Plant Spirit Medicine

Ten hours strong into the chemistry of essential oils, at the tail end of the night, partnered up after making custom blends, exchanging hand and foot massage. Grandmother's hands hold my hands in hers. Delicate skin, close to bone, I can feel just how many years travel through her touch. The way she moves over my skin, having mothered four children, brings tears from my belly to my eyes.

After thirty minutes, rose already courses my veins; melissa goes straight to the center of the nervous system; cedarwood cradles the mind for deep sleep, bergamot to steady the heart. She leans into me and I open my eyes, holds me intensely with elder gaze, "You are going to be ok..."

I burst into tears. Shit. How does she know to say that? How does she become my mother and grandmother, and every old woman that I do not have in my life?

She continues, "You need to have a conversation with your mother. Tell her that it's time to let you go. You have to stay here with your daughter."

That does it. Quivering, I look down. "She's been gone twenty years. How many times do I have to have that conversation?" Hands cup my cheeks, "As long as it takes, my dear. As long as it takes."

It's my turn. I cup my hands, five drops. Clove, marjoram, melissa, cypress. Palm to palm, I hold her. With the help of the oils, I follow along ridges, realize indents, traverse twisted knuckles. And, oh, to feel the living journey in the hands - seventy plus years. Easy to feel spirit there.

Did you know that a healthy human body has an electrical frequency between 62-68 megahertz? One megahertz vibrates one million times per second. Every essential oil has a unique frequency, ranging from 52-320 Mhz. These oils - the blood of the plant - are designed so intelligently and beautifully to resonate with the receptor sites of our cells. It's a language written into plants by the divine, a loving correspondence with the molecules in our body. Vibration is sound, so we might also say that the oils sing us into balance.

Research suggests that oils are over 95% effective for infectious disease, being fantastically antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiinflammatory, and antimicrobial. No side effects. And...and they are incredibly skillful in treating forms of spiritual illness that our medical model does not name or categorize.

It's not hard to appreciate the gifts of rose, so effulgent are her properties. Can we deny lavender her place at the head of the table? No. When we look at the blueprint inside the lovely scent, wow, another layer of genius; another level of creation art altogether.

I used to think I had to study a million things and have a bag full of techniques. This theory, that complicated philosophy. Do you know that if you pray over an oil you can raise it's frequency by 15 megahertz?

Is that not amazing? Hopeful and beautifully generous?

One thing, though. Be careful where you get your oils. In order for the 'correspondance' that I speak of to flow freely, the molecular structure of the oil must be in tact. Most companies that sell retail oils alter the oil in distillation or dilution, or by adding synthetic ingredients.

So for now, at the end of this night, my prayer is to allow myself to become simple. Laying on of hands is so universally possible that I find myself resting in the age-old image. In a room full of women blending oils, quietly tending with plant medicines -- it felt so familiar, so old, so close. I wanted to say, "Have we been here before? Didn't we all do this a long, long, long time ago? I didn't need to say a thing. Nods, glances, subtle tracelines of smiles exchanged, and the glee and satisfaction amongst us - it was obvious. We are all medicine women. We just need to put ourselves in the right place.

Ready for bed, I close my eyes and send out a long web of light, down highway 1, across the brige, over the hills, and to my sweet girl who sleeps in her crib. All the gifts of the medicine to her tonight. All my love, from grandmother's hands through mine, from all the faithful women to the young, sprouting seedlings.