It is hard to believe that this year marks the 40th anniversary of our Sea Essences! Forty years ago in June, Pacific Essences made ‘the first Sea Essence in the world – Sand Dollar’. What an incredible journey it has been, and what amazing results people have reported from taking these Energy Medicines from Nature.
Our small planet is 71% water, and our human bodies are anywhere from 55% to 78% water. It makes sense to me that Essences from the ocean are easily recognizable by our cells and therefore have direct and lasting benefits. However, we might first have to get past feelings that some ocean and seashore beings are actually kind of slimy, and perhaps not as outwardly beautiful and captivating as a flower or gem.
For example, one way that we can help someone choose an Essence is by showing them visuals – usually the Energy Medicine cards - of all the Essences very quickly, and ask them to separate the images into three piles: Essences they like, Essences they dislike, and Essences that don’t elicit a strong response. We lay the cards down quickly, inviting people to listen to their first instinct and not try to rationalize their choice. At the end of the process four cards are left: two likes, and two dislikes. Invariably Moon Snail and Hermit Crab end up in the dislike pile (kind of slimy and less charismatic, right?). And yet, both of these Essences have powerful healing properties.
Moon Snail helps us cleanse the Body/Mind, to dissolve rigid beliefs and attitudes and to recover curiosity and innocence. This Essence came up in the dislike pile for a young man in Europe who was awaiting a kidney transplant and on dialysis three times a week in the interim. He was putting on a brave face, but deep down he felt abandoned by his elderly father who lived in a city far away and paid him little or no attention. Moon Snail, along with Dolphin for Lightheartedness, Arbutus for healing the relationship with the father and connecting with and embracing our own animus, and Bluebell for being able to express our feelings came up as his remedy. He reached out to his father and began rebuilding their relationship. No doubt this emotional healing was a valuable contribution to his overall physical healing as well.
Hermit Crab is the Essence par excellence for loneliness, the kind of loneliness where we feel insignificant and disconnected. It can also be the Essence which cultivates our ability to appreciate alone-ness and to use ‘alone time’ in a fruitful manner. Hermit Crab helps us to be comfortable in our own skin and to be ‘at home’ wherever we are.
By contrast, everywhere I go on the planet people love dolphins and recognize the joy and exuberance they express. The only concern which arises is how do you make the Dolphin Essence? Needless to say, we do not float a Dolphin in a crystal bowl, but as with all of our Essences we are physically present with these beings in the wild when we make this Essence. I still remember the first time I swam with the dolphins off the Big Island of Hawaii. Six of us were waiting for the captain to tell us to jump in, and when he did I quickly pulled my mask down and put my snorkel in my mouth. Below me was every size and shape of Spinner Dolphins just rhythmically moving together as a pod. Babies underneath their mother’s bellies. Old ones on the perimeter seemingly as guardians. I was mesmerized!
When I surfaced I was far away from the boat. I realized that I had not gotten this far on my own steam, because I had not swum a stroke. It was no doubt that the pod had carried me this far. Dolphin Essence lightens our hearts, cultivates gratitude and joy, expands consciousness and opens us to the possibility of interspecies communication.
As a practicing shiatsu therapist and kinesiologist, I was more than thrilled to discover when we launched the first 12 Sea Essences (Kit 4) that each one of these Essences resonated with one of the 12 meridians. I discovered that I could correct a weak subscapularis muscle, which relates to the Heart meridian, by having the client hold a bottle of Jellyfish Essence. Or I could correct a weak pectoralis major sternal muscle, which relates to the Liver meridian, by having the client hold a bottle of Anemone Essence. The best feature about being able to use an Essence to restore balance and strength and harmony was that people could take it home and maintain the equilibrium which they had achieved during a session. Later on when I became a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, these Sea Essences were a mainstay of my practice.
We now have a collection of 24 Sea Essences, each of which help not only to heal physical ailments but to promote transformations in consciousness. They can be used to attain major breakthroughs, to help us move into spaces of greater perspective, and to connect us with the basic rhythms of the universe during periods of change. Each Sea Essence is very precise and very powerful. They are much like the energy of the ocean, which can be peaceful and calm one minute and fiercely turbulent the next. They act quickly, and usually have quite noticeable results.
As we celebrate our 40th year of benefiting from the generous gifts of Sea Essences, we invite you to explore the transformative impact they can have in your own life.
