Milkweed
Themes: Addiction recovery, joining & cooperation of spirit and ego.
“I honor and respect my egoic Self, allowing my spirit to lovingly come together with this part of me.”
Milkweed is integral for treating addiction. Our tendency towards addiction is borne of a desire to escape, avoiding deeper personal awareness, often due to an unhealthy connection to the human ego. It is common teaching, especially on particular spiritual paths, that the ego should be repressed, negated, or even obliterated in order to achieve enlightenment. This causes denial of the very natural, human ego, that, just like any other aspect of our humanness, can actually be cooperated with through kind and understanding relationship. Unhealthy connection to the ego can also occur due to trauma, institutionalization, or prolonged, heavy dependency on caretakers. Spiraling in addictions causes declension within all aspects of being, while the addictions themselves cause greater likelihood of damaged relationship with the ego. Milkweed rehabilitates parts of the core Self that have deteriorated, aligns the soul to the ego in a loving, compassionate way and imparts self-reliance, thereby reducing dependencies on things we would otherwise use to abolish consciousness like chemical substances, excess eating or sleeping, repeat accidents, illness, or extreme spiritual practices.
Information adapted from:
Kaminski, P. & Katz, R. Flower
Essence Repertory, 2004.
Photo credit: Purple
Milkweed, by Tom Hilton via Flickr. Image file is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license.