Heeding the Call
Making time for the flowers sounds easy, right?
The flowers have been calling me home lately, reminding me to keep things simple. I want to share with you not only a recent flower experience of my own, but stories from some of my students too.
My work with flowers began rather by accident, when I sat down to meditate with a magnolia blossom and a fully formed message came through. That was over 7 years ago. Since then, after I got over my fear of others thinking I was “too out there,” I have published an oracle deck, finished a manuscript awaiting publication and began teaching workshops to share with others on how to connect with flowers.
Sometimes now though, I get caught up in the busyness of bringing this work into the world, or just the everyday stuff of life, and I forget to practice what makes me feel most alive on a regular basis: sitting with new flowers, getting to know them and receiving their messages. In other words, I have been hearing the call to keep my feet on the ground, and my heart in the flowers. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? But for me, creating the time and space for this work can still be hard. My mind has an enculturated drive to be “productive” and still after all these years, it takes a conscious effort to make the space and time to do this deep heart work with the flowers that I love.
The most recent flower I have worked with is calycanthus, or sweetbush, and their message was so simple, its power swept me off my feet. There are three of these bushes in my yard, planted about five years ago that were supposed to have a maximum size of about six feet tall and wide each. But they have become so exuberant, so vibrant, that they are easily growing to 10 feet wide and 15 feet tall and clearly want to be even bigger. Unfortunately, they are planted in a place where this much growth means they are invading structures and taking up more space than is available. And they are too big now to move. So, I have had to create boundaries for them which means that two to three times a year, I am aggressively pruning them back by at least three feet each time. And still, they grow like they are the happiest plant in my yard, and produce these delightful deep maroon flowers with a white center and a spicy fragrance that reminds me of allspice.
For the longest time, I felt so guilty about the pruning that I couldn’t bring myself to sit with them and hear what they had to say. When choosing a flower to work with, I tell my students to look for what flower is reaching out to them, wanting to connect with them. To feel for a mutual attraction, something you recognize in your heart, not your mind.
With the calycanthus, my guilt created a negative feeling that kept me from feeling the attraction to work with them. The thing is that attraction is not always a positive feeling. I have an intuitive painting teacher,
who says to “follow the juice,” whether it is positive or negative juice, both are “juicy” and asking to be explored.So when I sat with calycanthus, I felt them in my solar plexus, feeling all their exuberance, feeling their strong roots, and the message that came through was not at all what I expected. My lingering guilt was obliterated as simply not relevant. Rather, I saw they were modeling for me how to BE in this chaotic rapidly changing world today, a message I really needed to hear that day.
They said to me, “Your exuberance, your determination, are your strongest tools to face your fears. Be big, grow big, let nothing stop you. Never fear the pruning—new opportunities will always arise.”
Here is a story from
who came to a short half day workshop in June and shared her experience in a Note here on Substack. She shared:“This past weekend, I had a chat with some poppies. And somehow, this flower (both rugged and delicate) managed to hold my entire family system in one stem. You may have read my posts from this past spring about the challenges that come with holding down the fort for a house full of beloved people who simply “are not OK.”
“Changes in season, in the stars, and the (almost) end of the academic calendar have made things feel a lot easier. But it was poppy medicine that I apparently needed most of all.
“The poppy knew everyone’s story The way the crimson flowers grow right beside the Barbie pink blossoms, all nurtured by the same stem. The utter perfection of the spent flower capsule that looked something like a crown. The way that the bud looked a bit like a testicle because this showy gal had plenty of room for the sacred masculine too.
“Without words, I simply felt SEEN. All of us, seen there together.”
Another student in my April workshop worked with Iris. She was drawn to the center of the iris, seeing it like a mandala, quiet and simple, while surrounded by the showy fleshy parts.
She heard, “Go deeper into the silence; earthly clinging is not the way to go. Let go into the center, the void, and there you will find peace. My beauty comes from the same place that Everything comes from. Trust this and it will support you. Everything you need is in your center.”
Student #2 in the same workshop coincidentally also worked with Iris, and received a much different message, exemplifying how individual these messages are, like all one-on-one, heart-felt conversations. This student was drawn to the sword-like shape of the iris leaves surrounding their beautiful flowers.
Iris said to her, “Be patient with yourself. There is beauty in all things, even in war and conflict, standing for something that is part of the very Earth, holding that possibility until it is time to spring up proud, strong, tall and beautiful, showing everyone who you are and what you know from the constantly gestating seed in your very being that is who you are. Never doubt yourself or your season. You will always spring forth with new gifts to offer the world. Your only responsibility is to be. You are strong and beautiful with many seasons of growth to come.”
If you want to explore and learn how to receive powerful messages from the flowers for yourself from these beautiful heralds of the Earth’s ancient wisdom, please consider joining me in my next workshop beginning August 26th, “Exploring the Secrets of Flowers: Rekindling Intuition and Joy with Earth’s Oldest Teachers.” I would love to have you join us!
Mary Porter Kerns is the author of the forthcoming book by the same name, The Flowers Are Speaking, A Million Year Love Story is an intimate journey into the entwined evolution of flowers and human beings—weaving together science, history, stories, and earth-based mysticism to offer a radical vision of how we can best reconnect with the ancient guidance of the earth. In fall of 2022 she self-published the first edition of her oracle cards, also called The Flowers Are Speaking, that sold out in three months.
Her highly acclaimed workshops allow participants to experience the flowers as she does through their senses and intuition. Her only offering this fall, Exploring the Secrets of Flowers: Rekindling Intuition and Joy with Earth’s Oldest Teachers will begin in late August. More workshops will be offered in 2026.
Hello Mary - Claudia recommended your piece and I’m so glad she did! I too connect with nature and hear or sense its offerings. Your work is sacred and the beauty of your bravery in stepping forward to teach and share that gift of divine listening is to be commended. 🙏🌺✨
Hello Mary, my name is Claudia and I’m not sure how the universe connected us but lately I just let the universe do what it does! Glad to make your acquaintance. And thank you for writing about flowers. One of the things I do is plant flowers and surround myself with them before and after I write in other words all the time have a great weekend. 💚🙏🩵