In Autumn 2003 I suddenly felt a strong pull to go to Tasmania, the large island south of the Australian mainland. I had no idea why, where I would visit, or what I would do there, but the call to go was insistent.
So I packed my van with camping gear and booked a passage for myself, my dog Pablo and the van on the overnight ferry from Melbourne.
JOURNEY TO TASMANIA
As I was sailing it was clear that it was the southern tip of the island that was calling me – though I had no idea what was there. I really didn’t have much knowledge of Tasmania at all. Once on the island I drove directly to Hobart, the capital city situated in the south. Here I spent 5 days – exploring the old city, wondering what I was doing there and facing a few personal demons that confronted me once I was out of my comfort zone and habitual life style.
One afternoon, sitting in a park above the city I was feeling quite lost and wrestling with old repetitious thought patterns in my mind – Pablo walked away from me and rolled over on his back on the dry earth and began ecstatically rolling around all over the ground making loud happy noises. I got the message and began to do the same – immediately I was out of my mind and connected with the earth – rejoicing in the smell of it, the sun on my face and the wind through my hair. Pablo, my constant guide and teacher had brought me back into the moment. It was time to leave the city. We spent the next ten days camping on islands, in forests and on beaches.
One morning I woke to find pure white wallabies (small kangaroos) grazing around our camp – I had never known they existed.
On a beach where there had been a whaling station in the early 20th Century and where I felt the pain of the whales lingering, I performed a little ceremony and threw a bottle with a mix of flower essences and Sabina Petite’s Whale Essence (Pacific Essences) into the ocean to add a little love and healing to the slaughter site.
FROM DESTRUCTION TO AN ANCIENT GROVE
I met and sat with some of the tallest and oldest trees in Australia, spending hours sitting at their bases and feeling their strength and wisdom flowing through me. Initially on seeing these few trees – kept almost like animals in a zoo, small islands amidst an ocean of desolation and destruction – I felt deep sadness. All around them the forests had been clear felled, mostly for wood chips for export. I felt deep sadness that there were so few of these ancient giants left and wondered how man could be so insensitive to destroy such beings that had been standing for close to a millennium and which surely held an infinite storehouse of wisdom – destroyed for short term economic gain.
But after some time I became grateful that there were still these few trees standing and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet with them.
The day that I was thinking to return to the city I felt a strong pain in my heart at the idea of leaving and decided instead to go for a walk to a waterfall I had been told about.
Getting there was like driving through a war zone. Vast areas of forest were laid waste and now only bare earth was left, and huge burning piles of unwanted trees that filled the sky with smoke. It felt surreal and scary.
However once in the small preserved old forest I was in a different world.
As I walked I came across mushrooms and fungi of all types, shapes and sizes. Many were brilliant reds, purples, oranges and yellows, as well as the full spectrum of earth tones. As I met different species I was guided to breathe them into my energy field, in many cases into specific chakras – I was told that in this way I would absorb their energy and it would remain with me. I was told these were repositories of great wisdom and teachings, and that in time I would understand this on a mental level, and in the meantime to let it percolate into my being.
Near the waterfall I came into a grove of ancient Myrtle trees – beings so old and gnarled and ancient. I fell to my knees in awe and instantly understood that this is why I had come to Tasmania.
Both Pablo and I curled up around the base of one of them and fell into a reverie – much information was passed to me and much was absorbed but not intellectually understood – I was told that my next work lay here and I would be guided when to return – in the meantime I made an essence from a fungus growing in the roots of the tree, some leaves, some bark and some mud??? – this I have been taking for this past year and feeling a strong atunement with these elders of the Earth.
THREE YEARS LATER
It was three years before I returned, and this time I journeyed with Dr Rosemary Beaumont, a friend, and deeply intuitive healer.
Over the next two Autumns we made the 22 essences in the repertory, and then spent the next six years working with them, exploring their effects on ourselves and a small select group of people.
The Tasmanian Wilderness Essences were launched in May 2014 at the International Flower Essence Conference in Tokyo, and since then have been received very enthusiastically.
Tanmaya