The shamanic healing through the flowers essences

The shamanic healing through the flowers essences

By Franchelle Ofsoske-Wyber, First Light Flower Essences of New Zealand
You are sitting on mother earth. The sun has long set and the fire nearby is still burning, although the flames are now small dancing fingers of light. You have been waiting to see the medicine woman. There is a problem that has burdened your spirit, and the weight of it is making you feel physically unwell.
Suddenly you feel a shift in the atmosphere. Something powerful yet unseen has entered the space around you. From out of the shadows a drum beat sounds. The reverberation rises and falls. The air around comes alive and pulses with vitality. Quietly at first but quickly gaining in intensity, an ancient chant sounds and weaves a fabric of extraordinary power and magic.

The medicine woman appears before you. You move with her, as if in a trance into another reality. Water is sprinkled on you with a sprig from a powerful medicine plant and you are given a series of potions to drink made from healing herbs and plants. You feel yourself transform like a shape shifter. In some subtle way you are changing. The pressing problem is now no longer an issue. What was weighing you down seems to have gone. Your spirit feels whole and well. The plant spirits have done their work, and the healing powers of the medicine woman/shaman; the healing power of vibration has worked its magic yet again.

The scene I have just described could have taken place anywhere in the world in the last 40-50 thousand years. However times are changing, and the primal ways of the shaman and medicine men and women are no longer the preferred option for healing by most of humanity; yet the vibrational healing power the ancient wisdom keepers have so successfully wielded is still available and is still as potent as ever.

Today the world is waking up to the relevancy and incredible power of vibrational medicine and vibrational healing. Flower essences when they are made by highly skilled practitioners are one of the finest and purest expressions of vibrational or energy medicine.

It is my understanding that flower essence therapy is a modality that is the perfect expression of shamanic healing in the 21st century.

Both sides of my family were healers. Shamans on the Russian side and medicine men and woman on my father's Cherokee side. In this life I have also been fortunate to be trained in the ancient ways of power and healing by Aboriginal and Maori elders.

I was born in New Zealand as a "matakite" and a "matatuhi" -- these Maori words mean "one that sees with the healing eye", "one who links into the 12th plane" and "one who can read what is written on the wind" respectively. I was bo,rn a shaman, just as I was born a wisdom keeper.

The time has come for these ancient wisdoms to be revealed. When I say that flower essence therapy can be a perfect expression of shamanic healing in the 21st century I say this from the vested authority of my lineage and from my personal experience and knowledge of the ancient healing pathways.

My close friend and spiritual patron for First Light Flower Essences of New Zealand, respected Maori elder Dr. Rangimarie Turuki Arikirangi Rose Pere, C.B.E., C.M., who is New Zealand's last Tohuna or wisdom keeper, has a very critical point to make. Many times she has stated publicly that anyone can make flower essences by floating flowers on a bowl of water and putting it out in the sun. "Does this mean that the plant will automatically release its full healing capacity?" she asks. The answer is always "no," says Dr. Pere. She points out that very special shamanic skills and protocols are required to facilitate a plant releasing its full healing capacity. This is necessary if one is to heal the spirit and treat the cause of the problem, and to treat the complexity of health issues we will be faced with in the 21st century.

The ancient shamanic ways always dealt with accessing the full healing powers of the specific plant allies that were worked with. The whole person was treated at a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level.

When flower essences are made using the ancient shamanic knowledge and the specialised magical connections, then those flower essences are a 21st century expression of pure shamanic healing. Flower essences made in this sacred manner have a unique level of therapeutic immediacy that is apparent to anyone who works with them.

Flower essences that are pure shamanic essences must be made using the ancient sacred chants and special seed syllables that activate the full healing power of the plant. They must also link directly into the spiritual forces of the land. This then enables the spirit of the plant to work directly with the spirit of the person to bring healing and wholeness.

The sacred salutations or karakias (prayers) are given to each native flower/plant/fern essence. This honours the sacred relationship that has been entered into with the plant deva or "atua" and the spiritual forces of Aotearoa. This formal greeting or necessary spiritual protocol is one of the factors that ensures full therapeutic immediacy is obtained when making a flower essence.

Each individual sacred salutation honours the individual plant as being a spiritual child of the land of Aotearoa -- New Zealand. "The land of the ever shining light." Each plant is understood to be linked to Papatuanuku -- Earth Mother -- and belongs to a specific plant family. The plant has a pair of parents, spiritual protectors or "atua" that energise, protect and look after it.


Sactred salutation in Maori: Ka mihi ki te tamaiti a Haumia me Hine Pukohurangi te mirimiri i te tuara kia uru mai ko te hauora hei tino whakaora.
Translation in English: Salutations to the child of Haumia and Hine Pukohurangi for massaging the standing path (backbone) to enable the breath of the Central Sun, the Divine Spark to enter and give absolute healing.


This is the shamanic way to treat the cause, which in turn heals the spirit. These are the ancient pathways of plant lore and magical knowledge taught to me by Maori, Aboriginal and First Nation elders. This is the way that I make flower essences in New Zealand, Hawaiiki Tautau, the pulse, the heart beat of the planet... the first country in the word to see the light.
Over 12,000 years ago the largest continent existed in the South Pacific -- for the Maori this is sometimes called Mu or Lemuria. New Zealand, or Aotearoa as we know it today, is actually regarded as Hawaiiki Tautau -- the pulse of that huge continent. New Zealand, Aotearoa, "the pulse" has very special energy in terms of that continent.

As Dr. Pere says, "There is no way that we can live without our pulse, that pulsating energy of ancient Hawaiiki that is New Zealand as we know it today. Hawaiiki Tautau is a vital -- in fact a critical -- energy point for the whole of Paptuanuku -- the whole of the earth, the rest of the planet."

In this sacred way of working in relationship with our plant relatives, I see the old earth ways taking on a new life and touching the hearts and minds of people in the 21st century. This age, known in Maoridom as the "Age of Cherishing Floral Waters," is an age where it has been predicted that water, sunlight and plants would be used to work directly on every individual cell, each of which holds the "three baskets of knowledge" for total wellbeing in the body.

This is an age predicted by indigenous wisdom keepers worldwide, when humankind would work intelligently and co-operatively with plant intelligence and nature for a healing outcome. The "Age of the Mother" when we would move into sacred relationship with the earth -- our mother.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Franchelle Ofsoske-Wyber is the co-founder and creator of First Light Flower Essences of New Zealand, the first range of essences made from the native flora of New Zealand. Franchelle trained in the Bach system of flower remedies in the late 70s, and she has been making and working with flower essences made from New Zealand's native plants since 1985. She works closely with indigenous elders and wisdom keepers round the world. She was born with the ability to link into the healing song of plants. She teaches the ancient ways in a series of residential workshops and runs courses on the First Light essences and working with the nature power of Aotearoa. She is the author of The New Zealand Native Flower Essence Handbook -- Working with the Nature Power Of Aotearoa.