DID YOU KNOW?

To say the least, you are a mental giant. You think a lot--maybe too much.   Your mind is sharp, curious, quick to jump and make up your mind about something. You do very well in academic surroundings.  And you're good at memorizing things.  Able to learn in classroom situations, you are a "book learner" type.  Verbal by nature, you can communicate well in speaking as well as writing. Your world consists of using logic and rationalization.  A prove-it-to-me kind of person.

THE HEALTHY YOU

You're a gut-hunch kind of person whether you realize it or not.  A lot of your decisions are based upon primal instinct which may or may not even tweak you consciously.  However, you're a wonderful amalgam of rational mind (left brain) and right brain (instincts and intuition) IF you want to be.  If you are truly in balance, you become very "whole-brained", utilizing both hemispheres of your brain to a very high degree.  Not only can you know the answer to an Algebra problem before doing the math on it, you can also do the math to prove how you know the answer!  That's a pretty neat trick!


THE UNHEALTHY YOU

Insomnia can dog your heels because you are the one that gets the "gerbil running on the wheel" at night, and you can't shut off your thoughts.  They just keep rolling along even though you'd like some sleep!  You can get dogged, stuck and very stiff-necked about your belief system.  Worse, you will be arrogant about it and you're right and the rest of the world is wrong.  It's "my way or no way..." kind of blinders-on attitude.  The old saying:  You are cut off from the neck down, implies that you allow your logic and rational to rule you and you suppress your emotions--not a good thing in the long run!

ALMOND BLOSSOM
by Eileen Nauman , DHM (UK) ©

We have a small orchard at La Casa de Madre Tierra, with just about every fruit one can think of, including figs (which aren't supposed to grow here due to altitude and temperature!).  Citrus doesn't survive at all here, although we have a strong lemon tree spirit who is managing to hang in there and has for years.

I've always been fascinated with trees that bore fruit or nuts for us--they feed us.  They are a gift to us from the tree nation, is another way to look at their offering and bounty.  One of the objectives I had, because we live on a small vortex, was to make natural essences of the plants and trees that grew on the land we steward.  I'd like to introduce you to our tree family and what their spring blossoms can bring to us even before they are pollinated to gift us with their fruit.

ALMOND BLOSSOM:  This tree is 30 years old, and she's a huge, magnificent almond tree with spreading branches.  Her almonds are huge and she has a big crop each year--except when she jumps the gun and puts out her blooms before the last frost, which is usually March 15th.  This year, she got impatient and all her blooms were frosted over, so no nuts this year!

When you stop and look at an almond, you are struck, first, by it's shape: which is oval, like an ovary or an egg shape.  Pregnancy is a keyword for almond.  Each nut is covered with a thick, light green velvety shell that encases and protects it.  When the nut is fully formed, the green shell surrounding it opens up in the middle and the halves open to allow the almond to drop to the ground.  Of course, if we don't get there first, the peccary or wild pigs, are more than happy to visit that night and chow down on them! 

Anyone visiting us sits near this beautiful almond tree.  We have a redwood bench nearby, and the birds, usually a robin, will make her nest in her 'hair'.  From the bench, the almond's spreading arms shades visitors from the hot, summer sun that Arizona is so well known for.

When I made this essence, I didn't know what to expect.  I always found myself wandering near this almond tree, reaching out and touching her smooth limbs, the feeling pleasant and always uplifting.  I asked for and received permission from her to fill my glass bowl with her pretty white blossoms.  The fragrance of an almond is heady and euphoric to inhale.  It is a sweet, heavy scent.

There are five petals to an almond blossom.  Five is the number of the fulcrum point; the center of balance.  The old saying:  "As above, so below," applies to the number five.  Another way to look at it is the two triangles, points together.  When placed in that way, they look like an hourglass.  It is the point at which the two triangles meet that manifestation onto the physical plane is created. 

BALANCE is a keyword to use with Almond.

