Potato Flower
Releasing Deeply Held Patterns; Allowing Complete Nourishment; Welcoming What's Ahead
Potato Flower Essence continues to work through me as I write this (over the course of a week.) I have had to continue letting go of pattern after pattern, even the ones that I’ve identified as positive. It seems Potato Flower essence is not just about letting go about what isn’t serving us, but letting go of patterning in general so we can work from the present moment.
The Timeline:
For those of you getting familiar with the process of essence collection, I’m sharing the timeline of how my process unfolded - as an example of how these revelations arise and move.
Friday June 13, evening: I noticed the first potato flowers, but didn’t see them fully open. I had the fleeting thought of collecting an essence.
Saturday June 14, morning: I posted a picture of the first fully open potato flowers.
Saturday June 14, night: I dreamed about harvesting potatoes. My friend, former student, and fellow essence collector/practitioner replied to the picture I posted of potato flower. She mentioned potato flower essence and the description from Alaksan Essences. I didn’t see any of this until the next morning.
Sunday June 15, morning: I woke up, remembered my dream, saw my friend’s comment, and thought I should collect the essence, but didn’t set it up right away. I was buzzing with creative energy but used it for other projects.
Sunday June 15, afternoon: I went to my childhood home of 32 years to remove my final belongings and say goodbye before its sale would close the next morning. Lots of emotional material came up for me this afternoon. I was very much in the present moment with my emotions, not trying to figure anything out, and not linking it to essence collection.
Sunday June 15, evening: I got home and realized everything I experienced during my emotional process saying goodbye to my childhood home could be linked to the potato flower essence and its medicine. (The Alaskan Essences description was perfectly on point with my experience.) I set up a bowl for collection, knowing that really the process had already begun the night before. I left the bowl of water to collect overnight, making this more than a 24-hour collection process, which though unusual, felt appropriate. When I mentioned the link between potato flower and my experience to friends, they shared their feelings about potato flower essence and some fun facts about the potato plant I’ll share below.
Monday June 16: processing, normal life
Tuesday June 17: making myself write this transmission before I forget (wrote about half of it)
June 18-21: busy, busy, busy
Sunday June 22: finally finishing this transmission now that I have more mental space
Qualities of the Potato Plant
The potato plant, solanum tuberosum, is in the nightshade family, solanaceae. Other plants in this family include tomato, mandrake, deadly nightshade, tobacco, sweet and bell peppers.
Poisonous Plant, Nourishing Tubers / The potato plant, like mandrake and deadly nightshade is mostly poisonous. In fact, every part of the plant except the tuber (the potato that we eat) is poisonous due to high levels of solanine. The foliage and inflorescence (leaves and flowers) are really beautiful, interesting, enticing, lush… they’re very attractive — but 100% poisonous.
Nicotine, Brain Support / The potato itself has trace amounts of nicotine. More nicotine is found in the leaves and stems (which are poisonous to us). Solanaceae plants produce nicotine as a pest deterrent. While we typically think of nicotine as a bad thing because it’s addictive and paired with harmful substances in cigarettes, there is a positive side to small amounts of nicotine, including supporting cognitive function, general energy and mood. (Bonus - when your nicotine receptors are receiving nicotine, they don’t have space to host the COVID-19 virus. Long covid sufferers, there’s reason to believe some nicotine can help you.)
Anti-Anxiety / Bestie mentioned this to me, and research shows it’s true! Potatoes (and wheat) contain the same compound we call benzodiazepine — the compound that effects benzodiazepine receptors in our brain, providing a calming effect. There may be more than one reason you gravitate toward starches when stressed.
Tubers = Storage Organs, Grounding / The potato that we eat is the nutritious storage organ for starches or sugars in the plant. It generally has an earthy, plump, substantial quality that helps to balance thin airy energy. (Ayurveda language: It is the kapha that balances vata). This is one reason we can find root vegetables (tubers) to be grounding and nourishing. Also, more obviously, they carry the energy of being rooted and connected to earth.
