FLORA'S STORY

A few Sundays ago I felt called to create a collage that I'd had in my mind for months. A woman in a long dress, someone I'd seen in a dream, The Paper Garden dream that I'll write about another time.

I'd been collecting, drying and pressing flowers from the garden all last summer; I laid them out on a tray and went to work with runny glue and an idea of what I wanted the woman to look like. I began pasting flowers, starting at the hem of her dress and soon realized that the flowers were actually fashioning someone on their own, someone beautiful! I continued to paste. I knew I only had a handful of black sunflower petals which I was saving for the bodice and that the rest of the dress, the petticoat layers, were to be crafted from a colorful array of dahlia petals.

I had just a few skin toned petals for her arms, and when it came to do her face and neck I picked up a Queen Anne's Lace, the whole bloom, and set it in place. It was perfect. Her hat came next with five papery orchids that had dried in the spot where they had wilted and fallen from the stem. I found myself falling in love with this creation long before it was complete, and I didn't know why? It was somehow effortless, magically appearing before my eyes. The feathers of goose, dove and guinea hen. The tiny black knight scabiosa tucked in among the orchids, and sprigs of rose - tipped hydrangea nestled in the ruffles of her skirt, as an added flourish from her gypsy couturier.

Everything else seemed to artfully place itself, a wand of Queen Anne's lace in her right hand, a cane of yellow root in her left, and an everlasting flower placed upon it as an amulet. She was where she belonged, dancing in a fragrant meadow of Queen Anne's Lace.

I couldn't believe what had come together so quickly from a few dried flowers and petals. She revealed such personality, an exquisite energy all of her own. For many hours I stared at her realizing she was in fact ME! I could see she had captured the Essence of myself and I was in LOVE!

When people ask me "what I do", I tell them "I teach the world about magic!" And so it came to be ~ here I am depicted in a dress made of flower petals, posing like The Magician in the Tarot, a wand in one hand reaching to the heavens and a wand in the other hand, touching the ground. The Magician represents a force of individual will and power. She has all the tools to capture divine wisdom from above, to bring it down through her body and make manifest in the earthly plane.

The flowers I believe were carefully selected by the plant spirits and deva's of the garden, each one holding a unique creed that I am to embody. I've had experiences with them all, both in dreams and directly in the garden.

Dahlia ~ encourages me to walk tall on my path with freedom and purpose, and to embrace all that is sensuous and feminine.

Queen Anne's Lace ~ brings powerful inner strength and well being, emotional balance, awakens the crown chakra and acts as an antenna for psychic and intuitive insight.

Black Knight Scabiosa ~ helps to bring dreams into being..

Orchid ~ royalty, fertility, higher realms of consciousness and unique beauty.

Black Sunflower ~ activates the solar plexus, our place of personal power, and brings forward the gifts that may have been kept hidden.

This is the story of how Flora came into being as a work of Art. Flora, my soul self created from foraged flowers and feathers, each piece holding deep meaning and intention for my life's path.

I encourage everyone who reads this to gather items that call to you, create your own collage, your own design that captures the Essence of you in your true frequency and radiance!