Plant Mediumship: Lessons from Holly [Ilex aquifolium]
Poison and Effervescence. Death and Life. Bones and Healing. Abundance and Barrenness. Vitality and Poison. Golden Ages and Devils.
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Preface and A Note About Goodwill in Times of Crises
Working my way into the Quantum Botanicals module of my school course material, I am learning about Flower Essences, felt sense, and plant mediumship. My teacher, Bonny Casel, ND, holds professional titles within the Holistic Medicine industry and is the President Chair of the British Flower and Vibrational Essences Society. I did not know anything about Flower Essences before my enrollment in school, but learning about how Flower Essences can help shift mindsets and patterns has been a real gift. When I found out that there was a Holly Flower Essence, I was immediately drawn to it. The moment I was in the store with the little bottle of the essence in my hands, I had visions in my mind’s eye, and even messages came through. One of these visions took the shape of a figure that resembled Charles Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Present from his novel A Christmas Carol. I mention this because I reference this figure in my essay, and it is crucial to know that Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol as commentary on how the lower class people of his time were poorly treated. This figure, The Ghost of Christmas Present, is supposed to open Scrooge’s eyes to how society must act differently to those who are suffering and need our help. Even though I have been part of the lower class my entire life, I want to make clear that I am not making comparisons from my small internal conflicts within myself to how those in poverty are treated, especially in times of crisis.
Dickens himself earned very little money as a boy who was forced into working long hours in a boot-blacking factory. A big message that came through when working with the holly flower essence is that we must be generous and understanding to all people, especially in times of sorrow, grief, crisis, destitution, and hard times. Without a doubt, I do not think it is a coincidence to receive this message during the genocide happening in Palestine. Mostly, my thoughts turn to all of the children that have been murdered. I think it will do us a lot of good, especially in a season that is generally associated with goodwill, to shift our mindsets and begin to understand how this crisis affects the children caught in this horrific war. Just like the children that were forced into factories in Dickens’ time, many people often turn their heads away from really and truly facing how awful it is, especially for a child, to endure such horrific events alone. It is no different now, especially in our modern era. We are constantly asked to digest information quickly on a daily basis, but I ask us all to not take in information very rapidly, but rather, slowly. In this way, we can begin to truly understand the information, and assimilate it to navigate crises so that we can be there for people. We really must face how nightmarish it is for these children to endure this type of trauma, and how this will impact them for generations. Studies show that we inherit trauma, and this trauma further causes sickness and ailments [1, 2, 3]. We must genuinely be prepared to hold space for the survivors to process this trauma in the future with understanding, generosity, goodwill, and compassion.
Here’s what we learn in this post:
My Connection to Holly
Paranoia
Envy
A Solar-Chthonic Nature: The Sun, The Bat, and The Hanged Person
New perspectives
The Hanged Person tarot card
Evil Spirits and The Malocchio
Being a future ancestor of goodwill
Christmas: Death and Life. Bones and Healing. Abundance and Barrenness. Vitality and Poison. Golden Ages and Devils
Traditional Chinese uses of holly
Native American uses of holly
Culpeper and Agrippa
Druidic use of holly
Saturn and Satan: Illegal Christmas
Conclusions. Holly’s Lessons: Poison and Effervescence
My Connection to Holly: Paranoia and Envy
“Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly.
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Then, heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly.”
I was born five days after Christmas, and the month of December has always been such a spiritual time for me for as long as I can remember. Although the fun, vibrant colors of Christmas are very visually stimulating for a child, it was so much more for me than just that. Even as a toddler, I was connected or attuned to something bigger than myself, and I constantly provoked this elusive and expansive energy to reveal itself. This connection to an invisible being or energy was made clearer the closer the calendar drew to December.
I remember the first time I was introduced to the plant holly [Ilex aquifolium]. Although this holly was a plastic replica of itself in the form of a decorative Christmas garland, I remember being drawn into the plant. This connection to holly would continue into my 30s when I experimented with Bach Remedies’ Flower Essences for school. My classmate, an extremely talented emotional well-being therapist, has taken me on as her case study. For her assignment, she had to suggest some flower essences for specific concerns I was having. However, when I mentioned my connection with holly, she encouraged me to explore it. Dr. Edward Bach was a British physician who developed The Bach Flower Remedies in the 1930s. These remedies serve as alternative medicine founded on the belief that flowers hold healing properties that can alter our mindsets and bring balance to our emotions. Part of the 38 Flower remedies, the flower essence Holly was created to alchemize feelings of rage, jealousy, suspicious, and negative feelings into love, compassion, understanding, and being of service and goodwill towards others. Here is the description of Holly from Dr. Edward Bach:
“For those who sometimes are attacked by thoughts of such kind as jealousy, envy, revenge, suspicion. For the different forms of vexation. Within themselves, they may suffer much, often when there is no real cause for their unhappiness.”
