, great stability, quiet mind, strong instinct. No waste of energy, self-protection and preservation, quiet and invisible.
Ironwood (Olneya tesota)
Weak, nervous, collapsed ego, mental fog, deep sadness, spiritual depletion. Physically and emotionally strengthened, mind cleared. A sensitive nature finds grounded strength, as well as a quietly ecstatic expansion of spirit. Feeling the divinity within. Empowered but gentle and humble. Grace.
Jatropha, Ashy, Sangre de Drago (Jatropha cinerea)
Initiates transformation. Flowing, dancing, joyful, effervescent, clean, feminine, flexible. Aliveness, spirit help, promise. Surrender to process – patience and confidence in the spontaneous nature of process and change, in its ongoing spiral nature. Relaxes preoccupation and the struggle of the mind to hold on and understand. Letting go of stuck habits and subliminal definitions of limitation, breaking lose. Re-awakening to one’s deeper passions – finding new and more meaningful direction. Quieting down the distracting addiction to having emotional ups and downs and nervous or destructive impulses as a way of expressing energy and vital force, and allowing spontaneous energy to bring you to new expressions. Unfolds the full feminine, feels protected and doesn’t need to be defensive. Grace, beauty and lightness. Allows one to be in the middle of mundane debris and pressures, yet maintain some internal distance from it, staying present with the light spirit self. Feminine earth protection through the process. Dragon.
Jatropha, Bigroot (Jatropha macrorhiza)
Big arms of mother/earth. Protection and warmth. Helps strengthen both internal child and mother roles. Holds one intact and stable thought disorienting or threatening change, restructuring, and transition. In the mother role allows a practitioner to support clients without ”taking on.” Support and safety in transition – Earth mother comfort and protection through a possibly threatening change. In a practitioner, encourages supportive empathy and healing nurturance without taking on another’s baggage, without becoming involved in the drama or negative energy.
Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis)
Ease, comfort, softness, and simplicity in body, in relationship, in life. Grounded, nurtured, present and flowing. Escaping mental domination and tension. Healing the split or battle between spirit and body. Self-conscious or feeling alien. Support through transition, change, or death. Surrender.
Jumping Cholla see Cholla, Jumping
Kidneywood (Eysenhardtia polystachya)
Pre-verbal trauma keeps one locked into struggle on all levels. Opens vision to forgotten memories and images for clearing, and helps one see and feel more deeply into nature and people (can be mind-altering). Restores blissful flow. Appreciation, sense of belonging, harmony and relaxed functional presence.
Klein’s Cholla see Cholla, Klein’s
Little-Leaf Bursage (Ambrosia deltoidea)
Clear boundary and quiet self-containment. Deep honesty, humility, knowing who you are, aware of the limits of your expertise and capability, as well as the range and depth of your talents.
Feeling inferior, inadequate or left behind seduces one to overextend and try to ‘prove’ one’s worth on shaky ground. Cramming for an exam….
Standing strong in the awareness of your own comfort zone, your own power. True to self. Implications in immunity.
Mala Mujer (Cnidoscolus angustidens)
Deeply RELAXING a hurt, resentful, and raging person, poisoned by one’s own defensive venom, or merely tense and exhausted from relationship struggles and lack of nurturing. Finding within, the archetype of beautiful and sensitive femininity, sensuality and strong self-protective power. Nervous system calming helps with stress in general.
Maravilla (Mirabilis longiflora)
Psychic or spiritual preoccupation yet not able to see clearly into the spirit world. Feeling incomplete, not whole, weak, as though you are out of touch with an essential piece of yourself. Longing for something which you can’t see or reach, or from which you feel excluded. Separation outer and inner, physical and spiritual, visible and invisible. Maravilla enables us to experience these two as one. Another hypnotic night-blooming goddess, she illuminates the moon and stars of one’s being, fosters physical strength as the source place is re-connected, and you are freed and empowered to be totally present. Feeds artistic and spiritual visioning. Also invites help and familiarity from benevolent beings on the other side.
Relaxation, no mind, no fear, security and warmth, protection.
Mariola (Parthenium incanum)
Trying, consciously or unconsciously, to be something you are not. Chronic working and straining to achieve something, saps vitality and joy. Can feel like a phony, inferior, vaguely hopeless (unadmitted even to self, and often beneath a façade of confidence and competence). Sudden release of energy with great exhilaration and relief. What I am is good, is much…. Spontaneous, easy, light. Deep honesty and true self-confidence.