So despite the poisonous nature of the gorgeous plant we see above ground, it’s the tubers, the bulky storage unit below ground that holds nourishing material. And here’s the key — those tubers are only ready to harvest and put to use once the entire above-ground, beautiful yet toxic potion, is dying off.
So while the plant we see — what is available to our vision — may be attractive to behold, the truth is it will kill you, and only by letting it die off do you get to enjoy the actual nourishment yielded by the plant — which is not the fruit above ground, but the storage organ hiding deep in the earth.
This is a vital part of this essence’s medicine. We have to let the illusion that attracted and fooled us die off to enjoy the many benefits of the true nourishment that is available with some digging. We have to let go of the patterns that have served us at our current level of presence in order to go deeper. And by letting go of what’s above ground, we receive deeper nourishment, deeper truth, deeper access to all of life.
Indications of The Flower:
Five Petals - Relates to our human experience.
White to Royal Purple Petals- Relates to our taking in divine truth.
The color of the petals relates to the higher chakras (crown, third eye, throat) while the tuber relates to the root chakra, the stamen relates to the sacral and solar plexus chakras, and the foliage’s deep green relates to the heart chakras — emphasizing this plant’s full spectrum of medicine.
Prominent Yellow-Orange Stamen - Indicates a strong penetration at the levels of creation and self identity and personal power. By allowing this flower’s medicine to penetrate us, we open to transformation of our ability to create and be ourselves in the world.
My Personal Experience
The day the essence was collecting I said goodbye to the place which was home since I was seven years old. I walked through the home and I made my way through memories upon memories. I sat outside on the back stoop taking in the land that held me for 32 years. I took in its beauty, and I felt all my feelings arise.
In addition to my feelings about the home, feelings about my previous romantic relationship arose, too. Actually I was a little resentful that when I “should” be mourning my home, this relationship was taking up my mental and emotional space. Anger was arising, pain and feelings of abandonment. And I just let them. I just sat there beholding and being held by this land that is so deeply ingrained in all that I have grown to be over the last three decades, and I let alllll my feelings and emotions flow. It felt like gallons of tears.
Yet I didn’t want to leave. How could I choose to get up and walk away, knowing it would be the last time, when the bond was so strong?
I was feeling so much. And as a pisces — as me — as who I am — feeling is fullness. Feeling is the content of life. And a big part of me never wanted to leave. Logically I knew that I had to, and in some practical ways, the sooner the better.
And finally it dawned on me: this is a pattern I want to let go of. I want to let go of staying too long. The only way to get to what’s next is to leave this moment.
I began to equate sitting there on the stoop and not leaving with all the other situations (relationships) I’ve stay connected to (even after they’re over) and just continue feeeeeel so deeply even though it’s incredibly painful, because feeling is fullness, is life, is who I am. There are many parts of who I am that I cannot change. I will always be a deep feeler and experience life through feelings. But there are choices I can make that alter the way I move through life, and once I had expressed enough to see clearly, this felt like a moment of choice.
Though I was genuinely reluctant to get up off the stoop and leave it all behind, I began to think that perhaps letting go of this home and link to my childhood means I will more fully grow up and move on into the next phase of my adulthood. Perhaps all the things I want to step into are on the other side of letting go.
It became clear that I needed to choose the future. So I got up from that stoop, gave thanks, said a final goodbye, and left. Still feeling, still me: raw and open to welcome all that is ahead.
Potato Flower Essence Description:
Potato Flower Essence helps you to leave old patterns behind, welcoming what is ahead. We have to allow that which originally drew us into an experience (the attractive yet sometimes toxic illusion) to die off in order to let the deeper truth be revealed, and to take in the true nourishment of the experience, which can touch and feed the entirety of our being.
PS - the potatoes I planted were small red organic potatoes from the grocery store. xo
PPS - this is the video I took of our yard before sitting and having the whole experience I just described.