Apple Flower Essence: “The Clear Mental Skies”

Qualities:

 Peaceful Clarity

Message of Self-Mastery: 

Mental clarity; healthy, magnetic attitudes; an abundance of psychologically nourishing thoughts; hope; motivation to take better care of oneself; a positive outlook.

Pattern of Disharmony: 

mental fuzziness; health-related fears; worry; doubt; indecision; recurrence of toxic emotions such as anger, jealousy and fear; a sense of physical or emotional vulnerability.

AFFIRMATION

With a crisp, clear attitude toward life I view my problems with ever fresh solution-consciousness.

POSITIVE EXPRESSIONS

NEGATIVE CONDITIONS

TESTIMONIALS

“I asked myself, ‘What do I need?’ and my brain said, ‘Apple.’ And I started taking it and I felt better.” -RG, Nevada City, CA

“I had major colon surgery nine days ago. For the last week I have been craving apples. This is very strange because apples are not one of my favorite fruits, and I don’t usually seek them out. I take this as a sign to start on Apple.” -EH, North San Juan, CA

“Even though I can hardly tolerate apples due to their sugar content, my kinesiologist found Apple to be strengthening to a number of my organs. We were both amazed!”

-JP, Oklahoma City, OK

“Apple has backed up the clarity of my mind with a physical vitality. I’ve had the energy from 6:30 to 9 in the evening to do the programs here. I wouldn’t have done it before.” -EA Nevada City, CA

“I was feeling groggy and took Apple. My wife said I was totally different afterwards-and friendlier!” -RM, Fort Worth, TX

“I was lonely, overwhelmed, severely stressed as a single mother and burnt out. Plus, I had this ugly boil on my face and was very self-conscious that brought up a lot of body-image issues. I woke up the next two mornings after taking Grape feeling a definite change for the better. I had been so unhappy before!” -MH, North San Juan, CA

“Grape helped me with the emotional issues around PMS. I used to chew out my family and have suicidal thoughts. Now I only have two rough hours instead of two weeks to deal with each month.” -SVC, Nevada City, CA

“This one (Grape) helped me to know who I was. I’ve had to deal with the reality of not being close to my husband. On Grape, I felt light and was hugging myself.” -UK, Salt Lake City, UT

“Grape helped me within one week. I started writing poetry. I’ve never been able to do that before! It felt like it opened my heart. I’d be driving around and verses would come to me, first in the form of prose, so I started writing them down. When I went off Grape, the poetry stopped- so I’m thinking of taking it again.” -BM, Dallas, TX

“I’d been wanting a relationship for some time. I met a woman and had a lovely romance the night I started Grape. That doesn’t happen to me often!” -RR, Pahoa, HI

FAMOUS QUOTE

“The surest road to health, say what they will, is never to suppose we shall be ill.” -Churchill

FLOWER /FRUIT/FOLKLORE

Apples, members of the rose family, are the most widely cultivated fruit of temperate regions. Rich in folklore since the biblical Garden of Eden, they date back at least three thousand years. Apples were also described in the hieroglyphic writings discovered in ancient Egyptian pyramids and tombs. There are at least six thousand varieties of apples. The clustered blossoms on leafy stems may be white, pink or rose, depending upon the variety. Apples contain about fifty percent more vitamin C than oranges and a significant amount of the rare vitamin G, “the appetite vitamin,” that promotes growth and digestion. As powerful blood purifiers, apples benefit the lymphatic system, intestines and arteries. They also lower blood pressure and reduce tooth decay.

SPECTRUM PLACEMENT

(see explanation of The Essence Spectrum Chart)

From the clarity of Avocado, we enter Quadrant Ill’s fourth house, to Apple. Avocado’s keen memory leads to Apple’s acuity. The old folk remedy, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” has a ring of truth to it. Overflowing with this Quadrant’s crisp strength and “harvestability,” Apple lays the groundwork for the zest of Orange, its successor. Through Apple, we come to a wonderful understanding of the subtle dance between the body, mind and spirit. When these elements are harmonized, the result is a state of radiant well-being.