Mariposa, Yellow (Calychortus kennedyi)
Disturbed mother bonding. Loss. Lack of safety or nurturing creates rigidity, social separation, poor or one-sided self-image. Also, a mother who might be a professional woman, may provide food, physical safety and learning encouragement, but not enough love and affection. Mariposa can treat the child in later life, or the mother. Feminine authority, grace and poise. Clear boundaries and discriminating wisdom in dealing with subtle abuse and passive aggression.
Mother, fertility, birth, earth goddess.
Mariposa, Doubting (Calychortus ambiguus)
Shock. Choking fear. Birth trauma. Mourning. Spiritual sensitivity. Deciding whether to live or die – standing with a foot on each side, clarifying commitment. Irretrievable loss. Loss of mother.
Deep sensitivity – seeing to the other side and below the surfaces of things. Heightened psychic awareness. Strong spiritual heart – compassion without emotional entanglement or taking on.
Melon Loco (Apodanthera undulata)
Emotional sensitivity, strength and balance. Used to promote calmness and ability to stay present with life’s demands when one feels taken over by intense and threatening emotions.
Menodora (Menodora scabra)
Waiting and watching – vigilant, poised, patient, alert, aware, one with the earth. Holding the two worlds close – body and spirit, earth and sky, life and death, the space between clear. Vision with perspective. Every act of living a precious offering given in fullness and humility, without the expectation of return. (By mid-afternoon all the simple yellow flowers have been dropped and lie on the ground around the plant.) Letting go. A mother can hold a safe place for her grown children with no emotional bondage or baggage, offering only the direction of gentle wisdom. The Indian sentinel not moving for days, ready to sound an alarm and protect his people. Instinct strong, heart open and quiet, listening. Commitment, compassion, appreciation. Surrender and dedication to life’s tasks. Willing to take responsibility. Connected to guidance. Wise decision-making and clear response in situations of change, threat, or uncertainty. Facing adversity with calmness and resourcefulness. Confused by choices, by detail, disconnected from instinct and heart, lost in mental ruminations. Unable to act decisively. Holding on, needy, possessive or controlling, competing for attention, not able to put one’s egocentric demands aside for the greater good and safety. Or, holding on to nothing: treats severe uni-polar depression, disconnection from life, from people, APATHY – hopeless, blank, passive, consenting to victimization, not willing or able to make change, suicidal thoughts.
Mexican Elder (Sambucus mexicanus)
Stepping across the personal barrier of fear and resistence to encounter the beauty and welcome of the inner and other-side landscapes (applicable to opening devic nature work as well as freeing responses in daily life) – change of perspective. Fear loses it’s power and sadness is not a depressing force but one that inspires depth of character. A spunky participation in life that holds both inner listening and bright present awareness. Stuck at an impass, superficial, tense unresolved situation, inhibition, indecision, holding back. Flow. Easy courage and spontaneity. Deeper perception and participation. Open and protected against troublesome psychic energies.
Michuacan Ladies Tresses (Stenorrhynchus michuacanus)
Deep and inward. Relaxing yet powerful. Clearing resistance and blockage. Compulsion to run, afraid to be real, split from self by past or present trauma. Trapped by dysfunctional ancestral patterns. Surrender with full awareness. Restores strong sensual feminine identity without vulnerability. Honoring one’s feminine truth. Ability to look into ones own body and psyche to heal wounds and imbalances, becoming more conscious of one’s issues and how to deal with them. No fear of the unknown, no fear in disease process, no fear of death. Claiming power.
Milky-nipple Cactus (Mammilaria heyderi var. applanata)
Preverbal bond with Mother – intra-uterine, nursing. The bliss of merging. Also weaning, self-definition, separating from dependence. Difficulties with INTIMACY. Workaholism, adrenaline addiction, running. Or holding on, tendency to not finish projects, self indulgence, spaciness, co-dependent entanglement (difficulty distinguishing self from other), mixing and confusing professional with personal.
Milla, Mexican Star (Milla biflora)
Loneliness or entanglement, fears, paranoia, negativity, regret, loss, uncertainty, resentment, social disconnection. Strong connection with spirit world, focus on spiritual path and central purpose, distractions and side-trips weeded out. Strong sense of meaning and order without mind babble, separate from emotional drama, from superficial or ego-centered motivations (the rush, ambition, competitive drive, etc). Standing alone taking responsibility – in full ecstasy and joy. Joined with all life through the eyes of spirit – feeling spirit in body. Deals with the contracts you have made or need to make – what do you choose? To what have you committed? Intensely focused awareness at point of connection between the worlds, seeing with clear alert vision into both. Withdrawal for inner work or transformation. Pulls together spirit and body, animating the flesh, balancing spirit work with daily life. Self-contained and complete – helps the person drawn into spiritual pursuits who feels lonely and can’t integrate with others and normal life. Issues of family and ancestors. Lucid dreaming.
