21. June 2019 – Original Text & Foto by Diana
Even now I remember my childhood days when by the end of May the elderflower was blooming. I could hardly wait to escape from home and to reach the railway at the edge of my village and pick up the craved blooming flowers. I smelled love in every each umbel while I’ve plucked it with deference. The delicate fragrance tickled my nostrils and, in my mouth, I already felt the aroma and prickles of the future elderflower juice. Ah, but for the real feeling, I still had to wait for days!
Back then, I was watching and disenchanting the jars filled with elderflowers and lemon, hoping for a sooner transmutation. And after that long wait, I wholly enjoyed the magical juice. What a great treat!
The elder and elderflower remained the mystery of my childhood, the magical gate to another dimension. When the delicate but also dazzling and sweet fragrance of the flowers remained on my nose and arms, I felt wear myself in a world peopled by fairies and magical creatures. For that, I am not surprised. Our forefathers considered the elderflower a magical plant.
Many legends and stories are telling us about the spirit of this plant. It is said that its spirit has a primordial feminine intelligence, that was ignored too long in our culture. It is connected with the root, the source of the Being, that mysterious place from which we come and where at some point we will return. It can teach us a lot about the stream of life, about becoming and passing, about the earth’s eternal breath. Even the name of the plant the Elder, the Ancient, the Old one, the Ancestor tells us a lot about it. From ages, the elder was considered representing the old wise spirit of the earth.
Having an elder in the garden is more valuable as an entire pharmacy.
old saying
Now I set aside the plant’s therapeutic properties, and I want to write about the alchemical ones, about how the Trinity is being revealed by the true nature of the elder. The keywords here are ripening, maturing, becoming, fulfiling, protection and responsibility.
In the first phase, the spring, white and delicate inflorescences in the shape of an umbrella are radiating purity, freshness and seduction. If you look closely at the little flowers that make the umbel, they have a five-pointed star shape, a pentagram, which is a symbol of femininity and planet Venus. The white, opalescent colour and seductive smell remember us the Moon, the patron over the waters, night and creation. The Moon is also the bridge to the mysterious depths of our soul, which are revealed in real feelings.
In the summer, the pollinated flowers form many small fruits that during the ripening process, become red, and form an interesting contrast with the green leaves. At this moment, for a short time, the martial component of the plant is revealed to us. The blood red colour links us to the vital energy, the corporality and physicality. It binds us with pure energy, activity and action. It is the active part of fertility that keeps the flow of life across generations.
The lilac-black fruits are shining temptingly in autumn as a
White, red and black. Just like the pulsation of life!
We are born from water in purity, we are maturing by living the fire of our lives, and at the end, we offer ourselves to the earth. The Trinity is revealing to us through the eternal cycle of life-giving energies of nature.
The elder is a potent plant, both physically and energetically. If we can affect the plants with our thoughts and intentions, could the plants with their energy and spirit also (as many experiments have already shown), affect us either? Yes, but unfortunately, we are not aware of this.
Nature is wonderful. We should treat it with respect and deference.
And saying this, I remain watching and wondering and disenchanting the jar with the transmutation elderflowers, hoping that they want, at least as much as I want, to become me or … would I become myself the elder?