
	Melissa Celebrating May Day in Greece Photos by Alessandra Panini, Eressos, Lesbos Greece
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Greetings from Lesbos!

I sometimes lay awake at night thinking up the words to reply to people who say homeopathy doesn’t work or it is not science based or it has nothing in it. I thought I would share them with you.

If the scientific world really wishes to discover the mystery behind homeopathy they will need to broaden their ideas of what is reproducible. The present paradigm is much too narrow. The trouble with saying something is not scientific, or evidence based, is that the present set of rules is set by the scientists.

One rarely has the same experience with homeopathy twice, and rarely can any two people have the same experience with the same remedy. My thinking on this is that the remedy allows one to recognize a possible healing pathway that has been laid aside through trauma or neglect, or some other unknown reason. It is a subjective experience. The remedy does not add anything new to the body, but facilitates a recognition or an awakening of what has always been there. It opens things up we already know but do not know we know.

The scientific worlds inability to recognize the meaning and efficacy of homeopathic medicine may be due to the narrow modern western definition of the word medicine. It is a definition whose scope has diminished radically. Scientific medicine needs to have a constant biological effect on the physical or chemical body. While homeopathy can elicit these changes, it seems to have a much wider vocabulary of effect. Therefore it may be impossible to give the science behind homeopathy any exactitude. Our present day language does not have any definitions that fit.

Those of us who have experienced the wonders of this medicine know with our very beings that it works and no amount of erasure by double blind trials will ever change that surety.

This system of recognition and transformation happens. Many years ago when I was very ill, I no longer could recognize myself as a self contained being, and when I turned myself over lock, stock and barrel to the medical “scientific” paradigm, I sank into almost nothingness, a near mechanical hopelessness. Deep inside the “yearning” made itself known and the transformation came when the first homeopathic remedy and I recognized each other.

So it will be impossible to define our medicine until it is understood that it needs to be looked at as a many layered, multifarious experience, and that a single definition may never explain what happens when a sentient being meets with a potentised remedy.

Plant Essences & Homeopathy

It is wonderful having my own newsletter because I can talk about all sorts of things in my own way. What I want to do is to talk about the use of plant essences with homeopathy. It is a common practice in Europe and the UK to use essences with homeopathic remedies. It seems it is less so in the USA. I was using the Bach Flower Essences more than five years before I got into homeopathy, along with herbal tinctures and tisanes. I was blinkered when it came to homeopathy. It seemed remote and elitist. I loved the Bach essences and was so delighted that there was something that could reach such emotional depths in people who were suffering. After I became a homeopathic advocate I still used them, all the time, so it has always seemed right to me to use them together. I love both essences and potentised remedies, and I do not put them into any kind of hierarchy. They sing together in different octaves, and a beautiful harmony happens.

I do not know if I have the ability to articulate the differences between them. They are made in a different way but they are highly diluted but only three or four times depending on your method of prescribing.

We use the sun as an energizer, and I always success mine at least 20 times. Their energy can seem softer and gentler. I have never seen an aggrivation from a plant essence. Sometimes I use them pre-homeopathic remedy, sometimes I use them along side the remedy, and sometimes as an intercurrent.

I think I see the plant spirit as an ally to the remedy, as it seems to broaden its scope of action. One difference for me was that I found it easier to be in sync with the spirit of a plant essence. It took me a long time to connect with the spirit of homeopathic remedies. I think that is because when I was learning homeopathy, we had not synthesized the doctrine of signatures, and really did very little in the way of connecting with the substance. Now of course through proofings and other methods I am so much more in tune with Homeopathy as a spirit medicine.

In 1999, I made my first flower essence in Greece. Of course it was the beautiful deep ruby red poppy. They seem to be a deeper red here in comparison with western Europe and the UK. My second one was the wild Staphysagria. I meditated on them and got some very strong images and verbal massages, but I was not yet really connected. You can read the story of what happened next on my website. I was called to make the set of Greek tree Essences, along with quite a few of the beautiful wild flowers. I made 41 altogether but used only twenty of the tree essences in my sets. The flowers have become blended into some harmony blends. (I will tell you about these in my next edition.)