Morning Glory, Heart-leaf (Ipomoea cardiophylla)
Astringes one’s energy field. Cleanses through pulling in, getting sharp and clear, feeling close to self instead of expanded and spacey. For entanglement with external energies or people, talking too much, scattered, diffused, losing power, as well as habit of psychic escapism. Creates focus and boundary without constriction, ecstasy not inhibited but grounded. Blue sky freedom to fly and express one’s true nature without interference.
Morning Glory Tree (Ipomoea arborescens)
An initiation to confront the paralyzing fear of death and disintegration. Rebirth, change, inner journey – reviewing fear-driven past choices, visioning, exploring the subconscious.
Morning Glory, Violet-Throat (Ipomoea longifloia)
Weakness (physicial or emotional), chronic illness, depression, without power to make a change….
Stimulates an inner journey of empowerment. Opens inner vision to see and embrace locked-up or repressed parts of self which are demanding and blocking energy, often bringing up inner child work. Can open dream processing. Vitality, strength and self-confidence emerge as the chronic subconscious emotional drain subsides. Like all morning glories, focuses, grounds and pulls in an overly diffuse, vulnerable and weakened auric field.
Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus)
For prayer, manifestation, healing, and problem-solving. Unlocks disease memory, expectation and negative habit patterning, allowing the body to clear symptoms. Seeing connections that are usually hidden, touching the subconscious, strengthening intuition. Able to navigate the etheric, moving easily, flying (the seed tails are feathers) up to a position of greater perspective above the myriad details of daily life and entangling emotion in order to make a change. Calling (through spirit) for a solution and having the lightness and patience to allow harmonious possibilities to emerge. Mind and ego surrender to the passion and power of spirit and synchronicity. Mountain mahogany lifts us up, and the gentle father sky answers our need.
Needle-spine Pineapple Cactus (Sclerocactus erectocentrus)
Panic. Susto (severe shock usually from fear). Terror. Deep trauma, physical and/or emotional, has disrupted or severed the cord uniting body and spirit, cut the luminous vertical channel located in the spine and the connection with source. May disturb the will to live. Unable to face a known or unknown something . Intense anguish – sense of irretrievable loss, unbearable pain. Completely threatened, can’t escape, unable to face, can’t go on, can be suicidal…. Total constriction, disassociation, shut down, non-functional, senses scrambled – eyes and ears oppressed. Nagging fears and sadness pushed aside for a long time suddenly erupt in terror. An ocean of tears held back. Applicable in severe abuse, a serious physical blow, chronic illness, fatal disease, repeated failure and loss. A blissful, radiant state, an energetic nurturing brilliant softness and sense of support – relieves the anguish. Reconnection and greater intimacy with body and spirit (feeling its strength and power) enables one to look at fears without triggering the terror, or to re-experience a repressed original trauma from a calmer, more stable perspective, consciousness focused on healing it. No longer running, present with one’s own reality – directly facing the pain a relief (fear not faced possesses one, takes away the soul and steals vitality). Calm. Peace. New life and inspiration.
Oak, Arizona White (Quercus arizonica)
Emotionally nurtured. Lack of such nurturance in past disrupts presence, destroys self-esteem and confidence. Preoccupied with the past; hung up on repetitive therapy. Finding contentment in the present, a sense of safety and support, belonging, home, family, tribe. Feeling loved.
Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens)
One’s passion in life frustrated, blocked, or abused becomes a destructive impulse erupting in ANGER, aggression, jealousy, defensiveness,manipulation, complaining, blaming, demanding attention, or just too much talking. Or, the repression of such energy causing mental/ emotional stagnation, LOW VITALITY, and poor self-esteem. ABUSE issues. Sexuality and vital force. Reactivity. Overly sensitive/reactive to external stimuli, allergies.
Deficient fire stimulated, and a negative or wasteful fire expression cooled, calmed, re-centered, and re-channeled into self-healing and creative manifestation. Quiet strength and SELF-CONFIDENCE. Taking RESPONSIBILITY from a deep-rooted place. BOUNDARY and protection. Focus calm and thorough. Stability.
