by Holly Beatie
In the month of June we are blessed with the most amount of sunlight for the year as we celebrate the Summer Solstice. One of my personal celebrations that has developed over the past several years has been the sowing, raising, and appreciation of the plant named for the Sun. This ancient beauty comes in a wide variety of permutations and makes a bold statement with its presence. It is of course, the SUNFLOWER.
Sunflowers are fairly easy to grow as long as they have plenty of sun, water, and fertile soil. The Latin name for sunflower is Helianthus annuus. Heliotropic refers to a plant's ability to face and follow the sun from morning to night. Sunflowers also send their roots quite deep allowing them to pull up and utilize a broad range of nutrients. They take about 90 days to bloom and have been known to grow as tall as 15 feet.
Sunflower seeds are power-packed with healthy vitamins and minerals including calcium, flourine, iodine, iron, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sodium, niacin, thiamine, and Vitamin D. They contain up to 30% protein with all the amino acids necessary for cell building and repairing. The oil is light and excellent for culinary uses as well as skin care.
Besides the nutritional offerings of sunflowers, other parts of the plant have historically been used for medicinal purposes by different cultures for things like malaria, rheumatism, fevers, jaundice, heart conditions, diarrhea, kidney and bladder ailments, snake bite, sore eyes, bronchitis, and pulmonary difficulties.
One of the most fascinating uses of Sunflower comes from its flower essence. This is a plant that appears to have a distinct consciousness.
The first thing that needs to be understood about sunflower is that this is one of those ancient plants that just loves to show up on the planet and have a really good time with human beings. Sunflower is a highly communicative plant that sincerely enjoys the dialogue of emotions that it arouses in humans. In as much as it often exists at eye level with humans it's one of the few plants that actively takes on an equal status and in doing so, asserts a life force that engages people to wonder "What is the element here?" What's really taking place is that Sunflowers are almost like a hidden race that embody themselves as flowers---fields in Europe/France speak of this kind of collective identity.
The sunflower often is seen as a source of renewal, radiance, life force, abundance, and prosperity. Again, the multiple potentials of the soul to come forward and experience all of life but within the essence use of Sunflower itself there's a much deeper purpose that it would like to introduce and that is this: The sunflower is a witness, it observes humans. The sunflower exists as an eye from the elemental realm, comes forward and sees human beings. It's trying to teach humans to observe, witness, digest, and absorb many aspects of the long history of human experience...to begin arriving at neutrality. Ultimately the tonic of the sunflower essence brings the nervous system to neutrality and to an appreciation of the long history and complexity of human cultures and many forms of intelligence that have been embodied on the planet.
In the multiple seeds that the sunflower presents is trying to say "I have witnessed many forms of human culture and they all are valid. Don't take yourselves too seriously". Sunflower is a tremendously mature wisdom presented through the plant realm. Its strong stalk while reaching very high is metaphorical in terms of the ultimate human experience. Being able to observe and witness with neutrality the complexities of the incarnated human experience, while radiating out a sense of gratitude to the Sun---to the source of life on this planet---to that which animates life on this planet. These are primal dialogues of eternal gratitude for the creation that manifests physical form on this planet.
One final note about growing sunflowers is that after the splendor of their flowers fade in late summer and they go to seed, they become perfect bird feeders. So, you can take care of your feathered friends as they prepare and stock up for the winter.All rights reserved. Copyright © 2000 - 2008 Holly Beatie. The entire content of this article is the intellectual property of Holly Beatie.