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Article by Wisdom of the Earth Essential Oils
March, 2007
Healing ourselves…Healing the Planet
We are all ONE. So many times we have heard this concept…it sounds so right, but it can be difficult to grasp or actually demonstrate and apply on a practical level. I experienced the feeling of this concept –a true “ah ha”…a profound realization of its truth -- during a group “soul retrieval” in which I participated many years ago.
Everybody was lying in a circle with our heads toward the center and our feet pointed out, our bodies like spokes in a human wheel. Deeply primal background music set the stage. The shaman who was working with us knelt over each of us one at a time… speaking, crooning and sometimes shouting phrases and images that he was “getting” from that person’s mind and heart.
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I was one of his first subjects. He tapped into some very fundamental, highly personal images from both this and earlier lives that had deeply shaped me, and he was calling them out, rapid-fire, as they came to him. It was a jumble of words and pictures so unique to me that I felt certain that they meant nothing to anyone else. When my “turn” was over, I was shaken, enlightened in an incredible way…shown relationships between experiences and pieces of myself that I had never fully understood before. Little did I know that I was about to experience another profound understanding.
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As he knelt over the next person…and the next….and the next, I was astounded that THEIR stories were also MY story.
The jumbled phrases, the images, tapped into my own life experience and I relived that experience of enlightenment over and over, as he worked with one person after another around the wheel. As the experience came to a close, I was enveloped in the group’s energy and the phrase “We are all ONE” kept playing in my mind like a mantra. It was at that moment that I truly felt and understood the import, the possibility and the power of that concept.
At that time, I was delving into a new and profound relationship that would change my life...a relationship with the plants and trees via essential oils...
I was using the oils at the time of my soul retrieval experience, and, knowing what I know now, am sure that they provided a depth of experience that I would not have had without them.
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I had met my (now) business partner, Barry Kapp a few years earlier, and it was he who had introduced me to essences such as Black Spruce, Ylang Ylang, Clary Sage and Geranium to address physical issues I was struggling with, including extreme lower back pain, a separated shoulder, and menopause. Over time, each of these physical conditions was resolved and virtually completely healed using essential oils, massage, yoga and chiropractic treatments. No back surgery (which had been strongly recommended), no hormone replacement therapy (which had been prescribed)…just working with natural remedies which supported and strengthened the healing power of my body. |
Other and more profound changes occurred as I used the oils daily. I began a deep and joyous spiritual journey that continues to this day. I became not only aware of the interconnectedness of all things, but I began to experience it on a personal level…the soul retrieval being a major case in point. Another example of this interconnectedness was the communication I began to experience with plants and trees. They began to speak to me (supported by the use of essences to enhance my spiritual receptiveness), sometimes in very personal and even humorous ways …other times to call themselves to my attention so that I could use them, in the form of an essential oil, in a healing—my own or my clients’. As one of my favorite sayings observes “It is one thing when you notice the Plants and Trees…it is entirely another when they notice YOU.” I began to realize that I had been “noticed” and, as a result, my life was taking a new, dramatically more fulfilling direction as I lived my passion.
I began to understand and more deeply experience the incredible relationship that exists between humans and the natural world…the plants & trees, animals, rocks, rivers…all consciousnesses. This is not my experience alone, but is written and spoken about by many people, including such incredible teachers as Stephen Harrod Buhner in his haunting book The Lost Language of Plants, Derrick Jensen in his moving memoir, A Language Older than Words, and deep ecologists John Seed and Joanna Macy in their seminal work Thinking Like a Mountain.
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“It is one thing when you notice the Plants and Trees…
it is entirely another when they notice YOU.”
What was happening to me is not unusual in the world of Essential Oils….in fact, it is one of the things that so inspires me in my work with these plant and tree medicines. Our clients come to us with a variety of physical ailments, including insomnia, digestive problems, cancer, or arthritis. I then watch as the oils suggested for these ailments go beyond the physical and also bring about spiritual and emotional changes in the lives of these people. We know that the healing that occurs is deeply rooted in the ancient relationship between the Plant Kingdom and Humans. It is also deeply rooted in the relationship we have with ourselves…which the oils so gently but persistently heal and strengthen.
We come to love ourselves more, and in that journey toward wholeness,
true healing occurs.
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And the healing doesn’t stop there. As we deepen our connection with the Earth and all Creation, we experience the sense of “place” that draws so many to a certain part of the planet. Having that connection also creates a sense of stewardship for that place, which then spreads to the Earth and all Her inhabitants…giving rise to movements such as organic farming, sustainable ways of living and working, ecological issues like global warming and GMOs, world peace, and animal rights, both domestic and wild.
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So, in the end, it is relationship that connects us, that sustains us, and will ultimately heal us. By developing meaningful relationships that literally encompass the planet -- and integrating plant and tree essences into your life is one powerful way to do that --we will prevail over those who would divide us, poison us, and create fear in us. Remember, we are all ONE…and, through that oneness, as we heal ourselves, we heal the planet.
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About the author:
Audre Wenzler is a Certified Medicinal Aromatherapist and Partner in Wisdom of the Earth, an essential oils company based outside of Sedona, AZ. She teaches and consults with clients throughout the United States, and shares her time between Santa Fe, NM and Sedona, AZ.
This article is Copyright © 2007 protected by Audre Wenzler and Wisdom Of The Earth Essental Oils. Reproduction is prohibited without express written permission by the author.
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