Organpipe Cactus (Stenocereus thurberi)
A person feeling isolated and alone is healed by this essence full of the nurturance and joy of family, of belonging. Helpful ancestral connections. Heart warmed and supported. Tears that fall like rain, cleansing and releasing.
Pale Evening Primrose see Evening Primrose, Pale
Paperflower (Psilostrophe tagetina)
“Over-the-hill.” Faded, exhausted, used up, feeling external to the flow of life, energy, activity – left-out, drifting. Renewal: holding the golden ball of light fills one with radiance and self-appreciation. Alive again…participating, enjoying greater vitality and spirit, feeling once more a sense of radiant purpose and of meaning in one’s life work.
Passionflower (Passiflora mexicana)
Relaxing hyper, driven, mental, adrenaline energy. Excessive control, constant manipulation. Short sleep or lull precedes a reawakening of expanded awareness, simpler and more profound vision, clearer instinctive (less mental) perceptions, and relaxed enjoyment. Quiets the mind. Takes out the mental obsessive element in emotional shock and trauma, the part that holds onto the experience, remembers and reviews it, tries to find justice or a way out. Headache, insomnia, high blood pressure.
Pink Globemallow (Sphaeralcea emoryi var variabilis)
Feminine energy soft and graceful, clear and calm, but also self-assured, self-reliant, strong and spunky… friendly and playful. Calms hysteria, fear, expecting things to go wrong, fear of abuse or victimization, holding back from interaction or adventure in weak self-guarding stance. Heals effects of abuse, especially sexual.
Protected by the strength and radiance of self-assurance and an attitude which doesn’t let in fear or doubt. This requires clearing the subconscious place of vulnerability, and the Pink Globemallow helps bring to awareness underlying patterns of dysfunction for identification and healing, while boosting the moral and energy with a bright beauty and confidence which making it easier to release the darkness.
Pink Mimosa see Velvet-pod Mimosa
Pleated Gentian (Gentiana affinis)
Soft gentle appreciation and easy involvement in life. Warmth and sense of support, coherence and continuity. Discouraged, negative, pessimistic, detached, angry or discontent, rigid or impulsive – no continuity, Unable to stay focused in one direction. Quickly losing interest in anything one tries to find meaning in. The search is compulsive rather than grounded.
Prickly Poppy (Argemone pleiacantha)
Gives respite, protection and relaxation to a person needing healing. Keeps exhausting intrusions at bay while nurturing the weakened core energy, allowing it to augment at its own pace. Quieting the mind and emotions. Protective white field fosters a quiet time apart, or a less hectic, less demanding, participation.
Purple Aster (Machaeranthera bigelovii)
Filled with healing radiance. Grace. Nurtured and nurturing. Spiritual exhilaration. Compassion. Filled with spirit – opens channels for healing.
Queen-of-the-Night (Peniocereus greggii)
Fear, nervousness, psychic sensitivity and openness without grounding, chaotic and threatening visions. Extreme emotional imbalance. Trauma. Heart palpitations, difficulty with breathing, panic in the chest. Tension and ‘holding on’ in the solar plexus. Calming. Increases sensuality as well as strength, balance, sensitivity and clear visioning. Feminine grace and receptivity.
Rainbow Cactus (Echinocereus rigidissimus)
In depression brings a brightening and lightening, or can stimulate an inner journey, especially effective when doing internal mother/father therapy – may bring up lost memories of parental interaction and facilitate restructuring of one’s inner male and female
Ratany (Krameria erecta)
Mastery of the heart. Integrity and wisdom. Projected strength and firm boundaries (the sanctuary is inviolable). Clear, wise, discriminating choices – used when the heart is torn…. No fear, no needing to please, no guilt, neediness, or insecurity; love without emotionality. The red heart; the strong heart. In the midst of chaos, calm. In the midst of difficult choices, safety and bliss.
Red Ball BushSunflower (Simsia lagasceiformis)
Heat. Vital force. Rage. Shadow. Fear of darkness (internal or external), wanting to avoid it. Fear of contamination, attack, of not being able to maintain vitality, clarity, boundaries, of growing old, of losing fire, of death and emptiness. Needing to look at or go through the dark stuff to find vitality. Separating stagnant or destructive darkness from one’s dark earth fire source. Activating protective capacity and the internal warrior. Can wake you up, sharpen and center you, when emotional obsession or clouding has taken your energy.
