Healing with Flower Essences: An Interview with Alena Hennessy (Author of The Healing Guide to Flower Essences)

Today I'm thrilled and super excited to be interviewing the amazing Alena Hennessy. Alena has released one of the most beautiful books I have read in a long time, the healing guide to flower essences.     Ashley: So flower essences are only part of your journey. You really combine the beauty and I think soft, gentle energy that flower essences share with us along with some creative expression and art. I'm wondering if you can tell everyone a little bit about your journey and how you got here today? Alena: Sure. Well, I have been an artist and been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. I was also a tomboy nature girl. I grew up in Florida and so I spent all the time outside in the parks and just riding bikes. So I fell in love with nature at an early age and just have always been drawn to painting botanicals and animals and other things. I was a commercial artist for a long time and doing well with that. Selling to galleries and catalogs and whatnot. I came to a point in my journey where I wanted my art and my purpose in life to have more meaning. To be more connected to the mystery. So I studied at the school here in Asheville about 12 years ago, and that is when I learned about herbalism and flower essences and energy healing. From here I became a far essence practitioner. Then a few years ago, my mom and I collaborated and made this Oracle deck called mysteries of love Oracle about animal archetypes and flower essences. And the publisher found me and was like, do you want to do another book? And I already had three books out on painting. At first, I felt too busy to do it, but then she approached me again in the spring. I was like, sure, I will do it. And so that is how this came about. Ashley: I love that. And we were just chatting before we started our interview and you actually did the amazing piece of artwork that is behind you right now. I love that you can kind of see a lot of those influences and elements coming through in your artwork. It is so expressive and it is really enjoyable. In regards to the artwork in the book, you said it was a collaborative effort with someone quite special. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Alena: Sure. So my mom has been a fine artist since she was in university. When she was raising three kids, she kind of put that to the side. Now, she's pretty much in retirement, so she has more time to draw and paint. She moved up to Asheville a few years ago and we collaborated on a few projects, first being the Oracle deck and then this book. My mom painted and I did everything else -- the writing, the design behind the subject matter. And some of those cute, whimsical illustrations. And she did the main, more classical painted illustrations of all the flowers. So it was another collaboration. Ashley: It's such a beautiful project and it is so exciting to see it come to life. So let us dive into your book a little bit, obviously, it is all about flower essences. This is something that I have been working with for just about a year now. And my background is actually in botany and horticulture, even though I am a crystal person now. So I love plants and flowers. The essence was something that really spoke to me. And I think they did the same for you with your journey into urbanism and flower essences and becoming a practitioner. Can you give a brief introduction and understanding of what flower essences are and why we might want to work...