the magic of essences.
ancestral physics, dilutions, and healthcare futurism.
This blog post was originally published on substack on March 31, 2025.
This blog post was republished here on June 18, 2026.
after some years away, essences have returned to Venusian Ceremonial Art’s gallery of art-medicine!
So, what are essences?
Essences are energetic, vibrational imprints of flowers, trees, animals, crystals, places, and other spirits. Most commonly, essences are known within the context of flower essences and flower essences therapy. This is due to the life’s work of Dr. Edward Bach, an early 20th-century British doctor and homeopath who developed his own system of essence therapy called Bach flower remedies. Though he made essence therapy popular, vibrational essences go way back to earlier times in human history. To absolutely no one’s surprise, essences and essence therapy were utilized in Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) medicine. We can also safely assume that humans elsewhere also worked with spirits in this way, as human-spiritual technology varies little globally. While some people/essence practitioners feel that (flower) essences fall under plant spirit medicine, the actual spiritual understanding is often lacking in essence therapy education. There also tends to be a lack of true energetic understanding at the quantum level. And no, I don’t mean that you have to break energy medicine down in the “white academia quantum physics way,” but we should strive to understand that physics is an ancestral science that requires spiritual and somatic comprehension.
When we talk of [Hoodoo-]Rootwork-Conjure, I do place essences as “part rootwork, part conjure, part third thing,” which is the essence itself. The very quantum nature of the spirit. And it’s why I know that essences can elevate your spiritual & occult technology game in a major way. No matter the culture, tradition, religion, lineage, etc. Essence therapy can fill in energetic gaps in our healing, remembrance, and liberatory journeys. Plus we know that African traditional and diasporic traditions love to give something a body, so energetic imprints of spirits contained in vessels?! Oh yes, sign us up!
On a sustainability wave, essences can provide access to otherwise physically endangered species of plants & animals, over-mined and/or rare gems, and other hard-to-reach locations. Essence-making should still be ethical, and if a spirit says no, do not continue ahead with making that essence. Maybe you can try again later (or never). These days, there are many essence companies and brands that include essences as part of their product lineups. Every person or team creating essences does not have the same ethics, methods, or goals, so please use your best discernment when shopping for anything!
making a pink tulip flower essence in the spring of 2021.
ESSENCE DILUTIONS 101
I will not be getting into exactly how to make essences, nor will I be getting into actualdosages (how many drops and how frequently), but I am going to go over the different essence dilutions so that you can be an informed buyer when purchasing essences and practicing essence therapy at home. Any worthwhile business will have suggested usage(s) for their essences.
Different dilutions are for different stages of essence therapy and are worked with for slightly different reasons. The dilution is about potency, and all vibrational essence dilution levels are efficacious energy medicine.
The Mother.
Mother is what we call the initial vibrational essence/remedy that is created, and is what gives birth to all the other dilutions. There are multiple ways to make a Mother, which I will cover at a later time. The preservation is 50:50, water-to-alcohol (brandy is standard). Mother essences can last a decade or more, depending on how it’s kept. Typically, you do not get your personal dosage from the Mother and must further dilute before taking. There are some instances where one would take a direct dose from the Mother:
you are training in essence therapy, or you are an essence practitioner
you are under the guidance of an essence practitioner
you are being asked by the Mother spirit to take your medicine directly
The Stock.
Stocks are the next tier of dilution, made from several (~10) drops of the Mother in another 50:50 water-to-alcohol ratio. The number of drops and exact ratio slightly vary by practitioner and/or essence being made.
Stock bottles are typically what you will find sold online and in stores/wellness clinics, and they have a similar lifespan as the Mother essences (years and years when preserved correctly). For labeling purposes, many people put 12-24 months for expiration. ALL ESSENCES THAT I SELL ARE STOCK BOTTLES. Stock bottles are ready to take internally, topically, and in other ways, like in your spiritual baths. Essence blends are also usually created by combining several single-stock essences, or several Mother essences. This leads us to the last of the standard dilution tiers.
The Dosage [bottle].
When taking an essence for a shorter period of time (a few months), or taking a blend, we use dosage bottles. Dosage bottles are made up of two or more (usually up to 7) stock essences in an 80:20 water-to-alcohol ratio. Dosage bottles have the shortest shelf-life, which is ideal for the couple of months that you will be working with the blend.
like my rain boots? teehee purple heart plant on my front porch collecting dew in the summer of 2024.
QUICK ESSENCE TIPS
the morning dew on flowers and plants can be an extra special component in essence-making!
spring water is normally used to make essences.
no plant matter or otherwise physical components are in essences. these are ENERGETIC imprints. this also makes essences the ideal way to work with poisonous plants and animals.
for people who are sensitive to alcohol or live with alcohol addiction, the amount of alcohol present in stock and dosage bottles is minimal. adding your drops to your water before ingesting further dilutes the alcohol. if this still isn’t ideal, apple cider vinegar is a common alternative.
when preserved with apple cider vinegar, the shelf life of a stock bottle is usually anywhere from 6-12 months.
it is a common belief that the further you dilute, the more potent it is. i have found that it truly depends on the essence, as well as what needs to be addressed via essence therapy.
So, now that we have gotten clear on some vibrational essence basics, I have one last thing to mention. Because flower essences are the most popular type of essence, essences and essence therapy as a whole are considered to fall under herbalism/herbal medicine. Others put it in the naturopathic and homeopathic categories, which I do agree with. As stated earlier, I also consider essences to be part of both rootwork and conjuration, falling first and foremost under spiritual remedy for body-mind-sprit malady. This, then, widens the scope of practice for client-facing occultists, spiritualists, and mystics.
[NOTE FOR PRACTITIONERS: always remember to protect yourself by not working in a way that can be confused with “practicing medicine,” which is reserved for medical doctors and other licensed medical professionals who are legally allowed to diagnose and prescribe.]
From the Mother to the stock to the dosage, essences are truly magical support guides no matter where you are on your healing and spiritual journey. Though they have been around for millennia, I wholeheartedly believe that essences are part of the future of medicine and healthcare.