It is not a wild theory to hypothesize that a lot of the learned behaviors that have kept us all alive in our childhood during times of stress and sorrow can manifest into toxic patterns as we settle into less turbulent times in our older age. Working with holly has helped me to open my eyes to those toxic behaviors that exist within me, and a lot of the work that came up for me during this time was about paranoia and envy. One of the recent woundings that I have been tending to is the hurt that is associated with my past as a performance artist, who was involved in the entertainment industry and its peripheral communities. I have been accepting that, as much as I love the stage, I don’t really belong in power dynamics with people or groups that desire something from you if only you have something that benefits them. I often found myself lost, alone, and so far away from who I knew I was because I let people who didn’t want the best for me create paranoia around how vibrant I tend to be when I engage with work that I am passionate about.
I grew up with others telling me to tame my “too muchness”, and a lot of people viewed my performance art as a way to attain attention, which made me think negative thoughts about myself and my work. Needless to say, I grew into a scared person who was suspicious of my own gifts. Gaining attention was never part of the reasons why I do performance art. I like to tell stories of healing and inner-power with dance, color, and fantasy. In a sense, I innately thought this work was helping others heal, and I often received messages relaying this very sentiment back to me. However, the more I was surrounded by “friends” with hidden agendas that perceived my “too muchness” as a mechanism to gain attention, the more I began to hate this beautiful part of myself. This paranoia, of myself and of others, has put a big wedge in between me and my desire to be social. As I resigned myself to the dark corners of my own life, hidden from public view, I also took with me my vibrancy and hid that away as well. It is really easy to see how this could make a person envious of others who are shining in their full power, but this envy was partly a self-inflicted “injury” that was brought on by a projected paranoia and belief that others didn’t want me to be luminous.
The Ghost of Christmas Present, Illustrated by John Leech
Paranoia
As it relates to paranoia, holly worked with me on turning paranoia into empathy and understanding. It was a two-fold process, too: I was able to put my fears aside, and understand where people were coming from, and why might people (especially in the entertainment industry) engage with others on the basis of “I give you this, if you give me that”. This is purely a skill of survival in this industry, unfortunately. The entertainment industry is, as it is well known to be, cut-throat and petty. On the other hand, I began to discern paranoia versus intuition. Meaning, I could begin to parse out what exactly was a fear of mine, and what was a true instinct based on divine message, or even just simply observing the behaviors of others. Working on intuition versus paranoia has enabled me to keep harmful people at bay, but genuine friends within my circle. Furthermore, I developed the skill of being able to open the eyes of an “enemy”, and started to “befriend the bully” by expressing compassion to, and understanding of, their behaviors. Putting the ego aside to deeply understand another person’s rage, even when it is wrongfully directed at you, is a difficult practice. On the other hand, it is my belief that it is the remedy to this exact situation.
Envy
As I occulted my own beingness from the world, I developed a jealousy towards others who unapologetically stepped into their own power. I don’t necessarily consider myself a jealous person in the proper sense, but as I silenced myself, I looked around, and saw so many beautiful people sharing their own gifts and skills with the world. I started feeling like I am not “gifted” enough to create my own life. I began to look at other peoples’ lives, see how well they are doing, and often think, “why not me?” In a sense, I yielded to the belief that there isn't anything that sets me apart that would generate a vibrant life for myself or to contribute to society. However, there was, I had just let others weaponize my passion against me, and I had forgotten all about my gifts and skills. I believed that there wasn’t anything that I can offer the world that would be of value, and therefore I should become a recluse and hide away in some solitary Wizard’s Tower. However, the message that holly was sending me was, “Yes, but why not you?” When I sat with this question, a lot of negative opinions about myself were culled from my being. Why not me? Could it be that I truly have only myself to blame for this mental anguish that I carry with me?
A Solar-Chthonic Nature: The Sun, The Bat, and The Hanged Person
“The Holly King reigns over the dark half of the year when the days grow shorter. He ascends the throne after the ritual sacrifice of the Oak King on the midsummer fires. In a never ending cycle of life, death, and rebirth, the Holly King is himself sacrificed at the Winter Solstice, to make way once more for the king of the light half of the year. The Oak and Holly Kings are dual aspects of the guardian god of nature, who in some traditions is also known as the corn god. Their combined role is to protect, court, and make love with the earth goddess, thus ensuring the fruitfulness of the land. Together they are responsible for carrying the green life force of nature through the year”
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