August 11, 2012
Pride of Madeira is native to the Canary Islands and Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal.
I went to the Canary Islands when I was 21 years old and living in Madrid, Spain. We had a long holiday break from the University in December, and a friend invited me to his house on the small volcanic island of La Palma. What a magical place!
Everything about the La Palma is exotic, unique and breathtaking, and it is from here in the Canary Islands, as well as the island of Madeira, where the Pride of Madeira flower originally comes from.
Ironically, I didn’t collect this flower essence on the island—I collected it north of San Francisco, years later. I discovered it in the Bay area one spring and fell totally in love all over again. It grows in tall cones along the roads in massive towers of blue and purple that almost have a human quality. It has that exquisite magical quality that the Canary Islands had—it makes absolute sense that it’s native to such fantasy-like islands.
The Pride of Madeira is all about feeling beautiful, alluring and exquisite—helping you perceive and embody that you’re in the right place at the right time. All of those things about you that make you different, that in the past may have made you feel awkward or out of place, become what make you attractive and sexy.
Pride of Madeira (Echium fastuosum) is also known as the Tower of Jewels, which is fitting, as it grows in tall, cone-shaped spikes that boast thousands of indigo and magenta flowers that attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
In California, Pride of Madeira is sometimes considered an invasive species, which means that it overgrows and sort of takes over the area.
Some of my favorite plants are considered invasive—I’m sure there are some plant folks in California wouldn’t be happy about this, but I wouldn’t mind if Pride of Madeira took over. They’re just so interesting-looking, and fun! And they support us in their own magical way.
Pride of Madeira is also perfect for gardeners that don’t have green thumbs. It grows in poor soil and is drought tolerant—it actually doesn’t like too much water. It tolerates wind and salty air from the ocean, making it a good coastal plant.
Pride of Madeira is beautiful to look at and be around, but not to touch or eat. The plant has all kinds of little hairs on it, which are irritating to the skin and the plant is actually poisonous—all parts of the plant are inedible.
The beauty of using flower essences is that you can get the benefits of flowers that are poisonous. The remedies are so dilute, that there is no longer any plant parts or chemistry left in the liquid, only the energetic imprint of the flower. It’s similar to homeopathy: when you take the poisonous Belladona or Arsenic in homeopathic form, it’s healing for the body and soothing for the mind.
Magnifies: Feeling alluring and exquisite; helps you feel accepting of yourself, connected to everything around you, and in awe of the profoundly magical world that surrounds you; helps you discover the beauty in being different, allowing it to be sexy, sensuous, mysterious; enhances sense of the profound in the silence; feeling like you’re in the right place, right time, right moment; fullness, being-ness, expansion, letting it all hang out; perceiving one’s different qualities as exotic and exquisite vs. different and unusual, or foreign and sticking out; perceiving your unique qualities as an asset rather than a hindrance.
Dissolves: Feeling "different," unusual, foreign, or not fitting in; sadness or contraction due to feeling left out; teariness, feeling disconnected; pulling back; holding back; feeling small, weepy, different—like you don’t belong; negativity about ones different-ness, uniqueness and unusual qualities.
Infused with flower essences for bold acceptance and expressive freedom, this powerhouse blend helps us accept ourselves wholly, express and embody our full exquisite and beautiful self as well as set firm boundaries with no pressure to be or act a certain way.
Love + flower petals,