The Wisdom of Crab Apple

 

Crab Apple Tree in Flower

I did a shamanic journey to the Spirit of Crab Apple to ask what wisdom and what qualities it has, and to ask if it has any message for humankind?

Crab Apple Blossom

I sit with my back resting against an ancient gnarly crab apple tree. It is vast and abundantly covered with scented blossom. The sweet heady scent of the blossom saturates my nostrils. The buzzing of the bees that attend it is almost deafening. It has been struck by lightning and one of its limbs lies charred on the ground. Another limb has cracked and fallen to rest partly on the ground but still lives. I am very aware of the presence of the tree. I call to the Spirit of Crab Apple to come. Immediately my vision is filled with pink and white crab apple blossom. I ask Crab Apple what messages it has. This is what she tells me…
‘I am cleansing. I am loving, nurturing, nourishing, uplifting. My blossom and my fruit connect you with the earth. The tart, sourness of the apples cleanse the liver in a gentle nourishing way. Make my fruit into jelly, to cleanse and nourish you and connect you with the earth, in a gentle, sweet, loving way. I am the epitome of love. My blossom is the epitome of love. The sweet scent of my blossom surrounds you in love. I enfold you in love.
I ask you not to pick my blossoms, but to use photographs, paintings or drawings of me. Use them on your altar. Place them on your heart when you are meditating, if you need to feel surrounded by love. If you are feeling unloved, connect with me – I am the epitome of love. Warm, sweet, tender, I enfold you and I uplift you.’
I see myself lying on a bed of apple blossom, being uplifted under a blue, bright sky in warm gentle weather.
Crab Apple continues, ‘I am gentle. I teach you to be gentle with yourself. Gently care for yourself. Know that you are loved. Love yourself. It is the only way for you to be more loving to others. This is the way forward for humankind – to be gentle and loving with themselves, that they may be in this way, gentle and loving to others. You humans, you put so many demands on yourselves and then you have such high expectations of others. This is where judgement, resentment and bitterness comes from. Be gentle with yourself, that you may be gentle and loving, giving and compassionate to others.
I epitomise youth and beauty. My fruit can help keep youth and beauty. For those finding it difficult to conceive, my fruit can cleanse away negative thoughts and stagnation – stagnation of the liver that is holding back your fertility and your ability to move forward in life. I cleanse away stagnation and help you move forward in life. Apples can do this in a sweet, loving way. The scent of my blossom can also do this. Eating the fruit of the apple is good for this. Move with the seasons. Use the scent of apple blossom at this time of year to do this. Using the preserve, crab apple jelly, can do this when the blossom is over. You can have it on toast or as a relish for example with pork. Tune into me.
I have a connection with the element of air. I am like a keen wind that blows through you, that helps to cleanse. It cuts into the liver and moves stagnation. It blows away the cobwebs. I help you to cleanse what is no longer needed, what is no longer serving you in your life, in a loving and compassionate – not in a brutal way where you have to go on a big detox where you suffer from headaches and feel like you’ve lost the will to live. I can do this to help you in an uplifting way, so that the toxins are gently lifted and released and allowed to leave. Meditate on the colour of my petals to do this – gentle, pale pinky-white and green. These colours help lift stagnant things out of your aura and move them on.
The star which you find at the equator of my fruit, the star that starts to form as my blossom starts to set into fruit, is important. I connect you to the stars, to the ancient ones that come from the stars, to the gods and goddesses, as you knew them, to the magical realms. I can assist you on your soul’s journey. Through contemplating my star, I can connect you with the stars and with the star beings – the angels, as some of you know them.’
As Crab Apple says this, I see a winged being with white feathered wings, standing next to the crab apple tree.
Crab Apple continues, ‘My message to humans who don’t feel connected to these beings who have come to help this planet, is that I can help them to connect. Contemplate the star at the centre of my blossom, and at the end of an apple or at the centre of the apple. This will connect you with the magical beings of the angelic realms. I want you to know that you are not alone. There is so much help for you. Come often to visit me and I will help you to feel loved and supported.’

I felt overwhelmed by the loving generous nature of the crab apple tree. It nourished and uplifted me. I have been back many times to visit this tree and it always makes me feel good. I made some hedgerow jelly using apples from this tree mixed with hawthorn, rosehip, elderberry and blackberry. I have it on toast or with meat such as venison. It’s delicious and it makes me feel connected to the seasons. I’d love to hear about anyone else’s experiences with crab apple. Has anyone else made crab apple jelly?

 

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The Wisdom of Violet

I journeyed to the spirit of the violet to ask what wisdom, what qualities does the violet have? What messages does it have for humankind?

I see a big purple bloom in front of me. I ask violet what qualities and wisdom it has. I breathe in the scent of the violet. There is a lot of green in the background. I get the message that the purple, the green, the freshness of spring and the colour of royal purple are all important elements of Violet’s qualities.

‘I am a regal flower, Queen of Hearts. I am connected to the heart chakra. The green of my leaves is important too. If you look at my leaves, they are shaped like a heart. The green is related to the heart chakra. My leaves are a representation of the heart. I bring warmth, the first real warmth of spring. I warm and melt hearts. My scent is part of this. I bring sweetness. You can use me in cakes and in biscuits, to sweeten and bring joy to an occasion. Use my scent on pulse points to warm your heart and bring joy into your life.