You can use them as remedy enhancers. Let me give you an example:

Valonia Oak is the first one I made, the tree stands not more than 12 yards from where I am sitting now at my desk. It shades my house in the mornings. The oak sends its roots deep into the earth and the tree spirit told me it was connected to the earth placenta. The tree spirit told me:

“SELF RELIANCE is my special gift . It is needed when someone has become dis-attached. The Mother looked away for whatever reason and from that moment on they lost their way. Always and ever looking for the one, the “grown up” (who is never there) to look after them again.My medicine , my teaching is to be able to stand on your own two feet, to stand your ground, but never feel alone”.

It is a grounding remedy par excellence but in addition it is the earth fire that awakens the sleeping kundiini energy within us. So it is such a brilliant remedy to give someone who is depleted and is unable to connect with their chi. They may have lost touch with their own power. I often give this essence at the start of treatment. If you give this essence along with the chosen homeopathic remedy, the communion with the remedy seems to be so much more complete. Its as if the clients recognize the possibilities of healing themselves with the help of these substances. I have seen it so many times, I can no longer count them. The other nice thing about giving the liquid essence is they have something to take everyday, reminding them of the journey they are embarking on. This remedy correlates to the Subterranean Chakra, represented by infra-red. The fire in the belly of the Mother Earth.

Although I use all of the tree essences with homeopathy, another one I use a lot to enhance a remedy is Olive. Edward Bach made this remedy as well, and we do not know if the tree grew in the UK. The Greek one, has a flavor of the English one but is much more specific. The plant spirit told be that we have roadways in our brain that have become entrenched, and that we repeat the same old patterns. She said she could not get rid of the old ones but could build new avenues around the old ones and keep them maintained, so you can go through your life without the constant return to the old brain patterns. It works beautifully in this way. The Bach one is about exhaustion, but no wonder if we wear ourselves out by going down that same damn old road, no matter how hard we try to recondition ourselves to do something different. This continual inability to remove ourselves from the rut, brings a feeling of exhaustion that depletes our life loving energy. Olive correlates to the chakra I call the web-centre, which generates and coordinates our spiritual and emotional responses.

I frequently use Tree of Heaven which is number 11 or the first one in set two. I call it the star grabber, as it allows one to let go and soar. Grab hold of all possibilities, live to the full and let the stars be the limit. Interestingly enough I have also used it for people who are stuck in the stars, and have become total space cadets. I have also used it as an essence to replace the addiction to being high, as it replaces the drug of choice with the ability to find satisfaction in life itself.

Each essence has its place in the energy circle, the first set raising energy to a place of readiness to fly (Persian Lilac) and the second set star grabbing and bringing that energy back down to earth until the Oak’s Mushroom connects up again with the Valonia Oak.

You can use the entire first set as a meditation essence to move your energy up the spiraling charkas. It is a beautiful experience. You can use the entire second set as a grounding essence to bring the star energy back down to earth. Many of my clients use the essences in this way.

This harmony recipe is brilliant for someone experiencing traumatic stress:

EMOTIONAL TRAUMA ESSENCE
Use 6 drops of Petrified Sequoia
3 drops each of: Tamarisk, Olive, Valonia Oak, & Oleander.

Please click here to see a chart that shows the connections the remedies have with colour, the parts of the tree and the charkas. The names are an indication of their individual character.

The proposed date for my next Tree Essence Seminar in the San Francisco Bay Area is Dec 5th, 2009.

My Newest Book:

Gifts of the Mother: Matridonal Remedies of the Humanum Family

My newest book has been many years in its conception. It weaves the story of the Matridonal Remedies, part of the Humanum Family: Lac Humanum, Folliculinum, Placenta Human, Vernix Caseosa, Amniota Humana, & Umbilicus Humanus

As I have worked with these important remedies over the years, I have come to believe that the most profound gift we as humans receive is the sense of self. It is first bestowed in its earthly form in the womb. Could it not therefore be true that when this sense of self is lost, it can be retrieved through the very materials that gave it to us in the first place? These substances are made for the creation of our humanness. It is their sole purpose, as they are discarded as soon as we no longer need them.

You may order this book directly from me by emailing your inquiry! melissa@melissaassilem.net. Or if you prefer, visit my website for more information and additional outlets for this long-awaited new work!