The Alchemy Flower Oracle - Becoming a Flower Apprentice for the Earth
My Journey With Flowers
When we started Alchemy Farm three years ago we had no big plan for a flower farm or any other kind of farm. We both instantly fell in love with the property, with the energy of the land. Looking back on photos from our early days here it’s not hard to understand why some people thought we were completely crazy.
The place was neglected, the house needed TLC, the trees, the outbuildings, the land, all needed TLC. We didn’t know any better. We joyously, for the most part, began to work…and work…and work.
In the first few weeks, we lived in a tent on the sundeck as the house was being made liveable. During the first winter, we enthusiastically fenced the farm, created a high tunnel, a giant Hugelbed and garden beds for spring. We didn’t know exactly what we were going to plant, we just had a deep desire to create abundance and honour the land.
First Spring at Alchemy Farm
That first spring I planted my first flower seeds and dahlia tubers. The dahlia tubers were bought at the Indigo Farm farm stand - I had no idea what kind of dahlias they would be, or if the wrinkly tubers would do anything at all.
When I saw them I was immediately reminded of my deep love for dahlias which I first grew at 13 as a 4H Garden Club member. I had to have them, I didn’t care what they turned out to be. I felt like a child waiting for Christmas, filled with delicious anticipation.
Since that first spring planting, I’ve fallen more and more deeply in love with flowers. I have become a flower apprentice for the Earth. Not what I thought I’d be doing in this lifetime. I spent hours Google-ing instructions, bought every book I could find, watched every relevant Youtube video, to teach myself how to become a flower farmer.
I’ve spent hours researching flowers and what works best as specialty cut flowers. I’ve painstakingly germinated seeds and coddled them through their different growth stages, before transplanting them in the gardens.
I planted seeds directly into the ground, singing to them, sending small prayers to Mother Earth to protect them. I’ve organically battled slugs, aphids, cutworms, Leather Jackets, mould, mildew and on and on. I’ve been brought to my knees by the weather, rain, hail, winds, droughts, smoke-filled skies that blanketed the sun for weeks. I’ve wondered if I wasn’t a bit mad.
As I worked with the Earth and Her rhythms I had time to dream, to become completely immersed in the moment, at one with the flowers, the Earth, everything around me. Time disappeared in the physical meditation of repetitive work.
Where the Eco Heart Oracle Was Born
It was in these still moments that the flowers began to whisper to me and the idea of the Alchemy Flower Oracle was born. A sister deck to the Eco Heart Oracle. I began to photograph the flowers I was growing - over 200 different kinds - choosing 48 was a huge challenge! Over two years I compiled research on their traditional meanings, collected Latin and common names, and began to design the deck.
As an environmental artist, I work with deep intuition and dreams to create work. This is also how each of the Oracles has come into being. The artwork begins with photographs that are digitally layered with images and symbols.
Once the cards are designed the deep meditations for each card begins. Some people call this type of work channeling. This part of the process is the most exhausting and challenging. I travel through deep intuition to meet the Spirit of each card - each flower.
Divas present themselves and share messages and sometimes exercise like writing prompts, or meditations that become guided meditations that I record to share with you. Even though I have been a conduit for Spirit, for the Earth, for many years as an artist, I struggle with being Woo-woo. Yet, when I enter into a partnership with Spirit to bring forward new work I am absolutely certain it is my purpose and a part of my lineage.
Alchemy Flowers Oracle
The intention for the Alchemy Flower Oracle is to provide a way of communicating with the natural world, with flowers that carry messages that your intuition can interpret and understand. The cards are a healing tool to help you explore your connections to yourself and the world around you.
The artwork for each of the cards was completed over the last year and the guidebook is nearing completion. I’m asking for your support, by pre-ordering a deck during the Kickstarter campaign, to help with the editing and printing costs of this first edition. My plan is to have oracles in the mail in December 2018.