Blooming Magick – how much longer can we make flowers live?

[Moon1ight]

I'm always looking for ideas on how to measure magick. Rob writes that "a BTU is equal to the amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit" and so we can also make a unit that equals to causing any quantifiable effect. The difficulty is of course in producing a quantifiable effect reliably.

Recently, I've read this about "An easy experiment you can do at home":

Buy a bunch of fresh flowers. Split it in half, so you have two bunches. Both go in water. Put them next to each other on your windowsill or table, or wherever you like.

Flip a coin to determine which one will get energy healing. Put a piece of tape on that vase.

Each day, take that vase off the windowsill. This makes it easier to target only that vase with the healing energy. Take a few minutes and send it healing energy. For those of you in my classes, use the broad healing energy, and simply place your hands around the vase and flowers, making sure to get the entire plant from stem to tip. Then place those flowers back on the windowsill.

If you want to be scientific, you can also move the other flowers around, to control for any stirring of the water, but that shouldn't matter. If moving flowers made them last a lot longer, our mothers would have told us to do that.

I am of course intrigued. Apparently fragrant roses last 7-12 days. So we could quantify how much longer the treated roses last, compared to the untreated ones.

To my science-loving friends, the above description is a bit lacking in rigour, so I'm trying to create a better protocol. Here are my original notes:
I buy two identical vases

I buy eight roses, ideally fragrant ones. First because I like the fragrance, but also I've read that fragrant roses last less long then non-fragrant ones. Less long is better, as it allows for more runs, faster results.

I somehow mark the vases, draw a circle on one and a square on the other or so.

I send healing energy to the flowers in one but not the other. Alternatively, I send life to one and death to the other. Yet more alternatively, I transfer the life of the flowers in one to the other. These are obviously separate runs with new flowers each time. The florists will be very happy 😁

I change both vase's water every other day and then also swap their places on the windowsill.
Now I'm reading more on caring for cut roses
https://www.southernliving.com/garden/flowers/how-to-keep-cut-roses-alive
https://www.tomflowers.ch/pages/rosen-pflege
https://www.heinens.com/stories/10-tips-to-keep-roses-looking-great/

Notes:

• The vase should fit at least two thirds of the stems, so 40 cm vases for 60 cm roses (the stems become shorter with each cut, so the vase should be be shorter then the initial stems)
• The water should be hand warm and fill the vase to two thirds. Add flower food.
• The roses should receive diagonal cuts of 3-5 cm length (trimming the stems) before being placed in the water – "You have about 10 seconds to put each stem into the water". This requires a very sharp and clean blade.
• There should be no leaves beneath the water line, and falling leaves should be removed
• The water should be changed... when it becomes murky? "Every few days"... 2 or 4? "this is a good time to re-trim the stems and add flower food to the fresh water."
• Apparently one should keep them away from direct sunlight, drafts and heat from a heater.

Edit: Changing the water every other day, re-trimming and adding food of course adds effort and room for differences ... I was thinking of maybe just doing it once initially, and leaving it be afterwards, only swapping the positions of the vases every day or so, to equalise differences in heat and light...
Interestingly, the flower food I'm looking at even says "No need to change the water or to re-cut stems during the period in the vase." and rather to only "If necessary top up vase with water containing [...] flower food" – I like that. So top up the vases to two thirds on every other day, swap places and otherwise leave them be (except for the magick of course :D).

[Moon1ight]

I was discussing this with a sceptic and realised, that I have no good write-up of how I would actually do this magick. By sending the flowers energy, sure, but how exactly? So I went looking for something I could send the sceptic and found this: https://spells8.com/send-healing-energy-to-someone/ – I think it's really quite good.

Let's copy it to here in case it disappears:

Before you begin:

Set your intention. Do you wish to help someone deal with their mental health struggles, help them to stick to healthy habits, or heal a specific physical ailment? Choose your intention and select the specific person that you would like to receive your energy. Refer to this intention throughout your visualization or whenever your mind begins to wander.
Create a relaxing environment. Set out candles and dim the lights, burn incense, and create a comfortable space to sit, if you so choose.

If you're able, play a solfeggio frequency to assist in your healing intention. For example, listening to 528 Hz is said to have a healing effect on the physical body, while 852 Hz may help you to form positive thoughts and awaken your highest self.
If you don't have access to recordings of these frequencies, you can put on some calming, quiet music or white noise to set the mood – nothing too distracting.
Cleanse your space. Make sure your area is free from unwanted energy by burning incense, smudging, or performing a sound bath.

Meditation to Send Positive Energy to Someone

• Take a few deep, full breaths in and out. Relax, clear your mind, and focus on your breathing. In, and out. Continue for a few moments until you've reached a place of calm.
• Bring your intention to the front of your mind. Picture the person you would like to receive your energy and the energy you intend to send. Throughout this meditation, you can refer back to your intention if your mind begins to wander.
• Close your eyes. Take notice of a bright light encircling you from all around. Imagine that this light is full of positive, healing energy.
• Next, you are going to harness that energy. Pull it in from around you – yes, with your hands. Visualize this healing energy all around and within you.
• Using your hands, mold the energy into a ball, much like you would form a snowball. Imagine the light coursing through you, traveling down your arms, through your fingertips, and coursing into the energy ball as it grows.
• While you hold the energy ball, refer back to your intention. Think deeply about the person that you would like to heal, and what you would like to help them with. Imagine all your positive intent flowing into the orb, growing larger as it grows stronger.
• When you can feel the energy surging through your fingertips, your orb is powerful enough to send to its recipient. Release it into the universe, and visualize it reaching the person you'd like to heal. Imagine their body absorbing the orb, and the positive energy flowing throughout them.
• Finally, visualize the recipient in their healed form – happy, healthy, and spirited. Imagine that this person is embodying their highest state of being and all that it entails.
• Finish your meditation with your favorite grounding ritual.

