In any form of plant medicine, be it with essential oils, hydrosols, or other preparations, it is important to work with the plant as a living being, not just as an inert collection of matter. The ways a plant is grown, harvested, processed, and stored are crucial, so that it can retain as much as possible of its soul and intelligence when it’s been turned into medicine.
As Florian and I have evolved on our personal paths in plant medicine, so has the subtle and intuitive level we work with plants—in other words with the plant as an ally or teacher. Unless the plant’s intelligence and soul are preserved in the form we are using, we can’t learn from it. We have found that the quality of the plant medicine we use is crucial to the outcome of our work.
When we tune in to a plant and feel its resonance, e.g. using Intuitive Plant Communication, we can feel everything that the plant has experienced. If a plant has been covered in pesticides as it grew, this vibrational information can be picked up and influences the vitality and healing intelligence of the plant. This is exactly the same as when you eat food that has been treated with pesticides, antibiotics, etc. The vitality of the food has been impacted.
You may be thinking that this is pretty obvious that we should be choosing plants that are organically sourced. What’s the big deal? But it goes much deeper. We have realized through experience that there is a big difference in the power and purity of the information conveyed by an essential oil distilled by someone who is aware of and honors the soul of the plant versus an organic essential oil produced in large volumes, even if it’s made sustainably or sold by a reputable company. A distiller who isn’t aware of the soul of the plant can’t distill in a way that preserves it, even if they are very precise in their methods and the GC/MS of their product looks good. It takes time and research to find such soul-aware distillers—they are few and far between.
Our work focuses on scent as a way of learning from the plant. Therefore the main forms of plant medicine we use are essential oils and hydrosols. We work with the information conveyed by the scent, which means we work with minute amounts of medicine, such as a whiff from the bottle or a single drop on a scent strip or a couple sprays of a hydrosol. Even though the amounts are miniscule, the impact can be huge. This is a form of informational or vibrational medicine, like learning from a teacher or guide. It is not pharmacology in the conventional sense, where you need to achieve a certain blood level of a certain molecule to achieve the desired effect. By working with the plant on an informational and intuitive level, we are partnering with it vibrationally. If the plant’s aliveness has not been recognized and respected during the distilling process, it is lost and there is nothing to partner with. The essential oil or hydrosol is dead.
Let’s assume you are interested in this approach instead of the pharmacological approach. What can we do to make sure we work with the right plant teachers? Most importantly, take your time and do some research before buying essential oils. If at all possible, make your own hydrosols or even essential oils. It’s true that typical home stills, e.g. 35L to 50L will only produce minimal amounts of essential oil, but they can produce a good amount of hydrosol. Also, remember that for informational medicine you won’t need large amounts. For this work, it is better to have a moderate amount of an alive hydrosol and maybe a tiny amount of an alive essential oil than a huge amount of energetically dead essential oil.
When buying essential oils, buy them from distillers or distributors that are passionate about the plants and their aromas and who produce smaller volumes while concentrating on quality. We strongly advise you to talk to the company you are thinking of buying from. Ask them about their philosophy. Ask about their growing or harvesting methods. In the case of a distributor, ask them what they are looking for when choosing an essential oil that they plan to distribute. You will soon be able to tell and feel if they have an approach that matches yours. At the least, ask them about their ideas on the intelligence of plants—a subject that was once taboo but is now becoming more widely accepted. Build a relationship with the people you are buying from. Remember, you won’t need large amounts for informational medicine, so you can buy a smaller amount of a higher quality oil. This is also much more sustainable on a global level than the huge amounts of commercial essential oils currently being produced, which have a horrible impact on the environment at each step in their production, including being grown in vast monocultures or being over-harvested in the wild, as well as the carbon footprint of their production and distribution. People may think that essential oils or hydrosols are a more natural form of medicine, but that is simply not true when they are being produced on an industrial scale.
Regarding hydrosols, there is nothing better than making your own. That way you will be in relationship with the plant from the moment you start growing or wildcrafting it, through preparing and distilling it and finally storing and using it. You will have first-hand knowledge of the effort, respect and care that went into the hydrosol and the hydrosol itself will tell the story. Although we have always made our own hydrosols, while we were writing our online class on hydrosols, we thought we should buy some commercialized hydrosols to test them and see if they were suitable for class participants who couldn’t distill. We bought a selection of hydrosols from a very reputable company that were being sold at a local health food shop in France. We were terribly disappointed. Even though they were made by a reputable company, they were dead, had no aroma left and felt overdiluted. We simply could not work with them. On the other hand, the hydrosols we’ve made ourselves from the wild plants that grow in New Mexico have led us on some of the most incredible journeys, teaching us about their unique signatures and wisdom, their strengths and the places they grow. They communicate with us soul to soul and that is what we all need and deserve. If you want to find out more about how to make your own hydrosol, check out Cathy’s online certification class on hydrosols.