Red Corn (Zea mays)
Earth support – completely secure, belonging, grounded and nurtured. Commitment, Responsibility. Balances ability to give and to receive. Balance with people, with land, with spirit, between body and spirit, always in relationship, never cut off from the web of life. Insecurity. Difficult search for identity, no place feels like home, social discordance, problems with authority.
Rock Sage (Salvia pinguifolia)
Relax, lighten up, decompress. A refreshing lightness, playful, without tension, preoccupation and worry. Clear eyes. Letting go of mental complexity, of trying to understand or figure out. Clears the mind, lets go of heavy emotion and liberates the happy heart and joyful soul.
Rush Peteria (Peteria scoparia)
Is a heart-protector for an emotionally and psychically sensitive, lonely, and deeply wounded person. The painful separation can provoke jealousies and sexual fantasies, also treated by this plant. Such negative emotion can be a stimulus for black magic, which leads us to the Navaho use of this plant against witches.
Sacred Datura (Datura wrightii)
Used in many cultures for the darkest forms of abuse, attack, and possession. Usually associated with sexual energy, Datura is a sensual and psychic moon goddess with powerful PROTECTIVE capability. Also works internally to connect a person with one’s own resources and power, restoring these as well as feminine grace after abuse has demolished many aspects of self-image and functionality.
Saguaro (Carnegia gigantea)
Feeling oneself a victim, self-pity, self-indulgence, resentment, laziness, weakness – not up to the task, not knowing how to escape from a stuck place, no backbone (not feeling supported or able to support oneself.) Feeling vulnerable and exposed. Pessimistic and resigned. Judgemental with self as well as others. Rejecting guidance.
Pulling one’s forces together with motivation. Feeling encouraged and finding the strength to do the best one is capable of. Compassion, humility, self-knowing, dedication. The benevolent father loves and encourages, touches and inspires us at the core of our nature, and when we are true accepts all without judgement.
Saiya (Amourexia palmatifida)
Powerful belly. Colorful, earth-connected. Sexual presence and power. Great vitality and alertness. Strong creative and practical instincts. Spontaneous, knowing and seeing without mental complexity. Umbilical disconnection. Earth connection blocked, physical presence weak. Chronic emotional/mental preoccupation and stress, often from early childhood trauma, disconnects us from belly/earth/power/self. Reconnected to tribe/family/ancestors.
Salvia divinorum (Salvia divinorum)
Believed to be the strongest hallucinogen on earth. A lovely feminine visionary plant that brings a profound awareness of healing and inner realities.
San Felipe Dogweed (Dyssodia porophylloides)
Intense fire energy: Rage, repulsion, frustration, aggression, panic, underlying sadness (the need to connect with the nurturing feminine has been blocked). These energies transmuted by the dogweed produce vigilant awareness, sharp mental focus, ability to understand, activate, manage and protect, coupled with a deep sense of compassion/empathy and responsibility. Can be profoundly applicable in male process (and in women dealing with their internal male energies) – activist, warrior for the earth, father.
Sangre de Drago see Jatropha, Ashy
Santa Rita Acacia (Acacia millefolium)
Lost in intense sadness, anguish, regret and feeling powerless. These emotions blocking health and physical healing. Separation, loss, rejection, self-rejection, vulnerability, broken heart, shame, extreme emotional insecurity, weepy and hopeless.
A gentle sensitive person capable of great loving and devotion.
Scarlet Bouvardia (Bouvardia ternifolia)
Unblocks constrictions in flow of physical, nervous and emotional energy. Soothes tension and increases vitality. Tense, tired, impatient, anxious. Relaxes exaggerated, rigid, or compulsive/destructive responses to external changes (environmental), or chronic chi imbalances and constrictions.
Senita (Lophocereus schottii)
The grandparents’ perspective – gentle, loving and accepting, not pushing, ego laid aside. A full and satisfied heart. Helps with discontent, with pushing too hard and ignoring heart, and also with painful loss.
Short-Crown Milkweed (Asclepias brachystephana)
Brings focus and light of spirit into body. Bright, “up” assertive. Will to live, direction, self-awareness and confidence. Stimulates vitality. Heavy depression, feeling inadequate, caved-in sense of self, difficulty moving forward with decisiveness and strength . Foggy, withdrawn, guilty, apologetic, feeling failure, social dysfunction, shaky sanity. Can’t mobilize self-direction. Clears emotional toxins, internal ‘static’ and preoccupation, self-doubt, negative thoughts and expectations, – a space opens for something new, and fills with the bright energetic light of vibrant will and self-trust. Grounded and practical “I drive my own chariot.”