Remember that this method should not be used in place of medical treatment. If you or a loved one is suffering, be sure to seek out a medical professional first. Once that process has been started, then you can use these methods to amplify those effects.

Tips for Sending Positive Energy

• This transfer of energy can take a lot out of you so be sure to rest up, have some snacks, and stay hydrated after performing such a powerful ritual.
• Be sure to take care of your body. You need to be in good health both physically and spiritually to perform this ritual safely and effectively.
• To ensure your ritual is most effective, make sure your energy is coming from a place of love and positivity. Harboring negative emotions during this meditation can dampen or otherwise hinder the result.

Full credit goes to the author, Francisco Huanaco

[Moon1ight]

I think the above, while quite good, is slightly more complex than necessary. Because if you can send an energy ball to your target, why not send energy to the target directly. Distance is famously not real on the Astral plane. So how do I actually work with my new roses?

I have my intention – "The roses in the red vase are healthy and in great shape". The vases are actually both the same glass cylinders, but one has a red dot and one a black one :D .

I focus on this intention and make green, healing energy flow into the roses in the correct vase. I see them shining brightly. I feel very positively about it – that's an effect doing magick always has on me. Sometimes I do this remotely, and sometimes while looking at the physical roses. Sometimes I also project a healing sigil I made many years ago, drawn over the roses in green light.

So basically "Imagine all your positive intent flowing into the orb", just not into some orb, but directly into the target. "[V]isualize it reaching the person you'd like to heal. Imagine their body absorbing the orb, and the positive energy flowing throughout them", again just skipping the orb. This – to me – is Magick. The rest is commentary :D – at least when it comes to Low Magick or "Manifesting". The High Magick I covered elsewhere.

This energy sending approach can be infinitely adapted to other targets and other intents. You can also project a visualised Tarot card onto the target to clarify the effect of your energy. The Strength for healing, the Ten of Pentacles, even Death – you get the idea. If you want to make something happen and there is no "target" as such, visualise the desired situation, hold your intent, and send the energy into those. 

The key to this is of course that it has to be more than visualisation. You have to actually make the energy flow, not just imagine it. Feel the flow as you are visualising it.

I will repeat my favourite Arjil quote:

"You know how you can recall the feeling of a physical sensation or an Emotion? Like the feel of wind, or drinking something cold, or stubbing your toe, or excitement- and you can, if you concentrate, Feel it?

So what you do, Pretending to be a Wizard, just imagine what *Your* magick Feels like, what it would look like blasting out as a spell- Kids don't worry about How it will work, they just do it, usually with some impressive whooshing sound effect. Or maybe your magick is quiet and creeps like tendrils of smoke, or flows like water.

Summon the vision, and more importantly, summon the Feeling, and Pretend like a kid that you're casting your spell, and like a kid, Believe it."

This quote to me is worth more than many books on magick combined.

[Moon1ight]

Reporting my results – the experiment has failed. The roses in the red vase don't look any better than those in the other one. It was very instructive though.

The basic problem is of course that I didn't put enough time into it. Maybe only 5 minutes per day. The underlying issue is – I don't know how much time is needed. Maybe it needs 10 minutes per day, maybe 30... and if I only do 5, I don't see that it's too little, until the roses visibly start wilting and it's too late. So now I'd need a second run with more time, but it's not very motivating – maybe it needs 30 min per day and I also have plenty of other magick to do...

Also I found that despite the description on the flower food, I did have to change the water after three or four days, at it really became dirty. I think I even saw some mold, which I certainly didn't want in my apartment.

What do I learn from this? Flowers are not very suitable for the creation of a measurable effect. I think I need a process that runs for 10-30 minutes. Sit down, give it full focus, and get a result after that time. This also has the advantage that it's easy to capture on camera.

Current ideas:

• Get an hourglass that runs for 10 minutes. Run it a few times and measure with a stopwatch how long it actually takes. See if you can make it slower or faster on further runs. I tried this with a 1 minute hourglass with no success. It's not very interesting :D
• Light two birthday candles at the same time. They normally burn for about 10 minutes. Make one burn faster than the other – I imagine watching a moving flame is more interesting than an hourglass.
• An idea behind the flower seems to be that perhaps influencing living cells is easier than inanimate objects. So I asked a friend in biochemistry what other living cells might be good for that. Answer: Baker's yeast! These are dried bacteria, and in contact with warm water they come back to life. If there is sugar, they immediately start turning it into CO2, creating very visible rising foam in 15 minutes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Tzyt_9boE
  One could take two such beakers with the same amount of sugar and yeast, and try to make one rise faster, i.e. make the bacteria work quicker.