The bowl sat at the trunk of this almond tree for an hour.  After filtering off the essence, I drank about an ounce of it which had been left over.  The taste was woody, almost bitter on my tongue.  That taste stayed on the tip of my tongue for a few minutes after drinking it.  As I sat on the bench allowing the magic of this essence to begin to filter through me.

Because the blossoms are white, they are part of the Crown Chakra which is located at the top of our heads or the vertex region.  White contains all the colors of the spectrum; therefore, can influence any chakra in our body. 

A number of impressions began to hit me simultaneously:  Creativity, Inner Child, Female, Beginnings, Happy, Protective, Menopause, Nourished, Defensiveness, Children, Childlike, Restless, Playful, Boundaries, Whole-Brained, Puberty,  Peer Group Pressure, and Youthful. 

Balance:  If feeling out of kilter or out of balance, too much into the adult mode and your inner child has been left behind, think of this essence.  Almond helps us achieve a balance between work and play.  Seriousness and laughter.  Joy and soberness.

Beginnings:  If you want to start something new, think of Almond as your partner.  It helps to give you the vision of what you want for your future.

Boundaries:  If you are in need of boundaries, Almond lends her hull-like sense of safety so that you can say yes or no, accordingly--and without guilt.
 
Childlike:  The ability to tap into our individual reservoir of our inner child and not only feel it, but learn to express it through not only creative endeavors, but through learning how to play once again, and being able to recapture our laughter once again.

Children:  For a child, boy or girl, who has lost their ability to laugh, to remain in the innocence of childhood due to some trauma.  The essence for a child who has lost his/her child likeness.

Creativity:  Almond gives one 'seed' ideas that spur open our creativity.

Defensiveness:  This essence helps us to drop our walls we hide behind because we feel so vulnerable.  It bestows a sense of protection automatically so we don't have to be defensive any longer.

Female:  This essence helps women or girls to remain true to themselves as individuals--and not be swayed by too much social or peer group pressure to fulfill stereotypical roles in our male run society.

Menopause:  Having the ability to shed our walls and life as a mother and enter the age of selfhood to fulfill our own unique hopes, dreams and wishes along creative avenues of expression.

Nourish:  One of it's strongest characteristics was the ability to feel cloistered and protected while coming to fruition within ourselves.  This essence makes us feel safe enough to be who we really are without putting on a facade or mask. 

Peer Group Pressure:  For a child of any age, especially school age where peer pressure is great, Almond will help the child or teenager get in touch within themselves rather than giving their power away to someone who is seemingly stronger than they are.

Playful:  For the person who works too long and too hard, who always has a frown or is too serious most of the time.  Almond allows this person to see there are choices and that work should have certain boundaries placed upon it--so that there is time for 'play' in one's life.

Pregnancy:  This essence can help the body rebalance itself shortly after pregnancy occurs.  There is now a second life in our body and our endocrine system works swiftly to make a livable environment for that baby.  Almond helps the re balancing take place more smoothly.

Puberty:  Almond helps a young girl who is just about to enter womanhood with her first menses by balancing the state of her hormones; able to grow toward being a woman without the loss of her inner child.  For a young boy poised on entering manhood, this essence establishes a balance between his hormones and his feelings.  There is less peer-group stress on either gender as a result.

Whole-Brained:  This essence helps to bring the two halves together to make a whole.  If you are too left-brained (logical/rational) or too right-brained (spacey, creative, idealistic), the essence helps to achieve a balance between the two hemispheres.

Youthful:  If you are feeling old and gray, worn down and out, Almond will pick you up and put you in touch with your own inner vibrancy which is childlike and joyful.

Almond natural essence is an essential in our modern-day world where children become latchkey kids, both parents are working themselves to the bone and come home exhausted and overburdened.  This natural essence can give back the lightheartedness we all lost somewhere along the way in our busy workaday world.  It puts laughter back into our starving inner child that has been ignored for far too long.  Almond teases us to drop our burdens for just an hour and go do something healing and nurturing for ourselves.