In making an essence for your personal use, the most important tools are prayers, love, gratitude, and your relationship with the plant spirit upon journeying. If you choose to make an essence to take internally, trust the plant spirit to tell you the most fertile time for harvesting the necessary plant part to help you with your creation.

You will need spring water, alcohol (such as vodka or brandy, as a preserving agent), the part of the plant used for the medicine, a clear glass bowl, and your intuition. You will be guided as to the part of the day in which you are called to harness the healing energies of the plant spirit. I suggest that you create a sacred space and begin your journey with the plant spirit there. You might want to make your creation in the sun, in the night with the energy of the moon, or in a special meditation room. Take the part of the plant you will be using and immerse it in a small, clear bowl filled with spring water. Intuit the amount of time needed for the healing energy of the plant and spirit to imbue the water. When the energies of both have aligned with the water and have been blessed by the Divine, your water is now potentized and becomes a plant spirit essence. Place your essence in a secure, clean, one–ounce bottle in a proportion of four parts essence to one part alcohol, and your process is complete. The alcohol secures the Earth element, while the plant spirit essence holds the space for the etheric. In making the essences, much love, prayer, and vibrational plant spirit energy helps to create these medicines of the Earth and sky.

Plant spirit essences have no adverse side effects. However, like all plant medicines, they allow for the natural healing process of the self to unfold. This may cause suppressed physical symptoms to appear, or symptoms might become exacerbated as in a healing crisis before shifting in the body. Unfamiliar and unexpressed emotions and all forms of toxicity may also surface as the body and its various levels become
healed.

Excerpted from Plant Spirit Journey, by Laura Silvana