Corrective Essences for Pets and Their Owners
By Lila Devi, Founder/Director of Spirit in Nature’s Flower Essences since 1977
(originally appeared in Vibration Magazine: The Journal of Vibrational and Flower Essences, August 2002 issue)
The concept of a “plot” application of essences focuses on remedies for specific problems or weaknesses that we want to correct or eliminate, including disturbed behaviors, fears, or any actions troubling to the animal or the pet owner. Most commonly, flower essences are given to fill a need or correct a fault which is usually expressed through the animal’s behavior.
The word “plot”, borrowed from literary jargon, implies that one must travel from point A to point B to achieve a goal. Plot application indicates a particular need on the part of the animal; the flower essence acts as a catalyst to restore or awaken the positive quality absent from the pet’s personality. By way of example, a skittish animal can benefit from Tomato Essence for strength and courage. The pet who constantly craves attention may be helped with Pineapple Essence for self-assuredness.
Plot Essences for Animals
If you suspect anything physically amiss with your pet, a medical evaluation with a qualified veterinarian is advisable. It is important to rule out physical causes for substandard behavior in order to make the best possible essence assessment for your pet.
A word of caution: Flower essences cannot be used to alter, manipulate, or control an animal’s behavior. Flower essences also will not help remove an animal’s natural instincts, as animals are largely guided by instinct. If the behavior is instinct-based, it may be significantly improved or redirected in positive ways through a flower essence program supplemented with proper training. Though they will not override instinctive behavior, they can help animals better adapt to a domesticated existence.
Plot Essences for Pet Owners
Many times, I find in the course of a consultation that the pet owner is as greatly in need of flower essences as the pet — and, to be honest, is often the cause of the problem in the first place. To see the same flower essence needs within a household of people and animals is quite common. Pets and their caregivers share joys and sufferings alike — and their remedies, too. In fact, one cannot honestly assess an animal without also considering the owner as part of the picture. If, as it has been said, other people are our mirrors, then pets are our microscopes. Each household contains its own psychological climate, you might say, that is part and parcel of each and every inhabitant.
Understanding plot essences for owners not only shows how they may be in need of them, but how their pets, through animals’ innate sense of commitment and service to their owners, can help their human companions along with their healing process.
Two Types of Plot Essences
Plot essences are divided into two categories: pivotal and peripheral. Pets — and their owners — will most likely require both kinds of plot essences throughout their lifetime. Pivotal plot essences apply to lifelong and frequently recurring needs, lessons, or challenges, whereas peripheral plot essences are beneficial in specific, usually infrequent situations. Accidents, for example, require peripheral plot essences such as Pear, while ongoing unpleasant or unruly behaviors warrant pivotal plot essences, such as Grape for deep issues of early abandonment.
Below is an example of how a single essence may help both a pet and its owner. It covers both peripheral and pivotal plot usage.
Almond Essence: Self-Control
For Animals: An animal who needs Almond Essence needs it very badly. Almond issues often indicate an animal who is not adjusted to domesticated life. These pets need to learn to balance living in an unnatural environment through moderation in their living habits. Overweight is one symptom; stress is another. Animals limited to small spaces, such as apartments, may be in need of this essence. Indoor cats in particular are accustomed to roaming free in nature; confinement can be a great challenge for them.
When an animal acts nervous or “cagey” — the equivalent of a person biting his fingernails — Almond is an excellent choice. This also is the essence for pets with nervous habits such as pacing, over-grooming, chewing or gnawing themselves or objects of furniture or clothing, obsessively destroying property or other frenetic behaviors.
Obsessive behaviors indicate one of two things: an issue with the pet owner or an owner-related problem. Living in an age where stress is oftentimes overwhelming for human beings and destructive to their health on all levels, it is not surprising in the least that they would transmit these imbalances to the pets with whom they intimately share their homes.
For Pet Owners: The owner needing Almond Essence is one who is regularly nervous. He may be a chain-smoker or a compulsive eater, or he may exhibit other nervous habits. This essence helps the owner who tends to overwork or overdo his schedule such that he doesn’t budget enough quality time to be with his pet. Almond helps him to reprioritize and restore his sense of balance so that there truly are enough hours in the day to get everything done and to have time to spend with his animal friend.
Animals, who are more in tune with the rhythms of nature, by their very presence can communicate a better sense of how we can use our time more wisely to allow enough for all activities. This type of owner tends to be high-strung and sometimes scattered; pet companionship will be very nurturing and calming to his nervous system.
Almond Essence is superb for the owner with problems of living too much through sense stimuli at the expense of their inner calmness. Sexual excess, either in thoughts or actions, is a symptom that calls for this remedy. Also people who sleep too much, overwork too often, or overextend their energy in any number of ways need Almond Essence. After a while, this lifestyle becomes disturbing to animals, for balance is as essential to their wellbeing as it is for their owners. Long walks together in silence will be very calming to both their nervous systems.