Shrub Senna (Senna wislizenii)
Releases emotional tension from the heart and quiets the mind – self-torture and worry. Flowers used with pregnant women in Mexico to bring calm and belly focus.
Silverleaf Nightshade (Solanum eleagnifolium)
Relieves pain or tension in the eyes; relaxes, clears and regenerates inner vision. Stretching to see, beliefs in limitation. Trying to reach for visioning or understanding but not having enough vital force or animal presence to achieve it. Stuck in limbo, neither here nor there…. Fears or judgments. Healing the sense of separation.
Snakeweed, Snake Broom (Gutierrezia microcephala)
Healing pain, soothing. In the journey of awareness: cleaning(sweeping), clearing a ceremonial space for transformation. Opens to forces and change beyond earth and sky; prepares for a cosmic union. Snake shakes the earth and calls in transmutation.
Snakewood (Condalia warnockii)
Treats pain and pessimism, loosens negative expectations and experiences locked into the body and mind. Opens physically- and emotionally-crystallized patterns, allowing change, flow and a completely new self-defintion.
Refreshing and enlivening as new spirit and excitement enter. Liberated to feel life through the heart and soul. Forgiveing one’s own weaknesses. Burdened by overwhelm, exhaustion, jaded and worn down. Self-judgement, paranoia, fear, negative assessment, avoidance, resistence.
Soaptree Yucca see Yucca, Soaptree
Sonoran Indian Mallow (Abutilon sonorae)
Balance and stability. Steady. The inner mediator identifies and manages repressed parts of self that disruptively cry for attention. Wisdom, perspective, ability to balance the needy and insecure parts of self with the higher self. Chaos and inner conflict, working against the self, simultaneous “yes” and ”no,” victim to one’s own instability, manic behavior – alternating between strong and broken-down states. Giving way to negative patterns. Able to stand in the wisdom self with great self-compassion. Calms impulsive behavior. Power conflicts. Inner child. Mature commitment to harmony (without repression). Celebration of the many facets of one’s being instead of feeling bogged down or confused by them. Replaces inner conflict with easy flowing focus, direction and knowing. Soothing. Allowing the central self to emerge and express instead of being lost in the demands of the other parts.
Sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri)
Quiet inner balance, preparedness, poised and ready for response. Observing without impulsive reactivity, wasting no energy. Focused awareness and alignment of ones forces and capacities.
Spanish Dagger Yucca, Spanish Bayonet see Yucca, Spanish Dagger
Taray (Salix taxifolia)
Arid-land willow. Womb-like buffer against outside stress. Relaxation without worry or preoccupation, safety. Split family in early childhood, pulled in two directions, difficulty with decision-making – nervous, frantic, drained, guilty, mentally/emotionally torturing oneself.
Tarbush (Flourensia cernua)
Stuck. Feeling pessimistic about the possibility of changing, especially old habits – “I’ve always been that way…..” Clears and liberates locked-up energy, stimulating enthusiastic direction, progress, a way out….. Energizes Change, Optimism, Inspiration. Heavy self-image, burdened by exhaustion, addiction, etc.
Tecoma, Tronadora (Tecoma stans)
Inhibited in expressing one’s passions or one’s truth and hiding behind empty social form, politeness, etc. dampens one’s vitality
Teddy Bear Cholla see Cholla, Teddy Bear
Trailing Snapdragon (Maurandya antirrhiniflora)
Energy and Expression held in, held back. Rigid, preoccupied, formal (polite), making nice, can’t say what you feel, self-judgement, split from self and taking on a flat persona. Underlying deep sadness and fear (choking panic suppressed). Integrating emotion with honesty and easier self-expression. Flow, gentleness, continuity, self-compassion. Emotion in the throat – teeth-clenching, bite the bullet, fear and sometimes anger, or even aggression – held in. Emotional honesty and openness, quiet clarity and directness.
Tree Cholla see Cholla, Tree
Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca)
Perception shift to feel the sacredness and connectedness of all of life. Seeing simple acts as ceremony. Becoming more conscious of the healing capacity that we can participate in at each moment. Helps those feeling separate, disconnected from others or from spirit, those who feel their life is meaningless, repetitive or deficient. Opens an awareness of the spirituality and potential for fulfillment even in simple mundane living. Can help one find meaning and feel less isolated or alone. Committed to life and being present. May catalyze the choosing of a new path, or deeper contentment with what one has already chosen. When the give/receive breath is blocked or unbalanced, when there is too much holding on, or giving away to depletion, exhaustion and emptiness. Unable to feel joy. Trust and safety. Spirit.
