Last year someone had suggested they would like a workshop on Evening Primrose. This sounded like a grand idea as there were many Evening Primroses at Emerson College, so after watching them open in the evening we could walk a candle lit labyrinth. Perfect timing I thought.
From initial conversations with Evening Primrose I felt a soothing coolness, a white soft enveloping light. Relaxing, nourishing, revitalising. It spoke to its connection to the moon and the feminine yet at the same time seemed connected to the solar plexus, suggesting sun and warmth, its stems and seed pods have a red tinge of fire to them. Some see this plants element as being most associated with Earth, yet I felt a strong connection with the solar plexus suggesting fire? However the strongest feeling was of a soft, velvety, cooling, soothing, ‘moon’ness’. Perhaps the element of Yin Earth . Plants, like ourselves, contain all the elements to varying degrees and Evening Primrose seemed to be voicing a balancing of both the yin and yang. Male and female aspects.
The uncommon activity of the flowers opening during the evening and in to the night suggested of its ability to shine its light in to the darkness, expressing itself in fullness and in its relation with the moon. I felt a plant for working on the subconscious aspects of ourselves, shining the light of our conscious awareness on to the shadow parts of ourselves and in doing so releasing bound up energy, unlocking creative life force, opening to our individual power through the solar plexus helping us to express more of our true essential nature.
My journey with Evening Primrose didn’t stop there. Looking back now, I can see the deep work that I was just stepping into was in the processing of unconscious patterns that were formed within my childhood and even ancestral wounding. Evening Primrose was helping me in this process of uncovering those wounded parts of myself. I now know she does this through encouraging us to relax. In feeling relaxed, at ease and safe we are able to feel in to the parts of us that have not felt heard, the wounded parts that are afraid. These parts can influence our relationships, our decisions, every aspect of our lives. We carry them as unconscious thought patterns, story lines, underlying fears, feelings and emotions that got stuck frozen in time. It is not that we need to fix them, change them, even ‘heal’ them as such, but simply bringing them in to awareness and letting them know they are now heard and acknowledged.
Ways to work with these aspects.
We might say, ”I see you”, or, I prefer ”I hear you”, when we feel these parts or stories coming up in the moment. Each time, simply returning to our breath and conscious moment awareness. If doing deeper work, we can sit and feel in to these parts, acknowledging them, telling them that it’s ok to be here and that you hear them now.
You could visualise a child in the corner of a room, head bowed down, crying. How would you react to this child? What would you say to this child? The way in which you interact with this child may be the way in which you engage with these parts of yourself. There is no need to fix them but as they feel more heard they may completely transform, they may shrink or they may remain but as life goes on we grow in peace. We grow in awareness of ourselves as we fully flower into the light of our true essential nature, bringing all aspects of ourselves together, the darkness included.
We all have childhood wounds, this does not mean we had a rough childhood or were abused. The act of simply being born is traumatic. We may even be carrying wounds from the womb, prior to birth, as we soaked up the emotions or situations that were presenting in our environment. I believe the very essence of life is to experience it in its full gory, sorry glory. The pain and the pleasure, the bliss and the heartbreak, the joy and the sorrow. As we navigate life through living in self awareness.
The following link below is a good description of evening primrose essence. It amazed me how support was already informing my life prior to me even being aware of the deeper work I was about to engage with. Plants, indeed life, is supporting and informing our growth in ways we have no idea of. https://www.spiritoftransformation.com/Essencedescriptions/eveningprimrose.pdf
WILDWISDOM 