I am a sweet shy creature. I help those who are shy or feeling awkward in a situation. Connect with my essence if you are feeling shy. Connect with my essence to have a heart connection with those around you. Wear me over your heart chakra – place a violet leaf in your bra or your breast pocket over your heart before you go into a situation where you know you will feel shy. This will help to connect your heart with those of others.

Infusions of violet in water are good for bathing the heart chakra. It is useful to do this where your skin is itching. I help you to feel at home in your skin. I help you to feel grounded. I am about grounding the energies of the heart.

I am warm and gentle, like the first sniff of the summer breeze. My weather is warm and gentle, the first heat of the year. I am soft like the summer rain. Bathing in water infused with violets is softening. I have softening and soothing properties. I am good for eczema and other skin complaints when used like this.

I am good for bathing fungal infections such as in toenails – my grounding and soothing properties help this. Use a violet infused in spring water in the sunlight for half an hour or an hour. Then bathe your foot in this to help with grounding and to help the nail.’

I ask, ‘Can you tell me more about your connection with royal purple?’

‘This is a regal colour, the Royal Purple. It connects you with your own magnificence, your own queenliness or kingliness. I connect you with your radiant magnificence when you are feeling small, shy or a shrinking violet. Essence of violet can help you connect with your royalty, your regalness, your magnificence.

All the properties of the heart chakra are benefited by violet. You can use the scent of violet to bring these qualities to the fore. Put it on your pulse points, particularly on your wrist, and sniff the scent to bring these qualities to the fore.

I am soothing and soporific and can help you to sleep. Breathe in the scent of violet and feel me filling your heart chakra, cleansing the chakra. Breathe in the soft, warm gentleness, the soothingness of violet. Breathe out any harsh residues, any anger, any negative unwanted attitudes. The violet flame of transformation is also connected with me. I am connected to St Germain and St Francis of Assisi.

The Wisdom of the Primrose

Journey to the Spirit of the Primrose

I call to the Spirit of the Primrose and immediately I see a primrose – really big and yellow. ‘Beautiful Primrose, may I ask you some questions? May I ask for your wisdom, can you tell me about your qualities and whether you have a message for humankind?’

I get the words, ‘Wrap you up and go inside.’ That’s what Primrose wants to do. She’s folding her petals around me and then going inside me.

‘Where are you going?’ I ask. I feel it in the centre of my chest. I’m getting a feeling it’s around the sternum and the diaphragm. Not so much the heart – it’s below the heart and it’s not as far down as the solar plexus, but it’s in the middle of my sternum. She’s folding her petals into there. Primrose tells me she is linked to the diaphragm. ‘I can help with breathing, and control of the breath. I can help to protect you from respiratory problems at this time of year, when the cold wind blows, and you can be susceptible to these problems.’

‘Wrap you up and go inside,’ I hear those words again. What Primrose is telling us is that when the cold wind blows, wrap yourself up and go inside. That ‘going inside’ also represents going into your inner being and dreaming.

‘I am the Flower of Dreams,’ she tells me. ‘Breathe in my sweet perfume and it will bring you clarity in your dreams. If you want to know the answer to a question, before you go to bed, spend a few minutes breathing in and out with your hands cupped around a primrose and ask for Primrose to bring you clarity in your dreams. This translates not only to night-time dreams but also in your dreams of what you want for yourself and where you want to go in life.’

‘I am a spring flower. I am at the beginning of all things. I am about awakening – dreaming and taking those dreams into your awakening, manifesting your dreams, empowering your dreams. You can soak my petals in spring water and drink it – even better if you can find some spring sunlight to fall upon the glass. Ask for my spirit to go into the water. Drink this water – the essence of Primrose and it will help you manifest your dreams, whatever they are. I am a successful flower. I bring success. I bring about manifestation of whatever it is you desire.’

‘Thank you so much!’ I say. ‘How may I use your properties to help manifest my dreams?’ I ask.

‘Clear your altar. Put one fresh primrose flower in a small bottle of water on your altar and change it every time it needs to be refreshed. Ask me to help manifest your dreams and keep visualising the outcome of whatever it is you want. Visualise people having a positive response to whatever it is you want to create. Every time you change the flower, imagine that response. Imagine people around the world loving it, and telling their friends about it.’

‘My scent is fresh and pure. It brings hope. I am the Flower of Hope – hope that things can change for the better, renewed hope after the Winter has passed that things will get easier and more abundant with the approach of Summer; the hope that new children may come into being.’

So I ask, ‘Do you have any properties of fertility?’ Primrose answers, ‘Not me personally, but my sister, Evening Primrose does. I bring the Hope of Possibility.’

‘Is there anything that I can do to honour you?’ I ask.

‘Grow more of me. Plant more of me. Have your garden full of primroses. That’s all I ask. Just go now and manifest your dreams.’

‘Beautiful Primrose, I thank you so much. I have longed to hear your wisdom for so long and now I know.’

Lizzie Harper’s sketchbook illustration

http://lizzieharper.co.uk/gallery/sketchbook/