POSITIVE APPLICATIONS

Apple Essence doesn’t heal physical symptoms, as explained in an earlier chapter. It does, however, aid in stimulating the mindset that promotes true healing. Whatever we feed into our bodies is, in part, what they become. Remember the fashionable saying, “you are what you eat.” A healthy mental diet is the keynote of Apple. This essence can help us to remain always calmly active and actively calm. While a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains is health-promoting to the body, so also a mental diet of courage, wisdom and happiness is clarifying to the mind and the feelings of the heart.

“I took Apple for fear of a repeat experience,” explained a chiropractor, forty years of age and working on clarity related to his physical constitution. “Three months ago, I suffered a mild stroke with resultant motor loss in my right hand. I experienced four strokes in five days from a narrowing of the carotid artery. This was unexplainable since I’ve had low cholesterol all my life and have been vegetarian since I was eighteen.”

The doctor admitted to a serious fear of illness and disability, saying that he would rather lose his life than the use of his hands. “I use my hands to heal and I love my work. Literally within half an hour of taking Apple, my mental clarity returned. I felt safe and whole and that I would get better. The healing was dramatic from that point on. I experienced a really strong sense of inner well-being.” He also reported that he has regained ninety percent movement and usage of his right hand.

The positive Apple state reveals an understanding of the importance of clarity on all levels-a spiritual diet of meditation, proper breathing and uplifting company and reading material; a certain brightness to our thought processes; and health-promoting exercise, diet and living habits to restore us to perfect well-being.

People who are strong in the positive Apple qualities are often drawn to health-related fields of work, including physically, psychologically, or spiritually. Their clarity of energy is invigorating to their clients.

Apple is also indicated for recovery periods following surgery, illness or accidents-or any time we are wanting to regain the subtle balance between the body, mind and spirit. “I muscle-tested (kinesiology) much stronger with Apple,” one man wrote following a hip replacement surgery. “When I started taking it, I felt much better.”

NEGATIVE INDICATIONS

Apple deals directly with the law of magnetism. When we embrace mental and physical health, we draw to ourselves more of the same. When we live with a lack of peace, we draw exactly that. When we catch that flu that’s been going around-the one that took half the office staff by surprise-it may be the magnet of our own fear and resultant sense of susceptibility that opens the door and invites it in! If your attitude is, “Oh, I’m going to get sick, I just know it”-you’re probably right.

The negative Apple state manifests as “the fear that magnetizes fear,” especially if infused with enough energy. In fact, we could even define fear as a negative wish, phrased as innocently as, “Gee, I hope I don’t get sick.” Have you ever experienced a fear of:

• a problem recurring
• a communicable or terminal illness
• catching that “something going around”
• an imagined illness with no substantiation (hypochondria)
• diseases we read or hear about
• illnesses to which we are genetically predisposed

Add to this list any worry, doubt or the absence of mental clarity, and we have the indications for taking Apple. Remember that the presence of any one of the above thought patterns is reason enough to administer this clarity-promoting essence.

THEME CHARACTERISTICS

(see explanation of Theme Flower Essences)

The Apple theme, then, personifies mental health with an understanding of the subtle integration of body, mind and soul. “Keeping the body fit for Self-realization” is understood by these themes. You may find them outside gardening as they work the soil with gloveless hands, both drawing the earth’s nourishment and imbuing it into the seeds being planted. Apple themes embody healthy attitudes. Like Corn themes, they overflow with energy, though Apple’s energy is directed more toward mental attitudes.

Apple themes have a certain gloss to their skin and a glow in their eyes. Their inner radiance vibrationally encourages others to live similarly. Their example of healthy thoughts is very magnetic, and they make good team players in sports, in relationships, and on the job. If you feel under the weather, spend time with an Apple theme, a living example of calm activity.

FAMOUS THEME PERSONALITIES

• Charles Atlas
• George Beinhorn
• Jack LaLaine
• Sandow
• Jane Fonda
• Florence Griffith Joyner
• Tom McMillen
• J. I. Rodale
• Bernard Jensen
• Bernie Siegel

Any child who read comic books during the 1950s knows the name Charles Atlas. Apple theme magnetism literally radiates on a global level from his stunning, superstar physique! Responsible for the classic before-and-after ads of the skinny kid on the beach, Mr. Atlas offered a correspondence bodybuilding course employing techniques of dynamic tension. (An intriguing side note is that Yogananda admitted teaching a famous bodybuilder how to develop muscle and strength without lifting weights by directing will power through the use of kinesthetic “dynamic tension.” Although their connection is at best implied, the timing and nature of the material are too uncanny to ignore. A similar program called the Energization Exercises is available in illustrated poster form from Ananda Village.)

