While wishing for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine, the symbol of the dove of peace with an olive branch came to mind. Doves and olive branches have been important symbols since ancient times. In Judaism a dove represents the spirit of God or of a person’s soul. It also represents hope and new beginnings because a dove brought an olive branch back to Noah to indicate that his long journey was over and land was close at hand. In Christianity, the dove represents the Holy Spirit. In Islam, doves sometimes symbolize love and are said to have protected Muhammad. They do not represent peace in the religion but olive branches do within many Arab folk traditions. In fact, olive branches and flowers have represented peace throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East and many other places in the world. The significance goes back to at least ancient Greece and Rome where it was the symbol of friendship or reconciliation, prosperity, sometimes victory, and everlasting peace. It was also associated with Eirene, the Roman goddess of peace.
So, my next thought was does the symbolism of the olive branch reflect in the Olive flower’s use as a flower essence (one of the original Bach Flower Remedies)?
Well, let’s start with its main use which is for rejuvenation of the spirit and one’s life force after being exhausted through physical exertion or illness. The olive tree is renown for its resiliency. It can be cut down and sprout a new tree! So the idea of it being related to hope and new beginnings definitely holds.
The second related use is to counteract whatever has been keeping a person from being able to fully rest so they can recover. It creates energy often enough by helping a person deeply rest and sleep. And that’s often described as a sense of well-being and being at peace. Olive is also said to help you connect to support on a spiritual level. At the very least, people often report being able to notice what they need to take care of their well-being so they can act on it more appropriately.
Personal Experience:
I decided to experiment with Olive after writing most of this post. I’ve been sleeping, but not well and not for as many hours as I would like. And I’ve been feeling very tired in the afternoon. My energetic first impression was of energy going down in my body and down through my feet (which was very grounding). But then I felt the energy go up and out the top of my head with a feeling of clearing of some sort. And then back down briefly to my heart and then to my third chakra (where it has stayed). THAT is interesting. Viscerally, it is like having my energy centered in the core of my body (solar plexus). If I breathe into that, the energy goes a little lower (2nd chakra), then higher to the 4th chakra (heart) and up to my head and back down to the back of my neck and middle back. (My neck and middle back have been hurting on and off for weeks.) And then back to the third chakra again. That’s a lot of moving around for a flower essence!
Now this experience is most likely specific to me. The middle back and neck pain (that extends into my shoulders and upper arms) has been the main physical symptom keeping me awake at night. But could third chakra issues be what is at the root of this on an energetic level? That is a chronic problem area for me. It affects my self-confidence. It is also very much related to feeling “alone in the world”—more of a deficient first and second chakra issue but deficiencies in lower chakras directly affect the ones above. And that is OLD—I currently have a wonderful long-term loving relationship with someone I am sure is a soulmate (and we both feel that way). But the old “alone with something too big to handle” stuff is EASILY triggered. (I spent WAY too many years of my life as a shy, lonely, and bullied kid.) I don’t often feel like we have the support we need even when we have it—in particular, I often slip into not trusting that it will last. And that makes me feel like I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders because the old fear makes me pull up my energy and use excessive willpower (third chakra energy) to compensate and work too hard. If “let go, let God” was a third chakra challenge—trust is a third chakra issue—that would describe one of my core issues to the max!
So I’ll be continuing with this. If there’s more to report, I’ll either add it here or write another blog post or two.
Reiki-infused organic Olive flower essence and sprays.
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Flower essences are used to assist with mind-body-spirit interactions and individual results may vary. They are extremely dilute which makes them quite safe. But because so little physical substance can be detected in a flower essence solution, these products are presumed to work on an energetic or vibrational level—something that cannot be adequately tested by western scientific methods. Claims made by me, therefore, are based on personal experiences and the evidence of the combined multiple decades of case notes by Dr. Edward Bach as well as Healing Herbs and Flower Essence Services (the companies who make the ingredients I use in my products). This is not, however, accepted medical evidence or substantiated scientific evidence from a modern allopathic point of view. I am not a medical doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner.
Statements made have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided on my blog, websites or by this company are not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a health care provider, and should not be construed as individual medical or mental health advice. Consulting with a health care provider is a must for anyone taking medications or working with a medical or mental health condition, and highly recommended before using any herbal product. Please consult your doctor or health care provider for any possible contraindications and/or interactions with current medications. I trust you to seek the medical guidance you need to use any of my herbal products healthily at your own risk.