Last week, I held a Magnolia Flower Immersion and essence making day in a stunning grove of Magnolia trees.

While I had a rather grand article in mind, spanning patterns of beyond time, I’ve decided to split it into two articles for ease of reading. So today I’ll simply share a the plant spirit wisdom received from Magnolia. A baseline… If you want to read the second, make sure you’re subscribed (free) over on my substack here.

After a wet week, the sun shone on the day we gathered. We sat, we listened, we tuned in with her. Then we gathered a few flowers – in deep listening, only receiving the ones she offered graciously and willingly with permission. And let them fall into the local spring waters I had collected a few days earlier trickling out from their source. The Whalespring as we’ve come to call it, being at the head or spout of the gigantic whale that is within the landscape here (its tail end, the easternmost point of Australia, Cape Byron).

As the flowers rested gently in the water in the sunshine, we continued to attune and commune with the Magnolia deva to learn from her. The following insights come from the group as we listened and learned from the spirit of Magnolia (gratitude and credit to Steph Banks, Mikala Daley, Gab Hawke, Wei Liu, Tahlia Lowers, Hannah Rose, Sophie Suttonberg, H.Wedd).

And oh what a delightful being she is.

An ancient grandmother, full of love. Everything about her being is soft, soothing and uplifting. No matter what you may be going through, she is like the old grandmother crone inside us that carries the perspective of age and time. The wise elder woman within, whose experience is so vast that she can hold us throughout anything, no matter how big it feels. To her, it’s but a drop in the ocean. A grain of sand on the beach. She smiles lovingly and embraces us compassionately in her warm depth of experience, helping us to allow and be and feel, until we find ourselves gently back in fullness, hearts overflowing with soft, quiet love once more.

Regal, generous, sovereign, graceful, dignified, ever loving, she holds and protects us in her all-knowing arms as we navigate life.

She heals wounds of the heart, the pain of the past ever so softly, simply through her holding. She reminds us to soften and open, to transform our pain and sorrow, to reclaim our soft yet strong feminine power and grace, to remember who we really are, our inner strength and beauty, of the joy of being.

She reorients us to new timelines that hold softness, grace, love, connection, compassion. Gently leading us to transmute our shadow and pain.

Just as she grows from the damp soil, she lifts grief and uplifts us again, warming the heart. She’s not afraid of the dark, in fact, she feeds off it, munching it away and transforming it into beauty and love.

“Be not afraid of the pain, the dark, the struggles, the feelings, they are food for your heart and your love, your strength and your beauty. Embrace them as I hold and protect you until you’re ready to softly rise and smile again.”

Like a competent grandmother, she holds you softly in your pain until you’re ready to rise again, then she sets you on your way – the way of compassion, respect, love, trust, acceptance, encouragement and listening, not just for others, but for self.

She is a gateway to old ways, old times, to ‘unmet worlds within’ as one shared. She spans the old with the now, creating a bridge. She offers an entrance to receive ancient wisdom of the old ways that can be adapted to today’s world to lead in fresh, uplifting ways.

And ever present with her loving embrace, she holds us as we adapt and shift to find new ways that rise out of wisdom from the ancient past.

“Become who you truly are. Stand tall, soften into love, lift in sweetness.”[ii]

Repeatedly I struggled to find the right words to describe the feelings she evoked and the teachings she shared. As if she comes from a time where our language doesn’t quite fit. At one point, the closest words I could find: ‘ecstatic, divine, blissful’ felt quite off, yet better words aren’t in our current language.

Magnolia Flower Essence available here

Grandmother of Flowers

A little Magnolia history

Magnolia appears to have evolved around 100 million years ago (mya), in the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs were still around. A great diversity of flowering plants or ‘angiosperms’, (which literally translates as ‘seed vessel/container’) seemed to suddenly flourish in this time. And when dinosaurs went extinct, the flowers lived on.

It’s estimated the common ancestor to all seed and flowering plants lived around 310-350mya, and the most recent common ancestor lived around 140-250mya.[i] Scientists now believe that this ancestral flower looked like Magnolia.

The Magnolia we know today is a descendent maybe we could say! The ancestor of a Mother flower from which all other flowers were born.

In fact, angiosperms (flowering plants) used to be known as Magnoliophyta.

The Magnolia family have stamens and pistils in spirals rather than the whorls of most flowering plants, which is thought to indicate it as one of the earlier flowering plants.[ii] (This was great confirmation to learn afterwards, as during our embodiment practices with Magnolia, spiralling movements were quite apparent).

The earliest Magnolia flower that exists today is a yellow magnolia (Magnolia acuminata) that dates back to 20 mya.

Next week we’ll travel widely between Magnolia’s history, the seven sisters, indigenous myth, pattern language and dragonfly woman. Then more seeds of Magnolia may become apparent.

---

Want to listen and learn the language of flowers in an embodied, living, life changing way? Shamanic Herbalism Flower Codes Training is enrolling. Pathway 2 is starting in a few weeks, so there’s a little time left to complete the foundations pathway before then. Jump in and join us!

About Heidi
I’ve been walking the plant spirit path for close to 30 years. With herbalism, homeopathy, and plant alchemy/spagyrics as early companions, midwifery and shamanism came a little later. After years of listening to the plants, I’ve since taught hundreds of people how to deepen their connection with nature and learn to hear the whispers of plants. I continue to offer The Flower Codes Training/ Shamanic Herbalism online course, as well as various in person shamanic nature-based courses such as Herbal Alchemy Spagyrics.
My published books include:
“The Flower Codes: Plant Spirit Teachings for your Soul to Blossom.”
“Wild Flower Walker: A Pilgrimage to Nature on the Bibbulmun Track”;
and Blue Triangle Butterfly: A Homeopathic Proving