Changing his given name from Angelo Siciliano to that of the mythological Greek Titan who held the heavens on his shoulders, Mr. Atlas helped transform the model of bodybuilding from the grosser, barrel-shaped strongman to the well-defined and proportioned aesthetic image of today. Mr. Atlas, an exemplary Apple theme, understood that the body is virtually manufactured by the mind. He demonstrated that the use of will power and energy create our physical temples and our mental altars.

CONFESSIONS OF AN APPLE THEME: WAYNE’S STORY

“I guess my general personality traits are that I’m extremely independent, totally content to operate on my own and have lots of energy, especially for seclusive activities. I have a sort of superabundant energy most of the time.

“I’m so much into athletics now, and that gives me lots and lots of energy. When I’m running, I feel fine. I’ve noticed a difference from when I was younger. Now that I’m over fifty, there’s a very great mental difference that affects my running and my feelings as I run. You know, many ultra-marathon runners are older-they’re in their forties and fifties. There’s probably a very psychological reason why that’s true. The miles go by very differently when you’re older and less attached to each mile. It’s an interesting thing, more contemplative. The scenery just passes in a sort of pleasant fashion. You don’t get all irritated because there is a hill or whatever. There’s more of a flow.

“I am working on perfecting within myself the childlike qualities of joy and the heart-willingness to be enthusiastic about the next thing that needs to be done, and to do it happily and willingly. I want to overcome all the little hesitancies that stand in the way. My biggest worry right now is that I’ll really get out of tune and lose whatever joy I’ve got or that I’ll lose hope or my ability to love. And the biggest theme in my life is that of doubt, a kind of mental doubt. In the recent past, though, I think I’ve made some strides to get past that.

“I have a really indomitable kind of positive view of the future, that it holds all kinds of wonderful opportunities. I don’t want to lose that, ever. No matter what kind of mistakes you make, I figure it’s always possible to bob to the surface. I would not ever want to be depressed to the point that I lose that. . .that hope.

“Do I like apples? Oh, yeah! I mean, apple’s my favorite fruit, my favorite food. My relationship to apples? I’ve eaten them consistently all year round, all of my life.”

WRAPPING IT UP

Surely it is no coincidence that apples, of all fruits, occupy such a prominent place in folklore throughout time. In Greek and Roman mythology, the apple is a symbol of wealth, beauty, and the sun and moon. American folk medicine recommended using the apple to cure toothache, breast cancer, gonorrhea and even the emotional illness of melancholy.

The saying that “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch” could easily refer to the poisoning effect of one bad thought on our body and mind. Healthy attitudes, like a bushel of crisp, ripe apples, are the vibrational message of Apple. Keeping the mind, and likewise the body, “calmly active and actively calm” is of paramount importance to us all.

ESSENCE ENHANCERS

Repeat the Apple affirmation several times a day, especially when feeling a lack of clarity.

Practice the Apple visualization whenever you feel the need.

Eat “an apple a day,” and associate the crisp freshness of its taste and texture with the clarity of your thoughts.

Spend ten minutes a day in direct sunlight with a good sunscreen, either in the early morning or late afternoon. Consciously draw the sun’s healing energy into your mind and body.

VISUALIZATION

For this visualization, you’ll either need to be out in direct sunlight, or to imagine that you are.

Now, sit on a patch of grass. Place your palms face down beside you, directly on the greenery. Connect with the earth. Feel its magnetism of strength and solidity flowing into your palms, up your arms and radiating throughout your entire body. You and the earth are one. Its wholeness is yours.

Now turn your palms comfortably upward in such a way that they can receive the sunlight pouring into them. Be as receptive as possible, much like an empty vessel. Draw in the sunlight. Let its healing rays find a home in your hands. Through the posture of upturned palms, imagine that your entire consciousness is uplifted, broadened and expanded. Feel your body, mind and spirit drinking deeply of this direct source of life force. Your thoughts are as radiantly clear as the sunlight.