Velvet-pod Mimosa (Mimosa dysocarpa)
Healing a heart worn out from many wounds and disappointments, having given too much and received too little. Isolation, sadness, rejection, feeling unloved. Emotional exhaustion and withdrawal, the ability to love dampened. A gentle, loving personality too easily hurt, Restores new openness and enthusiasm for life. Mimosa brings healing that is radiant, soft, gentle, and sustaining. Feeling love all around and within….
Velvet Mesquite (Prosopis velutina)
Often due to old trauma, one accepts limitations in abundance, comfort and ease as normal, even virtuous. Survival mode, mind-directed, driving oneself beyond physically sustainable capacity or simply missing out on some of the joy and fun. Worry. Promise, hope, relief. Father support. Softening and becoming receptive. Relaxing, opening to and inviting nurturance, healing and pleasure.
Violet-Throat Morning Glory see Morning Glory, Violet-Throat
Whitethorn (Acacia constricta)
Calms agitated and driven responses, adrenal excess, nervousness, workaholism, mental nagging.
Filled with the sweetness of life, with sensitive empathetic perception and appreciation, patience, no longer rushed, sensual presence, open and joyful. An inner stillness makes it impossible to push with the mind. Totally and gently present and aware. “I am.” Non-judgmental. Great harmony, acceptance and love.
Wild Cotton (Gossypium thurberi)
Restores feminine grace, purity and sensuality. Clearing collective as well as personal or family patterns of sexual distortion, trauma, abuse and power struggle. Confronting and redefining male-female patriarchal habits of behavior acted out between the sexes or between same-sex partners. Rejoins the blood mysteries with spirit, erasing perversions and false judgmental spirituality.
Yellow Mariposa Lily see Mariposa, Yellow
Yerba Mansa (Anemopsis californica)
Though not a smudge, is often used by practitioners to clear negative internal emotional energies and beliefs that block a person’s receptivity to healing, as well as for clearing such energies that hang around in the room after a session/ “Disinfects” and refreshes the space.
Yucca, Soaptree (Yucca elata)
Focus of intention on one’s path. Maintaining an easy, cheerful focus on (spiritual ) goal through times of delays or blocks – not forgetting, not getting side-tracked, protected from distraction by internal or external energies. Spontaneous and non-dominating personal authority. Cleansing emotional and physical toxins to allow the luminosity of one’s spirit to find a clear, true, and unclouded expression. Internal reorganization and integration joins spirit and body more completely. For strengthening the body, weight loss, clearer self-expression, greater dignity and self-respect, more fun, as well as for vision-questing. Pure of heart. Refusing to react to negative projections. Holding one’s light up above the chaos and suffering offers inspiration to others – and, allowing Soaptree to hold that light for you, as a friend and ally. Ceremony.
Yucca, Spanish Dagger, Spanish Bayonet (Yucca thornberi)
A person cut from self in the deepest place, in the private sanctuary within, the place of SPIRT, love and sacred sexual expression. Guarding, depression, withdrawal. Connection between body and spirit muddied or lost. Restores ability to feel the BODY and its divinity, it’s sexuality and intimacy with one’s own being. Cleanses out dark preoccupations. Boundaries clear, inwardly connected and protected. No longer oppressed and isolated by trauma and vulnerability.
EASTERN WOODLAND AND OTHER ESSENCES
American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)
Low energy and motivation, negativity, depression. Over-extended, frazzled, worried, not up to the task, everything seems too difficult. Alert, mentally clear, functional,willing and eager. Feeling physically supported and charged, strong and motivated.
Black Birch (Betula lenta)
Dark place, childhood trauma – liberates energy held repressed by that trauma. Can encourage visioning and introspection. Encountering within a strong source of unexpressed power – liberating it for greater ease and joy in daily life. Self-protection and rigid blockage softened (ease, flow, joy). Can change rough, potentially aggressive or chaotic impulses into a coherent, constructively directed, compassionate, supportive and celebratory expression. Warm, safe, old repressed pains soothed to liberate energy. Psychic detox.
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
Inwardly tortured by identity confusion – hidden or undeveloped identity, or many personas. Uncertainty, FEAR, extreme self-doubt, or simply one’s clarity burdened by too many dark energies. Overwhelmed by influences from one’s blood lines, family, ancestors. Difficulty sorting out and managing internally-felt energies, what is me and what is not, choosing among myriad possibilities, separating dysfunctional from inspiring and supportive patterns. Helps clear complexes, fears, curses and negative family patterning while becoming more aware of, holding onto, and assimilating inherited talents and hidden potential. Simplifying, piercing, central radiant light in the darkness. Intent third eye focus. Deeply centers one’s consciousness and gives it a gift of automatic clearing and focus. Cleanses subconscious memory. Serious commitment and surrender can instigate a profound healing initiation. Once lit, the light grows bigger, radiating from the sharp center point of awareness to clear, heal, resolve and forget the overwhelming complexity and darkness of the past. Grail search, forgiveness, peace.
Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
Light in the bones – optimism pushing negative energies or illness out from inside.
Cucumber Magnolia (Magnolia acuminata)
Calming tension around the heart: healing pain in the heart. Deep relaxation. Insomnia. Dreams. Tense and rigid with pushing to accomplish, never satisfied with what one has achieved or with one’s identity. Cut off from one’s inner feminine. STRESS. Losing comfortable sense of self – consciously or unconsciously feeling split, ragged and incomplete.. Caught in doing rather than being. Antidote to excessive external or mental activity. Feeling the deep feminine Moon aspect close, intimate, familiar. The secret, sensual Night of one’s being makes the day sweet, gives a special relaxed, confident and mysterious glow.
Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia antisiphilitica)
The dark and heavy aspect of deep sadness released, replaced with luminous spirit and love. Willingness to participate again in the giving and receiving of life.
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)
Deep earth magic. Awakening of physical consciousness and sensibility (body-based perception rather than mental). Takes one past the barrier of FEAR, fear of darkness and the underground aspect. One’s original potential for sensitivity and awareness limited and hidden beneath layers of defense, avoidance, habits of perception controlled by the mind and by emotional distortion. Liberates intimate awareness, overcoming this subconscious oppression. Changes the habit of avoiding areas of the body where traumatic energies have been stored; accepting one’s own dark stuff – completely losing fear of it – allows it to clear and heal. All wounds and traumatic experiences are in constant subconscious healing process when liberated from this fear and repression. For serious, even life-threatening illness or drug involvement. Gentle detox. Cells of the body energized, no longer suppressed by fear or repulsion. Clearing entities, projected thought forms and emotional clouding that have settled in the body.
Sharp anxiety. TRAUMA – seeing something you shouldn’t see, caught in a dangerous or shameful situation, (perversion, violence, cruelty), horrible regret, desire to escape. Touches whatever is kept in the dark and liberates it. Opens inner vision and imagination, producing many images which teach and catalyze changes in perception; alters self-image and the landscape of one’s fears. Earth nourishment. Playfulness, ease, instinct. Folks in cities feeling disconnected from nature are able to connect with all through the awakened body and sensing, never out of touch, always in the arms of gaia, belonging to and part of earth, intimately connected with all beings.
Poke (Phytolacca americana)
Bright clean, buoyant, forward-looking, outgoing, simple, optimistic white light. Re-opens soul connection dampened by old habits, illness etc. Treats loss of spirit, feeling stuck with too much introspection and self-questioning, exhausted, jaded, worried or without hope. Happy, energized, letting go of the memory of pain, enthusiastic. A bright pure plant that helps healers and teachers inspire and uplift. Brings back light…and purpose.
Rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum)
Comprehensive grounded wisdom. Seeing and understanding many things – handling complexity without confusion or splitting from body. Many layers and depths of self held together, coordinated and aligned in a fluid, practical and expressive interaction.
Rock Water (from a spring pool in Glen Esk, Scotland)
Softens tension. Diminishes resistance, negativity, habitual criticism and judgment, feeling separate or on the outside, always pushing oneself (achievement oriented). Encourages an easy flowing appreciation and joyful spontaneous participation in life – greater harmony with people and nature.
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
Energy kicked up to emerge from a stuck place, Lost, weakened or held down by old traumas. Looking backward. Vital force and focus directed toward the future. Waking up!
Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
Sensitive to and comfortable in the natural word but feeling alienated from the human social world and not able to resolve the need for both. Awkward and needy. Isolated. Lonely, the joy in one’s private world diminished by need for belonging in the social context.
Essence of the Desert 